The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1906-02-21
SHE LOST HER STOCK IN
TRADE BUT FORTUNATE.
~ FOUND PAUL.

what will become of poor little
Midget now?" whispered not a
few.
The object of this solicitude was
the IL year old daughter of Ludo-
vic, whose mother, dying outside
her memory, left her to know moth
ing of maternal love and care. The
loss, if not wholly, was in large
measure supplied by the unstinted
affection of her father.
The child had known no other
name than Midget, given her by
the reason of her diminutive stat
ure and constitutional frailty. Now
Midget's father had just been laid
away in the grave.
Never before did the miserable
garnet in which they had so long
lived strike her as other than
cheerful and sumptuous. Now all
appeared forlorn and dismal.
She determined to try her luck
selling ballads. On pleasant days
she had been wont to accompany
Ludovic On his rounds, offering
ballads for sale, at times accom-
panying his Instrumentation with
her voice.
1t was a weary day of effort and
disheartening one, too, when, as
the street lamps began to get lit,
she counted her receipts and found
them so meager. Sadly she turn
ed her face homeward, bordering
how best she might contrive to
buy something to allay the hunger
of the days fasting and put by
something toward meeting the next
months rent.
In the midst of these devisings
boy of about her own age, run
ming at his best, jostled against
her, scattering the ballads over the
pavement. and before she could re.
cover them many found their way
into the gutter, soiled and ruined.
Not until further effort to save
them became useless did she find
time to scan the author of the mis-
hap.
Midget" PAUL" at which,
bursting into tears, Midget gave
vent to her too long pent-up tears.
Don't cry over the old ballads"
said the boy; "Ill pay for every
one of them"
They had ample food for con-
versation as they walked along the
crowded thoroughfares. Naturally
the foremost topic with Midget
was the death of Ludovic. and the
change brought by it in her life.
AS for Paul, he never tired of
descanting on the rapid strides to
fortune which his sanguine nature
pictured lay open to him in his
present occupation of selling H.
brettoes and photographs at the
opera.
The two children had grown up
together, Paul's mother, a German
by Lirth, living in an adjacent
tenement house to that Of father
Ludovic until six months previous
| when her death had compelled the
boy to seek the aid Of an uncle
| living in a distant part of the city.
To impress Midget with the in
| f1uence he welded over the oper-
attic stage, Paul gave her a pass
for that night to the gallery of the
opera house.
Between acts the voice of Paul
hawking his librettoes reached
even to her elevation and at the
close of the last act he met her
with:
Midget, good news! I've spoken
to the chorus master, and he says
you may come along with me to
the trial Of applicants for the ballet
of Les Papillions' tomorrow after
noon"
Paul also was to enter into COM
petition for the part of Lycas, the
shepherd.
The appointed time on the NOR.
row found both punctual at the
theater. The training of Father
Ludovic and the aptitude of his
pupils were now to be put to the
test.
AS Midget's turn came the an.
prehension of a natural timidity
made her first steps uncertain and
incoherent, but this difference, CIV
ing way more and more with every
new step. entirely disappeared by