"God bless him! he is my staff and prop in the darkness. He is the best that I have on this earth."
"Father Leonhardt, when I grow up I will marry Walter, and then we will all live together."
"My child, what put that into your little head?"
"Why, my mother says that now I am so rich that I can choose any husband that I please,--and I will choose Walter and no one else--no one."
"But suppose he will not have you?" asked Herr Leonhardt with a smile.
"Oh, but he will have me,--I know he will," said the child confidently.
"Oh, holy, holy simplicity!" whispered the old man, and laid his hand in blessing upon the little girl's head.
And as he sat there, gazing into the night that had closed around him, suddenly to his inner vision all grew light about him. From the vanishing darkness arose the columns of a church, and through the high arched windows the sunlight fell full upon the heads of a youthful pair kneeling at the altar. Around stood a throng of glad relatives and friends, amongst them a hoary blind father, and by his side an old mother, with tears of joy standing in her eyes. The young couple were fair to look upon,--the bridegroom blonde, bearded, manly, the bride blushing in girlish timidity. Her large, frank eyes were swimming in tears of devotion and emotion, but her charming little mouth was slightly stained as if from eating berries.
"What! what!" said the people around her, "picking blackberries upon her wedding-day?"
Then the organ began a well-known hymn, and all present joined in singing it The bride gave her lover her hand,--only her left, to be sure,--but its clasp was as strong as if there were two to give,--for it was for a lifetime. And then the ceremony was ended, and they all went out into the clear Spring sunshine. A crowd of familiar faces pressed around,--poor, deformed, and maimed figures, that still seemed not unhappy, for they were all well clad and fed,--and they waved their caps in the air, with "Long life to the bridal pair! Since you have made this place your home, there will be no starving or freezing poor here. Long life to our Doctor Walter Leonhardt and to Silver-armed Käthchen!"