The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-12-25

light was falling fast, and
AN the snow was piled high
ia against the outer walls of the
- howell where a poor moujik
(peasant) named Katoma lay dying in
little village in far away Russia.
Katoma knew that he was going to
die. 1t was Christmas eve, but there
was no gladness in the season for him.
His wife, whom he had loved very
dearly, was already gone. For three
consecutive years now his crops had
failed. A few weeks before the wolves
had devoured his last COW. If he had
been entirely alone in the world he
would have said to-death, Come;
thou art welcome"
But there was one other, his boy
Ossip. The idea of death became ter
rible when he thought of leaving his
boy all alone with not copeck to
bless himself with
When l tell you that it takes 100
copecks to make a ruble and that a
ruble is less than 60 cents, you will
understand how dreadfully poor Ka-
toma was.
He could not die peacefully for
thinking of Ossip's future. His dim
eyes turned fondly toward the pillow
by his side, which the boys thick,
black hair almost covered. Ossip lay
motionless in sleep. The sick man
put one feeble hand upon his boys
smooth forhead and silently com
mended him to heavens care.
The house was very still. The hour
was late. Ossip's healthy, regular
breathing was the only audible sound.
If only kind heaven would raise up
one friend for his boy out of the mil
lions of good people this big world
swarmed with, Katoma felt that he
should not mind how soon he was
laid away under the frozen sods.
While his hand rested on Ossip's
head and his heart was filled with
these anxious thoughts the door of
the cabin opened softly. The moujik
turned W ordering eyes in that direc-
tian, and there, coming noiselessly to-
ward him across the beaten earthen
floor, was a tall woman with soft
brown eyes full of plying tenderness.
She came close to the bed, on Ossip's
side of it and looking down upon the
sleeping child she muttered:
Perhaps this is the one at last.
katoma looked at her anxiousIy.
Whence came you, good mother,
and what seek your
Across the sleeping boy she an
swered softly:
Il have come for Ossip. They told
me in the village that thy days were
numbered, and | knew that Ossip
would need friend. l will loye and
care for him as though he were my
very own. | am called Baboushka
and keep my promises
Then Katoma, the moujik, died
happy. for he knew that Baboushka
was friend to all little children, and
when she gathered Ossip close into
into her motherly arms when the end
came and the child ceased weeping
for his dead father.
When Baboushka and Ossip were
we'll on their way to the old womans
home in the next village, they heard
a pitiful sound of weeping somewhere
on the tree Swallowed side of the road.
The old woman. stopped at the
sound.
I'VE will go and see who is in trou-
bic, Ossip. Our eyes and ears should
always be kept well opened so that
no sign of distress may escape u.s.
Guided by the sound they came to
a stone where, wailing and shivering
in the darkness of the winter night,
they found little girl scarcely as
large as Ossip, who was not at all well
grown for his eight years
! Baboushka knelt down by the child
and, gathering her cold feet into a
warm clasp, muttered:
Perhaps this is the child
Then she said aloud, What is thy
name, little one, and what doest thou
here alone in the bitter nightmare
AT which the child's tears flowed
afresh, and between her sobs she told
the kind, soft eyed woman how she
had been travelling with great com.
pany of men and women who were
leaving their own village to seek a
better land across the seas-our own
blessed America, l make no doubt
and how, when they had encamped
for the night, her aunt, who was the
only relative she had in the world,
had sent her into the woods to gather
fagots to put under their soup kettle,
and how she had wandered so far
that she had not been able to find her