The Project Gutenberg EBook of St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls,
Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12, by Various

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Title: St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, October 1878, No. 12

Author: Various

Editor: Mary Mapes Dodge

Release Date: January 5, 2006 [EBook #17466]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: THE NOON ENCAMPMENT. [See Violin Village.]]

ST. NICHOLAS.

VOL. V.
OCTOBER, 1878.
No. 12.

[Copyright, 1878, by Scribner & Co.]

THE VIOLIN VILLAGE.

By Edith Hawkins.

On the borders of the Tyrol and the lovely district known as the
"Bavarian Highlands," there is a quaint little village called
"Mittenwald," which at first sight appears shut in by lofty mountains as
by some great and insurmountable barrier. The villagers are a simple,
industrious people, chiefly occupied in the manufacture of stringed
musical instruments, the drying of which, on fine days, presents a very
droll appearance. The gardens seem to have blossomed out in the most
eccentric manner; for there, dangling from lines like clothes, hang
zithers, guitars, and violins, by hundreds, from the big bass to the
little "kit," and the child's toy.

In this valley, one clear morning in August, as the church clock struck
five, a lad issued from the arched entrance of one of the pretty gabled
houses along the main street. He was not more than twelve years of age,
yet an expression of thoughtfulness in his clear, blue eyes, gave and
added an older look to his otherwise boyish face. His costume was a gray
suit of coarse cloth, trimmed with green; his knees and feet were bare,
but he wore knitted leggings of green worsted. A high-crowned hat of
green felt, adorned with some glossy black cock's feathers, a whip and a
small brass horn slung by a cord from his shoulder completed the outfit
of the village goatherd. He hastened along by the green-bordered brook
crossed by planks, over one of which Stephan--for that was our hero's
name--leaped as he c