e best of marksmen. He had secured the best prize. For
there could be no other girl so wise and merry as Martella. And she was
so full of merry capers that the very cows looked around and lowed, as
if to say, "We, too, would be glad to laugh with you, if we only could.
But, alas! we cannot. We have not the bellows to do it with."

She had named her calf "Muscat." She would nurse it as if it were a
younger sister. She maintained that it was a perfect marvel of health
and wisdom, and that the old cow was jealous, and tried to butt her
because she had noticed that the calf had greater love for Martella
than for its own mother.

There was one point on which she and Rothfuss always quarrelled. She
had an inexplicable aversion to America, of which Rothfuss always spoke
as if it were Paradise itself. The manner in which Lisbeth, the
locksmith's widow, had been provided for, was his chief argument in its
favor. "None but a free state would provide so well for the families of
the men killed in battle. How different our Germans are about that."

Towards my wife and myself, Martella was respectful, but diffident.

Ernst came to us but twice during the summer, remaining but a few hours
each time.

He wanted Martella to walk or drive around the neighborhood with him,
but she refused, saying "that she would not leave home. She had been
away long enough."

Ernst was evidently provoked that Martella refused to go with him, but
kept his anger to himself.

In that summer, 1865, we had charming harvest weather, and I shall
never forget Martella's saying, "I shall help gather the harvest. I was
a gleaner once, and know that this is good weather for the farmers. To
cut the ears in the morning and carry home the rich sheaves in the
evening, without having had a storm during the day, is good for the
farmer, but not so pleasant for the poor gleaner. Storms during the
harvest time scatter the grain for the poor; for the farmers give
nothing away of their own accord."

Rothfuss looked towards me, and nodded approval of her words.

Towards the end of summer, Richard paid us a visit.

Richard had written to us some time before, and had referred to Ernst's
conduct in indignant terms. He felt shocked that one who had not yet
secured a livelihood for himself, had already linked the fate of
another with his own, and had inflicted her presence upon the
household. But from the first moment that he saw Martella, he admired
her more than any o