Litchfield enquirer., 1874-12-31
WHOLE NO. 2587s z

dressed and adorned with curls and gilt iewelry. That's Miss Martin, !" said Gus tav with pride; .'Nfiss Emmeline Martin, of Cincinnati. I'm going to marry Mise Martin" q trlf4 l'sLA.sl As held the pretty. fashy picturein my hand, all my castles fell to the ground. My plan for taking Nina home with me. accustoming her gradually bother clothes l and ways, teaching her enough of the
 world to enable her to hold her place
 without pain, my hope that my husband
 might find situation for GustaS. in some of the iron mills near Cleveland, in short,
 all the idyl had woven, was destroyed.
 If it had not been for this red-cheeked
 Miss Martin in her gilt beadsl "Why is
 it that men will be such fools?" thought: | Up sprung a memory of the curls and ponderous jet necklace spowted at cer-
 tain period of my existence, whom John was silenced, gave Gustav his picture,
 and walked away without q word. 1 At noon the villagers, on their way back l to work, paused at the Wirthshaus to say good-by; Karl and Gustav were there, and
 the old woolly horse had already gone to
 the station with their boxes. Among the
 others came Christine, Karl's former als 1 fianced, heart-whole and smiling, already [ 1 betrethed to new lover; but no WilhefSz nina. Good wishes and fsrewells were exchanged, and at last the two soldiers l started away, falling into the marching step, and watched with furtiye shtisfae- tion by the three trustees, who stood to- gether in the shadow of the smithy. .ap- parently deeply absorbed in q broken down cask. E E-ce sTal It was lovely afternoon, and I, too, strolled down the station road embowered in shade. The two soldiers were not far | in advance. I had passed the hour-inil on the outskirts of the village and was ap-r | preaching the old quarry, when sound l startled me; out from, the rocks in front
 rushed little figure, and crying "Gustay, mein Gustav" fell at the soldiers feet. It was Wilhelmina. zaI t.-s J
 ran forward and took her from the | young men; she lay in my arms as ifdead. sThe poor child was sadly changed; d.
 ways slender and swaying, she now look
 ed thin and shrunken, her skin had Q strange, dark pallor, and her lips were drawn in as if from pain could see her 1 eyes through the large-orbed thin lids, and
 the brown shadows beneath extended down | into the cheeks. z . l s ~- l "Was ist s? said Gustav, looking be- wildered. els she sick?' answered ''Yes" but nothing more.
 could see that he had no suspicion of the
 truth, believing as he did that the tgood fellow of a baker would do very well for the I good little thing who was too quiet for hlnis .. The memory of Miss Martin sealed my lips. But if 1t hi.d not been for that ipfetty, fashy picture, would I not have fspoken!
 "You must go; you will miss the train,
 I said, after few minutes. ''I will see to Nina e- .....-., -.
 But Gustav fingered, Perhaps he was
 really troubled to see the little sweetheart 1 of his boyhood in such desolate plight; I perhaps a touch of the old feeling came
 back; and perhaps, also, it was nothing of the kind, and. as usual, my romantic i'm agination was carrying me away. At any
 rate, whatever 1t was, be stopped over the ! fainting girl. @ eS3 '.She looks bad" he said, ''very bad. wish--but she'll get we'll and marry the
 baker. Good-by, Mira.Y And bending
 his tall form, he kissed her coIorIeSs cheek,
 and then hastened away to join the impa-
 tient Karl; curve in the road soon hid them from view. WiIhelmina had stirred at his touch; af-
 ter . moment her large eyes opened slow lY; she looked around as if dazed, but all
 at once memory came back. a she start ed up with the same cry, "Gustav, mein l Gustav! l drew her head down on my
 shoulder to stife the sound; it was better
 the soldier should not hear it. and its an- 1 guish thrilled my own heart, also. She
 had not the strength to resist me, and i'll
 few minutes knew that the young men
 were out of hearing as they strode on to-
 wards the station, and out into the wide
 world.
 1 The forest was solitary, we were beyond
 the village; all the afternoon I sat under 1 the trees with the stricken girl. Agaln.
 as in her joy, her words were few; again,
 as in her joy, her whole being was in-
 volved. Her little rough hands were cold,
 a film gathered over her eyes; she did
 not weep but moaned to herself, and all 1 her senses seemed blunted. At night-fall 1 I took her home, and the 1eathery mother
 received her with frown; but the child
 was beyond caring and crept away, dumb ly,.to her room.
 1 The next morning she was off to the | hills again. nor could 1 find her for sever
 al days. Evinently, in spite of my sym-
 pathy, Twas no more to her than I should
 have been to a wounded fawn. She was
 Q mixture of the wild, shy creature of the
 woods and the deep-loving woman of the 1 tropics; in either case ] could be but
 small comfort. When at last I did see her, she was apathetic and dull; her feel l ings, her senses, and her intelligence 1 seemed to have gone within, as if preying upon her heart She scarcely listened to my proposal to take her with me; for, ill my pity, had suggested it in spite of it's dficulties
 "No," she said mechanically; "Ts
 better here {" and fell into silence again.
 A month later, friend went down to spend few days in the valley, and upon
 her return described to us the weddings of the whilom soldiers. "It was really a pretty sight" she said "the quaint peas
 ant dresses and the flowers. Afterwards, the band went round the village playing
 their odd tunes, and all had holiday. l There were two civilians married also; l
 mean two young men who had not been to l the war. It seemed that two of the sol diers turned their backs upon the commu-
 nifty and their allotted brides, and march
 ed away; but the Zoar maidens are not
 romantic, I fancy, for these two deserted
 ones were betrothed again and married,
 all in the short space of four weeks"
 "Was not one Wilhelmina, the gar
 dener's daughter, a short, dark girl?"
 asked
 | "Yes.''
 ''And she married Jacob the baker?" | "Yes."
 The next year, weary of the cold lake,
 winds, we left the icy shore and went
 down to the valley to meet the coming
 spring, finding her already there, decked
 with vines and flowers. A new waitress
 brought us our coffee.
 1 'How is Wilhelmina ?" I asked "Eh-W Wilhelmina? she is not here
 now; she gone to the next country" an
 swered the girl in matter-of-fact way.
 ''She die last October, and Jacob he haf
 anoder wife now"
 In the late afternoon I asked a little cirl to show me Wilhelmina's grave in the