Litchfield enquirer., 1874-12-31

tages built of crossed timbers filled in with plaster; sun-dials hung on the walls, and each house had its piazza. where, i when the work of the day was over. the families assembled, often singing tolk- songs to the music of their homemade flutes and pipes. On the left stood tue residence of the first pastor. the reverend man..who had led these sheep to their refuge in the wilds of the New World. 1t was a wide-spreading brick mansion. with broadside of white curtained windows. an inciosed glass porch, iron raiiings, and 1 gilded caves; g building SO stately among the surrounding cottages that it had gained from outsiders the name of Kings Palace. although the good man whose grave remains unmarked in the quiet Coda Acre, according to the -Separatist l custom, was father to his people, not a King. f~s Beyond the palace began the communi- l ty garden, large square in the center of the village filled with flowers and fruit, adorned with arbors and cedar trees clip ped in the form of birds, and enriched with an old style greenhouse whose slid- ing glasses were viewed with admiration by the visitors of thirty years ago, who sent their choice plants thither from far and near to be tended through the long, cold lake country winters. The garden, the cedars. and the greehhouse were all antiquated, but to me none the lsss charm ing. The spring that gushed up iu one corner, the oldfashioned flowers Tn their box bordered beds, ,laxkspur. lady slippers, batehel0rs buttons, Peonies, aromatic pinks, and all varieties of roses, the arbors with red honeysuckle overhead and tan bark under foot, were all delightful; and knew, also, that I should find the gar dener's daughter at her never ending task of weediLg. This time 1t was the straw berry bed '.I have come to sit in your pleasant garden, Nina, said, taking a seat on shaded bench near the bending figure.
 ''So?" said Wilhelmina in long drawn interrogation, glaneing up shyly with . smile. She was child of the. sun, this little maiden, and while her blonde com panions wore always their bonnets or broad brimmed hats over their precise caps, W;lhelmina, as now, constantly dis earded those coverings and sat in the sun basking like . bird of the tropics. In truth, it did not rsdden her; she was one of those whose coloring comes not from without, but within.
 s'Do you like this work, Mina?"
 ''Oh-so. Good ss any"
 stDo you like work"
 Folks must work" This was said gravely, as part of the community creed.
 Wouldn't you like to go with me to the city9"
 "No; Ps better here."
 "But you can sec the great world. Mi na. You need not work, will take care of you. You shall have pretty dresses; wouldn't you like that?" I asked, curi- ous to discover the 6eparatist indifference to everything outside. ~ sN ;
 'sNein,"- answered the little maiden tranquilly; ''nein. fardlien. Ich bin zufrieden."
 Those three words were the key. '.I am contented. So they were taught from childhood, and-I was about to say these knew no better. but, after all, is there anything better to know. =
 Wetalked on, for Nina understood Eng fish, although many of her mates could chatter ouly in their Wurtemberg dialect, whose provincialism confused my careful ly learned German; I was grounded m Goeth, we'll read in Schiller, and strug- gling with Jeau Paul, who, fortunately. ia ,.der Einzing," ]" the only; another such would destroy life. At length bell sound ed, and forthwith work was laid aside in the fields, the workshops. ana the houses, while all partook of light repast, one of the five meals with which the long sum- mer day of toil is broken. Faggons of beer Lad the men afeld, with bread and cheese; the women took bread and apple butter. But Nina did not care for the thick slice which the thrifty house-moth. CT had provided; she had not the steady, unfanciful appetite of the community which eats the same food day after day, as the COW eats it's grass. desiring no change.
 "And the gardener really wishes you to marry Jacob? said as she sat on the grass near me. enjoying the rest.
 "Yes. Jacob Ia geod. always the same"
 "And Gustav?"
 "Ah. mein Gustav! Lady, he is young tai, - so tall as tree; he run, he sing, his eyes like veilchen there, his hair like gold. If see him not soon, lady, I die! The year SO long,-s0 long they are. Three year without Gustav! The browR eyes grew dim. and out came the square-fold- ed handkerchief, of eolored calico for week.days.
 But it will not be long now, Nina
 Yes; I hope"
 He writes to you, suppose?'
 "So. Gustav knows not to write, he not like school. But hs speak through the other boys, Ernst the verliebte of Rosine. and Peter of Doroty "'
 ''fhe Zoar soldiers were all young men?"- -z.l ..-. -
 Yes; all verliebte. Some are not; they have gone to the Next Country" (died].
 "Killed in battle?''
 ''Yes; on the berge that looks.-what you call, I not knQw"-
 Lookout Mounta,n?"
 "Yes." - +- -..---~-
 "Were the boys volunteers?" I asked. remembering the community theory of non-resistance
 "Oh, yes; they volunteer, Gustav the first. They not drafted" sald Wilhelm ina, proudly. For these two words, so prominent during the war, had penetrated even into this quiet valley.
 But did the trustees approve?'1a es
 "Apperouve2"
 'I mean, did they like it9''
 preach in church, they say No Zoar must give soldiers? So. Then they take money and pay for der substitute; but the boys, they must not go." ~
 "But they went. in spite of the trus- tees?" ...-
 "Yes; Gustav first. They go in night, they walk in woods. over the hills to Brownyille, where is der recruiter. The morning come, they gone!'
 They have been away three years, you say? They have seen tho world in that time, remarked half to myself, as thought of the strange mind d-opening and knowledge-ga gaining of those years tn youths brought up in the strict seclusion of the community. ayss.:.z5s: $ "Yes; Gustav have seen the wide world" answered Wilhelmina with pride. ''But will they be content to step back into the dull routine of Zoar life?'. I