Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1908-08-05
! 9ke Pastors Daughter
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when the door of my room opened,
( and as l turned l looked into the kind
old face of Frau Renner. She put
/ her arms round me while / stood
trembling at the window, and saw the
| coffin carried out of the house. The
! drums beat, the Dead March was
! struck up, and the procession began
to move; but looked after the flower
decked coffin, and convulsiVely
clasped the little woman's hands till
it had disappeared round the corner
of the street
Then l turned away and said
again: Farewell, farewell; it is all
over now!'
Frau Renner led me to the sofa,
put her arms round me and tried to
speak, but her grief was too much for
her. She only cried quietly, and so
we sat there, while out there in the
church-yard they lowered him into the
cold. frozen earth-he who was my
happiness, my all!
Then I started up; the ringing
notes of a gay march struck On H.
ear; they were returning from the
grave, and the quick, merry notes
sounded every moment louder and
nearer. All, it had been his favorite
march; those notes had been sound
ing that time when he first came to
Bendeleben, and ne had looked into
my eyes so gayly when the band of
the regiment was playing on the great
lawn before the castle. oh, youth, life
is wonderfully weet!' he had said
then, and l had agreed and rejoiced
with him. TIE very last time saw
him he had been whistling that air,
rocking his child upon his knee.
ooh, these memories! How they
seized upon me, showing me what
happiness I had lost! But what the
fr4ghtfuI present had not been able
/ 10 effect was accomplished by these
thoughts of blissful past. l threw
my arms around the neck of the good
old friend, and Wept out Of the depths
of my tortured heart.
Thank God, she is crying at
Iast!' was all the old lady said.
and, now, my dear young friend
I have little more to say. All that
made my life valuable was sunk with
him in the grave, what followed was
no longer life, it was only a vegetat-
ing, without interest Of any kind.
Il have had many heavy blows to
bear since then; but joy, that well
come guest, has never taken up her
abode with me. Many persons have
been friendly to me, and after the
first terrible years I learned to return
, their friendship and affection; but
for me, l could not rejoice again-I
had forgotten how IN those .rightful
! hours.
Soon after that I had stood quite
alone by Katharine's lowly grave,
while I was still young and unable to
do without a chaperone, though ever
so feeble a one. They had offered me
home at Bendeleben, as Eberhard's
child had long pinned after me. l
could teach him and train him, Frau
Won Bendeleben said | felt a little
pride about it; I would not be the
governess, where had expected to be
the mother, of the child. Then | feared
too, my own weakness, and that
might not be able to endure the part
ing, if his mother should take it into
her head to send for him to go to vi
emma And l was right. Ruth married,
for the third time, young Prince
Bodresky and, as the marriage was
childless one, the prince afterward
adopted his step-son. He was brought
up in the Catholic faith, to which
Ruth also was converted, and seems,
with his mothers beauty, to have in
herited her shallow nature. He was
married long ago, and it is only
thanks to his princely fortune and the
enormous dover of his wife that ne
has not yet succeeded in running him
self. All, sometimes think that if God
had only permitted his father to live,
and if we two had brought him up, he
might have been made into something
of man after all. But as it was, made
effeminate by the eXtravagant luxury
with which his mother surrounded
him. put into the care of a tutor with
out conscience, brought UP in the
dangerous principles of the Jesuits,
could it be otherwise?
$50 I remained firm and would
not go to Bendeleben, although Han
ma was very much hurt. went to
Frau Renner, the simple little soul,
who kindly offered me an asylum in
her house. How tenderly and pro-
tectingIy 1 was treated there by
her, as we'll as by the young pastor!
I owe it to his words, also, that
bowed submissively to Gods will, in
stead of rebelling against him. l grew
calm by degrees, but the wound never
healed, and even now it still bleeds as
soon as the old memories come back.
"Of all the persons whom knew
in my youth no one is now alive ex-
cept Pastor Renner, in Weltzendorf,
who. now an old man and my friend,
will end his days in the house that
was once my home. The first to go
1o,o a,S x-boca Joofb filed mo with