Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1889-02-20

ysd hs cane hOns without the
tz1ards again.
Hs wife sighed, bui said nothing
more - that time.
- autumn went, aud winter came
with is SHOWS which covered the
WTeckaZe OF summers lovely. faded
bloom
IL MAS . cold day In December.
MT. HaSkins had gone 10 near ship
ping point with drove OF hOgA Mrs
HAskins Sas - the bedside OF = sick
neighbOT. As soon as se could she
hurried home, feeling sad, but why,
she was unable TO tell. As she neared
home, her two youngest children met
her and asked where Nettie was They
stated that as soon as they returned
from school Nettle had carefully
stirred up the hre, which Mrs Hask IN ;
had covered, and while thev were
warming themselves she had left the
house and had not come back And
now she had gone nearly half hour,
the Il tile boy said. They believed she
had gone 10 accompany their mother
home from Mrs. Todd's, so had thought
little about the girls absence.
Mrs. Haskins Was thoroughly
alarmed. She felt satisfied that Nettlr
had met with some accident, and she
rushed " Idly toward the house, fear
she knew not what.
NettIe HasEins was a bright, stud
ious girl Of eleven. who gave much
promise Of bright WON tRhood.
Nettie being her eldest child, that
love peculiar 10 the irst-born male her
fears for tie chiId's safety even more
4 enly felt than they might otherwise
have been.
Mrs. Haskins' mind quickly went
back to the time of SettIe's recent
severe illness, when she would sit for
hours watching at the bedside OF her
darling child, and how, through many
days and nights or constant watching
and care, Nettie finally rallied, and
the home was once more made cheerful
by her merry laughter.
The empty water-bucket by the
cisteTn, whose rotten board covering
Was lald aside, suggested at once TO the
half frantic mother the fate of her
eldest child. With q wild cry she
fell upon her knees on the icy ground,
and peered down INTO the cistern.
Yes, there was the bucket resting on
tle surface OF the water below, and
what was thatf Something rel beside
the bucketl II WAS recognized as
Nettie's school hood. And Nettie
She was down there, drowned
The anguish that mother felt as the
awful truth dawned upon her is far
beyond the power o. man to pen.
\ neighbor, passing by, stopped and
brought up Nettle's poor little body
A shocking sight, with the water drip
ping from every limb. aud the face Sc
gray and cold. The little brother and
sister drew back appalled, at the sight
Of Nettie's form, 50 awfully different
from what II had been but a short
time before, when they came back from
school together. she was so bright, and
singing as merrily as a snOwbird.
NstLie was beyond restoration TO thi:
life; but sympathetic friends did al IL
their power, Tor the mothers sake, u
revive the drowned girl. 1t was vain,
NettIe's DARK eyes would oLen only
when the angels touched them, to gaZs
| forever upon heavens bslmy plains
The fathers grief, when lie realized
I that It Was his repeated prOcrastinstioI
/ that b ID brought upon them the sac
/ bereavement, can be imagined more
easily than described.
With her lily hands folded and iceC
with deaths grim, cold kiss, Netti'
/ Was placed in her marrow home
| under the brown sod and cruel sleet
[ leaving aching hearts in the house sh'
I once graced.