Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-12-19
THE WOODEN WEDDINc,

VI course LOulSOn mus come home
for the wooden wee. ding" decided
the whole of the Ctr,,bners assembled
in full family conclave; the said
1amlly ave being composed of
UEalula'' VIZ '-ler and Grandmother Gruhner,
Mlo' " GrIhner, and her two daughters,
-dargot, whose fifth wedding day was to
be celebrated, and Gretchen, the laugh
ter-loving, youngest of the family. Be
sides whom we present Wilhelm Raus,
Margot's husband, and Hans.
eyes, yes, Fraulein Louison must
come home for the wedding, of course, !"
echoed Hans.
And then everybody laughed. First
of all, because no one in the world but
Hans would have dreamed of dignifying
little Louison Gruhner with so imposing
title ; and next because Hans could
never 50 much as mention Louison's
name, titled or not, without causing q
laugh in the family circle. His admira-
tion for that young person, freely ex-
pressed on all occasions when the object
OF his affections was not present, and
his extreme shyness in her society, had
long been a standing joke in the village
OF Brushofen, and had earned for him
he nickname of "the bashful lover"
When they all laughed, Hans blushed
a very furious and unbecoming red.
"Never mind, never mind, friend
Hans" said Wilhelm, clapping him on
the shoulder encouragingly. "I was
young once, and timid too, and yet thou
seest I took the bull by the horns at last ;
and [ would advise thee -
But the advice was drowned in a
chorus of laughter and expostulations.
Margot, perhaps not unnaturally, OBJ
jected to being compared to horned
bull and Wilhelm's timidity had not
been so patent to the world, even in his
younger days, as to have made much i'm
preston upon it, it would seem.
However, it was quite decided that
Louison was to come home.
She was bright, dark-eyed girl of
about seventeen, an orphan niece OF the
widow Gruhner, and the bosom friend of
her cousin Gretchen, who was her Junior
by few months. Louison lived, as a
rule, with some distant relatives, who
were farmers, few miles from Konigs-
berg but her holidays, somewhat few
and far between, were always spent in
the Gruhners' little cottage, which from
her childhood had been considered as
her real home, and her visits to Brusho-
fen were looked forward to by all the
members of the family with great
pleasure. 1t was now almost a year since
she had been to see them, and it was
quite impossible to allow the grand
festivities of the wooden wedding" " tc
take place without her. So after some
what elaborate correspondence between
the widow Gruhner and Frau Lieb, the
farmers wife, whose right hand Louison
was, q leave of fortnight was obtained
and the day was fixed for the young
girls arrival at Brushofen.
Old Gruhner, accompanied by hii
granddaughter, Gretchen, went to meet
her at the coach.
"Two weeks, two whole weeks, my
Louison," )" cried Gretchen, grasping hel
friends hand as they walked together III
the steep cliff path that led to the cot
tage. "Only think how delightful
And before the end of that time Hani
Steiner will have asked thee to marry
him, and then thou wilt stay here always
and live in the pretty new cottage by th'
mill, and we shall never part with thet
again.
"Come, come" retorted Louison
chow dost thou know that by the tim'
Hans Steiner pleases to say Wilt thou
shall not please to say 'NayF"
But as she spoke a smile curled tn
corners of her pretty mouth, and he
eyes sparkled, all hidden though the,
were by their long lashes.
"Well, well" we shell see," returnet
Gretchen, wisely resolving not to pres
the matter, at least for the present.
And there were naturally many othe
subjects Of conversation interesting t.