The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-11-01
Anton and BeatriX.
AN INCIDENT OF THE ERR GEBIRGE.

AN INCIDENT OF THE ERR GEBIRGE.
Anton and BeatriX were betrothed.
Beatrix maae lace, and Anton was a
miner.
.Why art thou above ground, Anton?"
she said to him one morning when he
looked into her mothers cottage. art
thou flying about to find hay and feathers
for our nest? Nay, it will be built the
sooner, if thou wilt steadily ply thy
pick" -.
"'Twould be long before thy bobbins
would build it," answered Anton, with a
smile, which had good deal OF contempt
mixed with its kindness. Cheer up,
Trix. thou shalt not long continue at that
beggar's trade" ;.
So having spoken he went upon his
way, and left his sweetheart wondering
what he meant.
But she could work while she Won
dered: and she did not forget to do so.
Indeed. she was almost always at work.
She got up with the sun-somelmes be-
fore him, with the birds; and after he had
gfr assNae usbbs lighted her s candle and ng1
pins into her pattern, and then piled the
dangling bobbins with dizziness which
made fingers and bobbins blend in
simmer, like that of the wings of buzz
zing bees. When awake she scarcely
ever ceased from her labor except TO per-
form her sacred duties, or to carry in the
product of her toll to the laceman's in
the nearest town.
''My child, thou wilt have to eat hutten-
ra,sch," her mother said to her. Thy
cheek is pale and pinched, thy eyes are
growing dim. Anton will slight thee"
may" Beatrix answered, 'if l need
arsenic to make me pleasing in his sight,
he may cen leave me. will not NEEDLE
with such unholy things. He must just
take or leave me as the good God and
honest toll have made me-"
"But why dost thou labor SO hardl"
asked the mother.
II would fain help to keep the house"
replied her daughter.
"Nay," quoth the mother, though It's
little that thy pillow earns thee, it we'll
pays thy clothes, and coffee and potatoes"
Il would take something in my hands
besides my pillow, when 60 to sit down
in Anton's house." said Beatrix, with
blush.
It was little she saw Of her lover ct this
time,and when he did come to see her he
behaved so strangely, that in spite of his
affectionate caresses she could not help
suspecting sometimes that be wished to
take back his plighted troth. He looked
with undisguised contempt on the cot
tage and its furniture, its scanty food
and all its humble ways, and talked as if,
should Beatrix become his bride, she
would be q beggar's daughter lifted to
throne. And yet he was more stability
dressed than had been his wont, and had
less money TO spend; since now be very
seldom went down into the mines by day.
Almost all day long he either slept or
wandered over the mountains, chasing,or
pretending to chase, the bear, the chamois,
and the lynx. Every night, little while
before the clocks struck twelve, he went
abroad but whittier he went no one could
tell. Her lovers strange behavior often
made Bestrix very sad, though none the
slower for that reason did her fingers ply
the bobbins. Night and morning beside
her bed, and in the church Ito which An
ton now never came) she prayed the good
God TO hold her lover in his sheltering
hand, for if he were taking to murderous
WAYS, or going mad, and 90 they should
be separated for life, she thought that she
would 60 mad also.
The fact is that Anton went every night
to meet Kobold, and wandered with him
in the bowels Of the earth. When Anton
was an industrious miner, Kobold had
come to him - he piled the pick in .
lonely working, and scofed at his sim
plicify for toiling 20 hard to earn 70
little.