Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1910-12-22

upward with his great strong arms,
and with the care and insight of an
artist selected a slender spray of soft
pink blossoms He shook away the
great hanging drops, and a few Pc
tails drifted behind him as he came.
his huge boots slushing through the
rain-bowed grasses, his heavy shoul-
ders swaying as he walked. He was
but peasant youth, but-the woman
marveled! What a light was in his
eyes as he held the dripping BIOS
SONS to his face!
The rain was softer now. The mist
above the trees was vanishing. Be-
meath the caves, tiny, bedraggled
sparrow hoped and chirped expect
antly. The sky had grown brighter,
the rain had ceased, and the little
sparrow proffered a CHEEKY, heart
felt thrill to the fresh-washed world.
And as the darkness lifted, door
below the left wing of the great
kitchen extension opened and from
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-old
bit of German simplicity and child
like innocence! She was like the
spring, the flowers!
The boy Joseph stood beside the
! flaxen-haired maid, and, with uncon-
scious. gallantry, offered her the fra
grant branch which he had selected
but moment since. Elsa" he said,
''for you"
She took the flowers, but her eyes
gazed wistfully at the sun Drowned
face above her.
Il thank you,' she said, in her
pretty broken German; Il thank you,
Joseph, and l want to say now-l
| have decide"
Had the woman known what mo-
mentous thing it was that Elsa had
decided she would have sUne 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. 81
| have decide, Joseph You are too
too much for me to marry. l thought
you were just farmer but | learn,
oh so bitterly, that you are a great
singer; that if you go to the city and
do not marry me, you will be fine
gentleman some day. Joseph. I will
not marry you now"
The boy was quick in his reply
startlingly so to the woman who had
looked upon him as a boorish coun.
try lad. Without hesitancy, he said,
suddenly clutching the chubby little
| hands:
NO, Elsa, you will not marry me
now, but when / 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 az think you
love me well, 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 | know
that love is n far greater thing than
that you would call ART"
His arms were about her now, and
the woman turned away. strangely
ahashed 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
free dom.
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
Spthy, Love Is the greatest of all
arts. dear. Come"