ing.

"Who is carrying the flag? Why, that is not the miller's Anton--where
is he? I don't see him. He isn't there at all."

These words Landolin heard from the people behind him, and a feeling of
terror came over him. He had intended to walk by Anton's side, and show
the whole world on what friendly terms he was with the man who was so
highly honored. Now Landolin felt as though his protector had forsaken
him. He strained his eyes to see if Anton was not there after all, but
he was not to be seen.

"See the lieutenant there. That is the son of the district judge--it
was good of him to get a furlough to come to the celebration. Yes; he
has inherited his good disposition from his parents; his mother in
particular."

Thus the people around Landolin were talking. Then he heard a person
who had just come up say:

"Do you know why Anton Armbruster did not come? He is ashamed, though
he hasn't done anything to be ashamed of; but Landolin, whose acquittal
was such an atrocity, was to be his father-in-law. Aha! There stands
Landolin himself! That man there with the broad back, that's he."

Landolin's broad back moved. The cordon of students was broken, and he
found himself in the midst of the festivities.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

High up in the mountain forest, near the log-hut where the woodcutters
lived from Monday morning till Saturday night, Anton sat this Sunday
morning. About him lay axes, and wedges of iron or ash, as if resting
themselves. For the men who used them had all gone down to the valley
to spend the Sunday at home with their families, or perhaps at the
celebration in the city. No sound was heard save the occasional twitter
of the wren who was just brooding. All the other birds were mute, and
the hawks circled in silence over the treetops. A drowsy odor of pitch
from the felled trees and split wood rose from the ground on which the
weary, tried young man had slept. A cannon thundered, and Anton awoke
and felt at his side for his gun. He imagined for a moment that he was
lying in the field before the enemy; but he smiled sadly as he
reflected that the enemy he had to combat was no visible one, who could
be mortally wounded. It was not a cannon which had awakened him, but a
mortar from the city, where the flag was being dedicated. Anton drew a
deep breath and his face lighted up as though he were being greeted by
hundreds and hundreds of his old comrades, as though he held th