ement of us all. He took our
jokes in good part, and enjoyed himself without doing any mischief for a
time. One unlucky day, however, I missed our path, and had to descend
the mountain in search of some landmark from which to start afresh.
Suddenly, with the exclamation: 'Hush! a chamois!' he leveled his rifle,
and before I could say one word he had shot----a goat! He was too much
vexed to laugh, so I had it all to myself, and it was some minutes
before I could assist him to raise the little animal, whose leg was
broken. The flock was not far off, and the herd-boy was evidently
searching the wood, having heard the shot. Now it never would have done
to let such an unsportsmanlike event get wind, so we carried the goat to
some distance, when, meeting a peasant, we paid him to leave it at a hut
on a neighboring Alp, and request it should be taken down to the valley
at the first opportunity. I never mentioned the subject to any one but
my brother Heinrich. Some time after, he was hunting in the same
locality, and came upon a lad who was crying, with a regular mountain
voice, for the loss of that very goat, for which it seemed his mother
had to pay. I must confess, the consequence of kidnapping the animal for
a time had never struck me, and I was therefore glad to know that my
brother had given the lad money enough to pay all damages. But come, it
is time we tried our hay-berths, for if we can't sleep we can rest."

Stephan, who had been eagerly listening, exclaimed: "Oh, please sir,
wait a moment. I was that boy to whom the gentleman gave the money, and
he told me he should expect it returned if I ever found the goat. Some
time afterward I did find it, and I have always carried the money sewn
into my coat-pocket in case I should meet the gentleman again when I am
away from home, but I never did so; perhaps, sir, you will be kind
enough to give it to him," he added, beginning to unfasten the little
packet from the lining of his side-pocket.

Turning to Brand, the Baron asked if he knew anything of this romantic
goat story.

"Yes, indeed, sir, and so does every one in the village, for the boy got
into trouble with the neighbors, who all thought he had been throwing
stones at the animal, and they even turned him out of his situation,
but, as luck would have it, something else was offered the same day, so
that it did not hurt him or his mother either."

"It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had always wished to