e pretty girl who is passing
close beside you." Here he gave a look of such indescribable tenderness
towards Kate, that the whole party burst into a fit of laughter. "They
would have drawn me for the conscription," said Hans, proudly, "but I
was the only son of a widow, and they could not."

"And are you never grieved to think what glorious opportunities of
distinction have been thus lost to you?" said Kate, who, notwithstanding
Ellen's imploring looks, could not resist the temptation of amusing
herself with the dwarf's vanity.

"I have never suffered that thought to weigh upon me," cried Hans, with
the most unsuspecting simplicity. "It is true, I might have risen to
rank and honors; but how would they have suited me, or I them? Or
how should I have made those dearest to me sharers in a fortune so
unbecoming to us? Think of poor Hans's old mother, if her son were to
ask her blessing with a coat all glittering with stars and crosses; and
then think of her as I have seen her, when I go, as I do every year, to
visit her in the Bregentzer Wald, when she comes out to meet me with our
whole village, proud of her son, and yet not ashamed of herself. That is
glory that is distinction enough for Hans Roeckle."

The earnestness of his voice, and the honest manliness of his
sentiments, were more than enough to cover the venial errors of a vanity
that was all simplicity. It is true that Hans saw the world only through
the medium of his own calling, and that not a very exalted one; but
still there went through all the narrowness of his views a tone of
kindliness a hearty spirit of benevolence, that made his simplicity at
times rise into something almost akin to wisdom. He had known the Dal
tons as his tenants, and soon perceived that they were not like those
rich English, from whom his countrymen derive such abundant gains. He
saw them arrive at a season when all others were taking their departure,
and detected in all their efforts at economy, not alone that they were
poor, but, sadder still, that they were of those who seem never to
accustom themselves to the privations of narrow fortune; for, while some
submit in patience to their humble lot, with others life is one long and
hard-fought struggle, wherein health, hope, and temper are expended in
vain. That the Daltons maintained a distance and reserve towards others
of like fortune did, indeed, puzzle honest Hans, perhaps it displeased
him, too, for he thought it might be pride;