The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1882-02-25
EIDELWEISS.
BY LILLE A. MERCUR.

Do you know the Eidelweiss, the rare
and beautiful flower of the Alps? Its
home is on the steepest and most mac
cessible cliffs, and the daring noun
taineer who risks his life to procure
calls it rightly the "Royal White" of
the mountains.
In one part of the great chain of the
Tyrolese Alps, one peak rises conspicu-
ously above its neighbors-a giant
among his brothers. A snowy hood
envelopes his mighty head, and heavy
growth of fir and spruce forms a shaggy
beard, below which a green robe of
beautiful pasture land sweeps down to
the valley at his feet, where a rushing
mountain 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 cattle where
the Semen or shepherds of the valley
pasture their flocks and garner hay and
feed for winter use.
A middle-aged man in the picturesque
costume of the Alpine peasant is busy
before one of the sheds, and young
girl, also in peasant garb, stands before
the door of the adjoining chalet, and
shading her eyes with her hand, gazes in
tently down the path leading to the
valley.
DWELL, Gretel," says the man ap-
preaching her and speaking in the gut
tural but not unpleasant German of the
Tyrol, "What dost thou seek p
The girl started. 81 cannot think
why Hans is so late tonight, father"
"Never fear for Hans, my girl. He
is as sure-footed as the channels, and
knows every pass of the mountain blind
fold.
But thou art pale, child. Mother must
see roster cheeks when we 60 down to
the valley, or she will never trust thee to
my care again" He was interrupted
be loud, clear Jodel, re-echoing from
cliff to cliff through the quiet mountain
air. The girl sprang lightly down the
path, the elder man followed at more
leisurely gait. At the first turn she met
the delinquent-a tall and sturdy young
peasant, who bent to kiss her after their
custom first on one cheek and then on
the other.
He was handsome fellow, this Hans,
with his loose green jacket and his black
leathern breeches, which were short
enough to show the bare knee, tanned
and ruddy from exposure. He carried
an alpenstock in his hand and glossy
cocks 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 young man of foreign dress and air,
who paused painting and flushed from
the usual 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 simply
how he had gone into the town of x. to
sell his punches of rare flowers, and had
been stopped before the Gasthaus by a
group of English tourists. The ladies
had bought his flowers at high price,
and, with the Unsuitable curiosity of
travellers in foreign parts, as well as to
his embarrassment, had besieged him
with many eager questions 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,
81 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
says, and hopes to get strength and in
spiration from them for his pictures, FOL
that is his art. His English name
is hard and strange, so he shall be called
Herr George by u.s."
This point having been settled by
Hans with quiet decision, the artist
stranger was received without more for
mality into the simple hospitalities Of
the chalet, and soon adapted himself tc
their primitive ways.
What a wonderful life it was He
breathed the enhilarating mountain air.
and was shut in but not imprisoned, by
these ancient sentinels. How silent
they often were through days of daz
cling sunshine and nights of clear, colo
frost, and again how many-voiced "a
they echoed the wind and storm anc
avalanche, or repeated the wild Jodel O
; the peasants.
He watched Reinhold, the elder peas
ant, and Hans toiling early and late witt
simple, faithful hearts at their menta
tasks. Perhaps even more, as was ma
tural, he watched Gretel moving with ;
light step about her little kingdom
lending to each of her household duties
an unconscious dignity.