Newspaper Page Text
January 8, 1913] TBI
WHEN THE OLD BELL RINGS.
"I'd like a real New Year's, a bee-yu-tifui
New Year'8 Day?if there was anything to
make it out of," said Lucy dolefully, with her
small nose flattened against the kitchen window.
"Well, there ain't," answered Hester unsympathizlngly,
as she bustled about her work.
"Fur as I can see, there ain't nothin' to make
InoiliIn' out of till that pokey Cyrus gits back
from town with the groceries?if he ever does.
My kitchen would look more 'bee-yu-tiful' if
yotl'd gnther them doll rags out of the corner,
Lucy Emma."
Ltlcy glanced around at the treasures so
scornfully designated* but she did not attempt
to remove them. One was not obliged to pay
attention to all Hester's sharp words, which
did not in the least match her temper.
"I wish somebody'd play house with me,
that's what 1 wish," remarked Robbie with a
suggestive glance in his sister's direction. "I
can't have any fun playing all alone."
The lonesome little voice did not have its
usual effect upon Lucy. She was in no mood
for such tiresome games, and Robbie was always
wanting to be entertained, she told herself.
Hester, going to and fro from the clothesrock
to the ironing-table, glanced from one
childish figure to the other, and then out at
the gray skies from which a few feathery
flakes were falling. If there was any relenting
in her look, none of it was to creep into her
words; that was not Hester's way; she only
strengthened her position.
"I don't see what you could expect, Lucy
Emma, with your grandm'aw such an invalid.
Anyway, New Year's is just the first day of
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what kind of a fuss you'd want 'count of it."
"I'd like to have the big front room opened.
What's the good of a parlor if it's always shut
up? And a big bright fire in the fireplace,"
Lucy answered with the promptness of one
who knew her own mind. "I'd like to have
lots of evergreen from the woods to trim up
the pictures and everything, and I'd like company
for supper?lots of company, and good
things to eat. Then I'd have the big old bell
by the hall door ring out to tell that the new
year has come, as Uncle John said they used
to do?that's "what I'd like."
Robbie's brown eyes were wide and his lips
apart at the recital of such a programme, and
even Hester put down her iron in momentary
amazement.
"Land sake, child! The idee of you thinkin'
out such doin's as that with an invalid in the
house! I've got cookin' enough to do, what
with all the broths an' meals that have to be
fixed up for her, an' I guess we'll do pretty
well if we get any kind of a supper the way
Cyrus lnes in town "
"T wasn't planning to have grandma sick,"
answered Lucy, half resentfully.
The kitchen subsided into silence again except
for the thumping of ITester's irons and
her occasional vigorous snapping of towel or
napkin. Lucy's nose pressed the windowpane
once more, nnd if Robbie presently put away
his tin soldiers and the string with which he
had been driving his imaginary steed, and
slipped quietly out of the room, no one noticed
; no one had noticed Robbie much all day.
Outside, the gray of the sky deepened, and the
straggling flakes gradually increased to a whirling
mass. An hour later, when Cyrus drove
into the yard, his horses and wagon were only
seen through a blinding white veil, and there
was a great stamping of feet and shaking of
hat and coat on the-back porch before he entered.
My, but this is a storm!'' said Cyrqp, hold
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
ing his red fingers over the stove. "Getting
pretty cold out, too." Then he drew a paper
bag from his pocket.
"Here's some candy for you, Lucy Em, for
you and Robbie. Where is Robbie?"
"Why, I don't believe he's been here for an
hour or more," answered Hester, suddenly
realizing how long it had been since she Jiad
heard his voice. "More'n likely he's slipped
into his grandmaw's room an' has gone to
sleep on the rug by the fire. He does that
sometimes when he gits tired an' hasn't nobody
to play with. You run an' call him, Lucy
Emma."
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Robbie. Grandma had not seen him.
"Land! what a pity you disturbed her if
he wasn't there!" exclaimed Hester regretfully.
"She'8 been a sight better to-day, an' now
she'll take to worryin'."
"Likely he went out to the barn to see Dobbin,"
suggested Cyrus. "I din't see him when
I put up the horses, but he might have been
playing up in the hay. I'll go after him."
But there was no Robbie in the barn, no Robbie
anywhere about the house, though they
searched every room and called his name from
cellar to attic.
"He must have gone to some of the neighbors,
or started, at least," said grandmother,
who, rheumatism forgotten, had made her way
out of her room and joined the anxious group
in the kitchen. "I expect he's safe with some
of them, and they won't let him come back
through such a storm. Can't you go one way,
Hester, while Cyrus goes the other f"
The question was needless. Cyrus was already
hurrying out of door, and Hester fasten
ing a shawl over her head. It seemed a long
time after they had disappeared in opposite directions
before either of them came in sight
again, but they came alone; no one had seen
the little boy.
"Some of the men'11 be here in a few minutes
to help hunt for him," said Cyrus gravely.
"Then we'll divide, and part go into the woods,
and part take the river road."
There was no delay in their coming. Dark
figures with caps pulled low and coat-collars
turned high were hastening toward the farmVimiso
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braved the storm, two or three women came
also to see if they could be of any assistance.
All were full of neighborly kindness and eager
to help in any way possible, for all knew well
what it meant to have a little child stray long
in the woods or along the river bank on a
day like that. Plans were speedily made, and
the searching parties started out with the understanding
that as soon as any one found
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liall door was to sound out the word. In the
house, kindly hands soon had a fire blazing in
the unused parlor, that there might be plenty
of room with warmth and comfort without
crowding the kitchen. Blankets and hot water
were made ready for the chilled little form
that might need them, and sympathizing voices
tried to cheer grandma, while again and again
the questioned Hester regarding the last movements
of the child as she remembered them.
"Kind of puttin' away his playthings he was,
like he was tired of 'em, that's as nigh as I
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uuucou?x wiiHii i paym' no great need?an'
sayin* he hadn't anybody to play with."
No one dreamed how Hester's reply, so often
repeated, hurt Lucy. Robbie's voice, his plea
of loneliness, seemed to ring in her ears. Even
when grandma put an encircling arm around
her and drew her close to her side, it could
not comfort. Once she stole away to her own
little room upstairs, and beside the low white
bed sobbed out her prayer.
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"Oh, I couldn't bear it for always, dear Jesus
?I couldn't! Please send Robbie home!"
It seemed an endless time to them all that
they waited and heard nothing, but the short
afternoon had just settled into night when Cyrus
and his party came back from the wood?
bearing a precious bundle with them?Robbie,
so wrapped in robes and tossed about by willing
hands thnt he was already warm and pretty
nearly himself again.
"Ilere's your boy!" cried a neighbor's
hearty voice. "We found him all curled up in
a little nest of leaves where he had dropped
down, too drowsy to go further. The snow had
pretty nigh covered him."
How joyfully the old bell rang out its tidings,
and how gladly the searchers came trooping
back ! Then there was a mingling of cheerful
voices in the pleasant rooms, the roaring
fires that made the cold and storm without
seem but a name, the tinkle of dishes and the
delicious odor of coffee, for grandma had ordained
in grandma's most hospitable fashion
that no one should even think of going away
without ciir?r?o??
w?.rrv? .
"Well, Lucy Emma, you're pretty nigh got
your vrish, fur as I can see," said Hester, as
she moved about, spreading the long table.
"What wish?" asked Luck wonderingly.
"Why, 'bout New Year's. There's a big
enough fire in the parlor, dear knows; there's
comp'ny for supper, there's be good things to
eat, if I say it myself, an' the big bell has rung."
"Oh!" gasped Lucy, half in awe, half in
astonishment. But Hester's words had awak
ened Robbie to remembrance.
"That's what I went to the woods for, Lucy,
to get nevergreens," he said, " 'cause you wanted
a bce-yu-tiful New Year's."
"Oh, I've got it!" cried Lucy, hugging him
close.
And Hester, as she opened the oven door to
look after her biscuit, could be heard muttering
something to the effect that "Folks mostly always
had enough to make happy times out of
if they'd only use it instead of mopin' an'
wiahin' for somethin' else."?Kate W. Hamilton,
in Boys and Girls.
ANIMALS IN COLD WEATHER.
The wild animal that minds cold the least
is undoubtedly the rabbit. Indeed, it is said
that the rabbit is, of all warm-blooded* creatures,
the most capable of withstanding very
low temperatures. A rabbit which had got into
a block of ice was imprisoned there twelve
hours. When freedom was finally secured it
began almost instantly to feed.
Hares, too, can stand a lot of cold so long
as they can get food. The Alpine hare, which
is found in Cumberland and Scotland, never
seems inconvenienced by the worst frost. The
Arctic fox is another creature which no degree
of cold seems to bother. It is one of the
very few animals of the Arctic regions which
does not hibernate.
Of domestic animals, sheep come first as cold
resisters. In a great blizzard which swept
England in 1891, sheep were dug out of drifts
that had been buried twenty-four days. They
were still alive. Next to sheen in cold weath
er hardiness come goats and then pigs.
Among the birds, thrushes and blackbirds
seem able to endure less cold than the finch
tribe, of which the house sparrow is the commonest
type. The hedge sparrow appears, of
all birds, to be the most affected by cold.
Perch enjoy cold weather and freezes, comfortably
making their homes in lakes that are
frozen practically solid.?From Our Dumb Animal*.