both stood there in the dark, shuddering with fear.

"Are you still here?" cried Hansei, trembling.

"Of course I am. Don't be--don't be--so--so superstitious. Strike a
light. Have you no matches about you?"

"Of course I have."

He drew them from his pocket, but let them all fall on the ground.
Walpurga gathered them up. Several of them caught fire, but immediately
went out again. The sudden flash of blue light seemed weird and dismal.
At last they succeeded in lighting the lamp, and went upstairs into the
room, where Walpurga lit a second lamp, lest the darkness might again
frighten them. Hansei hurriedly removed the pillow-case, and the
glittering gold met his eyes.

"Now tell me," said he, passing his hand over his face, "have you any
more? Don't try that again."

Walpurga assured him that this was all. Hansei spread the gold out on
the table, piled it up in little heaps, and counted it with his
fingers. He always had a piece of chalk in his pocket, and he now took
it out and reckoned up the money. When he had finished, he turned and
said:

"Come here, Walpurga. Come, there's your first kiss as mistress of the
freehold."

Hansei put the gold back into the pillow-case, and when he went to bed
he placed it under his pillow, saying: "Oh, what a good pillow; one can
sleep sweetly on it."

CHAPTER X.

When Walpurga awoke the next morning, she found the sack of gold in bed
beside her, but Hansei had disappeared.

"Where is he? What's become of him?"

She dressed herself in a hurry, hunted for him, and went all over the
house calling for him; but he was not there. She hurried over to
Grubersepp's, but they had seen nothing of him. She returned home, but
Hansei had not yet arrived.

What could it be? If Hansei had done some harm to himself--If having so
much money had turned his head--Oh, that terrible money! It had been
lying in the earth, and there was now nothing wrong about it, for what
has once been in the ground is purified.

She went out to the lake. It was still storming; its waves were high,
and the sky was covered with dark gray clouds.

Maybe Hansei's destroyed himself--maybe he's floating in there.

She stood by the water's edge and cried "Hansei" with all her might.

There was no answer. She returned to the house, and, as coherently as
she could, told her mother of her grief. Her mother consoled her.

"Do be quiet. Hansei took his axe with him--the