Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-09-23

"Let me 60, let me 60, Christian" she cried
engrily.3 She would have fed up the mountain
s'Wait tn ti,ou hast only heard he said,
with determination which had its influence;
sit is right thou shouldst understand. What 1
said was not all unseltish. Elsie, it was not only
to release thee from thy burden,-I thought of
myself too. The husband must be first In the
household, and in ours he would be the second.
Thou dear one, thou couldst never be anything
bot kind and good and mild, but all the time
thou wOuidst look down on me in thy heart, and
i should know it in mine. There could be no
happiness for either of us. Look" he said,
smiling little grave sad smile, "thou art like
the beautiful clear water that rushes down,
evermore downtos the lake, and am like the
great dull stone itsdashes over t.-
He let 60 her hands as he spoke, his eyes fas-
tened themselves on her face as III to drink in
the happiness he was renouncing-with a spring.
Ike deer, she daTted from him, and ran up the
steep path.
Elsie came down from the pastures, Christian
Amhein went about his farm, and no one as vet
knew of any change in the two--it remained
secret between them; and there was another Sc
cret which they did not even share with each
Other-the sorrow from which each was suffer
ing. "She Is happy again now,- Christian
would say to himself with sigh, all the while
vigorously cutting away at the flOwery grass
II he had no other thought in life. '.He will
soon be betrothed to Anna Lenz," unused Elsie
How little we know of the hearts of even our
desresti
w lUINe hotnler knew no more than the rest of
the world. Christian had not been TO the house,
II was true; but to her practical soul. hay-ma-
King was more important than love-making any
day She was III, too, and Elsie was glad to re-
main IN the house and attend to her. rather than
risk meeting with Christian. 1t would come
before long. she knew; the little village was too
small for neigbbor to avoid each other, and the
poor have not the luxury of the ricli-departure.
Such an idea never entered the Young farmers
head. i do not even know whether to such
home-lOving soulsit would not have been even a
fresh trouble instead OF relief; at any rate, he
would stay, work, when his time came, die and
be buried in the little cburchard with it's wooden
black crosses crowned with withered wreaths
and set In the midst OF quaint little box-like
fiOwer-beds.
One evening he had tos speak about some farm
ing business with Thomas Strum, the grandson
OF old wilhelm. The men leaned against a low
wall In front of the inn and looked down at the
green water under their feet The day had been
hot and the evening was even more sultry, vet
the lake beneath them was stirred, the water
splashed against the wall, and every now and
then sudden puff of air came into their faces.
Nothing could have been more full of beauty
than the clOud-fOrms which rested upon the ton
OF the mountains, softening without hiding the
rosy CLEANS behind. There was q curious still
ness and yet unrest, little movement to the eye,
but sounds of distant rumblngs and wailings, as
II some mighty power was drawing near. A
his nose into Christians hand; the men, lifting
themselves YEARLY looked over the lake,-now
stirred TO its very depths,-and then at each
Otner. FOR rev minutes neither spoke: it
seemed as If the oppressive stiffness kept them
silent; then a swOOp of fresher air rushed across
the water sudden and momentary.
" 1t is the Fon," said Thomas at last, breaking
the spell.
The Fon,-a hot, sultry, furious hurricane,
coming up from the great African deserts, lash
ing the lake into fury, battling with adverse
currents, sweeping off every little obstacle in its
way, slamming open doors. loose shutters tear
Ing down the pretty bright fiower-pots from the
window-slls, unroofing sheds, scattering every
shutting, doors, doing all they could against the
sudden attack. The village was very like
great family, and Christian, as the largest pro-
prietor, was looked up to as a kind of head.
There was no sleep that night; the Fon took
care OF that. The fierce, hot blasts ragged with
increasing violence; people hurried about in the
strange suitry darkness with horrible oppres-
sion weighing upon them.
Nhen morning came they hoped that as is
frequently the case, the violence of the wind
would moderate, but the increasing light only
seemed 10 make the havoc more apparent; trees
were torn up by their roots, great green branches
OF walnut wrenched off and tossed TO and fro;
other trees, that yet had resisted the DESTROY
ing power, were scorched and withered as if by
fire; houses were unroOfed, shutters hanging
loose, the new-mown hay whirled far away
from the meadows, the white daturas torn
broken, discoiored; fierce, leapng waves raging
against the wall; all the delicate pastoral beauty
swept away by this awful resistless force. There
was no shutting it out, no corifuering it.
= In the village the second night was not SO con-
alarm remained, the people had become little
used to them. Some of the women stayed COM
posedly in their houses, few even slept, over
powered by fatigue and the dry, sitting heat,
but the greater part had taken refuge in the
church, and had gathered their children there.
-, " How long will this last?'' asked the priest of
Thomas Sturm, when the morning light re-
vesled a further work redistribution.
"Only Heaven knows" answered Thomas,
"when even my old father has never seen such
a Fon."
81, for ore, shall be content if nothing worse
comes" said Christian, who had joined them.
"WOrse?''
81 am thinking of the stream. This wind
The cure was brave man, but he looked at
Christian for moment with the trouble of a
new horror in his eyes. Thomas broke in: '' No
fear. Ny father says the FOn melts too gently
for that work, and he knows its way better than
any man in the valley"
''That is true" Christian answered." yet 1
cannot feel at rest about *.
"My father Is sure to be right" said Thomas
obstinately.
just then his youngest child, golden-haired,
round-faeed iittle girl, escaped from her mother
and came running to him, stretching out her
little hands, half-crying, half-triumphant in her
struggle with the hurricane. He lifted her in
his arms, held her tight, and wrapped his coat
round her. So the two remained. Her head
against his breast, his arms clasping her.
LET us 90 and givea look at the stream" said
80 1t is no higher than / have seen it twenty
times" said Thomas with triumphant conf
dence in old Wilhelm's experience. He had little
Marie's soft golden head pressed closely against
him, and was holding her tenderly.
81 believe it is all safe, !" Christian said turn
ing away; and then with a sudden shout of hor-
Tor and a clutch at Thomas arm All, dear
Heaven!' he cried, ''look-loOkl"
For from the height where, on peaceful sum-
mer days, they could see the little innocent
stream dancing dOwnwards, a vast body OF yell
low water was coming, leapng, raging, spread
ing over the rock, hurting great trees before il,
with a roar before which the FOn sank into in
significance. Swift and terrible this new enemy
rushed upon the unconscious village; for a mo-
ment its awful approach stunned Christian; then
with a cry from the very depths of his heart he
sprang TO meet tit was like horrible night
mare; he ran, yet he did not seem to move, his
arms were stretched out, 90 Elsie! hearts be-
lOved!" he cried in agony. There was the farm;
he did not see it; he saw only the cottage with
its closed windows. Quiet? ah!-the roar was
in his ears-upon him. lie saw the walls rock,
cape, fall-one moment, and the awful enemy
had him in his grasp, and was whirling him
along unconscious, inert.
In the little dim church were the cure and his
small regatiOn, almost all the women, q
number Of children and a few old men. The
cure who had but just entered, was kneeling in
prayer; the women were huddled together in
little groups, many had been there all night,
Others had now come in; one girl among these
latter had knelt little apart, her face buried
in her hands. Suddenly it seemed as ii the noise
nd fury i'm aSaHf tent n.