ed prince that mother is going to free from a spell?"
asked the child.

"Yes, he's enchanted," said Hansei, endeavoring to quiet her.

"But what was he changed into?" asked the child.

"Into a cuckoo; but not another word now; be quiet."

Filled with strange thoughts, the father and child went up the
mountain. Hansei could not understand how, at such a moment, his wife
could leave her friend and go to the queen--. Perhaps they were bound
together in some way? He shook his head. Matters that he could not
disentangle, he always put away from him. The only thing was to see
what could be done for the sick one; that was the most important
matter. He squared his shoulders and was ready, if the physician
thought well of it, to carry Irmgard in his arms, all the way down to
the farm.

The child ran along, looking about it with wondering eyes. "He's
calling! he's calling!" whispered she. "My mother will free you."

A cuckoo was really crying in the wood, through which the noonday sun
was gleaming. His cry was sometimes near and then more distant, and at
last, uttering his peculiar note, he flew over the travelers' heads.

Hansei, with the child, at last reached the shepherd's hut, where the
uncle and Gundel, with sorrowful countenances, came forward to meet
him.

"She's still alive, but she can't last long," said the uncle, wiping
away his tears with his sleeve. "The doctor won't let any of us go in
to her. But where's Walpurga?"

"She'll soon be here," replied Hansei. It was all he could do to keep
off the cows, who knew their master and came up to him, as was their
wont, in order to get a handful of salt. But he had forgotten to bring
it with him, and all the salt they had up here was in the room that no
one was permitted to enter.

Hansei ordered the cowboy to drive the cows off for some distance, so
that the sick one might not hear the sound of the bells. That was all
he could do for Irma.

He sat down sadly on the bench before the hut, and taking up a piece of
carved wood which lay on the ground, he looked at it as carefully as if
it were marble and turned it again and again. He sat there for a long
time. Then he put Burgei in Gundel's charge, and, hoping to meet his
wife, went out alone along the road that led toward the little town.
But it was long before she came. He went further into the forest, and
was vexed, as he always was whenever he came up here, to think of
yonder fine trees that were his own proper