The country people round about their home used to beg flowers from her
for the purpose of decorating the graves of their friends. It had
always been a pleasure to Mary to give her flowers for this purpose,
and she now determined to decorate her father's tomb in the same
manner. Taking from a cupboard the beautiful basket which had been the
first cause of all her unhappiness, she filled it with choice flowers
of all colours, artistically interspersed with fresh green leaves, and
carried it to Erlenbrunn before the hour of divine service, and laid it
on her father's tomb, watering it at the same time with tears that
could not be repressed.

"Oh, best and dearest of fathers," said she, "you have strewed with
flowers the path of life for me. Let me at least ornament your grave
with them."

Mary left the basket on the grave, and went back to the misery of Pine
Farm. She had no fear that any one would dare to steal either the
basket or the flowers. Many of the country people who saw her offering
were moved to tears, and, blessing the old gardener's pious daughter,
they prayed for her prosperity.

The next day the labourers at the farm were busy taking in the hay from
a large meadow just beyond the forest. The farmer's wife had a large
piece of fine linen spread out on the grass a few steps from the house,
and in the evening this was found to have disappeared. Unfortunately
the young farmer's wife had heard the story of Mary and the ring from
her husband, to whom it had been told by his father and mother.
Instantly then she connected Mary with the disappearance of the linen,
and saw in the circumstance a means of venting her spite upon the girl
whom she had always disliked.

When Mary was returning from her work in the evening with a rake on her
shoulder and a pitcher in her hand, along with the other servants, this
passionate woman came out of the kitchen and met her with a torrent of
abuse, and ordered her to give up the linen immediately. At first Mary
was too stunned to reply, but when she understood the charge, she
answered meekly that it was impossible she could have taken the linen,
as she had passed the whole day in the hay-field with the other
servants; that a stranger might easily have taken advantage of a moment
when there was no one in the kitchen to commit the theft. This
conjecture turned out to be the true one, but the farmer's wife was not
to be turned from her conviction.

"Thief," she cried coarsely