The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-08-19
THE CFlILDREN'S
HEROISM
BY F. A. mitchell
Copyright by American Press Assoc
citation, 1911.
BY F. A. mitchell.

lures. which they find not only In the |
scenery, but in the simple peasantry
which lives there. On that coast are
lighthouses such as really protect
ships from going ashore in every civil
lized country.
One of these lighthouses was recent
ly the scene OF story-a real story
such as few authors OF fiction can in
vent. story full Of pathos, of hero
ism, of a great work In protecting the
lives Of many who We're sailing or
steaming over the ocean unconscious
Of what was going on under the light
In the dwelling portion OF this light
house the keeper lay dying. He had
but was suddenly taken Ill. Never
theless he kept at his work of prepar-
ing the light against the evening, His
wife knew nothing about the lamps or
the machinery by which they were
made to alternately shine and disap-
pear. Els children were boy and a
Rirl-the boy nine. the girl eleven years
old. There was no one near the light
house to call upon to take up the light
/ house keepers duties when the night
came.
| Nor was there any doctor that could
administer to his physical ailments.
The keeper grew worse. Still he kept
at his work till the afternoon when he
was obliged to give up and go to bed
He had cleaned the lamps, filled them
with oil and In every way got them
ready to be lighted, but either he had
not had time or the strength to wind
up the great weights that turned the
machinery. causing the revolutions
revolutions by which the light was
made to fash.
When night came on the keeper was
| drawing his last breath. His wife
was praying by his bedside: his chill
! dren were standing wondering at this
their first sight Of death--death that
made their mother a widow and them
! fatherless. There were few long
breaths. the intervals between them
growing greater, a rattle in the throat
aud the keeper was dead.
| As soon as the widow could suih
GENTLY recover from the death scene
she thought of the lives that might
be wrecked from her husbands being
thus suddenly taken away from his
work OF protection 1t was danger
Gus coast, Shippers had been used TO
seeing the light and counting the sec
onds between its flashes, and then they
knew where they were. II 1t failed to
shine they would run out Of their
courses
The widow reused herself. and, TAX.
ing her children with her. went up into
| the lighthouse. She lighted the lamps,
but she could not make the machinery
revolve A light that did not fash in
the place where fiashlight should be
would be as misleading TO sailors as no
light at all.
The little girl placed herself at the
revolving apparatus and found that 1t
turned easily. She pushed IL around,
making the circuit under her mothers
l
reyolve, then she said to her mother:
Mamma, go back to father We
children will turn the machinery and
make the light fash"
SO the mother, whose grief. more
keen than that of childhood, Slapped
her powers, went back to the bedside
OF her dead husband to pray, leaving
her children the only barrier between
lives out on the ocean and the rocks
that were ready to engulf them. The
girl turned ill she was, tired. then her
little brother took up the work. When
he became tired she relieved him.
And so the children worked on while
their father lay dead below and their
mother prayed beside him. And the
captains and the sailors on the vessels
that passed, coming and going, looked
at the light and wondered that It now
lost, now gained, few seconds. And
persons In their berths below slept
soundly, not dreaming that they owed
; their lives to girl of eleven and a
boy of nine.
Midnight passed, the small hours OF
the morning came, and the children
toiIing on, began TO think Of the rest
that day would bring them. How
they, especially the boy. kept awake is
marvel. And now faint but wei
come gray streak appears in the est
: A dim outline Of the uneven land be
= gins to be apparent. But the children
j work on, turning. ever turning. WhaI
though the interval between the flashes
lengthen as their little legs grow bare
TO move and their steps shorter! Thu
dawn lightens, the white breakers frs
grow plain, then the black promOn
tories against the sky, then both LAND
and ocean.
: Mamma" called the girl, may W.
not stop now?'
! Eyes, my child; It is light. The sail
q ors can see where they are without
you children to tell them"
There come persons who have hearC
this story OF heroism aud ask TO se'
the little hero md heroine. They fine
family unconscious of having don'
anything remarkable, The children
open their eyes and wonder what Il
I means. They only turned the appara
tus all night because without the ligh
/ the sailors would be lost on the black
; ocean.
But they are not their own judges