ere visible, Franzl would
fain have stopped and told them the famous news. "There lives so and
so, such good kind people! and they all deplored poor Lenz's fate; and
it is hard that they should go on lamenting, when there is no longer
any occasion for it. And they will jump sky high for joy, when they
hear that the first thing they did was to send for old Franzl; and who
knows if I may ever see them again to say good bye to them?"

Pilgrim, however, drove pitilessly past all these good men, and would
not stop anywhere. When any one opened a window, and looked out at the
sledge, then Franzl called out as loud as she could: "Good bye, and God
bless you!"

And although, from the ringing of the bells, no one heard a word
she said, still she had the satisfaction of having shouted a kind
word to the good souls; for who knows when she might come back to
Knuslingen?--perhaps never!

At the farm where Kathrine lived, Pilgrim was obliged to stop to feed
his horse, but--there is no perfect joy on this earth--Kathrine, alas!
was not at home. As she had no children of her own, she was constantly
taking charge of those of her neighbours; and she was now nursing one
of them in her confinement. Franzl, however, sent her a minute account
of all that had happened, through the sempstress who was sewing in the
house; and she repeated every word twice over, that she might not
forget it.

When she got into the sledge again, she first fully enjoyed her
happiness. "Now," said she, "I feel so much better. It is like sleeping
soundly, but waking up for a moment in the night, and saying to one's
self: Oh! this is famous,--and going sound asleep again."

Pilgrim, however, had nearly destroyed all her delight by a foolish
joke of his.

"Franzl," said he, "you will have but a meagre portion now, I fear, up
yonder."

"Up where?"

"I mean in the other world. You will henceforth live in Paradise; and
those who fare so well in this world, cannot expect to be equally happy
in the next--both would be too much."

"Stop! stop! let me out, I must go home," cried Franzl. "I will have
nothing to do with you; I will not give up my happy life hereafter, for
any thing this world can offer. Stop, or I will jump out."

With a degree of strength no one could have believed she possessed,
Franzl seized the reins and tried to snatch them from Pilgrim's hand,
who had the greatest difficulty in pacifying her, saying, that he saw
she could no longer take a j