to her heart, so that Franzl often lamented to Pilgrim,
and said, "I fear Annele will not live long, there is something so holy
and unearthly in her look."

The escape of the inhabitants of the house on the Morgenhalde, was the
cause of an event passing almost unperceived, that would otherwise have
been a source of much talk and discussion.

On the second day after Lenz's rescue, the body of a man was found in a
wooded ravine near Knuslingen, buried under the snow frozen. It was
that of Proebler. No one regretted his fate so much as Lenz, for he
could not help thinking that it was his voice he had heard calling him,
the night he left him; and he suspected something more in the death of
the miserable old man than other people imagined, but he kept these
thoughts to himself.

Annele prospered in Petrowitsch's large house, and was soon as fresh
and blooming as ever.

They remained till late in the summer with their old uncle, till their
own house was repaired and restored. Petrowitsch was not unfrequently
rather crabbed. It made him very angry to see little Wilhelm jump on
chairs and sofas, where Bueble, however, might stretch himself at his
ease.

Petrowitsch could not get rid of a bad cough he had got, from being
buried in the snow. The physician advised him to visit some baths, but
he refused to go. He did not say so, but he thought, if he was to die,
he would rather die at home, and then all longing for home would be at
an end. He often went with little Wilhelm to the Spannreute, the hill
behind the house, where a vast number of well-grown larches had been
planted to shelter the house, and deep trenches dug.

One day he said harshly to the boy: "Wilhelm, you are just like Bueble;
you can't go on the straight path, you are not content with that. You
are only happy when rushing about, and jumping over hedges and ditches;
that's your grand pleasure! Yes, Bueble, you are just as bad; you two
are capital playfellows!"

Then little Wilhelm replied: "Uncle, a dog is not a man, and a man is
not a dog."

This simple speech of the child softened the old man's heart so much,
that he begged Lenz, when he again took possession of his own house, to
leave little Wilhelm with him.

It was Annele who chiefly urged a speedy return to their home on the
Morgenhalde. Once she would have considered it Paradise to live in
Petrowitsch's house, to be kind to the old man while he lived, and to
inherit his wealth when he died; but n