he narrow
stairs with such a heavy tread that the small house shook. Joseph was
in the room below, seated on Schilder-David's knee, and Adam called to
the boy, "You are to get a present from me to-day; what would you like?
Tell me."

The boy did not come, but knit his brows, and looked at his father with
a shy glance. He left his grandfather, but did not go to his father; he
was staring with astonishment at the nail on the wall over the stove,
for there hung a written document framed. Long before daylight,
Schilder-David had replaced there Martina's Confirmation Certificate. A
bright gleam of sunshine lighted up the text, which was: Revelations
3rd chapter, 11th verse. "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown."

In another house in the village, however, there was weeping and
wailing, and that too in the best of all. In the Parsonage the maid sat
in the kitchen, crying bitterly: "The fine fat goose, which was to have
been roasted this very day, and it was the very thing for such a
welcome guest: such a lovely bird, and so well frozen by hanging
outside the window! and now in all the confusion last night, it has
been stolen. I am sure it ought to choke those who were so wicked as to
steal from the Pastor; and how like an angel he spoke to them, and
thanked them for what they had done--and now they play him such a trick
as this! He ought to bring it into his sermon today, and preach to them
on an appropriate text; and the first man that coughs, has stolen the
goose, I will go through the whole village, to spy out who has got my
goose. I will find out whether the fox, the wolf, a dog, a weasel, or a
raven has stolen it; but more likely far some wicked wretch, intending
to roast it. I am resolved to get it back; we have really nothing for
dinner to-day." These, and many other lamentations were poured forth
amid bitter tears, and scolding, and execrations, by the maid in the
kitchen, till at last the Pastor came into the kitchen, saying, "What
is going on here?" The fact was duly detailed to him, and, as a proof
of her assertion, the maid pointed out the empty hook on which the
goose had hung outside the window.

"The hook is still there, but the goose is gone," said the girl,
sobbing, and laying hold of the hook, as if she thought it the very
thing to hang the thief upon. Brother Edward also came in, and the maid
begged him to oblige her by looking at the hook. The Pastor turning to
his brother-in-law,