



Produced by David Widger






AN IDYL OF THE EAST SIDE

By Thomas A. Janvier

Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers


In the matter of raising canary-birds--at once strong of body and of
note, tamed to associate with humanity on rarely friendly terms, and
taught to sing with a sweetness nothing short of heavenly--Andreas
Stoffel was second to none. And this was not by any means surprising,
for he had been born (and for its saintly patron had been christened)
close by the small old town of Andreasberg: which stands barely
within the verge of the Black Forest, on the southern declivity of the
Harz--and which, while famous for its mines, is renowned above all
other cities for the excellence of the bird songsters which there and
thereabouts are raised.

Canary-birds had been the close companions of this good Andreas through
all the fifty years of his lifetime. They had sung their sweet song of
rejoicing at his birth--when the storks had brought him one day, while
his father was far un