The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-09-04
Selected Storp.
Miss Papa.

the rOll-call there could be seen arrlV-
ing, last of all, tall, sturdy-looking
fellow, led by the hand a little girl
seven or eight years old. They were
Michel Pierron and his daughter.
Before setting foot 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, papaW
When he was upon the cars she gazed
at him with two little anxious eyes, and
repeated, Good-by, papal"
When the signal for the descent was
given she clasped her hands and kept
repeating the single word "papa," un-
til she was sure that papa could no
longer hear her. Then she went on to
the school-house, close by, where she
spent the day.
When evening came she was always
the first at the opening of the shaft,
and Michel Pierron was always the first
man who came up. AS at his departure,
he lifted the child in his arms, and she
threw her arms around his neck, cry
ing, "Papa"
The miners had had heard her repeat
these two syllables so often, and had
been so struck by the strange passion
which she put in them, that they gave
her the name of Miss Papa.
And certainly no name was more APP
plicable. Her father was everything
to her. Her mother had been dead a
long time; she had scarcely known her /;
she had only him. All the memories
of her childhood were filed with him.
To her his great, rough hands had been
gentle as a woman's. For her his
hard, grimy face had always worn a
tender smile. For her this man had
become 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 a miner held her over the
mouth of the shaft, and she had gazed
down into the dark depths. Uttering a
cry of terror, she drew back
"Papa goes down there" she
thought. "Oh, if he should never
come up"
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 your"
"Of course, my little one"
Is there any danger? Tell me,
papa. Does any one-can any one
die down there?"
Have no fear" replied Michel,
laughing; @ will not die without let
ting you know"
"Ah! Goodbye, papa"
All that her father said was gospel
truth to her, and she went to school
completely treasured.
But the memory of that black gulf
into which her eyes had plunged could
not be etfaced, 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 presentiment? Who knows?
One day the report suddenly spread
that an explosion had occurred in the
mine. In a moments time crowd
had gathered at the shaft. From all
directions people, wild with terror,
came flocking to the spot. OF all those
buried far below there how many would
ever see the light again?
MlCncl uduSul6T was du SCHOOL. one
knew nothing of it; and, besides, if
any one had spoken of it before her
would she have comprehended?
Could she know, poor little one, what
an explosion was? No. But at her
age one already knows what death is
one understands, at her age, when one
sees inanimate, mutiated bodies eX-
tended upon the ground; and the APP
proaches to the shaft were strewn with
them when she arrived that evening to
meet her father.
She was stupefied for a moment, and
then the truth suddenly flashed upon
her; 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 be-
gan to run wildly among the debris
which they had brought up from the
mine, crying: " Papal papal papa!"
There were, it is true, many others
who cried and who called " Papa!" but
not one in such despairing accents.
The others they drove back, but no
one could be found to push her away.
They let her run, poor child, from one
body to another, sometimes stopping
before disfgured face, hesitating for
moment as if she feared 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 ques-
toned every one, but no one had seen
him.
OF the sixty miners who went down
in the morning, forty-fve had come up
alive; fourteen were dead. There re.
NAMED but one to account for; that one
was Michel.
She had made them explain all that
to her, and she understood. She
clapped her hands joyously, as if they
had said to her: He is all right. You
will see him again" Ali how she
hoped to see him. Then she suddenly
recollected the morning on which hei
father had said to her:
" will not die without letting you
know"
1t needed only that to give her the