while, till you become tender; for
you are too tough and skinny, even for them, as yet," answered Franzl,
giving a hearty kick to Bueble.

The long cherished hatred of years, and her rage at being twitted with
her unhappy love, inspired her with this bitter answer. Bueble stopped
barking, and Petrowitsch laughing. Both had henceforth a wholesome
horror of Franzl.

Lenz was asleep. Annele was with the children, who, after all, had
fallen asleep, and she had some difficulty in refraining from throwing
her arms round Franzl's neck; but she was ashamed to do so before
Pilgrim and Petrowitsch.

"Look!" said she, "these are our children; give them each a kiss, they
will not wake."

Franzl was to remain in the sitting room, while Annele went to the
kitchen, to get ready something for her to eat. Franzl nodded--"She is
very different from what she used to be." The good old woman could not,
however, stay long in the parlour, and went to join Annele in the
kitchen, who said: "Oh, what a luxury to be able to light a good fire!"

Franzl looked at her in surprise. She could not understand being so
thankful for all the common things of life, which are too often
accepted by us as mere matters of course.

"What do you say to my white hair?" asked Annele.

"I wish I could give you mine, for it is still quite black; and it will
never turn grey, for my mother often told me I had a good head of hair
when I was born."

Annele smiled, and said it had been so ordained; and that it was well
she should bear about with her a lasting token that she had been in the
jaws of death, and must now be doubly good in the world. "You forgive
me, too, don't you, Franzl? I assure you I thought of you at the hour
when death seemed very near."

Franzl burst into tears.

It was indeed wonderful to see the transformation that had taken place
in Annele. When she heard the church bells ringing for the first time,
she took her little girl in her arms, and, making her clasp her hands,
she exclaimed, "Oh, my child, I little thought we should ever hear
these sounds again!" And when Franzl brought in the first pailful of
water, she cried, "Oh, how pure and refreshing spring water is! I thank
our Heavenly Father who gives it to us!"

While the men had almost entirely recovered the awful hours when they
had been momentarily exposed to destruction, Annele seemed to herself
to have risen from the dead; she was now mild and gentle, and every
hasty word went