The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1874-09-11
MI j S @ @ ane Ou 8
THE WAR PIPE.
TRANSLATED BY G. G. C.
From tile German Of Auer5ach.
| C0ntinued.l


Hansgeorge had the surgeon preserve his
finger for him in q jar of alcohol, and he
would have presented it to Katherlie, but
fearful of It as though 9f Tad 6eeii gnosr
She would scarcely touch the jar which con-
tanned it. So now when Hansgeorge was
permitted to leave the house for the first
time they went together to the garden and
hurled tie finger. Hansgeorgc stood think
inc there, as Katherlie dug the hole for it.
THE sin against his Fatherland, which he
tbrough sclfmutilation had committed,
never occurred to him; but in place of it
there entered his soul the thought that
there was being buried a portion of that
vital power entrusted to him by God, for
which he would be called upon to give an
account He stood, so to speak, a living
being by the side of his own grave, and he
formed a firm resolution in his heart to use
his remaining strength faithfully and con-
scientiously in the path of duty. A death
thouoht overshadowed him, and with sad
ness and Joy he looked up and saw living
and near him his beloved friend.
Thoughts like these dimly tloated in his
mind, and he said, "Katherlie, l see it well
now. have greatly sinned and | must
90 to confession. I must have these
thoughts out of my heart. l will willing
ly do any penance."
Katherlie embraced and kissed him and
he felt beforehand that hottest absolution,
which the truly repentant spirit, armed
with firm resolution for good, must alone,
within itself, ever experience.
The next Sunday Hansgeorge went to
NJ ,l,ot
ance was enioined upon him.
One would think that man must feel
peculiar secret drawing towards that
place where portion of his own living
being lay buried. So the Fatherland is
doublv holy to us because the bones of oul
beloved rest there, as indeed the whole
earth first seems sacred to us when We re
fleet that the bodies of our friends and fell
low-men are mingled with its dust, and O
man of whose body, so seemingly necessary
to his existence, living part has already
become dust, must feel himself drawn by ,
never ending might of that earthly sancti
ty, and so often wander back to that por
ton of his own grave.
Such thoughts, if ever dim conscious
ness of them could have occurred to oul
friend, would not naturally, with such {
man as our Hansgeorge, have tarried long
He went day by day to the brickmakcr'
house, not drawn by thoughts of death
but by living thoughts, namely, his low,
for Katherlie. But many times he cam'
away sorely troubled, for Katherlie appear
ed to have taken upon herself to tease ant
censure him. The principal vexation wa
that Katherlie ever and ever demanded o
him that he should give up smoking. HI
never dared attempt to kiss her when III
had been smoking, and before coming int
her presence he must always hide ava.
his beloved pipe. He must never think
smoking in the brickmaker's sitting room
and as much as he loved to be there, lie al
ways took himself hence after IL little while
Katherlie rightly guessed the cause, an'
never ceased to tease him about it.
Hansgeorge worried greatly about thi
popularity of Katherlie's, and gave him
self ever more fondly to his habit. II
thought it unmanly to be dictated to by
woman. The woman must yield, though
he, and then it is the mans part to recog
nize and acknowledge her amiability
was simply impossible for him to give n
his habit. He tried it once during hay
making for two days together, but 1t seem
ed to him that he was fasting for penance
he seemed deprived of all things. H
took back his pipe, and as he delightful
held it fast between his teeth and strucl
fire 10 light it, he said to himself, "Katl
Grille, and with her all womankind, may G
to the devil before will give my pipe up.
Thereupon he accidentally hit himself up
on the finger with the steel and shakin
his painfully smarting hand, he though
"There, that is sin, and it is not exact
true either"