be shut up in their kennels. Give me another cup of coffee, Lina, it is
so good--"

"Well, and what then?" said his wife.

The Pastor looked at her with a smile, and continued--

"The snow in that country comes up to the knees, but it has at least
one good property; that of being clean, though it does wet one to the
skin in the most remarkable manner. I luckily did not stumble over the
huge logs in the yard, hidden in the snow, and the puddles were so
obliging as to be frozen over. 'Where is your master?' said I. 'He is
in bed.' 'Is he dangerously ill also?' 'No, he is asleep.' 'Really! I
am summoned to his dying wife, and the husband is comfortably
sleeping:' a very easy going, pleasant world this is, thought I: well,
I went straight to the sick woman's room--'God be praised! Herr Pastor,
that you are come at last.' What! that is not surely the voice of a
woman at the point of death? I asked why I had been summoned in the
middle of the night. 'Oh! my good Herr Pastor,' said the Roettmaennin,
'you are so kind, so very kind, and have the art of conversing and
instructing so delightfully, that the very sight of you is reviving,
and makes me entirely forget my dangerous state. Here have I been lying
for seven nights, scarcely able to close my eyes, and I can't tell you
how bored and tired I am. I thought the time would never pass, so I
just sent for you. You are so good natured, Herr Pastor, I thought you
would sit and talk to me for a while and amuse me--my husband must on
no account hear that I sent for you, I am not at all in his good graces
at present; he goes from home as often as he can, and even when he
stays with me, he scarcely says one word; I believe he would have been
very glad if I had died long ago, and as for my only child, Adam, he
seems scarcely to know that I am in the world. Oh! Herr Pastor! any one
obliged as I am to lie here day and night, in this solitary house,
unable to do anything, would feel, like me, every day that passes to be
an eternity, and every night even worse. If my Vincent were still alive
he would have watched by me day and night; he would have nursed me in a
way in which no other human being ever can. So my good kind Pastor, sit
down here and talk to me. Would you like a glass of good Wachhold
brandy? it will warm you, you must take it, and shall positively not
refuse. Kaety, take down that long-necked green bottle from the shelf,
the one farthest back, and give a glass of brandy to