Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-07-27

heather because | am prettier than the
other girls, and bursting into laughter,
she would splash about in the water
with the tip of her little foot.
Catherine noticed all these things,
and complained bitterly.
" Myrtle, " she would say, lis of no
use for anything-sh will do nothing.
1t is of no good for me to preach to her,
or advise or reproye her; she does
everything cross-ways. The other day
when we were arranging the apples in
the fruit loft, she took it into her head
to bite all the finest to see if they were
ripel She likes to gobbIe up every
thing she can lay her hands on. +"
Bremen himself could not but per-
ceive that the child had touch of the
heather in her, and when he heard his
wife calling out from morning till night,
Myrtle Myrtle. where are you Oh,
the wretched child OF she has run
again to gather blackberries ~ he
would laugh and say to himself, "Poor
Catharin9 you are like hen that has
Matched ducks eggs; the little one. are
in the water, she Hys round and calls
to them, but they pay no heed"
Every year after the harvest was over,
Fritz and Myrtle used to spend whole
days far away from the farm, looking
after the cattle. They sang, they whis
tied, they made fire Of dry stalks Of
hemp, aud baked potatoes in the ashes,
and when evening came, ran home
down the stony hill, blowing trumpets
made of bark.
These were Myrtle's happiest days.
Seated by the fire, her beautiful brown
head resting on her little hand, she
would remain motionless for hours, as
ii lost in profound reveries. Flights
Of geese and wild ducks crossing the
deserted skies seemed to sadden her
profoundly She followed them with a
long, long gaze into the lmitless depths
Of the skies; then suddenly she would
stand up, stretch out her arms and OK
claim, u must run Off must--oh
/ must run away"
Then she would bury her face in her
lap and weep. Fritz, standing close
beside her, wept too. and said "Why
DO you cry, Myrtle} Who has been
unkind to your Ono Of the village
boysl Kaspar or William or Henry
Tell me. | will punish HIM. Only tell
mel"
Mo-"
=" What makes You cryl"
/ don't know. "
"Do you want to run up the Fal-
berg "
mo, that isn't far enough away
" Where do you want to 90 to, Myr
tle?"
cover there! Over there and she
pointed far beyond the mountains,
where the birds go
Fritz opened his eyes and mouth
wide with establishment.
One day they were together at the
edge of the wood the heat was so
GREAT, the air so still, that the smoke of
their little fire, instead of rising in
grey column, spread itself out like
water under the drie6-up- briars. 1t
was nearly midday The grasshopper
had stopped its monotonous song
there was not the hum of an insect, not
the whisper Of leaf, not the chirp of
a bird. The oxen and cows, their eye
lids closed, were lying in the shade of
a large oak tree in tho middle of the
meadow, and irom time to time one OF
them lowed in a melancholy way, as If
complaining,
Fritz had at first occupied himself
plating the cord 81 his whip, but he,
too, soon stretched himself out on the
grass and put his hat over his eyes,
aud triedand lald down beside him,
yawning to the very ears.
1t was only Myrtle who did not seem
to feel the empowering heat. Squat
ted close to the fire, her arms round
her knees, in the full blaze of the sun,
there she remained motionless, gazing
with her large black eyes into the SOM
bro colonnades OF the forest
Time passed slowly. The distant
village clock struck twelve, one, two
still the gypsy girl did not move Those
woods, those bare mountain tops, those
rocks and fir trees, seemed to her in
vested with something profound and
mysterious,
Yes, said she to herself, Il have
seen that--it as "a long time ago-a long
lme ogol"
All Of a sudden, noticing that Fritz
was sleeping, she got mp quietly and
took TO flight Her feet seemed scarcely
to touch the grass; on she ran, up the
hill. Friedland turned his head list
Igssly, and appeared for a moment to
be about to follow her, then stretched
himself ont airesh as ii overwhelmed
with WEAKNESS,
'Viral. mn her feet MI bruised. her