on
of home rejoicings, and he thought of his poor mother, who sat
alone, unfriended and suffering, in her little cabin. A feeling of
self-reproach at once struck him, and he turned speedily toward the
cottage. His shortest way was through the village, and thither he bent
his steps. The night was starlit but dark, and none of the villagers
were in the street; indeed, all were too happy within doors to wander
forth. In the Vorsteher's house the village band was assembled, and
there the merry notes of a hopsa waltz were accompanied by the tramp of
feet and the sound of mirthful voices. A little farther on was a rich
peasant's house. Hans stopped to peep through the half-closed shutters,
and there sat the family at their supper. It was a well-filled board,
and many a wine-flask stood around, while the savoury steam rose up and
hung like a feint cloud above the dishes--not sufficiently, however, to
obscure a little larch-tree, which, set in a small bucket, occupied the
centre of the table. On this all the candles were fastened, glittering
like stars through the sprayey branches, and glancing in bright sparkles
over a myriad of pretty toys that hung suspended around. For this was
the Easter-tree, to which every friend of the house attaches some little
present. Many a more gorgeous epergne has not yielded one hundredth part
of the delight. Every eye was fixed upon it; some in pure astonishment
and wonder, others speculating what might fall to their share; and while
the old grandfather tried to curb impatience among the elder children,
the young baby, with the destructive privilege that belongs to infancy,
was permitted to pull and tear from time to time at the glittering
fruit,--little feats which excited as much laughter from the grown
people as anxiety from the younger.

Hans moved on, with a sigh, at these new signs of home happiness in
which he had no share. The next was the Curate's cabin, and there sat a
pleasant party round the stove, while the old priest read something
from an amusing volume; the lecture never proceeding far without some
interruption to comment upon it, to indulge a laugh, or mayhap clink
their glasses together, as, in token of friendship, they pledged each
other health and long life. Beyond this again was a new cabin, just
taken possession of; and here Hans, peeping in, beheld a young Tyroler
exhibiting to his wife--(they had been married but a few weeks)--his new
rifle. It was strange to see how she