e looks far into the distance, where a
column of smoke ascends to the cloudless sky.

"Good morning, Thoma! Are you still sleeping? Awake! our own day is
here!" he said in a deep, manly voice.

And now he joyously bounded down the hill, but soon moderated his step,
and sang a yodel until the birds joined with him, and the echo repeated
the song. Before long he reached the house; by the door stood his
father, scattering bread crumbs to the chickens.

"Good morning, father!" cried the young man. The father, a tall, thin
man, looked up with surprise, and answered:

"What, up already, Anton? Where have you been?"

"I? where? Everywhere. In heaven, and in this beautiful world below. O
father! it has often seemed to me that I should not live to see this
day; that I should die before it came, or that something else would
happen. But now the day is here. And such a day!"

The old man drew the palm of his hand twice, three times, over his
mouth; for he would have liked to say: "Your mother was just so, so
faint-hearted, and again so confident;" but he kept back the words; he
would not mar his son's happiness; and at last he said:

"Yes, yes, so it is; that's what it is to be young. Tell me, Anton,
were you so uneasy in the war, and so----?"

"No, father, that was quite another thing. Father, I'm afraid you are
not entirely satisfied with Thoma."

"It's true, I'm not in love with her, as you are."

"No, but that's not all."

"There's nothing else, but for me she is almost too----"

"Too rich, you mean."

"I didn't mean that. No girl is too rich for an honest lad. I only
meant she is too beautiful. Yes, laugh if you choose; but a wife as
beautiful as she, is a troublesome possession. I think, however, it
will come out all right; she certainly seems more like her mother than
like Landolin. To be sure, she has some of his pride, but I hope not
his ungovernable temper. In old stories we read of wicked giants;
Landolin might have been one of them. It's well that we live in other
times."

"But, father, you make too much of this; my Thoma----"

"Yes, yes, she has her mother's good disposition. I have been thinking
it over, and I believe that, all told, I have been fifteen times at
Rotterdam. There are no such violent men as Landolin in Holland."

"Father, perhaps it's because they have no mountain streams in Holland,
only quiet canals."

"Well, well! Is there anything that the young people nowadays do not
know all