kiff at sea, and called the dog.
My poor mare splashed her feet heavily through the mire,
slipped, stumbled; the forester swayed from right to left in
front of the shafts like a specter. Thus we proceeded for
rather a long time. At last my guide came to a halt. "Here we
are at home, master," he said, in a calm voice. A wicket gate
squeaked, several puppies began to bark all together. I raised
my head, and by the glare of the lightning, I descried a tiny
hut, in the center of a spacious yard, surrounded with wattled
hedge. From one tiny window a small light cast a dull gleam.
The forester led the horse up to the porch, and knocked at the
door. "Right away! right away!" resounded a shrill little
voice, and the patter of bare feet became audible, the bolt
screeched, and a little girl, about twelve years of age, clad
in a miserable little chemise, girt about with a bit of list,
and holding a lantern in her hand, made her appearance on the
threshold.

"Light the gentleman," he said to her:--"and I will put your
carriage under the shed."

The little lass glanced at me, and entered the cottage. I
followed her. The forester's cottage consisted of one room,
smoke-begrimed, low-ceiled and bare, without any sleeping-shelf
over the oven, and without any partitions; a tattered sheepskin
coat hung against the wall. On the wall-bench hung a
single-barreled gun; in the corner lay scattered a heap of
rags; two large pots stood beside the oven. A pine-knot was
burning on the table, sputtering mournfully, and on the point
of dying out. Exactly in the middle of the room hung a cradle,
suspended from the end of a long pole. The little maid
extinguished the lantern, seated herself on a tiny bench, and
began to rock the cradle with her left hand, while with her
right she put the pine-knot to rights. I looked about me, and
my heart grew sad within me; it is not cheerful to enter a
peasant's hut by night. The baby in the cradle was breathing
heavily and rapidly.

"Is it possible that thou art alone here?" I asked the little
girl.

"Yes," she uttered, almost inaudibly.

"Art thou the forester's daughter?"

"Yes," she whispered.

The door creaked, and the forester stepped across the
threshold, bending his head as he did so. He picked