entleman comes from the castle."

And Bernhard felt with pride that, for the moment, he belonged to her.
He put his hand in his purse, and soon got rid of the children. "It is
long," said he, "since I have seen a dandelion chain. I have an
indistinct recollection of sitting as a little boy in a green nook, and
trying to make one;" and, gathering a few dandelion stalks, he began the
childish task.

"If you are so expert in such childish play," said Lenore, "here is
something for you," and she pointed to a great burdock near the
road-side. "Have you ever seen a cap of burs?"

"No," answered Bernhard, with some slight misgiving.

"You shall have one immediately," said Lenore. She went to the burdock;
Bernhard gathered her some handfuls of burs. She fitted one into the
other, and made a cap with two little horns. "You may put it on," said
she, graciously.

"I dare not; the very birds would be frightened. If you too would--"

"You can not expect me to wear burs," replied she; "but you shall have
your wish." She led him back to a group of sunflowers in the shrubbery,
and, gathering a few of them, she made a kind of helmet, which she
laughingly put on. "Now for your cap," commanded she. Bernhard obeyed,
and his thoughtful, deeply-marked features, black coat, and white cravat
looked so strange and incongruous beneath the cap of burs, that Lenore
could not help laughing. "Come with me," said she; "you shall look at
yourself in the lake." And she led him past the site of the factory--a
rough place, with heaps of earth, tiles, beams, in utmost confusion. It
was a holiday; all the laborers had left, but some village children were
playing about and collecting chips. A few steps farther on they came to
a little bay, covered with water-lilies and surrounded by brushwood.
"How desolate it looks!" said Lenore; "the bushes half pulled
away--even the trees injured: all the result of this building. We seldom
come here on account of the strange workmen. The village children, too,
are become so bold, they make this their play-ground, and there is no
keeping them away."

That moment a boat came in sight. A little village girl, a red-faced
chubby thing, stood up tottering in it, while her older brother tried to
get as far from shore as with one oar he could. "Look!" cried Lenore,
angrily, "the little wretches have actually taken our boat. Come back
instantly to the shore." The children were startled, the boy dropped the
oar, the little