uel wounds to honest pride, and all their sore trials of temper, she
could bear up against with an undaunted courage. She had learned her
lesson in the only school wherein it is taught, and daily habit had
instilled its own powers of endurance; but, for Frank, her ambition
hoped a higher and brighter destiny, and now, in her solitude, and with
a swelling heart, she knelt down and prayed for him. And, oh! if the
utter ings of such devotion never rise to Heaven or meet acceptance
there, they at least bring balm to the spirit of him who syllables
them, building up a hope whose foundations are above the casualties of
humanity, and giving a courage that mere self-reliance never gave.

Little Hans not only came to awaken Frank, but to give him companionship
for some miles of his way, a thoughtful kindness, for which the youth's
deep preoccupation seemed to offer but a poor return. Indeed, Frank
scarcely knew that he was not travelling in utter solitude, and all the
skilful devices of the worthy dwarf to turn the channel of his thoughts
were fruitless. Had there been sufficient light to have surveyed the
equipment of his companion, it is more than probable that the sight
would have done more to produce this diversion of gloom than any
arguments which could have been used. Master Roeckle, whose mind was
a perfect storehouse of German horrors, earthly and unearthly, and who
imagined that a great majority of the human population of the globe were
either bandits or witches, had surrounded himself with a whole museum
of amulets and charms of various kinds. In his cap he wore the tail of
a black squirrel, as a safeguard against the "Forest Imp;" a large dried
toad hung around his neck, like an order, to protect him from the evil
eye; a duck's foot was fastened to the tassel of his boot, as a talisman
against drowning; while strings of medals, coins, precious stones,
blessed beads, and dried insects, hung round and about him in every
direction. Of all the portions of his equipment, however, what seemed
the most absurd was a huge pole-axe of the fifteenth century, and which
he carried as a defence against mere mortal foes, but which, from its
weight and size, appeared far more likely to lay its bearer low than
inflict injury upon others. It had been originally stored up in the Rust
Kammer, at Prague, and was said to be the identical weapon with which
Conrad slew the giant at Leutmeritz, a fact which warranted Hans in
expending two hund