“His father would just say ‘Rubbish,’” said Schalk, laughing.
“Here he comes,” said the Countess, “he is not ashamed to give the old man his arm, just as though he were his equal. I will not meet him again.”
So the mother and her two sons did not wait to bid Cuno good-bye, but he just led his old friend gently across the bridge and placed him in the litter. When he came to the foot of the hill he stopped in front of the old woman’s hut, and found her quite ready to accompany him. She had a large bundle of little glass pots, and little bottles with medicine in them, and she stood leaning upon her staff waiting for Cuno.
Things did not turn out as the Countess had supposed they would, for instead of laughing at him everyone praised Cuno for his kindness in caring for the last days of the poor old woman, and his pious affection for the old priest, Father Joseph.
The only persons who found fault with him were the Countess and his two brothers, and, as everyone knew how disagreeable and quarrelsome they were, no one paid any heed to the unkind things they said.
They passed Cuno by as though he were a stranger, and this treatment hurt the young man very much, for he thought it wrong that three brothers should be at enmity with one another, and so he hit upon a plan which he thought might help to make them all better friends.
Between the three estates of the three brothers there was a fish-pond, plentifully stocked with fish. This pond belonged to the estate of Hirschberg, and Cuno, knowing how fond his brothers were of fishing, invited them to meet him there for a day’s sport.
It was a beautiful spring morning, and the three brothers arrived at the pond almost at the same moment. “Now it is strange,” cried Schalk, “that we should all arrive at the pond together. It was just striking seven o’clock as I rode out from Schalksberg.”
