The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1882-02-25
The clouds that often Law beneath

thought of this mountain life as of a pic
ture done with simple, mastery strokes
and rich, pure coloring, and of his own
in comparison, as piece of delicate
genre painting, executed with feverish
and morbid attention to detail and
finish. And he strove to attain to the
strength and serenity of those who had
lived habitually on the heights.
Yet Gretel was human and compan-
ionable. One day-a month must have
pass iac6this aTrival-she said to hin.
with gentle solicitude, ri fear you will
not have many sketches to show when
you return to your country, my friend.
This is fine, clear day. Let me fetch
your pencils and paper and you can get
a rare outline of old Dreizacken oppo-
Site"
"But, Gretel, what beautiful day to
gather flowers, and you need the ar
Let us climb to the point where the
Edelweiss grows.
So her mild reproof was as usual I'M
availing. "You see am gathering in
spiration, though my pencil and brush
are idle," he explained to her as they
swung themselves up to a bold promon-
tory where red and pink rhododendrous
blossomed in brilliant profusion. Gretel,
always fleeter and surer than her COM
panion, climbed rapidly to still high
er ledge and brought back in triumph
a beautiful specimen of the pure and
starlike Eidelweiss with its strange WOOL
ly covering. Her face was flushed with
exertion,
Ordinarily it was SO pale and trans
parent that he had sometimes compared
her to the Eidelweiss, though he had
never told her so. Sometimes also,
though not habitually, he had seen
sunrise in the Alps, and his artist-soul
had thrilled, as even an inartistic soul
must, at sight of that marvellous rose
tint which touches and glorifes the cold,
snowy peaks until they seem to glow
with life. OF such a sunrise he thought
now as he looked at the flush on Gretels
cheek. He was right. His artistic sense
was by no means lying as dormant as she
had fancied.
"What beautiful world this is up
here !" she said.
eff only it might remain SO |! But
soon the winter will come, and this hap
by summer be over, and there will be
change and parting, Gretel."
eyes," she said quietly.
The air, the place, the girl and the
flowers wrought sudden mood in him,
a .n,4ee+.Aboth daring and impractical.
els she formed of the white ice of the
glaciers" he thought, "can nothing
thaw her frigid heart ?" Then aloud,
"But need there be parting, Gretel?-
When the cruel winter reigns here with
ice and snow, there is another land
where happy home and bright hearth,
and love and good cheer await our COM
ing"
All, the sunrise glow was in her face
again i! He saw it and triumphed.
Then she turned her full gaze upon
him without trace of self-consciousneSS
or discrimination in it.
"Look at this Eidelweiss, this child
of the mountains, placed here by God
to bloom for Him. Do you not know
how, when the covetous tourist has torn
it from its native soil and transplanted
it to his own, how, in spite of all the
care and tenderness bestowed upon it,
it droops and dies in the uncongenial
soil ? Shall we be deaf to the lesson il
teaches us, my friend? No, l must live
and d1ite-here in my mountains. ltwould
wrong us both to do otherwise. Let us
go down, for l already hear the tinkle
of the cow-bells."
"Neighbor Bachman has moved to-
day to the chalet on the Dreizacken, "
said Reinhold that evening. cit is most
unwise." "Why, Herr George p "Be.
cause it lies in an. unprotected spot, and
avalanche might at any moment sweep
down upon it. 1t has not happened for
many years, but the snow is treacherous
under this warm sun, and l would not
trust my life there"
The next morning the artist sat or
the bench before the chalet Sketching
more busily than he had done since his
arrival. Gretel came out with basket
on her arm. 81 am going to carry some
curds to Frau Bachman, and will return
by noon," she said.
He followed her with his eyes till she
disappeared over the meadow. An houl
must have passed and still he sat musing
The morning was calm and clear, anc
only the distant tinkling of the COW
bells fellupon his ear. Suddenly he was
startled by dull rumbling. 1t coulc
not be thunder, for the sky above hin
was cloudless. 1t grew louder and clear
err. "Great God !" he cried aloud
"the avalanche !" as old Reinhold'
warning flashed upon him with horrible
distinctness, "Gretel has gone to the
dangerous spot.
With the SwiftnesS of terror and de-
spair he followed in the direction she
had taken. Soon he came upon a groul
of awestruck peasants, who had gather
ed at the first signal of the deadly mes
senger, but too late to warn the threat
ened family.
Bachman's cabin with all its inmate
had vanished from sight, and in its plac'
spread vast and pitiless field of ice ant
snow. Search was unavailing, as the.
knew by past experience and SILENT,
admitted to one another.
Gretel and her friends were laid t.
rest like the seer of Israel, and no maj
knew their sepulchre.
REFRESHING his own grief, the arts
endeavored to comfort the unhappy
father and brother in their overwhelm
ing affection.
"Your Gretel was like the pure Eidel
weiss" he said to them, cit blooms i
beauty for time and when its mission
is fulfilled, God gathers it painlessly t
HIMSELF"