Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1857-03-18
Choirt 4iteratnrt.
a swedish TaIe.

a pWeu1S0 4hAc.
In Falun, mining town in Sweden, q
hundred years ago, young miner kissed
his fair bride, and said to her:
"0n St. Lucia's Day, our love will be
blessed with the priests hand. Then we
shall be husband and wife, and will build
a little nest Of our own Z
"And peace and love shall dwell in it,
said the beautiful bride, with sweet smile,
" for without thee, l would choose to be in
my grave"
But when the priest, in proclaiming their
bans in the church, for the second time be-
fore ST. Lucia's day, pronounced the words,
" If, now, any one can show reason why
those persons should not be united in the
bonds of matrimony," Death was at hand.
The young man, as he passed her house
the next morning in his black mining garb
already wore his shroud. He raped upon
her window, and said Good morning
but he never returned to bid her good
evening. He never came back from the
mine; and all, in vain, she embroidered for
him, on that very morning black cravat
with a red border for the wedding day
This she laid carefully away, and never ceas-
ed to mourn or weep for him. /.
/ Meanwhile time passed on; the Seven
Years war was fought, the partition of
Poland took place; America became free;
the French Revolution, and the long war
began; Napoleon subdued Prussia, and the
English bombarded Copenhagen. The
husbandman s. wed end reaped, the miller
ground. and the smith hammered, and the
miners dug after the veins of metal in their
subfenanean workshops. As the miners
of Falun in the year 1909, a little before
or aft.r ST. Jphn,s Day, were excavating
aI8d opening betw cen fSo s1iszrrs; rrE-,
hundrt d, ellis below the ground, they dug
from the rubbish and vitirol water the
body of young man, entirely saturated
with iron vitrol, but otherwise undecayed
aud unalterated-so that one could distin-
guish his features and age, as wen as if be
had died only an hour before, or had fallen
asleep for little while at his work.
But when they had brought him out to
the light of day, father and mother, friends
and acquaintsnees, had been long dead,
and no one could identify the sleeping youth,
9 or tell anything of bis misfortune, till she
! came, who was once the betrothed of that
miner, who had one day gone to the mine,
and never returned. Gray and shriveled
E she came to the place hobbling upon a
e crutch, and recognized her bridegroom
. when more in joyful ecstacy than pain,
t she sank down upon the beloved form As
: soon as she recovered her composure, she
. exclaimed: " 1t is my betrothed, whom
' have mourned for fifty years, and whom
God now permits me to see once more be.
, fore die. A week before the wedding
r time, he went under the earth and nevel
t. returned. All the bystanders were moved
l to tears as they bebeld the former bride, &
n wasted and feeble old woman, and the bride
}" groom still in the blood and beauty O.
to youth and how after the lapse of fift,
. years, her youthful love awoke again. Blu
fe he never opened his mouth to smile, no
SIS his eyes to recognize; and she finally, a
> the only one belonging to him, and havin.
10 a right to him, had him carried to her owl
10 littlesroom, till grave could be prepares
in the cburch-yard. Tie next day, whel
e. all was ready, and the miners came to tax
ke him away, she opened little drawer, an
taking out the black silk cravat tied
e, round his neck, and then accompanie
q. him in her Sunday garb, as ifit were thei
rs wedding day, and not the day of his burial
q "a As they laid him in the grave in th
in church-yard, she said: "Sleep well nov
for few days in thy cold bridal bed, an
u ut let not the time seem too long to thee.
70 70 have now but little more to do, and wi
cir come soon, and then will be our Weddip,
ut - day again" As she was going away, sh
looked back once, and said, What th
IN earth has once restored, it viii not, Sc,
to ond time withhold