sobbing:--

"I have nothing more to say; your father has said all; but if you find
a plant of Edelweiss on the Swiss mountains bring it home for me."

The youth walks on, and his brothers and sisters call after him, "Good
bye, Wilhelm!" While the father, turning to his wife, says:--"Annette,
I only mean to go as far as the boundary with Wilhelm and Lorenz.
Pilgrim will go on with them to their first night's quarters. I shall
return soon."

"Quite right, but don't hurry back, and above all, don't take the
parting so to heart; and tell Lisle Faller, as you pass, that I wish
her mother and her to dine here."

The father goes forward with his son, and the mother says to the old
woman:--

"It is a great comfort to me, that young Faller goes with Wilhelm on
his travels."

We can relate why the young mother with the white hair, begged her son
to bring her home a plant of Edelweiss from his travels.

It is a hard, painful, almost cruel story, but the sun of love beams
brightly, at last, through the clouds.

CHAPTER I.
A GOOD NAME.

"She was an excellent woman."

"Few like her left."

"She was one of the good old-fashioned sort."

"Come when you would, she was always ready to bestow help and comfort."

"What trials she had gone through! she had buried four children and her
husband, and yet she was always kind and cheerful."

"Lenz will miss her sadly; he will discover now what a mother he had."

"Oh, no! he knew that well enough during her life, and always strove to
please her."

"He must marry soon, now."

"He can choose whoever he likes; any house he knocks at will gladly
throw open the door to him, he is so good and steady."

"Besides, he must have a considerable sum of money."

"And he is heir to his rich uncle, Petrowitsch."

"How well the Choral Society sung at the funeral today! it quite went
to the heart."

"How much it must have touched poor Lenz! he usually sings with them,
and he has the best voice of them all."

"Very true--he did not shed a tear during the funeral service, but when
his companions were singing, he cried and sobbed as if his heart would
break."

"This is the first funeral that Petrowitsch did not leave the village
to avoid: indeed, it would have been too bad if he had not shown this
last mark of respect to his sister-in-law."

It was thus the men were conversing while going along, through the
valley,