Gerhardt expressed his thanks, and Romund, disappearing outside the back door, returned with some pieces of wood and tools, which he laid down on the form. He was trying to carve a wooden box with a pattern of oak leaves, but he had not progressed far, and his attempts were not of the first order. Haimet noticed Gerhardt’s interested glance cast on his brother’s work.
“Is that any thing in your line?” he asked with a smile.
“I have done a little in that way,” replied Gerhardt modestly. “May I examine it?” he asked of Romund.
The young carver nodded, and Gerhardt took up the box.
“This is an easy pattern,” he said.
“Easy, do you call it?” replied Romund. “It is the hardest I have done yet. Those little round inside bits are so difficult to manage.”
“May I try?” asked Gerhardt.
It was not very willingly that Romund gave permission, for he almost expected the spoiling of his work: but the carving-tool had not made more than a few cuts in the German’s fingers, before Romund saw that his guest was a master in the art. The work so laborious and difficult to him seemed to do itself when Gerhardt took hold of it.
“Why, you are a first-class hand at it!” he cried.
Gerhardt smiled. “I have done the like before, in my own country,” he said.