CHAPTER XIV.
POTATOES AND SOMETHING BETTER BESIDES.
Claus and his wife were in the same carriage with Eric and Roland. When Claus reached the line where his beat began, he asked them to stop, and got out.
"No, I go in no carriage here," he said. "And look here at my hands; my hands have been hand-cuffed. What now are they to do? Are they to avenge themselves? On whom? And if I should know on whom, what then?"
He took up a clod of earth, raised it up towards heaven, and cried:—
"By thee I swear that I will emigrate. The New World must give me some land of my own; I have long enough looked after the land of other people in the old."
Eric and Roland also got out, and went with the couple into their house. Then a sudden call was heard from the vineyard, and Sevenpiper came from it with the halberd which Claus had always carried as the badge of his office as field-guard. He handed it over to Claus, saying,—
"Take this now again; I have kept it faithfully for you."
He joined the escort of the couple to their home. The dogs barked in the yard, and the birds flitted here and there, and twittered all together, for their master had come back. But the black-bird sang louder than all, caroling, Rejoice in your life; but she stuck fast at the second bar. The field-guard gazed round upon all, as if he had just waked up. At last there was a calm, and the whole family sat round the table, and ate the first new potatoes which a neighbor had boiled for them. Never had Roland eaten any food which had such a relish, and all laughed when he said,—
"Claus, these potatoes originated there where you are going and where I came from; they were born in America, and we have immigrated hither."