Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1853-01-06
MONTPELIER, VERMONT, THURSDAY,

i Why" said I, too happy to begin, "was it
not here"
sab, the devil Must have more of ths?'
interrupted Hantz "This is the way they have
all been going on for fifteen years, ii Il my wife
and are well nigh ruined"
"Crime and its punishment" murmured.
Why. Calvin himself couldn't have stood
such persecution" he continued. There was
no twenty-fourth Of February Kuhtz,nor murders.
This inn isSs safe as mothers breast for her
child and no one knew that better than the vii
lain W.T. o set the story aAoat, for he stayed here
fortnight
"Who? Kuntz?"
I" No, mon Dieu! no. Don't tell you there
never was Kuntz at all in the neighborhood,
but poor wretch they call Werner, who came
/ here"
"How the poet?"
SAY. the poet that's what allehfs.as
call themselves. Well, Iss,' ill:sffh,
came one day to my father's-S
had broken his neck getting up the mountain
1t was in lsl3 | remember him wel-an honest
looking worthy gentleman no one could have
suspected him. And he asked my fathers leave
to stay week or SO; and my father said, Yes;
but we have only this room to give you; will it
do p 1t will do well' replied the other aud SO
he installed himself in this very spot. But we
might have suspected something from the very
first night, for he began to talk aloud as if he
were mad and when got up to look at him
through the key hole, he was enough to frighten
any one pale, with his hair thrown back, his
eyes now fixed, now wandering, sometimes as
immovable as statue then all at once, gestc-
ulating like madman, and then writing, writing
as fast as the pen would 60: look you, no worse
!, sign than that. So went on fifteen days, or
rather fifteen nights, for in the day time. he KEEP
prowling all about the house. At the end Of
that time, he said, thank you, good people,
for your kindness. l have done.' I'VE could
not do much for you, sir, replied my father but
YOU are welcome to ALL Then he paid and,
t truth to lell, paid right WE'LL and SO went away
A year passed quietly, and we heard no more
!. of him. Then, one day two travellers came in,
and looked about attentvely.
4 "Thero is the scythet" said one.
"And the very knife" said the other.
!, "The scythe was a nice new one which ] had
D Just bought at the Kandersteg; and the knife an
old rusty kitchen one, that we kept hung up on
nail near the door. Father aud stared; then,
4. one of the gentlemen approaching, said
:. "Was it not here, my little friend, that hor-
rbe murder took place on the Oath of Feb
it ruary?"
# What murder ?" said |.
Q "That Of young Kuntz by his father"
e 81 don't know what you are talking about
!. replied.
"Ay, dol? He was nice gentlemen that
|. stayed here fortnight, two years back-only a
little odd He never stopped talking and wri
G ting the whole night, in place of sleeping like
other folks"
"Well, my friend, here is what he was writing
, about you and your inn" said they, handing me
J. little book, called The Twenty fourth Feb
ruary.'"
@ "No harm as far as that went. The twenty
e fourth of February is as good a day as any
other But hadn't read thirty pages when th'
book dropped from my hand. Oh such lies
IL, n and all II
h ruin us poor innkeepers! IF we had charged
him too much. could he not have said so? Bu
he said nothing and paid-even thanked US, ant
! then the villain TO go and write d book, and
= describe our house All such treachery aucl
i baseness it makes me mad But IT ever
- catch another fellow here that writes books,
= will make him pay for his comrade.'
- "Then, there really was no murder u"
- "None at ALL. Every word that fellow wrot
- was pure invention! Oh the way we wer
n tormentted, (And here our hoor host tore hi
=. hair with both hands.) Look you, sir; not
/, living soul wonld pass the house but he wou
IN say:
"Ah! there is the very spot, and the scyth'
and the knife !"
"It was the same song with every one. 3
my father got provoked, and took them dow
10 one day; but no good was in that, for the mex
= set cried out:
'e "Ah, ha they have hid the scythe aud knife
~ but see, here is the identical room
es "In faith, sir, it was enough to kill me, an
ID nv fathers life was shortened ten years by it,
n To hear such things said Of ones own house
ne and that to 90 on now for aftesE years Tn
fieud! wish some one had ea"acks;
'e' would sell it, walls and, farnt1fe. and ALL for
y; hundred crowns, and go tc, live in some pac
where I'd hear no more Of Werner or Kuntz @
w the scyhe, or the knife, or the twenty fourth
February"
f. "Wel well, mine host, never mind now
~ Just get dinner for me-"
Sand what would Monsieur like ?" he sal
adjusting his apron.
"a cold fowl, if you have it, would be exec
e. lent"
it, "A cold fowl Alb, there's more Of it; VIII
I'd, don't you know he put fowl into the book, o'
en Just think-a fowl las if they had done an
wn harm, poor things"
in "Well, my friend, anything you like-onl
make haste, and I'll go and take walk"
?" So went forth, really plying my unfortunal
host for such magic vitality have poets word
sw that when once sown nothing can eradica,
them. All could do was to promise my inf,
les ence in silencing the caIumny, as iiantz Gale
it. SO, if any of my readers visit the inn
a. Schwarrback, pray let them make known that
too have written a book, and therein striven
unsay all the things Werner said.