" Le ~n Bretagne" Leon's Christmas Home Coming By W. A. FRAZER (Copyright, by Miort Story Publishing Co.) It was two o'clock when Le Bre tagne spread her white sails and crept out toward the eastern sky. It was six when the gray wall of the sea rose and blotted out the ship as though she had gone to the bottom. Then the dark figure which had been outlined against the crimson of the big, red setting sun turned wearily and crept over the sands towards Arichat —it was Marie, returning to her newly widowed home. "Leon said he would come at the time of Christmas, so why should I fear?" she kept muttering, "and Leon will keep his word in life or death. 'Even if I'm dead, Marie,' he said, Joking me, '1 will come to thee at Christmas.'" On the farther side of L'lsle Madam the sea was moaning as Marie reached her cottage. One month had gone—one month of the loveliest weather—ideal weather for the fishing, the old wives said, only they used a stronger word than "ideal" to express t;>eir satisfaction. It was just 34 days since the gray wall of water had risen between Ma rie and her Leon. There was no mis taking the day, for she had just drawn a line through the date, the nineteenth of October. Not for a moment had Marie slumbered that night. The sea had gone to rest >vlth a sigh, a sigh of \itter weariness, as though the wind had called it to battle to the death; only the sea heard the challenge, the sea and Marie —she knew. The calm that rested over every thing was awful; it was as though all life had gone out of the world. And eo it was when the green sliy that :' . '%/v v; V . "Yes, Yes; It's Le Bretagne," an Old Man Was Saying. was in the west changed to blood red: still not a breath of air. Toward noon the glassy water grew dark, where lit tle puffs of wind ruffled its surface. By night the clouds had risen like a wall, stretching from the south to the northeast, but still it was clear overhead; 110 clouds, only a murky, yellow haze. Fitful blasts of wind came tearing through the quaint old fishing town of Arichat, making signs and shutters tremble and creak for an instant, and then silence —that dreadful silence that seemed to still the very beating of one's heart. That night Marie prayed as though she were pleading for her soul: "O, Holy Mother, plead for me, even as thou hadst a Son," and then the hot flood of tears fell fast, blinding and scorching, and choking the full heart. In the morning the eastern shore of L'lsle Madam was shrouded in seeth ing spray. The breakers were thun dering at her guarding rocks. By night the world was spray covered— the world of L'lsle Madam. The sky and the earth and the sea were one. And still from the southeast the storm drove, and all that night. And in the morning of the second day the crash of breaking timbers mingled with the boom of the mighty waves as they dashed against the granite walls. People were hurrying towards the surf-beaten shore. Her long hair toss ing in the maddened hreeze. Marie rushed after them; in her heart the cry that had been there for so many hours, Holy Mother, save my Leon!" yes; it's Le Bretagne," an old man ,vas saying, slowly lowering his glass as Marie came up to the group of people who were straining their eyes seaward. "Her anchors are out," he continued, "but she cannot live in such a gale under that strain, and if she parts her cable she will goto pieces on the rocks." His words were scarcely audible above the shrieking of the wind; but Maria heard, and there, among those rough fishermen, she knelt and prayed over and over again, out of the rhoi? ing fullness of her heart, "Holy Mother save my Leon." The awful solemnitj of the scene touched their rougfc hearts, and hats were doffed, and heads bowed, as the young wife prayed to her God in that living gale. And then, as if in mockery of all things human, a mighty wave, might ier than any of its fellows, and fol lowing in the wake of two scarcely lo&s mighty, broke over the Bretagne, and buried her beneath its many tons of foam-lashed water. The vessel swayed, trembled and disappeared be fore their very eyes. Two men were holding Marie now "1 will goto him! He is calling me!" she shrieked. "O, God! will no one save him?" The bronzed faces of the fisher-folk were turned away each from the other. The salt spray was on their beards, but in their eyes was that of which they were ashamed. Then they led her back to the house, the little house that Leon had taken her to only a few weeks ago. And two of them watched into the gray of the morning, for -'neath oil skins the fishers' hearts are warm. That was the third night, and still she slept not. The storm was dying now, and moaning, together they passed away—the fury of grief and the rage of the storm. And for that day, and for many days the great grief had broken her mind. Storm and sunshine, day in and day out, she sat down on the beach, and questioned the passers as to how many days to Christmas till her Leon would come home; for had he not said that he would come at Christ mas, at the glad time of the year, and was not his word as the law among the fisher-folk, it was so true? And did she not pray every night to the Holy Mother-to intercede for her, and bring her Leon home? And the masses that had been said for Leon, were they not to bring him home, too-? Poor little Marie, her mind, which was like unto a child's, could not un derstand that the mass which Father Dupre had said, had been to take him to that other home; for the good fa ther had said mass for the repose of the souls of the men lying out there in Le Hretagne. And then a wonderful thing hap pened. Many days after, at the time of Christmas, again the cry of Le Bretagne rang through the streets of Arichat; and again was there much of horror in the cry, for though the sea was calm now, there was Le Bretagne slowly sailing into port: and was not Le Bretagne at the bottom of the sea, and all hands drowned? Small wonder that the browned faces were blanched now, as the fisher-folk lined up on the sand, as they had on that day two moons be fore. "What sorcery is this?" they asked each other. It was La Bretagne. they know her as they knew their own houses. Spirit hands were sailing her, for on her decks no one moved. A solemn hush settled down upon thein; few spoke, and when they did it was with bated breath. What evil was this? for good it could not be. 'Twas Marie who had first seen the ship. Had her prayers worked this magic? Nearer and nearer the dread ship came, until but a short way out from the shore she stopped, and swung to an anchor. Invisible hands had an chored her, for there was the cable right enough, running out from her bow, as she lifted lazily to the long ground swell. "Take me to my Leon," Marie plead ed of the awe-struck fishermen, "he is calling me. Do you not see that his boats are washed away?" Shamed by the presence of the wom en, four stout fishermen brought up a boat, and, taking Marie with them, rowed off to the ship that was like a phantom. "Stay with us, ma petite amie," the fisherwomen pleaded with Marie. As well had they striven to check the ways of the wind. How silent the ship was as *he boat glided under her stfrn! Not sound, not a voice; no movement, only the lap, lap, lap of the waters against her wooden sides. The men crossed themselves as Du niont, the bravest fisherman in all Arichat, rose up, and, with blanched cheeks, caught his boat hook in Le Breta*;ne's rail. llow low she was in the water; as they stood up in their boat they could see across her deck —not across did they see, for half way they saw some thing which caused them to shudder, and beg of little Marie to stop in the boat. But Marie had risen and seen, too, and with a cry that rang in the ears of those four men until their dying day, she sprang up the side of the ship, and stood on the slippery, slimy deck. Her Leon was there, lashed to the mast. She threw herself upon his poor bloated form. The four understood. Dumont looked down an open hatch: "Her salt is gone!" he exclaimed. That brief sentence explained it all. She had gone to the fisheries loaded with salt. When the water had washed all the salt out of her hold, being a wooden shfp, she had floated, dragging her one remaining anchor until it had caught in the good hold ing ground near the shore. Gently they lifted Marie away from her dead lover. Christmas had come to Marie. The Holy Mother had heard her prayer, and she was with Leon. And every Christmas since, in Arichat, a mass is said lor the repose of the soul of little Mario, and the lover who rose from the sea to come to her, even in death. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1908. WHAT WOULD HE HAVE SAID? lPr^ "Get up, Jack. You mustn't cry like a baby! You're quite a man now. You know if I fell down I shouldn't cry, I should merely say—" "Yes, I know, pa; but then —I goto Sunday school—and you don't." TORTURED SIX MONTHS By Terrible Itching Eczema—daby's Suffering Was Terrible Soon Entirely Cured by Cuticura. "Eczema appeared on my son's face. We went to a doctor who treated him \ for months. Then he was so bad that his face and head were nothing but one sore and his ears looked as if they were going to fall off, so we tried another doctor for four months, the baby never getting any better. His hand and legs had big sores on them and the poor little fellow suffered so j terribly that he could not sleep. After j he had suffered six months we tried a set of the Cuticura Remedies and the first treatment let him sleep and . rest well; in one week the sores were gone and in two months he had a clear face. Now he is two years and has never had eczema again. Mrs. Louis Leek, R. F. D. 3, San Antonio, Tex., Apr. 15, 1907." News from the Settlement. "We are not exactly happy on the way, but we are not too mean to shout 'Amen' when the rest of the world cries 'Halleluia!' "Just how the editor knew we had 'possum for dinner last Tuesday is more than we can tell, but he came just in the nick of time and dined with us. "We have much for which to be thankful. We raise our own turkeys, but turkey for dinner is so common in our settlement that we sometimes forget to thank Providence for it. "There is no news to speak of, ex cept that we'll all build up this old country if we keep the saw in the log, and keep the sawdust flying."—At lanta Constitution. How's This? We offrr Ono Hundred Dollars Ttprrard for wry etLif of Catarrh that cannot be cured by Hall's Catarrh Cure. F. J. CHENEY * CO., Toledo, O. We, the undersigned, have known F. J. Cheney for the lust 15 years, and believe him perfectly hon orable In all business transactions and financial!;' able to carry out any obligations made by his firm. WAL DING, KINNAN A MARTIN, Wholesale Druggists, Toledo, O. Hall's Catarrh Cure 1s taken Internally, acting directly upon the blood and mucous surfaces of tb# system. Testimonials sent free. Price 75 cents pw bottle. Sold by all Druggists. Take Hall's Family Pills for constipation. Work with a Will. We are not sent into this world to do anything into which we cannot put* our hearts. We have certain work to do for our bread and that is to be done strenuously; other work to do for our delight and that is to be done heartily; neither is to be done by halves or shifts, but with a will; and what is not worth this effort is not to be done at all. —John Ruskin. Important to Mothers. Examine carefully every bottle of CASTOItIA a safe and sure remedy for infants and children, and see that it In Use For Over 30 Years. The Kind You Have Always Bought. The Split Skirt. Patience—l see half of the people call them sheath skirts, and the other half call them directoire gowns. Patrice —Yes; I was sure there'd be a split about it. Every Woman Will Be Interested. If you have pains in the back, Urinary, Bladder or Kidney trouble, and want a certain, pleasant herb cure for woman's ills, try Mother Gray's AUSTRALIAN I'EAF. It is a safe and never-failing reg ulator. At all Druggists or by mail 50 cts. Sample package Kit FOE. Address, The Mother Gray Co., Le Itoy, N. Y. Picked His Studies. "I understand your son is a hard student." "Hard! Why his muscles are like fine Thing That Will Live Forever, PKTTIT'S EYE SALVE, first box sold in 18(17, 100 years ago, sales increase yearly. All druggistsor Howard Bros., Buffalo, N. Y. Good temper Is like a sunny day— It sheds its brightness everywhere.— Pascal. _ If Your Feet Ache or Iturn get a 25c packago of Alien s Foot-Base. It giyei quick relief. Two million packages sold yearly. A poor appetite is a good thing—for the boarding house keeper. LAME BACK PRESCRIPTION The increased use of "Toris" for latne back and rheumatism is causing considerable discussion among the medical fraternity. It is an almost in fallible cure when mixed with cer tain other ingredients and taken prop erly. The following formula is effec tive; "To one-half pint of good whiskey add one ounce of Toris Com pound and one ounce Syrup Sarsapa rilla Compound. Take in tablespoon ful doses before each meal and be fore retiring." Toris compound is a product of the laboratories of the Globe Pharmaceu tical Co., Chicago, but it as well as the other ingredients can be had from any good druggist. OF TWO EVILS, ETC. Youngster Evidently Had His Own Idea as to the Choice. My neighbor, writes a correspondent, has four young sons, whom he and his wife duly lead to church every Sun day. Just as the sermon was about to begin last Sunday one of the boys was observed to look very uncomfort able, and, having explained the nature of his sufferings, was sent home. His younger brother, in an urgent whis per, demanded of his mother: "Where's Tom gone?" "He's gone home." "What for?" "The mother whispered, low: "He's got toothache." And the lad, as he sat up to listen to the preacher, muttered, in a stage whisper: "Lucky dog!" AMONGST THE BULL-RUSHES. i Lazy Larry—Woof! Just to think, with all this wasted effort, I could have won the Marathon race! Sniffles and Nerves. Keep to yourself during warm, nerve-irritating weather. It is related that an Atchison man and wife dearly love each other. She is a perfect lady, and apologizes when she says "shucks." But one night, when they were sitting on tho porch, presum ably enjoying the tender twilight, she suddenly picked up a stool and threw it at his head. "I am not insane," she said, calmly, when he turned a fright ened gaze on her; "I am simply worn out by the manner in which you sniffle at the end of every sentence!" —At- chison Globe. Not Anxious at All. "One word of our language that is almost always misused," said the par ticular man, "is 'anxious.' You will hear people exclaim how anxious they are to see a certain play, or anxious to get a new hat, or anxious to take a trip to Europe, when they are not anx ious at all, but eager or desirous. If anxious were used only in the right place we wouldn't hear it half so often." Noble Gentleman, This. "No, I do not believe in indiscrim inate charity-giving. Whenever a beg gar tells me he is starving I put him to the test before believing him. I tell him to come back in two days." "Well?" "Well, if he comes back it's clear that he told a lie, so I refuse him. If it was the truth, he'd be dead." A cheerful man is one who can present a smiling face to every turn of fortune, not one whose radiancy disappears for trifles of vexation. — Leigh Smith. "iroeyeaTuM I Thompson's £ye Water A. N. K.—C (1908—50) 2260. PUTNAM FADELESS DYES Color morn goods brighter and latter colors than any other dye. One tOc package colors all fibers. The? dye in cold water better than any other dye Vou can dn anj garment without ripping aoarL Write for free botklet—How to Dye, Bleach and Mix Colors. MONROE DRUG 00. , Qulnoy, llllnolm. RECIPE FOR TROUBLE. Cheerfully Contributed to an Already Unhappy World. Trouble making is an older industry than the manufacture of steel. Cain, the trouble maker, got into action be fore Tubal Cain, the iron worker; and Eve got Adam into hot water long before the Boiler Makers' union began business. There are three kinds of trouble— imaginary, borrowed and real. Imaginary trouble consists of rail road accidents, earthquakes, fires, sui cides, the poorhouse, death, and the grave, carefully mixed and taken after a late dinner, or a drop in the stock market. Borrowed trouble la the kind we get from our relatives. Its principal in gredients are visits, borrowed money, birthday presents, advice and expecta tions. Hut the real article is pro duced as follows: Put the sandals of endurance on your feet, take your life in your hands and follow by turn the How-to-He-llappy Philosopher, the Preacher of Physical Culture and the Apostle of Diet.—Puck. THE QUARREL. Her —Why on earth did you every marry me? Him —Oh, don't be so bromidic! That's what everybody asks. No Deception. "I bought some boom lots in a coast town. Feller wrote me the land might all bo gone in a week if I didn't buy quick." "That's an old dodge." "But he told the exact truth. The ocean is carrying it off in chunks." — S. Louis Republic. A Solemn Responsibility. "It's easy to be gay and make peo ple about you forget their troubles." "That's all you know about it," an swered the professional comedian. "You never had a lot of people out in front wondering whether they were going to get their money's worth." Reducing Weight. Racehorse Owner —"William, you aro too heavy. Can't you take some thing off?" Jockey—"l'm wearing my lightest suit, and haven't tasted food all day." Owner —"Then, for good ness' sake, go and get shaved." —Tit- Bits. Mrs. Wlnilow's Boothlnjj Sjrrop. For children teething:, softens the Kurus, reduces In. Humumtlun, allays pain, cures wind colic. Ssc a bottle> A tiresome speech is apt to be a cheerless affair. Are your shoes going down hill? Mi They haven't lived up to the BL salesman's say-so. vft Take our say-so this time. Get wjllfßk \4" stylish White House Shoes. jfylSSij&t They fit from tip to counter. From welt to top face, they meet the graceful shape of your foot. B abpaham they hold that shape. WHITE HOUSE SHOES. FOR MEN. $3.50. $4.00. $S 00 and $6.00. FOR WOMEN, $3.50, $4.00 and $5.00. Baster Brown Blue Ribbon Shoes for yonnesters. isk yonr dealer for them. THE BROWN SHOE CO.. Makers ; ST. LOUIS MEANS QUALITY To California Across Salt Lake by Rail Via The Overland Limited Famous Here and Abroad Leaves Chicago Daily Composite Observation Car, Pullman Drawing room and Compartment Cars, Dining Cars; all electric lighted and well ventilated. Library, Smoking Rooms —everything pleasant —makes your journey delightful. No excess fare. Union Pacific, Southern Pacific Electric Block Signal Protection—the safe road to travel Send twelve cents in postage for book entitled, "The Overland Route to the Road of a Thousand Wonders." F.. L. I.OMAX, G. P. A. Omaha, Neb. For Croup and Whooping' Cotig'h there is no quicker, surer remedy known than Dr. D. Jayne's Expectorant. Four generations of children have been relieved and cured by this old and reliable medicine. DR. D. JAYNE'S EXPECTORANT has been successfully em ployed for over 78 years in countless cases of Croup, Whooping Cough, Colds, Bronchitis, Inflammation of the Lungs and Chest, Pleu risy, and similar ailments. For the sake cf your children keep a bottle of Dr. D. Jnyne's Expectorant in your home where you will have it at hand in on emergency Sold by nil druKE's's in three 6i;e bottles, SI.OO, 5Cc and 25c. Dr. 0. Jayne'i Tonic Vermifuge is the ideal worm medicire, and an effective tonic for adults and children alike. —— —BmwsaraffiiMiiiiii imm« Choice Mistletoe Beautiful foliage and berries, ideal for HOLIDAY SOUVENIR. Sent postage paid in 25 and 50 cent car tons, address, W.T. CLEMONS, P. 0. Box 115, Fl. Smith. Ark. % "Jli&'lS hair ß balsam fffW Cleanf and beautifies the hair# nßd P rorn °t«« a luxuriant prrowth. Never Falls to Restore (iray to itß Youthful Color. Railway School Ispg teed to our graduates. Write for catalog. Hail war Com'l Training School, 166 Lako St.. Blmlru, N. X. II ■ TCUTC WatioiE.rolemnn,Wart» i PATENTS 7
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers