OLD FAITHFUL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 246, 17 October 1925, Page 26

OLD FAITHFUL.

The young farmer Knud Kviki,. the biggeßt and strongest maa i_7t W ? lage on the shore of the lake 7,?' Vand. of %» He had a house built of 100. roof had little spruce firs and was purple with wild pansies in * ' springtime. He had fishingboats«£ t water, goats on the mountain sides * ! chief of all his possessions he held tH brown horse called Faithful. Knud was betrothed to a m m named Sigrid, who lived far awavTol the mountains. They loved eac _ S dearly, but knew i_ey would __*» t wait some years before they _Li? marry, as Knud had his stepmother „ support and a crowd of little half brothers and sisters, who looked Un i him as a father. v l 0 But, with all his strength, Knud cottiH not save the children from sickness T„ terrible pestilence called the __»£ Death had swept over Europe, and w»» making its way northward, even to th shores of Iceland and Greenland.

Knud's village was remote; it had n church; the people had to travel mil-, to the distant chapel of Randland ta worship. "

The clear, pure waters of the lake 1» before the hamlet, fragrant pinewooi half surrounded it, snowy mountain, towered above; it seemed as if it wef l a very stronghold of health, but th. plague visited it all the same.

Before long Knud had to harneg. Faithful to the sleigh to take people to be buried at Randland. No sooner had they brought one burden of the dead to the churchyard than they had to return for another; for, one after the .ther the peasants sickened; all except Knud,'and he grew so weak with all the work of th« village and the tending of the sufferers thrown upon him that he could, not fellow the funeral sleigh to Randland.

It did not matter; Faithful went alone. He met the priest of Randland by the churchyard gate, turned, and came home again to be reloaded, and started off anew.

At last the day came when Knud was the only one left livi. g in the village by the lake. All his strength had feaken him, and he' felt the fatal sickness falling on him, clouding all his senses. He tottered outside, put the snotrshoes on Faithful's hoofs, lashed hitagelf to the sleigh, and bade his brown horse bear him away on the last journey, for Knud eotinted that he would be dead by the time Faithful halted by the churchyard gate.

Numb in a trance of weakness lav Knud, while the horse struggled in the drifts, and ran swiftly through the frozen snow. The journey seemed unending, and yet he lived f still, and wondered dimly why the sleigh seemed to be climbing, ever climbing, at such an angle that, if he had not been tied, he would have fallen out.

Suddenly the brown horse sent forth a loud and piercing neigh as if for help, and rolled over in a hollow. There Was a sound of voices coming near the fcleigh, and Knud half roused from his langoufi "Is this the churchyard of Randland t" said he. "Have patience, lam the last living in the village, and I bade ; by brown horse bring mc hither for burial." "Faithful was wiser than thou wert," said a sweet voice by _is side. "He brought thee over the mouutains instead, to be healed, not buried."

Knud unclosed his eyes, and saw the fair, serious face of Sigrid, his betrothed, bending over him. On the • ot_.rry ; side stood the tall,-stately figure of' Mt abbess of the convent..- ..•'_' ' . ._}

She had had the plague with all her nuns ; and was the only one left to lire. Having had the plague, she could nurse it without fear.

The two women put forth all their strength, and carried Knud into the farm hut among the heights, where he had told his betrothed to seek refuge from the plague.

There he was nursed back to health again, for the Black Death stayed Its course after having slain v quarter of the people in Europe.