and loving withal was his grip,
and that his heart was the same all men might see. His thick, red-gold
hair and beard, streaked with snowy white, his light, flax-blue eyes and
his green forester's garb, with high tan boots and a cap of otter fur
garnished with the feather of some bird he had slain--all this gave him
a strange, gladsome, and gaudy look. And as the stalwart man stepped
forth with his hanger and hunting-knife at his girdle, followed by his
hounds and badger-dogs, other children might have been affrighted,
but to me, betimes, there was no dearer sight than this of the
terrible-looking forester, who was besides Cousin Gotz's father.

Well, on the second Sunday after Whitsunday, when the apple blossoms
were all shed, my uncle came in to town to bid me and Cousin Maud to the
forest lodge once more; for he ever dwelt there from one Springtide till
the next, albeit he was under a bond to the Council to keep a house in
the city. I was nigh upon seventeen years old; Ann was past seventeen
already, and I would have expressed my joy as freely as heretofore but
that somewhat lay at my heart, and that was concerning my Ann. She was
not as she was wont to be; she was apt to suffer pains in her head, and
the blood had fled from her fresh cheeks. Nay, at her worst she was all
pale, and the sight of her thus cut me to the heart, so I gladly agreed
when Cousin Maud said that the little house by the river was doing her
a mischief, and the grievous care of her deaf-mute brother and the other
little ones, and that she lacked fresh air. And indeed her own parents
did not fail to mark it; but they lacked the means to obey the leech's
orders and to give Ann the good chance of a change to fresh forest air.

When my uncle had given his bidding, I made so bold as to beseech him
with coaxing words that he would bid her go with me. And if any should
deem that it was but a light matter to ask of a good-hearted old man
that he should harbor a fair young maid for a while, in a large and
wealthy house, he will be mistaken, inasmuch as my uncle was wont, at
all times and in all places, to have regard first to his wife's goodwill
and pleasure.

This lady was a Behaim, of the same noble race as my mother, whom God
keep; and what great pride she set on her ancient and noble blood she
had plainly proven in the matter of her son's love-match. This matter
had in truth no less heavily stricken his father's soul, but he had held
his peace, ina