"Nothing," was the answer.
"But you are so changed. Are you out on an errand? Were you coming to our house?"
"No."
"You haven't run away again, Renti, have you?"
Gretchen looked at him in distress.
"Yes, I have."
Gretchen grew pale.
"Oh, oh! now you are doing it again, and everything will go wrong! What will the farmer do to you when you go back?"
"I don't care what he does. I'd like to chop down all his trees!"
That seemed to Renti the most awful injury that one could do to an enemy. He had once heard of a servant who, in a fit of anger, had cut down his master's tree, and Renti remembered what a dreadful impression this had made on every one; for a fine old tree, that has stood from one generation to another, giving its yearly offering of fruit, is looked upon with special reverence by the farmers. Renti uttered this hideous wish with clinched fists and set teeth.