lady now,
with all her cleverness, did not seem to know what the right thing was.

"Do you like to see nice linen, Franzl?"

"O my heart! it is the one thing I delight in. If I were rich, I would
have seven chests of the finest linen. The weight-maker's wife in
Knuslingen has--"

"See there," said the landlady, opening the folding-doors of a great
clothes-press and showing packages of linen in dozens, piled up to the
ceiling, each tied with a bright-colored ribbon.

"Is that for the hotel?" asked Franzl, when her first exclamations of
admiration were over.

"Heaven forbid! that is my Annele's dowry. As soon as my daughters were
seven years old I began to put by their wedding outfit, for you never
can tell how suddenly it may be needed. Then it is finished, and there
is no further need of weaver or seamstress. I only wish the dowry of
one of my daughters might remain in the town. It would be pleasant,
too, to keep one child near us. Thank Heaven, all my children are well
married,--more than well; but seeing their prosperity is better than
hearing of it."

A sudden revelation broke upon Franzl's mind. The press with its wealth
of linen danced before her eyes, and the blue, red, green, and yellow
ribbons melted together into a rainbow. "O dear landlady, may I speak?
I beg a thousand pardons if I am presuming, but--O dear Heaven, where
such linen is how much else there must be! How would it do--might I say
it?--if my Lenz--?"

"I have nothing to say. I am the mother, and my child is well known;
you can easily inquire about her. You understand? I think--I don't
know--"

"Oh, that is enough, quite enough! I fly home; I have borne him in my
arms, I will bear him again hither. But there will be no need, he will
leap over the house-tops. I am but a poor silly thing, dear landlady;
don't be angry with me."

"You silly? You can draw one's inmost thoughts out of one. You are
wiser than the seven wise men. But look you, Franzl, this is all
between ourselves; between two trusty friends. I have said nothing; you
have made your own discoveries. My husband naturally looks higher; but
I should like to keep one child near me, God willing. I tell you
honestly--for I know not how to speak falsely or to take back my
word--that I do not reject your proposal."

"That is enough. I will show that we Knuslingers do not bear the name
for nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"Ho, ho!" cried Franzl in a decided tone, and putting on a kno