Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-12-05
BLESSINGS ON WINGS.
BIRDS THAT SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN
SENT AS BENEFAcToRS.
How the Quail Saved Little Edgars LIE
The pioyer That Guided Little Girl to
Her Parents-A Sparrow Protected q La
dy From CaterpiIlars.


Edgar. the youngest son Of james Keen
or Of Claiborne parish, La, had been very
i'll for several weeks, so III, in fact, tnas
the little fellows life was despaired OF,
when a singular occurrence, In whlch
quail played conspicuous part, turned the
tide In his favor. The boy had made
brave struggle with death, but the slow,
wasting fever had almost exhausted his
powers OF endurance, and even his appe-
Ito had left him. The mother and father
used every means in their possession to
tempt him to eat, but in vain, and the
onlv nourishInent he received had to be
forced upon him.
Finally. one morning, when, to the grief
stricken parents, the end seemed near at
hand. Edgar asked IL no might have
broiled partridge. Quail are very plenti'
ful in Louisiana, and Mr.. keener set out
Gladly with his gun, never doubling that
he would kill one for his son. lie search
cd the fields and adjoining woods eagerly,
hut I'm vain. At last he stopped all the
hands on the place and sent them IN every
direction securing the whole nelghDor-
hood. vet not bird was started
Late In the afternoon, leaving the men
still hunting, he went home sorrowful,
fearing his child might have grown worse
from disappointment. BY and by Mrs.
Kocner came and called him softly and
followino her into tho sickroom what was
bis arnazement to SEQ sitting on the foot
hoard of Edgars bed a round, plump par
tridp~. They shut the doors and windows,
captured the bird, and Edgar was soon
stnacking his feeble lips over the broiled
brown breast The little fellow began to
improve from that moment and still lives
TO tell the story of the bird that, as no
says saved his life. -
Mary, the small daughter Of L. c.
Hewett, cattle dealer of Bell county,
Tex, having gone with her parents and "a
party of friends on "A picnic excursion to
one Of tho neighboring mountain peaks,
rot lost In playing about by herself, being
the only child in the crowd. Mrs Hewett,
being busily engaged with her friends,
hnd suffered little Mary to wander about
ut her own sweet will, and ere long the
unsuspecting child had climbed with her
nimblo young feet quito to the summit Of
tho mountain Like all the outcroppings
of the region, this peak is composed of tho
rocks and fossils belonging to the creta-
ccan period, so that no tracks might be
left in the shaly soil. Besides the noun
tain is literally inwrapped by dense
growth of scrubby low growing cedars,
making an almost impenetrablo thicket.
When little Mary discovered that she was
alone on tho mountain top, she did just
what any child would do under the Cir
cumstanoes-that Is, she began to call her
mother But a strong west wind carried
her voice away, and no answer came from
below.
Now, Mary was a good little Sunday
school girl and as she sat there desolate
and alono on tho mountain she remember
ed some of the sweet truths she had heard
of ono who is ever ready to help those that
arc lost, so what did she do but put up a
prayer in her little baby way that he
might help her AS she prayed she won
dered in her innocence how anything big
could make its way through all those
sprawling scraggy cedars so she asked
that IA littlo bird might be sent to guide
her.
Tho words had scarcely left her lips
when she saw plover fitting about in
tho cedars below her feet. Overjoyed at
the sight, tho child at once began to
scramble down, tho bird leading the way
over rocks and cedar brush. 1t was long
and toilsome descent, with her little feet
slipping and stumbling over tho loose
stones, but tho bird fitted back and forth
before her, and she did not despair.
BY and by the journey came to an end,
however. Mary heard voices and presently
caught sight of her friends, who had just
become aware of her absence. She ran TO
them joyfully, telling of tho bird that had
brought her down the mountain, and as
they looked they saw n plover mount In
air, winging its way eastward.
A curious circumstance of n birds
kindly assistance is thus related by Miss
Alice Moreland of Tennessee, who, for tho
benefit of her health, spent the spring of
1894 at Lampasas Springs, Tex. Miss
Moreland says: Toward nightfall of an
exceedingly sultry April day fierce wind
came sweeping down tho mountains,
bringing what is termed in Texas wet
norther Tho wind whistled and Shrek
ed and howled, shaking the house with
its force, and the rain came down in per
feet torrents.
II was In my room alone, trying to write
some letters which it was necessary for mo
to get off in next mornings mail, but
was constantly interrupted by horrid little
caterpillars which came crawling under
my door or between the window sashes
where they were imperiectly joined. these
disgusting little pests had made my life
misery to mo ever since spring opened,
and l really began to feel that She whole
great state of Texas was alive with them.
''Do you wonder, then, that / relished
seeing one Of these bristly fellows perched
atop of my paperweight or crawling up
the leg of my tablet You may imagine
that, with the storm raging without and
the caterpillars within, my nerves were in
very shaky condition, to say the least, so
was not little startled in the midst OF it
all to hear aquick tapping on the transom
above my door looked to behold dark
ness there, and nothing more Again
the tapping, and this time flash of light
ming showed me bird Tutoring against
the pane and tapping with his beak.
Comet in, poor storm tossed little one,
l said, opening the door, and there few
in bird, one of the great sparrow fami
ly, who porched himself upon the broad
picture molding which ran around my
room. He seemed quite content to remain
there, and as the storm had lulled soma
what, and the caterpillars were apparent
ly put to rout by my frequent and frantic
attacks upon them with boon, felt