ore.
"I will not give you up."

"Lenore, you will make our parting very painful to me."

"Will it be painful to you?" cried Lenore, much pleased. Then
immediately afterward, shaking her head, "No, Wohlfart, not so; you have
often longed in secret to be far away from me."

Anton looked at her with surprise.

"I know," cried she, confidentially pressing his arm, "I know it very
well. Even when you were with me your heart was not always with me too.
Often it was, that day in the sledge, for instance; but oftener you were
thinking of others, when you got certain letters, that you always read
in the greatest hurry. What was the gentleman's name?" asked she.

"Baumann," innocently replied Anton.

"Caught!" cried Lenore, again pressing his arm. "Do you know that that
made me very unhappy for a long time? I was a foolish child. We are
grown wise, Wohlfart; we are free people now, and therefore we can go
about arm in arm. Oh, you dear friend!"

Arrived at the farm, Lenore said to the farmer's wife, "He is leaving
us. He has told me that his first pleasure here was the nosegay that you
gathered for him. I have no flowers myself; they don't flourish with me.
The only garden on the estate is here, behind your house."

The good woman tied up a small nosegay, gave it to Anton with a
courtesy, and sadly said, "It is just the same as a year ago."

"But he is going," cried Lenore, and, turning away, her tears began to
flow.

Anton now shook hands heartily with the farmer and the shepherd: "Think
kindly of me, worthy friends."

"We have always had kindness from you," cried the farmer's wife.

"And fodder for man and beast," said the shepherd, taking off his hat;
"and, above all, consideration and order."

"Your future is secured," said Anton; "you will have a master who has
more in his power than I had." Finally, Anton kissed the farmer's
curly-headed boy, and gave him a keepsake. The boy clung to his coat,
and would not let him go.

On their return, Anton said, "What makes our parting easier to me is the
future fate of the property. And I have a prevision that all that still
seems uncertain in your life will be happily settled ere long."

Lenore walked in silence by his side; at length she asked, "May I speak
to you of the present owner of this estate? I should like to know how
you became his friend."

"By not putting up with a wrong he did me. Our intimacy has remained
unshaken, because, while I willingly gave way t