The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1885-06-13
A Story Of VILLAGE Love.

A Story Of Village Love.
For once, if you like, we will leave
politics out of the question. Indeed, IL
would be difficult for me TO do other
wise. am writing youin the midst OF .
forest-from this good old village OF
Vivario, surrounded by honest folks, |
who think more of their work than of |
politics. The latest newspaper that | |
have read is seven or eight days old; the |
most interesting news travels slowly to |
this beautiful spot; the inhabitants,
who are too busy to gossip, have a
horror of chit-chat, and are scarcely
more talkative than the pines and myrtle |
bushes. SO ! will tell you village
story, and I am going torelate it Just as
it was told to myself, scarcely an hour
ago.
As you may well imagine, young
girl and a youth are concerned in the
story, and consequently love is the
theme. The youth, a little shepherd of
the forests of Palneca, loved young girl
of the Santo Pietro, the cool mountain
village where the fashionable ladies of
Aiaccio go to spend the summer. The
young girl also loved the youth. They
had told each other so, and had pledged
themselves to one another, and think
that from time to time they kept their
promise, for never in the memory Of
shepherds were the flocks of Paenca so
often seen grazing on the pastures of
Santo Pietro. But the end of all this,
the upshot of all these rromenados, was
certainly marriage. They believed so,
at least, as though since Romeo and
Juliet the course of true love had always
run smooth
At the first word of marriage the faith
er of the young girl, the fated Capulet,
flew into terrible passion, so terrible
that for several days after the flocks of
Palneca did not dare to wander near the
hillside of Santo Pietro. But on the
fifth day the young girl, who knew her
classics, fell i'll, and then was repeated
the great scene in the "Rantzau'' the
cruel father at the bedside of his dying
daughter and far out in the country the
plaintive notes of the shepherds reed
pipe.
At last the father relents:
"We will see about that he said,
latter he has drawn his conscript's
number, and has served his time. do
not want you TO have husband who
will be compelled to leave you as soon
as you are married"
How came it that in this country
where there is no telegraph the shepherd
an hour afterward knew. what had been
said? The fact is, that on entering the
village he had only one idea uppermost
in his kaleidoscope from his term of
military service. The shepherds of Pal
neca are not lacking in resources, and
ours in question was by no means stupid.
The next day, while cutting wood in the
forest, he, as if by accident, gave his
right hand a smart blow with his hatchet
and severed three fingers. Now let the
military examination take placel He
went home and tended his hurt as well
as he was able; and when the wound
was healed and he had been rightly and
duly exempted, he went to Santo Pietro,
and bravely repeated his offer.
81 am not going to serve in the army"
he said, ''for am sure they will never
take me. You can marry us now."
But the father stopped him by word.
"Never," he cried, ''will give my
daughter to one who is MANNED"
And it was apparent by his tone Of
voice that he meant what he said. In
spite of his daughters illness he re.
mained inexorable. 1t was clear that
the old man did not want a MANNED son.
in-law. He made but one reply to the
prayers and tears of this young girl.
'Never, you thoroughly understand
never And don't let him come hanging
around here any more. Cripples ought
to marry cripples. Let him marry the
blind girl of Palneca, or the hunchback
of Santa Andrea"
The young girl did not reply, and not
once during her illness did she speak OF
her shepherd. When she was conyale,
cent she was seized with longing for
the forest and the open air, and every
day took long walks by the hillside OF
. Palneca by the roads that her flocks
/ knew so well. One morning after a
long search she again came across the
' little shepherd, pale and haggard, like a
: shepherd tired of this world
l 'Show me your wounded hand" she
g said.
r He showed it to her bashiully. and
p'ously she pressed it to her lips.
e ''Show me-" she said to him again
$ ''the hatchet which wounded you"
Y He took it and showed it to her. Then
: raj, ing it and placing her hand on q
G stcn3:
| "This is how you did it, isn't it; thi:
b is how the accident happened?"
4 And before the shepherd was able tC
, reply the hatchet had fallen, the stone
/. was Redeemed, and beside it lay the three
fingers of the pretty maid of SantC
Pietro.
"Now, shepherd. " she said, "shoN
+, me how you healed your wound"
And together they returned to SantC
t Pietro, he with tears in his eyes and she
+ radiant. What could the father dol