ide
them. Ah! she could not once speak of the great and beautiful, for her
tongue was bound. She felt so warmly, and yet could warm no one! The
happy Alette won without trouble, perhaps even without much valuing it,
a regard, an approval, which Susanna would have purchased with her life.
The Barbra-spirit boiled up in her, and with a reproachful glance to
heaven she exclaimed, "Shall I then, for my whole life remain nothing
but a poor despised maid-servant!"

The heaven looked clown on the young maiden mildly, but smilingly; soft
rain-drops sprinkled her forehead; and all nature around her stood
silent, and, as it were, in sorrow. This sorrowing calm operated on
Susanna like the tenderly accusing glance of a good mother. She looked
down into her heart, and saw there envy and pride, and she shuddered at
herself. She gazed down into the stream which waved beneath her feet,
and she thought with longing, "Oh, that one could but plunge down, deep,
deep into these waves, and then arise purified--improved!"

But already this wish had operated like a purifying baptism on Susanna's
soul; and she felt fresh and light thoughts ascend within her. "A poor
maid-servant!" repeated now Sanna; "and why should that be so
contemptible a lot? The Highest himself has served on earth; served for
all, for the very least; yes, even for me. Oh!--" and it became
continually lighter and warmer in her mind.--"I will be a true
maid-servant, and place my honour in it, and desire to be nothing else!
Charm I cannot; beauty and genius, and beautiful talents, I have not;
but--I can love and I can serve, and that will I do with my whole heart,
and with all my strength, and in all humility; and if men despise me,
yet God will not forsake the poor and faithful maid-servant!"

When Susanna again cast her tearful eyes on the ground, they fell on a
little piece of moss, one of those very least children of nature, which
in silence and unheeded pass through the metamorphoses of their quiet
life. The little plant stood in fresh green, on its head hung the clear
rain-drops, and the sun which now shone through the clouds, glittered in
them.

Susanna contemplated the little moss, and it seemed to say to her: "See
thou! though I am so insignificant, yet I enjoy the dew of heaven and
the beams of the sun, as fully as the roses and the lilacs of the
garden!" Susanna understood the speech of the little plant, and grateful
and calmed, she repeated many times to hers