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aving filled the cart in the usual way, and finding himself out of employment, he directly shovelled the compost out again, and when the farmer returned the cart was empty. But poor Peter, with all his dulness, possessed some remarkable characteristics. He was very strong of arm, and wonderfully swift of foot, and his senses were acute. His musical gifts were most marvellous. He would reproduce, in his humming way, the notes of a tune that he had heard but once,--a thing that might have baffled an amateur. He also had a lively sense of the beautiful and the sublime. He would stand at night gazing on the stars as though transfixed by the splendors blazing above. His whole being was thrilled with joy on the approach of spring. He would sing all the day as the atmosphere became warm and balmy, and would often prolong his melodies far into the beautiful nights. He died aged about seventy years. CHAPTER XIII. THE BELLS OF THE RHINE. LEGENDS OF THE BELLS OF BASEL AND SPEYER.--STORY OF THE HARMONY CHIME.--THE BELL-FOUNDER OF BRESLAU. One evening, after the story-telling entertainments, Mr. Beal was speaking to the Class of the great bell of Cologne which has been cast from the French cannon captured in the last war. "It seems a beautiful thing," he said, "that the guns of war should be made to ring out the notes of peace." "There is one subject that we did not treat at our meetings," said Charlie Leland,--"the bells of the Rhine." "True," said Mr. Beal. "A volume might be written on the subject. Almost every belfry on the Rhine has its legend, and many of them are associated with thrilling events of history. The raftmen, as they drift down the river on the Sabbath, associate almost every bell they hear with a story. The bells of Basle (Basel), Strasburg, Speyer, Heidelberg, Worms, Frankfort, Mayence, Bingen, and Bonn all ring out a meaning to the German student that the ordinary traveller does not comprehend. Bell land is one of mystery. "For example, the clocks of Basel. The American traveller arrives at Basel, and hurries out of his hotel, and along the beautiful public gardens, to the terrace overlooking the Rhine. He looks down on the picturesque banks of the winding river; then far away his eye seeks the peaks of the Jura. "The bells strike. The music to his ears has no history. "The German and French students hear them with different ears. The old
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