Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-08-21

Is as bright as a chipmunk all day |
long. But of course, if she doesn't
eat her dinner, it is all owing to alti-
tude, you think. Everything is ulti-
tude in this country. 1t is all the
same if it is measles or cutting teeth,
contracted at this height above the
level OF the sea. | remember being
tired myself when was II youngster. |
The child is growing, that is all.
Agnes made no answer. She tuck |
cd BESSIE in her little hard bed, and
crooned IN old lullaby, MS well as she
could for her tears, to sooth her to
sleep.
Mr.. Hale sought his pillow soon
after, and the wife took the seat by
the fire, trying tor hours vainly to
sOoth an aching tooth over the Goals,
having no medicine for the pain.
The weeks dragged slowly by, and
it came the fall season. Still the
Bessie" lodge was obstinate. and
Agnes thought of the approach
OF winter with II sickeuing dread.
She did her best to make the home
comfortable and the daily meals APP
petizing; but every day the resources
diminished, and she felt the sure
approach OF singing poverty.
Mr. Hale was less cheerful now,
ami was fast growing morose with
disappointment.
That Bessie was really sick was no
longer to he denied: but so gradually
had she weakened, that the father alb
solutely refused to look upon her dis
ease rs serious.
Simply cutting double teeth,' he
would answer, impatiently, to the
mothers anxiety. ANY body but
YOU would see that at Il glance"
1t was long time since Agnes had
once spoken of home. She had been
too proud again to beg to go back
for her own sake; but now it was for
Bessie, and she bcsou"ht him at the
least to let her take the little one
back.
Our darln" will die, and change
and medicine would cure her. oh,
Frank! l could walk all that distance.
with her in my arms, if you would
let me GO
Agnes. you talk like an absolute
/
cabin, concealing with these unmnnly
words a great pain at his own heart.
How could he tellhis wife that wen
he would gladly go back now, but
that the bridges were burned behind
them; the little store of money near
ly gone! The many essays OF mineral
had cost so much; then he had been
obliged to purchase Il pump tor the
mine, and only two weeks before he
had secured an expensive drill, which
he felt sure would uncover the hidden
treasure at once. Alas! it, with its
great reputation had effected no rich
. er results than his daily laborious
plodding. He had paid out large
, amounts of money to an assistant
while he had it to pay but now hi
: worked alone, day after day, anC
: with a desperation which was horri
: BILE to endure. Often the dark dis
l NAL tunnel seemed full of little de
mons ridiculing him at his work
r Laughter - sinister mirth - would
= come to his ears from the very clicl
: of his pick, and groans from the fall
ing rocks. Echoes from the darl
, depths beyond and below him woul'
reach the worker like warning voices
and, driven fairly to desperation, h
a would rush out and stumble Wild,
! down the hillside to his sad home
+ there to cover up his despair wit
rough words and I'm unkind manner
Even in the love of his sweet chill
there was no longer cOmfort-rathe
J.. the reverse, for her delicate face wa
7 a constant reproach. She had oftel
, now to remind him OF his old c.,
resses.
r Sitting by the fire one evening
= gloomily smoking, her plaintive lii
tie voice suddenly reused him:
t Papa, Pm so tied. Wouldn'
D you jes' hoP me little whi-ul?"
/ Then he took the baby girl tror
J. her he'd, and never will a keener ar
r guish cut his heart than when he fol
;. how thin the tiny form had grown
J. how pale and pinched the rosy fact
g One day, after a fiercer toll than Il
Il could remember ever having done i
|. his lite, he found the result which h
r. had been dreading for days: the" Be-
sie'' vein ''pinched out"-was suddel
n lylost! Nomore mineral was in sigh
,e nor could he conceive the slightes
n idea, by any mineral indication
= where to set his drill once more t
|. uncover anything in the least degre
/, resembling the old vein. The wal
a were uninterrupted cold, grayisl
" white stone wherever his eye coul
70 see.
Despair came with a dull heavine'
ut upon him. His body seemed suddel
ot " to have been killed, and only h
III brain left active to endure tt
in wretchedness of the worlds losse
He was never afterward able intel
is gibly to describe the experience .
d. what he did. He only knew that
nilad his tools tnrether outside u