"I, too," exclaimed Franz, "will be more of a man from this very moment."
"Well said, my dear boys. But come, it is growing late and you will be needed at home."
CHAPTER V.
THE HAYMAKERS
"Mother! mother! here come the mowers," called Carl, as he came toward the house with a pail of milk in each hand. The wooden milking-stool was still strapped around the boy's waist, and its one leg stuck out behind like a little stiff tail. You would have laughed at the sight, as did the two haymakers who had by this time reached the hut.
"What, ho! Carl," said one of the men, "are you changing into a monkey now you have come up to the highlands for the summer?"
"I was so busy thinking," replied the boy, "that I forgot to leave the stool in the stable when I had finished the milking. I am glad you are here to-night. How does the work go?"
"Pretty hard, my boy, pretty hard, but I love it," answered the younger man of the two mowers. "Still, I shouldn't advise you to be a haymaker when you grow up. It is too dangerous a business."