our own son, and not until then can they both be happy.

"Neither will the world be satisfied with mere nature and forest
manners. Does it not seem the very thing that she of her own accord has
said to Ernst, 'Let me spend a year as a servant to your sister, the
captain's wife, or what would be still better, with your mother, and
then come for me? If you do not object, I think we had better do this.
Early to-morrow morning I shall drive over into the valley with Ernst,
and in the evening I shall return with Martella, who will remain with
us until all is arranged and she has become used to our ways and
customs, so that Ernst may live happily with her, not only in his
youth, but until his eighty-third year--for my father lived to that
age."

I do not know which to admire most in my wife--her shrewdness or her
kindness. She always had the right word at the right time.

I, of course, approved of her plan, and on the morrow she started off
with Ernst in the wagon. Rothfuss drove the two bays.

Towards evening, I walked down the road to meet them on their return.

The sun was going down behind the Vosges Mountains. The rosy sunset
shed its glow over the rocks and the waters of the brook.

The Englishman stood at the bank angling. He never saluted those whom
he met, but lived entirely for himself. Every year, as soon as the
snows began to melt, he came to our valley, and remained until the
winter returned. He dwelt with Lerz the baker, and was always fishing
up and down the valley. He gathered up his complicated fishing-tackle
and departed, followed by a day laborer carrying a fish basket.

CHAPTER VII.

I waited down by the village saw-mill, where they already knew that
Ernst's bride was coming to live with us. With all his gentleness and
candor, Ernst had announced this in order that we should be bound by
it. I met Rautenkron the forester, who was known in the whole
neighborhood as "The wild huntsman."

He was the best of shots, and could endure no living object. The people
thought he merely avoided men, but I knew that he hated them. He always
considered it a piece of good fortune when he heard bad news of any
one. He lived in solitude, for whenever he had been seduced into
helping some one he had always repented of it afterward. A ball had
once passed through his hat, and, during the examination, the
magistrate had said to the officer, "If he should ever be killed by a
shot,