not tell them a story without knitting
at the same time.

Smilingly the mother approached. "Everything is ready, I see, so I can
begin right away."

"Yes, and right from the start, please; from the place where the ghost
first comes in."

The mother looked questioningly at Kurt. "It seems to me, Kurt, that you
still hope to find out about this ghost, whatever I may say to the
contrary. I shall tell you, though, how people first began to talk about
a ghost in Wildenstein. The origin of these rumors goes back many, many
years."

"There is a picture in the castle," the mother began to relate, "which I
often looked at as a child and which made a deep impression upon me. It
represents a pilgrim who wanders restlessly about far countries, despite
his snow-white hair, which is blowing about his head, and despite his
looking old and weather-beaten. It is supposed to be the picture of the
ancestor of the family of Wallerstaetten. The family name is thought to
have been different at that time.

"This ancestor is said to have been a man extremely susceptible to
violent outbreaks. In his passion he was supposed to have committed many
evil deeds, on account of which his poor wife could not console herself.
Praying for him, she lay whole days on her knees in the chapel. She died
suddenly, however, and this shocked the baron so mightily that he could
not remain in the castle. In order to find peace for his restless soul
he became a repentant pilgrim. So he took the emblem of a pilgrim into
his coat of arms and called himself Wallerstaetten. Leaving his estate
and his sons, he nevermore returned.

"Later on two of his descendants lived in the castle. Both were well
loved and respected, because they did a great deal to have the land
cultivated for a long distance around and as a result all the farmers
became rich. But both had inherited the violent temper of their
ancestor, and the truth is that there always were members in the family
with that fatal characteristic. Nobody knew what happened between the
brothers, but one morning one of them was found dead on the floor of the
big fencing-hall. All that the castle guard knew about it was that his
two masters had settled a dispute with a duel. The other brother had
immediately disappeared, but was brought back dead to the castle a few
days afterwards.

"Climbing up a high mountain, he had fallen down a precipice and had been
found dead. These events threw all the neighborhood into