"Benedicta."
"That is a good name," said Ekkehard, fastening the Alpine roses to his girdle. "Yes, I will remain with you."
Upon this the old man shook his right hand, so as to make him wince, and then, seizing the Alpine horn which hung suspended on a strap at his side, he blew a peculiar signal.
From all sides, answering notes were heard, and soon the neighbouring herdsmen all came over; strong, wild-looking men, and assembled round the old man; whom,--on account of his good qualities,--they had elected master of the Alps, and inspector of the meadows on the Ebenalp.
"We have got a new mountain-brother," said he. "I suppose that none of you will object?"
After this address they all lifted their hands, in sign of approval, and then stepping up to Ekkehard, they bade him welcome; and his heart was touched and he made the sign of the cross over them.
Thus Ekkehard became hermit of the Wildkirchlein, scarcely knowing how it had all come about. The master of the Ebenalp kept his word, and did his best to make him comfortable. The three goats were lodged in the side-cavern. Then, he also showed him an intricate hidden path between the rocks, which led down to the Seealpsee, which contained plenty of fine trout. Further, he put some new shingles into the gaps of the roof, that wind and weather had caused in Gottshalk's blockhouse. By degrees, Ekkehard accustomed himself to the narrow confinement of his new domicile, and on the following Sunday he carried the wooden cross into the foreground of the cavern; adorned it with a wreath of newly gathered flowers, and rang the bell which had hung at the entrance ever since Gottshalk's time, and which bore the mark of Sancho, the wicked bell-founder at St. Gall. When his herdsmen, with their families of boys and girls were all assembled, he preached them a sermon on the transfiguration, and told them how everyone who ascended the mountain-heights with the right spirit, in a certain sense of the word, became transfigured also.
"And though Moses and Elijah may not come down to us," he cried, "have we not the Säntis and the Kamor standing beside us?--and they also are men of an old covenant, and it is good for us to be with them!"
His words were great and bold; and he himself wondered at them, for they were almost heretical, and he had never read such a simile in any of the churchfathers before. But the herdsmen were satisfied, and the mountains also; and there was nobody to contradict him.
At noon, Benedicta, the herdsman's daughter came up. A silver chain adorned her Sunday bodice, which encircled her bosom like a coat of mail. She brought a neat milking-pail; made of ashwood, on which, in simple outlines, a cow was carved.