same time
expending far more strength than on the refractory lock on something
within himself, that yielded grudgingly like a rusty latch. To change
the boy's name, and so to strike out what he, Fausch himself, had
intended to stand for all time, was--was not easy! With his head thrust
forward he now walked down the steps.

One of the teamsters muttered to the other: "There he comes, the old
hardhead." They had had experience with him while they were loading up;
the work had to be done exactly according to his will.

Katharine shook her head gaily as she came down the steps. Her
astonishment at what Fausch had said, overcame her so, that she was
quite bewildered, and the motion of her head was the mechanical
expression of her great satisfaction. Cain looked straight before him
into the bright daylight, and his eyes were glistening. He felt as if
he were entering into a new life.

The old woman was allowed to sit on a chest in the wagon. There sat the
feeble-looking old soul, thin and stooping on her seat. She wore a
neat, dark dress and a black kerchief on her head, beneath which looked
out her pinkish wrinkled face, and her thin, reddish gray, smoothly
parted hair. Her face was almost childishly small. Her faded eyes,
which had neither eyebrows nor lashes, looked down at the smith and his
boy, and when Fausch looked up at her, she laughed back at him. It was
a long while since old Katharine had laughed.

Fausch spoke a few words more with the trader, to whom he gave over the
keys of the smithy, then he growled "Go on," and the wagon started.
Cain and the smith walked behind. Hallheimer looked after them and
tried to recollect something. Had he not heard rightly, or had not the
smith just now called his boy "Franz?" Had the old man been converted?
Was he trying to wipe away the mark of shame from the poor fellow?

The wagon with its creaking wheels rumbled comfortably along the road,
into the strip of woodland and out again, toward Waltheim. The sun rose
higher into the blue sky. The teamsters, the smith, and the boy, Cain,
tossed their smock-frocks onto the wagon. The sharply marked shadows of
the men and of the horses and wagon ran along beside them with comical
movements. The day was very still, the sun reigned supreme and threw so
strong a light on the long, quiet, white country road and the broad,
level meadows on each side, that the people seemed like toys in the
full clear light. The little caravan now reac