you."

Zanti looked him in the eyes:

"I repeat, if you like to look round, you can. But there is not much to
see. Everything is so simple. We make no secret of what we do. And the
estate is not mine: it belongs to all of them."

Othomar dismounted, the others followed; with difficulty Leoni and
Thesbia found a couple of boys to hold the horses in return for a tip.

Othomar and Herman had already walked ahead with the old man:

"I hear that you are doing much good work to mitigate the disaster of
the inundations," said Othomar.

"The inundation is not a disaster."

"Not a disaster!" asked Herman, surprised. "What then?"

"A just punishment of heaven. And there will be more punishments. We
live in sinful times."

The princes exchanged a quick glance; they saw that the conversation
would not go very easily.

"But the sinners whom heaven punishes you assist for all that, Mr.
Zanti," said Herman. "For all these huts...."

"Are not huts. They are sheds, workshops or temporary dwellings. They
will grow into a settlement, if such be God's will ... to enable men to
live simply, by their work. Life is so simple, but man has made it so
strange and complicated."

"But you take in the peasants who have lost their all through the
inundations?" Herman persisted.

"I don't take them. When they feel their sins, they come to me and I
save them from destruction."

"And do they not come to you also without feeling their sins, because
they feel that they will get food and lodging for nothing?"

"They get no food and lodging for nothing: they have to work here, sir!"
said the old man. "And perhaps more than you, who walk about in a
uniform.... They are paid, according to the amount of work they do, out
of the common fund. They are building here and I build with them. Do you
see this tree here and this axe? I was employed in felling down this
tree when you came and interrupted me."

"A capital exercise," said Herman. "You look a vigorous man."

"So you say you are forming a settlement here?" asked Othomar.

"Yes, sir. The cities are corrupt; life in the country is purifying.
Here they live; farther on lies arable land, which I give them, and
pasture-land; I shall buy cattle for them."

"So you are simply trying to recruit farmers here?" asked Herman.

"No, sir!" answered the grey-beard gruffly. "I recruit no farmers; they
are not my farmers. They are their own farmers. They work for themselves
and I am a simple farme