le ground? From whom? Who has a right to it? This question
presented itself to Manna as an enigma; she gazed intently into the
empty air, and hardly heard the huntsman's narrative of his recent
experiences. When he said:--"Yes, Fraeulein, I've been a simpleton, and
am very sorry for it," she asked him:--

"What have you been doing?"

"Zounds! I repeat that I've been doing nothing; that all my life I've
been a simple, honest fellow, and not a bad one at all. The bigger
rascal one is, so much the better off. What now does the world give me?
People can make you bad, but good--who can make you that? The only
comfort grows there on the hillside--there's where the drop of comfort
comes from, but I can get only a beggar's sup. I should just like to
know whether Herr Dournay is a true man; I think there's no true men
going now except Herr Weidmann. You've been in the convent, and is't a
fact that you want to be a nun?"

Manna had not time to answer, for Claus continued, laughing:--

"I've many a time thought that I'd like to go into a convent, too.
Everybody ought to be able to go into a convent when he's sixty years
old; nothing to do there but drink and drink, until death claps his
warrant upon you. But I don't want to make death's acquaintance yet
awhile; I say, like the constable of Mattenheim: Lord, take your own
time, I'm in no hurry."

Although so early in the morning, the field-guard was a little excited
and talked a little thick. Manna was afraid of him, but now gave him
her hand and went off with the dogs.

"I'd like to ask one favor of you!" he called after her.

She stopped.

He came up, and stated to her that the gauger had given him a ticket in
the Cathedral lottery, and he had sold it to Sevenpiper, and if the
number drew the first prize, he should tear all the hair out of his
head, and never have a minute's comfort with his children the rest of
his life. If Manna would give him a dollar, he could buy the ticket
back again.

As Manna hesitated, he added:--

"It's a pious matter, and just suits you."

Manna did not comprehend what he meant, and she learned now, for the
first time, that a lottery had been set up to raise money for the
completion of the Cathedral. She gave the dollar, and walked quickly
away.

She went along the Rhine. The smooth surface was broken only by the
circling ripples, and the fishes could be seen sporting beneath; the
willows on the banks quivered in the morning breeze, and