The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-04-11

of useful but homely plain white china.
Little did the thrifty, godly Amanites
care for such beauty. In Amana a yard
of blue calico was accounted as worth
far more than a dimple.
The sorrows of exile killed Herr
Schweppe when Annie was a child, be-
fore she had grown SO beautiful. Annie
had never seen a mirror, and no n
told her of her beauty. Her mother
gloated over it in secret. She loved An
ME far better than the elders would
have sanctioned, but when the child
was near she was silent and cold. The
life of repression had had its effect on
poor Mother Schweppe.
In Amana the elders discouraged
lovemaking. Men and women entered
the church by different doors, and a
line of sawdust box cuspidors marked
off the mems side of the house. But
among the girls at the Amana gasthaus
were two persons who did not have the
law OF Amana in their hearts. They
were not Amana girls, but came from
outside, for no Amanite would have
permitted his daughter to be subjected
to the gaze of the strangers in the CAST
haus. It was Madge and Nora, alas,
who put all the mischief into Annie's
mind.
June moonlight was falling Eel the
yellow wheatfelds, and the fragrance
of grapevine blossoms on the wall half
intoxicated Annie as she leaned out of
the small, square window next the
slanting roof of her mothers cottage.
It was while Annie was still thinking
of the land that might lie outside of
Amana that Madge and Nora came
along and asked her to go with them to
their party. And Annie stole away and
went.
A ghostly little party it was, of
Madge and Nora and Annie and only
three others in the hotel kitchen, but
as they sat in the glare Of the oil lamp
reflector it seemed to Annie the widest
dissipation. Two sheepish young
Amanites slouched on the bench at n
side of the kitchen, nervously pulling
their straw hats over their faces if any
one glanced at them. The third young
man was entirely unlike these. Annie,
big eyed and timorous, gazed at him in
wonder. He wore such clothes al fitted
him. His ruddy hair was brushed back
from his ears, not over them, in the
fashion of the Amanites. His face was
clean shaven, his figure 1.-THE and
sinewy, and his merry eyes roved hither
and thither while he RECALLED the COM
pany with music. 1t was a mouth organ
which he played, but no matter. To
Annie it was heavenly. She had never
before heard music of any kind, for the
Amanites attached a penalty ever to
whistling. Suddenly Annie was trem-
bling and sobbing, and the player, con-
science smitten, ceased his melody.
He was not a great stranger to her,
as Annie had thought. He had not SO
very many years ago worn the blue
jean and straw hats of the community.
He was none other than Hermann, the
son of Herr Tappan, whom Annie had
often seen in church when a child. The
community had permitted Herr Tappan
to send his son away to a college, for
Hermann was to be the physician of
the community, their Herr Doctor, as
they called him.
Hermann understood the timidity of
Annie. He, too, had once been restrain
ed till all his thoughts were sadness.
He babe the girls take her at once to
her mothers cottage. and he watched
them all till Annie had disappeared
through the window.
But why should the young Herr Doc
tor come to Mother Schweppe's cottage
next day, asking for her famous wine
for his patients2
"Knowest thou not I have disposed
of it long before this timer" cried
Mother Schweppe.
81 thought perhaps thou mightst be
making it again, faltered Hermann.
MAKE wine in June2 What sort of
a mani And Mother Schweppe laughed
loudly and unmelodiously, much as one
of her cabbages might have laughed.
And while her dull eyes were closed
in mirth Hermann crushed into An
MES hand a bit of paper. and Annie,
child though she was, hid herself among
the grapevines before she dared to open
it.
Thou art most beautiful I love
thee. That was all.
After that it was easy for Annie to
climb down by the grapevine from her
window, and once she went alone with
Hermann far down the solitary railroad
track. But Madge loved Hermann, too,
in her way, and, being jealous, she told
Annie's mother.
The next day the elders came to
Mother Schweppe's house. No one smil-
ed, and the interview was full of long
silences. Annie was taken down the
street, an elder in front of her and an
elder behind her. They put her in a
house, far away from her mother, and
gave her a double portion of work. Her.
mann, too, was taken to a c~loister.
though he went laughing.
Six months separation, six months
fasting, prayer and hard work was re-
quired, and if after that ordeal the two
still wished to be married the elders
would consider the matter.
A week passed. Hermann and Annie
had sat in their places at the morning
service, and it CHANGED that they, with
meekly folded hands, emerged from the
two doors of the church at the same
moment. Suddenly each one advanced
to the other they met and walked away
together. The elders were SO astounded
that for a moment NO one could speak.
There had never been such an audacious
breach of the rules. Even the most ven
cradle members of the community were
d~umfounded.
The whistle of an approaching train
awoke them all to action. "Disobedi-
ence!' the chief elder cried, and all the
elders hurried down the street to the
railway station. Here they found Her
mann and Annie, impenitent and def
ant. There was a brief storm of angry
words.
eve give you but one year to con-
slider, said the long faced chief elder.
"You may never show your faces here
again if you come not back within the
year"
Thou, Hermann, leavest thy aged
father, and thou, Annie, thy mother"
said another, more kindly.
Annie looked down at her blue calico
gown and her rough shoes. "What have
they done for us p she cried.
They assembled the steps of the car.
"'Give them goodbyl" called Hermann
petulantly. 1--WE come back no more. "
And the train pulled away.
"An the world loves a lover" said
Herr Tappan to Mother Schweppe sad
ly, "but the lover loves no one but him
self and his sweetheart"
SO Hermann and Annie went to the