k to my proper place. But it is of your future, not mine, dear
Karl, that I am now come to speak."

"Of course, I go back with you," cried Karl.

"I come to implore you not to do so. Could we set up together, we would
never part; but I am not in a position for this. I must seek another
situation. Part of the little I possessed is gone; I leave no richer
than I came; so we should have to separate when we got home."

Karl looked down and meditated. "Mr. Anton," said he, "I hardly dare to
speak of what I do not understand. You have often told me that my old
governor is an owl who sits on money-bags. How would it do," stammered
he, in embarrassment, working away at the chair with one of his tools,
"that if what is in the iron chest be not too little for you, you should
take it; and if any thing can be made of it--it is very presumptuous of
me--perhaps I might be useful to you as a partner. It is only an idea,
and you must not be offended."

Anton, much moved, replied: "Look you, Karl, your offer is just like
your generous self, but I should do wrong to accept it. The money is
your father's; and even if he gave his consent, as I believe he would,
such a plan would involve great risk. At all events, his substance would
be better invested in your own calling than in one you might enter into
out of love for me; so it is better for you, my friend, that we part."

Karl snatched his pocket-handkerchief, and blew his nose violently
before he asked, "And you won't make use of the money? You would be sure
to give us good interest?"

"Impossible," replied Anton.

"Then I'll go back to my father, and hide my head in some hayloft about
home," cried Karl, in high dudgeon.

"That you must not do," said Anton. "You have become better acquainted
with the property than any other; it were a sin to throw that knowledge
away. Fink wants a man like you; the farm can not possibly spare you
till next summer. When we came here, it was not to benefit ourselves,
but to improve the land. My work is over; you are in the midst of yours,
and you will sin against yourself and your task if you forsake it now."

Karl hung his head.

"One thing that used to distress me was the meagre salary that the
estate could afford you; that will be changed now."

"Don't let us speak of that," said Karl, proudly.

"We ought to speak of it," returned Anton, "for a man does wrong when he
devotes the best gifts he has to an occupation that does not adequately