The Iola register., 1891-05-08
KAD0UR AND KATEI.
SENTIMENTAL EPISODE, AND WHAT
CANE OF IT.

Kadour- Ben .Cherifa, Sergeant Major
of Il Algerian Sharpshooters, was be-
lieved to be dying when he was carried
into old Ripperts saw mill on the Sauer-
bach. For five long weeks he lived as
in dream, parched with fever and
raked with the pain of his wound. Some
lines 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 Matimata,.
At length he opened his eyes and be-
came dimly conscious of being in a cool
clean room, with white curtains at the
windows, and outside green branches
waving, and light clouds passing lefore
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 a clear
young voice which seemed to him as re-
freshing as the sound of the brook that
ran murmuring under the windows of
the mill.
Kadour was i'll for a long time, but
;he Ripperts took such good care of him
that his wounds healnd, and they con-
cssslsd him So cleyerly that the Prus-
siaihs Were not able to send him to die
of cold in easement Of Mayence. Soon
c began to talk, sl9wing his white
teeth; then he took a few steps round
he room with one sleeve hanging
Empty, and a great gaping hole in the
midst of the embroidery, and his arm
sill bandaged and helpless. Then lie
vent every day into the garden, and
Katel would bring out 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
;tudied in the Arabian college at AL
siers, would thank her in French, which
ounded little barbarous.
Without sGspecting it the young Turk
was falling under spell. The easy
gayety of the French maiden, who lived
as free as bird, her face unveiled even
n the open air, and her window un-
barred, astonished, while it fascinated
I'm 1t was so different from the
vailed 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
ne 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
ease her, said, in his foreign jargon, "Ka-
lour soon marry-have four wives
four" the girl exclaimed angrily,
-Four wives? Oh, the villain, the
pagan!"
The Turk burst out laughing as glee-
fully as child, then suddenly growing
serious and silent, he fixed his great
lark 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 o.d
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.
rho1a \,
interrupted series of diffas and fantasies,
all the Kaids ard 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
.ess merry laugh of Katel. The little
perpetual prattling of the Arab women,
i hich had once made his heart beat
with pleasure, now fatigued and an
Ioyed him; he could not admire their
orange flower wreaths, and wide trous-
rs of rose colored satin, but thought
'Dly of pair of long braids having no
earl adornments, yet shining like
-olden threads under the setting sun, in
little Alsatian garden far away. And
yet, if Kadour would but look about
him, lie could see a 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 were 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 those blue eyes. mingled with |
tie memory of his convalescence and
the soft tempered air Of France, faded |
from his mind. At last Kadour had for
gotten Katel, and throughout the valley
of the Chelif nothing was talked of but
his approaching marriage with Yamina,
the daughter of the Aga of Djendel
One morning long train of mules
was seen vending toward town; Kadour-
ben Cherifa and his father were going
to buy the wedding presents. Aday was
spent by them in the bazaar choosing |