Anton and Thoma now started to go, but Landolin cried excitedly:

"Hold on! Wait a moment, Anton! You mustn't ask for the marriage to
take place before Candlemas. Give me your hand on it."

"I have no hand to give. I have already given it to Thoma," replied
Anton, laughing, as he went away with his betrothed.

CHAPTER XI.

"How many friends you have!" said Thoma; for they were often stopped on
their way through the crowded fair grounds, especially by Anton's old
comrades. "I wish we were alone," she added impatiently.

"Yes, love," answered Anton, "if we choose the day of the fair for our
betrothal, and show ourselves then for the first time together, we must
expect these congratulations, and I am glad to have them. Isn't it
delightful to have so many people rejoice with us in our happiness? It
adds to their enjoyment without taking from ours."

"Do you really believe they rejoice?" asked Thoma.

The conversation was interrupted by the handless beggar, who came up to
thank Thoma again, and tell her how astonished he was at such a gift.
He said he had been her father's substitute (for at that time
substitutes in the military service were still allowed).

Anton encouraged him to tell where he had lost his hand. It was on a
circular saw, in a mill on the other side of the valley. Anton told him
to come the next day, and perhaps he could give him work. While he was
speaking the judge's wife approached, and congratulated them heartily.
Thoma looked at her in surprise when she said:

"You are the new generation; preserve the honesty of the old, and add
to it the progressiveness of the present. I shall write to my son of
your betrothal."

Anton shook hands twice with the judge's wife.

"I beg you will give the lieutenant my most respectful greetings."

It was still difficult for the lovers to disengage themselves from the
crowd, for a group of Anton's comrades surrounded them, saying:

"At your wedding we are going to march in front of you with the flag of
the Club and the regimental music."

Anton thanked them, and said he would be much pleased.

He had scarcely got out of the throng, when a teamster in a blue
jacket, who was walking beside a four-horse wagon, called out, "Captain
Anton Armbruster! Hallo!" and came up to him and said:

"How are you? So you've got her, have you? Is that she? Is that Thoma?"

"Yes."

"Then I wish you happiness and blessing. How tall an