ut came back again and placed herself over the young kid, so
that the hail shouldn't strike it, but her instead. I went near her,
but the mother ran away again. I picked up the young one and, just as
we were going on to look for shelter, I heard human voices. Two people
were calling to a third one, who was roaring and screaming. When the
lightning flashed, I saw that he was lying on the ground, unable to
move.

"'Honored master, just lean on us; we'll soon find shelter,' I heard
them saying, and when the lightning flashed again, I saw that we were
near the Witches' Table. So I called out to them: 'The Witches' Table
is over yonder.' Then there was another flash, and I saw that the two
men who had been standing had also fallen down. They told me,
afterward, that they had been afraid of me, and I couldn't think hard
of them. In such a storm, and on such a night, one would almost believe
in anything. I went up to them, told them who I was, and offered to
lead them. It was hard work, though, to get along, for the blind man
went on as if crazed, and kept talking about a lost child. At last,
safe and sound, but dripping with water, we got under the Witches'
Table, and there we lay. And whenever it lightened we could see the
hailstones dancing on the rocks and beating against the trees. We
waited until it stopped hailing, and the blind man told me that the
next time I came down to the apothecary's, in the town, he would give
me a gold piece. The king's there and so is the queen. He promised to
see to it that I should get the medal for saving a life, and a pension,
in the bargain, for the rest of my days. And now, children, get to bed,
for you're soaking wet. What ails you, Irmgard? Why do you shiver so?"

The little pitchman scolded Gundel for having let cousin Irmgard sit
about in her wet clothes. Now and then the little kid would cry
piteously and shiver all over, so that the little pitchman brought down
his bed-cover from the hay-loft and wrapped the kid in it. Then, with
three fingers, he cleverly fed it with milk from a dish.

The little kid was soon asleep, and, in the room within, Irma was
sleeping too.

"Thank God, you've had a good sleep," said Gundel, who was standing at
Irma's bedside, late on the following morning. "How strange it seems!
The hail didn't hurt you a bit and just see how I look." She showed the
marks, but quickly added: "That's no matter; it'll soon be over. Just
look at the sky! Don't it look as