yourself, 'Mother, I am not dead: I shall soon be with
you--I will come soon--I will come soon?"

Carl answered that he had really uttered those very words at the time
mentioned.

"That is right," said the old woman.

She arose from her seat, took her son by the hand, and went on to say,
"Now, come up into the village with me. Let us go with these gentlemen.
Major, I thank you for the honor of your visit. I suppose I may go
along with you?"

We returned homewards.

It was already known through the whole village, that the young man who
had been lost and so sincerely deplored had returned. Friends poured
forth from every doorway, while from the windows cries of "Welcome
Carl!" were heard.

On our way we met Marie, carrying a bundle of clover on her head. She
threw her bundle away and hurried towards Carl; but when she came up to
him she suddenly stopped, as if frightened.

"Good-day, Marie. I am glad that you, too, have come to bid me
welcome," said Carl.

He extended both his hands to her, and she took hold of them, but did
not utter a word.

We walked on, and when I turned to look back, I saw Marie sitting on
the bundle of clover, with her face buried in her hands.

Rothfuss was the jolliest in the party.

"Now one can see how untruthful the world is," he exclaimed. "Did not
every one say how much he would give if only Carl were alive! He is
here, now, and is alive again, and what do they give? Nothing. One
ought not to do people the favor to die; anything in the world but
death."

We reached the house. Carl's mother walked up to my wife and said,
"Madame Waldfried, here he is--my son Carl. Just as he has come back to
all that is good, so will Ernst surely return. They were born on the
same day--do you remember? There was a great storm at the time; and the
nurse came directly from your house to mine. And at that very moment
the lightning struck the tree that stands behind my house and tore it
to pieces; and then the nurse said, 'This boy will see something of
war.'

"You did not believe in it, but it came to pass, nevertheless. Down in
the valley there is a spring, and a mother's heart is like a spring,
for it flows by day and night. Your Ernst--my Ernst--will return
again."

No one dared reply, but with Ernst everything was different.

The old woman now begged that we would inform "the great lady," as she
always called Annette, of Carl's return. The Major promised to do so;
and when he and I were