The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-02-27
SELECT STORY.
AN ALPINE BRIDE.

teen.
They ~orc both natives OF the vii |
lage oi Sargaus. a name some English |
travellers may remember noticing on
| the line from Coire to Zurich, though |
it is very unlikely that they ever spent
a longer time there than the two min
utes that the train waits 1T the station,
for there is nothin x TO tempt them todo
So 1t is commonplace Swiss village,
in valley only fertile enough to sup
port about half of its population, and
obliging the res! to travel to the cities
or to cmigrate to other lands.
Christmas father was one of the
richest and most important men in the
place. He lived next door to the inn,
in good-sized, imposing-looking white
house, part of the ground floor of which
he used as a bake e-house-for he was
himself the baker.-and the other part
of it as the shop to sell his bread in.
Before she married, Christina had tried
for little while to manage the shop;
but she did not like having to stay in
it all day long, just in case any one
should want to be served and as she
was an only aud a motherless girl, and
her father had INDUCED her all her
life, he soon engaged middle aged
woman for the business of the shop,
and allowed Christina liberty TO do as
she pleased. She generally spent part
of her mornings in the bake.house, not
where the b'g ovens were and 1t was
hot and her father too busy putting in
1.-THE loayes to notice her, but in cool
clubhouse, where her father mixed the
dough and left it to rise. She liked TO
watch him baudle it so cleverly, and
she generally pursuaded him, when
all the black bread for the village was
done, to make her few delicious white
rolls such as she had tasted once at a
hotel in Zurich. She knew exactly
when the said white rolls would be
baked and. after working in the house
aud getting the dinner ready (Which
being a true Swiss maiden, was a pleas
ure to her), she would trot down again
to the bake house just when her father
was taking them out of the oven, and
would sit on the steps OF the front
door and eat them. For Christina was
rather proud of showing how she was
spoilt and petted in having white rolls
made on purpose for her.
Her lover, Hans Jeni, many and
many time came to her as she sat
there, and, accepting one of her prot
fered rolls, leant against a door-post
and looked dowE at her, enjoying his
lew of her small round figure and
sweet, innocent young face. She was
brown-eyed, brown skinned girl, with
masses of soft hair of a golden brown
shade, growing artistically round her
low forehead. She might have passed
unnoticed in crowd, because she was
small aud unpretending; but she was
undoubtedly the belle of Sargans; and
perhaps many larger place has not
boasted such popular one, because
Christina "was kind as she was fair"
Her fortunate lover, Hans Jeni, was
twelve years her senior, and had
known and loved her ever since she
was little girl toddling at her fathers
side. He was an orphan, brought up
by his grandmother to follow his un'
cle's calling; that is in the winter time
he lived at Sargans and carved wood,
but the summer months he spent In
the high Engandine valley as guide
coming down from thence in the au
tum with pocket full Of money and
splendid stock of health and spirits
He had spent his first summer in the
mountains when he was fifteen, going
up with his uncle, Peter Jeni. who was
u well-known Engadine guide, anc
with him doing some Of the easier ac
cents, carrying snapsacks and provis
ions to the foot of the mountains ano
learning the first principles of glacier
climbing. His uncle was well pleased
with him, and told him that his head
was as steady as rock, that he hat
Unlimited nerve, pluck and energy, anc
that tn, re was in him the making of Q
first-rate guide. When Hans heard
that he made up his mind that ht
would not waste his capabilities. b,
the time he was five and twenty ht
had been up every peak in the Enga
\ dine, and most of those in the Tyrol
\ and by the time he was thirty Pete
Jeni would probably point out to stran
gers his nephew and pupil as the bes
guide in the east of Switzerland, ant
such he probably was. He was splen
didly made man, tall and strong, will
regular features, keen gray eyes, and
fair skin sunburnt and Christina an
swercd her own question with an em
phatic negative, when she asked her
self if there was a better sight in the
world than Hans presented as he start
ed for the mountains the year before
: they married, in his suit of strong gray
HON, spun, his knapsaCk made of cham
ois skin on his back, the rope coileC
round and hung over his left shoulder
his ice-ax in his hand.
If Christmas father could have cho
sen he would have preferred that hi
daughter should not marry man who
from his calling must necessarily b.
much away from her, for he knew thu
tender clinging love which he woulC
bestow upon her husband, and dreaded
for her the pain of separation bu
then he dreaded any and all pain fol-
: her, and since she loved Jeni, and he
was a good fellow and loved her, too
it would obviously distress her less tc
part with him sometimes than to b'
separated from him always,
And so all the Sargans was en- fet'
for Christmas wedding, 1t was OF
the LIST of July, her eighteenth birth
day; Jeni had put off going to thu
mountains that year until later thar
usual, that he might take his bride
with him for holiday-a honeymoon
The villagers in after years used to tell
with tears in their eyes, how that wed
ding was the pret,iest sight they haC
ever seen the handsome young coupl,
coming out Of the church hand il
hand, and Christmas father, with hi
iron glay hair and stern though kindl!