The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-10-20


lowed became each moment more close
and dark the moon at times scarcely
sent its pale and fitful glimmer among
the branches. In vain Henry tried to
drive away the painful impressions that
crowded upon his mind in vain he re.
called his wife, his child and all the
pleasures about him. The memory of
Anna and the pure, happy days of his
love for her revived with such irresista.
BILE emotion that all other thoughts
were excluded.
Occasionally n light puff of wind
brought from distance the perfume of
the honey suckle blooming in the for
est, and as he walked forward il seemed
to him that on the same breath of wind
were borne the vague and singular
measures of song that was not I'M
known to him. He proceeded on his
way. but suddenly stopped; shuddering.
What extraordinary danger thus
caused Henry, the bravest Of the hunt
ers of the forest, to stand trembling be-
meath the trees. He raises not his gun
for defense, because no material foe
confronts him; it is only the very dis
tinct measures of the waltz he composed
long ago, that Conrad played on the
evening when Father Gulp blessed the
betrothal of his lovely daughter Max
ing the sign of the cross, faithful
Catholic as he is, the young man urges
his way forward. Now he loses no more
of the song the voices are those Of
women-pure, sweet, heeting voices.
He stops, holds his breath and listens.
They sing the air of the waltz, also
there is a rustic of feet through the
measure, but so weak, so light, no hui
man foot can produce anything like it.
Henry's hair rises upon his head; his
limbs sway beneath him, but he adj
vances, still listening. They sing some
words, lines he recalls having arranged
himself for this air, during the night
when he was leaving Anna. He had
never written them, nor repeated them
to any one, and had quite forgotten
| them, Nevertheless these voices are
singing theml
Taking few steps forward, the wind
ing of the path brought him to an
opening surrounded by tall chestnut
trees, and dimly lighted by the moon.
He crouched in a thicket, from which
he contemplated the strange spectacle
Some young girls in white robes and
crowned with flowers, waltzed, singing,
upon the turf; but their white robes
were winter than any fabric we have
ever seen; their crowns of flowers were
very brilliant their steps were SO light
one could not know whether they really
touched the earth their sweet, weird
voices seemed only produced by the
movement of the waltz; their faces,
above all, were of frightful pallor.
Henry now recalled the old legend of
the Ring Of the Willies;" young girls
who had been abandoned by their
lovers, and died unmarried, who, in the
night, in the depths of the wildwood,
dance by themselves under the tender
light of the plying moon.
The waltz ceased for moment, and
Henry heard the sound Of the beating
of his own heart. Some moments
passed in adjusting the crowns of flow
ers, then the song was resumed, which
still followed the measure of Henry's
waltz. Two by two, these girls in white
started forward tor the waltz; one alone
remained, whose bewildered, searching
glance seemed seeking for companion.
Her figure was delicate and slight; her
black hair was fastened in bands upon
her head her eyes of sombre blue,
had tender and melancholy look. She |
was crowned with white heath
1t was Anna
Henry felt he was about to die. She |
advanced toward the thicket in which |
Henry was concealed and took him by |
the hand. The hand of Anna was cold |
as marble. Henry had no strength to
to follow her, but was borne along by |
some supernatural power.
The young spirits sang; the waltz was
resumed, and Henry, drawn along in
spite of himself, waltzed with his be-
trothed. Another phantom seized him
in its turn; to this succeeded third
anon, a fourth. Henry was exhausted.
A cold sweat stood upon his forehead,
and he was pale as the dead. A fifth
spirit came to claim him for this dance
OF death, and again a sixth, urging
upon him the same resistless movement,
accompanied by the same song. The
young man, worn out, half dead with
fright as well as fatigue, would have
dropped upon the grass, but an invinci-
BILE power drew him on, still whrling
on in this mysterious dance.
Az laSI the ar cOulu no longer enter
his lungs; respiration must cease he
stihed. He wished to cry out, but could
command no voice, or utter sound,
when Anna seized him again, still press
ing him into the inevitable motion of
the waltz; but Henry felt that the white
robe was as empty as the bone of
skeleton. The hand of Anna placed
upon his shoulder was no human hand.
He looked again. The black bands of
hair were gone-only a hideous deaths
head remained, still crowned with white
heath
The young man struggled, but the
phantom clasped him, drawing him on
with horrible rapidity through the
mazes of that remorseless movement.
Bewildered and hopeless, he yielded to
the fatal spell
On the morrow they found the lifeless
body of the young hunter in the forest.
A NEW form of battery, of interest to
and designed for the pur-