Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1894-05-19
"There came loud knocking at my

L u
door.
"'Who is there?' I asked.
"EIt lis I, came the voice Of my father
Open, beg Of you.
81 went to the door, raised the latch
and admitted him. My mother was with
him. They were fully dressed.
'Boom! came through the white
mist from the vessel pounding upon the
beach,
Eyes, now I could hear the vessel as
she beat her brains out.
"Then the heavens were illumined by
a second rocket.
"'Did you hear? Did you see?' asked
my father.
eyes, said I, lis vessel ashore
"'We must 60 to that vessel, he said
resolutely. They will need our help.
You will go?'
{" YES, I said.
"'And !, too, cried my mother.
my father tried to dissuade her.
"'This is no woman's work, he said.
"But she would not be frightened.
"'I will die with you, she said reso
lutely.
"Out into the storm we rushed, down
to the beach, where the frightened vii
layers stood looking vainly out toward
the doomed vessel.
"They ran toward us as we approach
ed They would not go out in the boat,
they said-it was death.
"'At least, said my father, you will
help me get the boat into the surf?'
"But they would not even help get
the boat into the surf.
"'It is death you are going to, Ayr
ault. We will not help to murder you,
they cried.
"'Then stand aside, and together we
three pushed the boat into the surf,
through the rocks to the open sea, then
jumped into her and put off over tho
fiercely rolling waves. My mother and
myself took the oars My father stood
at the bow looking out ahead.
"'Come back came faint echo
from the shore.
"a great wild wave came crashing
down upon us.
'Nearer and nearerl
"The boat cried out almost, it seemed,
like a human being in terror.
"The wave struck the boat.
1.-THE cold water rushed over my head.
IT went DOWNTOWN.
81 struggled to the surface.
"For second caught sight of my
father and mother as they struggled in
the embrace of death.
II could see their eyes turned at tho
last toward me.
Come their eyes cried to me.
Come.
II tried to cry out to them. tried to
cry to them to wait for me; that we
would die together in each others arms
II struggled to get nearer to them"
Then something seemed to snap in my
head, and once more I stood on the
beach,
"You are faint?" she said.
my father" muttered, "where is
her"
"Your fatherp
"Yes, yes, the old man, where is hep
"See, he is stumbling along there. "
Like one in a dream, he came slowly
toward us.
Terror and pleasure stupefied me.
His eyes rested OH the snow in front
of him. Then suddenly he raised them
to mine.
He threw up his arms; he started for
ward; he cried ont, cry Of. peace, hap
piness, a cry from soul flowing over
with exultation.
My fathers eyes looked deep into
mine. My fathers arms were about my
neck
cat last" he cried, lat last, my son,
back to me, and now rest. -
And with low moan the old man
Ayrault, my father-fell back upon the
snow and was dead.
And now often my father and my
mother come to me when the moon
shines in upon my couch, and we sit to-
gether in the moonlight, and he tells me
the old story; how during his lifetime
my mother anG I had come to him to
minister to him; how I had promised to
come back to him SO that he might rest.
ask him every night if am to live
on forever, but he answers not
So we hold each others hands, and
the spirits in the moonlight sing to us,
and we are happy.
I, even I, am happy, though they do
keep me locked up here in cell night
and day.-New York Sun.