they caught flies and other insects, and carried them to the young
ones, who stood with outstretched wings and flabby bills wide open.
Then the old ones would fly away again, light on the branches--mostly
on bean-stalks--make quick dodges, wave their tails, smack their
tongues, and seize as quick as lightning a harmless passing fly. The
sparrows did not behave so harmlessly. They pecked at the bright
shining cherries that hung in full clusters on the swaying branches.
Others of this sharp-billed gentry hopped about on the strawberry-beds,
and disfigured the large berries as they tore off great pieces of the
soft meat. One of them had even the boldness to hop about on the
decorated table that stood at the upper end of the arbor, to strike his
sharp bill into the buttered bread, make an examination of the
preserves, ogle the slices of ham, and admire the black bottles that
stood on the ground. He also took to flight as the company arrived. The
vine-blossoms seemed to send forth a sweeter fragrance as Angela,
bright and beaming, approached, leaning on the arm of her mother.

"Do you have this edifying reading every Sunday?" asked Richard.

"Regularly," answered the proprietor. "It is an old custom of our
family, and I find it has such good results that I will not have it
abolished. The servants are not obliged to be present. They are free
after vespers, each one to employ himself as best suits him. But it
seldom happens that a servant or a maid is absent. They like to hear
the legends, and you may have remarked that they listen with great
attention to the reading."

"I have observed it," said Frank. "Miss Angela is also such an
excellent reader that only deaf people would not attend."

She smiled and blushed a little at this praise.

"I consider it a strict obligation of employers to have a supervision
over the conduct of the servants," said Madame Siegwart. "Many, perhaps
most, servants are treated like the slaves in old heathen times. They
work for their masters, are paid for it, and there the relation between
master and servant ends. This is why they neglect divine service on
Sundays and feast-days; their moral wants are not satisfied, their
natural inclinations are not purified by restraints of a higher order.
The servants sit in the taverns, where they squander their wages, and
the maids rove about and gossip. This is a great injustice to the
servants, and full of bad consequences. It cannot be questioned that