point,
she asked "Where was he found?"

"In the Forest Mill."

"In fact, I need not have asked," rejoined Leegart, glancing round,
with a self satisfied air, "I knew where he was; I pointed out exactly
the way he was sure to take. At the very minute when the cry of his
being found was first heard I was in the act of uttering the words:
'The Forest Miller'--all these women know that this is true."

The most important point for Leegart, was to prove that she was clever
enough to know precisely what was going on, even when she was not there
herself. When they all came into the room, Martina pressed Leegart's
hand warmly--thereby causing her to scatter on the floor a private
pinch of snuff. Leegart said again, "I knew it; I said it. I told them
he was in the Forest Mill: at the very moment that Haespele arrived, I
said the words, 'Forest Miller;' and I prophesy now for you, Martina,
that you will get your Adam at last."

"It is so! it is so! here he is!" exclaimed Martina.

Leegart cast down her eyes modestly; she wished to vindicate her
prophetic gifts, and to shew that she knew it all beforehand. She
nodded emphatically to all who came into the room, as if to say: "I
knew that you would all come here--I knew it long before--I foresaw it
all, and particularly that Adam would come in, holding Joseph by the
hand. I knew all about the wolf too. I only met an adder in the forest,
but the one animal is quite as dangerous as the other. All that has
occurred could not fail to come to pass." Leegart was surprised at
nothing. The expression of her face said, "Nothing is hidden from me;"
and she took a stolen pinch with entire complacency.

"I have three fathers now," exclaimed Joseph; "Leegart, here are my
three fathers."

"Good," said David, "but go to bed now. Martina, take him away. God be
praised, we are all come safe back," shouted he into his wife's ear.
The grandmother nodded, with a pleased face. "Has it been snowing hay?"
asked she, taking some stalks of hay out of her husband's hair. All
laughed, and the deaf grandmother laughed too, and looked earnestly at
each person, guessing, from the motion of their lips, what she could
not hear. She stretched out her hand to Speidel-Roettmann, saying, "Pray
sit down, pray sit down."

Adam went up and shook hands with her of his own accord, bawling into
her ear in his stentorian voice, "God bless you! mother-in-law."

The old woman stepped back suddenly, as if she had rece