s very dear to him, and he would
not willingly have allowed another to attend him and watch over him; but
he didn't believe that he should see any Christmas Eve garden. He thought
the whole thing a snare which Robber Mother had, with great cunning, laid
for Abbot Hans, that he might fall into her husband's clutches.

While Abbot Hans was riding toward the forest, he saw that everywhere they
were preparing to celebrate Christmas. In every peasant settlement fires
were lighted in the bathhouse to warm it for the afternoon bathing. Great
hunks of meat and bread were being carried from the larders into the
cabins, and from the barns came the men with big sheaves of straw to be
strewn over the floors.

As he rode by the little country churches, he observed that each parson,
with his sexton, was busily engaged in decorating his church; and when he
came to the road which leads to Boesjo Cloister, he observed that all the
poor of the parish were coming with armfuls of bread and long candles,
which they had received at the cloister gate.

When Abbot Hans saw all these Christmas preparations, his haste increased.
He was thinking of the festivities that awaited him, which were greater
than any the others would be privileged to enjoy.

But the lay brother whined and fretted when he saw how they were preparing
to celebrate Christmas in every humble cottage. He grew more and more
anxious, and begged and implored Abbot Hans to turn back and not to throw
himself deliberately into the robber's hands.

Abbot Hans went straight ahead, paying no heed to his lamentations. He
left the plain behind him and came up into desolate and wild forest
regions. Here the road was bad, almost like a stony and burr-strewn path,
with neither bridge nor plank to help them over brooklet and rivulet. The
farther they rode, the colder it grew, and after a while they came upon
snow-covered ground.

It turned out to be a long and hazardous ride through the forest. They
climbed steep and slippery side paths, crawled over swamp and marsh, and
pushed through windfall and bramble. Just as daylight was waning, the
robber boy guided them across a forest meadow, skirted by tall, naked leaf
trees and green fir trees. Back of the meadow loomed a mountain wall, and
in this wall they saw a door of thick boards. Now Abbot Hans understood
that they had arrived, and dismounted. The child opened the heavy door for
him, and he looked into a poor mountain grotto, with bare