Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-12-18

ooh, he could just take out the
heavy things. Don't you think he
might bring me some present that was
light, Halter"
Yes, he SHALL" said Hattie, with
determination.
She was only the hired girl who had
come in friendly pioneer fashion to
help the settlers wife through her
sickness; but to the inmates of the
little cabin she was a ministering
angel. Strong and faithful and eff
cient, an angel could hardly have
done more in that prairie home. Yet
she did not look in the least like an
angel as she put on the pioneers old
cap and coat, tied red wooden scarf
around her neck, drew old stockings
over her shoes and floundered out
through the drifts, stout and rosy in
the wind, to do the chores for the
night. Not glimpse of the near by
barn could be obtained from the cabin
door, Hattie tied long rope to the
door knob and carefully held the other
end as she walked toward it. She
knew too we'll how more than one
pioneer had lost their way in the
trackless whiteness at no greater dis
lance than this from their homes, and
been frozen to death.
She pulled down hay and fed the
stock AID MIXED. She brought out
pals full of the snow water she had
melted in the big wash boiler for
them to drink. She brought in a
great supply of fuel and made every-
thing outdoors and in as snug and
CHEEKY as possible Then she cooked
the supper-that did not take long
for there was little to cook-and
washed up the dishes and cared for
the sick woman and the little babe.
She put Lille to bed in the queer
little trundle. bed-the child chattering
about Santa Claus every minute-and
tucked her in as happy as if there
were no fear or anxiety in the world:
oh, what would the pioneer families
have done without the girls" of that
time?
The mercury ranged 4 and S de-
grees below zero. The storm outside
howled with the fury of a legion of
demons. In some drift out there in
the whiteness John Carver might be
sinking to death now.
The baby cried and the sick woman
moaned. There was no lack of occu-
patton for the young helper. Hattie's
strong arms held the child till it was
quoted and at the same time heated
aannels, brought water, smoothed pill
lows, and did everything that could
be done for the anxious young
mother.
Hattie. you haven't anything to
worry you," cried the sick woman, en-
viously.
mot thing except what worries
other. people, answered Hattie. But
she knew that all the time she car
ried beneath her songs and CHEEKY
words a heartache that was as hard
to bear as the young wife's own.
It was Mark for whom her heart
ached. A year ago she had thought
that by this time she and Mark would
be settled in pioneer cabin of their
own. Her quilts were all quilted, her
store of household goods was ready.
But a GOODNESS had come between
them, and Mark had gone away
back east where girls were plenty"
Since then she had been learning to
live without him and it was a bitter
lesson. True she did not speak of
it, not even to her best friends, but
the ache was always there.
Her work was done at last. She
had time to look at little Lille slum-
bertng in her low trundle.bed with
her stocking spread out trustingly on
the pillow beside her. Now was the
time for Santa Claus to- come. But
the sick mother was too ill and broken
with anxiety to be bothered. There
was nobody to fill that stocking but
Hattie, and nothing to fill 1t with ex-
,oept what her girls wit might devise.
s She was very tired. All day she