The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1908-12-17
had heard could ever laugh again. sur

l.
had heard could ever laugh again, sur
ly.
She went down stairs into the lighted
hall with a weight Of misery on her
heart. Her mother and father seemed
suddenly like aliens, with whom she
had nothing In common. .
1t was plain to see that of all the
household she was the only one that
knew this dreadful thing, and suddenly.
even as her father was tossing her In
the air and her radiant young mother
was smiling beside him, she realized
that she could not tell them, she could
not. Why, nee when her father was
playing with her her head had come
violently In contact with the arm of his
chair and she remembered his distress
and half ~reproaches. His "Oh! have /
hurt my little girl?" had been more
soothing than the arnica that promptly
made its appearance. How could she
hurt him now, and mother! Once a
long time ago when father had been
very i'll she had heard mother crying
in the night, very softly, and h had
not gotten up and gone to her because
Of a strange soul shyness that had fall
en- upon her, but her baby heart had
almost broken with love and sympathy
and now was she to make mother cry
again. They are so happy" Sarah
said to her strange, little heart, Il can't
tell them, ! can't!"
There was a big bowl of holly on the
dining table. Sarah tried to keep her
eyes from IT.. She was a silent little
thing at her happiest-one Of those
quantity good children whose samplers,
had she lived a hundred years before,
would have pointed to with pride. Her
father and mother ,adored her. but the
secret soul of a child is, sometimes too
hidden for love itself to fnd.
The fact that Sarah ate her baked
apple and bread and butter sandwich In
silence was not uncommon. They had
no knowledge OF the truth that Sarah
was shielding them, protecting them,
even from herself. 81.
For a wonder there was little talk OF
| Christmas at the table that night.
Father and mother, were going to a
theater party, 1t appeared, and Hannah
was to put Sarah to bed and wait up
In mothers room until they came back.
And she'll tell you how Santa Claus
comes to little girls in Ireland" her
mother said as she kissed Sarah good
by. Just think, Honey, al this time
tomorrow night your stocking will be
hung up and somebody will be COM
ing quick, quick all the way from the
North pole. Think OF 1t when you go
torture Sarah had managed to smile.
Her mother mustn't know-not tonight,
| when she was so pretty and light
hearted. Perhaps she would find out
at the theatAr. Perhaps when she went
there all h lights would be out, and
when her father asked what the matter
was some one would turn to him and
say Haven't you heard?" and then the
blight would fall OH them.
Sarah had been to the theater once.
She tried. to think of 1t when she lay at
last In her little, white bed; tried to
think of the fairies HANNAH had told
her about that danced like White light
on the bog (she had successfully ma
neuvered to keep Christmas from the
conversation, much to the honest hand
maids surprise). but he effort was
hopeless. Oh, II 1t only hadn't been
true. II 1t only were not true. Sud-
denly an inspiration seized her. Not
to doubt Emerson's word Chat pos
sibility never remotely occurred to herr,
might nave been mistaken. That he.
even he. might have been misled by
false reports, and there was a way to
find out, a certain way.
She made her way cautiosly from her
bed to the threshold. Yes, Hannah
was asleep in the chair by the fire and
here on her desk was the penctl and the
letter paper with a little boy holding q
bouquet at the top. She carried them
with sublime caution past Hannah's
very back. tiptoed through the chilly
hall to the stairs and down them to
the library, her night gown crumpled
up In one cold hand.
There was a low light In the library,
but for all that she was horribly afraid
and lonesome, and the room seemed
! strangely unfamiliar and d~esolate. She
sobbed a little to herself as she wrote
her letter, a pathetic little figure in the
shadowy room. She realized when aft
er infinite labor 1t was finished that 1t
scarcely expressed the heart breaking
desire she felt.