world's end with her--they hope with
certainty that she will recover; she hopes so herself, and says
smilingly yes, to the Selzer-water, and the journey, and all that we
propose; says she would gladly live with us, that she is happy with
us,--yet nevertheless there is a something about her, and even in her
smiles, that tells me that she herself does not cherish full faith in
the hope which she expresses. Ah! when I see daily her still paler
countenance; the unearthly expression in her gentle features--when I
perceive her ever slower gait, as she moves about, still arranging the
house and preparing little gratifications for her family; then comes the
thought to me that she perhaps will soon leave us, and it sometimes is
difficult to repress my tears.

"But why should I thus despair? Why not hope like all the rest? Ah, I
will hope, and particularly for the sake of him who, without her, could
no more be joyful on earth. For the present she is stronger and livelier
than she has been for a long time. The arrival of Louise and her family
have contributed to this, as also another day of joy which is
approaching, and which has properly reference to my father. She goes
about now with such joy of heart, with the almanack in her hand, and
prepares everything, and thinks of everything for the joyful festival.
My father has long wished to possess a particular piece of building land
which adjoins our little garden, in order to lay it out for a great and
general advantage; but he has sacrificed so much for his children, that
he has nothing remaining wherewith to carry out his favourite plan. His
children in the mean time have, during the last twelve years, laid by a
sum together, and now have latterly borrowed together what was wanting
for the purchase of the land. On the father's seventieth birthday
therefore, with the joint help of the 'Berserkers,' will the wooden
fence be pulled down, and the genius of the new place, represented by
the graceful figure of Gabriele, will deliver over to him the
purchase-deed, which is made out in his name. How happy he will be! Oh,
it makes us all happy to think of it! How he will clear away, and dig,
and plant! and how it will gladden and refresh his old age. May he live
so long that the trees which he plants may shake their leafy branches
over his head, and may their rustling foretel to him the blessing, which
his posterity to the third and fourth generation will pronounce upon his
beneficent act