the aunt, that ever to
be respected Fraeulein, say, when she hears of this?"

He called this out as he came leisurely across the strip of meadow that
separated him from Anna.

She was in an agony of fear lest she should sink still farther in before
he reached her; but she knew Andreas far too well to urge him even by a
word to greater haste. So she stood shivering and pale with fear while
she clasped her bog-stained shoe close to her.

Andreas had brought a stake with him, and he held this out to Anna, but
when she tried to draw out her sinking foot she shook her head, it
seemed to be stuck too fast in the bog.

Andreas gave a growl of discontent, and then went slowly up to the plank
bridge. With some effort he raised the smaller of the two planks and
carried it to where Anna stood fixed like a statue among the flowering
water-plants. Then he pushed the plank out till it rested on a hillock
of rushes, while the other end remained on the meadow.

"Ah!"--he drew a long breath--"see the trouble you give by your
carelessness."

He spoke vindictively, as if he would have liked to give her a good
shaking; but Anna smiled at him, she was so thankful at the prospect of
release.

[Sidenote: Rescued]

The mischievous little man kept her waiting some minutes. He pretended
to test the safety of the plank by walking up and down it and trying it
with his foot. At last, when the girl's heart had become sick with
suspense, he suddenly stretched out both hands and pulled her on to the
plank, then he pushed her along before him till she was on dry ground
once more.

"Oh, thank you, Andreas," she began, but he cut her thanks very short.

"Go home at once and dry yourself," he said. "You are the plague of my
life, and if I had been a wise man I should have left you in the marsh.
Could not your senses tell you that all that rain meant danger in boggy
places? There'll be mischief somewhere besides this; a landslip or two,
more than likely. There, run home, child, or you'll get cold."

He turned angrily away and went back to his work.

Anna hurried to the narrowest part of the brook and jumped across it.
She could not make herself in a worse plight than she was already; her
skirts were dripping with the black and filthy water of the marsh.

Heavy rain fell again during the night, and continued throughout the
morning, but in the afternoon there was a glimpse of sunshine overhead.
This soon drew the vapour up again from the val