been a mother
to me; I've always looked on you as such, and if I had to go through
fire for you I wouldn't hesitate a minute. But I won't be forced upon
such a puppy who doesn't want me. If I have to have a husband I want one
who loves me and takes me for my own sake, not one that takes me along
with the other cows as part of the lease."

"How can you talk so?" asked her aunt. "Didn't you hear him say he's
loved you this long time?"

"Yes," said Freneli, "that's what they all say, one with another; but if
they all choked on that lie there wouldn't be many weddings. He's no
better than the rest, I guess; if you hadn't talked about the farm
first, then you could have seen how much he'd have been in love with me.
And it's not right of you to tell me nothing about all this, or to fling
me plumb at his head like a pine-cone thrown to a sow. If you'd confided
in me first I could have told you what's trumps with Uli. What he says
is: 'Gold, I love you;' and then he expects us to hear: 'Girl, I love
you.'"

"You're a queer Jenny," said her aunt, "and you act as if you was the
daughter of a lord."

"That's just it, Auntie! Just because I'm only a poor girl, it's proper
for me to hold myself high and not let myself be treated like a handful
of fodder. I think I have more right to it than many a high-born girl,
no matter whether she's the daughter of a lord or a farmer."

"But, Freneli," protested Uli, "how can I change that, and do I have to
pay for it? You know well in your heart that I love you, and I knew just
as little of what your aunt had in mind as you; and so it's not right of
you to vent your anger on me."

"Ah," said Freneli, "now I begin to see that the whole thing was a
put-up job; otherwise you wouldn't excuse yourself before I accused you.
That's worse than ever, and I won't listen to another word; I won't let
myself be caught like a fish in a net."

With that Freneli again tried to get up and run out; but her aunt held
her fast by her bodice, saying that she was the wildest and most
suspicious creature under the sun. Since when did she set traps for her?
It was true that she had wanted to visit her cousin about this affair,
and for that reason she had taken them both along. But what she had in
mind nobody knew, not even Joggeli, much less Uli. She had commissioned
her cousin to worm Uli's secrets out of him, and it was true that Uli
had praised Freneli to the skies, so that her cousin had told her that
Ul