make you clean and tidy." And this Babette was only
too glad to do.

A great company of retainers were sent out by the Count to capture the
so-called wizard; but they were unable to find either the fir-trees with
the mark on them or the man, or the wood cottage. Neither Babette nor
Rudolf set eyes on them since that day. I cannot say that they were
altogether sorry.

The papers proving Babette's parentage were found to be in order, and
her father's name and fortune became hers, so that she was not poor,
despised Babette any more--the witch's granddaughter--but a maiden of
good rank and birth with pin-money of her own.

A short time afterwards there was a grand wedding in Eppenhain, and two
happier mortals never lived than Rudolf and Babette on that day, and,
let us hope, for ever afterwards!

HOLIDAY ADVENTURES

PART I

O it was so hot, so hot; the earth was well-nigh parched up, and
moreover the use of water was restricted in the town where the children
lived. The flowers in the little garden were drooping for want of
moisture, and the trees began to shed their leaves as if it were already
autumn instead of July. The schools were obliged to close early; the
children came home at eleven o'clock instead of at one, and announced
that they had heat holidays. For there is a regulation in Germany, if
the thermometer is over a certain degree in the shade, the school is
closed for the rest of the day. The high schools do not have classes in
the afternoon; the children have six hours lessons in the morning, with
intervals of course for recreation and drilling. Some headmasters douche
the walls of the school-building with cold water, and then examine the
thermometer; but children as well as teachers think this a very mean
thing to do.

The school holidays commence at the beginning of July, not in August, as
is the case in England. This year the two little girls, Trudel and
Lottchen, and their mother were going to stay at a farm, which was
situated high up in the midst of the most lovely woods. Trudel, I must
tell you, was ten years old, and Lottchen eight; they both went to the
same school. This farm was an inn at the same time; but very few people
visited it during the week, and by nine o'clock the house was empty of
guests; for the woodways were hardly safe at night. It was easy to get
lost in those vast forests where one path so closely resembles the
other.

It was a long climb up from the station; the chi