She managed to regulate the search this time, sending the
men off singly in different directions, so as to cover as much ground as
possible. Then with her father she set out herself.
It was morning when they returned. Gerretz, sober enough now, was
bearing the insensible form of the brave girl in his arms. She
recovered, but only to learn that one of the children had been brought
in dead, while the other was nearly so. This sister thus brought so near
to death's door was to prove a sore trial in the future to poor Louise.
A hard life lay before Louise, and it was only by God's mercy that she
was enabled to keep up under the manifold trials that all too thickly
strewed her path. Her father, sobered for a time by the dreadful death
of his child, through his own negligence, soon fell back into his evil
ways, and became more incapable than ever. The business would have gone
to the dogs had it not been for his heroic daughter, who not only looked
after the household, but managed the mill and shop as well. All this was
done in such a quiet, unostentatious manner that no one of their friends
or customers but thought that the father was the chief manager.
But Louise had other trials in store. Her sister Therese was growing up
into young womanhood, and rebelled against her gentle, loving authority.
The father aided Therese in the rebellion, as he thought Louise kept too
tight a hold of the purse-strings.
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