ens of her own, and two geese, and a patch of potato land,
also her own. "We are poor," said she, crossing her hands on her
breast, "but, thank God! we have never yet had occasion to see how
other people live; we have always had enough for our own wants, and if
it be God's will, I mean to get a goat next spring." She praised her
geese highly, but still more her poultry. The hens, who had taken up
their winter quarters in a coop near the stove, cackled as if in
gratitude, and turning their red combs first to the right and then to
the left, looked sideways at the man who was hearing all their good
qualities detailed by Franzl. Indeed, the speckled golden Hamburg hen,
whose name was Goldammer, stretched out her wings from joy, and flapped
them cheerfully.

Lenz could not succeed in getting in a word, and Franzl thought she was
consoling him, when she attacked the former Landlady of the "Lion"
fiercely, and then branched off to tell how kind her old acquaintance
Kathrine had been towards her, and the good she did to all the poor
round her. "She gives me food for my hens, and they give me my food in
return."

Franzl could not help laughing at her own joke. At last Lenz managed to
say that he must leave her. Annele is right, he lets himself be
detained too long by anyone, or everyone; even when he is in an agony
to be off, he cannot cut short any person, especially if they are
telling him their sorrows. He felt the justice of Annele's reproaches
at this moment; she seemed to stand behind him to urge him away. He
looked round, as if he really expected to see her, and seized his hat
and his stick; then Franzl begged him to go up with her to her attic,
for she had something to say to him.

Lenz was inwardly troubled. Has Franzl also heard of the discord in his
house? and is she going to talk to him about it? She, however, made no
allusion whatever to such a thing, but she brought forth from the
centre of the straw mattress on her bed, a heavy, well filled shoe,
knotted together with many fastenings, and said:--

"You must do one thing for love of me--I can't sleep at my ease till
then--I implore you to take care of this for me, and to do with it
whatever you choose; there are a hundred gulden and three crown
dollars. I know you will do it, and let me get back my sound sleep."

Lenz would not be persuaded to take the money. Franzl cried bitterly
when he wished to say goodbye to her; she still detained him saying:--

"If yo