, 1878-02-02
The Miners Bride.'

In Falun, mining town in
Sweden, 100 years ago or more,
young miner kissed his fair
bride and said to her:
"On st. Lucia's Day our love
will be blessed by the priest 5
hand. Then we shall be husband
and wife, and we will build us a
little nest of our own"
"And peace and love shall
dwell in it," said the beautiful
BRIDE with a sweet smile, "for
thou art my all in all, and with
out thee | would choose to be in
my grave"
But when the priest, in pro
claiming their bans in the
church for the second time be-
fore st. Lucia's Day, pronounced
the words: eff now any one
can show reasons why these per-
sons should not be united in the
bonds of matrimony," death was
at hand. The young man, as he
passed the house next morning
in his black mining garb, already
wore his shroud. He raped
upon her window and said good
morning, but he never returned
to say good evening. He never
came back from the mine, and
all in vain she embroidered for
him on that very morning q
black cravat with a red border
for the wedding day. This she
hid carefully away, and never
ceased to mourn for him.
Meanwhile time passed on;
the seven years war was finish
ed; the partition of Poland took
place; America became free; the
French revolution and the long
war began; Napoleon subdued
Prussia, and the English bonn
barded Copenhagen. The hus-
bandman sowed and reaped, the
smith hammered, and the min
ers dug after their veins of met
al in their subterranean work
shops.
AS the miners Of Falun in the
year 1909, q little before or af-
ter st. Johns Day, were excava-
ting an opening between two
shafts, full three hundred ellis
below the ground, they dug from
the rubbish and vitriol water
the body of a young man entire
ly saturated with vitriol. but
otherwise undecayed and unal-
tered, so that one could distin-
guish his features and age as
well as if he had died but an
hour before, or had fallen asleep
for little while at work.
But when they had brought
him out to the light Of day, fa-
ther and mother, friends and ac-
quaintances had been long dead !;
no one could identify the sleep
ing youth, or tell anything of
his misfortune, till she came
who was once the betrothed of
that miner who had one day
gone to the mine and never re-
turned. Gray and shriveled she
came to the place, hobbling up
on crutch, and recognized her
bridegroom, when, more in joy
full ecstacy than pain, she sank
down upon the beloved form. A S
soon as she had recovered her
composure she exclaimed:
at is my bethrothed whom |
have mourned for forty years,
and whom God now permits me
to see once more before [ die. A
week before the wedding time
he went under the earth and
never returned"
All the bystanders were NOV
ed to tears as they beheld the
former bride, a wasted and fee
BILE old woman, and the bride
groom in the beauty of youth;
and how, after the lapse of fifty
years, her youthful love awoke
again. But he never opened his
mouth to smile, nor his eyes to
recognize; and she finally, as
the only one belonging to him
and having a right to him, had
him carried to her own little
room till a grave could be pre-
pared for HIM in the church
yard. The next day, when all
was ready, and the miners came
to take him away, she opened a
little drawer and taking out the
black silk cravat, tied it around
his neck and then accompanied
him in her Sunday garE, as If 1t
were their wedding day and not
the day of his burial. As they
laid him IN the grave in the
churchyard she SAID:
"Sleep we'll now tor q few