Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1911-08-23
THE C1ILDREN'S
HEROISM
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation. 1911
By f. A. mitchell.

but very beautiful region. Artists go
there to get subjects for their pic
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-
~ the scene OF story-a real story
such as few authors OF fiction can in
vent. II story full of pathos, OF hero
ism. of a great work in protecting the
lives Of many who We're sailing or
teaming over the ocean unconscious
II what was going on under the li%ht
In the dive ing portion OF this light
house the keeper lay dying. He had
that morning been In his usual health.
Tut was suddenly taken Ill. Never
,heleSs 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
rear. His children were a boy and a
girl-the boy nine. the girl eleven years
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
IT 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 I'm 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 10 fash.
when night came on the keeper was
drawing his last breath. His wife
was praying by his bedside: his chill
lren were standing wondering at this
their first sight of death-death that
made their mother n widow and them
| fatherlcss. There were few long
breaths. the intervals between them
growing greater. rattle In the throat
and the keeper was dead.
As soon as the widow could sufh
clently 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 a 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 it 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 a fiashlight should be
would he as misleading to sailors as no
light at all.
The little girl placed herself at the
revolving apparatus and found that II
turned easily. She pushed it around.
making the circuit under her mothers
direction in the time IL was used to
revolve then she said TO her mother:
Mamma. go back TO father. We
children will turn the machinery and
make the light flash"
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 till 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
4 captains and the sailors on the vessels
Z that passed. coming and going. look ed
v at the light and wondered that II now
q lost now gained. "A few seconds. Ant
persons in their berths below slep
soundly. not dreaming that they OWED
their lives to girl OF eleven and ,
, boy of nine.
, Midnight passed. the small hours o
. the morning came, and the children
, tOiling on. began to think of the res
that day would bring them. How
I they, especially the boy. kept awake &
a marvel. And now a faint but wei
T come gray streak appears in the east
D 4 dim outline of the uneven land be
. gins to he apparent But the childre
Q work on. turning. ever turning. Wha
thu ugh the interval between the fiashe
0 lengthen as their little legs grow har
q to move and their steps shorter Th
dawn lightens. the white breakers frs
grow plain, then the black promOT
tories against the sky. then both Ian
I and ocean.
| Mamma" called the girl. may W
| not stop now"
| ''Yes. my child; IT Is light. The sal
i hor 4.