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fied with him-George can climb well amongst all the rocks and caves hereabouts."

Z. rather doubted this, but the host, an honest, intelligent man, assured him that he might trust entirely to George-he is guide to all our travellers and though but a poor wood

perceived that she was the wife of the iron master, and she pointed out to him her husband, who was speaking to some workmen in the court yard. During their conversation Z. was much struck with the appearance of the woman; her form was very delicate, and there was something really noble in the style of her fea-cutter, is a faithful, clever fellow. "And tures; but sickness or sorrow had blighted the bloom of her early youth; (she did not appear to be over twenty,) and her exquisite form, and a most touching paleness, were now the only relics of her probably once brilliant beauty.

He

The voices of the men in the court yard grew loud, and the woman drew back as if terrified. Z. remarked it, but was silent. heard the iron master scold; he heard with what violence and determination he refused to pay them the wages they demanded, and required them to reduce the price of their work; no prayers could move him; not even the tears which stood in the eyes of the elder of the two men, who appeared weak with age, as he passed murmuring through the gate, while the younger, regardless of the presence of his master's wife, cursed him bitterly as he withdrew. The woman sighed and raised her large blue eyes to heaven. Z. turned to leave the place, but at this moment the iron master approached, and after saluting the stranger with a sort of half courtesy, said, roughly, to his wife, that she kept the child too late in the evening air. She rose quietly and left them. Herr von Z. then attempted to enter into conversation with the master about his works, the surrounding country, &c. but the latter, after viewing with contempt the plain great coat and dusty boots of the stranger, gave him such short answers that he soon departed.

bold, too," added the hostess, as a lion, shy as a chamois, but as sure footed and active also "

Z. was at last satisfied. He bade his hosts good night, and was about retiring, when some one knocked gently at his door. It was the hostess.

"Your pardon, worthy sir! but I must tell you-George will not come out of the wood into the village, but my husband has sent him word and he will meet you in the morning by the spring in S. valley, and my boy will guide you that far."

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"Good morning, honored sir!" said the hostess, who was preparing greens for breakfast. George is already at the spring. Ho! Francis" a merry boy of eight or ten years old sprang forward. "There, go with the gentleman."

From the worthy hosts of the inn where he passed the night, Z. heard much of the iron master's wealth, and of the great trade he They were soon on their way. The landcarried on; but little of his goodness or his justscape was spread before Z.'s delighted eye, in dealing. His wife they represented as a perfect all the wondrous beauty of the glorious mornmartyr, and thus Z. was confirmed in the ing. The mist was rising from the valleys, impression he had already received of both. {while the sun climbed over the mountain tops, He, therefore, had little inclination to repeat his and drank the tears of dew from grass and visit to Herr Kluge, for so was the master flower, and lifted the light vapor in the cool, called, but he wished to explore the region that pure morning air. Z.'s heart was moved by interested him so much, and enquired if he could the beauty that surrounded him; the consciousprocure a guide. ness of God's omnipresence thrilled through his whole being. He prayed silently and thoughtfully, while his spirit glowed with love and gratitude to his Creator.

The hostess looked at her husband, and said, "No one can be better than lame George."

"But my good woman!" said Z. laughing, "I do not think a lame guide would answer my purpose. I want some one to climb the mountains with me."

He soon passed through the open country with his young companion, whose gay, frolicsome spirit, added to the pleasure of his walk, and had now entered upon a narrow defile, into

"That does not signify-you will be satis-which as yet no sunbeam had penetrated, and

where the morning twilight seemed still struggling against the clearer light of day. On both sides rose bare rocks high above them, between which, here and there, grew a solitary pine tree. A narrow path wound through the rocks, while far beneath rushed the rapid mountain stream, that occupied the whole defile, crossed here and there by narrow bridges as the ruggedness of the rocks interrupted the path on either side. At length the gorge opened a little to the light, and here was the spring, over which was built a wooden hut to protect it from injury and impurity, and leaning against the rail of the wooden bridge which led to it, with his head bowed towards the stream, was a tall stout man.

"George!" cried little Frank, "this is the gentleman you are to guide among the mountains."

The man turned and saluted Z. who stood surprised, for the figure and movements of the young man were far from being clownish; and the noble features, pale countenance and dark eye wore no common expression. His carriage was good, and the little he said was with a superior accent to the common dialect of these vallies. He stood leaning upon his axe, and asked, in a courteous tone, which way the honorable gentleman would wish to go ?"

"That I will leave entirely to you," said Z. "I am a stranger, and have no other object than to see the country."

"Last May the iron works were nearly burnt up."

"And you were wounded in helping to save them? You are a brave fellow."

George was silent, and his countenance assumed a dark and hostile expression.

"Your lameness must be hard upon you, and as you were injured in assisting to save the iron master's property, it is his duty

"Will it please you, honored sir, to go on farther ?-it is yet a long distance to the top of the mountain, where I can show you the beauti{ ful prospect."

Z. looked with astonishment at his guide, whose features wore an expression of deepest sorrow, and broke off a conversation which seemed to be so unacceptable to him.

Without interchanging another syllable, they reached the summit, and here George appeared to better advantage. With an acute sense of the beauties in nature, he led Z. to the finest points of view, whence he could descry the objects most worthy of attention, and enjoyed the surprise and pleasure he expressed while gazing on the varied prospect. Thus he led him round the mountain's top, where the eye of the traveller rests now upon beautifully green and peaceful vales, and again upon the undulating outline of less elevated mountains, which lay around them like the billows of a stormy sea, suddenly made fast by the Almighty fiat. At last George pointed to his left-Here is valley," he said sadly, then turned from

"If that is all," answered George, «I will { Rguide you through it as well as I can. I know it and seated himself on a stone with his many beautiful points of view, if it should hap-eye fixed upon the mountains. pen that our taste is the same, and what pleases me will please you."

Z. looked in the direction indicated by his companion, and stood surprised at the beautiful

"Let us go forward then," said Z. «I will {and picturesque view of the whole wide valley follow you."

Z. would have entered into conversation, but George appeared to be a man of few words; though he always answered with civility. When they had gone some distance, Herr von Z. remarked, with regret, that climbing the steep sides of the mountain became difficult to his lame conductor, and he lamented, silently, the sad fate of the young man, thus compelled to undergo fatigues that too probably might prove seriously injurious to him. At length, when they reached a height where George stood still, supported on his axe, Z. could no longer repress his sympathy, and began, by inquiring "how he had been so unfortunate as to hurt his foot?" "A burning rafter fell upon my leg, and made a deep wound," said George in a short and dry manner.

"Terrible!-but how did it happen? have you had a fire here?"

with its forges, huts, gardens, fields and meadows, through which flowed the clear brook, which falling from the heights above, rushed over dams and water-wheels. At his feet lay the dwelling of the iron master. He could plainly see people moving through the court yard; and in the garden behind the house the woman and child whose appearance had so interested him on the preceding day. He broke into joyful exclamations at the beauty of the prospect, to which his silent guide answered not a word. After gazing long enough, he called to his conductor, who led him by a shorter but not less pleasant path back again to the spring, and at the opening of the wood took leave of him. Z. rewarded him liberally for his services and went on, but in a moment he heard George following him saying, "you have paid me too much, honored sir!"

"Not at all, my good friend, you have

richly earned the money, and I still owe here, and a wise and sober man he was, and you many thanks for my pleasant walk."

"I will receive them gladly, but not this," he said pointing to the money with bitterness. “I earn a florin a day by my labor, which I { have neglected for half a day on your account. I will thankfully receive from you more than I would have gained by it; but charity, honored sir, charity I cannot and will not take as long as I can move these arms to labor." He laid the rest of the money on a stone and retreated hastily into the wood, while Z. surprised and thoughtful wandered on to the inn.

At the door he met the host, who told him that the iron master had been to visit him, and after expressing great regret that he had not yesterday known who he was, had left an invitation for him to dinner. Z. who had not forgotten his incivility, sent his excuses by a servant, and ordering his simple meal to be spread in the garden, dined there beneath the shadowy chestnut trees, his kind hostess going backward and forwards and entertaining him with telling him about the country and her neighbors. Z.'s thoughts, were, however, occupied with his singular guide, and he inquired of his nostess "whether his lameness did not interfere with his pursuing so laborious an occupation as that of a woodcutter ?"

his mother a downright good woman. George
learned to cypher, and write, and read. Ah.!
you should hear him read! so clear, and plain,
and then sometimes so feelingly that it fairly
makes you cry.
And then he can write-wait

a minute, honored sir!" she ran into the house
and returned with a sheet of paper in her hand
on which a sentence from one of Gellert's songs
was written in a bold and handsome hand.
"See," she said, "the copy George set for my
little Frank. He taught him to write when he
lived here with us."

"But how came such a man to be a woodcutter?" asked Z.

George's

"Wait awhile and you shall hear. parents were poor and could not afford to maintain him while he studied, so the former master of the forge, a good kind man, God rest his soul! offered to take him and teach him how to earn his bread. He had taken a fancy to the smart, handsome, good natured lad, and as he carried on a great trade in wood, beside what he wanted for his own furnace, he had him taught by an old wood cutter, all about {cutting down and preparing the trees that grew in his own forests. He did this because he intended, as George read and wrote so well, to make him superintendent of the business. George learned every thing easily, and became in a short time one of the most skilful of his workmen. He explored every dale in the mountains, and every lonely valley, and above all was the foremost in all hard and dangerous work. The old iron master became every day more fond of him, and every one expected that the rich and childless man who had no relations

"It is astonishing," she replied, "how much ne car. do. Whenever strength and resolution is most necessary-at cutting down the largest trees, or bringing their trunks from the highest mountains, there you will find George, either advising with his head or helping with his hands. He has built himself a little hut in the very depth of the wood, and lives there like a hermit, going early to his work and often sleep-far or near would provide for him handsomely, ing whenever the darkness overtakes him, in the forests or on the mountains. But this way of living makes him strange and wild; he never comes now into the village, and has got to be a perfect man hater-but a good deal might be said about that," she added.

"I should like much to know his story," said Z. whose curiosity and interest were now strongly excited. The hostess hesitated for a while and then replied, "you seem so kind and good, sir, and to pity poor George so much that I will even tell you all about him. Many folks laugh at him and call him a fool, and that makes me angry, for I pity him with all my heart. Ah! I know his story only too well!" Z. pushed aside his plate and begged the hostess to sit down beside him. She did so and began thus:

"George is no peasant's son or common woodcutter. His father was school master

or perhaps leave him all his fortune.

"George was then a well grown, handsome fellow, of nineteen or twenty-now, he is not what he was, but one can guess what he might have been four or five years ago, tall, slender, graceful and with such a handsome face-ah, so very handsome!" the hostess smiled sadly, and was silent for a moment, while she dwelt on the image of the once handsome George.

My mother's brother," she continued, "resided at that time at the inn we now have: he was an honest man but burthened with a large family of children. The eldest of them Rosina, a good, pious girl, had just grown up when she and George chanced to meet upon a holiday They had, to be sure, seen each other a hundred times before, but you know, sir, how it is with love, years may pass during which you see nothing in a person, and then as if struck by a flash of lightning, you seem to

see them for the first time, and find a thousand, firm. Herr Kluge guessed who stood in his beauties in them you never thought of before-way, and dismissed George; taking care, at George and Rosina fell desperately in love with the same time, that he should not easily obtain each other. It was no secret, every one knew another place, by defaming his character through it that saw them together. The old iron master the whole country. and my uncle both approved of it, and George lived in hope of a joyful future.

But what are the hopes and expectations of this world? One day the workmen brought the good old gentleman home, senseless and dying. He had been struck with apoplexy in the wood, George nursed him faithfully but he died in a few days. He could not speak during his illness, and after his death they could not find any will. After four or five months, a distant relation sent letters and documents to prove that he was the heir at law and at last came himself. It was Herr Kluge, the present

owner.

This distressed George dreadfully, when he came to know it, for it took from him his last hope of a settlement for a long time at least. For two whole days he was nowhere to be { found. On the third day he came to me, but heavens! how he looked-pale, distracted and scarcely to be recognised. He entreated me to bring Rosina to him, for he dare not go to her father's house, and had something important to say to her. She came at once; I would have left them, but he made me stay for he would not speak to her alone. He then urged her to submit to the will of her parents, and to give him up.

George's bright hopes were thus disappointed, "But do not forget me," he cried with tears, but still by his industry he would certainly be ̧«ah, do not forget me, Rosina! for that I could able to maintain a wife and children, for the not bear, either here or hereafter! But I cannew iron master behaved very kindly to him at not provide for you, I am an unhappy persecuted first, while he knew nothing about the businessman-I would drag you into misery with me, and George understood it all so well. But after and that cannot be. Your parents are poor, a while, unhappily, Herr Kluge cast his eyes and you should be the prop and comfort of upon Rosina. He had by this time learned your family!" a good deal from George; he was no longer necessary to him, and at last began to hate him on Rosina's account. He was afraid to show it openly at once, but worried him in many secret ways, so that George at first could not guess who it was that so often spited and hindered him. During this time Herr Kluge pressed his suit with eagerness. Rosina refused him, as your honor may believe, but George was frightened to death when she told him about it, though at the same time she vowed that nothing in the world should separate them.

"Ah, Rosina!" answered George with a sigh, I believe you and am sure of your faithfulness-but I see already how it will be. You are poor and I have nothing but my service. My master will dismiss me, I will not be able to maintain you, he will promise your parents heaps of gold, they will insist on your having him and you will at last be forced to obey them." Such talk as this they would have a hundred times together, ending always in tears and in mutual vows of eternal love and truth-but this could not mend the matter.

What George had foreseen happened. Herr Kluge proposed formally for Rosina. The parents were delighted, they urged and prayed their daughter to marry him. The mother begged her, for the sake of her seven brothers and sisters, who were so poor; the father scolded and threatened, but Rosina remained

Rosina would not hear of this; she assured him of her love with bitter tears; she would have sworn her troth to him, but he would not suffer it. Ah! you should have heard the heart breaking way that he talked to her; how he told her of the fifth commandment, and of the reward of obedience which she would surely obtain; how piously and like a christian he spoke, the poor, good George. At last, after much talk on both sides, and many tears, George carried his point. Rosina formally

gave him up in my presence; he tore himselt from her arms and was gone.

This step caused Rosina a dangerous illness. She took to her bed that very day, and now Herr Kluge was busy in earnest. He sent his carriage every day to C for the doctor, despatched his servants in all directions for medicines, delicacies, and every thing that could be thought of for her, in short no princess could have been better served than she. She recovered at last, but her blooming beauty and her gaiety were gone. The first question she asked when her senses were restored after a long delirium, was for George. I could tell her nothing about him-he had disappeared, and it was believed had joined the army. Rosina's recovery was a very slow one; she wandered about like a ghost; but at last, to make my story short, obeyed her parents and her unhappy friend, and gave her hand to Herr Kluge.

"The cursed villain!" cried Z.

There was grandeur at first !—The con- ¿ entreaties and promises to move their people to ceited fellow must show off his beautiful wife help put it out, for she knew how little they in all directions, and loaded the poor Rosina would do for her husband's sake. While standwith jewels and finery till she looked to me ing there, speaking to the workmen, she, after like a lamb going to be sacrificed. But this a while, heard fearful shrieks behind her. She did not last long. With secure possession, his turned and saw that the fire had caught the love gradually declined; he began soon to show main building just by her chamber, where her himself in his true colors, and poor Rosina, child was sleeping. The maids were screaming gently and patiently as she endures it all, leads for help from the windows, for the roof and a fearful life with that man." stairs were both in flames. Rosina uttered a loud cry of anguish and fell senseless to the ground. We had, meantime, reached there, for the whole village was by this time roused, and saw the poor mother laid like one dead upon the grass. The people were running about as if distracted; one was crying here, another there for help, for water, for buckets-I remained with poor Rosina, when a loud outery and a heavy fall made me look about me, a man sprang from one of the windows of the house just as a burning beam was falling from the roof-it fell directly on him-Holy Virgin!" I exclaimed, "he is killed!" The next minute the nurse came running with the child in her arms, crying

"Yes, yes," continued the hostess, "he is a wicked man. The whole country knows it too, and particularly the poor workmen whom he oppresses dreadfully. But God will not leave so many evil deeds unpunished, and he does not prosper as he did in his business, for all who can get employment elsewhere refuse to work for him."

"But what did George do then?"

"We knew nothing about him for nearly a year. At length it was said he had been seen in the forest with Count G.'s woodcutters, and sometimes wandering at night here in the valley. At last I met him, and scarcely recognized him, his face was so changed and his clothes so poor. He had been wandering like a desperate creature about the world, and had once thought of turning soldier, but he could not resolve to banish himself for ever from the place where Rosina lived, when he knew she was so unhappy, and where he might sometimes get a sight of her. So he sought employment with Count G. and works far back upon the mountain at cutting wood. I asked him once, if, with all he knew and was able to do, he would remain for ever a woodcutter ? He looked darkly at me and said- It is the right work for me-so deep in woods and mountains, living so far from men, felling the mighty trees that have stood proudly for centuries, and when one falls to see a whole army of bushes crushed beneath it, like so many poor unhappy men beneath the rich and powerful."

Many others spoke to him as I did, and blamed him, or laughed at him, until, at last, he avoided every one and would let none of us see him.

"Just before George returned, Rosina had become the mother of a lovely boy, who formed her only happiness. One night-ah! I shall never forget it-one of the outer buildings at the iron works took fire, and the flames spread so rapidly that every one believes it was set on fire by one of the workmen, whom his master had a short time before driven to desperation by his tyranny. Herr Kluge hastened to the spot, and Rosina followed, hoping, through her

"Mistress my lady! the baby is alive and not a bit hurt!”—

The child began to cry, and this caused the mother to open her eyes. When she saw him, she was like one half distracted with joy and terror. The maid then told us that, when awakened by the noise, she found the fire had reached the stairs, and it was impossible for her to escape with the child. - She then had called for help, when, suddenly, a man who had rushed through the flames up stairs, seized the child and jumped with him from the window. She was herself afterwards rescued by a ladder, and as soon as she had reached the ground her first question was for the child. The man who saved him was lying on the ground badly wounded by the fallen beam; but he had preserved the child, uninjured, and he was placed in her arms by one of the workmen.

Rosina listened to this account with indescribable emotion--she pressed the child again and again to her heart, weeping bitterly, and then got up to hasten to the court yard, but trembled so that I had to lead her. I warned her to go slowly.

"Oh! quick! quick!" she cried, "I must see him!"

A crowd had gathered round the wounded man, but Rosina, pale as death, with dishevelled hair, pressed through it saying,

"Where is he? Where is he? I must see

him!"

All made way for her-she stood before

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