in Weimar that
persons of importance lived up on the Ettersberg, and to prove to them
that no one could tell, even when he had his heaviest load on, just how
much he was carrying. He could rise from his accustomed table and march
to the door just as straight as when he came in; and the exhibition of
this faculty called for constant repetition.

If Frau Rauchfuss had not had her little daughter Beate, she might have
looked a long time for the joys of life.

The time came, however, when the child was big enough to dance about in
farm-yard and garden, looking like a flower with long golden stamina.
She was simply brimming over with merriment and delight in being alive;
and now Captain Rauchfuss condescended to take notice of his daughter.
He brought her home all sorts of toys and trifles, and took great
pleasure in seeing how quick and clever the little creature was, in
watching her scramble about and in listening to the soft lips repeat in
sweet tones the old soldier's expletives that she heard him use.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Frau Rauchfuss's treasure grew to be a pretty little
schoolgirl, it befell one day that the mother went down to the town
with a heavy heart, to ask advice of her doctor about a trouble which
for some time she had been silently carrying about with her, and which
had made her work a heavy and oppressive burden. After long and anxious
consideration she had finally made up her mind to the step, and gone
off with a fervent prayer and a passionate kiss to her little girl.

And now, as she drove home again in her light carriage, it seemed to
her as if, since she came down, the beautiful world had been
transformed into a dark and unfamiliar place. She had set out with an
anxious heart, and had had no one to speak an encouraging word to her;
but still it was only down at the very bottom of her heart that there
crouched, half hidden, the fear of what was so hard to realize--that
her life might be wiped out.

Now she knew it was true. She was nearing the end of her days. The
easy-going every-day life, that went about its business as if there
were never to be an end, had been suddenly rent asunder; and through
the gap the laboring soul stared out into empty darkness.

It was so that Frau Rauchfuss came home; the well-known road looked
terrifying and strange to her, the golden grain in the fields by which
she passed, as the wind went over it, bowed sadly to he