THE ENTOMBED MINER.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7359, 11 July 1889, Page 2

THE ENTOMBED MINER.

Every morning when the miners employed in the mines at Berard assembled around the shaft to answer to the roll-call there could be seen arriving last of all a tall, sturdy-looking fellow, who led by the hand a little girl seven or eight years old. They were Michel Pierron and his daughter. Before setting foot upon the platform pf the car to descend the man took the child in his arms and kissed her, and then replaced her on the ground. The little one cried, " Good-bye, papa." When he was upon the ear she gazed at him with two little anxious eyes, and repeated, " Good-bye, papa." When the signal for the descent was given she clasped her hands and kept repeating the single word, " papa," until she was sure that papa could no longer hear her. Then she went on to the school house close by, where she spent the day. When evening came she was always the first at theXopening of the shaft, and Michel Pierron was always the first who came up, As at his departure, he lifted the child in his arms, and she threw her arms around his neck crying " Papa." The miners had heard her repeat these two syllables so often, and had been so struck by the strange passion which she put into them, that they gave her the name of Miss Papa. And certainly no name was more applicable. Her father was everything to her. Her mother ihad been dead a long time ; she had scarcely known her; she had only him. All her memories of childhood were filled with him. To her his great rough hand had been as gentle as a woman's. For her his hard, grimy face had always worn a tender smile. For her this man had become a woman and child at the same time. Ah ! how she loved her father, and how terrified she was every morning when she saw him descend into that great black hole, of which no one could see the bottom. One day a miner held her over the mouth of the shaft, and she had gazed down into the dark depths. Uttering a cry of terror she drew back. " Papa goes down there," she thought. " Ob 1 if he should never come up t" And that day, when Michel took her in his arms aa usual and kissed her, ebe clung more tightly than ever [to his neck, and eaid to him— " You will come up, won't you ? " Of course, my little one." " Is there any danger, tell mc, papa ? " " Why, noj little coward." "Does anyone—can anyone—die down there ?" " Have no fear," replied Michel, laughing; " I will nob die without letting you know." "Ah ! Good-bye, papa." All that her father said was gospel truth to her, and she went to school completely reassured. But the memory of that black gulf into which her eyes had plunged could not be effaced, and from that time she was afraid every morning and trembled every evening; ehe feared that her father would never return from these mysterious depths into which she bad seen him descend. , Was it a presentiment ? Who knows t One day the report suddenly spread that an explosion had occurred in the mine. In a moment's time a crowd had gathered at the shaft. From all directions people, wild with terror, came flocking to the spot. Of all those buried far below there how many would ever see the light again ? Michel's daughter was at school. She knew nothing of it, and besides if anyone had spoken of it before he* would she have comprehended?. ~ Could she know, poor little one, what an explosion was f No. But at her age one knows already what death is; one understands, at her age, when one sees Inanimate, mutilated bodies extended upon the ground, and the approaches to the shaft were strewn with them when she arrived that evening to meet her father. She was stupefied for a moment, and the truth suddenly flashed upon her; she had seen those men go down living, those men whom she knew well, who had kissed her many a time; and now they were brought up dead. Would they bring up her father like them ? This thought distracted her. She began to run wildly through the debris which they had brought up from the mine, crying, Papa! papa J papa 1" There were, it is true, many others who cried and called " Papa I" but not one in such despairing accents. The others they drove back, but not one could be found to push her away. They let her run, poor child, from one body to another, sometimes stopping before a disfigured face, hesitating for a moment aa if ehe feared that she might recognise her father. No, he was not among the dead. She grew calmer, and sought among the living. He was not there. She questioned every one, but no one had seen him. Of the sixty miners who went down in the morning forty-five had come up alive; fourteen were dead. There remained one to be accounted for, that one was Michel. She had made them explain all that to her, and she understood. She clapped her hands joyously, as if they had said Co her : " He is all right. You will see him again. Ah, how she hoped to see him. Then she suddenly recollected the morning on which her father had said to her— "I will not die without letting you know." It needed only that to give her the certainty thaf he was living. A child's faith Iα strong. It is not easy to drive out an idea which has once taken root in their minds. So, when the next morning—she had remained there ail night —they tried to make her understand that there was no hope, that she would "never again see her father, that they had explored all the galleries, searched every corner, and had not found him, she shook her curly head and began to weep, saying, " Seek-for papa." , ; They paid little attention to her. Par 40 hours had they not exhausted every means t. There was doubtless something strange in this disappearance. Living or dead Michel ought to have been found, and they had not found him The chief engineer had himself directed: the search, but in vain. : In the opinion of all nothing more could be done, and it was possible that, by the force otthe explosion,: the unfortunate man had been buried by the falling debris, and it was impossible to tell where or how. For forty-eight hours little Miss Papa waited anxiously, but without manifesting the slightest uneasiness. At every human form which appeared at the Opening she started forward, and, not recognising him whom she awaited, she sank back upon the ground with a deep sigh. They, tried to take her away, but she uttered such piercing cries that they considered it best to leave her there. They thought: that she mnst soon yield to fatigue. Whence comes to the weak and feeble such strength in the great crisis of life? Ask God, it is His secret. The third day the child was still at the shaft. " I must put an end to this," said the chief engineer, approaching hex. " Come, my little one, be reasonable." " Papa 1 seek for papa 1" "Alas! he is dead. "No." She uttered this " no " with such energy that the engineer was struck by it. " Why do you say no," he asked. " He would have told mc." "Poor little one," murmured the engineer. And he made a sign to the men to take her away. But she clung desperately to him.eryuag— "Papa is not deadi 1 want to go down. I will find him." They bore her away, and left her with the school teacher. An hour later she was bacK at the shaft, and, clinging to the engineer's knees, she kept repeating— "I want to no down! I will find him!" He was a tender-hearted man, that engineer, and he took pity on her. "After ell." be said to himself, "that will perhaps be the best thing. When she has seen with her own eyes ehe'will believe This excitement, if It lasts much longer, will kill her."

And, taking her In his arms, he bora her to Uμ ear, and gave the signal to descend.

Sh* ahoMend when she felt beneath her that yawning pit, from which arose a Cool

air which almost suffocated her. The ■ engineer felt her little arms enclose his neck, and her curly head was pressed against his own. -When they reached the bottom she disengaged herself, sprang to the ground, end rushed straight forward, calling— "Papal Papa J" The engineer, who could hardly keep up with her, was tired of explaining toiler twenty times what he had already explained—how the explosion had taken place, where it had occurred, and what they had done to find the victims ; and the child kept questioning him, and repeated— "He is living! Seek for him ! " She would have remained down there in the mine three days, as she had already done at the surface, if they had nob taken her by force and carried her up. - The engineer gave orders that she should be taken back to the school: teacher and also that if she reappeared at the shaft she should be prevented from going into the mine. ... All his measures had been carefully taken, - and the next day. no longer thinking of her, he was inspecting one of the galleries, when he felt himself seized by the arm of his coat. It was Miss Papa. She had escaped from the school a second time. Repulsed at the shaft, she had slipped into an empty coal car, and had thus descended into the mine. She told all this to the engineer, and obtained his pardon. Five minutes later she again began her search, still full of undiminisbedfaith. The miners followed her with pitying eyee, shrugging their shoulders, saying— "Poor little Papa!" Little Papa kept on seeking with unabated courage. Suddenly they saw her running towards them, pale and excited. "Down there!" she gasped. "Down there ! Papa!" "What? Down there? said the miners. "His blouse!" "Bah! Where?" " Down there !" In a moment everyone had heard the news, and the mine was in a tumult. The child declared that she had seen a piece of blue cloth in a hole, which she could not raise, because it was held down by an enormous block of coal. "Where?" they asked her apain. She could not find the spot. All the blocks of coal resembled each other, all the cavities were alike, all the galleries were the same. And yet she was sure she had seen that piece of blue cloth. Where the blouse was the man must be, living, no doubt, and that man was her father, and she could not find him ! The men got tired of the useless search, and, persuaded that the poor little girl was crazed with grief, they withdrew, and returned to their work. But they had hardly taken up their pickaxes when a loud cry recalled them to the child. " I have found it I I have found it!" They pushed her aside and looked. Yes, it was a piece of blue flannel! It was a blouse 1 There was a man there ? They set to work with a will, and, in the twinkling of an eye, the wall was beaten down, and in a deep excavation they saw a man extended; it was Michel Pierron. J3e had been there three days and three nights. Loud cries arose on all sides, and, ringing loud above all the others, a cry escaped from the lips of the child. She threw herself upon the body, and- clasped it in her arms, half mad, weeping and crying— "Papal papa!" He was nearly dead, poor Michel! Exhausted by lack of air and nourishment, he recovered consciousness only to sink back fainting; but he was alive. Miss Papa had told the truth. The man would not die without telling his child, and the thought of her had sustained him and given him the strength to conquer death. A week later he was out and ready to recommence his work. On the evening of the day before that on which he was to return to the mine a grand banquet :was given by all the miners to Miss Papa. The place of honour was reserved for her. A loud hurrah and wild applause greeted her when she entered, holding on to Michel's hand. There was kisses given, shouts of bravo! and wild huzzas in honour of the little Queen. And do you know what she replied to all this, smiling and clapping her little hands? " She replied, " Papa." It would be difficult to describe how and in what tone (she uttered that one word. But all those brave fellows, whoaeeyes had hardly ever known a tear, , will tell you that they wept that night.— From the French.