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, - J. , . ,' By P. M. HALI. ADVERTISING BATES. Advertisements will be Inserted lor Hue Dollar per square (one Inch) for the first and Fifty Cents for eh sabsequent pnliWoaHrin. Contracts for advertising for any space or time may be made at the office of the RALEIGH REGISTER, i offici: ' Fvtt.'ville St., Second Floor Fisher Building. uates or soBsCRrPTios : , ,ut. ,-opv one year, mailed post-paid .. .i 00 Hue coys six months, mailed, post-paid.., 1 00 . v , r,.,ni. entered without DiTmeni ami VOL. II. RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1885. NO. 89. Second Floor of Fisher Building, Fayetteville pa,,er ;.eut after expiration ot lime paid for. Street, next to Market House. U0 J . X- All I : fv ' & ii 1 sPijww A CULPRIT. (Margaret Vandegrift. I & -The maiden aunt, In ber straight-backed chair, With a flush on her pale and wrinkled cheek, Kvi a horrified, niortlfied, mysttflea air, Was just abut to speak. n.l the uiaideu niece a uice'Jtttle maid ' St00a meekly twirling her thumb about, With balf-triumphant, half -afraid, , s , , Ana wholly bewitebing pout, gjid the maiden aunt : 44 Will you please explain What your heads were doing bo close together You could easily, I assure you, Jane; Have knocked me down Wtth a feather. When I think of your bringing-up my eare, XI v scrupulous care aad it's f ome to this ! you j.peared to be sitting calmly there, And letting a vouss mas KISS you! ' So tell me at ouce just what he said, Vml bat you replied. This Is quite a trial, S do not stand there aud hang your head, ()r attempt the least denial. If I catch you once more in such a fix", ThoiisrU you are eighteen I cau tell you, Jane, I .ball treat you just as if you were six, Au.l eud you back to school again ! Ue vou goiug to tell me what he said, And what you said? I'll not stand this trifling, o look at me, Jane ! Lift up your bead! Don't go as if you were stifling ! " " Her voice was shaken of course, with feat: ' He said be said, 4 Will you hare me, Jane ' And 1 said I would. But indeed, aunt, dear, )fV!l never do so again ! " WOniN8 LOVE. whael, walking back and fqrth drawing the fine yarn between her chubby fingers, all the while humming a low song to which the whirring of the wheel made harmonious accompaniment, he thought to himself bitterly: 44 Work, indeed! As if they did not -work now longer than we do, and quite as hard ! 8hes been spinning ever since daylight, I believe." " la it hard work spinning. Liebchen ! " be asked. y-i Carlen turned her round blue eyes on him with astonishment. There wasrsome thing in his tone that smote vaguely on her consciousness. What could he mean, asking such a question as that ? "No," she said, 44 it is not hard exactly. But when you do it very long it does make the arms ache, holding them so long in the same position ; and it tires one to stand all day." 44 Ay," said John, "that is the way it tires one to reap; mv back is near broke with it to-day." 41 Has no one come to help yet!" she said. 44 No " said John angrily, 44 and that is what I told father when he let Alf go. It is good enough for him for being so stin gy and short-sighted ; but the brunt of it cornea on me ; that's the worst of it. I don't see what's got all the men. There have always been plenty round every year till now." Alf said he ahouldn t bo here next I been hard to find in Lancaster Couuty a more placid imd contented wife than she. She never dreamed that her custom of silent acquiescence in all that Gustavus said, of waiting in all cases, small and great, for his decision had in the outset been born of radical and uncomfortable disagreements with him. t And as for Gus tavus himself, if anybody had hinted to him that his frau could think, or ever had thought, any word or deed of his other than right, he would have chuckled com placently at that person's blind ignorance of the truth. 44 Mein frau, she is goot," he said ; 41 goot fraUi goot mutter American fraus not goot so she; all the time talk and no vork ; American fraus, American mans, are sheep in dere house." But in regard to this young stranger, Frau Weitbreck seemed strangely stirred from her usual phlegmatic silence. Carlen'-s appeal to her had barely been spoken, when, rising in her place at the head of the table, the old woman said, solemnly, in German : 44 Yes, Liebchen, he goes with the eyes like eyes of a man that saw always the dead. It must be as you say that all whom he loves are in the grave; Poor boy ! Poor boy. It is now that one must be to him mother and father and brother." 44 And sister too," said Carlen, warmly. 44 1 will be his sister." And I not his brother, till he gets a find him goot to se, and,'" after a pause, "so do Carlen," John started. 44 Good heavens, father !" he exclaimed. 'Oh, you need not speak by de heaven9, mein son,"; rejoined the old man, in a taunting tone, 44 1 tink I can mine own vay, t id out you to be help. I was hot yesterday born ! " John was gone. Flight was his usual refnge when he felt his temper becoming too much for him; but now his, steps were quickened by an impulse of terrible fear. Between him and his sister had always been a bond closer than is wont to link brother and sister. Only one year apart in age, they had grown up together in an intimacy like that of twins; from their cradles till now they had had their sports, tastes, joys, sorrows in common, not a se cret from each other since they could re member; at least this was true of John; was he to find it no longer true of Carlen? He would know and that right speedily. As by a flash of lightning he thought he saw his father's scheme: if Carlen were to wed this man, this strong and tireless worker, this unknown, mysterious worker, who wanted only shelter and home, and cared not for money, what an invaluable hand would be gained on the farm! John groaned as he thought to himself how little anything, any doubt, any misgiving, per haps even an a6tual danger, would in his father's mind outweigh the one fact that the man did not 44 vork for money." As he walked toward the house, revolving these disquieting conjectures, all his first suspicion and antagonism toward Wilhelm hfi hurfl rrnnt it mftv he he are Dad: I do I revived in fall force, and he was ma mood i not know. It Is Co vork I haf him brought." well calculated to distort the simplest acts, year," said Carlen, each cbeek showing a civiler tongue in his head, ' saia jonn. little signal of pink as she spoke; but it j 41 It is not to be brother 1 haf him was a dim light the one candle gave, and 1 brought, " interrupted the old man. 44 Al John did not see the Hush: 44 he wassroinsr ! vavs you wimmen are to soon; it may be to the v est to farm ; to Oregon, said." ! not know. It Is to vork I haf him brought The Mystery of Wilhelm Batter. Helen .laekson (H. H.) In "The Century." It w as long past dusk of an August e,ve uinjr. Farmer Weitbreck stood leaning on the big gate of his barn-yard,, looking first ut and then down the road. He was chewing a at raw,-and hii face wore an ex pression of deep perplexity. These were tfutiblous times in Lancaster County. Never before had the farmers been so put to it for farm service; harvest-time had come, and instead of the stream of labor ers sacking employment, which usually at . this season set in as regularly as river fresh ets in the spring, it was this year almost impossible to hire any one. The explanation of this nobody knew or could divine; but the fact was indispu table, and the farmers were in dismay, nobody more so than Farmer Weitbreck, who had miles of bottom lands, in grain of one sort and another, all yellow and nod ding, and ready for the sickle,and nobody tmthimsclf and his son John to swing scytlK'.'.sickle. or flail on the place. Never I am caught this way anoder year." thought he, as he gazed wearily up and down tb dark, silent road; "hut that does to me no goot this time that is now." . Guxtavus Weitbreck had lived so long on his Pennsylvania farm that be even thotn'ht in. English instead of in German, and. strangely enough, in English much less broken and idiomatic than that which ' he spoke. But his phraseology was the j oniv thin?,' about him that had changed. ! In modes of feeling, habits of life, he was j the same he had been forty years ago, when he farmed a little plot of land,half wheat, i half vinevard, in the Mayence meadows ! in the fatherland: slow, methodical,sav- j inir. stupid, upright, obstinate. All these traits "Old Weitbreck, as he was colled all through the country, possessed to a de rree much out of the ordinary; and.it was a combination of two of them the obsti- nnd the savinffness which had into his present predica- nacv brought ment. In Juae he had had a good laborer: one of the best, known and eagerly sought by every farmer in the county ; a man who had never yet been beaten in a mowing match or a reaping. By his help the haying had been done in ; not much more than two-thirds the usual time; but when like a. sensible fellow. said, " Now, we would better keep Alf on i try? till harvest. There is plenty ol odds-ana- ends work about the farm he can help at, : and we won't get his like again in a hurry," j his father had cried out: j "MeinGott! It is that you tink I must : be made out of money ! I vill not Keep lis man on so big wages to do vat you call odd and end vork. We do odd-and-end vork ourself." There was no discussion of the point. John Weitbreck knew better than ev er to waste his time and breath or temper in trying to change- a purpose of his father's, or convince him of a mistake. But he bided his time, and he would not have been human if he had not now taken secret satisfaction, seeing his father's anx iety daily increase as the August sun grew hotter and hotter, and the grain rattled in Miie husk waiting to be reaped, while they two, straining their arms to the utmost, and in long days' work, seemed to produce small impression on the great nems. , "The women shall come work in the field to-morrow," thought the old man, as he continued bis anxious reverie. 44 It is not that they sit idle all day in the house, when the wheat grows to rattle like the peas in pod. They can help, the mfittcr and Carl en ; that will lie much help; they can do." And hearing Johns step behind him, the old nun turned and said: Johan, dere comes yet no man t reap; tomorrow must go in the field Carlen and the mutter; it must; the wheat get fast too drv : it is more as two men can do." John bit his lips. "He was aghast. Never had he seen his mother and sister at work in the- fields. John had been born in America, and he was American, not Ger man, in his feeling about this. Without due consideration he answered : ' I would rather work day and nignt, father, than the fields not make them go!" The nld mnn irritated by knowledge that he had nobody but him self to blame for the present dilemma,still more irritated, also, by this proof of what was always exceedingly displeasing to him, his son s having adopted American stan dards and opinions, broke out furiously with a wrath wholly disproportionate to 'lie occasion. Vou be tarn, Johan Weitbreck. l ou tink we are fine gentlemen and ladies, nKe I'-se Americans dat is too proud to vork vi.l hands. I shy tam dis country, vcre h-y sav all is alike, an' vork all; and ven y u colne here, it is dat nobody vill work, ;f he can help, and vimmins ish shame to he seen voik; it ish not shame to be seen vork: I vork, mein vife ork too, an my ' hildrens vork, too, py tam!"1 lonn walked away, his only resource when his father was in a passion. John occupied that hardest of all positions, the position of a full-grown mature, man 'i' a father's home, where be is regarded a nothing more than a boy. As he entered the kitchen and saw his pretty sister Carlen at the high spinning- 44 Ay, that's it! " replied John. ' That's where everybody can go but me! I'll 'be ; going too some day, Carlen. I can't stand things here. If it weren't for you I'd have ; been gone long ago." j 44 1 wouldn't leave mother and father for all the world, John," cried Carlen warmly, ! "and I don't think it would be right for i you to! What would father do with the farm without you?" 44 Well, why doesn't he sec that, then, and I treat me as a. roan ought to be treated ?" ! exclaimed John; "he thinks I'm no older j than when he used to beat me with the strap." "1 think fathers and mothers are always that way," said the gentle, cheery Carlen, with a low laugh. 44 The mother tells me each time how to wind the warp, as she did when I was little; and she will always look into the churn for herself. I think it is the way we are made. We will do the same when we are old, John, and our chil dren will be wondering at us!" John laughed. This was always the way with Carlen. She could put a man in good humor in a ffiw minutes, however cross he felt in the beginning. 44 1 won't, then!" he exclaimed. "I know I won't. If ever I have a son grown, I'll treat him like a son grown and not like a baby.' 44 May I be there to see," said Carlen merrily, "And you remember free The words I said to t hee. Hold the candle here for me, will you, that's a good boy. While we have talked, mv vara has tangled." As they stood close together, John holding the candle high over Carlen's head, she bending over the tangled yarn, the kitchen door opened suddenly and their father came m bringing with him a stranger a young man seemingly about twenty-five years of age, tall, well-made, handsome, but with a face so melancholy that both John and Carlen felt a shiver as they looked upon it. 44 Here now comes de hand, at last Of de time, Johan," cried the old man. 4'It vill be that all can veil be done now. And it is good that he is from mein own country. He cannot English speak, many vords; but A, ia nothinff: he can vork. I tolt you dat is nothing; he can dere vould be mans come ! " Johu looked scrutinizingly at the new comer. The man's eyes fell. 44 What is your name," said John. 44 Wilhelm Rfitter," he answered. 14 How long have you been in this coun- Ten davs.'' 44 Where are your friends? " 44 1 haf none." 44 None!" 'None." These replies were given in a tone as melancholy as the expression of the face. Carlen stood still, her wheel arrested, the yarn between her thumb and finger, her eves fastened on the stranger's face. A thrilfof unspeakable pity stirred her. So young, so sad, thus alone in the world; who ever heard of such a fate? 44 But there were people who came with you in the ship? " said John. 41 There is some one who knows who you are, I sup- No no von dat knows," replied the new-comer. 44 Haf done vid too much questions, interrupted Farmer Weitbreck. "I haf him asked all. He stays till harvest be done He can vork. It is to be easy see he can vork." John did not like the appearance ol things ,4Too much mystery here," he thought. "However, it is not long he will b here; and he will be m the fields all the time; there cannot be much danger; but who ever heard of a man whom no human being knew ?" As they sat at supper, Farmer Weitbreck and his wife plied Wilhelm with questions about their old friends in Mayence He was evidently familiar with all the locali- nA names which tney meimoucu. ties i raiuer wurn. ----- i to sec my mother and sister in I will do it,too,if only you will the secret His replies, however, were given as far as possible in monosyllables, and he spoke no word voluntarily. Sitting with his head bent slightly forward, his eyes fixed on the floor, he had the expression of one lost in thoughts of the gloomiest kind. 44 Make yourself to be more happy, mein lad " said the farmer, as he bade him good night and clapped him on the shoulder. "You haf cum to house vere is German be speaked, and is Germany in hearts; dat vill le to you as friends." A strange look of even keener pain pass ed over the young mart's face, Bnd he left the room hastily; without a word of good- n,8Uiv t iL .; in -S.T trAn. nip.. 4 He s asuny uruie : v.nm w, , company he'll be in the field 1 I believe I d sooner have nobody ! " '4T think he his . seen some dreadiul ; n BntA narlen: 44 1 wish we could do something for him; perhaps his friends are all dead. I think ,that must be it; don't you think so, mutter ? " .... p., Woithreek was incarnate silence and reticence. These traits were native in her, and had been intensified to an abnor mal extent by thirty years of life with a husband whose temper and peculiarities were such as to make silence and reticence the sole conditions of peace and comfort. To so great a degree had this second na ture of the good frau's been developed, that she herself did not now know that it was a second nature; therefore it stood her in hand as well, as if she had been originally born to it, and it would have 44 Yes, " echoed, Frau Weitbreck, "we do not know." It was not so easy us Carlen and her mother had thought, to be like mother and sister to Wilhelm. The days went by, and still he was as much a stranger as on the evening of his arrival. He never volun tarily addressed any one. To all remarks or even questions he replied in the fewest words aud curtest phrases possible. A smile was never seen on his face. He sat at the table like a mute at a funeral, ate without lifting his eyes, and silently rose as soon as his own meal was finished. He had soon selected his favorite scat in the kitchen. It was on the right-hand side of the big fireplace, in a corner. Here he sat all through the evenings, carving out of cows' horns or wood, boxes and small fig ures such as are made by the peasants in the Gcrmau Tyrol. In this work he had a surprising skill. What he did with the carvings when finished no one knew. One night John said to him: "I do not see, Wilhelm, how you can have so steady a hand after holding the sickle all day. My arm aches, and my hand .trembles 60 that I can but just carry mv cup to my lips." 'Wilhelm made no reply, but held his right hand straight out at arm's length, with the delicate figure he was carving poised on his forefinger. It stood as steady as on the firm ground. Carlen looked at him admiringly. "It is good to be so steady handed, " she said. 44 You must be strong, Wilhelm." "Yes," he said. 41 1 haf strong," and went on carv ing. Nothing more like conversation than thi9 was ever drawn from him. Yet he seemed not averse to seeing people. He never left the kitchen till the time came for bed : but when that came he slipped away silent, frakiug no part in the general good night, unless he was forced to do so. Sometimes Carlen, having said jokingly to John, "Now, I will make Wilhelm say good-night, to-night," succeeded in sur prising him before he could leave the room ; but often, even when she had thus planned, he contrived to evade her, and was gone belore sne Knew n. He slept in a small chamber in the barn, a dreary enough little place, but be seemed to find it all sufficient. He had no pos sessions except the leather pack he bad brought on his back. This lay on the floor unlocked; and when the good Frau Weit breck, persuading herself that she was ac tuated solely by a righteous motherly in terest in the young man, opened it, she found nothing whatever there, except a few garments of the commonest descrip tion ; no book, no paper, no same on any article. It would not appear possible that a man of so decent a seeming as Wilhelm could have come from Germany to America with so few personal belongings. Frau Weitbreck felt less at ease in her mind about him after she examined this pack. He had come straight from the ship to their house, he had said, when he arrived; had walked on day after day, going he knew not whither, asking mile by mile for work. He did not even know one state's name from another. . He simply chose to go south rather than north, always south he said. , .. "Why?" He did not know. He was indeed strong. The 6ickle was in his hand a plaything, so swift-swung that he seemed to be dome little more than simply striding up and down the fields, the grain falling to right and left at his steps. From sunrise to sunset he worked tirelessly. The famous Alf had never done so much in a day. Farmer Weitbreck chuckled as he looked on. 41 Vat no you ay of dat-AHf " Ire said triumphantly to John. "Vork he as dis man? Oh, bnf he make swing de hook!" John assented unqualifiedly to this praise of Wilhelm's strength and skill. But never theless ho shook his head. 14 Av. av." he said. 44 1 never saw his equal. But I like him not. What carries he in his heart to be so sour. He is like a man bewitched;. I know not if there be such a thing as to be Bold to the devil, as the stories say, but if there be.onmyword I think Wilhelm has made some such bar gain. A man could not look worse if he had signed himself away. " 44 1 see not that he haf fear in his face, " replied the old man. " No," said John, 44 neither do I see fear. It is worse than fear. I would like to see his face come alive with a fear. He gives me cold shivers like a grave under, foot. I shall be glad when he is gone." Farmer Weitbreck laughed. He and his son were likely to be again at odds on- the subiect of a laborer. 44 But be vill J30t go. I haf said to him to stay'till Christmas, may be alWays." John's surprise was unbounded. 44 To stay! Till Christmas!" he cried. 4 What for? What do we need of a man, iu the winter!" 44 It is not that to feed him is much, and all that he make vid de knife is mine. It is home he vants, no oder ting; he vork not for money." 44 Father." said John earnestly, 41 there must be something wrong about that man,: I have thought so from the first. Why should he work for nothing but his board,: a great strong fellow like that, that could make good day's wages anywhere? Don't keep him after the harvest is overl I. can't bear the sight of him." 41 Den you can turn de eyes to your head, von oder way," retorted his father. 44 1 when he suddenly saw sitting in the square stoop at the door the two persons who fill ed his thoughts, Wilhelm and Carlen Wilhelm steadily at work as usual at his carvinsr. his eves closely fixed on it, his a look hardly less angry than his own. 44 It is you who have to say to me what all this means that what you have been say ing," she cried; "I think you are out of your senses. I do not know what has hap pened to you," and she turned to walk back to the house. John seized her shoulders in his brawny hands and whirled her round till she faced him again. "Tell me the truth! " he said fiercely. "Do you love this Wilhelm." Carlen opened her lips to reply. At that second a step was heard, and looking up they saw Wilhelm himself coming toward them; walking at his usual slow pace, his head 6unk on his breast, his eyes on the ground; great waves of blushes ran in tumultuous flood up Carlen's neck, checks, forehead. John took his hands from her shoulders and stepped back with a look of disgust and a smothered ejaculation. Wil helm, hearing the sound, looked up, re garded them with a cold, unchanged eye, and turned in another direction. The color deepened on Carlen's face. In a hard and bitter tone she said, pointing with a swift gesture to Wilhelm's retreat ing' form: You can see for yourself that there is nothing between us. I do not know what craze has got into your head." and she walked away, this time unchecked by her brother. He needed no further replies in words. Tokens stronger than any soeech had answered him. Muttering angrily to himself he went down to the pasture after the cows. It was a beautiful field, more like New England than Pennsylvania; a brook ran zigzagging through it, and here and there in the land were sharp lifts wrtere rocks cropped out, making miniature cliffs overhanging some portions of the brook's lichens and i course, uray ucnens ana green musses ; grew on these rocks, and belts of wild flag i ami ardcrRa surronnded their base. The .... , -c ;t vnnr rimdlv null- and 1 cows, in a warm asv. nscu to 818 nu Knee- Carlen, ah, it was an unlucky moment j deep in there in shade of the rocks. John had taken to search out the state of i It was a favorite place of Wilhelm's. He Carlen's feeling toward Wilhelm, Carlen i sometimes lay on the top of one of these sitting in a posture of dreamy reverie, one j rocks the greater part of the night, looking hand lying idle in her lap holding her down into the gliding water orupintothe knittinsr. the ball rollinjr away unnoticed on the ground ; her other arm thrown care lessly over the railing of the stoop, her eyes fixed on Wilhelm's bowed head. John stood still and watched her, watch id her long. She did not move. She was almost as rigidly still as Wilhelm himself. Her eyes did not leave his face. One might safely sit that way by the hour and gaze undetected at Wilhelm. He rarely look ed up except when he was addressed. After standing thus a few minutes John turned awav. bitter and sick at heart. skv. Carlen from her window had more than once seen him thus, and passionately long ed to go down and comfort his lonely sor row. It was indeed true,asshehad said to her brother, that there was "nothing between" her aud Wilhelm. Never a word had passed ; .never a look or tone to betray that he knew whether she were fair or not; whether she lived or not. 8he came and went in his presence, as did all others, with no more apparent relation to the cur rents of His strange veiled existence than if What had he been about that he had not j they, or he. belonged to a phantom world seen this? He, the'loving comrade broth er, to be slower of sight than the hard, grasping parent! "I will ask mother," he thought; "I cannot ask Carlen now! It is too late." He found his mother in the kitchen busy getting the bountiful supper which was a daily ordinance in the Weitbreck religion. To John's sharpened perceptions the fact that Carlen was not as usual helping in this labor loomed up into significance. 44 Why docs not Cnrlen help vou, mut ter. " he said hastily. "What is she do ing there idling with Wilhelm in the stoop? Fran Weitbreck smiled. "It is not al vays to vork, ven one is young." she said, 44 1 haf not forget." and she nodded her head meaningly. John clenched his hands. Where had he been? Who had blinded him? How had nil this come about, so soon, and with out his knowledge? Were his father and mother mad? He thonght they must be. 44 It is a shame for that Wilhelm to so much as to put his eyes on Carlen's face,'" he cried. 44 1 think we are fools ; what know we about him? I doubt him in and out. I wish he had never darkened our doors." Fran Weitbreck glanced cautiously at the open door. She was frying sweet cakes in the boiling lard. Forgetting everything, in her fear of 'being "overheard, she went softly with the dripping skimmer in her hand across the kitchen. th fat falling on her shining floor at every step and closed the door. Then aho came close to her son, and said in a whisper, " The fader thinks it is goot." At John's angry exclamation she raised her hand in warning. "Do not loud spraken,"- she whispered. 44 Carlen will hear." : 44 Well, then she shall hear!" cried John half beside himself. 44 It is high time she did hear from somebody besides you and father 1 1 reckon I've got something to say about this thing too, if I'm her brother. By , no tramp like that is going to marry my sister witnout l Know more about him ! " and before the terrified old woman could stop him, he had gone at long strides across the kitchen, through the best room, aud reached the stoop, say ing in a loud tone: "Carlen! I want to see you !" Carlen started as ouc roused from sleep. Seeing her ball lying at a distance on the ground she ran to pick it up, and with scarlet cheeks nnd uneasy eyes turned to her brother. 44 Yes. John," she said. " I am com ing." Wilhelm did not raise his eyes or betray by any change jof feature that be had heard the sound or perceived the motion. As Carlen passed him her eyes involuntari ly rested on his bowed head, a world of pity, perplexity in the glance. John saw it and frowned. me," he said sternly, the pasture; I want to "Come with "Come down in sDeak to you." .Carlen looked up apprehensively into his face; never had she seen there so stern a look. "I must help mutter with the supper," she said, hesitatingly. John laughed scornfully. . ," You were helping with the slipper, I supposc.sitting out with yon tramp I." and be pointed to the stoop. Carlen had, with all her sunny cheerful ness, a vein of her father's temper. Her face hardened and her blue eyes grew darker. 44 Why do you call Wilhelm a tramp ? " she said coldly. 44 What is he then, if he is not a tramp?" retorted John "He is no tramp," she replied, still more dogpedly. "What do you know about him?" said John. Carlen made-no reply. Her silence irri tated John more than any words could have done; and losing self-control, losing But it was also true that never since the first day of his mysterious coming had Wil helm been long absent from Carlen's thoughts; and she did indeed find him, as her father's keen eyes, sharpened by greed, had observed, good to look upon. That most insidious of love's allies, pity, had stormed the fortress of Carlen's heart, and carried it by a single charge. "What could a girl give, do, or be, that would be too much for one so stricken, so lonely as was Wilhelm!" The melancholy beauty of his face, his lithe figure, his great strength, all combined to heighten this impression, and to fan the flames of the passion in Car len's virgin soul. It was indeed, as John had sorrowfully said to himself, "too late" to speak to Carlen. As John stood now at the pasture bars, waitins for the herd of cows, slow winding up the slope from the brook.he saw Wilhelm on the rocks below. He had thrown him self down on his back, and lay there with his arms crossed on his breast. Presently He clasped both hands over his eyes as if to shut out a sight that he could no longer bear. Sonething akin to pity stirred even in John's angry heart as he watched him. 44 What can it be, he said, " tnat nian.es him hate even the sky? It may be it is a sweetheart that he has lost.and he is one of that strange kind of men who can love but once; and it is loving the dead that makes him so like one dead himself. Poor Carlen! I think myself he never so much as sees her." A strange reverie, surely, for the brother who had so few short moments ago been angrily reproaching his sister for the dis grace and shame of caring for this tramp. But the pity was short-lived in John's bos qm. His inborn distrust and antagonism to the man were too strong for any gentler sentiment toward him to live long by their side. And when the family gathered at the supper table he fixed upon Wilhelm so suspicious and hostile a gaze that even Wil helm's absent mind perceived it, and he in turn looked inquiringly at John, a sud den bewilderment apparent in his manner. It disappeared, however, almost immedi ately, dying away in his usual melancholy aOSOrpilOn. IIUIU piuuuwcu nvoie nle on the monotonous surface of his habit- 1 ual gloom. But Carlen had perceived all, both the look on John's face and the bewil derment on Wilhelm's; and it roused in her a resentment so fierce toward John, she could not forbear showing it. " How cruel ! " she thought. 44 As if the poor fel low had not all he could bear already with out being treated unkindly by us,' and she redoubled her efforts to win Wilhelm's attention and divert his thoughts, all in vain; kindness and unkindncss glanced off alike, powerless, from the veil in which he was wrapped. John sat by withrousea attenuon.snarp- ened perception, noting all. Had it been all along like this? Where had his eyes been for the past month? Had he too been under a spell ? it looked like it. tie groaned in spirit as he sat silently playing with his tood, Botieaung; anu wnen uis father said : " Why haf you not appetite, John?" he rose aln-uptly, pushed back his chair, and, leaving the table without a word, went out and down ngain into tue pasture,! where the dewy grass and the quivering stars in tne orooK snimmercu m the pale light of a young moon. To John, also, the mossy rocks in this pasture were a favorite spot for rest and meditation. Since the days when ho and Carlen had fished from their edges, with bent pins and yarn, for minnows, he had loved the place; they had spent happy hours enough there to count up into days, and not the least among the innumerable annoyances and irritations of which he had been anxious in regard to Wilhelm was the fact that he too had perceived tbe charm of the field, and chosen it for his own melancholy re treat. As he seated himself on one of the rocks, he saw a figure gliding swiftly down" the they had always the habit of using the German tongue for fond epithets, "Mein Schwester llein, I love you so much I can not help being wretched when I see you in danger, but I am not angry." Nestling herself close by his side, Car len looked over into the water. 41 This is the very rock I fell off of that day; do you remember?" she said, 41 and how wet you got fishing me out 1 And oh, what an awful beating father gave you, and I always thought it was wicked, for if you had not pulled me out I should have drowned." "It was for letting you fall in he beat me," laughed John, and they both grew tender and merry recalling the babyhood times. "How long, long ago!" cried Carlen. "It seems only day," said John. "I think time goes faster for a man than for a woman," sighed Carlen. "It is a shorter day in the fields than in the house." " Are you not content, my sister?" said John. . Carlen was silent. 44 You have always seemed so," he said reproachfullyt ,4It is always the same, John," she mur mured." 44 Each day like every other day. I would like it to be some days different." John sighed, ne knew of what this new unrest was born. He longed to begin to speak of Wilhelm, and yet he knew not how. Now that, after longer reflection, he had become sure in his own mind that Wilhelm cared nothing for his sister, he felt an instinctive shrinking from recogniz ing to himself , or letting it be recognized be tween them, that she unwooed had learn ed to love. His heart ached with dread of the suffering which might be in store for her. Carlen herself cut the gordian knot. 44 Brother," she whispered, 41 why do you think Wilhelm is not good?" "I said not that, Carlen," he replied evasively. "I only say we know nothing; and it is dangerous to trust where one knows nothing." "It would not be trust if we knew," answered the loyal girl. " I believe he is goor ; but, John, John, what misery in his eyes; saw you ever anything like it?" 44 No," he replied; 44 never. Has he never told .you anything about himself, Carlen?" 'Once," she answered, 41 1 took courage to ask him if he had relatives in Germany; and he said no, and I exclaimed then, What, all dead!' 'All dead,' he answered, in such a voice I hardly dared speak again, but I did. I saidl 4 Well, one might have the terrible sorrow to lose all one's rela tives. It needs only that three should die, my father and mother and my brother, only three, and two are alreaay old, ana 1 should have no relatives myself; but if one is left without relatives, there are always friends, thank God!' and he looked at me he never looks at one, you know ; but he looked at me then as if I had done a sin to speak the word, and he said, 'I have no friends. They are all dead too,' and then went away ! Oh, brother, why can not we win him out of this grief f We can be good friends to him; can you not find out for me what it is?" It was a cruel weapon to use, but on the instant John made up his mind to use it. It might spare Carlen grief, in the end. 41 1 have thought, "he said, 41 that it might be for a dead sweetheart he mourn ed thus. There are men, you know, who love that way and never smile again." Short-sighted John, to have dreamed that he could forestall any conjecture in the girl's heart ! 44 1 have thought of that," she answered meekly; 44 it would seem as if it could be nothing else. But, John, if she be really dead Carlen did not finish the aicrht of nriidence- he noured out on her a i hill. It was Carlen torrent of angry accusation reproach. She stood still, her eyes fixed on the ground. Even in his hot wrath John no ticed this unwonted downcast look, and taunted her with it. 44 You have even eaugbt his miserable hang dog trick of not looking anybody in the face," he cried. Look up nowl look me in the eye, and say .what you mean by all this." j Thus roughly bidden, Carlen raised, her j blue eyes and confronted her brother with said, fthe thinks it is Wilhelm." he and a?ain hot anger stirred in him. As she drew near he looked at her with out speaking, but the loving girl was not repelled. Springing lightly to the rock, she threw her arms around his neck, and, kissinsr him. said : 44 1 saw you coming down here, John, and I ran after you. Do not be angry with me, brother. It breaks my heart." A sudden revulsion of shame for his un just suspicion filled John with tenderness. "Mein 8chvxter," he said, fondly, sentence. It was not necessary. After a silence she spoke again: "Dear John, if you could be more friend ly with him I think it might be different. He is your age. Father and mother are too old, and to me he will not speak." She sighed deeply as she spoke these last words, and went on: ".Of course, if it is for a dead sweetheart that he is grieving thus, it is onlv natural that the sight of women should be to him worse than the sight of men. But it is very seldom, John, that a man will mourn his whole life for a sweetheart; is it not, John? Why, men marry again, almost always, even when it is a wife that they have lost; and a sweet heart is not so much as a wife." 44 1 have heard," said the pitiless John, 44 that a man is quicker healed to grief for a wife than for one he had thought to wed, but lost." 44 You are a man," said Carlen. " You can tell if that would be true?" "No, I cannot," he answered, "for I have loved no woman but you, my sister; and on ray word I think I will be in no haste to, cither. It brings misery,it seems to me." If Carlen had spoken her thought at these words, she would have said, 44 les, it brings misery; but even so it is better than joy." But Carlen was ashamed ; afraid also; she had passed now into a new life, whither her brother, she perceiv ed, could not follow. She could barely reach his hand across the boundary line which parted them. " I hope you will love some one, John," she said. "You would be happy -with a wife. You arc old enough to have a home of vour own." " Only a year older than you, my sister," he rejoined. "I too am old enough to have a home of my own," she said, withagentle digni ty of tone, which more impressed John with a sense of the change in Carlen than all else which had been said. It was time to return to the house. As he had done when he was ten, and she nine, John stood at the bottom of the steepest rock, with upstretched arms, by the help of which Carlen leaped lightly down. " We are not children any more," she said, with a little laugh. "More's the pity I" said John, half lightly, half sadly, as they went on hand in hand. When they reached the bars, Carlen nansed. Withdrawing her hand from John's and laying it on his shoulder, she said : 44 Brother, will you not try to find out what is Wilhelm's grief? Can you not try to be friends with him? " John made no answer. It was a hard thing to promise. 44 For mv sake, brother," said the girl. 41 1 have spoken to no one else but you. I would die before any one else should know ; even my mother." John could not resist this. " Yes," he said, "I will try. It will be hard; but I will try my best, Carlen. I will have a talk with Wilhelm to-morrow." And the brother and sister parted, he only the sadder, she far happier, for their talk. "To-morrow," she thought, "I will know! To-morrow I oh, to-morrow t and she fell asleep more peacefully than had been her wont for many nights. On the morrow it chanced that John and Wilhelm went separate ways to work and did not meet until noon. In the after noon Wilhelm was sent on an errand to a farm some five miles away, and thus the day passed without John's having found any opportunity for the promised talk. Carlen perceived with keen disappoint ment this frustration of his purpose, but comforted herself, thinking, with the swift forerunning trust of youth, "To morrow he will surely get a chance. To morrow he will have something to tell me. To-morrow ! " When Wilhelm returned from this errand, ho came singing up the road. Carlen heard the voice and looked out of the win dow in amazement. Never before had a note Of Binging been heard from Wilhelm's voice. She could not believe her ears; neither her eyes, when ehe saw him walk ing swiftly, almost running, erect, his head held straight, his eyes gazing free and confident before him. What had happened ? What could have happened I Now, for the first time, Car len saw the full beauty of his face ; it wore an exultant look as of one set free, tri umphant. He leaped lightly over the bars, he stooped and fondled the dog, speaking to him in a merry tone; then he whistled, then broke again into singing a gay Ger man song. Carlen was stupefied with wonder. Who was this new man in the body of Wilhelm? Where had disappear ed the man of slow-moving figure, bent head, downcast eyes, gloom-stricken face, whom until that hour she had known? Carlen clasped her hands in an agony of bewilderment. " If he has found his sweetheart I shall die," ehe thought. " How could it be ? A letter, perhaps? A message !" She dread ed to see him. She lingered in her room till it was past the siipper hour, dreading what she knew not, yet knew. When she went down the four were seated at supper. As she opened tbe door, roars of laughter greeted her, and the first sight she saw was Wilhelm's face, full of vivacity, excite ment. He was telling a jesting story, at which even her mother was heartily laugh ing. Her father had laughed till the tears were rolling down his cheeks. John was holding his sides. Wilhelm was a mimic, it appeared. He was imitating the ridic ulous speech, gait, gestures, of a man he had seen in the village that afternoon. " I sent you to village sooner as dis, if I haf known vat you are like ven you come back," said farmer Weitbreck, wiping his eyes. And John echoed his father. 44 Upon my word, Wilhelm, you are a good actor. Why have vou kept your light under a bushel so long ? " and John looked at him with a new interest and liking. If this were the true Wilhelm, he might welcome him indeed as a brother. Carlen alone looked grave, anxious, un happy. She could not laugh. Tale after talc, jest after jest, fell from Wilhelm's lips. Such a story-teller never before sat at the Weitbreck board. The old kitchen never echoed with such laughter. Finally John exclaimed: "Man alive. where have you kept yourself all this time ? Have you been ill till now, that you hid your tongue ? What has cured you in a day ?" Wilhelm laughed a laugh so ringing, it made him seem like a boy. "Yes, I have-4een ill till to-day, he said, "and now I am-w.ell," and he rattled on again with his merr talk. Carlen grew cold with fear; surely this meant but one thing. Nothing else, noth ing less could have thus in an hour rolled away the burden of his sadness. Later in the evening she said, timidly, 44 Did you hear any news in the Tillage this afternoon, Wilhelm ? " 44 No : no news," he said. 44 1 haf heard no news." As he said this, a strange look flitted swiftly across his face; was gone before any eye but a loving woman's had noted it. It dia not escape Carlen's, and she leu in to a reverie of wondering what possible double meaning could have underlain his words. 44 Did you know Mr. Dietman in Her- many ? " she asked. This was the name of the farmer to whose house hehad been sent on an errand. They were new-comers into the town, since spring. 44 No!" replied Wilhelm, with another strann-c. sharo crlance at uarlen. l saw him not before." "Have they children ?" she continued " Are thev old I " 44 No, young," be answered. 44 They haf one child, little baby." Carlen could not contrive any other ques tions to ask. 44 It must have been a letter," she thought. and her face grew sadder. It was a late bed-time when the family parted for the night. The astonishing change in Wilhelm's manner was now even more apparent tnan it naa yet rjeen. in stead of slipping off, as was his usual hab it without exchanein? a good-night with any one, he insisted on shaking hands with each, still talking and "laughing with gay and affectionate words, ana repeating, over and strain, 44 Good-night, good-night. Farmer Weitbreck was carried out of him self with pleasure t all this, and holding Wilhelm's hand fasfHnJhis. shaking it heartily, and clapping him on the shoulder b exclaimed, in fatherly familiarity : 44 Dis is goot, mein son ! Dis is goot. Now are you von of us," and he glanced meaningly at John, who smiled back in secret intelli gence. As he did so, there went like a flash through his mind the question, " Can Carlen have spoken with him to-day ? Can that be ?" But a look at Carlen's pale, perplexed face quickly dissipated this idea. "She looks frightened," thought John. " I do not much wonder. I will get a word with her." But Carlen had gone before he missed her. ttunmng swuuy upstairs, she locked the door of her room, and threw herself on her knees at her open window. Presently she saw Wilhelm going down to the brook. She watched his every motion. First he walked slowly up and down the entire length of the fiela, following the brook's course closely, stopping often and bending over, picking flowers. A curious little white flower, called "Ladies'-Tress," grew there in great abundance, and he often brought touncues ol it to ner. 44 Perhaps it is not for me this time, thought Carlen, and the tears came into her eyes. After a time, Wilhelm ceased erathering the flowers, and seated himself on his favorite rock ; the same one where John1 and Carlen had sat the night before. 44 Will he stay there all night ?" thought the unhappy girl as sne watcnea mm. 44 He is so full of ioy be does not want to sleep. What will become of me ! What will become of me!" At last Wilhelm arose and came toward the house, bringing the bunch of flowers in his nana. At tne pasture vara uo ?aused, and looked back over the scene, t was a beautiful picture, the moon mak ing it light as day, even from Carlen's window could be seen the sparkle of the brook. As he turned to go to the barn his head sank on his breast, his steps lagged. He wore again the expression of gloomy thought. A new: fear arose in Carlen's breast. Was he mad ? Had the wild hi larity of his speech and demeanor in the evening been merely a new phase of disor der in an unsettled brain ? Even in this was a strange sad comfort to Carlen. She would rather have him mad, with alterna tions of insane joy and gloom, than know that he belonged to another. Long after he had disappeared in the doorway at the foot of the stairs which led to his sleeping place in the barn loft, she remained kneel ing at the window, watching to see if he came out again. Then she crept into bed and lay tossing, wakeful, and anxious till near dawn. She bad but just fallen asleep when she was aroused by cries. It was John's voice. He was calling loudly at the window of tHeir mother's bed-room, beneath her own. I 'Father! Father! Get up, quick! Come out to the barn 2 " Then followed confused words she could not understand. Leaning from her win dow, she called, " What is it, John ? What has happened ? " But he was already too far on .his way back to the barn to bear her. i A terrible presentiment shot into her mind of some ill to Wilhelm. Vainly she wrestled with it.t Why need she think everything that happened must be connect ed with him! It; was not yet light; she could not have slept many minutes. With trembling hands ape dressed, and, running wiftly down the stairs, was at the door just as her father Appeared there. ' What is it ? What is it, father I " she cried. 44 What h$s happened 1 " 'Go back!" he said, in an unsteady voice. 44 It is nothiDg. uo back to oea. It is not for vimmins ! " Then Carlen was sure it was some ill to Wilhelm. and, with a loud cry, she darted to the barn, and new up the stairway lead ing to his room. John, hearing ner steps, con iron tea ner at the head of the; stairs. 'Good God, Carlen I " he cried; "go back 1 You must not come here. Where is father ? " 'I will come iu!f' she answered wildly, trying to force her way past him. " I will come in. You shall not keep me out. What has happened to him ? Let me by," and she wrestled in Iter brother's strong arms with strength almost equal to his. "Carlen ! V ou shall not come in. l ou shall not see!" he cried. " Shall not see f" she shrieked. "Is he dead?" "Yes, my sister, he is dead," answered John, solemnly. : In the next instant he held Carlen's unconscious form in his arms ; and when Farmer Weitbreck, half dazed, reached the foot of the stairs, the first sight which met his eves was his daughter held in her brother's arms, apparently life less, her head hanging over bis shoulder. " Haf she seen him ? " he whispered. -" No ! " said John. "I only told her he was dead to keep' her from going in, and she fainted dead raway." "Ach," groaned the old man; "dis is hard on ber." i " Yes," sighed ithe brother; " it is a cruel shame." i Swiftly they carried her to the house and laid her on her mother's bed, then re turned to their dreadful task in Wilhelm's chamber. Hung by a stoat leathern strap from the roof-tree beam, there swung the dead body of Wilhelm Rutter, cold, stiff; he had been dead for hours ; he must have done the deed soon after bidding them good-night. He vas mad, Johan; it must be he vas mad ven he laugh like dat last night. Dat vas de beginning, Johan," said the old man, shaking from head to foot with hor ror, as he helped his son lift down the body. i "xesl" anwerea jonn. " inai must be it. I expect he has been mad all along. I do not believe last night was the be ginning. It was not like any sane man to be so gloomy as ;he was, and never speak to a living soul. But I never once thought of his being crazy. Look, father I " he continued, his voice breaking into a sob. 44 He has left these flowers here for Carlen ! That does not look as if he was crazy! What can it all mean ?" On the top of a small chest lay the bunch of white "Ladies'-Tress," with a paper be neath it, on which was written, "For Car len Weitbreck", these, and the carvings in the box, all in mtemory of Wilhelm." 44 He meant to. do it, den," said the old man. v 44 Yes," said Jbhn. 44 May be Carlen vould not haf him, you tink?" ' "No," said John, hastily. "That is not possible." t "I tought she luf him, an1 he vould stay an' be her man," sighed the disappointed father. "Now all dat is no more. ' "It will kill her!" cried John. "No!" said the father. "Vimmins does not die so as dat. She feel pad may be von year, may be two. Dat is alL He vas great for vork. Dat Alf vas not goot as he." The body was: laid once more on the nar row pallet whei jJ it had slept for its last few weeks on earth, and the two men stood by its side;, discussing, what should next be done, how the necessary steps could be taken with the least possible pub licity, when sudenly they beard the sound of horses' feet jand wheels, and looking out they saw Hins Dietman and his wife driving rapidly Into the yard. "Moin flnt.t!! Vat hrincr dem here dia time in day," exclaimed Farmer Weitbreck "Ifdeyaskfof Wilhelm dey must all know ! " t "Yes," replied John. "That makes no difference. Everybody will have to know," and he ran swiftly down to meet the strangely arrived neighbors. Ills first glance at ineir jaccs suoweu him that they had come on no common er- rand. They were paie ana iuu oi excite ment, and Hani' first word was: "Vere is dot pian you sent to mine place yesterday?" "Wilhelm t stammered Farmer Weit breck. I 44 Wilhelm ! "j. repeated Hans.scornfully. 44 His name is not 4 Wilhelm.' His name is Carl; CarlLepmann; and he is a mur derer; he killed von man shepherd, in our town last fepring ; and dey never get trail of him ; 80 soon he came in our kitch en yesterday my vife she knew him; she wait till I get home. Ve came ven it vas yet dark to let you know vot man vas in your house." F Farmer Weitbreck and his son ex changed glances ; each was too shocked to speak. Mr. ana Mrs. Dietman lookea irom one to the other in bewilderment. May pe you tink ve" not speak not truth," Hans continued. ' Just let him come here to our face, and frou will see." "No!n said. John, in a low, awe-stricken voice, "we do not think you are not speaking trutlh." He paused; glanced again at his father, "We'd better take them up!" hej said. The old mai nodded silently, even his hard and phlegmatic nature was shaken to the depths. I (Continued on fourth page.) ' I V
The Weekly Raleigh Register (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Nov. 11, 1885, edition 1
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