ore
cheerfulness than he really felt. "I will come back to thee again, and
see if I shall not one day become rich and great,--see if thou wilt not
have reason to be proud of thy Hanschen."

His mother shook her head. She could then only feel that she was losing
his daily care and presence, and that the future was all uncertain. But
she was at the same time pleased to see him of good cheer, and that his
courage and spirit did not forsake him. She promised to find out if the
young man whom he had wounded recovered, and to discover some means of
sending him word when he might return in safety; and with many embraces
and blessings, and parting words of love he went away.

Hans had not gone far, however, before turning his thoughts to the
future, and thinking of what had been his former hopes and intentions,
he all at once remembered the little bag of letters which he had some
years before carved out of wood, and which hung in the back room of the
cottage. He called to mind all the schemes and visions which of old he
had formed over these letters, and he thought to himself that now,
perhaps, was come the right time for turning them and all his acquired
knowledge to account. He determined to go back and fetch his letters;
and he thought it best to do so unknown to his mother, so that he might
not renew in her the sorrow of parting; retracing then his steps, he got
over the hedge which divided his mother's little garden from the road,
and softly opening the door that led to the little room in which he had
been accustomed to sleep, and where he had kept his treasured letters,
he took the little pouch from the nail on which it hung, and was
hastening away--when the sound of his mother's voice struck his ear. She
was weeping--but in the midst of her tears was she also praying for her
son. "Oh, good Lord," she said, "protect my child from the dangers of
the world. Let him not again sin against thy laws. Be thou to him a
shield, a fortress of defence, and let him love thy word and law.
Preserve him, I pray thee, to me good and pure, and let my eyes behold
my child again, ere they are closed in death."

Hans was deeply moved by these words of his poor forsaken mother, and he
also prayed. He prayed that her hopes might be fulfilled; and that he
might be a comfort and a blessing to her old age; and he said to
himself, that he would henceforth lead a life of usefulness and peace;
and so he went forth, strong in purpose, yet full of t