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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 1894)
f m 4 THE HES the earth in. Frau Greta holding his hand felt the tremor. All day long he had sat beside the dead mother, silent as always. Now she was taken from him, still he shed no tears. It was a cold, sunless day, and the north wind blew icily as on the day when the old spring wagon drove up to Herr Louie's. The gray clouds were passing swiftly overhead and a few snow-flakes skurried through the air. "It will be a blizzard soon; ve must hurry," said mein herr, as they turned toward the house. Frau Greta took the boy in her arms that evening. With gentle sweetness she sought to comfort him. "I vill be mutter to vou," she said, "as to Auton and Greta " Then she kissed him and he went to bed up under the roof with the hired man. The blizzard was at its worst. The wind . roared and rumbled without, and shiieked and moaned through the cracks and crevices in the rudely built house, causing the lamp, which the man had left burning, to flicker and flare constantly. Snow sifted through ihe roof and slowly spread a white coverlet over the heavy blankets on the bed. It was in tensely cold so cold that a thick frost gathered on the hired man's beard as he lay snoring. The boy did not sleep. He la)' with open eyes full of pain and grief. He shivered beneath the heavy blankets and crept closer to the man's warm body. The wind howled and moaned, screamed and sobbed, endlessly, it seemed to him. Would it never stop? How it must groan and wail in the cottonwoods! And beneath them, over her, the cold snow was drifting, drifting. He shivered again. It was so cold, and bleak, and desolate out there, and she all alone- down under the snow and the wind howling over her. Oh, how the wind was howling! "Her's loned some," he muttered. "Her's lonedsome and cold out there." He sobbed a little. He had not cried before, but it was so cold, so "lonedsome" out there. Presently he crept frombetween the blank ets and dressed, trembling with cold. Very quietly he went down the narrow stairway t PERI AN. leaving the hired man still snoring. He drew on his cap and coat and then took down hei old worn cloak Irom the nail where Frau Greta had hung it. "Her's so cold and lonedsome," he muttered to hin Silf again, "I will go to her; to my mamma," and noise lessly he let himself out into the storm; into the black gloom. In the morning the hired man and Herr Louie went to search for him. He could not have gone far, they knew, a few rods at most. And when at last they found him lying by the new-made grave, which he had covered with the worn clo ik, they wondered that he ever reached it. They could not have done so in that storm. Frau Greta's "Gott led him," was their only explanation. Under the sighing cottonwoods they laid him, beside the mother to keep her loving company; keep her from getting "loned some. if. H. A. WHAT THEY SAY. W. E. : Now children, keep still while the ladies and gentlemen say their pieces. H. W. Q. : Joint debates and their con comitants are demoralizing. W. V. H. : Why the didn't you fellows come out and hear Marple? Twenty-five! Its a shame. R. P. T.: They were a little off color. Wait until the)' line up against Iowa. Prof. W. G. T.: "Wages may rise and wages may fall; but a regular movemsnt con trols them all." Mad B. : Excuse me Miss . I must go write up that darn god. He is studying Mythology. W. H. T.: You did splendidly; answered it almost as well as I could myself. N. C. A. The critic has no report to offer. Adam M. : The theme has some excellen cies, among which are legibility of writing and an excellent use of punctuation. The Profs-.:-. No student should carry more than 15 hours. The Chance.: The name of every student not carrying at least 17 hours will be dropped from the rolls. &tyBW&TW&vinmii&vwtvmm'mm