character. No one could make him change
his gait. He was like a horse which jogs on, regardless of the dog
barking at its heels, or which, when going up hill, will suffer no one
to urge it into a trot.

In true humility, Walpurga bowed to her husband. He might have been
wittier, readier, and more sprightly, but none could be better nor
steadier than he.

CHAPTER VIII.

The village council were in session.

Hansei was summoned to the town hall. The messenger who came for him
told him that there was to be a new assessment, and that higher taxes
were to be levied upon him, now that he had come into property.

"You needn't tell everything to the last kreutzer," said he.

"I'll tell them all. Thank God, I've got something to pay taxes for,"
replied Hansei.

Walpurga listened with eager interest. She had been boiling with rage
for many days, and now the time had come when her anger could find vent
in words. She said she would go along to the town hall where they were
all assembled, and would, then and there, tell them what she thought of
them. Hansei persuaded her that that wouldn't do, and now the messenger
seemed the very man to serve her purpose. She burst forth in a torrent
of abuse of the villagers, and asked the messenger to go to them and
repeat every word he had heard. She threatened them with the house of
correction and the king, as if both were at her service, besides
mentioning other punishments which were quite new and of her own
invention.

"Come along," said Hansei to the messenger. While on the way, he gave
him some drink-money, and told him that his wife had not yet become
used to things at home, and that, naturally enough, many a thing
worried her. The messenger reassured Hansei by saying that, in an
office like his, one was obliged to hear and see much which it was best
to seem ignorant of afterward, and that women were very queer. Their
great delight was to unburden themselves; after that, they were all
right again.

Hansei was detained at the town hall for a long time. The innkeeper,
who was one of the councilmen, was seated at the table, and found great
pleasure in trying to get him into a tight place. His office protected
him as with a shield. He tried to provoke Hansei to insult him, so that
he might put him in jail and thus, at one stroke, disgrace the haughty
beggar and his wife. Hansei saw what was in the wind, and every one was
astonished at the poli