Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-02-27

you nave uOL UtGn uSeu u SuCn low
laughed. you must stoop little
doors lately I am sure in your
castle at home they are as high and
as wide rs our whole house. Aren't
they, now?"
He was already in the tiny room.
AS he turned round to say Good
night" he saw her face blanch sud-
denly, and she put her hand to her
heart. He understood. She was
thinking that he had gone out Of
this room that last time to meet with
that accident in the woods.
Goodnight she stammerad.
and, Herr Jussnitz, if you should be
i'll, you will wake us-you know we
sleep just under you-you look so
misera BILE"
ooh do not distress yourself he
replied; II shall not need anything"
She went away reluctantly. He
heard her descend the stairs, and it
I seemed to him as if something
slipped past her, forced itself
through the crack Of the door, AMI
filled the little room with strange
wailings and laments. Was it mem
DRY?
He seated himself on the edge Of
the bed when he had put out the
light Even then he could see every
thing so distinctly in the moonlight.
He saw the whitewashed walls and
the little mirror over the commode,
! behind which were a few peacOck'S
feathers. He knew every one of the
| little twisted deers horns beside it,
and he saw the charcoal sketches on
the wall, the work of various master
hands, representing all manner OF
whimsical hunting adventures. The
! forester guarded them as he would
the costIiest paintings. Leo himself
had sketched the young Forsterin,
| riding toward the Broken on her
brOmstick with Lola in her lap, who
was bowling at the moon. How the
merry little woman had laughed when
she saw it. And how he had painted
her afterward, and how successful
the picture had been! And how good
little cheeses tasted in the pauses for
luncheon, and the brown, foaming
beer? All, that was life.
He seems to see cleaning, golden
rays stretching out before his eyes.
He raises his hand to catch the
chimmer-but it is gone. And he is
sitting here again, in the twilight OF
an autumn evening two years later
his heart empty, his brain empty, and
his pockets, too. He can succeed in
nothing. The spring of his life
seems broken. He has lost his ideal
lost it in the designations of the
great city, in idle lounging. He has
spent his money great deal OF
money, and he has debts and no
prospect of ever paying them. He is
bankrupt, body and soul, And down
stairs stands a gun-rack OF the
! forester. and there is not a soul to be
| seen in the forest far and wide.
His memory brings back wildly
| the bouquet that Frau Dorchen had
placed on the commOde that day
red mountain-ash berries, yellow
| leaves, and green pine-branches. But
he is no longer here, and far away
outside a shot is heard.
The man sitting on the edge of the
bed shakes With a feverish chill.
Nov the misery is only just be-
ginning," he says to himself. He
sees himself waking in a strange
room, he hears a wonderfully regular
knocking and hammering, the bed
and the curtains are snowy white,
and the sunlight is shining IN
through the windows. He smells the
odor of violets On his coverlid lies
little bunch of the blue blossoms,
chair reposes in deep slumber a
blond, girlish head
What a soft, childish face! He
puts out this hand for the flowers,
awkwardly, clumsily, for his chest
pains him. A low groan wakens the
girl; a pair of clear, greenish eyes,
unfathomable as the sea itself, gaze
at him, and suddenly the face is
overspread with a deep blush. She
starts up and says she will call her
mother.
All the comfortable sensations OF
more; the first attempt at walking
the enchanting green of the trees. the
spring air in the mountains-all this
comes back to him. And then he
sees himself walking in the garden
leaning on the arm of the young girl
The sky above him is deep blue, and
the sun shines warmly on the gravel
of the garden walks; the water foams
and RACES over the dam, and in the
beds bloom the yellow and purple
crocuses. He does not know himself
how it all came about, but all at once
he has asked her if she will be his
And then he heard a Yes a timid
but firm yes"
And now he feels again that
strange sensation that never left hin
from that moment, the feeling tina
: comes over a man when he fees
/ under obligations to another an(
cannot show himself sufficiently ap
5 preciative. 1t is a stupid feeling, anC
, it makes him irritable and nervous
: and unjust. It is too hard to enuur
? magnanimity, too frightfully hard
one is almost ready to hate the pei
2 son to whom one is so much IN
debted, especially when one believe
the giver to be so far beneath one il
intellect, SO far beneath
), Strange, the more he received, tn,
Y more irritable he grew! Absurd
She was his wife, and she had sail
/ to him a thousand times, What i.
mine is yours" And yet, and yet