Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-06-08

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 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."
| 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, 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
into the simple hospitalities of the cha
| let, and soon adapted himself to their
| primitive ways. What a wonderful life
it was! He breathed the exhileratiRg
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 many
voiced as they echoed the wind and
storm and avalanche, or repeated the
wild jedel of the peasants.
He watched Reinhold, the elder peas
ant, and Hans tOiling early and late
with simple, faithful hearts at their me-
NAL tasks. Perhaps even more, as was
natural, he watched Gretel moving with
light step about her little kingdom,
lending to each of her household duties
an unconscious dignity. The clouds that
often 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
remembered dream. He thought of this
mountain life as of picture done with
simple, mastery strokes and rich, pure
coloring, and of bis own, in comparison,
as piece of delicate genre painting, ex-
ecuted with feverish and morbid atten-
tion 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, too. One day-a month must
have passed since his arrival-she said
to him with gentle solicitude: 81 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 rare outline of old Drei-
zacken opposite.
"But, Gretel, what beautiful day to
gather flowers, and you need the air. Let
US climb to the point where the Edel-
weiss grows"
So her mild reproof was as usual una
vailing.
-.XAn saa ana gathering 1nSpiraJ10n,
Though my pencil and brush are idle"
he explained to her as they swung them
selves up to bold promontory where
red and pink rhodOdendr0ns blessomed
in brilliant profusion. Gretel, always
tieeter and surer than her companion
climbed rapidly to still higher ledge
and brought back in triumph beauti-
full specimen of the pure and starlike
Edelweiss with its strange woolly COW
ering. Her face was flushed with exer-
tion. Ordinarily it was so pale and
transparent that he had sometimes COM
pared her to the Edelweiss, although he
had never told her so. Sometimes also,
though not habitually, he had seen a
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 sunrise he thought |
now as he looked at the flush on Gret- |
els cheek. He was right. His artistic |
sense was by no means lying dormant as
she had fancied.
"What beautiful world this is up
herel" she said.
eff only it might remain sol But soon
the winter will come, and this happy
summer be over, land there will be change |
ane parting, Gretel."
Yes" she said, quietly.
The air, the place, the girl and the
flowers wrought sudden mood in him,
a mood both daring and impractical.
"Is she formed of the white ice of the
glaciers ?" he thought: "can nothing
thaw her frigid hearth" Then aloud:
"But need there be .partiug, Gretel?
When the cruel winter reigns here with
its ice and snow, there is another land
where happy home and a bright hearth
and love and good cheer awaits our
coming"
Ah, the sunrise glow was in her face
again. He saw it and triumphed.
Then she turned her full gaze upon
him without trace of 3elf-conscious-
ness, or diSsimulation in it.
"Look at this Edelweiss, 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 bis own, in spite of all the care and
tenderness bestowed upon it, it droOps
and dies in the uncongenial soil? Shall I
we be deaf to the lesson it teaches US, $
my friend? No, / must live and die ,
here in my mountains. 1t would wrong
down for l hear already the tingle of
the cow-bells."
"Neighbor Bachmaun has moved to-
lay to the chalet on the Dreizacken," {
said Reinhold that evening. 1t is most !
lnwise. Why, Herr Georg? Because |
It lies in an unprotected spot, and an av-
ache might at any moment sweep down {,
upon it. 1t has pr' happened for many
years, but the snow is treacherous un-
Ter this warm sun, and l would not
rust my life there"
The next morning the artist sat on
he bench before the chalet sketching q
more busily than he had done since his
arrival. .,
Gretel came out with a small basket +
IN her arm. Il am going to carry some
;urds to Frau Bachmann and will re- =
urn by noon," she said. r
He followed her with his eyes until
The disappeared over the meadow. An
hour must have passed and still he sat
nusing. The morning was still calm
Ind clear, and only the distant tingling 2
If the cow bell fell upon his car. Sud- )
lsnly he was startled by a dull rum 8
bling. 1t could not be thunder, for the 8