The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1869-01-29
aaisfellaneonS.
THE WALPURGIS-NIGHT.
IL. 2sCHoKKR,
THE TEMPTER.
THE TEMPTER.

l FOUND myself far from home on
business at Prague. 1t was in April.
However agreeable the Diversion, 1
could not suppress my home-sickncss.
longed for our little town, where my
young wife had been impatiently eX'
pecting my return already for seven
weeks, Since our wedding-day we had
never before been so long separated. 1t
is true, Fanny sent me letters every
week; but these lines, so full of love
and fondness and melancholy, We're on
ly oil to the fire. 1 wished Prague and
st. Nepomuc just four-and-thirty miles
behind me to the northeast.
To him, who has not lovely little
wife of two-and-twenty, charming as
love, with two little loves playing
around her, and who is not, after five
years of married life, five hundred
times more in love than on the day be-
fore his wedding, in vain do l talk of
my home-sickness.
Enough, l thanked heaven when all
my business was finished; and taking
leave of my few acquaintance and
friends, told my host to make out my
bill. / was to set off on the morrow
with the post.
In the morning the landlord appeared
with a pretty heavy account. l had
not ready money enough to pay it and
the expenses of the journey too. l
wished to chanSe a note. / felt for my
pocket-book, and sought it in NIL my
pockets, and in all corners. twas gone.
l felt very unconlfortably, for there
were more than fourteen hundred dol
lars in bills in it, and that is no trihe
under the sun.
1t was in vain that I turned the room
topsy-turvy-the pocket-book was not
forthcoming.
"I might have known it," said l to
myself. LET a lngn be happy for one
moment in his life, the devil is sitting
behind the hedge ready to play him a
trick. One ought not to rejoice in any
thing in this world, and then should
we have less vexation aud misery. How
often have ! found it so -
The pocket-book was either stolen or
lost. l had it in my hands only the
day before; was accustomed to carry
it in the brcast-pocket ofmy coat. Fan
ny's letters were there too. | was GER
tain that had felt it tho night before
when undressing. How now were my
bank-notcs TO be recovered? Whoever
had got them could easily change them
into gold and silver.
Ibegan to swear, which, by the way,
is not nay besetting sin. Had the evil
one gone about still, as in the good old
times, although as roaring lion, /
should have struck bargain with him
on the spot. As my thoughts took this
turn, there suddenly occurred to me the
recollection of a figure, that l had seen
at billiards about a week before, in q
close red coat, and that then seemed to
me like prince of darkness in human
shape. My blood actually ran cold at
the remembrance and yet l was sc
desperate, that l thought to myself, 81
don't care, for my patt Were he here
now he would be right welcome, if ht
would only bring me my pocket-book. /.
Just then some one knocked at tho
door, "HOllaw thought | "the temp
ter is not going TO take a joke in earn
est" ran to the door; my mind wal
! nll oC the plauoey rod-cogt, and ! real
liv believed OBJ. 10 was ng,
And 10 o!--wonderiui surprise !-WhOl
" opened the door, in stepped, with