The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1850-09-24
The Family Feud.
rnom THE GERMAN OF GODFREY KINKrL.


"Frielc crual'r', Unfriede redyrt"-German rroverb
Peace gives increase, discord was,es.-
That is an old and a true saying, although
many people put no faith in it.
On bank Of the Lower Rhine stands
little village, clean and pleasant to look at,
and whose inhabitants are well TO do,
for the fields and meadows are fertile and
the people are industrious and order
ly. The richest man there was old An
drew, whose house and stabling were close
to the river, where the towing path passes
in front of the village. AT his death all his
earthly goods went to his two sons, of whom
the eldest was named Caspar, and the young
est Zebulon.
From his youth upwards Caspar was Il
strong, healthy fellow, who, at fifteen years
of age, could guide a plough or handle a
scythe with any man and who, at night, =,
when he came in for his supper, would take
his share of soup and potatoes with the best
iarn-laborer in the country. Zebulon, on
the contrary, was but a rickety boy, and
for three years had to drink physic instead
Of beer, besides being tormented with all the
maladies incident to childhood. After his
fourteenth year he gained strength, but his
legs remained crooked and lettering and he
was 4 bad customer TO the barber, for he
never had any beard. lie had no taste for
farming, but loved TO lie beside the stove,
playing with the neighbor's children, who
were much younger than he-making them
all manner of toys, mending the broken
heads and legs of the beasts out of Noahs
ark, and sewing clothes for their dolls. Old
Andrew, seeing he was of no use in the
fields, bound him apprentice to tailor. He
proved clever with the needle ; and, before
his fathers death, he had set up for himself,
and was doing well. But, in spite OF this,
! the girls Of the village would have nothing
to say TO him-not even those for whose
dolls he had formerly made clothes; they
made game Of him, and ncknamed him
Master Scissor-legs, on account of his lower
limbs, which had grown crosswise. This
discouraged him and at last he thought no
more of falling in love, but clung all the
closer TO his brother Caspar, who had mar
ried early, according to the good country
custom, and whose wife brought him child
every year.
When old Andrew died, the brothers ca
silly agreed about the Inheritance. Caspar
took all the farm land; Zcbulon lad the
the house, with the large kitchen garden and
adjacent meadows. lie gave up the ground
floor to his brother with whom he took his
meals by way of rent. He himself dwelt in
the upper story, where he had large cheer
ful room, one of whose windows looked up
the main street of the village, and the 9th
ers across patch of meadow 10 the Rhine
Here he sat upon his board and piled his
needle nothing could happen in the neigh
borhood without his seeing it, and with eve
ry boatman who put into shore he had his
word Of gossip, and got the latest news from
Mayence or Emmerieh. And thus his life
passed away, and he grew an old bachelor
almost without knowing it.
For twenty years the brothers had lived
together in harmony, greatly to the advan>
tage of Caspar's children, who were all day
in their uncle's room, looking out of the
Windows, and coaxing him to make them all
manner Of puppets and dolls, at the twilight
hour, when it grew too dark to work.
When one Of them was old enough to 90 to
school. he got saucy to Zebulon, because he
had heard his playfellows making game ol
him and thcnceforward they would all, in
turn, be troublesome and impertinent, until
their uncle took them by the arm and senl
them down stairs. This he was accustomed tc
do to all or any of his nephews and nieces
Suddenly the devil laid an egg in ht
household. Caspar had twelve chi ildren
small and big like the pipes of an organ
He had been frugal and prudent, and had
I