Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-10-24
C0NRAD,s LOVES.

pescsful sGrt.
The village had look of being finished long
ago; but a reader of men might have looked az
Conrad, IL he saw him there, and said:
But that fellows only nalf done yet. He
doesn't half understand himself. Pity there's
Lothing Ia the sleepy valley to wake him up.
If, however, the process of waking up was to
Imply any sort of shaking, there hsd been little
enough of that in the life which Conrad had
thus lar led. The greatest events of the outside
world had been only As storms on the ocean,
sending only ripple of their uprosr into the
little iand-locked cove of the old, dull village.
Gottleib Midburger, Conrad's father, with his
old croDy and partner, Flsoz Hoferdahl, had
made and meuaed watches In the some dingy
snd time-worn shop where their fathers had
FREQ ard hammered before them; and one life
was like another, and about as unvarying as
the ticking Of the fst-faced timepieces behind
the cObwebs in the shop window.
just now, however, as IL the course of nature
were being disturbed. various pples were be-
ginning to come. kumors there were, for in
ssspc, that the King tGOd preserves hIm!l was
pr1par Dg TO fight a war with somebody, and
that all young heroes Ike Conrad MidbGrger
would soon be needed for the army.
Stranger still, and utterly uaaccolnta5le,
considering his time Of life, old Frsnz Hotter
dahl had caught the emigration fever, and
made up his steadfast mind to Join the great
Germsn tide that sets perpetu ally towards the
stores OF America. Already he had sold wha {
ever he had to sell, except mis- big pipe, his
daughter Christine, for these ne intended TAX
ing With him TO the Western Eden.
Perhaps thought the villagers ait is not so
strange for Old Franz as fer some OF us. He's
been lonely since his wife died, and then he was
great traveller in his younger days"
That was tue enough, for Fraez HOterd ALL
had been TO Berlin, and America could not be
so very much beyond.
The old man had sold his share in the shop to
his friend GOttlieb, and had made AS good bar
gains as he could for his house and novIbles:
but none OF his anxious neiEnb0Ts knew ex-
actly bow much of ready cash he took with b IN
when he and his weeping Christine set out unon
their long pilgrimage.
Christine wept, indeed, as if she meant to
ruin her pretty blue eyes entirely; for the little
old village had been very dear TO her. and her
mothers grave was there. If there were other
reasons for her sorrow, Christine kept them 70
herself; albeit she may have wondered why one
person, at least, had not asked her question or
so concerning them.
As tor Conrad Midburger, he had said good
by, with all the rest to his fathers old friend.
and to the fearful Christine; and he had rub
bed his great, black eyes, afterward, in a way
that looked as If the whole thing was q good
deal of a dream 70 him. If il was there was no
help for it, since Christine and her father were
far enough away before he woke up. Never
theless, when Conrad missed day after day, the
accustomed form of old Fraez in the shop, as
well as the CHEEKY voice of Christine Hoferdahl
calling her father home TO dinner, the express
sion IF bis face would change at times ami one
think.
Not quite SO much as that perhaps: at least
not yet; but pretty soon Courad's eyes took note
Of growing difference In the ways and seeming
OF old Cottlieb Midburger himself. Just what
a
greeF, the old man came TO neglect his pipe
then his glass of beer, and then he took TO his
work, and finally, he took to his bed and died;
and the neighbors said almost with ACCORD, tn al
''Franz Hoterdahl had broken his old friends
heart by going away"
"Broken his heart!" said Conrad to himself
. But he did not break mine! And I have
heart tool can feel it beat. L loved my father
very much, and feel as If 1 should cry all day
II l were notso very big man"
The strongest evidence that Conrad had a
wa vet IN A. h. a.
went by, after his fathers death, the shop and
everything in IL and about it became utterly
distasteful to him. Day after day he sat down
by the beach and tried to work; but the very
ticking OF the watches was InsufferabIy oppres-
sive, while again and again he started up and
dropped his file or his hammer in renewed as
tOnlshment at the continued absence of those
two old men. elf only Christine would come"
dinner"
But she did not come, and the silence and
lOneli ness grew more and more irksome, and so
by and by, when good customer made his ap-
pearance, Conrad Midburger almost gladly
the house. He sold, too, everything else that
his father had left him, except the old mans
pipe and sword, and the medal his father before
him had won in the old wars with the French.
Neither did Conrad, any more than Franz Ho-
ferdal, tell any of his neIghbors how great or
how small was the golden store he found him
self possessed Of; but the Midburgers had been
CAREFUL, saving and close mOuthed race for
generations.
And when the sales were all completed. and
the transfers duly made, and Conrad stood in
the moonlight, one fue spring evening, aud
gaZed at the home that was no longer bis, he
said TO himself:
az think could almost break my heart now
after ALL for did love the house, and loved
the shop; but i could not stay there with the
empty place. There were too many voices that
did lot speak. That was it. But what shall l
do now?'
COnrsd's question was answered for him bv
the great French Emperor and by the King: for
Napoleon had determined in his old age, that
he must fight the Germans; and so great many
quiet people had to march away from their
homes to he shot at without the wsest man in the
village being able TO give them good reason.
1t was sad thing for many, but Conrad Mid
burger felt that he was almost glad to 90. He
was sure he loved his "Vaterland" in every
bone of his body and if the King called for him.
the sleepy old village, Conrad said to himself:
"There are the old house and the snop, and
the church-steeple, and the trees, and the
graves in the churchyard. l did not know my
heart was 30 big, for L am sure L love about
everything can See."
He could not see anything very clearly Just
then however, for his eyes were strangely dim.
NO doubt the sun was in them, and the CLINT
and glitter of the bayonsts; and IL any one had
looked in the young mans face he might have
said
at is very thoughtful face, and there are
lines OF strength beginning to show in it,"
And then there followed swift marching, com
FORTRESS camping, all kinds of severe aud trying
ing. Whatever the newspapers and reports
might say about il, Conrad Midburger and his
comrades learned that the Frenchmen were
brave fellows, and that the glory OF beating
them was never very ehesply won.
Being big and strong and brave, a good
swordsman, every day growing more intslli-
& emit, Conrad himself won glOry-that is, three
or four slight wounds, a medal, promotion from
the ranks, the compliments Of his commanding
Off Ger and the envy of his comrades.
Being man Of property, Of respectable par
entage, of fair education, Conrad might have
looked forward to almost any thing attainable
In the German army by man of less than no.
bic blood If the war had not been 80 very brief;
and if the corps to which he belonged had not
been among the first to be ordered home. Be-
fore great while he found himself almost his
own mater again, though still within the scope
and control of army regulations, for no German
of Conrad's age Is ever beyond them, and he
said to himself "Well, loved the army; al
most loved fighting. know I could love glory
with all my heart. l know am ten times as
UGH OF soldier as that little white moust ach ed
ape OF a baron that commanded my company.
That is 1t. 1 think / could love country
where there were no Barons. Let me see. /
think my heart has been growing a good deal
during this war. There is more room in it tn an.
L know of, and yet it ia always full. 1 think
there are some things in Ii that L never saw
there in the old times. 1 will go and take a
look at the village first, and the house, and the
shOD. and / will hasten again t0 see If I cau