“Something already occurs to me,” said John. “There, in the next house but one, lives a pastor I am well acquainted with; he will advise us for the best. Hold! This is better. I will remain in the valley, by the mill, and you shall go alone up to the farm to my parents, and tell them all, exactly, roundly, and fully, as it has happened. You will immediately gain my mother, and you are so sensible and discreet, that it will not be long before you will wind my father round your finger. This is the best plan. We shall not have to wait, nor to ask a stranger to come to our help. Do you agree to this, or will it be too much for you?”
“This is exactly my thought. Now we have nothing more to consider. It is settled as though it were written down and carried out. And now, quick work proves the master. Oh, you do not know what a dear, good, sensible, precious fellow you are!”
“No, you are the sensible one. But it is all settled, and we are both but one brave fellow together. That will we remain. Here, give me your hand. There! So! This meadow is our first field. Thank God, little wife, now you are at home. And, huzza! there is our stork; he flies home. Stork! stork! Say ‘thank God here is the new mistress!’ Later I will tell you more. Now, Amrie, do not be too long up there, and immediately send some one to the mill. If the stable-boy is at home, send him; he can spring like a hare. Now, do you see the house with the stork’s nest on the roof, and the two barns on the hill, at the left from the wood? There is a linden before it. Do you see it?”
“Yes.”
“That is our house. Now step down. You cannot miss it now.”
John alighted and helped Amrie from the wagon. She held the necklace, which she had put in her pocket, like a rosary, between her folded hands, and prayed softly. John also took off his hat, and his lips moved.
Neither spake another word. Amrie went on before, while John stood a long time leaning against his horse, and looking after her. She turned and tried to drive the dog back, who had followed her. He would not go back, but ran aside into a field, and followed her again. John whistled, and then first the animal ran back to him.
John went to the mill and waited there. They told him that his father had been there about an hour before, to wait for him, and had again returned home. John rejoiced that Amrie would meet both parents at home. The people at the mill could not tell what troubled John, that he should wait there and not say a word. He went into the house—then out again. He went part of the way to the farm—then turned back again; was full of anxiety, counting the steps Amrie had to take. Now she was at this field, now at that. Now she had reached the beech-hedge—now she was speaking with his parents. Thus he thought and trembled.
