that every man
looked after her, that people stood still when she passed. And so again
and again this great joy came to her, ran through all her veins and
strengthened her.

During this summer she worked valiantly. She wanted to show the old
Sperbers that she could be a good housewife and manager. Although the
real responsibility lay upon the bailiff and the housekeeper, she would
not altogether let go of the helm. She insisted on knowing everything
that was to be done and giving her approval.

"The young rascal!" said old Sperber. She was often at their house,
getting advice and meeting the young girls and their comrades, whom she
had so long thought of and wished to know. Now that she was alone in
the world, there was nothing any longer to keep her away from them.

There were two daughters of Councillor Kirsten from the Wuenschengasse
down in Weimar, who, with their friends Bundang, Ernst von Schiller,
and Horny, came up to see the old Sperbers and made real festivities of
their visits. The old people loved them very dearly, for they knew how
to be merry and pleasant and were full of youthful audacity and
exuberance that cheered the hearts of the aged couple.

[Illustration: WIFE OF A CLAMDIGGER]

Beate had never known how to make the good old people smile and laugh
in the same way. That hurt her. From her childhood up, there had always
been a heavy weight upon her; she had not known what it was to be quite
carefree. To her the two girls, Roese and Marie, were something
wonderful. Now that she knew she herself was beautiful, she drew nearer
to them as one of their own kind, and they welcomed her joyfully.

The girl of the Ettersberg, who had always been in the habit of taking
flight when they met her by chance at the Sperbers', had long attracted
them, especially since their three friends seemed to have so high an
opinion of her.

"Is it for her mop of red hair that you like her?" the girls asked the
young men.

"She has something queenly about her," said Horny. "I watched her once,
two years ago last autumn, when she lit a fire in the field after the
men and women were gone, all by herself, to roast potatoes. I saw her
gathering dry weeds and setting fire to them, and laying the potatoes
in the hot embers, and then crouching down looking into the glowing
fire, lonely and full of thoughts. I was hidden in the wood, and I had
to press my hands over my mouth to keep from crying out, so much her
loneliness affe