sonage all the way to the
church, and they all saluted their Pastor kindly, in token of their
gratitude and joy, that he was now to remain till the day of his death
in this parish.

While the organ sounded in the church, a figure, closely muffled in a
cloak, glided past the kitchen of the Vicarage, and unexpectedly a fat
goose was once more suspended by its legs on the hook outside the
window. Was it the stolen one or another? was it the thief restoring
what he had taken, or some good hearted person replacing it by another?
This could never be ascertained. The cook declared that she knew how to
shut her eyes, that she had neither recognized the person, nor did she
wish to do so. She was, however, so overjoyed, that she hurried to the
vestry, to tell the Pastor that there was no occasion for him to preach
about the stolen goose, for it was come back. She did not venture to go
into the vestry, and went home again. "He is too sensible a man," said
she, "to preach about a goose," and there she was perfectly right.

Little Joseph went to church with his parents, holding a hand of each;
he looked curiously at the people he met, but said nothing, only
clinging close to his father. At the church door the parents dismissed
Joseph to join his schoolfellows, and themselves separated--one joining
the women, and the other the men--in their different parts of the
church; but the two were now united, the same building containing them,
and their voices harmonizing together. The singing was not so perfect
as usual, for the best singer was wanting, who had often with his deep
bass notes helped the schoolmaster out of a difficulty. Haespele failed
the choir, for he was so hoarse that he could not speak a word, far
less sing.

When little Joseph joined his comrades, some of them asked him--"Do you
know what you are called now?"

"Joseph Roettmann, just as I always was."

"No, Joseph in the Snow, that's your new name," and they persevere in
calling him by that name to this day.

In the course of the afternoon many healths were drank in the inn to
the worthy Pastor, and also to "Joseph in the Snow," and each had much
to tell of all that had occurred during the night. The terror would
have been a hundredfold increased, had they known all the steepness of
the rocks and precipices. It seemed a much greater wonder that no one
had been injured, than even little Joseph having made his way straight
to the Forest Mill through so many perils.