I hardly know that we are in the woods, and I feel as if I
couldn't see a thing. Stop a moment! There's a doctor up there. He
knows her, and others who know her will come, too. The man who came to
see us the other day is her brother, and now they'll go and take our
Irmgard away with them."

"If she's in her right mind, and wants to go of her own free will, we
can't say anything against it," said Hansei, "but this I do say, and no
one will move me from it. As long as she's so sick that she can't say
what she wants, I won't let them do a thing to her. I'm Hansei, and I'm
her protector; nothing shall happen to her--All I ask of you, is to
stand by me and not interfere. You know when I say a thing, I mean it."

"Yes, yes, you're right!" said Walpurga. Hansei's resolute words seemed
to infuse her with new strength, for she went up the steep mountain
path without the slightest difficulty. It almost seemed as if Hansei
had been carrying her as well as the child. Moved by this thought, she
suddenly said:

"Do you remember when you once wanted to carry me, at home by the lake?
Oh, dear me, it seems as if we must have been very different beings
then, for we knew nothing at all of the world."

"We're none the worse off, for knowing and having some of it!" replied
Hansei, in a loud voice, and awakening the child. "There, now; run
along again," said he to Burgei.

They rested for a little while. Hansei remembered the piece of bread
that he had put in his pocket and, cutting off a bit of it, he said
while pointing toward the valley with his knife: "Our brook runs down
through there, and it's only an hour's distance from here to the little
town where Stasi lives."

"Only an hour from here?" exclaimed Walpurga.

"Then I'll walk over there. She's the best, the only help. You go on
with the child, straight up to the hut. I'll soon follow you by way of
the town, and I'll bring something good with me."

"Wife! Have you gone mad? Don't make me crazy, too. Do you want to run
off, when you're so near the dying one?"

"Then I must tell you. The queen is down there and she alone can help
her. God be with you, Hansei, and with you too, Burgei. I'll soon
follow after you."

Away she ran, through the forest, along the stream, and toward the
town.

"Where's mother? Mother! mother!" cried the child.

"Be quiet!" said Hansei. "Mother has another child down there, and he's
a prince and will send you golden clothes."

"Is it an enchant