chain, were coming
towards him; and this again transformed itself in his imagination, and
he saw the dwarf, fettered as he had once seen him, and the groom; they
were walking along the road, and behind them the constable, with his
loaded gun gleaming in the sun.

He looked, up.

There, indeed, was a constable walking along. What if he were coming to
arrest his father?

O no, there was no fear of that!

What was the matter, then?

And while his eye was still fastened on the bush behind which the
constable disappeared, he became, as it were, clairvoyant, his sight
reaching out to all things instinctively. His thought stretched away to
Clodwig, to the Doctor, to the Major, to the Huntsman. What are they
all saying? Profoundly it came upon him: Man does not live for himself
alone. There is an invisible and inseparable community, whose bond is
respect and honor. He could bear no longer to sit alone with his
confused thoughts; he said to himself almost aloud;--

"To the Huntsman's."

With nimble foot and beating heart, as if he expected to find something
there, he knew not what, he ascended the mountain. Before reaching the
town he was met by the second son of the Huntsman; he too was slowly
plodding: he was carrying a heavy tub of young wine. The lad was of the
same age with Roland, and while still at some distance, he cried out:--

"Father said that you would come. Just go right in, he is expecting
you."

Roland thanked him and went on. As he entered the Huntsman's house, the
latter cried out to him:--

"Knew you were coming. Have a salve for you. Needn't tell me anything,
know everything this long while. Can give you something."

"What?"

"Boy, there are two things in the world that help; praying and
drinking. If you can't pray, drink till you have enough. Come, that's
the best thing."

"Shame on you," rejoined Roland, "shame on you, there is another
thing."

"What now? What?"

"Why, thinking. I cannot yet do it well at all, and I know not what
will come of it, but still help must come of it."

"Huzza!" cried the Huntsman, "you're a splendid lad! Say, have you
decided yet what you'll do with the big pile of money, when you've once
got it in your hand?"

"No."

"Very well. No doubt you'll learn. Now, I tell you, don't fret your
young life away. Have pity on your father; he is a poor man, with all
his millions. Show that you're a lad who deserves to have the sun shine
on him.

"Listen! mind!" he