led all that he could for the
cottage kitchen. When he brought his booty home, Undine rarely
neglected to upbraid him with having so cruelly deprived the happy
birds of life; indeed she often wept bitterly at the sight he placed
before her. But if he came home another time without having shot
anything she scolded him no less seriously, since now, from his
carelessness and want of skill, they had to be satisfied with living
on fish. He always delighted heartily in her graceful little
scoldings, all the more as she generally strove to compensate for
her ill-humor by the sweetest caresses.

The old people took pleasure in the intimacy of the young pair; they
regarded them as betrothed, or even as already united in marriage,
and living on this isolated spot, as a succor and support to them in
their old age. It was this same sense of seclusion that suggested
the idea also to Huldbrand's mind that he was already Undine's
accepted one. He felt as if there were no world beyond these
surrounding waters, or as if he could never recross them to mingle
with other men; and when at times his grazing horse would neigh as
if inquiringly to remind him of knightly deeds, or when the coat of
arms on his embroidered saddle and horse-gear shone sternly upon
him, or when his beautiful sword would suddenly fall from the nail
on which it was hanging in the cottage, gliding from the scabbard as
it fell, he would quiet the doubts of his mind by saving: "Undine is
no fisherman's daughter; she belongs in all probability to some
illustrious family abroad." There was only one thing to which he had
a strong aversion, and this was, when the old dame reproved Undine
in his presence. The wayward girl, it is true, laughed at it for the
most part, without attempting to conceal her mirth; but it seemed to
him as if his honor were concerned, and yet he could not blame the
old fisherman's wife, for Undine always deserved at least ten times
as many reproofs as she received; so, in his heart he felt the
balance in favor of the old woman, and his whole life flowed onward
in calm enjoyment.

There came, however, an interruption at last. The fisherman and the
knight had been accustomed at their mid-day meal, and also in the
evening when the wind roared without, as it was always wont to do
toward night, to enjoy together a flask of wine. But now the store
which the fisherman had from time to time brought with him from the
town, was exhausted, and the two men we