Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-12-14
April Rain
By EDITH GRAY
opyripht. 1910, by Associated Literary Press

inward with his great strong d. nS'
90 nth the care and insight OF an
artist selected a slender spray u SUI
mink blossoms. He shook away INC
great hanging drops, and Re" %
falls drifted behind him as ne Came
his huge boots slushing through INC
rain bowed grasses, his heavy snoul
ders swaying as he walked. ne "''
but a peasant youth, but-the Moi1oi-
marveled! What a light was IN ms
ewes as he held the dripping dos
SONS to his face!
The rain was softer now. Inc ms
above the trees was vanishing. D
meath the caves, a tiny, bedraggieu
sparrow hopped and chirped expect
antly. The sky had grown brlgnter'
the rain had ceased, and the Itlle'
sparrow proffered CHEEKY, heaIc-
felt thrill to the fresh washed worlo.
And as the darkness lifted, a door.
below the left wing of the great
kitchen extension opened and lroln
her window the woman smiled as
little Elsa, the rosy-cheeked dairy
maid, held her two chubby palms out
ward, testing the weather. How
charming was that sixteen-year-o
bit of German simplicity and child
like innocence! She was like the
spring. the flowers!
The boy Joseph stood beside the
! fiaxen-haired maid, and, with uncon-
scious gallantry, offered her the ira
grant branch which he had selected
but a moment since. ELSA" he SAID
'for you"
She took the flowers, but her eyes
gazed wistfully at the sun-broWned
face above her.
81 thank you," she said, in her
pretty broken German; Il thank you,
| Joseph, and 1 want to say now
| have decide"
| Had the woman known what mo-
mentous thing it was. that Elsa had
decided she would have gone back
| to her desk. Yet, so quickly had
Elsa spoken her verdict that she
could hardly avoid the astonishing
revelation.
Il have decide said Elsa again. Il
! have decide Joseph. You are too
too much for me to marry. ] thought
you were just a farmer, but | learn,
oh so bitterly, that you are great
singer; that if you go to the city and
do not marry me, you will be fine
gentleman some day Joseph, will
not marry you now"
The boy was quick in his reply
startlingly so to the woman who had
looked upon him as boorish coun-
try lad Without hesitancy, he said,
suddenly clutching the chubby little
hands:
mo. Elsa you will not marry me
now, but when I am rich and can
take care of you, my wife, my little
girl, do you hear?"
But the sweet blue eyes were still
troubled and the tears began to flow,
great and round, yelling over the
rosy cheeks.
Joseph" she said. 81 think you
love me we'll, but you must be a great
artist, a musician like my brother
Fritz at home. Fritz always says: "A
great artist must not marry. He
must think always of his art-he
/ have no time for love-
HE have no time for love!" The
heart of the woman contracted in
sudden wonder and unconsciously
she held her breath and leaned for
ward. eager and alert, to see how
this boy would deal with this much.
debated question.
ELSA. Elsa-one thing I know
that love is far greater thing than
+bo+ Won would call art
His arms were about her now, and
the woman turned away, strangely
abashed before this great and simple
tenderness
For long she sat upon the floor.
examining the secret places of her
inmost soul When she raised her
head, the light of the setting sun,
breaking through a rift in the west
ern clouds, caught and made of every
drop of dew a globe of mystic light
She threw back her head and breath
ed in all the clean, sweet freshness.
of the world Then she rose and ex-
tended her arms as in strange new
freedom.
When she found ink and paper IN
the dusky shadows of her desk, she.
managed to write. though the tears
streamed fast, few words, which
for all the blurring and the blots, a
certain man, now so far away, was
soon able to read, in overwhelming
rapture of understanding and sym
patty: Love is the greatest of all
arts, dear Come!"