Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-03-05

frn1, hardroundness of youth. Stf
| Peter held the glass to his ips.t tn
memory of his wife and daughter fac
ed from his mind. He forgot that b
was to share with them the magic pc
ton. When he turned the glass Owe
on the table, only one or two drop
trickled down its sides, and were los
in the thick dust which covered every
thing. f.e
As he finished, a atrembliug foot wa
heard on the threshold, and looking on
Peter behe1d his wife, She was feebl
White-haired woman with a worn
yTrinkled face, yet not SO. old by man.
summers as her husband. A patient
loving wife, in spite of many trials
had Dame Althausen been all the dav
of their welded life.
She paused at the door, but did no
come in.
'Is my husband not here, gooC
youth2'' she asked somewhat wonder
ingly.
fare you mad, or are YOU growfne
lold 50 fast, Bertha - he said. i1npa-
tientIy. DO you Ias1t see Il Is yo4,
ETie s17riIf oueruIous sI5ice had changed
in a moment into theldeep ringing tome
manhood. lH ag
ait is true; I must have changed. !,
he said to himself zsf'She does moi
know mel have been at last success
full, Bertha, % he said aloud; s'the Elk
lir is mine. I have drank ii. 5f
As he spoke the old dame saw Mad
elaine, where she had sunk into the
chair, her head bent forward on her
breast still unconscious.
''And you have killed our child, Pc
ter Althausen: you have given her
life as the price of your blind selfish
ness, j" said the poor mother wildly.
She ran to N1adelaine, and kneeling
| beside her, tried to call her back to life.
As she chafed her hands and called up
on her by name, she sighed family and
lifted her head. Dame Althausen ut
tered a cry of joy, and the mother and
child were clasped in each others arms.
Peter looked at them without emo
ton. He was not even conscious of
any regret that he had not reserved
few drops of the rare liquor for his wife
and child. He felt a desire to escape
from scene in which he had no SYM
pathy, and turning away he went into
an adjoining room, which was the poor
little sitting-room where the dame and
Made1aine were accustomed to sit at
their work. There was an antique mir
TOR, with a quantity carved frame,
hanging on the wall. He went eagerly
to look in it, and on beholding, reeoil-
ed in amazement.
The figure which he saw was tall and
elegant; the head was crowned with
thick curls of black hair, the ewes
glowed with youthful fire, and the skin
was unwrinkled and fair, rosy with the
flush of youth and health.a The face
and figure of the old man had instant
ly been changed into shapely, hand
some youth of twenty summers.
The contrast between this young
man, and the bowed, aged figure of the
woman whom he could still hear weep
ing over her child, filed him with re-
pugnance. ST will fly Instantly" he
said. MY knowledge of science will
keep me from lacking bread. Twill go
to some strange city and take another
name. That Withered grandame shall
never call me husband. %
And without glancing back to where
the two women still remained, clasping
each other fast, without regret for those
who had been the laruziIns of his selfish
devotion to his woHo sae went out and
left them forever.
Twenty years had gone by. since the |
fire had died out in the A1chemist's fur |
mace. The old house had fallen into
decay and had nearly all Disappeared
Rising out of the portion of the ruins |
where the laboratory had stood, was a |
newer house, with fresh brick walls 4
and bright little pol ed windows look 1
ing into the street, The street itself |
was much brighter and busier than of /
old. There was some sound of traffic
n the shops, and many noises which dis
turbed the stiffness and quiet which had |
prevailed when Peter A1thausen dWeIt /
there.
In the new house, which looked snnil-
ing and homelike, lived Nade1iane Al
thausen, now a happy wife and moth
er. She was no longer pale and thin,
but had grown plump and red-cheeked
and comely. A tall youth called hert
mother, and a goodly array of girls and
boys filled up the interval between him
and the toddling urchin who chung to
her ample skirts as she moved about her
household. Her husband worked in
famous workshop, where they made
wonderful clocks. He was very clever,
and could make all sorts of tiIne-pieces
with little birds flying in and out OF
them at all hours of the day, and clocks
with little men and women who came
out to ring a bell or play on jingIing tam
bourines, every time the hands went
round. Every room in the house had
a strange timekeeper, and at every
hour there was such a singing and strik-
ing, and "cuckooing," that with the
noise of them, and the shouts and
laughter of the children, one might al
most lose his senses.
But Made1iane and her husband mind
ed it not. They were happy and con-
tented, and the roses bloomed on the
DANES cheeks as theyhad never bloom
ed there when she was a maiden.
All these years Peter AIthausen had
been wandering over the earth. There
was restless spirit in him which did
not permit him to remain quietly in
one place. He had great skill in medi-
cine, aEs1 wherever he stopped for any
length Of time was much esteemed as a
youth of great knowledge, but he could
never stop to gain either money or re-
He could make no ties to
bind him, for his heart seemed quite
dead in his breast, and he had no SYM
pathy with the pursuits of his fellow
beings.
A
of the day on which he had drank the
youth-giving Elixir, he had returned
TO his native town, led by. avague curl
Osity which he could not understand,
and which was more like human
than anything he had felt in
all these years.
He sought out the house where his
daughter lived, and going softly up, he
looked in through the diamond-paned
window which jutted out upon the
street. 1t was after dusk, and all the
children, were in bed, except the tall
eldest, who sat at the table fashioning
some wonderful piece of mechanism
put of bits of steel, and wire, and wood.
sat in her low chair by the
fire, which burned brightly on the
hearth, holding her youngest baby to
her breast. Her husband was seated by
her side, smoking his pipe and curling
slow wreaths of smoke up from his
mouth, as he looked thoughtfully in
the fire. All this Peter could see as he
looked through the window. BY and
by Madelaine spoke. He heard her
voice
ait is just twenty years ago to-day
she said, sfsince my father went away,
never to be heard from any more; and
two years later, on the same day, were
we married, my Gottlieb
YES" said Gottlieb, rousing himsel
from his reVerie as she commenced |
speaking, "and thou hast been good /
wife all these years, NTadelaine." Z"
"What became of my grandfather ?''
asked the youth, looking up from his
work.
'I cannot tell, - answered his mother
sadly. "AIy poor mother, who died
shortly afer he disappeared, said the
Elixir of Life he had so long worked
for, came at last, and that she saw him
into youth of twenty sum-
mers. But her wits wandered, poor
soul, from the day he went away. I
only know he was gone one day and new
ar EaEurnad anain- I think he nNas cra Y