The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-06-23


Do ;.a know the Edelweiss, the rare
and beautiful flower of the AlpsP Its
home is on the steepest and most mac
cessible cliffs, and the daring mountain
eer who risks his life to procure it calls
it rightly the royal white" of the noun
tains.
In one part of the great chain of the
Tyrolesc Alps a single peak rises con
spicuously above its neighbors-a giant
among his brothers. A snowy hood en-
velops his mighty head, and q heavy
growth of fir and spruce formsa shaggy
beard below which a green robe of beau
tiful pasture land sweeps down to the
valley at his feet, where a Westinghouse
tain stream leaps and tumbles like .
child at play.
Under the shelter OF the groves Of fir
and spruce stand a few rudely-built
chalets whose roofs are dotted with great
stones ~overgrown with moss. Connect
ed with the chalets are sheds and accom-
modations for cattle, for this is where
the shepherds of the valley pasture their
tiocks and garner hay and feed for win
ter use.
A middle-aged man, in the pictu-
rescue costume of the Alpine peasant, is
busy before one of the sheds, and q young
girl, also inpeasant garb, stands before
the door of the adjoining chalet. and
shading her eyes with her hand gazes
intently down the path leading to the
valley.
"Well, Gretel." says the man, APP
preaching her and speaking in the gut
tural but not unpleasant German of the
Tyrol. ''What dost thou seek?"
The girl started. 81 cannot think
why Hans is so late tonight, father.
''Never fear for Hans, my girl. He is
as sure-footed rs the channels, and knows
every pass of the mountain blindfold.-
But thou art pale. child. Thy mother
must see roster cheeks when we go down
to the valley or she will never trust thee
to my care AGAIN.
He was interrupted by a loud, clear
jodel %re-echoing from cliff to cliff
through the quiet mountain air. The
girl sprang lightly down the path, the
elder man following at a more leisure
" gait. At the first turn she met the
delinquent, a tall and sturdy young peas
ant, who bent to kiss her after their GUS
tom first on one cheek and then on the
other.
He was q handsome fellow, this Hans,
with his loose green jacket and his black
leathern breaches, which were short
enough to show the bare knee, tanned
and ruddy from exposure. He carried
an ~alpenstock in his hand, and q glossy
cock's-plume nodded at the back of his
pointed hat.
''Welcome, Hans" said his sister, but
she started back in surprise when she
saw that he was not alone, but followed
by a young nan of foreign dress and
air, who paused painting and flushed
from the unusual exertion of the steep
ascent.
Explain it to them, comrade," he
said in the broken and hesitating accents
of a foreigner.
Thus appealed to, Hans related SIM
ply how he had gone into the town of Y.
to sell his lunches of rare flowers, and
had been stopped before the Gasthaus
by a group of English tourists. The Ia
dies had bought his flowers at q high
price, and with the Unsuitable curiosity
of travellers in foreign parts, as well as
" Ills tllDsti dSSIlCub, utu DCSltOcu IllIfl
with many eager queries as to his home
and manner of life. Finally this young
man had touched him on the shoulder
and said, ''Take me back with you to
your mountain, friend. Let me stay
through the summer in your chalet, and
you shall not lose by it,"
II smiled at the good jest" went on
the honest Hans, ''and told him our fare
was coarse and our shelter comfortless
for one of his kind. But he would not
take no.. He loves our mountains he
and hopes to get strength and in
SEPARATION from them for his pictures, for
that is his art. His English name is hard
and strange, so he shall be called Herr
Georg by u.s."
This point having been settled by Hans
with quiet decision, the artist stranger
was received without more formality in
to the simple hospitalities of the chalet,
and soon adapted himself to their prim-
tive ways. What q wonderful life it
was! He breathed the e%xhilarating
mountain air and was shut in but not
imprisoned by these ancient sentinels.
How silent they often were through DAYS
of dazzling sunshine and nights of clear,
cold frost, and again how m~any-voiced
as they echoed the wind and storm and
avalanche, or repeated the wild jodel of
the peasants.
He watched Reinhold, the elder peas
ant, and Hans toiling early andlate with
faithful hearts at their mental
tasks. Perhaps wen more, as was nat
ural, he watched Gretel moving with a
light step about her little kingdom, lend
to each of her household duties an
unconscious dignity. The clouds that
lay beneath them, hiding the val
ley from sight, ~seemed-and he felt it
almost with alarm-to be blotting out
his old life with its achievements and
interests, till they grew faint as a half
dream. He thought ofthis
mountain life as of q picture done with
mastery strokes and rich, pure
coloring, and of his own, in comparison,
as a piece of delicate genre painting, ex-
ecuted with feverish and morbid atten-
ton to detail and finish. And he strove
to attain TO the strength and serenity of