The Tupelo journal., 1903-07-17

things and to think and reason in
some ways that you would never know
at all if you were rich.
Katie Murphys mother was a widow
with five children. Tommie and Char
lie. aged eight and six, went to school,
while Katie stayed at home and took
care of Mary and Nellie, the little ones.
Mary was four; Nellie, the baby, was
two. Mrs. Murphy went out to work
every day, leaving home at seven and
not getting back till six in the even
ing.
Katie was one of those little moth
ers" you have read of who have to
keep house and mind whole families of
children while their parents go out to
earn a living. She had never been in
the beautiful country and had never
seen grass except in a city park, where
she only knew it was beautiful and
something she and her baby sisters
must keep off. But she knew how to
keep house in the fashion of very poor
people and how to mind the babies all
day. She loved them and devoted her
self to them. She had had so much
care and hard work in her life of lug
ging babies around that she did not
look like a child at all. but like a tiny
woman with her pale face and serious
ways. And she was a real woman.
too, as you will find.
In the pleasant weather she took the
children to the park in the afternoon
and kept them till nearly six o'clock.
Then she trundled Nellie home in the
baby cart while Mary trudged beside
her. At home Katie lit the flame of
the gas stove, boiled some water and
made tea, all ready for poor, tired
Mrs. Murphy.
But one afternoon there was a pro-
c%ession and great crowd in the street,
so Katie could not cross with her baby
cart and little sister. She had to wait
so long that it was long past six ere
she reached home. In the hall at the
door of their tiny fiat a frightful smell
of gas seemed to come from under the
Murphys' closed door. Katie knew
that was something dangerous.
"Stay by the baby" she said to
Mary.
Then she dashed into the outer
room. The gas fumes nearly suffocat-
ed her, but she sped on into the
kitchen. Her mother lay unconscious
on the floor, with the gas turned full
on in the stove, but not yet lighted.
Katie herself nearly swooned, but she
knew enough to turn off the gas and
IL s-@ .4,ap~fh onnnrh Joff 70 n
to the window and dash it open to let
the air in. She put her head out, took
a long, deep breath and screamed and
called with all her might for help.
Many a woman would have lacked the
observation-disclosures to do that, but Katie
had more presence of mind than half
the grown girls have.
People from the street and neigh
bors ran in in answer to her call. Some
threw open the other doors and win
dows, others lifted her mother and
one tore out for the doctor.
It was an hour before the physician
brought Mrs. Murphy to conscious
ness. He told them that only Katie's
prompt action had saved her life.
Even half a minute more and it would
have been too late. Mrs. Murphy had
been taken i'll in the shop where she
worked and had come home in the
afternoon. Feeling very weary, she
thought she would make the tea her
self. She remembered lighting a
match and turning on the gas-that
was all. She must have tainted just at
that moment and fallen upon the floor.
The gas, flowing out, overpowered her
SO she could not regain her senses, and
she would have been suffocated but for
her heroic little daughter.
People could not say enough in
praise of Katie. But as for Katie her
self-well. as oon as the people ran
in to look after her mother she went
back at once to see the baby and Mary
and the gocart.-Cincinnati CONNER
cial-Tibune.