and re-echoed his delight at the splendid time he
enjoyed over the river, under the closely-trimmed branches of a shady
linden, in the inn-yard by the shore.

The waiter there had long delayed removing the remnants of an English
breakfast, and there were cakes, the pieces, alas! too large, abundance
of eggs, honey, and sugar; it was a feast without parallel. He
considered that the real joy of existence had its first beginning when
one wished to know nothing more of all other things, and had supreme
satisfaction in eating and drinking alone. Only in mature life did one
really come to that perception.

Others would listen to nothing from the swaggering fellow, and there
was an irregular debate, whether lettuce-seeds or young cabbage-heads
were not much better than all the cooked-up dishes of men. A young
rogue, fluttering around his roguish mate, reported to her that behind
the ferryman's house, there hung from the garret-window a bulging bag
full of flax-seed; if one only knew how to rip open the seam a little,
one could gradually eat up all the tidbits, but it must be kept a
profound secret, else the others would come too; and hemp-seed, it must
be acknowledged, was just the most precious good which this whole round
earth could furnish. The rogue was of the opinion that her delicate
bill was exactly the nice thing to pick open the seam; it was the most
contemptible baseness in human beings, to hang up in the open air just
the most tempting dainties all fastened and tied up.

A late-comer, flying up in breathless haste, announced that the
scarecrow, standing in the field, was nothing but a stick with clothes
hung upon it.

"Because the stupid men believe in scarecrows, they think that we do
too," laughed he, and flapped his wings in astonishment and pity at the
manifest simplicity.

There was a frantic bustle in the alders and willows, and almost as
frantic in the great meadow, where the girls from the convent caught
hold of each other, chattered together, tittered, teased one another,
and laughed.

Apart from her noisy companions, and frequently passing under the
alder-trees where there was such a merry gathering of the birds, walked
a girl slender in form and graceful in movement, with black hair and
brilliant eyes, accompanied by a tall and majestic woman in a nun's
dress, whose bearing had an expression of quiet and decisive energy.
Her lips were naturally so pressed together, that the mouth seemed only
a na