left the other hanging jauntily. With the milking-pail in
her hand, she went to the stable. The words of the songs were now more
distinctly audible. One of them ran thus:--

"I climb'd up the cherry-tree;
For cherries I don't care.
I thought I might my true love see:
My true love wasn't there.

"It isn't long since the rain came down,
And all the trees are wet;
I had a true love all my own:
I wish I had him yet.

"But he has gone abroad, abroad,
To see what luck would do;
And I have found another love:
He's a good fellow, too."

With a water-bucket under her arm, she made her appearance again,
locked the door of the house, and concealed the key under a stack of
kindling-wood. The well before the town-hall was empty and locked up;
the upper well, also under lock and key, was only opened by Soges every
morning and evening, and water distributed to each family in proportion
to the number of its inmates. This scarcity of water is a great evil,
particularly in the heat of summer. On the way our heroine was stopped
by Anselm the Jew's Betsy, who cried,--

"Wait, Crescence: I'll go with you."

"Hurry up, then. When is your intended coming back?" returned
Crescence.

"At our Pentecost,--this day fortnight."

"When is it to be?"

"Some time after the Feast of Tabernacles. You must dance with us all
day, mind. We'll have one more good time of it: we've always been good
friends, haven't we?"

"Betsy, you ought to have married Seligmann and stayed here. A bird in
the hand's worth two in the bush. Going all the way to Alsace! How do
you know what's to become of you after you get there?"

"Why, how you talk!" replied Betsy. "With my four hundred florins, how
am I to choose? And over there it counts for almost a thousand francs;
and that's more like. Are you going to live in the village always? When
your geometer gets an appointment, won't you have to go with him? Oh,
did I tell you?--my intended went with Florian to the Schramberg market
the other day from Strasbourg. Florian had I don't know how many--at
least three hundred--ducats in his girdle, to buy beeves with. He
carries himself like a prince, and his master trusts him with all his
property. And they do say he's going to give him his daught