Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1907-04-01
Colo Elsie

By e. MARLITT


lass before the young girls eyes.
The great sombre mGuntain-tops
eemed to draw near, whose granite
jeaks cleft the forest here and there,
rom whose extreme highest point
solitary fir pointed heavenward. Be.
! mind these nearest mountains count
less wood-clad ridges ranged them
themselves in the blue distance; and
In a remote, dusky, valley, that sepa-
rated two hills like cleft, arose two
slender Gothic towers, pale and misty.
A small stream, a highway fringed
18th poplars, and several picturesque
villages completed the background
and enlivened it. In the foreground
| lay castle Lindhof, surrounded by
parks kept in the most superb fash
ION. Below the windows of the cas-
tie stretched a broad, closely-shorn
meadow, upon which small, queerly-
formed beds of blazing tulips were
scattered. Elizabeth's glance wan
dered beyond them, resting refreshed
upon the suggestive shade of an alice
of superb Iindens, with vaulted
crowns far above their mighty trunks
at whose feet a small clear lake nest
| led. For the moment it looked rather
melancholy, in its flower-clad brim,
| for a cloudy heaven was mirrored /?
It's surface.
Having moved the spy-glass rest
lessly from one object to another
Elizabeth now sought resting
place for it, having made discovery
which chained her attention. Be
meath the asst tree in the alice stood
couch, and upon it there lay
young lady She had leaned her
charming head back so that part of
her heavy, chestnut curls fell over
the pillows. Below the hem OF a
long white dress, which draped her
whole figure, two small feet, clad in
gilt-morocco slippers, peeped out.
She held between her slender, almost
transparent fingers a bunch of bios
SONS which she twirled unthinkingly
backward and forward. On her
thin lips there was trace OF red,
otherwise her face was lily white,
and one might have been tempted to
doubt its possessing the warmth OF
life if the blue eyes had not glowed
with wonderous expression.
These eyes and this expression
were directed toward a man who,
sitting opposite seemed to be reading.
aloud to her. Elizabeth could not
see his face, for his back was turned
toward her. He was young. tall,
and slenoer, and had luxuritant
blond hair
rs that charming Lady down there
Baroness Lessen?" asked Elizabeth,
excitedly.
The forester looked at the spy
glass NO" he replied, cit is
traulein Won Wade, the sister of the
proprietor of Lfndhof. You call her
charming, and her head is so; but
her body is crippled. She walks up
on crutches."
At that moment Frau Ferber joined
them. She. too, looked through the
glass and thought the young lady's
phasized especially the expression OF
kindness of heart which illumined
the features.
Yes" said the forester; kind ana
benevolent she is, they say. When
she first came to whole region re-
sounded with her praises; but in chat
respect, too, a new leaf has been
turned over since Baroness Lessen
has been in command. No aims
reach the Ioor which have not first
been weighed in the scales of hypOc-
risy Woe to the poor petitioner! He
gets not a pfennig. and sharp words
into the bargain, if it turns out that
he prefers hearing the pastor IN
Lindhof to the barnoess' family-turor
at the castle chapel, where fire and
birthstone are discharged upon the
heads of the goddess every Sunday"
Such obligatory measures are a
very poor means of awakening a
Christian disposition among the peo-
pie" said Frau Ferber.
They kill it entirely, and cult
Yate hypocrisy, say, shouted the
forester, for the very reason that
they give the example. These people
read in the Bible about Christian hu
mainly, and grow more supercilious
and arrogant every day. They pre-
tend their high-born bodies are made
of altogether different clay from
that of their lowlier brothers in
Christ. When thou givest aims let
not thy left hand know what thy
right hand doeth;' so it is written,
but no hen clucks louder over a new |
laid egg than these people over their
There are collections
lotteries for the benefit of the poor, |
and all that sort of thing, when the |
whole neighborhood is subjected to |
constant extortions. But when it is |
proposed to take where there's most |
to take from-their own purses-the |