do? I can't leave her here
in my sister's charge for my sister's sake." "Of course you'd like to
have her near you. Well, Charles, I'll tell you something. You must
remain at the Nuesslers tonight. Tomorrow we'll go and see the
_Councillor_ at Puempelhagen: if we succeed there we'll look out for a
good place for the child in the neighborhood; and if we don't succeed,
we'll go to the town and board her for the present with Kurz, the
shopkeeper. And now good-night, Charles! Don't be down-hearted,
everything will look brighter soon." And so he went away.

Braesig arrived in good time next morning to go to Puempelhagen with
Hawermann. Mrs. Nuessler was sitting in the porch paying the
farm-servants, and Joseph was sitting beside her smoking while she
worked. Neither of the old people had come down yet, for the grandmother
had said to her daughter-in-law, she, at least, could not join them in
the parlor, for she had nothing to put on her head; and the grandfather
had said, they could all be quite happy without him. "That's really kind
of them," said Braesig. "There's no fear of our dinner being spoilt now
by their bad temper, for, Mrs. Nuessler, I'm going to spend the day with
Charles. Come, Charles, we must be off. Good-by little round-heads."

When they were out in the yard Braesig stood still, and said: "Look,
Charles, did you ever see anything more like the desert of Sahara? One
heap of manure here and another there! And look, that's the drain old
Joseph cut from the farm-yard to the village horse-pond. And as for the
roofs," he continued, "they have enough straw to make new ones, but the
old people think money expended on thatching sheer waste. I come here
often, and for two reasons; firstly because of my stomach, and secondly
because of my heart. I've always found that well-cooked food is not only
pleasant to the taste, but also produces a wholesome exhilaration when
followed by one of the little rages I generally get into here. And I
come here for the sake of your sister and the little round-heads. I know
that I am of use to her, for young Joseph just rolls on smoothly like
the wheel of the coach that runs every winter from here to Rostock. How
I should like to have him as leader in a three-horse team, harnessed
into a farm cart, and then drive him with my whip!" "Ah!" said Hawermann
as they came to a field, "they've got very good wheat here." "Yes, it's
pretty fair, but what do you think they were going to have had th