The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-09-26
THE DEATH OF LITTLE LUE.
A Heart Capable of Intense Suffering Is
Within Many a Rough Exterior.

A Heart Capable of Intense Suffering Is
Within Many a Rough Exterior.
Our ghostly, white topped wagons
had rounded into camp near Kingtisher;
the sun had set and there was golden
blush on the western sly-ah! remem-
Der the scene well-as we all gathered
around old Gunderson, who sat on the
prairie with his head bowed and his
struggling gray hair falling over child
ish face and mingling with curls that
seemed like spun gold. He held his
daughter in his arms and at every faint
respiration the old mans sinewy hands
clutched convulsively as though he re-
allied how vain was all his strength TO
| save his child.
We We're boomers, and all the way
from Caldwell little Lue had been all
ing. Her face grew paler and her cheeks
flushed brighter crimson day by day.
She could not support herself toward
| the last, and one of the boys drove old
| Gunderson's wagon while he sat behind
| and held the girl in his arms.
All through the lonely Cherokee strip
what torture must that wretched father
| have borne, sleeplessly watching his dy-
ing child, And the heaps and heaps Of
white bones that bleached and decayed
beside the trail-what ominous remind
ers of death must they have been to old
| Gunderson!
How is she, Gunderson:" asked some
| one in whisper.
| He turned his blodshot eye upward
for moment, and his face, pinched and
| drawn with grief, was mute answer TO
| the words.
Father" The sound was just audi
BILE and little Lue's eyelids raised slowly.
| "What is it. dearie:" asked the old
man, pressing his bearded lips to the
| child's
81 had such beautiful dream, father.
1t was night, it seemed like, and all at
once great big star fell from up there
and hung in the sky just over my head
Then l heard mothers voice-oh, 81
sweet and sadl and she said, Come
dearie; kiss your father and come tC
me-"
Little Lue's words became inaudible
after this, and she sank down YEARLY
in her fathers arms. We all stood sad
ly by and saw the child at last lift her
self with quick effort and put botf
arms about her fathers neck. Then she
kissed him, and murmuring, Il am 81
tired" she again lay quietly on old Gun
derson's breast.
Slowly rocking to and fro the old MAJ
kept his eyes on her face and never once
removed them. Then we drifted ava,
one by one and attended to our CAM
duties with heavy hearts. 1t was 10
long till some one came and said to me
ben, little Lue is dead and old Gun
derso1rdoesn't know it,
I walked back to the old man wher
he sat still rocking his burden, and on
glance at the childs face proved that sh
had passed away.
.'Gunderson," l said huskily, "littl
Lue is gone"
He looked at me vacantly a moment
then with start he peered into h
child's face. He realized the truth, la
the dead child down and dashed off int
the night with a cry of anguish.
There is rude grave on the prairie
Just at the border of what was once til
Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation
and clumsy headstone marks the spot
sacred to the memory of little Lue an
her father-for we found old Gunderso
dead the next morning, killed by hi
own hand.-Detroit Free Press.