nd then crept home, filled with
the strangest thoughts.

HOW FRIEDRICH WAS DRIVEN OUT FROM MASTER MARTIN'S WORKSHOP.

The next day Master Martin was labouring away at the Bishop of
Bamberg's cask, in moody silence; and Friedrich too, who was now only
feeling fully what he had lost in Reinhold, was not capable of a word,
far less of a song. At last Martin threw down his hammer, folded his
arms, and said in a low voice:

"So Reinhold has gone too! He was a great, celebrated painter, and
merely making a fool of me with his coopering. If I had but had the
slightest inkling of that when he came to my house with you, and seemed
so handy and clever, shouldn't I just have shown him the door! Such an
open, honest-looking face! and yet all deceit and falsehood! Well! he
is gone; but _you_ are going to stick to me and the craft with truth
and honour. When you get to be a doughty Master-Cooper--and if Rosa
takes a fancy to you--well! you know what I mean, and can try if you
can gain her liking." With which he took up his hammer, and went busily
on with his work. Friedrich could not quite explain to himself why it
was that Master Martin's words pained his heart--why some strange,
anxious dread arose in him, darkening every shimmer of hope. Rosa came
to the workshop, for the first time for long, but she was deeply
thoughtful, and (as Friedrich remarked to his sorrow) her eyes were red
from weeping. "She has been crying about _him_; she loves him;" a voice
in his heart said; and he did not dare to raise his glance to her whom
he loved so unutterably.

The cask was finished; and then, and only then, Master Martin, as he
contemplated that highly successful piece of work, grew cheerful and
light-hearted once more. "Ay, my lad," he said, slapping Friedrich on
the shoulder, "it is a settled matter that, if you can turn out a right
good master-piece, and win Rosa's good will, my son-in-law you shall
be. After that you can join the Coopers' Guild, and gain much renown."

At this time Master Martin's commissions so accumulated that he had to
hire two new journeymen, capital workmen, but rough fellows, who had
picked up many evil habits during their long years of travel, as
journey-men away from home. In place of the old merry talk, the jokes,
and the pretty singing which used to go on in the workshop, nothing was
to be heard there now but obscene ditties. Rosa avoided the place, so
that Friedrich only saw her at long intervals, and