one that always hangs
up there. I suppose he had something to do in the forest. He never
shirks work. When he comes home don't tell him how foolish you've been.
The palace still clings to you. You worry too much about everything.
Take my word for it, the world's quiet and peaceful enough as long as
we're quiet and orderly. Hush! I hear him coming. He's whistling."

Hansei approached whistling, and bearing his axe on his shoulder.

Walpurga could not go forward to meet him. She felt so weak in her
limbs that she was obliged to sit down.

"Good-morning, Mistress Freeholder!" cried Hansei from afar.
"Good-morning, Freeholder!" replied Walpurga. "Where have you been?"

"Out in the woods. I cut down a pine-tree, a splendid one that must
have felt my strokes. It did me good. But, first of all, give me
something to eat, for I'm hungry."

"He can still eat; thank God for that," thought Walpurga to herself,
while she hurried to fetch the porridge. She sat down beside him,
delighting in every spoonful which he took. She had much to tell and to
ask about, but she didn't wish to disturb him while he was eating, and
when the dish was half empty she held it up for him, so that he could
fill his spoon.

"Now tell me," said she, when the dish was emptied, "why did you go out
so early and steal away so?"

"Well, I'll tell you. When I awoke, I thought it was all a dream, and
when, after that, I found the money, so much of it, I thought I'd go
crazy. Hansei, the poor fellow who used to save for months at a time,
and felt so happy when he could buy himself a shirt and a pair of
shoes, had all at once become rich, and it seemed as if some one were
turning me round and round and driving me crazy. Then I felt like
waking you up, that we might consider what I'd better do with myself.
But you sleep so soundly that I thought--Pshaw! is your wife to help
you? Just you wait, Hansei; I'll show you--and so I got out and took my
axe and went up the mountain. Day was just breaking. Although I was
quite alone, I felt, all the time, as if there was a great crowd of
people after me. Still I went on till I reached the pine. It was marked
out to be felled long ago. I threw off my jacket and set to work, and
when the chips began to fly, I felt better. Afterward, Wastl came up
and helped me, but he kept saying, all the time: 'Hansei, you never
worked as you do to-day'; and he spoke the truth. We felled the tree
and it came down with a crash. That did