at on the
day of the great eclipse; it is not day, and yet it is not night, and
the trees and hills seem trembling with fear. Alas, alas! I am actually
in the Todten Hof. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago a rich farmer
lived here, so rich and so godless that he and his wife and children
bathed every day in milk, and never gave a single drop to the
poor--they were even more wicked than the Roettmaennin. But in those days
our Lord thought fit to punish their sin, and one Sunday, when they
were playing at football in the meadow with cheeses, the earth suddenly
opened, and swallowed up the whole farm, men, and cattle. There is a
particular time, however, when they all wake up again, and show
themselves for, one single hour. It is not right to tell children such
histories, it only makes them superstitious. I am not at all
superstitious, besides it was still daylight; but there was no sun to
be seen in the sky, nothing but black clouds, and my hair really stood
on end. What terrified me most, was not the dread of the dead men
waking up again, but the dogs starting up out of the ground, and
beginning suddenly to bark--that would be very horrible. 'There's not a
word of truth in it,' I exclaimed, in a loud voice, far into the
valley, and this rather revived my courage. I thought, however, that my
best plan was to retrace my steps, and not to attempt to go to Wenger
that day; still going back was such a long journey, and I knew my way
back just as little as my way forward. I would have been quite ashamed
to show my face, if I had been obliged to go back, and say that I had
lost my way. I said to myself--'No, on I must go. If I do not reach
Wenger, at least I am sure to arrive at a house. Don't give way to
superstition, and it is still daylight, and tonight there is a full
moon; then you can go home when you have rested for a time, or you may
remain at Wenger. No one is expecting you.' Unluckily I live quite
alone; and it was a sad thought to me at that moment, that I was so
solitary and uncared-for. No one would inquire for me, or weep for me,
if I were lost I must say I could scarcely help crying; but no! said I
to myself, there are people who feel an interest in me, and how
frightened they will be, and yet how pleased, when I can relate to them
my adventures. Surely they will soon end now. I have quite enough to
tell them already, indeed more than enough; and tired, terribly tired I
was. Suddenly I heard a boy _jodeln_, on the