The Goose Girl

swept a sleeve across his forehead, and sighed. He had walked many miles that day, and even now the journey's end, near as it really was, seemed

things near or far or roundabout. His brow was high, his nose large and bridged; a face of more angles than contours, bristling with gray spikes, like one who has gone unshaven several days.

weary one, a steady, enervating, unbroken climb. To the left the mighty cliff reared its granite side to the hanging city, broke in a wide plain, and then went on up several thousand feet to the ledges of dragon-green ice and snow. To the right sparkled

tatively, absorbing little or nothing of the exquisite panorama. By and by his gaze wavered, and that particular patch in the valley, brown from the beating of many iron-shod horses, caught an

n in France, but no Bonaparte. Clatter-clatter! Bang-bang!" He laughed ironically and cautiously glanced at his watch, an article which must h

The galloping of soldiers up and down the road from time to time disturbed her flock, but she was evidently a patient soul, and relied valiantly upon her stick of willow. Once or twice he had been inclined to hasten his steps,

with happiness. Day after day she had tended the geese in the valley and trudged back at evening alone, all told a matter of twelve miles; and now she was bringing them into t

rl in wooden shoes. The man listened; she was singing

ense. She is richer than I am." An

antly recognized one of the men. He saluted with a humbleness which lacked sincerity. It was the grand duke himself. There was General Ducwitz, too, and some of his staff, and a smooth-faced, handsome young man in civilian riding-clothes, who, though he rode like a cavalryman, was ob

onk-gonk! Quack-quack! They scrambled, they blundered, they flew. Some tried to go over the horses, some endeavored to go under. One landed, full-winged, against the grand duke's chest and swept his vizored cap off his head and rolled it into the dust. The duke signed

she cried d

r us!" shouted the civilian, sliding from

s large and complex affairs of state; as he ceased laughing, he sear

he said gravely. "I hope n

he had seen the grand duke times without number, but she had never yet been so near to him. And now he had actually spoken to her. It was a

h his sleeve, returned it, and mounte

he exclaime

ed the duke, gath

face; it i

readily agreed. "You Ameri

pretty face about,"

uble to look at a homely o

colonel. But his eye held none of the abstrac

er tan, and waned, but her eyes wavered not the breadth of a hair. It was the colonel who f

settling himself firmly in the saddle. "In giving, she i

uke. There were more vital matters under han

ans into doorways or against the walls. One among those so inconvenienced was a youth dressed as a vintner. He was tall, pliantly built, blond as a Viking, possessing a singular beauty of the masculine order. He was forced to flatten himself against the wall of a house, his arm

e? No, it is utterly impossib

ion, however, gone from his face. He ran his hand

re round which ran the palaces and the royal and public gardens. On the way many times the duke raised his hand in salutations; for, while not exactly loved, he was liked for his rare clean living, his sound se

he duke gratefully for

replied the duke pleasantly. "A man who rides as well as

who had ridden horses under fire, and who bore on his body many honorable scars. For the great civil strife in America had come to its c

Platz, toward the Grand Hotel. He was a bachelor, so he might easily have had his quarters at the consulate; but as usual with American consulates-even to the present time-it was situated in a

een that young

A feather or two drifted lazily about in the air. At last she gathered them in, all but one foolish, blank-eyed gander, which, poising on a large b

or you, Kindchen,

her far more than the humble state of his

ill be wiser to wait. In a little whil

man. "It is nothing

gander saw him coming and stirred uneasily. Nearer and nearer came this human spider. The gander flapped its wings, but hesitated to take the leap. Instantly a brown hand shot up and caught the scaly yellow l

err." There was admirat

regular business. I do not know what giddiness is. You are

. To-morrow I sell the geese in the market to the hotels. They hav

hotels?"-

o, my

ou were singing befor

from the poet

ith a rudeness not

Can yo

, He

hould he be surprised? From one end of the world to the other printer's

c?" he inquir

Melodies are always running through my head. Someti

ll be discovering you some fine d

not escape her. "I a

rmed. "What

etc

t el

ully. "I never knew

the other to understand. "

, and many things besides. I know that Italy has all the works of art; that France has the most interesting history; that Germany has all the ph

sto

e, and g

you ought to be something b

t work, and

would find it easier in a milliner's shop,

"-holding ou

long to whiten them

mother. She took me in when I was a foundling; now I am taking care

dwi

"-inquisitive

t matter. I am a mount

k at him more closely. "We are

lunder on the part of the grand d

bout the grand d

s of old. He is wrong, he was always wrong." The old man

eautiful

S

her stick. And as her companion asked no more questions, she devoted h

rella's magic slipper. Her clothes, coarse and homespun, were clean and variously mended. Her hair, in a thick braid, was the tone of the heart of a chestnut-bur, and her eyes were of that mystifying hazel, sometimes brown, sometimes gray, according to whether the sky was clear or overcast. And there was s

are you,

nswered, "perhaps eigh

ny cloud, giving promise of a fair day on the morrow. The afterglow on the mountains across the valley was now in its prime glory; and once the two wayfarers paus

hat the geese were packed from wall to wall. Oft some jovial soldier sent a jest or a query to

e shall I find

. I will show you. You are

es

Schwartzen Adler, hanging in front of a frame house of

ded, in an undertone; "it is unchanged these twenty year

ender himself, however, huddled over a table upon which sputtered a candle. It touched up his face with grotesque lights. Here was age, mused the man outside the window; nothing less than fourscore years rested upon those rounded shoulders. The face was corrugated with

is contrast, straightened his shoulders and

Gretchen. Goo

Good luck to you and

ig. And will you b

adding a grim smile in

withdrew her hand, something cold and hard remained in her palm. Wonders of all the world! It was a piec

," she rem

uestion providence, and I am her han

A piece of gold! Clat-clat! Clat-clat! Surely this had been a day of marvels; two crowns from the grand duke and a piece of gold from this old man in peasant clothes.

ill the dark jaws of the Krumerweg

fine day!" He eyed again the battered sign. It was then that he discerned another, leaning from the led

in this unholy garb, following false trails half the time, living on crusts and

nd applied for a room,