and pistols."

During these words, the wagoner had taken out his wax candles. He stuck
them on the table and lighted them. "Here let us await, in the name of
God, whatever may happen to us," said he; "let us sit down together
again, and banish sleep with stories."

"We will do that," answered the student; "and as the turn came to me
down-stairs, I will now begin."

THE MARBLE HEART.

FIRST PART.

Whoever travels through Suabia should not neglect to take a peep into
the Black Forest; not on account of the trees, although one does not
find every-where such a countless number of magnificent pines, but
because of the inhabitants, between whom and their outlying neighbors
there exists a marked difference. They are taller than ordinary people,
broad-shouldered and strong-limbed. It seems as though the balmy
fragrance exhaled by the pines had given them a freer respiration, a
clearer eye, and a more resolute if somewhat ruder spirit than that
possessed by the inhabitants of the valleys and plains. And not only in
their bearing and size do they differ from other people, but in their
customs and pursuits as well. In that part of the Black Forest included
within the Grand Duchy of Baden, are to be seen the most strikingly
dressed inhabitants of the whole forest. The men let nature have her
own way with their beards; while their black jackets, close-fitting
knee breeches, red stockings, and peaked hats bound with a broad sheaf,
give them a picturesque, yet serious and commanding appearance. Here
the people generally are occupied in the manufacture of glass; they
also make watches and sell them to half the world.

On the other side of the forest formerly dwelt a branch of this same
race; but their employment had given them other customs and manners.
They felled and trimmed their pine trees, rafted the logs down the
Nagold into the Neckar, and from the Upper-Neckar to the Rhine, and
thence far down into Holland, and even at the sea coast these raftsmen
of the Black Forest were known. They stopped on their way down the
rivers at each city that lined the banks, and proudly awaited
purchasers for their logs and boards, but kept their largest and
longest logs to dispose of for a larger sum, to the Mynheers for
shipbuilding purposes. These raftsmen were accustomed to a rough,
wandering life. Their joy was experienced in floating down the streams
on their rafts; their s