Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-12-04


them, and the CLINT and glitter Of the bay
onets and il any one had looked in the
young mans face he might have said:
at is a very thoughtful face, and there
are lines OF strength beginning TO show in
It,"
And then there followed swift marching,
comfortless camping, all kinds OF severe
and trying soldier work, and a good deal
of very hard fighting. Whatever the news
papers and reports might say about it, Con-
rad Midburger and his comrades learned
that the Frenchmen were brave fellow 3,
aud that the glory Of beating them was
never very cheaply won.
Being big and strong and brave, good
swordsman. every day growing more in
telligent, Conrad himself won glory,-that
is, three or four slight wounds, a medal,
promotion from the ranks, the compliments
Of his commanding officer and the envy Of
his comrades.
Being a man of property, Of respectable
parentage, Of fair education, Conrad might
have looked forward TO almost anything at
tsinable in the German army by . man Of
less than noble blood If the war had not
been so very brief; and If the corps to
which he belonged had not been among
the first to be ordered home. Before a
great while he found himself almost his
own master again, though still within the
scope and control OF army regulations, for
no German OF Conrads age is ever beyond
them, and he said TO himself: "Well, l
loved the army; l always loved fighting,
know 1 could love glory with all my heart.
/ know l am ten times as much OF q SOL
dier as that little white moustached ape Of
a baron that commanded my company.
That is it. think could love 4 country
where there we're no barons. Let me see.
l think my heart has been growing go cd
deal during this war. There is more room
in it than know OF, and yet 1t is always
full. I think there are some things in 1t
that never saw there in the old times.
will go and take a look at the village first,
aud the house and the shop, and will has
ten again to see II I can hear Chris
tine call her father home TO dinner. Then,
if don't hear her, what thenf Well,
think 1 will just ask my heart about it,"
Now, all this time old Franz Hoferdahl
and bis daughter bad known very little
of what had taken place in the village they
had left behind them. They had found
their pilgrimage long and weary enough,
and they had reached a residing place at
last and they had written home to their old
neighbors, as all Germans do, but very lit
tie information had come back to them.
They knew that old Gottleib Midburger
was dead, and that Conrad had given up
the homo and the shop and that he had
gone to the great war with the French and
that was nearly all.
Franz Hoierdahl bad not landed on the
shores of the New World a pauper in any
thing but youth and strength, and he found
friends readily enough to take the place Of
toe old ones as far as might be and sfter
he had got over his first daze and bewilder-
ment, and became somewhat accustomed
to the racking changes in all habits and
ways of life, he tried TO settle down as a
man of property and substance, and be
happy.
"If only old Gottleib Midburger were
with me-" he said to Christine, ~ think
could do it. would give good deal just
to see the old fellow lay down his pipe and
look into a dirty watch.'
Christine said very little, but her bright
American home became dreary enough at
times when she shut her eyes and let her
thoughts go back to the old sleepy German
village. She read all the accounts OF the
great war, too, wondering IL any Of her old
neIghbors had been in this battle or that,
and she listened very silently when her
father said
"If Conrad Midburger was in any of that
fighting, I'll be bound he behaved himself
well. There's good blood in the Midbur-
gers, and Conrad is q fine boy"
"He must be a man by this time" said
Christine.
Aud then she thought what a very tall,
fine looking man he must be, and how
we'll he would appear in his uniform.
But when, after a while, there was news
Of peace, and they heard that the army was
going home 10 be disbanded, old Franz
Hoferdshl grew less thoughtful, aud Chris
tine tried in vain TO arouse him, or amuse
him, until one Autumn morning be said TO
her:
"And the other soldiers are going home.
think it is pretty near time for me to go
too"
ITO Germany, father :" exclaimed Chris
tine, with a sudden light in her eyes. 80
father"
"No, Christine" Solemnly replied the
old man Germany is not the only father
land, 1 am a very old soldier, and think
this is my last campaign"
Christine understood him then, but all
in a dreamy and unreal sort of way, until
few weeks later, she found herself sitting
alone in the house, while the chilling wind
that whistled by the window was freghted
with the first white harbingers OF the win
ter.
1t seemed cold, forlorn and empty sort
OF world to Christine, aud when she tried
to think of the village where she was born,
that too, seemed empty and deserted, and
she imagined the old shop shut up, and the
snow flakes beating against the spider web
bed windows.
The doorbell rang, but Christine did not
hear 1t, nor did she know that the servant
had admitted anybody until she was con-
scious of heavier step almost beside her,
auu uSePi Sio"A NoiSei Aull VI Hauiy
strength, but that trembled in thrllllngly
musical way, said to her:
"Christinei Christine r.
She looked up then in the face-a SCARED
and war bronzed faee-of tall, erect, no.
BILE looking man, who wore medal Of hon
or on his.breast, and whose dark. penetrat-
ing eyes were absolutely radiant as they
looked down into her own.
"Christine," he said again, "do you un-
deTstand mef have come"
| "He had come ~ she thouOht, for one