The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-11-18
Continued from page 81
IN PREPARATION.

Stant1al mouse In sLltLi0 creek. his
wife died when Miss Stannard. their
only child, was two or three years Of
age. and he lived on among his books
while the girl grew up at an eastern
convent and then went back to the
village perfectly content to live there
alone with him.
Unfortunately, for Miss Stannard
there was no Catholic school in the
place and the only church was tiny,
poor place which some priest visited
once month. She was one of those
rabid Catholics know convent
bred girls are apt to be-
Mrs. Baker was forgetting that I
was a Catholic, but / let the remark
pass unchallenged.
"She was brimful of energy and ex-
cessive zeal, and she rented the room
above Mr.. Bauer's general store and
taught the Catholic children herself
day after day. When we were there
i her school was in full blast and the
people used to say that the boys and
girls under her instruction-there
were eight of them-Were farther adj
vanced than those of the same age
in the public school"
Mrs. Baker leaned closer to me and
spoke In a lower tone.
Now, this is the awful part of the
matter One winter afternoon fire
broke out in the store. Mr. Bauer
had gone to the saloon and no one
was near, so it made terrific Roadway
before it was discovered. Suddenly
it burst through the floor Of the upper
room where Miss Stannard was teach
ing her class and in an instant the
side nearest the door was enveloped
in flames.
z"Miss Stannard was young, she
loved life as well as we all do, and
I, for one, never thought that she
should have been blamed much-but
she was. She did the natural thing;
any other course would have been
simply heroic, and most of us aren't
heroes though we expect other people
to be-"
Mrs. Baker finished her sentence
slowly and thoughtfully and then
stopped short in most tantalizing
way.
well, and what did she do?" 1
asked impatiently.
"Why, she seized the two little girls
nearest her and made her way out.
Fortunately one boy was absent that
day and three of the other children
had already dashed down the smoking,
swaying stairs The building was a
frail, wooden shell and in a few min
utes it was in ashes. And-two of
the children had been burned to
DEATH"
"Oh Mrs. Baker!" I exclaimed
was thinking of Miss STANDARDS trag-
ically sad face.
"The townspeople never forgave
her," Mrs Baker went ON after
pause. "They thought that she should
have saved all the children entrusted
\ to her care before she saved herself.
believe that when all was over she
thought so herself; at least it was
common talk at the time that she was
grieving herself to death, that she
could not forgive herself for her
I 'cowardice,' as she called it, and that
she felt that the death of those chill
dren lay at her door.
"Mr. Baker and / left Little Creek
about a month after the disaster and
the only thing l ever heard of Miss
Stannard afterward was that, imme-
diately after the death of her father,
she left the place forever. All this
happened about thirteen years ago.
She was but young girl then"
That night / lay awake for hours
thinking of Miss Stannard and griev-
ing for her. / thought that l was to
get no sleep, but finally did doze a
little to be aroused by wild, un-
earthly cry of fire and loud banging
: at my door. In less time than it
takes to tell / struggled into some
clothes and ran out into the corridor.
One end of it was ablaze but, with
some twenty or thirty others all in
strange, fantastic costumes, I made
my escape down narrow stairway
} at the opposite end of the building.
. AS soon as we reached the open
, air hurried toward the burning wing,
J fearing that some whose rooms were
+
J there might have been unable to get
out. The sight which greeted my
: eyes had kind Of wierd beauty in
4 spite of it's terrors. Fully half of the
long wooden building was sheet OF
| flame and cast a lurid, uncertain
| light over the trees and flowers, and
the half-dressed shivering men, women
and children who were huddled to.
gether on the lawn, heiplessly watch.
ing the ravages of an enemy, far
! stronger than themselves
!. I met the proprietor wringing his
hands frantically. ooh, Mr.. Siegrist
are any of the guests still in the build
ing?' | asked, and trembled with
apprehension as awaited his answer
Yes, the two youngest of the Blake
children. Their mother is ill and was
\ ! carried ont first 0f all hIf+ hoforo xr,c