Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-01
BOUM-BOUM.
Translated from the French of Jules Claretie
by NJ. NJ.

udily Win tue strange uAeu gaze OI SICK
persons, who perceive already that which
the living cannot see.
Atthe foot of the bed the mother, weighed
down with grief, biting her fingers to keep
from crying out, watched anxiously the
progress of the disease u pom the poor ema-
ciated frame of the little one; and the
father, worthy man of the laboring class,
forced back into his eyes the tears that
burned his eyelids.
1t was morning, a bright beautiful morn
ing in June the soft light stole into the
narrow chamber where the little Francois,
the child of Jacques and Madeleine Le-
grand, was dying.
He was years old; not three weeks
ago he was rosy with health, gay and hap
py as a bird, this little one But a fever
had seized him. He returned from school
one evening, his head aching and his hands
burning. Since then he was there on his
bed, and sometimes in his delirium, while
looking at his little shoes, that his mother
had carefully placed on board in the cor
ner, he would say:
You can throw them away now, the
shoes of little Francois: little Francois will
not put them on again; little Francois
will 60 no more to the school-never-
never" Then the father would cry out,
wilt thou be quiet, little one ?" and the
mother would go and bury her pale face in
the pillow that the little Francois might
not see her weep. -
This night he was not delirious, but for
two days he had puzzled the doctor by a
strange weakness, like a prostration as if
the sick one had become weary in the
struggle for life. He was tired, silent, sad,
letting his head roll about on his pillow,
wishing to take nothing, having no smile
on his poor thin lips, his haggard, search
ing eyes seeing, one knows not what, with
his penetrating gaze.
He sees up there, perhaps, thought Mad
eleine, and shuddered.
When they wished him to take his med
icine, syrup, a little bouillon, he re-
fused he refused everything.
"Dost thou wish anything, Francois ~
"No, | wish nothing"
| "We must get him out of this condi-
tion," said the doctor, this torpor fright
ems me! You are the father and mother,
and ought to know your child we'll. Think
of something that will reanimate this lit
tie body; that will call back TO earth this
spirit that is trying to escape to the
Clouds" and the old doctor left the sick
room.
| Think
Yes, without doubt they knew their
Francois well, these good people; they
knew how the little one amused himself,
going on Sunday to plunder the hedges of
flowers, and returning to Paris loaded with
hawthorn blossoms on the shoulders of his
father, or again, in the Champs Elysees
enjoying Punch and Judy, seated on the
inside of the rope circle with the little
rich children. Jacques Legrand had
bought some pictures, some metal soldiers,
some Chinese shadow-works; he had cut
them out, put them on the child's
little bed, made them dance before the
wandering eyes of the child, and almost in
tears himself, he tried to make Francois
smile.
See, little one, here is a draw bridge !;
hear the bell ring, tire-lire-lire And
here is General Dost thou remember
once we saw a real General in the Bois de
Boulogne? If thou takest thy medicine
well l will buy one for thee with cloth
coat and gilt sword. Tell me, wishest thou
| the General ?"
"No," answered the child, with voice
made sharp by fever.
"Wishest thou pistol, some marbles, a
bow and arrow?"
| "No," repeated the little voice, clear
and almost cruel. And to all that they
said to him, to all the jumping jacks and
balloons that they promised him, while the
parents looked at each other hopelessly
| that little voice responded:
No, no, no."
But what is it that thou dost wish for
my Francois" asked the mother; let us
see if there is anything thou wouldest like
tell me; tell thy mama p and as she
pressed her cheek on the pillow of the
little sick one she murmured this in his
ear softly like secret. Then the child
raising himself on his bed, and extending
an eager hand toward something invisible
] responded suddenly in a clear tone, with
strange accent, at the same time suppli-
eating an imperative, 81 want Boum-
| boum w
The poor Madeleine cast startling look
at her husband. What was it the little
one had just said? Can it be that once
more the delirium, the frightful delirium
has returned? Boum-boum She knew
not what it meant, and she feared these
singular words that the child now re-
peated with the pertinacity of sick per-
| son. As if not having dared to express his
desire until then, he clung to it now with
an unconquerable obstinacy.
eyes. Boum-boum! Boum-boum
want Boum- boump
The mother had seized the hand of Jac-
ques nervously, saying very low as if stu
| pifed:
What can that possibly mean, Jacques?
Oh, he is lost r'
But the father had on his face, rough
ened by labor and stunned by grief, a
smile almost happy, the smile of the con-
demned who sees before him the possibil-
| ity of liberty.
Boum-boum He well remembered the
morning of Easter Monday, when he had
| taken Francois to the circus. He had still
in his ears the joyous laughter OF the
child, the happy outburst of an amused
| child, when the clown, the beautiful clown,
all spangled with gold, with large red
dish butterfly, glittering, many-colored in
the back of his black costume; made a
jump across the track, tripped up the heels
of the ringmaster, who held himself straight
and stiff in the sawdust, his head down, his
feet in the air; then threw up into the air
several hats of soft felt, which he adroitly
caught on his head, where they formed one
on top of the other a pyramid and at
each trick, at each joke, as a good refrain,
making merry with his ingenious and
funny smake-up, uttered the same cry. re-
peated the same word, accompanied some
times by the thunder of the orchestra
Boum-boum Boum-boumm And each
time he cried Boum-boum the circus re-
sounded with braves and the little one had
shouted with laughter at Boum-boum
1t was this Boum- -boum, it was the clown
of the circus, it was the amuser of a great
part of the city, that he wished to see, that
he wished to have, the little Francois, and
that he could neither see nor have, since
he was stretched out there without strength
in mis- white bed
That evening Jacques Legrand brought
to the child clown with jointed limbs,
covered with spangles, that he mad bought
at very high price in top store-the
price of four days labor as a mechanic!
But he would give twenty, thirty, he
would give the price of years labor to
bring one smile to the pale lips of the lit
4 al