e voice of Adam's mother, the stormy Roettmaennin,
and saw her sharp sarcastic face, and Martina whispered sadly to
herself:--"Oh! when will it be light!"

CHAPTER II.
A DUET INTERRUPTED, AND RESUMED.

At the very same hour that the child in the attic woke up and was so
restless, two candles and a lamp were burning in the sitting-room of
the parsonage, and three people were seated comfortably at a round
table: these were the clergyman, his wife, and her brother, a young
farmer. The room was pleasantly warm, and in the pauses of the
conversation, the hissing of some apples roasting on the stove was
heard, and the kettle, on the top of the stove, put in its word too, as
if it wished to say that it had good material ready for a glass of hot
punch. The worthy pastor, who seldom smoked, nevertheless possessed the
talent of enjoying his pipe with any guest who arrived; this did not,
however, make him neglect his snuff-box, and whenever he took a
pinch himself, he offered one to his brother-in-law, who invariably
refused it politely. The pastor gazed with evident satisfaction
at his brother-in-law; and his wife occasionally looked up from her
work--a gift to her husband for the Christmas of the ensuing day--and
glanced tenderly at her brother.

"A famous idea of yours," repeated the pastor, while his delicate face,
his well formed lips, bright blue eyes, and lofty intellectual
forehead, assumed an expression of even greater benevolence than
usual--"a famous idea indeed, to get leave of absence to spend the
holidays with us, but," added he, smiling and glancing at the gun
leaning against the wall in a corner, "your fire-arms will not profit
you much here, unless, indeed, you have the good fortune to hit the
wolf, who has been lately seen prowling about in the wood."

"I have neither come to visit you solely from the wish to see you, nor
with the idea of sport," answered the young farmer, in a deep and manly
voice, "my chief motive is to persuade you, my dear brother-in-law, to
withdraw your application for the pastorate in the Odenwald, and to
delay moving until there is a vacant Cure either near the capital, or
in it. My uncle Zettler, who is now Consistorial President, has
promised to secure the first vacant charge for you."

"Impossible! Both Lina and I should certainly have liked to be in the
vicinity of our parents, and I have often an eager thirst for good
mu