u bad, only boy, you my
darling and heart-breaker, you noble, wicked, perverse fellow! Gotz my
son, my own and my All!"

And when she had found a place in the warm room, in the head forester's
wife's arm-chair by the fire, I removed her needless raiment and Gotz
sank down at her feet, and she took his head in her hands, and cried:

"I did not wait for you to come, but flew to meet you, my lad, by reason
that, as you know--I took a sinful oath never to bid you to come home.
But oath and vow are nought; they are null and void! I have learned from
the depths of my heart that Heaven had nought to do with them--that it
was pure pride and folly; and I bid you home with my whole heart and
soul, and beseech your forgiveness for all the sorrow we have brought
upon each other, and I will have and keep you henceforth, and nought
else here on earth! Ah, and Gertrude, poor maid! She would have been
heartily, entirely welcome to me as at this day, were it not that there
is another maiden who is dearest to my heart of all the damsels on
earth!"

Then was there heartfelt embracing and kissing on both parts, and, as I
saw her weep, I made an unspoken vow that if the eyes of this mother and
her son should ever shed tears again I would be the last to cause them,
and that I would ever be ready and at hand to dry them carefully away.

I mind me likewise that I then beheld fair Waldtrud, the forester's
daughter, inasmuch as she full heartily wished me joy; yet I remember
even better that I felt no pang of jealousy, and indeed scarce looked
at the wench, by reason that there were many other matters of which the
sight gave me far greater joy.

It was a delightful and never-to-be-forgotten hour, albeit over-short;
by my uncle's desire we ere long made ready to go homewards. Now when
Gotz was carrying his mother from the hot chamber to the sleigh, and
I was left looking about me for certain kerchiefs of my aunt's, I
perceived, squatted behind the great green-tiled stove, Young Kubbeling
in a heap, and with his face hidden in his hands. He moved not till I
spoke to him; then he dried his wet eyes with his fur hood, and when I
laid my hand on his shoulder he drew a deep breath, and said:

"It has been a moving morning, Mistress Margery. But it will all come
right. It has come upon me as a sharp blow to be sure; and I have no
longer any business here in the forest, all the more so by reason that
I have children and grandchildren at home who h