o passed. God forbid that
the child should have to go as far as I did, before I found my way
back! It was on the Sunday after All Saints--no, it was on a Monday; at
all events it was a holiday, St. Peters and St. Paul's. We don't keep
it holy, but the Catholics do. I left home on a fine bright day,
carrying nothing with me but a velvet cap in a handkerchief for
Holderstein's daughter, in Wenger. You know who I mean. She is now a
widow: they say she is going to marry a very young man, who lives near
Neustaedtle; for she went there two Sundays following, and he walked
back with her both times: it is not very wise in her to marry such a
boy. At the time I speak of, she was betrothed to her first husband, a
nephew of the Forest Miller--I mean of the old miller. So I set out and
went first along the valley. It was a very fine season; it is long
since we have had one like it--just the quantity of rain and sunshine
that we required. In the wood I met the beadle's children--the boy and
Maidli. The boy became a soldier, and was shot by the Freischaerfer.
Maidli lives in Elsass, where they say she is happily married. They
were herding an old and a young goat, beside the hedge where there are
so many hazel nuts. So I asked the children--I don't know why--if there
was not a nearer path to Wenger. 'Yes, indeed,' said the children. 'I
must not keep on the beaten track; but when I came to the group of
juniper trees, turn to the left through the wood.' I wanted one of the
children to show me the way, that I might be quite sure of the right
road. I can't tell the reason, but I somehow anticipated evil; but the
children were so stupid, that they would neither go alone nor together
with me. So I walked on, and when I arrived at the wood, where the
Roessleswirth has now his field--at the time it was still part of the
wood--I called out to the children below to know if I was on the right
path, and they shouted 'Yes;' at least I imagined I heard them say so.
So I went on, and it was very cool and pleasant in the forest I thought
it so fortunate that I was now in the shade of the wood, for the heat
was so great outside. It was about ten o'clock, and here it was quite a
cool fresh morning still. Such a walk is very beneficial to any one
obliged to be constantly sitting and working; and at that time I was
quite young, and I could run and jump about like a foal. I saw a
quantity of strawberries beside the hornbeam hedge; I gathered a few,
but did