a year old. A bitter sense of loneliness and loss
overcame the poor wife as she stood on the river-bank pleading with her
child, and finding that she annoyed instead of moving him.

"Won't you come home with mamma, little Hans?" she asked, tearfully.
"The kitten misses you very much; it has been mewing for you all the
morning."

"No," said little Hans, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and
turning about with a manly stride; "we are going to have the lumber
inspector here to-day? and then papa's big raft is going down the
river."

"But this dreadful noise, dear; how can you stand it? And the logs
shooting down that slide and making such a racket. And these great piles
of lumber, Hans--think, if they should tumble down and kill you!"

"Oh, I'm not afraid, mamma," cried Hans, proudly; and, to show his
fearlessness, he climbed up the log pile, and soon stood on the top of
it, waving his cap and shouting.

"Oh, do come down, child--do come down!" begged Inga, anxiously.

She had scarcely uttered the words when she heard a warning shout from
the slope above, and had just time to lift her eyes, when she saw a
big black object dart past her, strike the log pile, and break with
a deafening crash. A long confused rumble of rolling logs followed,
terrified voices rent the air, and, above it all, the deep and steady
roar of the cataract. She saw, as through a fog, little Hans, serene and
smiling as ever, borne down on the top of the rolling lumber, now rising
up and skipping from log to log, now clapping his hands and screaming
with pleasure, and then suddenly vanishing in the brown writhing river.
His laughter was still ringing in her ears; the poor child, he did
not realize his danger. The rumbling of falling logs continued with
terrifying persistence. Splash! splash! splash! they went, diving by
twos, by fours, and by dozens at the very spot where her child had
vanished. But where was little Hans? Oh, where was he? It was all so
misty, so unreal and confused. She could not tell whether little Hans
was among the living or among the dead. But there, all of a sudden, his
head popped up in the middle of the river; and there was another head
close to his--it was that of his father! And round about them other
heads bobbed up; for all the lumbermen who were on the raft had plunged
into the water with Nils when they saw that little Hans was in danger. A
dozen more were running down the slope as fast as their legs could carry