"Do sing it for us," cried every one.
Herr Abel had a good voice and they listened with pleasure to his song. This is the first stanza:
"I have been on the mountain
That the song-birds love best.
They were sitting, were flitting,
They were building their nest.
They were sitting, were flitting,
They were building their nest."
After he had finished, he told about the mines in which some of his friends worked. It was a hard life, with no bright sunlight to cheer the men in those deep, dark caverns underground.
"Of course you all know that the deepest mine in the world is in the
Hartz Mountains."
His friends nodded their heads, while Hans whispered to Bertha, "I should like to go down in that mine just for the sake of saying I have been as far into the earth as any living person."
"The sun is setting, and there is a chill in the air," said Bertha's father. "Let us go home."
CHAPTER VIII.
WHAT THE WAVES BRING
Bertha's mother had just come in from a hard morning's work in the fields. She had been helping her husband weed the garden.