The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-04-12
GRETCHEN.

voices of women could be heard in
the night air as they closed their
shutters. "Good night" Orchell >
"Good night, Gredei!" Sleep well!"
Then all was silent, and Theodore
was alone In the quiet street; the in
Vulnerable stars over his head, the
gentle moving trees at each side all
along the way-looking, listening
and dreaming. What fugitive
things the night reveals to usi List
en- to the vague murmur-the rust
ling Of the trees, the birds that chirp
so low so low that the cat always
on the watch is scarcely able to hear
them. Theodore liked the night;
he took few steps; stopped, turned
around, listened. When he looked
up to the sky, the words Of Conrad,
the weaver, came to his memory:
"Guard thy soul! guard thy soull''
But when he looked on the earth,
when he breathed the sweet per-
fumes of the autumn-the breath
of the new hay, the faint odor of
the dying leaves-then he dreamed
Of Gretchen, the pretty Gretchen;
so fresh, so beautiful, with lips so
sweet and red, with great blue eyes
so merry and clear, with laughter
SO frank and chidlike. How beauti-
full she seemed to him, then, and
how his heart bounded He could
almost see her move from table to
table, pouring the beer into shining
measures-her arms lifted up, as
white as ivory, her form slightly
bent; the two braids of her blonde
hair almost touching the bottom of
her pretty red dress; her teeth daz-
zling as crystal. Gretchen laughed
with every body except Monsieur
Theodore. AS soon as she saw him
enter the room, she became grave:
but at the same time her great blue
eyes filed with an expression SO
tender that the heart of the poor
fellow melted with love. He would
lose his breath and stammer unin-
telligible words. Theodore dream
ed all these things. He saw also
old Reebstock, Gretchen's father,
with his great peruke, and his can
did look full of beneYolence; he saw
the tavern, with it's low, smoky
beams; the clock, with it's white dial;
the lamp suspended from the cell
ing gliding Ohe brown faces of the
wine dressers, who had their caps
pulled over their eyes, and little tin
IN their hard, rough hands.
"Life is in the world, not in the
sky" he said. ''This fresh life
this life of love, of sentiment, of
prosperity; the wine, the fruits, the
perfumes and Gretchen; all this
life is on the earth" He trembled
in thinking of the young girl. She
seemed so near to him that he coun-
ted every thread in her dress,
every stitch in Der collar, every line
of her rosy, dimpled smile. Not
shadow escaped him. He looked
at the stars and saw Gretchen; he
listened to the breeze and heard the
voice of Gretchen; he thought of the
world and Gretchen; was there, al
ways there, listening to his thoughts
replying to it. o love! love! who
art thou!. Whence CONTEST thou!
Theodore wondered thus IN the
luminous night; behind the village,
along the bushes, walking in the
little paths bordered with fences,
and the fields freshly moved; look
ing at the irregularly constructed
houses, with their outside stairs,
their worm eaten ratings, their farm
yards, their great spreading roofs,
all boarded with dark mysterious
shadows. At the end of his long,
winding way, he found himself again
before the house of Reebstock. He
stepped under Gretchen's window,
and looked at the shutter, with
the round hole in the top that gave
light to the interior little room, he
said to himself. "She is there"
And thinking she was there his gaze
became so fixed, so absorbed, that
to see him you would have supposed
be saw something strange, some
thing curious. But he saw nothing.
He thought. ''She was there?"
And from high up in heaven the
moon whitened his forehead, shone
in his eyes, silvered his light beard,
and streamed over his artistic cos
/ tune, which was lose and flowing,
full of free and picturesque elegance.
In his lett hand he held a large gray
hat, whose plume swept the ground;
with his right he sent his love to
Gretchen in kiss
At the end of a quar- ,er of an hour
of that silent contemplation, be
climbed over the low fence of the
garden, and entering the yard, saw
at the right, through the open door
! of the brewery, the large tub with
its great brown hoops, seeming
larger still In half light: at its foot
was carpenters bench, short
handled hatchet which threw blue
light in the shadow, a plane, pincers
all the utensils of a cooper-far-
ther off, behind all, the press, on
which the rays of the moon fell
obhquely. He advanced slowly
breathing the odor of the ferment-
ing hopes and grapes. Besides this,
not sound, not breath; from the
little skyight in the roof came a
calm, sweet light. He sat down on
a barrel and said to himself, "Ah,
this is a pleasant place"
He saw the arbor festooned with
| ivy, the little basins in the yard
where the hens ate, and the door Of
the washroom on the left. And all
this, because Gretchen walked there
often, seemed to him to have a
strong signifance, and an expressi-
bic charm. "Ah," thought he, ''if
| Gratchen shonld como ont for an