im so; and if he has not time I will send for
you. Many Kunslingers come to us,--they are sensible people,--at least
I like to talk to them best of all. If the Kunslingers were only rich,
they would be famed far and near. They often speak of you, and are
pleased when I tell them how highly you are respected here."

The Landlady drew breath; Franzl stood looking at her, and would gladly
have lent her some of her own breath, but she had scarcely any left;
she laid her hand on her heart, to show her agitation, for speak she
could not: but what has happened all of a sudden in the kitchen? It
seems as if merry Kunslinger faces were laughing from all the crockery,
and the handsome shining copper kettle, and pans, had become trumpets,
and playing loudly, and the funnels puffing and blowing, and the pretty
white china coffeepot sticking its arm in its side, dancing like the
Buergermeister's wife--Franzl's godmother. Heavens! it tumbles! but
Franzl luckily caught the obstreporous coffeepot before it fell.

The Landlady rose, and concluded by saying, "Now, God be with you,
Franzl! It does one good to have a chat with a good old friend once
more. I am far more at my ease with you here, than in the other room
with the Doctor, and his upsetting young ladies, who can do nothing but
play the piano, and give themselves airs. Good bye, Franzl!"

The musical clock in the next room never played more or sweeter
melodies, than at this moment sounded in Franzl's heart; she could have
sung and danced from joy--she stared at the fire and laughed, and then
she again looked out of the kitchen window after the Landlady. "What an
admirable woman that is,--the most looked up to in the whole country,
and yet she said herself, that I was her good old friend!"

When Franzl laid the cloth for dinner in the next room, she looked once
more into the glass, like a girl just come home from a ball; she wished
to see how Franzl looked--the Landlady's good old friend! She could not
swallow a morsel of the comfortable dinner she had prepared; her
appetite was satisfied--more than satisfied--for she had swallowed the
fat Landlady whole.

CHAPTER XII.
A GOOD ESCORT, AND THOUGHTS OF THE FUTURE.

"It is all ready now," said Lenz aloud, though he was alone in the
room. "May you arrive safe!" He had been engaged in unscrewing the
work, as it was to be brought down into the valley in different pieces,
and the