The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-07

heart and lofty of soul, does not believe
this. it thinks such truths the embittered
exaggeration of cynics.
In these times of anguish Nerina. her
self miserable, redoubled her devotions
and attentions to her lady; a peach on a
vineleaf, honeycomb on an old china
platter, trout from the river, bunch
of Centofoglic roses, flask Of Faferian--
something or other she always found, and
brought in, as an offering for holy days.
and at night scarcely dared let herself
sleep lest her mistress should be ailing
and want her.
These simple things were nothing In
themselves, of course, to the aching heart
of the anxious mother; but to the affec-
tion of her homey servant, which sought
for and found them, she, In all her sor-
row, was not inSensible
The coming of the post was, as it is to
SO many in days of suffering, the supreme
event of the day. Nerina saw that the
rare letters which did rot arrive brought
tears more often than smiles to the worn
face of the lady; and when she took a
letter in her hand from the postmau at
the house door she shook it, and snaelled
it, and stared at it, and would have given
her soul to have known what was inside
| it, SO that If it brought anxiety she would
have burned it before it could have reaeh-
ed Nine. Tina. If she had known how to
read she would not have had any Scrupies
about opening an envelope to see if the
contents were messages of good or evil,
| and If she had found them the latter
would have thought it right to have
destroyed the missive as to stamp scor-
pion With strong and primitive natures
| fidelity does not hesitate at evil; it evil
can spare any injury to the one beloved,
| it becomes no longer an evil. but duty.
| a virtue, a heroisnl. Nerina could not
have reasoned about it, but it was thus
| that she felt. To screen her lady from
calamity, there was no crime which
would not have seemed sanctified to her.
| One winter these uncanny atoms Of
written paper, which had such magical
| power (she saw to wound and to delight,
seemed to cause continual anxiety to her
mistress; especially those which came
from Ramanino. He is vexing his soul
again. thought Nerina. 90, Lord! Why
cannot he content himself with his brush
es and sticks of charcoal, and let the
world mend its way itself, or roll out Of
purga tory into hell as it will"
She had never heard of II Maretto, of
Brescia. But his was a kind of life she
would have wished her young master to
lead; always in the same little city, al
ways painting pictures Of the saints.
growing gray in his native air. and leav-
ing at death his name as sacred trust to
his fellow citizens-an his life noble.
calm beloved figure, pacing the same
stones from the cradle to the grave, and
in his tomb beloved and honored.
In the spring which followed that win
ter, the "Maladetta primavera' of 1885,
there was great trouble in the country.
There were riots in many provinces, and
hungry crowds pillaged and burnt, and
the roar Of cannon woke the echoes Of
many street in many a town, and ter
ror silenced the means of tortured neo-
Ole.
, In the little city of Madame Tina all
was quiet. The echoes Of the cannonades
and the shrieks of the wounded did not
reach this high crest of the rock, and the
church bells rupg as peacefully as ever.
and the daffodils blossomed along the
river banks, and the sun set and rose, and
the moonlight shone on the red-gray
moss-grown roofs; and only Madame Tina
knew the terrible disquiet and despera-
ton which there were elsewhere. The
letters told her-wicked white owlets Of
woe, as they appeared to be to her wom-
an.
Romanino had crossed from Venice to
throw in his lot with the revolutionists III
that terrible Magic Milanese, and had
been fighting with the populace in the
streets Of Milan, and what had been MS
after-fate no one could tell. He had been
seen and heard of In Lombardy, SO much
his mother only heard from others. In
irresistible need of some one to share her
torture of anxiety she told Nerina all
she feared, one day, when the letter car
rier passed down the steep street, and
did not stop-the seventh time he had not
stopped She was anxious for all; for the
eldest in the Americas, for the second in
Erithrea, but most of all for the young
est, the beautiful boy with his altrristic
visions, hurled on the harsh reality Of
brutal facts, and probably flying for MS
life across the Lombard Alps.
"Ser Romanino! o Ser Romanino!"
sobbed the servant, covering her head
with her apron. She had him tondled on
| her knees, a child of four years old, like
| one of the golden haired Putt on the
church altar. But still her heat was
wrathful and sore against him. He made
his mother suffer. What do all those
other folks matter to him. she thought,
Indignantly.
7tYou should have kept him here, Ma
dama,' she said to her lady, you should
/ have kept him here. away from those
mad, strange people.
'.By force?' answered his mother. TO
/ see him die like Gagged bird. beating his
| is right, he does right"
Nerina, afraid she might utter hasty
words, went away to her stove in the
kitchen. and her tears fell fast Into the
hot charcoal and the palm leaf fan with
which she reused its sparks. They did
not even know whether he were not dead
in Milan or swept away into the crowded
prison as so many others had been. The
rest of the week went by; seven more
| days, and still another seven. and there
was no news. No one heard or knew any.
thing except gaTbled information from
public prints and very little of that, moth
ing which any one could be sure was
true. News travels at all times very
slowly: STILL to these isolated places. ant
in periods of insurrection. there is no in.
formation at all which Is not prepared
and doctored by authority before i
reaches the public.
Again a third week passed, and Nine
Tina heard nothing of her youngest son
She dared not make any Inquiries, les
she should do him harm; he might b,
dead or in prison. She could not eat O.
sleep. Her strength, never great failed
her entirely: and nothing that Merlin;
could do could give her hope or solacs
She crept out to the old church and pray
ed there for hours for ner beloved boys.
Never in her life had lament ESCAPED
her. but now suffering broke down her pa
tience and she walled aloud.
1--WE bear them with pain. and rea
them with hardship and what is the use
We are like the poor cows and sheen
who have all the woe of travail only +
see their offspring snatched away an
| done to DEATH"
| hot r