afterwards in the Common Meadow. When she had
finished, Martha said, smiling, "Well, Rosa dear, you will soon have to
make up your mind which of those three brave wooers you are going to
choose."

"What are you talking about, Frau Martha?" Rosa cried; "I haven't got
any wooers."

"Come, come," answered Martha, "don't pretend that you don't know
what's going on. Anybody who has got eyes, and is not as blind as a
mole, sees well enough that all the three, Reinhold, Friedrich, and
Conrad, are over head and ears in love with you."

"What an idea!" cried Rosa, hiding her eyes with her hand.

"Come, come," said Martha, sitting down beside her and putting an arm
about her; "you bonny bashful child, take your hand away; look me
straight in the face, and then deny, if you can, that you have known
for many a day that all the three of them are devoted to you, heart and
soul! You see that you _can't_ deny it. It would be a miracle if a
woman's eye should not see a thing of that sort in an instant. When you
come into the workshop, all their eyes turn away from their work, to
you, and everything goes on in a different way, three times as
swimmingly. Reinhold and Friedrich begin singing their prettiest songs;
even that wild fellow Conrad turns quiet and kindly. They all try to
get beside you; and fire flashes out of the face of whichever of them
has a kind glance or a friendly word from you. Aha! little daughter!
you are a very fortunate girl to have three such charming fellows
paying attention to you. Whether you will ever choose either of
them--and, if so, which--of course I cannot tell, for you are good and
nice to them all; though I--but silence as to that! If you were to come
to me, and say, 'Frau Martha, give me your advice,' I should freely
answer, 'Doesn't your own heart speak out quite clearly and distinctly?
Then _he_ is the one. Of course, they're all pretty much alike, to
_me_. I like Reinhold, and I like Friedrich too; and Conrad as well,
for the matter of that; and still I have some objections to every one
of them. Aye! the fact is, dear Rosa, when I look at those three young
fellows at their work, I always think of my dear husband. And I must
say, as far as the work which he did went, everything which he did was
done in a different style to theirs. There was a swing and a _go_ about
it: you saw that his heart was in it; that he wasn't thinking of
anything else. But _they_ always seem to unto be doing it for the
do