to the Herr von Rambow, and then en- "You are running about the town all day," closed it in another envelope, to the ad--another match; "but you go with blind dress of the Mecklenburg ambassador in eyes, - two matches at once, "and with Paris. Brasig paid his sixteen groschen, deaf ears!"-another match. "You aland the letter was now ready to start on ways know everything," - a match-" and its journey, for the postman, who should when anything happens, then you know take it, that moment stopped at the door. nothing, three matches together. And the postmaster sung, in his bower:

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Ein Leipziger Student hat jungst nach haus geschrieben,

Frau Mutter, sagen Sie, darf denn kein Mäd

chen lieben?

Brasig went up to the Frau Pastorin very politely and pleasantly, and took the match-box from her hand, saying, "By your leave! - a match "what do you mean by that?"- the second match. Have I done anything to harm you?".

And as Brasig went out of the door he the third match. "Kurz ought to be paid

sung:

"Custine schickt eine schnelle Post,

Die nach Paris reiten muss:

Die Sachsen und Preussen marschiren ins catches,"

Feld,

Um Mainz zu bombardiren,

Und wenn ich keinen Succurs bekomm,
Denn muss ich capituliren.'

66

with his own wares!" two matches. "His things that ought to catch don't catch, and what ought not to catch, three matches. "The confounded things have got the inflorentia,!" and with that he threw the whole box on the table, pulled his own match-safe out of his pocket, and struck a light.

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Brasig," said the Frau Pastorin, putting all the tried matches carefully into the box, "I am very much vexed with you. I am not inquisitive, but, when anything happens that concerns Habermann and Louise, I am certainly the nearest, and ought to know it. Why must our little Anna first come out with what you ought to have told me long ago, for you knew it, I see it in your face, you knew it."

You may capituliren, as much as you please, for all me; only hold your tongue, as you have promised," said our old friend, and he went home, not only with the agreeable feeling that he had done a good action, but also with the equally agreeable feeling that he had accomplished a difficult task very skilfully, since he considered it pure finesse, as he said to himself, to have introduced Louise into the letter, so delicately, so præter propter and so circa, that one "How so?" asked Bräsig, and was gomust have keen scent, to suspect any-ing to pretend great ignorance; but the thing. Frau Pastorin was too much provoked with him, for she thought he had treated her shamefully, and she said:

Well, when one indulges such a delightful consciousness of his good and skilful performances, and, so to say, warms him- "You need not pretend; I know that self at its blaze as at a cosy fire, on a you know everything, and you tell me winter's evening, it must be doubly vexa- nothing!" and now she began to tap the tious to be driven out in the wind and old man, and the little assessor also bored rain, with all manner of scolding and re- away at the Herr Assessor; finer and finer proaches; and this happened to Brasig, the two women drew their threads, and when he entered the Frau Pastorin's room, got everything out of Bräsig that he knew, where she was sitting with the little asses- for silence was by no means a special gift sor; Louise was not there. Frau Pastorin of his, and when he at last cried out in was just trying to light a lamp, and the sheer despair: "So, now I know nothing matches would not catch, firstly, because more," then the little round Frau PastoKurz did not supply them with the best rin placed herself before him, saying, quality, and secondly, because Frau Pas-" Brasig, I know you, I see it in your face, torin - perhaps from economy-had the you know something more. habit of putting the broken matches, and What else do you know?" those that would not light, back into the box, so that such a match, in the course of its short life, had the satisfaction of being tried at least twenty times, which may have been very agreeable to the match, but was very provoking to other people.

Out with it!

"Frau Pastorin, it is a private affair." "That is all the same; out with it!" And Brasig shoved about in his chair, and looked right and left, but there was no help for it, he must surrender, and he said, finally, "I have written about it to Herr Franz von Rambow, at Paris; but Karl Habermann must never know it."

"Well, there you are!" cried the Frau Pastorin angrily, trying a match. "There "To Paris!" cried the Frau Pastorin, you are, at last," - the second match. putting her hands on her sides, "to the

young Herr von Rambow! What have I am only considered in Paris to be an you written to him? You have written honest man and a faithful friend to Karl something about Louise, I see it in your Habermann and Louise, it is nothing to face! Yes, you have written something, me if all Rahnstadt calls me an old matchand what I would hardly dream of, you maker." have done!" She rang the bell violently: Fika, run to the post-office, the Herr Postmaster shall give you back, immediately, the letter that Herr Bräsig has written to Paris."

Tereng-tereng-tereng-tentereng! blew the postillion, and the post with Brasig's letter drove by, with flourish of trumpets, before the Frau Pastorin's nose, express for Paris, and the Frau Pastorin in, great vexation, sank back in her sofa-corner, sent Fika back to the kitchen, and -alas! that we should have to confess it she was almost ready to murmur against providence, that, perhaps for the first time, the Rahnstadt post had started at the right moment, to take Bräsig's stupid letter to Paris.

Brasig declared, most solemnly, that he had managed the business with the greatest delicacy, so that there was not the least indicium to be perceived.

"Did you send greeting from her?" asked the Frau Pastorin.

“No,” said Bräsig, “I only said she was very well."

"Have you written nothing else about her?"

"I only wrote that the sheet of paper belonged to her, and that she was a precious pearl of the human race."

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So she is," interposed the Frau Pastorin.

"And then I closed in a very friendly way, by inviting the young Herr to our fraternity ball."

"That was foolish," cried the Frau Pastorin, "he will notice that, he will think you have the intention to bring him and Louise together again."

Frau Pastorin," said Brasig, placing himself before her, "with all respect for your words, is it foolish and wicked, if one has the intention of bringing two people together again, who have been separated by the wickedness and meanness of other people? I had this intention, and therefore I wrote that letter; Habermann could not have done it; for why? He is her father, and it would not have been fitting. You could not have done it; for why? Because they have called you already, here in Rahnstadt, all sorts of scandalous names. It is nothing to me, however, if people do call me an old go-between; I don't trouble myself about it; I will fetch and carry between here and Paris, and if

"Yes, Frau Pastorin, yes!" cried the little assessor, falling upon the Frau Pastorin's neck, "the Herr Inspector is right. Who cares for the gossips of Rahnstadt? What matters the stupid judgment of the world, if two people can be made happy? Franz must come, and Louise must be happy," and in her delight she ran up to Brasig, and put her arms round his neck, and kissed him, right on his mouth. are a dear, old Uncle Bräsig!"

"You

And Bräsig returned the kiss, and said, "Yes, you little clavier-mamsell, you dear little lark, you! You ought to try your happiness also, in such relations. But hold! We mustn't cackle too soon, the business is not settled yet, the rascals are not yet convicted, and, if I know Karl Habermann, he must be perfectly cleared in that affair, before he will consent to such an arrangement, and therefore I have said nothing about the matter, that he and Louise might not be disturbed. And it is a great blessing that Kurz has the inflorentia, for he could never have held his tongue so long otherwise."

"Brasig," said the Frau Pastorin, "taking it all together, I believe you have done right."

"Haven't I, Frau Pastorin? And you were only vexed, because you didn't write first. But you shall have the honor of writing to the young Herr, when it is all settled.”

Three days after this interview, Brasig came home, and met the Frau Pastorin in the hall. Her right hand was in a bandage, for she had just sprained it, falling down the cellar-stairs.

"Frau Pastorin," said he, with great earnestness and expression, "I shall come down again immediately, and have something to tell you."

With that, he went up-stairs to Habermann. He said neither "Good day" nor anything else, as he entered the room, but, looking very solemn, went through into the bedroom. There he poured out a glass of water, and returned with it to Habermann.

"Here, Karl, drink!

"What? Why should I drink?"

"Because it is good for you. What you will need afterward, will not hurt you before."

"Bräsig, what ails you?" cried Haber'mann, pushing away the water; but he

noticed that something unusual was com-exercise it now upon the Frau Pastorin,

the garden, whereupon the two women | ever she went to get wood, she would take quietly retired. So far we had got, and this was true, for the butcher's wife swore to it.

out a couple of pieces, which she would get changed by the help of some of the old Jew women,- she has been to Kurz, "Then the Herr Burgomeister says, if also. And then, perhaps a year and a Kählertsch would only speak out, we half ago, she met the weaver, and asked might learn more. Then I say, 'Herr him if he would not marry her again, for Burgomeister, woman's jealousy!' then he she was no longer poor, she had something says, But how?' Then I say, 'Herr Bur- now, and she gave him a double louisgomeister, I knew some hing about it, d'or; he would'nt listen to her then, howwhen I had three sweethearts at once,- ever, because at that time he was in love jealousy is a terrible passion, and it knows with Kählertsch, I beg. you, Frau Pasneither mercy nor pity. Let me try her.' torin, with Kählertsch! They might offer and when Kählertsch came again I said, in me Kählertsch on a silver salver, I should an off-hand way, Well, if the weaver had never fall in love with her. But he took not married any body else, meantime, I the louis-d'or, and she teased him again, suppose he could marry his divorced wife and made him other presents, till at last again.' And the Herr Burgomeister took his inclination began to return to her, and my hint, and said yes, if he wanted to, he wanted nothing more to do with the clerical consistory could give him a Kählertsch. And she showed him all her desperation. You see, that put the wo- treasure, and they changed it about, now man herself into a desperation, and she here and now there, to keep it concealed, burst out, if it was coming to that, she and finally, this spring, they locked it up would tell something, the weaver had in a box, and he threw the black cloth into brought money with him out of the gar- the butcher's compost heap, and they den, for before that he had had no money buried the treasure in the garden. And in his cupboard, but afterwards she had we went there with the weaver, and found looked, and had found money there, sev- fourteen hundred thalers, among the potaeral double louis-d'ors. You see, she had toes. Just think of it fourteen hundtrapped herself, showing that she had red thalers among the potatoes! They been, with a night-key, into other people's had spent the rest of it." cupboards. The Herr Burgomeister had her arrested and put in prison, so we now had the three rogues fast.

"Good heavens!" cried the Frau Pastorin, "how clever you and the Herr Burgomeister must have been, to get so much out of them.”

"So we are, Frau Pastorin," said Uncle Brasig, quietly.

"When the weaver came in again, and lied again, as to how he had come by the money, and lied to the very face of the butcher's wife, that he had not been with "But the woman?" cried the little his wife in the garden, you see, the Frau. "She was the nearest to it." butcher's wife got angry too, and said she "Yes, Frau Pastorin, that was an excithad seen the calves of her legs, as she was ing moment, for the Herr Burgomeister climbing over the fence,- don't take it had concealed the indicium of the box and amiss, Frau Pastorin,- but she said so. the gold, under his every-day hat, and And then the weaver was sentenced to when the weaver's wife was confronted have ten on his jacket, for our laws, with her husband, and once more admonthank God!—still have penalties for in-ished to tell the truth, and persisted in famous lying, and the Herr Burgomeister talked to him very solemnly, and told him he was a master weaver, and he should be degraded from his trade; but would he confess? not a bit of it. But so soon as he had had his first three on the jacket, he fell on his knees,- which was a dreadful sight to me, so that I turned away, and said he would confess everything, and he did so, since he had not stolen it himself, but his wife. The woman had stolen the money from the day-laborer, Regel, taking the black packet from his waistcoat pocket, when he was intoxicated, and hid it in the woods, under the moss and bushes, and there it had lain for two years, and when

lying, then the Herr Burgomeister lifted his hat, and said, 'It is no matter, we have the money already.' You see, when she saw the box, she flew at the weaver, like a fury, and in a moment she had torn his whole face, just with her nails, and screamed, Cursed wretch! I would have made him happy, and he has made me unhappy!' Frau Pastorin, love is madder than jealousy. Kählertsch never would have done that! But, Frau Pastorin, our fish must be quite cold."

"Ah, Brasig, how can you think of anything like that. But I must go to Habermann, I must tell him

66

That you are very glad he is so tri

umphantly cleared," said Bräsig, drawing, to his heart's content; and upon each of her down on the sofa again; " so you shall, them Bräsig hung a sort of contrivance, but not yet. For, you see, I believe Ha- intended to represent a chandelier, and bermann has something to tell the Lord, Krischan the coachman climbed about ou and Louise will help him, and that is right them for a week, in his buckskin breeches, too, but she is enough; for, Frau Pas- adorning them with oak-leaves; which he torin, as Pastorin you should know,- did very finely, but to the detriment of our Lord is a jealous God, and when He his apparel, since the beams, with their communes with a thankful soul he does splinters, little by little devoured his bucknot suffer that others should approach, į skin breeches. but draws back, and, where the presence of God has shone, human sympathy must wait till afterwards."

The little Frau Pastorin looked at him in astonishment, and finally broke out: "God bless you, Bräsig! I always called you an old heathen; but you are a Christian, after all!"

"I don't know, Frau Pastorin, I don't know what I am. But I know that the little I have done, in this matter, I have not accomplished as a Christian, but as assessor at the criminal court. But Frau Pastorin, our fish is spoiled by this time, and I don't feel at all hungry. The house seems too narrow for me,- adieu, Frau Pastorin, I must go out in the fresh air a little while."

CHAPTER XLI.

Jochen put his hand in his purse, and paid the money for the new house, for he wanted everything done, for his Mining, in the finest manner, and he got Krischan a new pair of breeches.

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Mother," he cried to his wife, "come! look! What shall we do about it?"

And Jochen said, "Yes, Bräsig; it is all as true as leather; but it is only for one night; for, day after to-morrow, we must tear it down."

She was going out, when a voice spoke to her from the clouds, that is, the oakleaf-clouds, and a face full of light, candlelight, bent down to her and said solemnly, "It shall all be attended to, Frau Nüssler,' and as she looked nearer into the clouds, she saw the the honest, red face of her old angel, Brasig, looking out from the oakleaves and tallow-candles, which he had strung around his neck, like a clergyman's THE Friday, on which Rudolph and Mi-bands, that he might have his hands free ning were to be married, had come, and to fasten them in their places. the loveliest Whitsuntide weather shone When this was done, the three stood toupon Rexow, and on the singular edifice gether, and contemplated the effect, and which Jochen, with the aid of Schultz the Bräsig said, "Truly, Jochen! 'Tis like a carpenter, had constructed near his mod-fairy palace, out of the Arabian Nights,' est farm-house. From the outside, the which I read last winter from the circulataffair was not very distinguished looking, ing library!" it was only of boards and laths hammered together, and looked uncommonly like a building in which wild beasts are exhibited, at the Leipsic fair. Inside, the work of art presented a more stately appearance, for the boards were covered with blue and yellow cloth, half of one color, and half of the other, since there was not enough of one kind, in Rahnstadt, to cover And the next day came the fairies, not, so large a hall; and secondly, it was indeed, exactly as Herr Schultz had repreadorned with six notched beams, for on sented, no, they came, at that time, all in no other condition would carpenter crinoline, that is to say, the half-grown, Schultz undertake the job. There ought, horse-hair variety, not with bells and properly, he said, to be nine, in such a springs and bee-hives and steel bird-cages, building as a wedding-hall, but the ex- as at present; but they were beginning, pense would be too great, and since Jo- even then, and Auntie Klein, from Rostock, chen did not understand much about had put a regular barrel-hoop of tough architecture, and Frau Nüssler had enough oaken wood, into her petticoat, which to do with the eating and drinking for the grazed her sister's shins so unmercifully wedding, and Bräsig was his friend, and on the way, that the poor woman had to would not oppose him, because he had stand on one foot through the whole wedhelped him at the Reformverein, carpen-ding. But the fairies came, and they had ter Schultz had his own way, like a moth wreaths in their hair, of natural flowers, in a rug, and built in the notched beams and not artificial, which was a pity, for

"That would be barbarous!" said the carpenter, "the six notched beams would last ages, and the fairies might walk in as if they were born and bred there."