are now to pass by me. I can see men
on the ladders, fastening the wires to the high poles.

*

Walpurga tells me that my voice is quite hoarse, but I feel quite well.
Perhaps it is because I speak so little, sometimes passing whole days
without uttering a word.

The cool, pure breezes that I inhale every morning are like a
refreshing draught, and the blue of the sky is far deeper up here.

*

Gunther once told me that I am of an unrhythmic temperament. He was in
the right. If I were not, I would now express my deepest thoughts in
melodious words. I feel so happy, so free, that my thoughts could find
proper expression in poetry alone.

*

Although Hansei has now been in possession for a long while, he seems
grateful for everything. It makes him happy to know that he is able to
buy fine cows and pretty bells for them, and this gratitude for his
good fortune lends an inner tenderness to his rough exterior.

*

(August 28th.)--After long, sunless days of deathlike torpor, the sky
is bright and clear again. The snowy peaks, the green hills and the
valleys are bathed in sunshine. I feel as if I must fly away and soar
through space; but I remain here and work; for, as my work was faithful
to me in dark days, so shall I remain faithful to it in bright ones. I
shall only wander forth when evening comes and work is at an end. This
is Goethe's birthday. I think Goethe would have been friendly toward
me, if I had lived in his time and near him.

It is pleasant, after all, that we know the hour of his birth. It was
at noon. I write these lines during the very hour, and my thoughts are
of him.

What would he have counseled me to do with my lost life?

Is it a lost life?--It is not.

*

Franz has returned from the target-shooting and was the hero of the
occasion. What shouts of joy and triumph! He gained the first prize, a
fine rifle. The target, riddled with bullets, is displayed before our
house.

*

A falling leaf in autumn--how many bright summer days and mild nights
were required to perfect it? What was it while it hung on the tree?
What is it now, when it falls to the ground?

And what is the result of a whole human life, when summed up in a few
sentences?

*

H