The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1874-09-02
CONRAD'S LOVES.

A great, strapping, muscular fellow
was Conrad Midburger and he was adj
mitted to be the best dancer and
swordsman in the village. His COM
plexion was darker than that of most
Of his neighbors, for there was ira
dition Of Magyar blood in the family
and his face was by no means lacking
in intelligence, of a merry and peace
ful sort.
The village itself had look of hav-
ing been finished long ago; but
"reader of men" might have looked at
Conrad, if he saw him there and said
"But that fellows only half done
yet. He doesn't half understand him
SELF Pity there's nothing in this sleepy
valley to wake him up"
II, however, the process of wa)sing
up was to imply any sort of shaking.
there had been little enough of that in
the life which Conrad had thus far led.
The greatest events Of the outside
world had been only as storms on the
ocean, sending hardly a ripple of their
uproar into the little land locked cove
of the old dull village.
Gottlieb Midburger, Conrad's faith
er, with his old crony and partner,
Franz Hoferdahl, had made and mend
ed watches in the same dingy and
time-worn shop where their fathers
had flied and hammered before them /;
and one life was as like another and
about as unvarying as the ticking of
the fatfaced time-pieces behind the
cobwebs in the shop window.
Just now, however, as if the course
of Nature were being disturbed, va
rious ripples were beginning to come.
Rumors there we're, for instance, that the
king, "God preserve him !" was pre-
pairing to fight war with somebody
and that all young heroes like Conrad
Midburger would soon be needed for
the army.
Stranger still and utterly unaccount-
able, considering bis time of life, old
Franz Hoferdabl had caugh. the emf
grafton fever and made up his stead
fast mind to join the great German
tide that sets pepetually toward the
shores of America. Already he had
sold whatever he had to sell, except
his big pipe, his flute and his daughter
Christine, for these he intended taking
with him to the Western Eden.
Perhaps" thought the villagers,
"it's not so strange for old Franz as
for some of US. He's been lonely since
his wife died and then he was great
traveller in his younger days."
That was true enough, for Franz
Hoferdahl had been to Berlin and
America could not be so very much
beyond. st r a
The old man had sold his share in
the shop to his friend Gottlieb and
had made as good bargains as he could
for his house and movables; but none
of his anxious neighbors knew exactly
how much Of ready cash he took with
him when he and his weeping Chris
tine set out upon their long pilgrim
age. ~ yUFsE
Christine wept, indeed, as if she
meant to ruin her rpreJty blue eyes en-
tirely; for the little old village had
been very dear to her and her mothers s
grave was there. If there we're other
reasons for her sorrow, Christine kept
them to herself; albeit she may have
wondered why one person. at Least,
had not asked her question or so con-
cerning them.
AS for Conrad Midburger, he had
said good-by, with all the rest, to his
fathers old friend and to the fearful
Christine; and be had rubbed his
great black eyes, afterward, in a way
that looked as if the whole thing was
a good deal Of dream to him. If il
was, there was no help for it since
Christine and her father were fal
enough away before he woke up.
| Nevertheless, when Conrad missed
day after day, the accu stoned form o,
old Franz in the shop, as we'll as the
CHEEKY voice of Christine Hoferdah
calling her father home to dinner, tn,
expression of his face would change
at times, and one would almost have
said he was beginning to think.
Not quite so much as thet, perhaps
at least, not yet; butspretty sooI
Conrad's eyes took note of q growing
difference in the ways and seeming o
old Gottlieb Midburger himself Jus
what it was would have been heard u
say; but, by degrees, the old mai
came to neglect his pipe and then hi
glass of beer and then his work, and
finally, he took to his he'd and died
aud the neighbors said, almost wit
one accord, that "Franz Hoferdah
had broken his old friends heart b
going away" laanVs
Broken his heartl" said Conrad
himself. "But he did not break mine
|, Apd have heart, tool can feel