Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-08-31


md song. The
old belief of the
Mortimer, that those born near the
sound of many waters are endowed
With natui NJ gift of muse, made the
yik hddlers sought far and wide for
the June me. ry makings of st. Johns
fete and bel IRE many houses in the
little village the Wolmar fire burned
brightly in token of the noisy betrothal
within.
Somewhat removed from the gnyety
and revels of the night, the small
white dwelling of old Liof Thure nes-
tied in the long grasses full of clover
blooms, with gravel pathed garden
at one side, overhowing with old fash
ioned pink and white rose trees and
long white fence at the other, leading
down to a quay and the tossing green
ford which looked violet black in the
shadows of the night,
The family of Thure was an old one,
and had lived in the same spot for gen
erations, looking at the grand, gray,
fir clad mountains and the wild, moss
grown boulders, and listening to the
wash of the great water against the
little landing stage. The present oc-
cupants of the place where old Liof
who had never known days variation
from his accustomed routine
in his life time; his six vel
low-haired, strong -limbed sons, who
looked like nothing SO much as pictures
of the old Morse Vikings; and the
pride of her fathers heart, sweet, i'm
perious Gerda, the acknowledged beauty
of Vik, who looked at him with her
mothers eyes and face, and spoke to
him in the tones of the woman whose
life had gone out eighteen years ago
when she gave to her husband the girl
baby for whom he had so longed.
Gerda was wilful and spoiled and
tantalizing. Her brothers had long
lost all patience with her because she
had laughed in the face of every honest
fellow who would have married her.
and because she loved many strange
things that had no beauty to the sons
of Liof Thure the magpies, which are
as much part of Morse scenery as the
invariable birches and pines; the blue
gentians of the snow-capped heights;
the yellow and white water lilies of the
Norwegian tarns, and the lady ferns,
which the first cold snow winds of win
ter tinged with bright scarlet. She
gave to the wind and the weather the
love that should have been husbands.
and worshiped the swift, wild rain
which made the moss and ferns so love
ly, and the flushing of the waters and
the brilliant heavens above them when
the sun went down. She loved to paddle
her boat idly about the shores of the
ford, watching the colors deepening in
the sky, and the gloom which spreads
itself over all nature as the day dies,
when she should have been merrymak-
ing instead, with some Nors. lover,
after the fashion of her people
Of admirers, who would have will
ingly become something dearer, she
had had more than any other maiden
in Vik. She was bright with an intel
hgence far beyond the average Scandi-
navian girl, such as was that OF Hor-
berg, the peasant painter of Sweden
She loved nature with the unconscious
ness of the Greek and the passion of
the German but she was practical and
we'll skilled III the arts which attract a
Morse husband. She could prepare
the flesh of the reindeer most delic.
iously with cream, which is used so
lavishly i'll Norwegian cookery she
knew the concoction of each of
the many cheeses beloved of
the Scandinavian ehe could bnke
great round rye cakes foot and half
in diameter, and so flavor and dry
them for the winter that they we're like
confections; and the large attic
chamber of her fathers house was
hung around with her wardrobe, most
ofwhich was her own handiwork-snow-
white wool aprons with brilliant red
borders, linens, colored prints, en-
broidered bodices, deer-skin coats,
snow shoes and winter boots for Liof
was well-to-do peasant, and had
brought up his daughter in the belief
that plenty Of cleanliness in the
matter of raimant elevated the Nor
wegian woman above her Swedish
sister.
But tonight there was Lo sound of
Joy from the white house so close to
the ford. No light cleaned from the
windows, and hush seemed to have
settled over the place, in marked con
trast to the revels of the neighbor-
hood. Sweet-smelling odors of frag-
rant new made hay filed the air, and
. savage-looking COW. which wore