The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-16
a PEASANT HEROINE.
FOUNDED ON FACT.

A PEASANT HEROINE.
FOUNDED ON FACT.
n little peasant maiden,
Scarce thirteen summers old.
Yet in her veins there ran the blood
OF saints and heroes bold,
And in the Book Of Life her narns
Is writ in lines OF gold
Twas in the dreary winter,
When the snow lay thick and whf:a,
Two children sat beside the hearth
In the Pickering freight;
While round the lonely house the wind
Went moaning through the night
Two sturdy peasant children.
Who kept their watch alone,
For the elders to the village
A few miles off had gone
Sedate, housewifely little Refine,
And seven-year-old Antoine
They sat and talked together
In happy childish glee,
The boy his curly head at rest
Against his sisters knee,
And Refine told stories while she pied
Her needles busily.
But harkl What sound comes up the wind,
From the great plain beneathf
The children started to their feet,
And, listening, held their breath
And then the two young faces turned
AS pale, as pale as death
1.-The wolves! It is the horrid wolves"
RENE sprang toward the door;
With trembling hands she drew the bolt
More closely than before:
"Oh, Antoine, pile me logs up high,
And make them blaze yet morei"
With red glare on the cleaning snow,
Shone out the lcaping fame,
But at the door the bowling pack
With frantic clamor came
They shook II with their savage claws--'
It trembled in its frHmei
The children chung together
In mortal agony,
lhere was no succor nigh 1T hand,
No place for them to fly
crazy plank between them stood
And the death that they must die!
"Oh. dear Lord, save my brotherl"
The elder sister prayed;
And then she started to her feet
And felt no more afraid;
For quick as light sudden Thoughts
Flashed on the little maid.
The press beside the irel
II she could reach up there
There was just room enough for one,
But not an inch to spare
She seized her brother in her arms
And struggled on chair.
Outside the beasts were clamortng
With howlings yet more wild,
Into the dark but safe recess,
She thrust the frightened child;
She turned the key and 'gainst the bars,
Some heavy logs she piled
Twas donel Tho deed Of rescue
II scarce was safely Ger,
When with grooming, awful crash,
Fell down the rotten door
The wolves rushed in Did angels weep
To see such suffering sore.
At LAST the village is astir,
The wolves are all ut bay,
Forth from the little house they rushed
And left their senSeleSs prey;
While after them with gun and spear
Men track their desperate way.
Across the blood stained threshold
The frantic parents go;
And then upon the frosty air
Rings out a wall Of woe,
As. by the little mangled form,
The awful truth they know.
They clasp their other darling,
But RENE, our Refine they cried
And then the little sobbing lad
Tells now she made him hide,
And face to face with hideous death
Stood gallantly outside!
Why rnger DER the story,
So full Of woe and pain?
AT rest in the Good Shepherds fold
Is valiant little Reine,
Where never cruel, proving wolf
Can harm or fright again!
But still, throughout tho country,
Her name is honored long,
And the village people chant her praise
In native rhyme and song,
And tell about the quenchles5 love
That made her heart so strong.
A little peasant maiden,
Yet she so well had striven,
That unto her glorious crown,
The martyrs crown, was given,
And place among the deafness ranks
OF Gods dear saints in Heaven.
Christian Burke, in Argosy