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.
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