Show Herman der M MIs s t j s Peace come away the song of woe woe Is after all an earthly song Peace come away we do him wrong To sing so wildly let Jet us go Yet in these ears till hearing dies One set slow bell will seem to toll The passing of the sweetest soul That ever looked with human eyes Not long ago in a beautiful country far over the sea there lived a little eyed dark-eyed lad in whose heart the fairies were singing all the time The child felt his h heart art bound but he did not know that the fairies were dancing in it and he heard sweet voices but he did not dream from whence they came He knew that he was very happy but he thought it was because he was so strong and well and because his father and mother his brothers and his little sister sister sister sis sis- ter loved him So he whistled and laughed all day long and the fairies laughed with him They made him gentle in his play and earnest in in his study They gave him strength th of purpose purpose purpose pur pur- pose nothing that he once began was left unfinished That is the reason his father called him Herman der the courageous courageous courageous His full name was Herman Hugo Haag the three hs h's being chosen by his mother to remind him of Holy Holy Holy is the Lord because she wished him to grow up a brave good man She was a very pious woman woman his mother Of times when she visited the sick she took the children wi with th her to sing And the sufferer listening to the sweet childish voices would think of heaven and the angels One day Hermans Herman's father took him and his brothers into the woods There was no sound save the twitter of the birds in the branches and the whisper of the wind among the leaves The fairies in Hermans Herman's heart sang louder than everIt ever It It is a very beautiful earth he said The breeze seems to say Holy Holy Holy Yes it is a very good and beautiful earth Just then he heard a gay little laugh break through the song Something Something Something Some Some- thing brushed against his cheek and touched his eyes yes Suddenly the air was full of tiny fig figures res The They rocked on the leaves they swayed to and fro o othe on the tall grasses j they nodded from the primroses and smiled among the wee me forget Their hair gladdened the sunbeams and their eyes drank all the blue out of the sky How beautiful how beautiful they were He listened eagerly while they told him how they had always been with him and how they would always be with him and that he should see th them m. m He should see them always A great longing came into his heart They were so very beautiful those fairies He wished he could paint them Then they sang with voices as Israfel's Some day you shall paint us Herman t i 1 4 1 ii Some day you shall paint us Herman He could have wept he was so happy j After that he went often to the woods and the fairies always went with him With his father he visited the cities and villa villages the old castles and noted ruins near his home And t the le fairies 1 ran on before before him telling s stories ones of the the j places pointing out their beauties putt putting ng their dai dainty ty fingers finger into every very j crevice creVIce and peeping slyly into hidden nooks while all the time they sang Some Someday day you shall paint us Herman But the time soon came for him to to leave his grand old V nd His j mother joined a new church and longed longed- to be out in the far western land with j 5 her people So she decided to send Herman out with some friends to his two brothers who were already there She herself would follow as soon as as' as i possible a Poor lonely Herman He was sucha such i 1 ia a little fellow and it was very ery hard to leave home all alone even though a j dearly loved mother wished it But because because because be be- cause of II Holy Holy Holy is the Lord i and because he was Herman the Courageous j I he went And the fairies went i with him the their r faces purer lovelier than ever Only one year after he reached his new ho hone e he became very sick So it il was he hat many times he was near death But though his eyes grew heavy with suffering he still saw the fairies no low moan of pain disturbed the harmony harmony harmony har har- mony of their song Sometimes it seemed as if he could bear the agony no longer and that his ambitious spirit would be forced to relinquish its bright dreams But when he grew discouraged he would recall the promise of the fairies II Some day you shall paint us Herman and the ready crayon would move unceasingly unceasingly unceasingly un un- over the white paper leaving lea ideal tales of its travels behind it By and by he grew stronger He never was very well but he had no time t i c fl to to- think to-think think about th that His work grew better and better It brought him a great deal of praise e and a little money But best of all his mother was with him again For a little while he was very happy and then he was very very sorrowful for his mother died Now more moire than ever he needed something to care for and so he grew nearer to the fairies The more he suffered the better he loved them Then too the queen of them all seemed to have his mothers mother's face and she whispered Holy Holy Holy in his mothers mother's gentle voice So he worked on patiently and faithfully But because he was so unselfish and so unassuming I E few discovered what an abundance of i beauty was shut in that frail body f One morning the sun coming through the north window of the stu studio io shone I on all an unfinished picture The brushes were in their places waiting to begin but there was no hand to guide them The willing fingers had always done f their best but now they were weary The time had come to rest There were two nights of pain separated separated separated separ separ- by a day in which he made a brave effort to meet his class There were a afew afew afew few c place common words a long clasp of a brothers brother's hand a long look into a brothers brother's eyes and ana Herman the courageous the uncomplaining had flown away and all his beautiful fairies with him Immediately a dove dove- that dove that blessed emblem emblem emblem em em- blem of purity and peace fluttered against the window and beat upon the pane for entrance When it found its efforts futile it perched on the transom above the door and looked in upon the quiet sleeper Who knows hut but if it could have had Its ts will it would have rested upon the thet t head of Herman the Artist as he stood r on the banks of the Jordan listening for the words This is my beloved sonin son in whom I am well pleased |