THE little Lina opened her eyes upon this world in the arms of herfather, the good Gotleib. He kissed the child with a holy joy:"For," said he, "now is a thought of God fixed in an eternal form;"and he felt that a Divine love flowed into this work of the greatGod--this also thrilled his warm, manly heart with a wondrous love.He felt the inmost of his being vibrating as with an electric touch,to the inmost of the little new-born innocent. But the rapture ofthe young father was altogether imperfect, until he had sealed hislips in a love-kiss upon those of the fraulein Anna, who lay thereso white and beautiful in the new joy of a young mother. Like aninnocent maiden, she twined her arms around Gotleib's neck, and grewstrong in the influx of warm life that flowed into her responsivecares of the husband of her heart. Then Gotleib held up thenewly-born Lina, and the mother's lips touched the soft cheek of thetiny little one with a living rapture, as if all of Heaven wereembraced in this heart-possession.
And Gotleib knelt by the bedside, and thanked God for the beautifulgift of love with a pious awe and holy joy--large tears stood in theeyes of Anna. As he rose from his reverent posture, he kissed offthe bright tears even as the sun exhales dew-drops from a pureflower, and said,
"Dost thou weep for joy, sweet one?"
And Anna said,
"Once--not long since--I had a dream--a beautiful dream--that thisday has been realized. I dreamed that I was in a quite heavenlyplace--yet the place was as nothing--it was the state--for I satwith an infant in my arms--a bright innocent little one--and, thou,dearest Gotleib, knelt beside me; and an angel-woman stood near us,in a soft heavenly glory, and said, in low musical,spirit-words--'Behold the fruit of the union of good and truth.' Andthen, methought, thou didst embrace me with a new joy of love, andwhispered, 'an angel of God is born of us.' This little one is thedream-child, dear Gotleib."
Thus beautiful was the birth of the little Lina, who grew, daily, ina pure innocent loveliness. While she is expanding in the first daysof her new, breathing, sensitive life, we will go back to the formerlife of Gotleib and Anna.
Gotleib Von Arnheim had first seen the light in this same smallcottage, on the confines of the Black Forest of Germany. He was bornwith a large, loving heart. But the father and mother, and the dearGod, were the only beings on whom his affections were fixed; for hissensitive nature shrank from the contact of the honest-hearted, butrough peasant neighbours, that made the little world of their simplelife. But soon death came, and the good father left the earth forthe beautiful Heaven-world. The little Gotleib missed his kindfather; but his mother told him of the bright inner life, and howhis father yet lived and loved him; and the heart of the boy wascomforted: he felt a sense of elevation in having his father, whomhe had known so familiarly here upon earth, now the companion ofangels, and living in such a bright and beautiful world.
Ah, life had to him such an inner beauty; and, when still, dreamymoments of leisure intervened between his work and play, he revelledin such dreams of fancy, as lent light and life and joy to his wholebeing. But the death of the kind father had not only carried theboy's fancy to the other world; it was also drawing the mother'sheart away to the fair spirit-land. Gotleib saw his mother's facegrowing thin and pale; he knew that she was weak--for oftentimes, inthe long winter evenings, as he read to her from the holy word ofGod, her hand would drop wearily with the raised spindle, and she,who was never before idle, would fold her hands in a quiet, meekresignation. At such times a tremour would seize the boy's heart.The mother saw it; and, one night, when his fixed tender gaze restedon her, she raised her spiritual eyes to his, and said,
"Dear Gotleib! thou wilt yet have the good God to love."
"Ah, mother,! mother!" cried the boy, "wilt thou, too, leave me?"
His head was bowed upon her knees in bitter grief, the desolation ofearth was spread like an impenetrable pall over his whole future.Suddenly he looked up, full of a strange, bright hope, and said,
"Mother, I too may die."
Then the mother put off her weakness, and long and loving was thetalk she held with her dear boy. She told him that from a little onehe had ever loved God; that the first word he had ever pronouncedwas the name of the Holy One. She had taught him to clasp his tinybaby hands and look up and say "God," ere any other word had passedhis lips. She had named him Gotleib, because he was the love of Godto her, and he was to be a lover of God. As she talked, the boy grewstrong and calm, and said,
"Yet, oh, my mother! God is so great for the heart of a small child.God is so high and lifted up in the far heavens, that I feel myselfbut as a tiny blade of grass that looks up to the far sun--dearmother! the earth will be too lonely; ah, there is no hope but indeath."
"No, my son," said the mother, "there is a beautiful hope for theearth also. I will tell you what will make you love God more trulythan ever."
The boy was fixed attention.
"Thou didst not know, dear Gotleib, that when God created thee astrong, brave boy, He also created a tender, gentle little maiden,like unto thee in all things, save thou wert a boy and she a maiden.Thou wert strong and able to work, and she gentle and born to lovethee."
"Where is she?" inquired the excited Gotleib.
"I know not," replied the mother. "But God knows, and He will watchover the two whom He has created, the one for the other; and, onearth, or in heaven, the two will meet. Is it not better, then, notto wish to die, but to leave all things to the will of God? For whatif thy little maiden is left alone upon the earth, and there is nostrong, manly heart upon which she may lean, and no vigorous arm tolabour for her, how will her spirit droop with a weary, lonelysadness? No, my son, live! and the joy of a most beautiful, lovingcompanionship, may yet be thine. The earth will not be desolate everto thy orphan heart, with this beautiful hope before thee."
Thus, in the cold wintry night of a dark sorrow, did the good motherplant a living seed of truth, that afterwards sprang up into avernal flowery Eden, that bloomed in the boy's heart with an eternalbeauty.
When the early spring came, Gotleib looked calmly and lovingly onthe beloved mother, who was leaving for the inner world. Death wasbeautiful to him now; it was simply the new birthtime of a mature,living soul.
The spirit of the mother's love seemed to linger over the home ofhis childhood, and it was a great sorrow to leave the cherishedspot; but, his mother told him he was to seek a brother of hers inthe distant town of Heidelberg. As Gotleib turned from the nowvoiceless home of his parents, a fervent desire arose in his heartthat he might again be permitted to dwell beneath this shelteringroof and amidst its living associations.
The boy went forth into the unknown world, with a living trust inhis heart in the great God. His was a simple, childish faith, bornof his love--to him God was not a mystery. It was a Divinepersonality he loved. Jesus had walked the earth, and his father andmother also--all were now spirits, none the less to be loved andtrusted than when upon earth; but now they were to him intranscendent states of glory. The Lord Jesus, as being infinitelygreat and glorious, was the alone One to whom he now looked forhelp--though ever as he knelt to pray to GOD, he felt that hisangel-mother bowed with his spirit, and by her prompting beautifulwords of humiliation and praise came to him, that he himself couldnever have thought of; hence the affections of his heart all grew upinto the inner spirit-world.
And years passed in the good town of Heidelberg, years that broughtblessings to the orphan boy as they flew. The God in whom he trustedhad provided for him--had awakened a friendly kindness in many warmhearts. And Gotleib, who was at first designed by his relatives tospend his days over the shoemaker's awl and last, at length foundhimself, by his own ardent exertions and the helpful kindness ofothers, a student in the University. This was to him a most puregratification--not because of a love of learning, not because ofambition, to attain a position before his fellow-men. Oh! it wasquite otherwise with the good youth--he had one object in life. Thehope that his dying mother had awakened in his heart was the guidingstar of all his efforts. That little maiden created for him, and tobe supported by him! The image was ever before him. Yes, he was astudent for a high and noble use. Science was to be to him theinstrument of a life of love and blessedness. To do good to others,and thus to provide for the maiden, was what led him to the arduousstudy of medicine.
It mattered not that cold and hunger and toil all bound him in anearthly coil. The warm, hopeful heart has a wonderful endurance. Thedelicate, attenuated form of the young student seemed barelysufficient to hold the bright and glowing spirit that looked outfrom his soft eyes, when he received his degrees. The desire of hislife was growing into a fruition; and when he returned to his poorlodgings, a sense of freedom, of gratitude, and of delight, crownedhis yet barren life. To work! to work! seemed now the one call ofhis being; but, whither was he to go? There was the childhood'shome, to which his heart instinctively turned; but, alone anddesolate, he could not dwell there. Gotleib had not forgotten hismother's lessons; he knelt and prayed to God for guidance. Even ashe kneels, and feels his spirit in the sunshine of God's presence,there is a knock at the door, and the good Professor Eberhardenters. He has marked the student in his poverty and toil, and feelsthat he will now hold out a helping hand to the young beginner. Asprofessor of anatomy, he needs the quick eye and delicate hand of anexpert assistant.
Gotleib looked upon the Herr professor as Heaven-sent, and in a fewdays was installed in all the luxury of a life of active use.
Years passed away, and Gotlieb Von Arnheim sighed with a man'sfull heart for a woman's sympathy and responsive affection. He hadseen bright eyes gleam and soft cheeks flush at his approach, and hehad looked wonderingly into many a sweet face. But he had not yetseen the little maiden of whom his mother spoke--who was to be thereflex of himself. All these German maidens were altogetherdifferent from--and his heart remained unsatisfied in theirpresence. He felt no visions of eternity as he looked into theirfriendly faces.
Sometimes hope almost died out. But his trust in God seemed toforbid the death of this sweet hope. Often he said, "the good Godwould not have created this intense desire in one so whollydependent upon Him, were he not intending to satisfy it." At allevents, he thought--"If the maiden is not upon earth, she is inheaven." So he worked and waited patiently.
The wintry winds were howling, as it were, a wild requiem over thelordly ruins of the crime-stained castle of Heidelberg. Cold, andbitter, and clear was the starry night, when the weary Gotleibissued out of the Herr professor's warm house to answer the latecall of a sick woman. Gotleib looked up into those illimitabledepths where earths and suns hang suspended, to appeal to thematerial perceptions of man that this is not the alone world--thealone existence. The silent bright stars comforted the earth-weariedheart in which the day's toil had dimmed the spirit's perception.Gotleib stepped on bravely through the frosty darkness, and saidhopefully to himself,
"There is yet another world--another life than this."
And now he stood before the house in which his services were needed.He entered a chamber, whose bare poverty reminded him of his studentdays. But far sadder was cold poverty here, for a lady lay on a hardcouch before the scantily furnished grate, and her hollow cough, andthe oozing blood that saturated her white handkerchief, rendered allwords unnecessary.
A young girl, with blanched cheek and tearless eye of agony, kneltby the wan sufferer. Gotleib felt himself in the sphere of hislife's use; cold and fatigue were alike gone. The sick and almostdying woman seemed to revive under his touch--it was as if strengthflowed from the physician into the patient. His very presencediffused an air of hope and comfort through the desolate apartment,and the kind serving-girl, Bettina, who had guided him to the humblelodging, seconded all his active efforts to produce warmth andcomfort, and soon returned with one of his prescriptions--anabundance of fuel for the almost exhausted grate. The cheerful blazethrew its strong light upon the young girl, who at first knelt inhopeless grief beside her dying mother.
What was it that thrilled the heart of Gotleib, as he looked uponthis young maiden? Was it her beauty? No! he had seen others morebeautiful. Was it her sorrow? No! he had seen others quite as sad.But, whatever it was, Gotleib felt he had met his destiny; thefulness of his being was developed to him; and, all unconsciously,the maiden turned to him as the Providence of God to her. She seemedto rest her troubled heart upon his strong understanding. He saidher mother would not die immediately, and she grew calm.
It was very late that night when Gotleib retired; and very ferventwere the prayers that arose from his heart before he slept. He felta sense of gratitude for the uses he was permitted to perform to hisfellow beings, and, in his prayers, he felt that light shone fromthe Divine sun upon that sorrowing maiden, and it was as if sheknelt by his side, and his strong spirit-arms upheld her in thesunshine of God's love.
When the morning came, Gotleib awakened with a delicious sense ofenjoyment in life--with a looking forth into the events of the day,that he had never before experienced. He hastened through hismorning duties with an elasticity of spirit and hope that wasaltogether new to him. Though, as yet, his feeling was not definedinto a thought, it was a faint perception, a dim consciousness thatthe elective affinities of his heart had all awakened. And while hethought he was in an excessive anxiety to see after his feeblepatient, he was borne on rather by the attractions of his heart'slove. He paused in a thrilling excitement of hope and doubt beforethe door of the poor chamber--he dreaded to have the agreeableimpressions of the last evening dissipated. But, when he knocked, alight tread was heard; the door was gently opened, and the pale Annastood before him, with such a gentle grace, and so earnest a look ofgratified expectation, that, as she said in subdued tones,
"I hoped it was you," his heart bounded with exultation, to thinkthat the young girl had him in her thoughts. But, as he approachedthe sick bed, his reason told him what was more natural than herwishing for the arrival of her mother's physician.
A careful glance, by daylight, around the humble apartment, revealedto Gotleib that Anna worked with her delicate, white, lady-lookinghands, for the support of her dying mother. A table, placed by thewindow, was covered with artificial flowers of exquisiteworkmanship, and, while he yet lingered in the chamber, Bettina, themaid, entered from the street door, with a basket filled with thesame flowers--looked at Anna, and shook her head mournfully. Theyoung girl's lips quivered, and she pressed the tears back when shesaw no purchaser had been found for her labour. Gotleib saw and feltwith the most intense sympathy all that was passing. He lingered yetlonger--he made encouraging remarks to the sick mother, and, atlength, ventured to approach the table, and gazed with admiration onthe beautiful flowers, while his brain was busy in devising how hewas to make them the medium of conveying aid to the suffering motherand daughter. He turned to the faithful Bettina, who clung to thosewhom she served in their hard poverty--he told her that if she wouldfollow him he would find a purchaser for the pretty flowers. Annacast upon him a look of tearful smiling gratitude, and her simple,"I thank you," as she held out her hand to him, bound him as with amagnetic chain to her being. Bettina thought the Herr Doctor was amost generous man, for he more than doubled the paltry sum she askedfor the flowers; though she did not consider it necessary to mentionthe fact to Anna, she merely stated to her that she had found apurchaser for as many flowers as she chose to make.
But Gotleib! what an Eden those flowers made of his chamber! withwhat a joy he returned to it after hours of absence; it seemed as ifthey brought him into contact with the sphere of a belovedexistence. He examined them with delight, and could not avoidcovering them with kisses. Never was patient visited or watched overmore attentively than was Madame Hendrickson; and, as the motherrevived, the daughter seemed to feel new life. Light beamed from hersoft eyes, and oftentimes Gotleib thought that the roses thatbloomed in her delicate face were far more beautiful and bright thanthose that grew under her light and skilful touch.
For him she seemed to feel an earnest trustful gratitude. She neverconcealed her glad recognition of his coming; she was too pure, andinnocent, and good, to think it necessary to conceal anything. AndGotleib's visits were so pleasant, they grew longer and longer--forhe and Madame Hendrickson were of the same religious faith--and hehad a peculiar faculty for consoling her. Gotleib spoke of the otherworld with such a definite perception of its existences and modes ofbeing, that the dying woman never wearied of listening to him. Thehigh and true faith of the good Gotleib opened to him a world ofbeauty, which he poured forth in his earnest enthusiasm, more like agifted poet than a being of mere prose. Oftentimes, as he talked,the light of his intelligence seemed to gleam back from theanswering eye of Anna, until his whole being was filled withdelight. While she felt that her hitherto dim and indistinct faithwas growing into form and fixedness, and her intellect awakened to asphere of ideas, to a world of perceptions, that endowed her all atonce with a charmed existence, and flooded her with the light of agraceful beauty that made her appear to the admiring Gotleib like anangelic spirit.
Thus were the spirit links being woven through the cold bright daysof winter. Madame Hendrickson was no longer confined to her bed; andon the Sabbath days Anna could attend the public worship of God, ofwhom, now, only she seemed truly to learn. It was to the Holy Suppershe went on that first solemn Sabbath day, after months ofconfinement and sorrow. Oh! how blessed it was to listen to theDivine Word, through which God seemed to her awakened perception toshine, in a veiled beauty! and when she tasted the wine of spiritualtruth, flowing from the wisdom of the Divine One, and ate of thebread of the celestial good of His love, Heaven seemed to open toher receptive heart and mind--and, as her heart's prayers went upwith those of the shining angels round the throne of God, it was notfor herself that she prayed, but for him that had spoken livingtruth to her virgin heart. Oh, the good child! In that holy momentshe rejoiced to reveal her heart's love to the Divine Father; sheknew that her love was born of her knowledge of God, and thus sheknew that it was blessed from above.
As she passed out of the church, she encountered the earnest glanceof surprised and delighted recognition from Gotleib. Very soon hewas at her side. In the fullness and stillness of her beautifulthoughts and satisfied affections they walked on. Oh, how happy thedear mother looked, when she saw the two enter her lonely chamber!The heavenly light and warmth of love seemed to be within and aroundthem; and she saw that two beings so exactly created the one for theother, could not but find an eternal happiness in each other.Gotleib was truly in one of his genial, sunny moods; he seemed tosoar into worlds of light; his expanding heart was filling with theglory of Heaven. The teachings of his childhood were all broughtforth; he talked of his beloved mother--now an angel of God--told ofthe beautiful hope she awakened in his heart concerning the littlemaiden created by God for him, when his heart shrunk in such painfrom the isolation her death would leave him in. Then he turned tothe blushing Anna, and said he thought the maiden was now found. Shelifted her love-lighted eyes to his--he clasped her hand and saidsoftly,
"Thou art mine!"
"I am thine," fell responsive from the maiden's lips; and aninfinite blessedness flowed into the loving, satisfied heart ofGotleib.
The next day brought with it a new and beautiful joy,--a letter fromthe beloved one, conveyed into his hand as he tenderly pressed hers,at parting. For this his thirsty soul had yearned--for someexpression of the maiden's heart-love that had as yet gleamed uponhim but momentarily from her modest eyes. But alone in his chamber,with the dear letter before him! Ah, now indeed he was to lift theveil that hid his life's treasure. To have revealed to him the heartand mind of the beloved one. And his whole being went forth to heras he read the tender revealings. She wrote:
"Gotleib! my heart would fain speak to thine. It longs to saygratefully, 'I love thee, thou heaven-sent one.' And I would tellthee of a dream that came to me last night in my heart's beautifulhappiness.
"I was reading aloud to my mother in the book you lent me. I read ofhow the angels ever have their faces turned to the Divine Sun. Ofhow their shining brows are ever attracted to this central point, inwhatever position they may be--even as our feet are attracted to thecentral point of the earth. I was happy in this beautiful truth, andfelt that through my love for thee, my thought was lifted upward,and my face, too, was turned to the Lord; and when sleep came, itseemed as if my happy spirit was conscious of a new and beautifulexistence. I found myself in a large place, and a company of angelicspirits surrounded me; and we were seated at a table, adorned withan exceeding elegance, and having many varieties of food, of whichwe partook, but without a consciousness of taste--only there was agenial delight of mind arising from the mutual love of all thosebright ones. An angel-woman spoke to me and said, 'This is theLord's Supper; appropriate to thyself the goods and truths of Hisheavenly kingdom.' While she thus spoke, I saw thee, dear Gotleib,approach, with such a smiling and beautiful grace, and thou saidstto me, holding my hand--'Sweet one! how bright thou art! Hast thoulearnt some new truth! for thou art ever bright, when thou dostperceive a new truth!' Then I answered, 'Ah, yes, indeed! I havelearned a beautiful new truth;' and I led thee to an east window andpointed upward to the great Sun, that shone in such a Divineeffulgence--then I told thee how the angels were held by theattraction of love in this centre of being--even as the children ofthe world are held by the attraction of gravitation to theearth--and as we talked, the light shone around thee, dear Gotleib!with so heavenly a glory, that my heart was filled with a new lovefor thee. For I saw, truly, that thou wert a child of God, and inloving thee I loved Him who shone in such a radiant glory upon thee.Oh! was not this a pleasant dream? Gotleib! what worlds of beautythou hast opened to me! Once my thought was so narrow, so bound downto the earth; but thou hast lifted me above the earth. A woman'sheart is so weak--it is like a trailing vine, that cannot liftitself up until its curling tendrils are wound round the loftytree-tops of a man's ascending thought. Gotleib, thus dost thou bearme up into the serene, bright heavens, and like some bloomingflowery vine will my love ever seek to adorn thy noble thoughts."
Gotleib was charmed with the maiden's thoughts. Oh, yes--her flowerswere already flying over his highest branches. She soared above him,and through her heavenly truths were growing clearer to him. Howgrateful he was to his Heavenly Father, that from his own bosom, asit were, was born his spirit's companion. But her life was fromGod--and how holy was her whole being to him! She was enthroned inhis inmost heart, to be for ever treasured as the highest and bestgift of God.
It was evening when he next stood beside her. The mother slept, andAnna and Gotleib stood in the moonlit window. Few, and softlywhispered, were his loving words to her. But she smiled in a onenessof thought, when he said,
"In heaven, the sun shone upon us; upon earth the cold moonbeamsunite us; but the sunshine will soon come again."
Anna felt that her letter had made Gotleib very happy; and she benther head lovingly on his manly breast. Oh! to him, the desolateforlorn one, how thrilling was the first caress of the maiden! Hislips touched her soft white brows with a delicious new joy. Butbrow, eyes, cheeks, and lips, were soon covered with rapturouskisses.
Ah! happy youth and maiden, thus bedewed with life's nectar ofblessedness! What are earth's sorrows to you? Heaven is in you, andeternity only can satisfy the infinite desires of such hearts.
But as the days passed, the material body of the mother wasted away,and her spirit was growing bright in its coming glory. She wishedmuch to see her beloved Anna in a holy marriage union before sheleft this world. So a few weeks after the betrothal, Gotleib led hisbride to the marriage altar. It was a festive scene of the heart'shappiness even beside the bed of death. Madame Hendrickson felt thatshe, too, was adorning for a beautiful bridal--and earthly carebeing thus removed from her heart, she was altogether happy.
And the good, true-hearted Anna, in white bridal garments and virgininnocence, looked to the loving mother and happy Gotleib like anangel of God. Even the Professor Eberhard thought thus, and quitecertain it is, that the good minister spoke as if a heavenlyinspiration flowed into him, as he bound the two into an eternaloneness of being. "Little children!" said he, "love one another!was the teaching of the great God, as he walked upon the earth.Hence love is the holy of the holies. And it flows from God even asheat flows from the material sun--and as the sun is in its own heatand light, so God is in love."
And taking the marriage ring, he placed it on the soft, white,rose-tipped finger of the bride, and said,
"How beautiful and expressive is this symbol of union, showing theconjunction of good and truth, which conjunction first exists in theLord, for His love is the inmost, and His wisdom is like the goldenbond of truth encasing and protecting love. And this love of theLord flowing into man is received, protected, and guarded by woman'struth, until, in her fitness and perfect adaptation to him, shebecomes the love of the wisdom of the man's love, and the twain areno longer two, but one."
The fresh spring days were now coming--Madame Hendrickson went to aneternal spring. But the heart of the loving Anna rose above theearthly sorrow of separation, as if upheld by her husband's strongfaith; her imagination delighted itself in following the belovedmother into her new and beautiful state of being.
Gotleib felt that now it was good for him to return to the home ofhis childhood, for it was more delightful to live apart from thestrife and toil of men. In the simple country life much good mightbe done, and yet there would be less of life's sorrow to look upon.It was weary to live in a crowded haunt, where a perception of viceand misery so mingled itself with the blessedness of his heart'slove. Anna was charmed and delighted with the pure country life, andas business increased on the Herr Doctor's hands, it was so great ahappiness to her to minister to his comfort. After the long winterrides, how she chafed his cold hands and warmed his frozen feet, andhow lovingly she helped him to the warm suppers of the good Bettina,no homeless and desolate wanderer of earth can know. But to Gotleib,what an inexpressible blessedness was all this; and how often heleft off to eat, that he might clasp Anna to his heart and cover herwith kisses! Thus went the blessed married life until another springbrought with it the sweet "dream-child," as Anna called the littleone, whom the angel said, was "the fruit of the union of good andtruth."
The little Lina thus born into the very sphere of love, seemed evera living joy. The father's wisdom guided the mother's tender love,and the little one was good and unselfish--and so gay in theinfantile innocence and grace of her being, that oftentimes theyoung mother, leaning on the father's bosom, would whisper,
"Gotleib, she is indeed an angel of God."
One dark and wintry day, as the child thus sported in the inner gladlight and joy of her heart, and Gotleib and Anna as usual werewatching the light of her radiance, a beautiful White Dove flewfluttering against the friendly window. The child grew still in herwondrous joy. But the father quickly opened the window, and thehalf-frozen bird flew in, and nestled itself in Anna's bosom. It wasfed and warmed and loved as bird never was before. For the littleone thought it was the spirit of God come down upon the house, andGotleib loved it because to him it was a living symbol of the peaceand purity of his married life, and Anna received it as a heavenlygift for the loving child. Thus both literally and spiritually theWhite Dove of innocence and peace dwelt in their midst.
THE END.
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