nin, with a harsh laugh, "if the whole
world go crazy, I won't. If they all fall down dead around me, like so
many cockchafers, I will still say _no_!"

Speidel-Roettmann, however, instead of replying to his wife, went up to
Martina, saying, "Come, Martina, try to be composed and to command your
feelings--there, I have lifted you up, sit down here."

"My Joseph! where is my Joseph?"

"In the warm stable below, sound asleep," said Tony; "let him sleep on
quietly, your father is with him; we laid him in warm, dry hay; and
I'll tell you what we will do--we will carry him upstairs immediately,
and lay him in my bed, in the next room. You can go down to fetch him:
Adam, you need not be afraid about your Martina; go at once, and I will
stay with her."

"And I!" said Speidel-Roettmann. Adam went down to the stable, and
carried the child upstairs to bed, but Schilder-David was sleeping so
soundly that he did not choose to wake him. The child, too, continued
fast asleep, even when he took him in his arms. The father stroked the
child's head fondly, and then his hand once more hung down by his side.
Martina was now brought gently into the room; she bent over Joseph
quietly, and listened to his breathing.

"Lie down beside the child, on my bed," said the Forest Miller's Tony
to Martina, who looked at the girl in surprise, while Tony added, "You
may be very glad that matters have taken this turn. Your Adam and I
were forced into a betrothal; he disliked it quite as much as I did,
and your Adam is good and true; he never spoke one word to me except
about you; and though we were bride and bridegroom, yet we never kissed
each other once."

"Then I will give you a kiss," said Martina, starting up and embracing
Tony.

"I wish I had my cheeks between the two," said Haespele to Adam; and
then addressing the two women, "You are both very nice girls, I must
say! Come, Tony, your best plan is to take me: will you have me? I see
you won't, but I'll give you a wedding present whoever you marry, all
the same."

"Where is my father?" interrupted Martina.

"Still sleeping in the hay."

"Good Heavens! when he awakes, and no longer finds the child by his
side, he will go out of his senses."

"Don't be uneasy, I will go to the stable and stay there with him till
he awakes," answered Tony; but Haespele detained her by asking for
something to drink, before he set out as quick as he could for the
Reitersberg, where the men were still k