The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-11-06 00:00:00

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13120T-ILEISI

IkthsJQ4
e th• ' Itt
4 444 „ 1116 • G 1111.•iN AITERW.GE.]
At
Siui lnhabited little -street, called the AN hoh the
'48e,.1v village of Nordstetten, stands
411% t. At three 'lch, beside,a stable and a shed,
the to 'windows, partly patched with
tile'lll.4 I,),garret window han.a,shutter,
heads 'Llofgle hinge, and threatening to
14
,I,Oto garde the passers-by. fflchind. the.
111) `44 Itiwo b 'which, although small, is di-
Yeop,' eolh?Ne 31'7.a-hedgerow of withered thorns.
!I'ett-'„ 014 lived two brothers, who 'had kept
A ''`- arid bitter' enmity for fourteen
has rtet hipß th
-tow 4,1 garden, so also tin the house,
41vided into two parts, from the
b 1 the little cellar. The trap-door
(loot, telcmad il,'ll the cellar below each of the
PteL4l'l4l.4, stoxes, shut off by 'atlas,
11 (Ito. W 4 attalukloc.ks were put on all the
ottli the e at* of thieves were hourly ex.-
" te b
hg44 °the, e onged to one brother, the
theebeP_t a'a:_4?t a word was spoken in the
',441 rotber -ceasionta oath.
ed) arid a. muttered by
0, Were Cent,
advan .44 (so the brothers were
tei °"r ad hadeedand both
ach earlb years, were
ielor. ; and
maxried, but his wife
, ij '41.% --'`'ehael had always remained
e oi,i
'lrl'itt\s, "4 chest w
te4(4qtii eeil the b 44 the first cause of this
'ttttiktilq.) reverytirli%therB. Upon the death of
Port. or th,,, g had been divided be-
'tq 1,41011. ti sister, who was married
tqc:"Ath L, Co); village, had already received
evvqd declared he had bought the
ht4lY lent ekl 11 money, which he earned by
it ?°II the roads. He said that he
pi,r,° his mother, and at her death
1., wit]. -sser, -Pert-
qhi Led , again. Michael, on the
rr. 'oat as Conrad had always
eetila '
tee, they
iiot yr, and been maintained by
r an Possess any property of his
te. 4ffair airy quarrel between the
tttqeet '0 the was referred to the bailiff, and
1114 4441 that court at florb ; and it was
tkee`thly, ' as they could not settle the
the,,tvebet
.everything in the house, in-
-1 the 14 dispute, should be *sold by
. Proceed
4ser e Itself s shared between them.
to coup was put up for sale, but, as
' t3l Nee, . u be found,
th pit, the brothers were
.
'Eq '4o* to
breP,urchase their own goods
I. IN •their eos, and other things, by
qhe liiore 0 Conrad this was a great grief,
0441'e 41. e reeling than is ordinarily met
C
ever
0-value y house many things
an beyond their market price ;
Nel.h the recollections are attached to
thqltiltr thinws orld at large can have -no
tieid dl;„ pllght to be preserved, and
*N%%a Wur'tlir°lll generation to genera-
, their
may remain unimpaired;
41r val,,ii_eY pass into the hands of
"; 118 a sacred inheritance, is

Nit' ret,e
coli,os eltrie,(llY shook his head, as these.
Bed Ilia mind, when some old piece
:„itt4l4l-11'lliture or other "was, knocke
N it ilaild when his mothers hymn-
s ...\:,el.,,clasps and studs, was offered
Pedlar took it in his hand to

•SUPPEEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDAIW

weigh the silver, the blood flew to his face, and
`he bid for the book at any price. At last came
.the turn for the chest to be sold. Michael
hemmed aloud, looked at his brother with an air
of defiance, and instantly bid a considerable sum.
Conrad quickly bid a florin more, without raising
his eyes, and all the while counting the buttons
on his jacket. But Michael, looking boldly around,
bid-still higher. No other person advanced more ;
but out of bravado neither of the brothers would
let the other have the thing in dispute : more- I
over, each thought to himself that he should only
have to pay the half, and so went on bidding
higher and higher. At length the chest was
knocked down to Conrad for eight-and-twenty
florins, more than five times its worth.
For the first time Conrad now raised his eyes,
and his look was quite altered ; he cast a scorn-
ful glance at Michael, and, trembling with rage,
exclaimed, " When you die, I'll make you a pre-
sent of the chest for a coffiin !" These were the
last words he spoke to hiM for fourteen years.
The story of the chest soon spread through the
village, and became the subject of general raillery
andjokes. When any one met Conrad, he re-
marked how shamefully Michael had behaved;
and the former worked himself up by degrees
into a fury. The two brothers were of very
different dispositions, and each pursued his own
way in life. Conrad kept a cow, which he used
to yoke with his neighbour Christian's cow for
field work ; whilst in his spare time he broke
stones on the roads, for which he was paid six-
pence a day. He was very short-sighted and
walked unsteadily ; and whenever he struck a
spark to light his pipe, he held the tinder close
to his nose, to make sure that it was alight ; so,
throughout the village he went by the name of
" Blind Conrandle."
Michael was the very reverse of his brother ;
he was tall and slim, and walked with a firm step,
carrying himself with all the air of a peasant ;
not that he was one exactly, but it,was useful to
him in his trade to appear so. He dealt in old
horses, and people have a much greater confi-
dence in a horse which they purchase from a fel-
low in a smock-frock. Michael had once been a

farrier, but was unlucky in business ; so he

either sold or let his fields, gave himself up to
horse-dealing, and lived the life of a gentleman.
He was a person of great importance throughout

the country ; for a distance of six or eight—miles
round he knew the exact state of all the stables,

just as well as a statesman knows the statistics of
foreign countries, and the position of different
cabinets ; and as the latter learns the disposition

of the people through the public journals, so

Michael sounded the country folks, and got at

his information in the public-houses. In every
village, too, he had some idle fellow as his resi-
dent, with whom he held frequent secret con-

ferences, and who in all cases of need used to

despatch an
_express—in his own person--to

leg

good luck, six florins." Conrad, short-sighted
as he was, noticed his brother's scornful look,
and worked away, banging' and splitting the
stones till they flew right and left. We shall see,
however, which got on best in. the world. Michael
was a great favourite in the Village, for he could
go on. telling tales from morning till night, and
knew all the tricks and ways of the world. Of
better things he certainly knew little ; for, though
he occasionally went to church, he went, as too
many do, without giving a thought to what he
heard, and without bettering his life.
Conrad, too, had his faults, foremost amongst
which was his enmity to his brother, and the
manner in which he showed this. When any one
asked him,. " flow does your brother Michael go
on ?" he only answered by making a sign with
his hand under his chin, as much as to say,
" Some day or other he will he hanged !" The
folks were of course not sparing in putting this
question, and a great shout always followed when
they got Conrad' to give his usual reply. In
other ways, too, the villagers excited the mutual
enmity of the brothers, not exactly out of malice,
but for idle fun.
The brothers never remained together in the
same room ; if they chanced to meet in the village
inn, or in their sister's house, one of them in-
stantly hurried away. Nobody thought of recon-
ciliation between them, and, whenever two men
quarrelled, it was a proverbial saying, " They
lived like Michael and Conrad."
At home the brother spoke not a word, nor did
they ever look at one another when they met.
Nevertheless, if either of them observed that the
other was unwell and kept his bed, he would in-
stantly run to his sister, who lived at some dis-
tance, and say to her, "Go up, and see him ; I
think somethinc, is the matter with him." And
on his return home, he would move about and
work quietly and without noise, so as not to dis-
turb the . other. But abroad, and among the
neighbours, Michael and Conrad lived in perpe-
tual enmity, and no one imagined that a spark
of affection still existed in their hearts.
This state of things continued for fourteen
years. Meanwhile, by constantly buying and
selling, all the money which Michael gained from
the sale of his two fields had slipped through his
fingerS, he knew not how. But Conrad had
bought'another field from a neighbour who was
about to emigrate, and had paid nearly all the
purchase-money. Michael now set up as a kind
of agent or adviser to other people in making
their bargains, and he calculated that, by the sale
of another field, he should bring matters round,
and set himself up in business again. "And
there arose up a new king in Egypt." The vil-
lagers of Nordstetten might, in a peculiar mariner,
apply this verse of Exodus to themselves. The
old parson was dead ; he had been a good man,
but had let things go their own way. His suc-

_ _ .
cessor, on the contrary, was a zealdui young man,
who was for setting everything to rights ; and

_
certainly he accomplished a great deal. One
Sunday, after morning service, the peasants were
sitting and chatting together on the timbers
which lay near the village pump, and which were
intended to build the new engine-house. Michael
was one of the group ; he sat, with his ,elbows
fixed on his knees, looking on the ground and.
chewing a straw. Little Peter, the son of John
the watchman, a boy of five years old, ran past,
when one of the villagers called to the child, and
said, putting his hand into his pocket, " Hon°,
Peter ! here's a handful of nuts for you, if you.
make a face like Conrad. What does Conrad do ?"
The child shook his head, and was running off;
for he was a sensible little urchin, and was afraid
of Michael ; but they held him fast, till at last he