ill hold awhile.
The axe at home oft saves the carpenter.

HEDWIG.
Whither away!

[Takes his cap.

TELL.
To Altdorf, to your father.

HEDWIG.
You have some dangerous enterprise in view? Confess!

TELL.
Why think you so?

HEDWIG.
Some scheme's on foot,
Against the governors. There was a Diet
Held on the Rootli--that I know--and you
Are one of the confederacy I'm sure.

TELL.
I was not there. Yet will I not hold back
Whene'er my country calls me to her aid.

HEDWIG.
Wherever danger is, will you be placed.
On you, as ever, will the burden fall.

TELL.
Each man shall have the post that fits his powers.

HEDWIG.
You took--ay, 'mid the thickest of the storm--
The man of Unterwald across the lake.
'Tis a marvel you escaped. Had you no thought
Of wife and children then?

TELL.
Dear wife, I bad;
And therefore saved the father for his children.

HEDWIG.
To brave the lake in all its wrath; 'Twas not
To put your trust in God! 'Twas tempting him.

TELL.
The man that's over-cautious will do little.

HEDWIG.
Yes, you've a kind and helping hand for all;
But be in straits and who will lend you aid?

TELL.
God grant I ne'er may stand in need of it!

[Takes up his crossbow and arrows.

HEDWIG.
Why take your crossbow with you? Leave it here.

TELL.
I want my right hand when I want my bow.

[The boys return.

WALTER.
Where, father, are you going?

TELL.
To grand-dad, boy--
To Altdorf. Will you go?

WALTER.
Ay, that I will!

HEDWIG.
The viceroy's there just now. Go not to Altdorf.

TELL.
He leaves to-day.

HEDWIG.
Then let him first be gone,
Cross not his path. You know he bears us grudge.

TELL.
His ill-will cannot greatly injure me.
I do what's right, and care for no man's hate.

HEDWIG.
'Tis those who do what's right whom he most hates.

TELL.
Because he cannot reach them. Me, I ween,
His knightship will be glad to leave in peace.

HEDWIG.
Ay! Are you sure of that?

TELL.
Not long ago,
As I was hunting through the wild ravines
Of Shechenthal, untrod by mortal foot,--
There, as I took my solitary way
Along a shelving ledge of rocks, where 'twas
Impossible to step on either side;
For high above rose, like a giant wall,
The precipice's side, and far below
The Shechen thundered o'er its rifted bed;--

[The boys press towards him, looking upon him
with excited curiosity.

Th