name, nor did he inquire whether we
had heard from him.

He had heard of the death of Carl, and was just about to pay a visit to
his mother, when Rothfuss came rushing into the room in breathless
haste, and told us that Carl was down in the stable, and begged that we
would go to his mother and gently break the news of his safe return to
her.

We had Carl come up to us, and learned from him that he had been cut
off from his companions during a reconnoissance, and taken prisoner,
and had thus by mistake been entered in the list of the killed.

When he heard this, the Major inveighed furiously at the want of system
that obtained everywhere.

I decided that I would go to his mother, and that Carl and the Major
should follow me a little while later.

I went to the spinner's cottage. She sat at her spinning-wheel; and I
could not help believing myself the witness of a miracle, for as soon
as she saw me, the old woman called out, "Will he come soon?"

She then told me that she had awakened during the night--she was quite
sure it was not a dream--and had heard the voice of her son saying
quite distinctly, "Mother, I am not dead--I will soon be with you. I am
coming--I am coming!" And she had heard his very footsteps.

"I went to the pastor's," she said, taking off one spindle and putting
on a new one; "the pastor had given orders to have the church-bell
tolled on account of Carl's death; but I will not allow it--my Carl is
alive, and I do not want to hear the bells tolling for his death."

I told her that in time of war there was necessarily much confusion,
and that I, too, believed that her son was still alive, and would
return again. I was just about to say that I had already seen Carl,
when he stepped out from behind the wood-pile, and called out,
"Mother!"

The spinner remained seated, but threw her spindle to the far end of
the room.

Carl fell on his knees before her and wept.

"You need not weep--I have done enough of it myself, already," said
she. "But I knew it--you are a good child, and you would not be so
cruel as to die before me. Get up and pick up my spindle. Have you
eaten anything, Carl? You must be hungry."

When Carl told her that he did not wish for anything, she replied,
"Indeed, I have nothing but cold boiled potatoes. Now, do tell me, how
did it seem when you were dead? You surely thought of me at the last
moment? Tell me, did you not last night at three o'clock, wherever you
were, say to