rtsberg, or the Town of the Deer, and was situated in
one of the fairest valleys of the Hartsfells. The valley was accounted
to be the fairest, because there was the finest cascade belonging to
those hills rushing and roaring at the very farthest point of the
valley; and the groves, too, on each side of the valley were very grand
and old.

"The village itself was built in the Swiss fashion, chiefly of wood,
with roofs of wooden tiles, called shingles; and many of them had
covered galleries round the first floor. The only house much better
than the others was the Protestant pastor's, though this was not much
more than a large cottage, but it stood in a very neat garden.

"There were a few, but a very few, houses separate from this village
itself, built on the sides of the hills; and those belonged to
peasants, or small farmers.

"In the summer-time strangers sometimes came from a distance to look
at the famous waterfall, and to gather such scarce flowers as they
could find on the hills. It was a good thing for Heister Kamp, the
widow who kept the little inn in the village, when these strangers
came, for it not only put money into her pocket, but gave her something
to talk of. She was the greatest gossip in the valley, and, like all
gossips, the most curious person also, for nothing could pass but she
must meddle and make with it; and it was very seldom that things were
the better for her meddling.

"Most of the inhabitants of the village were Protestants, but there
were a few Roman Catholics, and these had a priest, an elderly man, who
was a great friend of Heister Kamp, and might often be seen in her
kitchen, talking over with her the affairs of the village. He was
called Father St. Goar, and he had a small chapel, and a little bit of
a house attached to it. His chapel was less than the Protestant church,
but it looked far more grand within, for there was an altar dressed
with artificial flowers, and burnished brass candlesticks, and over it
waxen figures of the Virgin Mary and her Child, in very gaudy though
tarnished dresses.

"And now, having described the place, and some of the people, there is
nothing to hinder the story from going on to something more amusing.

"On the right hand of the great waterfall, and perched high on the
hill, was an old house standing in a very lovely and fruitful garden;
the garden faced the south, and was sheltered from the north and east
winds by a grove of ancient trees.

"The