A Tale of the Kloster: A Romance of the German Mystics of the CocalicoJabez, Brother
Religion
A Tale of the Kloster: A Romance of the German Mystics of the Cocalico
Jabez, Brother
Christian fiction; Ephrata Cloister -- Fiction; Seventh-Day Baptists -- Fiction
For some moments my brethren and I stood on the great rock with its
beautiful outlook over the delightful valley where lay our little
Kloster, and then I told them of how I had found here our Brother
Alburtus and how I had placed him in his stone grave, which I pointed
out to them; nor could I keep my vanity from telling how I had
overthrown my red adversary, so that Brother Hänsly looked at me with
such awe I was not greatly displeased.
Then, at my bidding, my brethren followed me up the hill toward the hut,
my heart now beating hard for fear the witch and her red man had in the
meantime carried our sister and my Sonnlein away again, for everything
seemed so quiet and I saw no sign of Genoveva.
But as we came nigh the clustered pines, being in the lead I caught
glimpses of Genoveva coming toward us, though I said not a word to my
followers until we were almost upon her, who, stepping out suddenly from
behind a bush almost killed my little band with fright, for to many of
the Solitary she had long been held as dead.
Yet as they saw me greet her boldly, they, though still in great
bewilderment, gathered about us, Brother Hänsly, slyly reaching from
behind Brother Theonis, feeling her skirt to make sure she was no
spirit; whereat she had him come to her much as a mother draweth to her
some mischievous, beloved child, so that our diminutive brother's face
reddened like a girl's.
We stood but a few minutes thus when from within the hut, so that my
brothers were given another start, came a low call, "Genoveva," at which
it was her turn to redden like a rose, as she said, "Thy Sonnlein hath
so little patience; he surely is getting well," and as she turned to go
to him we all trooped after her into the hut, almost filling it, each
one greeting Sonnlein with such affection as to make my eyes wet in my
foolish pride that my brethren cared so much for my boy.
And then against all his declaring he would not be carried like some
great baby to the Kloster, we took a number of the skins from the hut
and made a soft couch for him on the litter; but before leaving, we went
where lay our Brother Alburtus, at the relating of whose sudden taking
away Sonnlein and Genoveva were much grieved. And because our brother
had received such unusual burial, it seemed fitting to us ere we
departed to honor his memory by singing and prayer.
Then sadly and silently, with slow and careful steps we carried Sonnlein
safely to the foot of this rugged mountain. Here we rested for a short
time, and then by as unobserved a way as we had come we arrived at the
Kloster early in the afternoon, where we all received such joyful
welcome as I shall never forget, only that there were among the Solitary
some who seemed never fully able to forgive Genoveva for returning to
life after they had so long maintained she had been translated like the
prophets of old.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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