The Bee-Hive. — 1870-10-08 (London, England)

VOICES FROM THE HIVE.  PRUSSIA. INVADED BY THE "BLACK KNIGHTS." (Continued from Page 523.) "Fritz, I shall go home," said a stout lad of about fifteen years, as the winter afterno on began to darken, and the wind howled through the dreary wood in which he was standing. "What, give up, Hans 1" cried his brother, a stalwart youth about two years older, "just as we are on the track of the brute, and sure to find him again," "Well, you see he gave me an ugly scratch in that last bit of a fight," answered Hans, showing his arm bound up with a rough bandage of long grass and bark. "Pooh !" replied Fritz scornfully, " I'm worse handled than you, and Pll not go home till I've settled accounts with his excellency. Why, there was another sheep killed yesterday, you know, besides half the hives upset again last night and all the honey gone. You do as you like, Hans. I follow the dog. Here, old fellow," lie cried, turning to a fierce lank hound that was looking wistfully at him. "Hie away, at him again. Goodbye, Hans, tell 'em to get supper ready." "Oh, I'm not going to leave you to fight a bear alone, my boy," answered Hans, "so here goes ;" and away they sped once more on the track of the grisly bear that, in the winter cold, had been ravaging their little homesteads for a week past. " Hark ! old Rund has found him. Now for it, Hans."  "No, it's infernal wickedness," and the youth ground his teeth, and made dashes at invisible foes with his long knife. "But I have vowed, Hans, I'll give my life to help Bishop Christian conquer these barbarians and bring them into the Church of Christ or die in the attempt. Why, Hans, since last spring, do you know father says, the savage infidels have burnt three hundred of our churches, chapels, and monasteries. Almost all the priests and monks have been tortured to death. Hundreds of women and children, too, he says, have been carried into slavery." "The villains," cried Inns, brandishing his spear, " Oh if they could but be all shut up in one great black bear's body, and you could dash at them just as you did at the fellow we left hanging to the beech bark— dash at them, Fritz boy, just like this," and Hans made a great leap and assault upon an innocent young pine tree they were passing. " Aye, but we must first try and convert their souls, Hans, and only run their bodies through at the last, if they will keep on murdering us, don't you see." "But why doesn't Duke Conrad conquer them, Fritz 1' He's brave enough for anything." "Aye, but he can't conquer a hundred thousand barbarians with a handful of men, though they be all heroes, Hans. He is trying hard to get a lot more troops together, and (in a lower voice) 1 mean to get father's leave to join them." "You don't mean you'd go away and leave us all, Fritz. What ever should we do without.  A series of savage growls and of quick fierce barks showed where the dog had brought the ferocious animal to bay. Armed with their hunting spears, and long knives stuck in their girdles, the boys cautiously approached the contending parties, but sought in vain an opportunity of inflicting a deadly wound. Once the bear made a rush at Fritz, who dexterously evaded the attack, while. Hans stabbed at the  "'Why, Ilans,—no tears. You're almost a man. Perhaps you'll come after me. And if the Church calls us. . . . There, cheer up old fellow. It will all go right, somehow." In talk like this the youths at length reached home. All their fatigue thea forgot, they burst exultant into the large kitchen which