e. I fear, I sadly fear, that you
make a mistake about your work; you spend too much time over it; it can
never pay you. To succeed, a man must be quick, and sharp, and not
fritter away his time."

"Annele, I must understand that best."

"If you do, then, don't talk to me on the subject. I can only speak as
I understand the thing to be. If you want to have a milliner's doll to
listen to you, go to the doctor's, and borrow one of his daughters;
they have pretty red lips, and never speak a word."

The days passed quietly, and Spring, that now burst forth with such
gladness on the earth, seemed to bring fresh life with its pure
breezes, to the Morgenhalde also. The Landlady often came up to visit
them, and enjoyed the bright sunshine on the hill. The Landlord was
scarcely ever visible. He had become more gruff than ever. Annele
evidently cared less to be with her parents, and clung with greater
affection than ever to Lenz; indeed, she often went with him on Sunday
mornings, and holiday evenings, to the wood, where her husband had put
up a bench on his father-in-law's property, and there they used to sit
happily together, and Lenz said:--

"Listen to that bird! that is a genuine musician; he does not ask if
anyone is listening to him, but he warbles his song for himself and his
wife, and so do I also."

Lenz sung sweetly in the echoing wood, and Annele replied:--

"You are quite right, and you ought to leave the Choral Society; it is
no longer a fitting place for you: as a bachelor, Faller and the rest
of them might quite well be your companions, but now that you are
married, it won't do any longer, and you are too old to sing now."

"I too old? Each spring I am born afresh in the world. At this moment I
feel as if I were a child once more. This is the spot where I built a
little boat with my brother who died. How happy we were!"

"You always speak as if every trifle in your life were something
marvellous. What is there remarkable in that?"

"You are right, I must learn to grow old; I am almost as old as the
wood in fact, for I remember that when I was a child, there were very
few large trees, but all young plantation. Now the wood, which is grown
far, far above our heads, is ours."

"How do you mean ours? Has my father made it over to you?"

"No, it still belongs to your father--that is--on certain conditions.
He never had the power entirely to cut down the wood, because it is our
protection against the weathe