LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 216, 17 February 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

FRONI. An Alpine Story. (Continued.) Boldl was up on the mountains all day, superintending the work, and heartily joining in the same; his strong arms and firm hands managed the ponderous hatchet, the hard grinding-saw, the lighter bill-hook, with the same skill and understanding as any other hardy laborer trained to the work from childhood upwards. Coming home at night, he looked over-tired and exhausted, wanting rest as badly as anyone might after a long day's hard labor, and a walk of some hours home. But supper and prayers being over and everybody in the house fast asleep, Boldl tosted about on his bed feverishly; there was no rest for him; no other help but getting up again and noiselessly stealing out at the back door, leading into the wood. He must satisfy himself whether Froni s lamp was still alight. Cloaked with the deep shadows of night, he ventured to creep up close to the hut, trying to get a peep through the open window. Sometimes a light breeze would favor his wishes, by lightly moving the curtain and unveiling the picture within: a poor widowed mother working half the night for the maintenance of her orphan child; or if the curtain kept down obstinately, he would, under cover of the soft noise of the spinning wheel, and emboldened by Froni's abstraction, stretch out a trembling hand and just lift up a corner of it. Froni usually sat with her back to the window, Her golden hair, not pinned up or covered by a kerchief like other women's, but flowing down in waves covering her like a royal mantle; just a line of her delicate profile, or the faintest glimpse of a pale cheek, was all he could see. And when she moved, at last, shaking back her glossy hair with utter weariness, putting aside spinningwheel, approaching the window in order to draw the shutter in, he flew back, hiding behind the bushy hedge, waiting with a beating heart for her full appearance. Whether lighted by her dim light or the full moon, there was always a look of weariness in her face, when she raised her eyes, sending a glance of entreaty up to heaven, contrasting so much with that of haughty resignation she wore in the daylight. The shutter fell in with a click, and the fair vision was gone. Boldl would press his hand to his wildly throbbing, grief-burning breast, and brushing away with his shirtsleeve the hot tears of despair overflowing his manly face, would draw up his tall figure and move homewards, throwing many a yearning look back into the deep shadows covering the hut. It was dawn-break when he reached his attic, and the first crow of the house-cock called the Waldbauern out to work.

And Froni no longer seeing or hearing Boldl; never guessing his nightly revels; thought herself forgotten and given up like many another of the wild boy's fancies ! Boldl looked daily more ill and spiritless, and his father's anxiety grew in the same measure. ' Boldl, my boy!' lie said one morning at parting, ' I know what ails thee ; thou wantest to get out of this unsettled state ; it is time for thee to be married. And Hannerl has been ready ever so long—shall we tell her father that we are ready too ? When the timber is safely marketed in town you two may be married. Wilt thou fix the day, my boy ?' But the boy, with a marble face, turned, and shouldering his hatchet silently walked away. Ah ! the father might well shake his head in perplexity! The same day a quarrel arose between Boldl and the Flosser Tobi. The latter had seized every opportunity to vex the hated boy, and Boldl had borne it patiently for Froni's sake. But to-day he was exasperated by his father's talk. Meeting Tobi on the height at work, he asked boldly whether Froni would bring his dinner up as she had done once before, and Tobi forbade him to inquire after Froni, or to watch for her, or to dare to approach her anyhow : with what right Boldl could not understand. Violent words were thrown in each other's face. The peasants around drew near ; most of them kept to Boldl. But when he declared that no one had a right to interfere, as he, Boldl, was in earnest, and would marry Froni any day, if but she chose to take him, they all laughed. ' Wild Boldl marrying a penniless widow with a baby—taking charge of a beggarchild ! Go, clown, that thou art! I know and I tell thee what thou wantest—to make her more miserable than she already is—wretch !' Boldl rushed at Tobi, the offender, seizing at his throat —a struggle between the old and the young man must soon turn to Boldl's advantage; yet nobody interfered, feeling with Boldl's vexation. Down went Tobi on the ground. At the same moment a voice was heard. ' Froni, Froni!' There she stood, white and trembling, the baby on her arm. Boldl on seeing her left the man, and precipitating himself towards Froni he passionately threw his arms round her and the child, solemnly exclaiming: ' Here I swear before God and these men as witnesses, that I will marry thee, if thou will accept my hand and all I possess. Thou shalt be my honored wife; thy child my own son !' He caught the baby in his arms, which was nearly escaping from Froni's shaking hands. She stepped back : and leaning her arm against the stem of a tree and her head upon the arm, wept passionately. Chapter IV. THEBE were meetings of a very serious character in the large room of the inn which served also as town-hall on occasions such as times of great danger, or unusual solemnities. The elder of the village, the " Forster," two magistrates of the neighboring town, met to discuss a most important question—the future fate of the greatest peasant in the country, the Wiesenhofbauer's only son and heir. Any man in the village having the slightest right or fancying to have a right to put in a word, would put in his nose at the door of the assembly-room, in order to have a linger in the pie. The mayor presided with haughty dignity. ' If it were not for the estates,' he said, ' Boldl might go to Froni if he choose, or to the deuce, for aught he cared; a girl like Hannerl had but to stretch out both her hands to have a suitor hanging on each of her ten fingers ' Hannerl herself had cried a good deal on hearing of the scandal; but after a while her spirits rose, and throwing her pretty little nose up into the air, she said, ' Bah! there are other boys enough! and if I Boldl does not Uiuaself give up every

thought of Froni, I won't look at him again, let father say what he likes.' The Avorthy assembly of notables had decided unanimously from the very first upon sending Veronica away to her distant home. The means by which this sentence might best be executed were discussed a long time. At length the final resolution was taken. A new Flosser, a strong young man, was to be appointed; Tobi was to go working in the forest as before. The hut was to be put in repair at once, to be ready for the new inhabitant. So, of course, Froni was homeless, and there was no other rooom for her to be got in the village ; no dwelling, however poor, was to open its door to the widow and orphan. The magistrates would advise her to go home to her native village; she was proud, would take the hint and go. The Wiesenhofbauer would pay her journey : would not the mayor do a trifle for her maintenance ? but Hannerl's father proudly exclaimed : 'No !' So far all right, but the world at large would call it a hard measure to send a widow and an orphan away; just before winter, too. It was always hard work to get her own living and her child's. It would be a grand thing to care fcr the baby who was born in the parish, and was in some sense belonging to it. Keep the child and let the mother go. But would the mother part with the child ? Froni surely would not—poor mothers are always unreasonably fond of their children. It was pretty sure that she could not produce a certificate of her marriage ; in that case she might be treated as a girl whose baby did not so much belong to her as to the community in which it was born—she would be sure then to go home to get her papers. That would last months, and then she would perhaps have learned to see that she could get on much better by herself; that the baby had better remain where it was being taken care of. Or should she come back, Boldl and Hannerl would be married by that time : she would not care to meet the young couple, and all would end quietly. The plan was to be executed whilst Boldl was at the large sale of timber in town. On his return he would be told that Froni, finding it too hard to earn her living, had had gone home leaving her child upon the parish. Where her native village lay—no one knew. Of course in after years Boldl and Froni would thank the magistrates for their kind interference —it was altogether a good, Christian work. The Wiesenhofbauer smiled with satisfaction, as his son in his handsome Sunday suit jumped into the new cart, painted red and blue. Hans cracked his whip, the pair of prancing bays darted off, and Boldl was gone to town for a week or so. His father resolved not to lose time; —but he had made his reckoning without Hans, the head servant man of his farm, who, like all the rest of the household, was devoted to Boldl. Hans set out on the journey with a heavy heart; he had an inkling of something going wrong, without as yet having got to the bottom of the affair. Boldl made his progress to town with a gay heart. It was true though, that Froni kept sending him back to Hannerl whenever he found occasion to go near her with declarations of his warm love. But yesterday at parting she had not as usual refused shaking hands, and whilst her hand was trembling in his, her bright eyes shone with true love: it was but a moment, but Boldl was happy. He would woo in patience and endurance, being now sure of the end. Wild Boldl had become wonderfully meek and patient! In one place near town they stopped to refresh themselves and the horses. Hans entered into conversation with the stableboy ; the latter had seen two magistrates, accompanied by two armed officials, drive from town into the country, and he had caught some of the talk about their day's work. Seated again on the box, he turned round and imparted to his young master what he had learned. ' Turn the horses' heads back homewards!' shouted Boldl, jumping up from his seat. ' I will take "the responsibility.' They took another way home to avoid attention, and Boldl alighted at the forest. What became of the large sale of timber in town without him we are unable to record. Froni's hut presented a sad sight. It was empty, the few pieces of furniture lying outside. There lay the spinning-wheel and the empty cradle turned over ! Boldl with a shout of distress rushed forward and nearly killed the man who was engaged in repairing the tumble-down place. The man, frightened to death, told him all that had happened. ' And she has gone, really gene? ' ' How could she help it, poor thing, with the magistrates upon her '! ' ' And left the baby ? how could she !' ' How could she ? when they had got it, and two armed men between her and the child •>. ' ' Can she really be gone !' ' She has gone, for I saw them accompany her down the high-road.' Boldl gave himself up to a paroxysm of rage and despair. ' All, yes, poor thing !' sighed the mason, calmly taking to plastering the wall again. With Boldl was a conviction that Froni was not gone ; had not forsaken her baby. She was hiding in the wood ; he would find her, and then they would fetch their baby. If his father had driven her out into the Avorld, well —he had driven out his own son too! (To le continued.)