Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-01-21
Miss Papa.

sembled around the shaft to answer
to the roll call, there could be seen,
arriving last of all, a tall, sturdy
looking fellow, who led by the hand a
little girl, seven or eight years old.
They were Michel Pierron and his
daughter.
Before setting his feet upon the
platform of the car to descend, the
man took the child in his arms and
kissed her, and then replaced her on
the ground. The little one cried,
"Good-by," papa" clasped her hands
and kept repeating the single word
papa" until she was sure that papa
could no longer hear her. Then went
on to the school-house close by,where
she spent the day.
When evening came, she was al
ways first at the opening of the shaft,
and Michel Pierron was always the
first man who came up. AT his de-
parture, he lifted the child in his
arms, and she threw her arms around
his neck, crying ''papa
The miners had heard her repeat
these two syllables so often, and had
been so struck by the strange passion
which she put into them, that they
gave her the name of Miss Papa.
And certainly no name was ever
more applicable. Her father was ev-
erything to her. Her mother had
been dead long time; she had
scarcely known her; she had only
him. All the memories of her child
hood were filled with him. To her
his great rough hands had been as
gentle as a woman's. For her, his
hard, grimy face had always worn
tender smile. For her this man had
become a woman and child at the
same time.
All ! how she loved her father, and
how terrified she was every morning
when she saw him descend into that
great black hole, of which no one
could see the bottom.
One day miner held her over the
mouth of the shaft, and she had gaz-
ed down into the dark depths. Utter
ing q cry of terror, she drew back.
'sPapa goes down there" she tho't.
"Oh, if he should never come up y
And that day when Michel took her
in his arms as usual and kissed her,
she chung more tightly than ever to
his neck, and said to him:
''You will come up, won't you p
"Of course, my little one"
sis there any danger, tell me,
papa
''Why no, little coward"
"Does any one-can any one-die
down there?"
''Have no fear," replied Michel,
laughing. II will not die without
letting you know
"Ahl Good-by, papa"
All that her father said was gospel
truth to her, and she went to school
completelyreassured.
But the memory of that black gulf
into which her eyes had plunged
could not be effaced, and from that
time she was afraid every morning
and trembled every evening; she
feared that her father would never
return from those mysterious depths
into which she had seen him descend.
Was it a presentiment? Who
knows?
One day the report suddenly
srpead that an explosion had occurred
in the mine. In moments time a
crowd had gathered at the shaft.
From all directions, people wild with
terror, came focking to the spot. OF
all those buried far below there how
many would ever see the light again:
NIichel's daughter was at school.
She knew nothing of it, and besides,
if any one had spoken of it before
her she would not have comprehend
ed.
Could she know, poor little one,
what an explosion was? No. But at
her age one knows already what death
is; one understands, at her age, when
one sees inanimate, mutilated bodies
extended upon the ground; and the
approaches of the shaft were strewn
with them when she arrived, that ev-
ening, to meet her father.
She was stupefied for a moment,
and then the truth suddenly flashed
upon her; she had seen those men
those men 60 down living, those men
whom she knew well, who had kissed
her many time; and now they were
brought up dead. Would they bring
up her father like them?
This thought distracted her. She
began to run wildly among the debris
which they had brought up from the
mine, crying:
Papa! papa papa!' p
There were, it is true, many 9TH
ers who cried and who called''Papa -
but no one in such despairing accents.
The others they drove back, but no
one could be found to drive her away.
They let her run, poor child, from
one body to another, sometimes stop
ping before a disfgured face, hest
tating for moment as if she feared
that she might recognize her father.
No, he was not among the dead.
She grew calmer, and sought among
the living. He was not there. She
questioned every one, but no one had
seen him.