eeper?"

"Nothing."

"What were you saying to him?"

"Just what people are apt to talk."

"But I don't want you ever to speak a word to him."

"And I'm not going to ask you for permission to speak to anybody."

"You're a proud, deceitful thing."

"If you think so I can't help it."

They walked on in silence. At Tony's door she said "goodnight;" but
Sepper allowed her to go in without an answer. He stood before the door
all the evening, whistling and singing: he thought that Tony must
certainly come to him; but she did not come, and he went away in high
dudgeon.

That whole week Sepper never spoke a word to Tony, and even went out of
his way to avoid meeting her.

On Saturday afternoon he was out in the "Warm Dell" with his team to
get clover for Sunday. On his way home he saw Babbett coming up the
"Cowslip Dell" with a heavy bundle of clover on her head. He stopped,
and made her put her clover and herself on his wagon. Here Babbett told
him her mind about his foolish jealousy so very plainly that he went to
the well near the town-hall and waited until Tony came to fetch water.
He hastened to lift the bucket for her and adjust it on her head, and
then walked by her side, saying, "How have you been all the week? I
have such lots of work."

[Illustration: He hastened to lift the bucket for her.]

"You give yourself lots of trouble, which you might let alone. You are
a wild, wilful fellow. Do you see now that you were in the wrong?"

"You must never speak to that gamekeeper again."

"I'll speak to him whenever I please," said Tony: "I am not a child. I
understand my own business."

"But you needn't speak to him if you don't choose to."

"No, I needn't; but I am not going to be led about by a halter that
way."

Peace was restored, and no disturbance occurred for a long time, for
the gamekeeper did not show himself at Nordstetten again.

Tony often sat in the cherry-copse of a Sunday afternoon, with her
playmates, and sometimes with Sepper, laughing and singing. The wild
cherries--the only ones which ripen in the climate of the Black
Forest--had long disappeared; the rape-seed was brought home; the rye
and barley were cut, and the peaceful life of our friends had passed
through but little change: Sepper's and Tony's love for each other had,
if any thing, increased in intensity. That fall Sepper had to go
through the last course of drill with the military, and then he would
get his discharge, and then--