Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1907-03-25


opinion, in my own stupid mind, that
/ her heart is in the right place, but
/ if pretty Lies'chen the prettiest and
/ Qantiest maid in the village, had
mounted into the gold frames, in
! silk train, and with SO many jewels
upon her breast and in her hair, and
| the Moor with the silver tray stood
| behind her snow-white face, as he did
in the picture of the noble woman,
| she would have been a thousand
times more beautiful than the lady
that was really bitterly ugly, and had
| two straight black lines above her
eyes, that she drew up to her hair
with sheer insolence But she was
just the one that the whole family
was proud of. She was said to have
been naughty rich countess, but
hard and unfeeling as a stone
Among the men there was but one
that I liked to look at. He had a
| dear, true-hearted face and a pair of
eyes black as sloes And it was
true him, that the best suffer most
in the world. AS far as anyone knows
all the rest of the whole long line
hourlshed and throve Many of them
brought misfortune enough in the
world, and laid themselves down on
their death-beds none the less as
quietly a if everything had been ac-
cording to the letter of the law
To come back to Jost Won Gn~-a
WITT, he met right sorry fate. Ny
great-grandmother grandmother
knew him when he was a little child
they called him the wild huntsn1qn
IN those days, because he never came
out of the woods the whole day long.
He was painted in green hunting-iac
k t, too, with long white feather in
MS nat, that I always admired so
greatly against his curly black hair.
But he was good and never would
nave harmed a child The people
IN TIE village plospered in his dav.
ana wished it might last forever.
But once he was absent for a
time; no one knew where he was I'M
u at last, he returned one night no
one knew whence or wherefor
But from that time on he was like
one transformed He took none of
their privileges from the Lindorf peo-
pie, it's true, but they never saw their
master again. He sent all the ser
wants away. and lived alone by him
self in the old castle with his favo~ite
valet
AT hrSt, the people grew suspicios
OF his practising the black art I'D
there, and no living being ventured
up the mountain in bright daylight
to say nothing OF the night. But
the old gre grandmother was a dar-
ing thlng IN her youth and let her
goats pasture close to the castle
wall. One day he was sitting quiet
~ thinking, under a tree looking to
ward the wall, wondering how high
1t might be and what was behind if
ana diI at once there comes a snow
white arm over it, and then a face
my grandmother's great grandmother
said II was more beautiful than the
sun, moon and stars-and at LAST.
with a leap, there STOOD a young girl
UP there, stretching her arms in the
air and calling something the goat
8irI could not understand, and in an
other moment she would has sprung
INTO the water that stood in the moat
around the castle in those days.
But, all at once, there was Jost be-
hlnd her, grasped her, struggled with
her, struggled with her, besought and
entreated her till it must have novel
hA4Pf 01o1
hair stood straight upon his head for
anxiety and terror Then he seized
her In his arms and carried her off
like child, away from the wall. But
the girls veil fell from her head and
1oated down to the goat-birl, my an
cestor' and she carried it home to
her father with great joy. But he
was terrified, and threw it Straight
into the fire for devils spook, and he
never let the girl go up the mountain
again.
"Later-it must have been a full
year that Jost lived so quietly up at
the castle-down the mountain ne
comes on horseback. But no one
would have known him, so altered
was his face. And it looked all the
whittier for his bein dressed in coal
black clothing. He rode slowly and
nodded sorrowfully to every one he
met. He rode away, and never came
back He was killed in bat
tie, and his old servant too, that was
with him. 1t was in the Thirty Years
War;
'And the beautiful girl?" asked
Elizabeth.
"Noe--ng more was ever seen Or
heard of her. Jost deposited a large
sealed package at the Rathhaus, IN
L, and said that it was his will, to
be opened when the news II his death
came But there was a great fire in
L., and many houses, the churches.
and even the Rathhaus, were burnt to
tie ground with everything that was
| in them