e, I would not suffer it; I would go to
church with my little Joseph--but no--I would not take him with me--I
would go alone, and call out Adam's name. I could not endure it, and
then we should see if the clergyman would marry them."

The brook once more flows tranquilly through a quiet meadow; on its
banks some oaks and beeches droop their branches; but the hills are
covered thickly with lofty pines; the stream rushes again over rocks
into deep ravines: now it runs rapidly along. There lies the boundary
stone. "Now we are at home," had Adam once said, and yet this stone is
fully two miles from the Roettmannshof. In the Otterzwanger wood
belonging to it, lies a peaceful nook beside the river, overshadowed by
a spreading beech. The girl passes her cold hand over her feverish
cheek. There, under that leafy beech, she had first been noticed by
Adam. No one in the world would have believed that he could be so merry
and talkative, so kind and so gentle. It was a lovely summer's day: on
the previous evening there had been a violent storm; the thunder and
lightning had been so tremendous, that it seemed as if no tree in the
forest could escape scatheless. Just so is it here below: without in
the woods, and within in the houses, noise, strife, and wrangling, till
even murder seems not improbable; and yet the very next day everything
is as peaceful as before. It is indeed a charming summer morning that
we allude to; streams are flowing in their various channels with a
merry noise, hurrying on their course, as if knowing that they have
only a day to live, and are to be seen no more on the morrow. The birds
are singing cheerfully, and the girl washing at the brook can't help
doing the same; she must sing also, and why not? She is still quite
young, and free from care. She knows a variety of songs; she learned
them from her father, who was once the best and sweetest singer in the
village. Some men are descending the stream, as there is now water
enough to float a raft; and see, how skilfully they manage it! here is
Adam, the only son of the Roettmanns, on a solitary raft, which whirls
round and round with the current; but Adam knows what he is about, and
stands firm and erect; and when he comes close to the girl washing her
linen in the brook, he lets the raft swim away alone, and, placing the
oar firmly in the bed of the stream, he raises himself into the air,
and jumps on shore by one bold spring. The girl laughs, when she sees
t