use, at the same price as the traders
in Venice; nor was the Brunswicker any whit loth, forasmuch as that he
might presently get a better price on the Lido, when it should be known
that he had other ways and means at his command. Also the journey by
Genoa gave us this advantage: that we were bound to no time or season.
Old Master Futterer pledged himself to find a ship at any time when
Kubbeling should need it.

Whereas we purposed to set forth in the middle of December, we went
to the forest-lodge early in that month, and as it was with me at that
time, so, for sure, must it be with the swallows and the nightingales or
ever they fly south over mountains and seas. Never had the pure air been
sweeter, never had I looked forward to the future with greater hope and
strength or higher purpose. And my feeble, sickly Aunt Jacoba, meseemed,
was like-minded with me. In spirit, ever eager, she was with us already
in that distant region, and albeit of old she ever had preferred Ann
above me, now on a sudden the tables were turned; she could never see
enough of me, and when at last Ann was fain to go home to town with
Uncle Christian, she besought so pressingly that I would stay with her
that I was bound to yield; and indeed I was well content to tarry there,
the forest being now in all its glory.

The daintiest lace was hung over the frosted trees. They had been
dipped, meseemed, in melted silver and crystal, and the whole forest was
broidered over with shining enamel and thickly strewn with clear diamond
sparks. And how brightly everything glittered when the sun rose up from
the morning mist, and blazed down on all this glory from a blue sky!
At night the moon lighted up the frosted forest with a softer and more
loving ray, and till a late hour I would gaze forth at it, or up at the
starry vault where the shooting stars came flying across from the dark
blue deep. Now it is well-known to many who are still in their green
youth that, whensoever it befalls that we are in the act of thinking of
some heartfelt wish just as a star falls, it is sure of fulfilment; and
behold, on the very next night, as I was gazing upwards and wondering in
my heart whether indeed we might be able to rescue my brothers, and to
find my Cousin Gotz as his sick mother so fervently hoped, a bright star
fell, as it were right in front of me. Whereupon I went to bed in such
good cheer and so sure of myself as I have rarely felt before or since
that night.