ne," said Hansgeorge.

Kitty turned and looked on him with tearful eyes, eloquent with
entreaty and tender solicitude. George took her offered hand, and gazed
long and earnestly into the face of his beloved. It was by no means a
face of regular beauty: it was round, full, and plump; the whole head
formed almost a perfect sphere; the forehead was high and strongly
protruding, the eyes lay deep in their sockets, and the little pug
nose, which had a mocking and bantering expression, and the swelling
cheeks, all proclaimed health and strength, but not delicacy or
refinement. George regarded her in her burning blushes as if she had
been the queen of beauty.

They remained silent for a long time. At last Kitty said, "Shall I fill
your pipe for you?"

"Yes," said George, and let go her hand.

This proposal of Kitty's was the best offer of reconciliation. Both
felt it as such, and never exchanged another word on the subject of
their dispute.

In the evening many boys and girls, with flushed cheeks and sparkling
eyes, came to take Kitty to the dance; but she refused to go.
Hansgeorge smiled. When he asked Kitty to go as a favor to him, she
skipped joyfully away, and soon came back in her holiday gown. Another
difficulty arose, however. With all their good nature, none of the
comers cared to give up their dance and stay with Hansgeorge; and Kitty
had just announced her intention, when, fortunately, old Jake came in.
For a good stoup of wine,--which they promised to send him from the
inn,--he agreed to sit up all night, if necessary.

Hansgeorge had got Dr. Erath to preserve his finger in alcohol, and
intended to make Kitty a present of it; but, with all her strength of
nerve, the girl dreaded it like a spectre, and could hardly be induced
to touch the phial. As soon as Hansgeorge was able to leave the house,
they went into the garden and buried the finger. Hansgeorge stood by,
lost in thought, while Kitty shovelled the earth upon it. The wrong he
had done his country by making himself unfit to serve it never occurred
to him; but he remembered that a part of the life which was given him
lay there never to rise again. It seemed as if, while full of life, he
were attending his own funeral; and the firm resolve grew in him to
atone for the waste committed of a part of himself by the more
conscientiously husbanding what yet remained. A thought of death
flitted across his mind, and he looked up with mingled sadness and
pleasure