h all her goodness,
she would have found fault with everything in the house, and nothing
would have suited her, if this hadn't come in the way."

The mother thus consoled Hansei, who nodded approval of her words.

Walpurga slept. Her cheeks were scarlet. Hansei, with the child in his
arms, stood at his wife's bedside for a long time, looking at her.

The doctor did not come until the next morning. He found Walpurga
lively, but very weak. He prescribed drastic remedies, and, in the
course of a few days, she was quite restored. She now saw what danger
she had been in, and how luckily she had escaped it.

It was not until then that she felt quite at home and perfectly happy.

Walpurga and her mother were down by the lake, washing clothes.

"Yes, it's our business to keep things clean," said Walpurga. "When I
look up at the mountains, I see the rocks and forests which only men,
with their chisels and axes, can shape into houses. Men's work is with
whatever's strong and powerful. Even if others do flatter us, and we
persuade ourselves that we're ever so great, we women are less than
they are."

The mother smiled and said: "Oh child, your thoughts are far-fetched,
but you're right, for all."

"My Hansei's a real steady man," continued Walpurga.

"That he is," answered the mother, with joyful mien.

"He doesn't talk as much as others do, but when it comes to a pinch, he
knows what he has to do and how to do it, and that's just the way your
blessed father was. You're very lucky to find this out so soon after
the birth of your first child. I didn't know it till after my third,
or, indeed, till I'd lost all my children except yourself."

"Good-day to you all!" suddenly said a little needy-looking man.

"Why, it's Peter!" cried the grandmother; "you here already? That's
good. And is this your daughter? What's her name?"

"Gundel."

"God greet you both," said the grandmother, who kept wetting and wiping
her hand again and again, before offering it to her brother.

The little man's features expressed great surprise. It was long since
any one had been so glad to see him; but, of course, he had come to a
house that was overflowing with joy.

The grandmother took her brother by the hand, and led him toward the
house. She felt sad when she looked at the poor little man, for his
appearance betokened great poverty.

She forthwith gave her brother and her niece something to eat. When
they had finished, she took Gundel o