led out for inspection, the farmer said:

"There, that's my sister. Rose, leave your work, and get something ready
for supper. We have a relative for a guest--I'll bring him in
presently."

"And it was the little one yonder, who sang the second voice?" inquired
the stranger. "Is she a sister of yours, too?"

"No--she, in a way, is an adopted child. My father was her guardian."
The farmer knew very well that charity of this kind conduced to the
credit of a house, and he therefore avoided saying outright that
Barefoot was a maid.

Barefoot felt inwardly glad that the stranger knew something about her.
"If he is wise," she reflected, "he will be sure to ask me about Rose.
Then an opportunity will come for me to save him from a misfortune."

Rose brought in the supper, and the stranger was quite surprised to find
that such good fare could be made ready so quickly--he did not know that
it had all been prepared beforehand. Rose apologized by asking him to
make shift with their plain fare, though he was doubtless accustomed to
better things at home. She reckoned, not without acuteness, that the
mention of a well-deserved fame would be gratifying to any one.

Barefoot was told to remain in the kitchen that day, and to give all the
dishes into Rose's hands. She entreated over and over again: "For
goodness sake, tell me who he is! What's his name?"--but Rose gave her
no answer. The mistress, however, at last solved the mystery by saying:

"You can tell her now--it's John, the son of Farmer Landfried of
Zumarshofen. Amrei, you've a keepsake from her, haven't you?"

"Yes, yes," replied Barefoot; and she was obliged to sit down by the
hearth, for her knees trembled under her. How wonderful all this was!
And so he was the son of her first benefactress! "Now he must be told!
If the whole village stones me for it, I shan't bear it!" she said to
herself.

The stranger started to go, and his hosts escorted him to the door; but
on the steps he turned about and said:

"My pipe has gone out--and I like best to light it for myself with a
coal."

He evidently wanted to see how things looked in the kitchen. Rose pushed
in ahead of him and handed him a coal with the tongs, standing, as she
did so, directly in front of Barefoot, who was still sitting on the
hearth by the chimney.

[Late that night Barefoot went out to find somebody whom she could get
to warn the stranger not to marry Rose. She knew of nobody to whom she
dared intr