The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-05-09

)Ou Of the DAY. II was address which
had cost something In the first place,
and, of course, one wanted to make 10
DO for little dances, eto., the follow
ing winter.
One evening while little Gabe was
playing with the inkstand, it slipped
from his thin hands and the contents
poured themselves over the satin Of
the dress.
They did not scold him. The con-
sternation ON his face was hard
enough to see as it was. The sister
smothered scream, and began nery-
ously, silently. to sponge the stuff.
and calculate the extent of the dam
age done. The ink had ruined eight
breadths of the satin Eight breadths
at fifteen francs q metre-that made q
total Of lao francs This was much to
take from the little savings bank,
much to take from the money set
aside for little Gabe's Journey. It mush
be given up for this yeaR That jour
ney to the seaside so long talked Of.
The seamstress kissed little GRbe, aud
set to work again
The following winter was q hard
one in the entre-sol The autumn had
been rainy and little Gabe's health
had suffered He had pains in hiF
bones, fever and headaches. The doc
tor ausculating him, had shaken his
head and insisted again that the child
should be sent to Berclx as soon as the
warm weather came. This time there
was to be no question about it. No
matter what it might cost, they would
go to the seashore at the end Of May
The sewing machine whirred more
swiftly than ever, and the light down
They had bought little Gabe picture
book with nothing but sea views in it;
sketches of ports with a forest Of
masts in a Line along the quais; rocky
cliffs with white waves breaking at
their feet; fshermen's barges scatter
ed over the sea like a fight of white
winged birds.
The child seemed now TO talk
of nothing but the sea.
He dreamed of it at night, and
sometimes during the day, he had
strange, sick hallucinations, in which
he saw, in the gray fog that filed the
court yard, the vision of coast beaten
by the tides. of expanses of water on
which sailed ships with swelling sails.
The winter turned out to be unusu-
ally cold and damp, and now never
met little Gabe in the porte-coehere.
The doctor had absolutely forbidden
his going out. From time to time I saw
him at his window, back of the raised
curtain. His sorrowful eyes, which
were sunken in their sockets, looked
out wonderingly, and his thin little
fingers seemed to be tracing vaguely
the outlines of ships against the pane.
Then suddenly his glance would fall
upon the easement at which 1 stood,
and feeling that was watching him.
-
dow n with nervous shyness. Toward
the middle of March ceased seeing
him at the window. His bones ached
more and more, his enfeebled limbs
seemed no longer able to carry him,
and the pains in his head were grow
ing worse. He spent whole days
stretched out in his little bed, turning
over the leaves of that picture book,
where for the hundredth time, he
could see the sea and the great ships
with their white sails. He had not
given up the idea of his Journey.
when shall we be goingP" he
would ask his sister. And when the
young girl explained to him that they
must wait for spring, he would insist
in his shrill little voice:
'But I am in hurry; want to get
well quickly, very quickly, so you may
not cry any more"
And, in the meantime, he wanted
always to have near him the large
pink she'll whose pear1y edges, when
he layed his ear against them, made
him hear the far-away sound of that
sea which was to cure him of all of his
ills.
Toward Easter I no longer heard
the dull hum of the sewing machine
in the entire sol There was no more
work done down there, but the lamp
light that streamed from one window
till late into the night showed that
watchers were sitting by the sick
child's bedside.
''He Is very low" murmured the
porter's wife, instinctively drawing a
fat little urchin of her own closer to
her skirts SIT won't be very long
now. Poor little fellow, it would be
happy release"
One morning at the door passed a
narrow box carried by two under
takers and followed by the mourners.
1t was little Gabe, vino had left at
last, for his journey toward the meas
urelesS sea of the unknown.
Forty WFuEm for