New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-03-07
KADOUR AND KATEIl

kADOUR AND kA'TEA.
Kadour- ben Cherifa, sergeant major in
a native regiment Of tirailleurs, was al
most dying the evening they carried him
to Rippert's sawmill on the Sauerbach,
and for five long weeks, racked by the
pain Of his wounds and burning with
fever, he lived as though in dream.
At times he thought himself still in the
thick of battle, shouting and leaping
through the faxfelds of Wissembourg
Or, again, he was away off in Algeria, in
the house of his father, the caid of the
Matmatas.
At last one day he opened his eyes and
became vaguely conscious of a bright,
calm, white curtained room, with green
branches swaying outside it's windows in
the soft, tempered,sunshine, and near his
bed silent little sister Of charity, but
little sister without beads or silver cross
or blue veil; only two heavy braids she
had, falling down over velvet bodice.
out, 'Katel! Katelv and the girl would
go away on tiptoe, and the wounded boy
could hear in the distance sonorous
young voice, as refreshing to listen to as
the brook running under the sawmill's
windows.
Kadour- ben Cherifa has been ill a long
time, but the Ripperts have taken such
good care Of him that his wounds are
healed, and they have hidden him so we'll
that the Prussians have not found him
to send him to die Of cold in the Mayence
prisons. Now he commences to talk, to
show his white teeth and to take few
steps around the room, letting one of his
sleeves-the one with a wide, gaping
hole in the midst Of it's embroideries-
fall empty over awell dressed and ban
daged but still impotent arm. Every day
Katel carries wicker chair down into
the little sawmill garden for the conva-
lescent and finds for him the sunniest
corner, along the wall, where the grapes
ripen quickest, and Kadour, who, being
a caid's son, was educated at the Arabian
college in Algiers, thanks her in some
what barbarous French, we'll sprinkled
with bono bezeffs and macach bonos.
Without realizing it, the young Arab
is under SPELL This easy gayety of a
Frankish girl, whose life is as free as
birds, without enveloping wells out of
doors or barred windows at home, aston
ishes and enchants him. So different
from this is the clustered life Of the
women of his land the little white
masked, musk perfumed Moorish wom-
en-. Katel, on her side, finds Kadour
trife too black, but he seems so good, so
brave, and he does so detest the Prus-
slams! One thing only troubles her. Off
there in that Algeria of Africa men have
the right to marry several wives. Katel
cannot understand that at all, so when
the Algerian, to tease her, says in his
jargon: "Kadour marry soon. He take
four wives-four!'' Katel becomes very
angry.
"Oh, what wicked Kadour! What u
heathen!'
Then the Arab laughs hearty boys
laugh, but suddenly he becomes serious
again and is mute before the young girl,
opening upon her eyes so wide-so wide
you would thing he wished to carry her
away in their gaze.
1t was thus that the loves of Kadou1
and Katel commenced.
Now that he is we'll, Kadour has re-
turned to his father, and you can mag
Inc II there has been merrymaking in
his honor in the land of the Matmatas.
The reed flutes and little Arab drums
have played their prettiest airs to receive
him. AS the old caid, who was sitting
before his door, saw in the distance
coming down the cactus alley this be-
loved son whom he thought dead, he
shook under his wooden burnoose as
though with chill. For a whole month
there was an uninterrupted series of diff
fas, OF fantaslas, in the tribe. The caids
and agas OF the neighborhood disputed
with each other the honor of having Ka-
dour- ben-Cherifa for their guest, and ev-
cry evening in the Moorish cafes thew
would make him tell them over and over
again OF the great battles in which he
had taken part.
But all these honors, all this feasting
do not make Kadour the happier. In
the paternal abode, surrounded though
he be by all the associations of his bow
nood-his horses, his dogs, his guns
there is something always laclSing-Ka-
tells CHEEKY words and pleasant laughter.
The perpetual chatter of the Arabian
women, which used to cause his heart to
beat so quickly, now wearies and annoys
him. He no longer admires headdresses
Of coins nor wide trousers Of rose col
ored satin. Talk to him rather of long
braids falling down, without pearls or
gauze or flowers, only intermingled with
threads of gold from the setting sun in q
little Alsatian garden.
But if Kadour would? In the NEXT