The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-01-30
KADOUR AND KATEL.
A SENTIMENTAL EPISODE, AND WHAT
CAME OF IT.

| n IAL EHloOOG, AMI WAA1
CAME OF IT.
Kadour Ben -Cherifa, Sergeant Major
of the Algerian Sharpshooters. was be.
lieyed to be dying when he was carried
into old Ripperts saw mill on the Sauer-
bach. For five long weeks he lived as
in a dream, parcled with fever and
raked with the pain of his wound. Some
times he thought he was in battle again,
shouting and bouncing across the flax
fields and hop gardens of Wissenbourg;
at other times he fancied himself once
more at home in Algiers with his father,
the Kaid of Matimatas.
At length he opened his eyes and be-
came dinly conscious of being in cool
clean room, with white curtains at the
windows, and outside green branches
waving, and light clouds passing before
the sun. Near his bed sat little Sister
of Charity, watchful and quiet, wearing
indeed no silver cross, no rosary, no veil,
but, instead, two long braids of yellow
hair falling over black velvet bodice.
From time to time some one would call
@Katel, Katel!" and the peasant girl
would go on tiptoe out of the room, and
then the invalid would hear clear
young voice which seemed to him as re-
freshlng as the sound of the brook that
ran murmuring under the windows of
the mill.
Kadour was i'll for long time, but
the Ripparts took such good care of him
that his wounds healed, and they con-
cealed him so cleverly that the Prus-
slams were not able to send him to die
of cold in a easement of Mayence. Soon
he began to talk, showing his white
teeth; then he took a few steps round
the room with one sleeve hanging
empty, and great gaping hole in the
midst of the embroidery, and his arm
still bandaged and helpless. Then he
went every day into the garden, and
Katel would bring out a rush seated
arm chair for the invalid, putting it
down in the warmest corner by the wall,
where the grapes ripened earliest, and
Kadour, who being Kaid's son, had
studied in the Arabian college at AL
giers, would thank her in French, which
sounded little barbarous.
Without suspecting it the young Turk
was falling under a spell. The easy
gayety Of the French maiden, who lived
as free as bird, her face unveiled even
in the open air, and her window un-
barred, astonished, while it fascinated
him. 1t was SO different from the
walled up life of his country women,
with their white lemon scented wells.
Katel, on her part, thought the
stranger a little too dark skinned, but
he had such a frank face, and he
hated the Prussians so! One thing dis
pleased her terribly, and that was that
over there in Algeria man might have
several wives. She could not under
stand that and one day when Kadour to
tease her, said, in his foreign jargon, "Ka-
dour soon marry-have four wives
four" the girl exclaimed angrily,
Sour wives? Oh, the villain, the
paganl"
The Turk burst out laughing as glee-
fully as child, then suddenly growing
serious and silent, he fixed his great
dark eyes upon her face. That was the
beginning
Kadour, completely cured, went home
to his mother, and one can imagine the
festivities that were held in his honor in
the land of the Matimatas. The reed
flutes and drums played their sweetest
airs to welcome him, and when the old
Kaid, seated in his doorway, saw coming
down the cactus walk the beloved son
whom he thought dead, he trembled as
if with ague under his white burnous
For whole month there was an un-
interrupted series of diffas and fantasies,
all the Kaids and agas of the neighbor-
hood disputed for the honor of enter
tanning ,Kadour-den- -Cherifs, and every
evening, in the Moorish cafes he was en-
treated to describe the battle in which
he had fought
But alas! all these fetes and honors
did not make him happy. In the midst
of the souvenirs of his childhood, his
horses, his grayhounds, his arms, and
all the splendors of his fathers mansion
there was one thing wanting-the art
less merry laugh of Katel. The little
perpetual prattling of the Arab women,
WHICH had once made his heart beat
with pleasure, now fatigued and an
noyed him; he could not admire their
orange flower wreaths, and wide trous-
ers of rose colored satin. but thought
only of a pair of long braids having no
pearl adornments. yet shining like
golden threads under the setting sun, in
a little Alsatian garden far away. And
yet, if Kadour would but look about
him, he could see pair of beautiful
black eyes made languid with kohl,
watching him from behind the grated
windows of an Aga's house not far
distant Kadour cared not for them;
what he longed for was Katers quick
glance round his sick room to see if any
thing We're wanting for his comfort; he
sighed for the blue eyes in which the
light played as brightly as in drops Of
clear spring water
Little by little, however, the tender
charm Of thoaa blue eyes. mingled with