r him, and quite seriously Freneli said, "I
suppose you're the new overseer; they want you to come down and get
something warm to eat." There was no need, said Uli, they had eaten
something on the way.

None the less he followed the fleet girl to the living-room in silence.
In it Joggeli and Johannes were already sitting at the table, half
hidden by smoking meat, both fresh and salted, sauerkraut and dried
pears. A plump, friendly old woman came to meet him, wiped her hand on
her apron, Held it out to him, and said, "Are you the new overseer?
Well, well, if you're as good as you are handsome, it'll be all right, I
don't doubt. Sit down and eat, and don't be bashful; the food's there to
be eaten."

On the stove bench there sat yet another form, lean, with a white face
and pale, lustreless eyes; she acted as if she were paying no heed to
anything, but had a pretty box before her, and was winding blue silk
from one ball to another. Joggeli was telling about the time he had had
with the last overseer, and what he had had to stand since then, and how
it seemed to him that it had been much worse than he could remember
now. "All the torment such a fellow can make you, and you can't string
him up for it--it's not right, I swear. It didn't use to be so; there
was a time when they hanged everybody that stole as much as would pay
for the rope. That was something like, but all that's changed. It's
enough to make you think the bad folks have nothing but their own kind
in the government, the way it lets 'em get away. Why, we don't even hang
the women that poison their husbands any more. Now, I'd like to know
what's worse, to break the law by killing somebody, or by letting him
live; it looks to me as if one was as bad as the other. And then it
seems to me that if those who ought to maintain the law are the ones to
break it, they deserve no forgiveness of God or men. Then I think we
ought to have the right to put 'em where they belong, instead of having
to pay 'em besides."

During this long speech of Joggeli's, which he fortunately delivered
inside his four walls, as otherwise it might easily have brought down
upon him an action for high treason, his wife kept constantly saying to
Johannes and especially to Uli, "Take some more, won't you, that's what
it's for; or don't you like it? We give what we've got--it's bad enough;
but at least we don't grudge it to you. (Joggeli, do fill up the
glasses; look, they're empty.) Drink, won't