What a pleasure it was to stop the women and children, with all sorts and shapes of burdens on their heads or in their arms, and ask what they were carrying in the heavy hampers; to call to the peasant girls who were singing merrily, and ask where they had learned the pretty songs.
"Oh, how delightful it is here!" she exclaimed, flinging her arms around the baroness. "I should like to dig and work in the garden all day long with these merry girls. How happy I shall be here!"
"To-morrow we will visit the fields," said Katharina "Can you ride?"
"Ride?" echoed Marie, in smiling surprise. "Yes—on a rocking-horse."
"Then you will very soon learn to sit on a living horse."
"Do you really believe I shall?" breathlessly exclaimed Marie.
"Yes; I have a very gentle horse which you shall have for your own."
"One of those dear, tiny little horses from which one could not fall? I have seen them in picture-books."
"He is not so very small; but you will not be afraid of falling off when you have learned to ride. Then, when you can manage your horse, we will ride after the hounds—"
"No, no," hastily interposed the young girl; "I shall never do that. I could not bear to see an animal hurt or killed."