I would hurry home and find that all was going on as usual.

Back of my house, where the road makes a descent, the young teamsters
would crack their whips quite loudly. I observed that this startled
Gustava, and she overheard me telling Rothfuss to ask the young fellows
not to make so great a noise.

"Do not interfere with them," said she. "A man who saunters along the
road and has an instrument that is capable of making a noise, finds
pleasure in using it. Do not stop him."

I had never, before that, seen Rothfuss in tears; but when he heard
those words, he wept, and that evening he said to me, "The angels who
look down from heaven to see what we human beings on earth are doing,
must be just as she is. She is no longer human--she will not stay with
us. Pardon me: I am a stupid fellow to be talking this way. You know I
am a simpleton, and do not understand such things. She is right,
though; stupid people must always make a noise, be it with their mouths
or with their whips."

He had, however, in the meanwhile persuaded the youths not to crack
their whips.

My wife was determined that Annette and Bertha should go to the springs
without her; and, as she would listen to no refusal, they were obliged
to comply with her desire.

Several weeks had gone by, when, one evening, the physician told me
that she could last but a few days longer. I cannot describe my
feelings at that moment.

Joseph telegraphed for the children. They came.

Strangely enough, my wife was not surprised by their speedy return. She
conversed with them as if they had not been away more than an hour.

The physician said that perhaps there might still be a chance to save
my wife by injecting another's blood into her veins, and that, at all
events, the attempt should be made. Johanna immediately declared her
readiness, and though her offer was well meant, the manner in which it
was made jarred on my feelings. She said that, as a daughter, she had
the first right; but, if they did not want her blood her child must be
willing.

The physician declared that neither her blood nor that of her child
would serve the purpose.

The choice now lay between Martella and Annette, and when the physician
decided in favor of Martella, her face brightened, and she exclaimed:

"Take my blood--every drop of it--all that I have."

Some of Martella's blood was injected into my wife's veins, and during
the night, she gained in strength. But it was very sad to find