r, for you persuaded me to come into this
terrible forest," said he.

"Don't be a coward," retorted the other. "A real journeyman should
never be afraid. And what is it you are afraid of? Do you think that
the lordly robbers of the Spessart would do us the honor to attack and
kill us? Why should they give themselves that trouble? To gain
possession of the Sunday-coat in my knapsack, or the spare pennies
given us by the people on our route? One would have to travel in a
coach-and-four, dressed in gold and silks, before the robbers would
think it worth their while to kill one."

"Stop! Didn't you hear somebody whistle in the woods?" exclaimed Felix,
nervously.

"That was the wind whistling through the trees. Walk faster, and we
shall soon be out of the wood."

"Yes, it's all well enough for you to talk that way about not being
killed," continued the goldsmith; "they would simply ask you what you
had, search you, and take away your Sunday-coat and your change. But
they would kill me because I carry gold and jewelry with me."

"Why should they kill you on that account? If four or five were to
spring out of the bush there now with loaded rifles pointed at us, and
politely inquire, 'Gentlemen, what have you with you?' or 'If
agreeable, we will help you carry it,' or some such elegant mode of
address, then you wouldn't make a fool of yourself, but would open your
knapsack and lay the yellow waist-coat, the blue coat, two shirts, and
all your necklaces, bracelets, combs, and whatever you had besides,
politely on the ground, and be thankful for the life they spared you."

"You think so, do you?" responded Felix warmly. "You think I would give
up the ornament I have here for my godmother, the dear lady countess?
Sooner would I part with my life! Sooner would I be hacked into small
pieces. Did she not take a mother's interest in me, and since my tenth
year bind me out as apprentice? Has she not paid for my clothes and
every thing? And now, when I am about to go to her, to carry her
something of my own handiwork that she had ordered of the master; now,
that I am able to give her this ornament as a sample of what I have
learned; now you think I would give that up, and my yellow waistcoat as
well, that she gave me? No, better death than to give to these base men
the ornament intended for my godmother!"

"Don't be a fool!" exclaimed the compass-maker. "If they were to kill
you, the countess would still lose the ornament; so it