or her. One of
the older members of the party said:

"Walpurga, you shouldn't have done such a thing as walk all the way to
church. You don't know how near you are to your time, and sometimes
there's too much of a good thing."

"It won't do me any harm," replied the young wife.

"And I've prayed for you this morning," said a young, saucy maid, who
wore a bunch of fresh flowers in her bosom. "When the priest prayed for
the queen and asked God to help her in the hour of trial, I asked
myself: What's the use of my worrying about the queen? There are enough
praying for her without me: and so I thought of you and said, Amen,
Walpurga!"

"Stasi, I'm sure you meant well," said Walpurga deprecatingly, "but I
want no share in it. You never ought to do such a thing. It's wrong to
change a prayer in that way."

"She's right," said the old woman. "Why, that 'ud be just the same as
taking a false oath."

"Let it go for nothing, then," said the girl.

"It must be fine to be a queen," said the old woman, folding her hands.
"At this very hour, in all the churches, millions are praying for her.
If such a king and queen aren't good after all that, they must be awful
wicked."

The old woman, who was the midwife of the neighborhood, was always
listened to with great attention. She accompanied husband and wife for
a part of the way, and gave them precise information as to where she
might be found at any hour during the next few days. Then, taking the
mountain path which led to her dwelling, she left them, the rest of the
church-goers dropping off in various directions as they reached the
lanes and by-paths leading to their farms. The children always kept in
front, their parents following after them.

A party of girls, who were walking along hand in hand, had much to say
to one another. But at last they, too, separated and joined their
parents.

The young couple were alone on the road. The glaring rays of the
noonday sun were reflected from the lake.

It was almost a full hour's walk to their house, and they had scarcely
gone a few hundred steps, when the wife said:

"Hansei, I oughtn't to have let Annamirl go."

"Ill run after her as fast as I can, I can catch up with her yet," said
the husband.

"For God's sake, don't!" said his wife, holding him fast. "I'd be all
alone here on the highway. Stay here! It'll soon be all right again."

"Wait a second! Hold fast to the tree! That's it."

The husband rushed into the meado