The Argosy — page 80: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

69 AT A GERMAN SILVER WEDDING. "| HERE is an open, breezy country in the north of Germany not unlike our own eastern counties : it has waving corn-fields and long sandy roads, and now and then you come upon close-lying vil- lages, while every evening brings a sharp, fresh breeze, with a real smell of the sea in it, to rustle the wheat and stir up clouds of sand. I spent a summer there, at a little village called Sebaldsbriick, and grew very familiar with the Sebaldsbriick people during those summer months. ‘They had never had an English lady among them before, and at first they eyed me curiously, to see what strange things I might do or say. But very soon I became the best of friends with all the place; and I knew as much about their local,concerns—how lame Hans longed to go into the army, and what Frau Heinock got for her pigs, and the miller’s wife’s disappointment that her new daughter-in- law would not lend a hand with the washing—as if I had been Sebaldsbriick born and bred. So it came to pass that I went to the baker’s silver wedding, which was a great festival in Sebaldsbriick, for both the baker and his wife came of families who had dwelt in the same place, holding the same fields and cottages, for many generations. No lord could think more highly of his long descent than Herr and Frau Bartles did of their roll of ancestry. “I am from East Prussia,” said Frau Bartles to me one day ; and when I replied in astonishment, ‘“‘ Why, I thought you were a native of Sebaldsbriick, Frau Baker,” she answered, with a magnificent wave of her hand: “I speak of my family, English miss, who came here from Konigsberg in the year 1490. My man’s forefathers settled here about the same date, from Thuringia. Ah, he is somewhat of a Southerner still !” It was on this occasion that Frau Bartles told me of her approaeh- ing silver wedding ; and her daughter Julie, who stood close behind me for the purpose, I well knew, of investigating the material and make of my polonaise, volunteered the information that no one was ever zzvited to an anniversary feast of this kind, but that all who wished to do honour to the occasion were expected to present themseives. The nods and smiles that passed between us at parting assured the baker’s family that the “‘ English miss” would not be behindhand in paying her respects on the appointed day. It was a hot, sunny Sunday in July. All Sebaldsbruck was baking in that clear, white glare which, I think, only Germany knows. On ordinary Sundays the village would have been very quiet at three in the afternoon ; for the good people get their churchgoing over very early, and the weekly dance at the ‘‘ Black Bear” does not begin till Conmuiclooolkks (©) mn