"You do not understand what happiness really is, Dietrich. I have been
searching for it longer than you have, and you may believe me that it is
not what you think. It is not something at a distance, far beyond our
reach; we may find it while we are at work. We are not beggars; this house
is ours, and we can still live in it. But, Dietrich, we will try to find
the way that our mother went; that is the true way to happiness and peace
in life and death."

"We will," cried Dietrich, with solemn joy; and as he clasped Veronica
again to his heart, there was that in his face and in his voice which
assured her that he would never leave her again, and that they would walk
in that true way of happiness and peace together.

At this moment Judith burst into the room. When she saw the faces of the
two who stood before her, she stood stock still with surprise! She
immediately took in the situation.

"So! So! this is something that delights one's very heart!" she cried, and
her face beamed with satisfaction. "But look out of the window! I came to
tell you! You can say good-bye to that rascal forever."

They stepped together to the window which looked out upon the road. Jost
was just going by. His hands were bound together, and he was followed by
the Constable, who hurried him along. Jost looked up at the window and
shrank back at what he saw; but the man drove him on.

"What does it mean?" asked Dietrich and Veronica in the same breath,
turning to Judith.

"It is what was bound to come," she explained. "Everything is found out.
They seized the red fellow first, after I succeeded in getting it through
the cattle-dealer's thick head that he was the man to get hold of. When
they had driven the red man into a corner, so that he couldn't lie himself
out of it, he turned against Jost, and declared that Jost had planned the
whole thing and that he himself had only played second-fiddle. Which can
lie the worst, no one can tell, but that they are both reaping what they
have sown, is certain enough. And now we're to have a wedding, are we? and
our Dietrich is going to settle down into regular home life again.
Welcome, neighbors; we will live in friendship together all our days." And
Judith shook hands cordially with them both, and hastened away to spread
through the neighborhood the good news of the coming marriage.

It is now ten years since Dietrich and Veronica left the church of
Tannenegg where they had been made one, and the bles