ceived. With every potato that he
pared, he thought of the clever things he would say to the king. He
felt that the latter could not escape him. Six thousand florins could
be counted on; and of five thousand he felt quite sure.

"If the king gives us a good farm on a royal estate, or any other
appointment, we'll move away from here," said Hansei aloud. He thought
that the grandmother must know that he would gladly break loose from
his comrades and begin a changed life, elsewhere.

"Yes, yes," was all that the grandmother said.

"I think we must soon write an answer, and I'll write to her, too. She
seems so sad."

"Yes, yes; do so. I must go to the child."

In promising to write to his wife, Hansei had imposed a difficult task
upon himself. He would have liked to write kind, consoling, hearty
words; to have cautioned her not to worry so much about the few weeks
that still remained, and thus, perhaps, lost sight of what advantages
might present themselves. Now was the time to be in good spirits, for
pay-day was fast approaching. He had all these thoughts in his head,
and she would respect him for the manly advice he was about to offer.
But to get these ideas out of his head and on paper, was a difficult
task.

Consoling himself with the words: "There's no need of my writing. I'll
see her soon, and can tell her everything far better," he gave up the
attempt.

While the grandmother went into the room in which the child lay, Hansei
remained sitting at the table and emptied the whole dish of potatoes,
while he was, in imagination, explaining to the king how well he
understood forest matters. When the last potato was eaten, he went out,
took axe, mallet and wedge and, with mighty strokes, split the stumps
which had been piled up along the road in front of the garden. He had
just taken off his coat, for, in spite of the keen spring breeze, he
didn't feel cold, when a voice said, "Ah, you're still here." The
innkeeper stood behind him with his rifle slung over his shoulder and
accompanied by his two dogs, Dachsel and Wachsel. "You must have
overslept yourself, just as I did. If we take the road through the
valley and the ravine, we can still catch up with our comrades. Come,
hurry and dress yourself, and get your gun."

As if this were a command which he must obey, Hansei carried axe,
mallet and wedge into the house, dressed himself, took his gun and said
to the grandmother: "I think I'll go along, after all." He would