nd the
beech-tree, and presently an abundant stream of crystal-clear water
burst forth, flooded the basin, and then went leaping and foaming over
the rocks and down the mountainside into the ravine below. Blanka
clapped her hands with delight at this beautiful appearance, and
declared that if she were rich, she would build a house there and ask
for no other amusement than to watch the spring when it flowed. She
laughed like a happy child, and perhaps in all Transylvania, that day,
hers was the only happy laugh that was heard.

Aaron gathered a heap of dry twigs and made a fire, at which he taught
Blanka to toast bread and broil bacon,--accomplishments not to be
despised on occasions like this.

In half an hour the spring ceased to flow. It stopped with a succession
of muffled, gurgling sounds from the depths of its subterranean channel,
ending finally with gulping down the greater part of the water that had
filled the basin. Then all was still once more.

Meanwhile something had occurred to trouble Blanka's happiness. Two or
three wasps, of that venomous kind of which half a dozen suffice to kill
a horse, lured from their winter quarters by the smell of food, were
buzzing about her ears in a manner that spoiled all her pleasure. Aaron
hastened to her assistance, and suspecting that the intruders had their
nest in the hollow beech, he made preparations to smoke them out.
Setting fire to a bunch of dry grass, he inserted it in the hollow of
the tree and confidently awaited results. A sound like the snort of a
steam-engine followed, and presently flames were seen bursting from the
top of the chimney-like trunk. The dry mould and dust of ages that had
collected inside this shaft had now caught fire, like so much tinder,
turning the whole tree in a twinkling into a mighty torch.

"Oh, what have you done?" cried Zenobia, starting up. "Do you know that
you have killed my father and set fire to the house that sheltered you
last night?"

Blanka at first thought the girl was joking, but when she saw Aaron's
vexed expression and Manasseh's ruffled brow, she knew that the words
must have a meaning that the others understood, though she did not.

"Quick!" exclaimed the Wallachian maiden. "Mount and away! You have not
a moment to lose. I hasten back to my father. You can find your way down
the mountain by following the bed of the brook. Night must not overtake
you in this neighbourhood. Oh, Aaron, may God forgive you for what y