The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-09-11

up spluttering, choking, frantic. The
slippery wall gave no grip for my
hands, and in moment / must have
gone down again, but jeans head
came out over the ledge and her lit
tie arms were reached down to mine.
l grasped them and hung on-hung
| in water to my neck, while Jean and
l both shouted Justify.
Help came quickly in the person of
my father, who had seen the accident
from one Of the upper windows of
| the mill, and had come rushing out
at pace which had quite upset the
operatives on his route. I was dragged
| up on the dam in a moment, and |
can remember Jean standing beside
my father, crying little, and saying,
please don scold him, Mr.. Hall.
made him do IT.
/ expected my father to scold her,
| but he took her up In his arms and
held her to his breast
You're a brave little girl, Jean
you're wonderful little girl" heard
| him say, and he kissed her on the
| face, which he hardly ever did to me.
Then homeward he led me, wet and
miserable, and specializing silently on
what it may mean to be tlrashed with
in an inch of ones life
| But 1t proved TO be a day of sur
priseS. / was not thrashed within
an inch of my life. nor at all; was
undressed, and rubbed with a warm
towel, and put in bed, and given
large tumblerful of hot choke cherry
| wine, because it was still early In
| the season and the water was cold.
| And my little sister Marjorie came
and looked at me with large, dark,
compromising eyes, and said, 81
know why you didn't get thrashed."
"Why didn't get thrashed?" /
ventured
/ Because you were so awful wicked.
When you're awful bad you don't get
thrashed; its only when you're a lit
tie bad" she explained.
1 had to stay in bed for the re-
mainder of the day, which / think was
more punishment than a precaution
so had opportunity to think on
Marjorie's philosophy. It was evident
that she was right; had the proof
in my -own experience; / had been
very wicked, and had escaped punish
ment. My consciousness Of evil-do-
ing, however, rested lightly upon me-
i had escaped the strap which hung
behind the kitchen door, and which
was much more immediate menace
than any possible torments of the
after world. / spent the remaining
hours of the day in imagining situa-
lions in which would save Jean from
all kinds of disasters.
Next morning found me none the
worse for my experience; indeed my
dip over the dam already seemed a
more or less vague recollection. After
breakfast | made a journey to the
Ebig pine which grew at the very end
of our little farm-a surviving mon
arch of the forest that in some way
had escaped the locust cloud of ak
men which had swarmed through the
country twenty years before.
Perhaps 1t was as l lay under the
great pine on that sunny summer
morning and watched the filmy clouds
float gently overhead that 4 caught
my first glimpse. shyly, wonderingly
( through the golden gates of romance.
1t was a vision OF. Jean; vision which
has remained with me through the
years, growing. thrilling in my mo-
ments of happiness fading In my
hours of darkness. but at no time
quite obscure. Perhaps 1t was my
first glimpse of that vision which
brought me on that morning to my feet
where the great pines swaying lace
work of sun and shadow patterned
the green grass and set my heart Hit
ing with the Joy of being alive.
/ was about to shape my lips for a
whistle when / became conscious of