Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1885-02-07
Casting Nets.

In some portions of Germany no one
can marry who has not a certain sum of
money. If the would-be bride and
bridegroom together cannot swear that
they have savings to a certain amount,
and cannot show proof of the statement,
they must remain single; and nobody
considers this law a hard one but the
lovers themselves.
So thrifty are the people that parents
are generally able to give their daughters
a sufficient portion, and q young man
who has had any chance whatever is usu-
ally beforehand with the world in a very
short time.
Gretchen and Peter, however, were
both orphans, children of men who had
been sent away from their families to
which they cared nothing. They were,
therefore, without anything to start with,
and both had had younger brothers and
sisters to provide for from the first mo-
ment they could earn a little money.
They loved each other, but without pOr-
tons could not marry; and as time went
on and changed them from a Girl Of
eighteen and a youth of twenty to a
woman of thirty-tWO, they began to de-
spair. But they were very fond Of each
other for all that; and Gretchen would
not marry Hans, who was rich, and
could have shown money enough for
both. They worked on in the same
farmhouse, maid-servant and man
servant, all this while, and Gretchen
thought cOunstantly what to do to raise
the sum required.
At last it occurred to her to beseech
the aid of the Bible by opening it with
sharp point, and reading the sentence
on which it lay. She did this at twelve
o'clock on st. Peters night, kneeling;
and the words beneath her point was
there:
sea-"
Poor Gretchen pondered this sentence
carefully. She tried to twist It every
possible way, but still she was too literal
to take any view of the matter, save that
she had received advice to 90 a fishing.
Therefore, on the very next holiday she
said to Peter:
"My friend, take a fshingneta and come
with me, and let US go down to the sea
and fish little"
Peter stared at her in blank amaze
ment.
"What for?' he asked. "What for?
You don't love fish particularly, and it
viii cost pretty penny to 90 to the
sea, and you would like to go to a fair
better, l know. AS for me, I never eat a
bit Of fish, and 1 don't care if I never
catch one"
''Nor y, except just now, said Gretchen;
GL0 bLO 6O4u EllAl W1ldB she nau QOQe,anO
what the answer had been.
Peter was as Supplemented as she was.
He, too, sat down and thought, but the
only answer he could get from it was
Gretchen's, He dared not doubt a Bible
answer, so he agreed to do as she wished.
They asked for a long holiday He Dor
rOWed net, and they started for a sea
side town together.
Arrived there, they ate the bread and
drank the bottled beer they had brought
with them, looked at the vast expanse of
ocean without much admiration, and pro-
ceeded to do as they were directed. Peter
cast the net, and caught nothing.
Gretchen did the same, with the same
result.
So they went on for hours, humbly ex-
pecting something to happen, and feeling
that the message Of the Bible must have
had meaning, until at last Peter said:
Vel, Gretchen, my dear woman, we've
tried this audit has failed like everything
else. We'vespent Ourmoney for nothing,
and wasted our holiday finely, aud if we
don't start we shan't be home tonight,
and then thereu be a pretty kettle OF
hsh for Us at home. We shall maybe
lose our places who lnOWs?''
Gretchen arose with a tear in her eve
Yes" she said, cit meant something
else-that verse-Only 1 could not under
stand. 1 VIII cast the net once. and
then Well be of 20 the railroad station
Put on your shoes and stocking while J