"It isn't as easy as you think for, Hansei."
"For the sake of getting you, for the rest of your life, to admit that a man has more strength of mind than a woman, and can easier undertake a thing, and carry it out, too, I'll show you what I can do. Your good friend shall be mine, too. But she isn't crazy, nor doesn't bite, does she?"
"No, you needn't worry about that."
"All right, then; that settles it."
Hansei went out to the wagon with Walpurga, who drew the curtain aside and said:
"My husband wants to bid you welcome."
"Welcome!" said Irma, offering her hand to Hansei.
He stared at her in mute astonishment, and it was not until Walpurga raised his hand that he offered it to Irma.
They had taken up their journey once more, and Hansei, who, with his wife, was walking up hill in advance of the wagons, said:
"Wife! if it wasn't daylight, and you and mother and the child weren't here,--if I wasn't quite sure that I'm in my right senses, and that it's all true--I'd really believe that you had a fairy in the wagon there. Is she lame? can't she walk?"