The Press., 1889-08-29

squirrel even while she spoke, EClenno was already up, and one by one the children were handed to him, the mother the last. The blanks had been stopped by the tree, and Adele had hardly lifted herself to one of the branches, when they broke apart and drifted away. The wind lulled. but the rain came down in asolid sheet. Pressing her baby to her breast, Adele held on as we'll as she could, calling out to the children above her to encourage them. They were too much frightened to cry, but drew in their breaths with shuddering sound.
 ''Mamanl mamanw gasped little Marie, 'tthe rain will come in my mouth, and it cholxes me"
 "Keep down thy head, darling" she cried. 'EHenne, my son, hold your sisters. Stay! will reach up and hold Lise, and you take care of Marie.n
 II have her hand, manan," the little fel- low cried; '.I have it tight. Lise, brother will not let you fall"
 Oh, fearful night to those poor creatures! Blown back and forth on the swaying branch es, which tore and gashed them, the rain coming down in floods, a blackness of night and tempest pierced now and again by vivid, binding flashes of lightning, and the dread that the roots of the tree would be washed up by the flood which ragged beneath them. Adele, half sitting among the branches, felt the hand with which abe held Lise growing stiff and cramped. The child, too, was mov- ing restlesaly and muttering to hersaA
 At last she uttered g shrin cry. ...s
 Hook, mamani looki See papa bringing boata He holds out his hands to me- Let me jump down; am 50 cold, so coldl'
 'tShe is de1irious with fright" muttered the mother, holding with her waning strength the struggling child. But, with scream, she twisted herself from the weak grasp. The mother heard @ rush through the blackness, a splash, and though she neither lost her hold nor tainted, all things to her numbed senses assumed the semblance of dream.
 What was all that roaring around her, and was she on her husbands boat with the waves tearing and rending ita Was that Etienne sdbbing above her, and crying out that the rain had drowned little Marie and she was deada What was deada
 She could only hear the roar and rush of the wind and cruel waters. She could only feel that the terrible clements had mastered her soul and body, and crushed all sense and feeling out of them. The baby in her bosom was like lump of ice. Poor infant! 1t had died early in the night, but she held 1t in 6 convulsive grasp ......-.-
 When the gray dawn came poor little Eti enne, numbed and senseless, loosened his grasI and was swept down by the torrent. Adels saw him fall, but only hugged her dead baby more tightly and smiled.
 At midday boat containing relief party saw the woman among the trenches and tool her down.
 She made no opposition, but with tha dreadful smile frozen on her lips she sa dumb, seeing and hearing nothing arount her. She is still living, if it can be called nf where memory and perception are foreve banished. She Is quiet, and never speak save to repeat one phrase over and owe again, sometimes in shriek, sometimes witt sobbing moans: <. "Hold. on tight, my brave Etiennel Fo Gods sake, don't fall, my precious boyl" Do you think have exaggerated the hor TOTS of the one incident of that storma G to Terre Bonnet and ask the fate of the fam fly whose sad history l have related. The will tell you that the fisherman vincenh an his boat have never been heard of. They vii show you the poor insane Adele, with he breeding eyes which seem to see nothing, an the pale lips which call day and night on he 'brave Etienne.n n-M. B. Williams in Youth Companion.