to find himself yet spared and the girl of his heart beside
him. Such reflections glimmered somewhat dimly in his soul, and he
said, "Kitty, you are quite right: I committed a great sin. I hope it
will be forgiven me." She embraced and kissed him, and he seemed to
have a foretaste of the absolution yet to come.

[Illustration: Kitty embraced and kissed him.]

One would expect to find in a man a peculiar fondness for the spot
where a part of his bodily self is buried. As our native country is
doubly dear to us because the bodies of those we love are resting
there,--as the whole earth is revealed in all its holiness when we call
to mind that it is the sepulchre of ages past, that

"all who tread
The earth are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom,"--

so must a man who has already surrendered a part of his dust to become
dust again be attracted by the sacred claims of earth, and often turn
to the resting-place of his unfettered portion.

Thoughts like these, though vaguely conceived, cannot be supposed to
have taken clear form and shape in such a mind as that of our friend
Hansgeorge. He went to the brickmaker's house every day; but it was in
obedience to the attraction, not of something dead, but of a living
being. But, joyfully as he went, he sometimes came away quite sad and
downhearted; for Kitty seemed intent upon teasing and worrying him. The
first thing she required, and never ceased requiring, was that he
should give up smoking. She never allowed him to kiss her when he had
smoked, and before she would sit near him he was always obliged to hide
his darling pipe. In the brickmaker's room he could not smoke on any
account; and, much as he liked to be there, he always took his way home
again before long. Kitty was not mistaken in often rallying him about
this.

Hansgeorge was greatly vexed at Kitty's pertinacity, and always came
back to his favorite enjoyment with redoubled zest. It appeared to him
unmanly to submit to a woman's dictation: woman ought to yield, he
thought; and then it must be confessed that it was quite out of his
power to renounce his habit. He tried it once in haying-time for two
days; but he seemed to be fasting all the time: something was missing
constantly. He soon drew forth his pipe again; and, while he held it
complacently between his teeth and struck his flint, he muttered to
himself, "Kitty and all the women