The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-06-18
ELINoR,s PIG

v.
| it is very much larger.
Mr. Archer's ranch so large that lis next
neighbors were twenty miles away-and they had
no children, that Enor had no play1nates
Her mother tried to make up for this by getting
her great many dolls, and Elmer, playing alone
with her dolls came to feel toward them exactly as
II they were living beings. One evening quite late
she came III and told her mamma that she had left
Rosabe her pretttiest and newest dolly cut at the
big rocks where she had been playing,
And / must go right back and get her." she
SAID; she's not beech long away from town. and
she'll be afraid out there"
my dcar,'s her mother objected, you can't go
SO far this evening. 1t would be night before you
could get there. Just wait, little sweetheart, and
mother will go with you in the morning to get the
dolly"
Elinor puckered her face to cry-to cry with
little whining sometimes) Elinor's besettng
sin. oh mamma" she whispered, 81 just can't
leave my dear Rosabel out the plain all night. 1t
might rain, and then she'll get her complexion all
washed off"
"Now, love-" her mother urged, you know it
never rains at this time of the year. Rosabel will
be safe and dry when we get her in the morning"
But an old coyote might come out and eat her
upr Elnor went ON. Il must go back, mamma
| really must! She'll be scared to death" And [
am sorry to say that Elinor whined and cried all
through her suppertime and even after she was put
in her little bed.
1t is the most dangerous thing in the world to
go to sleep crying For one thing, you are sure to
have bad dreams; and, for another, if YOU are like
Elinor and sometimes walk in your sleep, this Is the
very time that you will do it.
The lady moon rose late that night. 1t was IL
o'clock when she had climbed high enough in the
sky to look in at Elinor's window. And there she
saw first little Elinor, lying peacefully in her pretty
white bed, with the plaster cherub on the wall to
guard her, and then little Elinor, in her white night
gown, scrambling out of bed. The child was fast
R1t he rraS DfaS enad
always is in Texas ranch house Elinor walked
toward it. opened it and went out, If she had been
awake, she could not have found her way back to
the rocks where she had been playing more than a
mile from the house; but sleep-walker finds d
reetions without need of sight, and the child went
out the gate and off the broad prairie with
out moments hesitation
Bismarck, the big house dog, rose as she crossed
the porch, and silently followed her. When she got
to the rocks, she found her doll without looking
for it. She picked it up, and sat rocking and sing
ing to it. Bismarck thought this very foolish be-
havior Why a girl should get out of her bed and
walk mile across lonesome plain at night to
find worthless doll evidently puzzled his doggish
brain considerably The moonlight very dim,
a waning always is. coyote was barking
on the hillside nearby, and Bismarck bristled up,
for he hated coyotes.
There came the long -drawn-out howl of the wolf,
and Bismarck growled outright A sinking gray
shadow came up behind the little girls shoulder,
Bismarck sprang at it there was wild outburst of
barking, bowling swapping and clicking of teeth!
The wof-for it a wolf-had brushed
against Elinors shoulder, and this with the noise,
Weakened her. She sat, cold, shvering and most
desperately frightened while the two great animals
growled and fought, bit and tore, beside her.
Imagine if you can, just how you would feel to
wake up in the middle of the night and find your
self alone CUP of doors, in the dark with what you
took to be two wild beasts fighting about which
should eat you up This was just what Elinor
thought, and finally she gathered up her doll and
attempted to run away.
But dear me! Her poor little feet were sore
from travelling unshod over the rough ground Now
that she awake, she could not see, aid she haS
scarcely stumbled a dozen steps before Bismarck
(who had settled with that Sinking wolf and shaken
the life out of him. joined her. She going i'll
the wrong direction-that is, qquite away from
home; and the dog pulled at her gown to pull her
back into the right path. Finally, after much sit
ting down to weep, and being coaxed to Try again
by the dog, Elinor put her hand on Bismarcks col
lar and let him lead the way.
1t was dawn before she reached the ranch house;
and there they found a scene of wild confusion
Mamma had walked first and found the little girl
gone. She had reused all the others, and they
searching and calling In all directions. Elmer
caught up and kissed probably than any !ittle
girl in the state of Texas had ever been kissed be-
fore.
81 think it was mean" she said, when they final
ly asked for explanations; somebody carried me
away out to the rocks while was asleep, and left
me there in the dark and if it hadn't been for Bis
marck the wolves would have eaten me-"
Her mother was kneeling at her feet putting
shoes and stockings upon those tired scratched lit
tie feet when Elinor said this, and she looked very
reproving. my little daughter, 10 you not know
that it these two naughty little feet that carried
you out into the night I" she asked. When people
go to bed feeling angry my little girl did last
night they are certain to dream about what
the thing is they sulking over and that IS inst
what you did, dear; you dreamed of it and walked
in your Sleep out to where the doll was
Elinor was only half convinced. She told them
at the breakfast table, all about the fight netwceI
Bismarck and the wolf and her father and one Of
the cowboys went out, and, enough they
brought in the carcass of the dead wolf
Elinor's papa took the hide and made Il little
bedside rug for her; and now whenever she is in
clined to whine or go to bed with sullan face her
mother asks, laughngly:
"Elinor, do you want another rug! And III
nors face clears very quickly, for tell YOU SIZE
does not want to make any more night journeys to
see Bismarck kill o wolf.-The Pittsburg Observer.
ToTTIE AND JIMMIE.
When Tottie and Jimmie came to visit grandpa
and grandma at the Valley farm III October grand