The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-11-22

| DcsSlc III uCT little IliTu Deu, anu CrOOneQ
an old lullaby, as well as she could for her
tears, to soothe her to sleep.
Mr.. Hale sought his pillow soon after,
and the wife took the seat by the fire,
trying for hours vainly to soothe 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"
lode was obstinate, and Agnes though
of the approach of winter with sicken.
ing dread. She did her best to make
the home comfortable and the daily meals
appetizing; but every day the resources
diminished, and she felt the sure ap-
proaches of singing poverty.
Mr.. Hale was less cheerful now, and
was fast growing morose with disappoint-
ment.
Even in the love of his sweet child
there was no longer comfort-rather the
reverse, for her delicate face was a con-
slant reproach. She had often now to
remind him of his old carcsses.
! Sitting by the fire one evening, gloom
lily smoking, her plaintive little voice
suddenly reused him:
Papa, I'm so tied Wouldn't you
| jes' ho' me a little whi-ul?'
Then he took the baby girl from her
bed, and never will keener anguish cut
his heart than when he felt how thin the
tiny form had grown, how pale and
pinched the once rosy face.
One day, after fiercer toll than he could
remember ever having done in his life, he
found the result which he had been
dreading for days: the Bessie" vein
''pinchcd out"-was suddenly lost! No
more mineral was in sight, nor could he
conceive the slightest idea, by any min
eral indications, where to set his drill
once more to find it again. The fiercest
toll failed to uncover anything in the
least degree resembling the old vein.
The walls were uninterrupted cold, gray
ishwhite stone wherever his eyes could
see.
Despair came with a dull heavincss
upon him. His body seemed suddenly
to have been killed and only his brain
left active to endure the wrctchedncss OF
the worlds losses. He was never after
ward able intelligibly to describe the ex-
perience or what he did. He only knew
that he piled his tools together outside
the tunnel entrance and started down the
mountain side. stumbling about among
the rocks and powders. dreading to 90
home, and yet with the cabin and its
helpless inmates continually uppermost
in his mind. While vet long way off,
he heard his wife's voice calling him.
Frank. Frank, o, Frank" she
screamed, in tones Of so much agony
that, instead of quickening his steps,
seemed almost to paralyZe his feet.
Frank she cried again, "Come quick.
Bessie-Bessle is dying, Quickw
She fell on her knees and threw up her
hands to the skies. with cry that must
have pierced its way to the mercy seat.
All the words she could speak were
simply:
God have PITY Then, up again, she
ran as fast as possible back to the cabin,
leaving her husband to follow as we'll as
he could.
The terrible collapse, which sometimes
sets in after fever, had come to baby
Bess, and in Il moment, when even the
anxious mother least expected the APP
proach of DEATH the little one suddenly
sank into Inconsistencies.
1t was no time then for Mr. Hale to 90
ten miles away for physician. Bessies
feet were cold and the awful chill was
fast creeping upward over the precious
body. All the night long they worked
for her life, rubbing her, applying every
restorative in their power, running back
and forth from the fire with warm fan
nels, never speaking. but striving with
IN intensity which wastes the valuable
life tissues like the fretting away of
years.
They could not hope, and yet they
chung to that cold form, that tiny, punched
face, as if it had been all of earth or
heaven to them. Toward morning, the
little one stirred on her couch, and when
she opened her blue eyes and said sweet
ly:
"Dess you'd better tome to bed,
mamma" the father fell on the ground
beside the little bed, in the very dust of
penltence. But his thankful heart could
only send up the one petition:
God be mcrciful to me, a sinner"
81 can carry her in my arms two
thousand feet below here, to-day" Frank
Hale said, forgetting all the past-every-
thing but the necessity in hand. 1--WE
will take her 10 the ranch five miles
below u.s."
And he did it.
As soon as the sun came out warm, as
it can shine in Colorado, Agnes gathered
together few necessaries, and the hus-
band lifted up his tender burden-pro-
tectcd by an abundance of blankets-and
the two started down through the wild,
rough canyon. As they descended,
reaching green leaves and birds and
heavier air, baby Bess breathed more