{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13470/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13470","id":"gutenberg_13470","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13470","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: German Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Germany -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"BERTHA\n\nOur Little German Cousin\n\nBy\n\nMARY HAZELTON WADE\n\nIllustrated by L. J. Bridgman\n\nBoston\n\n1904\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE LITTLE COUSIN SERIES\n\n\n\n\nPreface\n\nWhen the word Germany comes to our minds, we think at once of ruined\ncastles, fairies, music, and soldiers.  Why is it?\n\nFirst, as to the castles.  Here and there along the banks of the\nRiver Rhine, as well as elsewhere throughout the country, the\ntraveller is constantly finding himself near some massive stone ruin.\nIt seems ever ready to tell stories of long ago,--of brave knights\nwho defended its walls, of beautiful princesses saved from harm, of\nsturdy boys and sweet-faced girls who once played in its gardens.\nFor Germany is the home of an ancient and brave people, who have\noften been called upon to face powerful enemies.\n\nNext, as to the fairies.  It seems as though the dark forests of\nGermany, the quiet valleys, and the banks of the beautiful rivers,\nwere the natural homes of the fairy-folk, the gnomes and the elves,\nthe water-sprites and the sylphs.  Our German cousins listen with\nwonder and delight to the legends of fearful giants and enchanted\ncastles, and many of the stories they know so well have been\ntranslated into other languages for their cousins of distant lands,\nwho are as fond of them as the blue-eyed children of Germany.\n\nAs to the music, it seems as though every boy and girl in the whole\ncountry drew in the spirit of song with the air they breathe.  They\nsing with a love of what they are singing, they play as though the\ntune were a part of their very selves.  Some of the finest musicians\nhave been Germans, and their gifts to the world have been bountiful.\n\nAs for soldiers, we know that every man in Germany must stand ready\nto defend his country.  He must serve his time in drilling and\ntraining for war.  He is a necessary part of that Fatherland he loves\nso dearly.\n\nOur fair-haired German cousins are busy workers and hard students.\nThey must learn quite early in life that they have duties as well as\npleasures, and the duties cannot be set aside or forgotten.  But they\nlove games and holidays as dearly as the children of our own land.\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\nCHAPTER\n\n    I. CHRISTMAS\n   II. TOY-MAKING\n  III. THE WICKED BISHOP\n   IV. THE COFFEE-PARTY\n    V. THE BEAUTIFUL CASTLE\n   VI. THE GREAT FREDERICK\n  VII. THE BRAVE PRINCESS\n VIII. WHAT THE WAVES BRING\n   IX. THE MAGIC SWORD\n\n\n\n\nList of Illustrations\n\n  BERTHA\n  BERTHA'S FATHER AND MOTHER\n  THE RATS' TOWER\n  COURTYARD OF HEIDELBERG CASTLE\n  STATUE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT\n  BERTHA'S HOME\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nCHRISTMAS\n\n\"Don't look!  There, now it's done!\" cried Bertha.\n\nIt was two nights before Christmas.  Bertha was in the big\nliving-room with her mother and older sister.  Each sat as close as\npossible to the candle-light, and was busily working on something in\nher lap.\n\nBut, strange to say, they did not face each other.  They were sitting\nback to back.\n\n\"What an unsociable way to work,\" we think.  \"Is that the way Germans\nspend the evenings together?\"\n\nNo, indeed.  But Christmas was near at hand, and the air was brimful\nof secrets.\n\nBertha would not let her mother discover what she was working for\nher, for all the world.  And the little girl's mother was preparing\nsurprises for each of the children.  All together, the greatest fun\nof the year was getting ready for Christmas.\n\n\"Mother, you will make some of those lovely cakes this year, won't\nyou?\" asked Bertha's sister Gretchen.\n\n\"Certainly, my child.  It would not be Christmas without them.  Early\nto-morrow morning, you and Bertha must shell and chop the nuts.  I\nwill use the freshest eggs and will beat the dough as long as my arms\nwill let me.\"\n\n\"Did you always know how to make those cakes, mamma?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"My good mother taught me when I was about your age, my dear.  You\nmay watch me to-morrow, and perhaps you will learn how to make them.\nIt is never too early to begin to learn to cook.\"\n\n\"When the city girls get through school, they go away from home and\nstudy housekeeping, don't they?\" asked Gretchen.\n\n\"Yes, and many girls who don't live in cities.  But I hardly think\nyou will ever be sent away.  We are busy people here in our little\nvillage, and you will have to be contented with learning what your\nmother can teach you.\"\n\n\"I shall be satisfied with that, I know.  But listen!  I can hear\nfather and Hans coming.\"\n\n\"Then put up your work, children, and set the supper-table.\"\n\nThe girls jumped up and hurriedly put the presents away.  It did not\ntake long to set the supper-table, for the meals in this little home\nwere very simple, and supper was the simplest of all.  A large plate\nof black bread and a pitcher of sour milk were brought by the mother,\nand the family gathered around the table.\n\nThe bread wasn't really black, of course.  It was dark brown and very\ncoarse.  It was made of rye meal.  Bertha and Gretchen had never seen\nany white bread in their lives, for they had never yet been far away\nfrom their own little village.  Neither had their brother Hans.\n\nThey were happy, healthy children.  They all had blue eyes, rosy\ncheeks, and fair hair, like their father and mother.\n\n\"You don't know what I've got for you, Hans,\" said Bertha, laughing\nand showing a sweet little dimple in her chin.\n\nHans bent down and kissed her.  He never could resist that dimple,\nand Bertha was his favourite sister.\n\n\"I don't know what it is, but I do know that it must be something\nnice,\" said her brother.\n\nWhen the supper-table had been cleared, the mother and girls took out\ntheir sewing again, while Hans worked at some wood-carving.  The\nfather took an old violin from its case and began to play some of the\nbeautiful airs of Germany.\n\nWhen he came to the \"Watch on the Rhine,\" the mother's work dropped\nfrom her hands as she and the children joined in the song that stirs\nevery German heart.\n\n\"Oh, dear! it seems as though Christmas Eve never would come,\" sighed\nBertha, as she settled herself for sleep beside her sister.\n\nIt was quite a cold night, but they were cosy and warm.  Why\nshouldn't they be?  They were covered with a down feather bed.  Their\nmother had the same kind of cover on her own bed, and so had Hans.\n\nBut Christmas Eve did come at last, although it seemed so far off to\nBertha the night before.  Hans and his father brought in the bough of\na yew-tree, and it was set up in the living-room.\n\nThe decorating came next.  Tiny candles were fastened on all the\ntwigs.  Sweetmeats and nuts were hung from the branches.\n\n\"How beautiful!  How beautiful!\" exclaimed the children when it was\nall trimmed, and they walked around it with admiring eyes.\n\nNone of the presents were placed on the tree, for that is not the\nfashion in Germany.  Each little gift had been tied up in paper and\nmarked with the name of the one for whom it was intended.\n\nWhen everything was ready, there was a moment of quiet while the\ncandles were being lighted.  Then Bertha's father began to give out\nthe presents, and there was a great deal of laughing and joking as\nthe bundles were opened.\n\nThere was a new red skirt for Bertha.  Her mother had made it, for\nshe knew the child was fond of pretty dresses.  Besides this, she had\na pair of warm woollen mittens which Gretchen had knit for her.  Hans\nhad made and carved a doll's cradle for each of the girls.\n\nEverybody was happy and contented.  They sang songs and cracked nuts\nand ate the Christmas cakes to their hearts' content.\n\n\"I think I like the ones shaped like gnomes the best,\" said Hans.\n\"They have such comical little faces.  Do you know, every time I go\nout in the forest, it seems as though I might meet a party of gnomes\nhunting for gold.\"\n\n\"I like the animal cakes best,\" said Bertha.  \"The deer are such\ngraceful creatures, and I like to bite off the horns and legs, one at\na time.\"\n\n\"A long time ago,\" said their father, \"they used to celebrate\nChristmas a little different from the way we now do.  The presents\nwere all carried to a man in the village who dressed himself in a\nwhite robe, and a big wig made of flax.  He covered his face with a\nmask, and then went from house to house.  The grown people received\nhim with great honours.  He called for the children and gave them the\npresents their parents had brought to him.\n\n\"But these presents were all given according to the way the children\nhad behaved during the year.  If they had been good and tried hard,\nthey had the gifts they deserved.  But if they had been naughty and\ndisobedient, it was not a happy time for them.\"\n\n\"I don't believe the children were very fond of him,\" cried Hans.\n\"They must have been too much afraid of him.\"\n\n\"That is true,\" said his father.  \"But now, let us play some games.\nChristmas comes but once a year, and you have all been good children.\"\n\nThe room soon rang with the shouts of Hans and his sisters.  They\nplayed \"Blind Man's Buff\" and other games.  Their father took part in\nall of them as though he were a boy again.  The good mother looked on\nwith pleasant smiles.\n\nBedtime came only too soon.  But just before the children said good\nnight, the father took Hans one side and talked seriously yet\nlovingly with him.  He told the boy of the faults he must still fight\nagainst.  He spoke also of the improvement he had made during the\nyear.\n\nAt the same time the mother gave words of kind advice to her little\ndaughters.  She told them to keep up good courage; to be busy and\npatient in the year to come.\n\n\"My dear little girls,\" she whispered, as she kissed them, \"I love to\nsee you happy in your play.  But the good Lord who cares for us has\ngiven us all some work to do in this world.  Be faithful in doing\nyours.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTOY-MAKING\n\n\"Wake up, Bertha.  Come, Gretchen.  You will have to hurry, for it is\nquite late,\" called their mother.  It was one morning about a week\nafter Christmas.\n\n\"Oh dear, I am so sleepy, and my bed is nice and warm,\" thought\nBertha.\n\n[Illustration:  Bertha's Father and Mother.]\n\nBut she jumped up and rubbed her eyes and began to dress, without\nwaiting to be called a second time.  Her mother was kind and loving,\nbut she had taught her children to obey without a question.\n\nBoth little girls had long, thick hair.  It must be combed and\nbrushed and braided with great care.  Each one helped the other.\nThey were soon dressed, and ran down-stairs.\n\nAs soon as the breakfast was over and the room made tidy, every one\nin the family sat down to work.  Bertha's father was a toy-maker.  He\nhad made wooden images of Santa Claus all his life.  His wife and\nchildren helped him.\n\nWhen Bertha was only five years old, she began to carve the legs of\nthese Santa Claus dolls.  It was a queer sight to see the little\ngirl's chubby fingers at their work.  Now that she was nine years\nold, she still carved legs for Santa Claus in her spare moments.\n\nGretchen always made arms, while Hans worked on a still different\npart of the bodies.  The father and mother carved the heads and\nfinished the little images that afterward gave such delight to\nchildren in other lands.\n\nBertha lives in the Black Forest.  That name makes you think at once\nof a dark and gloomy place.  The woods on the hills are dark, to be\nsure, but the valleys nestling between are bright and cheerful when\nthe sun shines down and pours its light upon them.  Bertha's village\nis in just such a valley.  The church stands on the slope above the\nlittle homes.  It seems to say, \"Look upward, my children, to the\nblue heavens, and do not fear, even when the mists fill the valley\nand the storm is raging over your heads.\"\n\nAll the people in the village seem happy and contented.  They work\nhard, and their pay is small, but there are no beggars among them.\n\nToys are made in almost every house.  Every one in a family works on\nthe same kind of toy, just as it is in Bertha's home.\n\nThe people think: \"It would be foolish to spend one's time in\nlearning new things.  The longer a person works at making one kind of\ntoy, the faster he can make them, and he can earn more money.\"\n\nOne of Bertha's neighbours makes nothing but Noah's Arks.  Another\nmakes toy tables, and still another dolls' chairs.\n\nBertha often visits a little friend who helps her father make\ncuckoo-clocks.  Did you ever see one of these curious clocks?  As\neach hour comes around, a little bird comes outside the case.  Then\nit flaps its wings and sings \"cuckoo\" in a soft, sweet voice as many\ntimes as there are strokes to the hour.  It is great fun to watch for\nthe little bird and hear its soft notes.\n\nPerhaps you wonder what makes the bird come out at just the right\ntime.  It is done by certain machinery inside the clock.  But,\nhowever it is, old people as well as children seem to enjoy the\ncuckoo-clocks of Germany.\n\n\"Some day, when you are older, you shall go to the fair at Easter\ntime,\" Bertha's father has promised her.\n\n\"Is that at Leipsic, where our Santa Claus images go?\" asked his\nlittle daughter.\n\n\"Yes, my dear, and toys from many other parts of our country.  There\nyou will see music-boxes and dolls' pianos and carts and trumpets and\nengines and ships.  These all come from the mining-towns.\n\n\"But I know what my little Bertha would care for most.  She would\nbest like to see the beautiful wax dolls that come from Sonneberg.\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed,\" cried Bertha.  \"The dear, lovely dollies with yellow\nhair like mine.  I would love every one of them.  I wish I could go\nto Sonneberg just to see the dolls.\"\n\n\"I wonder what makes the wax stick on,\" said Gretchen, who came into\nthe room while her father and Bertha were talking.\n\n\"After the heads have been moulded into shape, they are dipped into\npans of boiling wax,\" her father told her.  \"The cheap dolls are\ndipped only once, but the expensive ones have several baths before\nthey are finished.  The more wax that is put on, the handsomer the\ndolls are.\n\n\"Then comes the painting.  One girl does nothing but paint the lips.\nAnother one does the cheeks.  Still another, the eyebrows.  Even then\nMiss Dolly looks like a bald-headed baby till her wig is fastened in\nits place.\"\n\n\"I like the yellow hair best,\" said Bertha.  \"But it isn't real, is\nit, papa?\"\n\n\"I suppose you mean to ask, 'Did it ever grow on people's heads?' my\ndear.  No.  It is the wool of a kind of goat.  But the black hair is\nreal hair.  Most dolls, however, wear light wigs.  People usually\nprefer them.\"\n\n\"Do little girls in Sonneberg help make the dolls, just as Bertha and\nI help you on the Santa Claus images?\" asked Gretchen.\n\n\"Certainly.  They fill the bodies with sawdust, and do other easy\nthings.  But they go to school, too, just as you and Bertha do.\nLessons must not be slighted.\"\n\n\"If I had to help make dolls, just as I do these images,\" said\nGretchen to her sister as their father went out and left the children\ntogether, \"I don't believe I'd care for the handsomest one in the\nwhole toy fair.  I'd be sick of the very sight of them.\"\n\n\"Look at the time, Bertha.  See, we must stop our work and start for\nschool,\" exclaimed Gretchen.\n\nIt was only seven o'clock in the morning, but school would begin in\nhalf an hour.  These little German girls had to study longer and\nharder than their American cousins.  They spent at least an hour a\nday more in their schoolrooms.\n\nAs they trudged along the road, they passed a little stream which\ncame trickling down the hillside.\n\n\"I wonder if there is any story about that brook,\" said Bertha.\n\"There's a story about almost everything in our dear old country, I'm\nsure.\"\n\n\"You have heard father tell about the stream flowing down the side of\nthe Kandel, haven't you?\" asked Gretchen.\n\n\"Yes, I think so.  But I don't remember it very well.  What is the\nstory, Gretchen?\"\n\n\"You know the Kandel is one of the highest peaks in the Black Forest.\nYou've seen it, Bertha.\"\n\n\"Yes, of course, but tell the story, Gretchen.\"\n\n\"Well, then, once upon a time there was a poor little boy who had no\nfather or mother.  He had to tend cattle on the side of the Kandel.\nAt that time there was a deep lake at the summit of the mountain.\nBut the lake had no outlet.\n\n\"The people who lived in the valley below often said, 'Dear me! how\nglad we should be if we could only have plenty of fresh water.  But\nno stream flows near us.  If we could only bring some of the water\ndown from the lake!'\n\n\"They were afraid, however, to make a channel out of the lake.  The\nwater might rush down with such force as to destroy their village.\nThey feared to disturb it.\n\n\"Now, it came to pass that the Evil One had it in his heart to\ndestroy these people.  He thought he could do it very easily if the\nrocky wall on the side of the lake could be broken down.  There was\nonly one way in which this could be done.  An innocent boy must be\nfound and got to do it.\n\n\"It was a long time before such an one could be found.  But at last\nthe Evil One came across an orphan boy who tended cattle on the\nmountainside.  The poor little fellow was on his way home.  He was\nfeeling very sad, for he was thinking of his ragged clothes and his\nscant food.\n\n\"'Ah ha!' cried the Evil One to himself, 'here is the very boy.'\n\n\"He changed himself at once so he had the form and dress of a hunter,\nand stepped up to the lad with a pleasant smile.\n\n\"'Poor little fellow!  What is the matter?  And what can I do for\nyou?' he said, in his most winning manner.\n\n\"The boy thought he had found a friend, and told his story.\n\n\"'Do not grieve any longer.  There is plenty of gold and silver in\nthese very mountains.  I will show you how to become rich,' said the\nEvil One.  'Meet me here early to-morrow morning and bring a good\nstrong team with you.  I will help you get the gold.'\n\n\"The boy went home with a glad heart.  You may be sure he did not\noversleep the next morning.  Before it was light, he had harnessed\nfour oxen belonging to his master, and started for the summit of the\nmountain.\n\n\"The hunter, who was waiting for him, had already fastened a metal\nring around the wall that held in the waters of the lake.\n\n\"'Fasten the oxen to that ring,' commanded the hunter, 'and the rock\nwill split open.'\n\n\"Somehow or other, the boy did not feel pleased at what he was told\nto do.  Yet he obeyed, and started the oxen.  But as he did so, he\ncried, 'Do this in the name of God!'\n\n\"At that very instant the sky grew black as night, the thunder rolled\nand the lightning flashed.  And not only this, for at the same time\nthe mountain shook and rumbled as though a mighty force were tearing\nit apart.\"\n\n\"What became of the poor boy?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"He fell senseless to the ground, while the oxen in their fright\nrushed headlong down the mountainside.  But you needn't get excited,\nBertha, no harm was done.  The boy was saved as well as the village,\nbecause he had pulled in the name of God.\n\n\"The rock did not split entirely.  It broke apart just enough to let\nout a tiny stream of water, which began to flow down the mountainside.\n\n\"When the boy came to his senses, the sky was clear and beautiful\nonce more.  The sun was shining brightly, and the hunter was nowhere\nto be seen.  But the stream of water was running down the\nmountainside.\n\n\"A few minutes afterward, the boy's master came hurrying up the\nslope.  He was frightened by the dreadful sounds he had heard.  But\nwhen he saw the waterfall, he was filled with delight.\n\n\"'Every one in the village will rejoice,' he exclaimed, 'for now we\nshall never want for water.'\n\n\"Then the little boy took courage and told the story of his meeting\nthe hunter and what he had done.\n\n\"'It is well you did it in the name of the Lord,' cried his master.\n'If you had not, our village would have been destroyed, and every one\nof us would have been drowned.'\"\n\n\"See! the children are going into the schoolhouse, Gretchen.  We must\nnot be late.  Let's run,\" said Bertha.\n\nThe two little girls stopped talking, and hurried so fast that they\nentered the schoolhouse and were sitting in their seats in good order\nbefore the schoolmaster struck his bell.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE WICKED BISHOP\n\n\"The Rhine is the loveliest river in the world.  I know it must be,\"\nsaid Bertha.\n\n\"Of course it is,\" answered her brother.  \"I've seen it, and I ought\nto know.  And father thinks so, too.  He says it is not only\nbeautiful, but it is also bound into the whole history of our\ncountry.  Think of the battles that have been fought on its shores,\nand the great generals who have crossed it!\"\n\n\"Yes, and the castles, Hans!  Think of the legends father and mother\nhave told us about the beautiful princesses who have lived in the\ncastles, and the brave knights who have fought for them!  I shall be\nperfectly happy if I can ever sail down the Rhine and see the noted\nplaces on its shores.\"\n\n\"The schoolmaster has taught you all about the war with France,\nhasn't he, Bertha?\"\n\n\"Of course.  And it really seemed at one time as if France would make\nus Germans agree to have the Rhine divide the two countries.  Just as\nif we would be willing to let the French own one shore of our\nbeautiful river.  I should say not!\"\n\nBertha's cheeks grew rosier than usual at the thought of such a\nthing.  She talked faster than German children usually do, for they\nare rather slow in their speech.\n\n\"We do not own all of the river, little sister, as it is.  The baby\nRhine sleeps in an icy cradle in the mountains of Switzerland.  Then\nit makes its way through our country, but before it reaches the sea\nit flows through the low lands of Holland.\"\n\n\"I know all that, Hans.  But we own the best of the Rhine, anyway.  I\nam perfectly satisfied.\"\n\n\"I wish I knew all the legends about the river.  There are enough of\nthem to fill many books.  Did you ever hear about the Rats' Tower\nopposite the town of Bingen, Bertha?\"\n\n[Illustration:  The Rats' Tower.]\n\n\"What a funny name for a tower!  No.  Is there a story about it,\nHans?\"\n\n\"Yes, one of the boys was telling it to me yesterday while we were\ngetting wood in the forest.  It is a good story, although my friend\nsaid he wasn't sure it is true.\"\n\n\"What is the story?\"\n\n\"It is about a very wicked bishop who was a miser.  It happened one\ntime that the harvests were poor and grain was scarce.  The cruel\nbishop bought all the grain he could get and locked it up.  He\nintended to sell it for a high price, and in this way to become very\nrich.\n\n\"As the days went by, the food became scarcer and scarcer.  The\npeople began to sicken and die of hunger.  They had but one thought:\nthey must get something to eat for their children and themselves.\n\n\"They knew of the stores of grain held by the bishop.  They went to\nhim and begged for some of it, but he paid no attention to their\nprayers.  Then they demanded that he open the doors of the storehouse\nand let them have the grain.  It was of no use.\n\n\"At last, they gathered together, and said:\n\n\"'We will break down the door if you do not give it to us.'\n\n\"'Come to-morrow,' answered the bishop.  'Bring your friends with\nyou.  You shall have all the grain you desire.'\n\n\"The morrow came.  Crowds gathered in front of the granary.  The\nbishop unlocked the door, saying:\n\n\"'Go inside and help yourselves freely.'\n\n\"The people rushed in.  Then what do you think the cruel bishop did?\nHe ordered his servants to lock the door and set the place on fire!\n\n\"The air was soon filled with the screams of the burning people.  But\nthe bishop only laughed and danced.  He said to his servants:\n\n\"'Do you hear the rats squeaking inside the granary?'\n\n\"The next day came.  There were only ashes in place of the great\nstorehouse.  There seemed to be no life about the town, for the\npeople were all dead.\n\n\"Suddenly there was a great scurrying, as a tremendous swarm of rats\ncame rushing out of the ashes.  On they came, more and more of them.\nThey filled the streets, and even made their way into the palace.\n\n\"The wicked bishop was filled with fear.  He fled from the place and\nhurried away over the fields.  But, the swarm of rats came rushing\nafter him.  He came to Bingen, where he hoped to be safe within its\nwalls.  Somehow or other, the rats made their way inside.\n\n\"There was now only one hope of safety.  The bishop fled to a tower\nstanding in the middle of the Rhine.  But it was of no use!  The rats\nswam the river and made their way up the sides of the tower.  Their\nsharp teeth gnawed holes through the doors and windows.  They entered\nin and came to the room where the bishop was hiding.\"\n\n\"Wicked fellow!  They killed and ate him as he deserved, didn't\nthey?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"There wasn't much left of him in a few minutes.  But the tower still\nstands, and you can see it if you ever go to Bingen, although it is a\ncrumbling old pile now.\"\n\n\"Rats' Tower is a good name for it.  But I would rather hear about\nenchanted princesses and brave knights than wicked old bishops.  Tell\nme another story, Hans.\"\n\n\"Oh, I can't.  Listen!  I hear some one coming.  Who can it be?\"\n\nHans jumped up and ran to the door, just in time to meet his Uncle\nFritz, who lived in Strasburg.\n\nThe children loved him dearly.  He was a young man about twenty-one\nyears old.  He came home to this little village in the Black Forest\nonly about once a year.  He had so much to tell and was so kind and\ncheerful, every one was glad to see him.\n\n\"Uncle Fritz!  Uncle Fritz!  We are so glad you've come,\" exclaimed\nBertha, putting her arms around his neck.  \"And we are going to have\nsomething that you like for dinner.\"\n\n\"I can guess what it is.  Sauerkraut and boiled pork.  There is no\nother sauerkraut in Germany as good as that your mother makes, I do\nbelieve.  I'm hungry enough to eat the whole dishful and not leave\nany for you children.  Now what do you say to my coming?  Don't you\nwish I had stayed in Strasburg?\"\n\n\"Oh, no, no, Uncle Fritz.  We would rather see you than anybody\nelse,\" cried Hans.  \"And here comes mother.  She will be just as glad\nas we are.\"\n\nThat evening, after Hans had shown his uncle around the village, and\nhe had called on his old friends, he settled himself in the\nchimney-corner with the children about him.\n\n\"Talk to us about Strasburg, Uncle Fritz,\" begged Gretchen.\n\n\"Please tell us about the storks,\" said Bertha.  \"Are there great\nnumbers of the birds in the city, and do they build their nests on\nthe chimneys?\"\n\n\"Yes, you can see plenty of storks flying overhead if you will come\nback with me,\" said Uncle Fritz, laughingly.  \"They seem to know the\npeople love them.  If a stork makes his home about any one's house,\nit is a sign of good fortune to the people who live there.\n\n\"'It will surely come,' they say to themselves, 'and the storks will\nbring it.'  Do you wonder the people like the birds so much?\"\n\n\"I read a story about a mother stork,\" said Bertha, thoughtfully.\n\"She had a family of baby birds.  They were not big enough to leave\ntheir nest, when a fire broke out in the chimney where it was built.\nPoor mother bird!  She could have saved herself.  But she would not\nleave her babies.  So she stayed with them and they were all burned\nto death together.\"\n\n\"I know the story.  That happened right in Strasburg,\" said her uncle.\n\n\"Please tell us about the beautiful cathedral with its tall tower,\"\nsaid Hans.  \"Sometime, uncle, I am going to Strasburg, if I have to\nwalk there, and then I shall want to spend a whole day in front of\nthe wonderful clock.\"\n\n\"You'd better have a lunch with you, Hans, and then you will not get\nhungry.  But really, my dear little nephew, I hope the time will soon\ncome when you can pay me a long visit.  As for the clock, you will\nhave to stay in front of it all night as well as all day, if you are\nto see all it can show you.\"\n\n\"I know about cuckoo-clocks, of course,\" said Gretchen, \"but the\nlittle bird is the only figure that comes out on those.  There are\never so many different figures on the Strasburg clock, aren't there,\nUncle Fritz?\"\n\n\"A great, great many.  Angels strike the hours.  A different god or\ngoddess appears for each day in the week.  Then, at noon and at\nmidnight, Jesus and his twelve apostles come out through a door and\nmarch about on a platform.\n\n\"You can imagine what the size of the clock must be when I tell you\nthat the figures are as large as people.  When the procession of the\napostles appears, a gilded cock on the top of the tower flaps its\nwings and crows.\n\n\"I cannot begin to tell you all about it.  It is as good as a play,\nand, as I told Hans, he would have to stay many hours near it to see\nall the sights.\"\n\n\"I should think a strong man would be needed to wind it up,\" said his\nnephew.\n\n\"The best part of it is that it does not need to be wound every day,\"\nreplied Uncle Fritz.  \"They say it will run for years without being\ntouched.  Of course, travellers are coming to Strasburg all the time.\nThey wish to see the clock, but they also come to see the cathedral\nitself.  It is a very grand building, and, as you know, the spire is\nthe tallest one in all Europe.\n\n\"Then there is so much beautiful carving!  And there are such fine\nstatues.  Oh, children, you must certainly come to Strasburg before\nlong and see the cathedral of which all Germany is so proud.\"\n\n\"Strasburg was for a time the home of our greatest poet,\" said\nBertha.  \"I want to go there to see where he lived.\"\n\nThe child was very fond of poetry, even though she was a little\ncountry girl.  Her father had a book containing some of Goethe's\nballads, and she loved to lie under the trees in the pleasant\nsummer-time and repeat some of these poems.\n\n\"They are just like music,\" she would say to herself.\n\n\"A marble slab has been set up in the old Fish Market to mark the\nspot where Goethe lived,\" said Uncle Fritz.  \"They say he loved the\ngrand cathedral of the city, and it helped him to become a great\nwriter when he was a young student there.  I suppose its beauty\nawakened his own beautiful thoughts.\"\n\nThe children became quiet as they thought of their country and the\nmen who had made her so strong and great,--the poets, and the\nmusicians, and the brave soldiers who had defended her from her\nenemies.\n\nUncle Fritz was the first one to speak.\n\n\"I will tell you a story of Strasburg,\" he said.  \"It is about\nsomething that happened there a long time ago.  You know, the city\nisn't on the Rhine itself, but it is on a little stream flowing into\nthe greater river.\n\n\"Well, once upon a time the people of Zurich, in Switzerland, asked\nthe people of Strasburg to join with them in a bond of friendship.\nEach should help the other in times of danger.  The people of\nStrasburg did not think much of the idea.  They said among\nthemselves: 'What good can the little town of Zurich do us?  And,\nbesides, it is too far away.'  So they sent back word that they did\nnot care to make such a bond.  They were scarcely polite in their\nmessage, either.\n\n\"When they heard the reply, the men of Zurich were quite angry.  They\nwere almost ready to fight.  But the youngest one of their\ncouncillors said:\n\n\"'We will force them to eat their own words.  Indeed, they shall be\nmade to give us a different answer.  And it will come soon, too, if\nyou will only leave the matter with me.'\n\n\"'Do as you please,' said the other councillors.  They went back to\ntheir own houses, while the young man hurried home, rushed out into\nthe kitchen and picked out the largest kettle there.\n\n\"'Wife, cook as much oatmeal as this pot will hold,' he commanded.\n\n\"The woman wondered what in the world her husband could be thinking\nof.  But she lost no time in guessing.  She ordered her servants to\nmake a big fire, while she herself stirred and cooked the great\nkettleful of oatmeal.\n\n\"In the meanwhile, her husband hurried down to the pier, and got his\nswiftest boat ready for a trip down the river.  Then he gathered the\nbest rowers in the town.\n\n\"'Come with me,' he said to two of them, when everything had been\nmade ready for a trip.  They hastened home with him, as he commanded.\n\n\"'Is the oatmeal ready?' he cried, rushing breathless into the\nkitchen,\n\n\"His wife had just finished her work.  The men lifted the kettle from\nthe fire and ran with it to the waiting boat.  It was placed in the\nstern and the oarsmen sprang to their places.\n\n\"'Pull, men!  Pull with all the strength you have, and we will go to\nStrasburg in time to show those stupid people that, if it should be\nnecessary, we live near enough to them to give them a hot supper.'\n\n\"How the men worked!  They rowed as they had never rowed before.\n\n\"They passed one village after another.  Still they moved onward\nwithout stopping, till they found themselves at the pier of Strasburg.\n\n\"The councillor jumped out of the boat, telling two of his men to\nfollow with the great pot of oatmeal.  He led the way to the\ncouncil-house, where he burst in with his strange present.\n\n\"'I bring you a warm answer to your cold words,' he told the\nsurprised councillors.  He spoke truly, for the pot was still\nsteaming.  How amused they all were!\n\n\"'What a clever fellow he is,' they said among themselves.  'Surely\nwe will agree to make the bond with Zurich, if it holds many men like\nhim.'\n\n\"The bond was quickly signed and then, with laughter and good-will,\nthe councillors gathered around the kettle with spoons and ate every\nbit of the oatmeal.\n\n\"'It is excellent,' they all cried.  And indeed it was still hot\nenough to burn the mouths of those who were not careful.\"\n\n\"Good!  Good!\" cried the children, and they laughed heartily, even\nthough it was a joke against their own people.\n\nTheir father and mother had also listened to the story and enjoyed it\nas much as the children.\n\n\"Another story, please, dear Uncle Fritz,\" they begged.\n\nBut their father pointed to the clock.  \"Too late, too late, my\ndears,\" he said.  \"If you sit up any longer, your mother will have to\ncall you more than once in the morning.  So, away to your beds, every\none of you.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nTHE COFFEE-PARTY\n\n\"How would you like to be a wood-cutter, Hans?\"\n\n\"I think it would be great sport.  I like to hear the thud of the axe\nas it comes down on the trunk.  Then it is always an exciting time as\nthe tree begins to bend and fall to the ground.  Somehow, it seems\nlike a person.  I can't help pitying it, either.\"\n\nHans had come over to the next village on an errand for his father.\nA big sawmill had been built on the side of the stream, and all the\nmen in the place were kept busy cutting down trees in the Black\nForest, or working in the sawmill.\n\nAfter the logs had been cut the right length, they were bound into\nrafts, and floated down the little stream to the Rhine.\n\n\"The rafts themselves seem alive,\" said Hans to his friend.  \"You men\nknow just how to bind the logs together with those willow bands, so\nthey twist and turn about like living creatures as they move down the\nstream.\"\n\n\"I have travelled on a raft all the way from here to Cologne,\"\nanswered the wood-cutter.  \"The one who steers must be skilful, for\nhe needs to be very careful.  You know the rafts grow larger all the\ntime, don't you, Hans?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes.  As the river becomes wider, the smaller ones are bound\ntogether.  But is it true that the men sometimes take their families\nalong with them?\"\n\n\"Certainly.  They set up tents, or little huts, on the rafts, so\ntheir wives and children can have a comfortable place to eat and\nsleep.  Then, too, if it rains, they can be sheltered from the storm.\"\n\n\"I'd like to go with you sometime.  You pass close to Strasburg, and\nI could stop and visit Uncle Fritz.  Wouldn't it be fun!\"\n\n\"Hans!  Hans!\" called a girl's voice just then.\n\n\"I don't see her, but I know that's Bertha.  She came over to the\nvillage with me this afternoon.  One of her friends has a\ncoffee-party and she invited us to it.  So, good-bye.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, my lad.  Come and see me again.  Perhaps I can manage\nsometime to take you with me on a trip down the river.\"\n\n\"Thank you ever so much.\"\n\nHans hurried away, and was soon entering the house of a little friend\nwho was celebrating her birthday with a coffee-party.\n\nThere were several other children there.  They were all dressed in\ntheir best clothes and looked very neat and nice.  The boys wore long\ntrousers and straight jackets.  They looked like little old men.  The\ngirls had bright-coloured skirts and their white waists were fresh\nand stiff.\n\nTheir shoes were coarse and heavy, and made a good deal of noise as\nthe children played the different games.  But they were all so plump\nand rosy, it was good to look at them.\n\n\"They are a pretty sight,\" said one of the neighbours, as she poured\nout the coffee.\n\n\"They deserve to have a good time,\" said another woman with a kind,\nmotherly face.  \"They will soon grow up, and then they will have to\nwork hard to get a living.\"\n\nThe coffee and cakes were a great treat to these village children.\nThey did not get such a feast every day in the year.  Their mothers\nmade cakes only for festivals and holidays, and coffee was seldom\nseen on their tables oftener than once a week.\n\nIn the great cities and fine castles, where the rich people of\nGermany had their homes, they could eat sweet dainties and drink\ncoffee as often as they liked.  But in the villages of the Black\nForest, it was quite different.\n\n\"Good night, good night,\" said Hans and Bertha, as they left their\nfriends and trudged off on a path through the woods.  It was the\nshortest way home, and they knew their mother must be looking for\nthem by this time.\n\nIt was just sunset, but the children could not see the beautiful\ncolours of the evening sky, after they had gone a short distance into\nthe thick woods.\n\n\"Do you suppose there are any bears around?\" whispered Bertha.\n\nThe trees looked very black.  It seemed to the little girl as though\nshe kept seeing the shadow of some big animal hiding behind them.\n\n\"No, indeed,\" answered Hans, quite scornfully.  \"Too many people go\nalong this path for bears to be willing to stay around here.  You\nwould have to go farther up into the forest to find them.  But look\nquickly, Bertha.  Do you see that rabbit jumping along?  Isn't he a\nbig fellow?\"\n\n\"See!  Hans, he has noticed us.  There he goes as fast as his legs\ncan carry him.\"\n\nBy this time, the children had reached the top of a hill.  The trees\ngrew very thick and close.  On one side a torrent came rushing down\nover the rocks and stones.  It seemed to say:\n\n\"I cannot stop for any one.  But come with me, come with me, and I\nwill take you to the beautiful Rhine.  I will show you the way to\npretty bridges, and great stone castles, and rare old cities.  Oh,\nthis is a wonderful world, and you children of the Black Forest have\na great deal to see yet.\"\n\n\"I love to listen to running water,\" said Bertha.  \"It always has a\nstory to tell us.\"\n\n\"Do you see that light over there, away off in the distance?\" asked\nHans.  \"It comes from a charcoal-pit.  I can hear the voices of the\nmen at their work.\"\n\n\"I shouldn't like to stay out in the dark woods all the time and make\ncharcoal,\" answered his sister.  \"I should get lonesome and long for\nthe sunlight.\"\n\n\"It isn't very easy work, either,\" said Hans.  \"After the trees have\nbeen cut down, the pits have to be made with the greatest care, and\nthe wood must be burned just so slowly to change it into charcoal.  I\nonce spent a day in the forest with some charcoal-burners.  They told\nsuch good stories that night came before I had thought of it.\"\n\n\"I can see the village ahead of us,\" said Bertha, joyfully.\n\nA few minutes afterward, the children were running up the stone steps\nof their own home.\n\n\"We had such a good time,\" Hans told his mother, while Bertha went to\nGretchen and gave her some cakes she had brought her from the\ncoffee-party.\n\n\"I'm so sorry you couldn't go,\" she told her sister.\n\n\"Perhaps I can next time,\" answered Gretchen.  \"But, of course, we\ncould not all leave mother when she had so much work to do.  So I\njust kept busy and tried to forget all about it.\"\n\n\"You dear, good Gretchen!  I'm going to try to be as patient and\nhelpful as you are,\" said Bertha, kissing her sister.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE BEAUTIFUL CASTLE\n\n\"Father's coming, father's coming,\" cried Bertha, as she ran down the\nsteps and out into the street.\n\nHer father had been away for two days, and Hans had gone with him.\nThey had been to Heidelberg.  Bertha and Gretchen had never yet\nvisited that city, although it was not more than twenty miles away.\n\n\"Oh, dear, I don't know where to begin,\" Hans told the girls that\nevening.\n\n\"Of course, I liked to watch the students better than anything else.\nThe town seems full of them.  They all study in the university, of\ncourse, but they are on the streets a good deal.  They seem to have a\nfine time of it.  Every one carries a small cane with a button on the\nend of it.  They wear their little caps down over their foreheads on\none side.\"\n\n\"What colour do they have for their caps, Hans?\" asked Gretchen.\n\n\"All colours, I believe.  Some are red, some blue, some yellow, some\ngreen.  Oh, I can't tell you how many different kinds there are.  But\nthey were bright and pretty, and made the streets look as though it\nmust be a festival day.\"\n\n\"I have heard that the students fight a good many duels.  Is that so,\nHans?\"\n\n\"If you should see them, you would certainly think so.  Many of the\nfellows are real handsome, but their faces are scarred more often\nthan not.\n\n\"'The more scars I can show, the braver people will think I am.' That\nis what the students seem to think.  They get up duels with each\nother on the smallest excuse.  When they fight, they always try to\nstrike the face.  Father says their duelling is good practice.  It\nreally helps to make them brave.   If I were a student, I should want\nto fight duels, too.\"\n\nBertha shuddered.  Duelling was quite the fashion in German\nuniversities, but the little girl was very tender-hearted.  She could\nnot bear to think of her brother having his face cut up by the sword\nof any one in the world.\n\n\"What do you think, girls?\" Hans went on.  \"Father had to go to the\npart of the town nearest the castle.  He said he should be busy for\nseveral hours, and I could do what I liked.  So I climbed up the hill\nto the castle, and wandered all around it.  I saw a number of English\nand American people there.  I suppose they had come to Heidelberg on\npurpose to see those buildings.\n\n\"'Isn't it beautiful!' I heard them exclaim again and again.  And I\nsaw a boy about my own age writing things about it in a note-book.\nHe told his mother he was going to say it was the most beautiful ruin\nin Germany.  He was an American boy, but he spoke our language.  I\nsuppose he was just learning it, for he made ever so many mistakes.\nI could hardly tell what he was trying to say.\"\n\n\"What did his mother answer?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"She nodded her head, and then pointed out some of the finest\ncarvings and statues.  But she and her son moved away from me before\nlong, and then I found myself near some children of our country.\nThey must have been rich, for they were dressed quite grandly.  Their\ngoverness was with them.  She told them to notice how many different\nkinds of buildings there were, some of them richly carved, and some\nquite plain.  'You will find here palaces, towers, and fortresses,\nall together,' she said.  'For, in the old days, it was not only a\ngrand home, but it was also a strong fortress.'\"\n\n[Illustration:  Courtyard of Heidelberg Castle.]\n\n\"You know father told us it was not built all at once,\" said\nGretchen.  \"Different parts were added during four hundred years.\"\n\n\"Yes, and he said it had been stormed by the enemy, and burned and\nplundered,\" added Bertha.  \"It has been in the hands of those horrid\nFrenchmen several different times.  Did you see the blown-up tower,\nHans?\"\n\n\"Of course I did.  Half of it, you know, fell into the moat during\none of the sieges, but linden-trees have grown about it, and it makes\na shady nook in which to rest one's self.\"\n\n\"You did not go inside of the castle, did you, Hans?\" asked Gretchen.\n\n\"No.  It looked so big and gloomy, I stayed outside in the pretty\ngardens.  I climbed over some of the moss-grown stairs, though, and I\nkept discovering something I hadn't seen before.  Here and there were\nold fountains and marble statues, all gray with age.\"\n\n\"They say that under the castle are great, dark dungeons,\" said\nBertha, shivering at the thought.\n\n\"What would a castle be without dungeons?\" replied her brother.  \"Of\ncourse there are dungeons.  And there are also hidden, underground\npassages through which the people inside could escape in times of war\nand siege.\"\n\n\"Oh, Hans! did you see the Heidelberg Tun?\" asked Gretchen.\n\nNow, the Heidelberg Tun is the largest wine-cask in, the whole world.\nPeople say that it holds forty-nine thousand gallons.  Just think of\nit!  But it has not been filled for more than a hundred years.\n\n\"No, I didn't see it,\" replied Hans.  \"It is down in the cellar, and\nI didn't want to go there without father.  I heard some of the\nvisitors telling about the marks of the Frenchmen's hatchets on its\nsides.  One of the times they captured the castle, they tried to\nbreak open the tun.  They thought it was full of wine.  But they did\nnot succeed in hacking through its tough sides.\"\n\n\"Good!  Good!\" cried his sisters.  They had little love for France\nand her people.\n\nThat evening, after Hans had finished telling the girls about his\nvisit, their father told them the legend of Count Frederick, a brave\nand daring man who once lived in Heidelberg Castle.\n\nCount Frederick was so brave and successful that he was called\n\"Frederick the Victorious.\"\n\nOnce upon a time he was attacked by the knights and bishops of the\nRhine, who had banded together against him.  When he found what great\nnumbers of soldiers were attacking his castle, Count Frederick was\nnot frightened in the least.  He armed his men with sharp daggers,\nand marched boldly out against his foes.\n\nThey attacked the horses first of all.  The daggers made short work,\nand the knights were soon brought to the ground.  Their armour was so\nheavy that it was an easy matter then to make them prisoners and take\nthem into the castle.\n\nBut Frederick treated them most kindly.  He ordered a great banquet\nto be prepared, and invited his prisoners to gather around the board,\nwhere all sorts of good things were served.\n\nOne thing only was lacking.  There was no bread.  The guests thought\nit was because the servants had forgotten it, and one of them dared\nto ask for a piece.  Count Frederick at once turned toward his\nsteward and ordered the bread to be brought.  Now his master had\nprivately talked with the steward and had told him what words to use\nat this time.\n\n\"I am very sorry,\" said the steward, \"but there is no bread.\"\n\n\"You must bake some at once,\" ordered his master.\n\n\"But we have no flour,\" was the answer.\n\n\"You must grind some, then,\" was the command.\n\n\"We cannot do so, for we have no grain.\"\n\n\"Then see that some is threshed immediately.\"\n\n\"That is impossible, for the harvests have been burned down,\" replied\nthe steward.\n\n\"You can at least sow grain, that we may have new harvests as soon as\npossible.\"\n\n\"We cannot even do that, for our enemies have burned down all the\nbuildings where the grain was stored for seed-time.\"\n\nFrederick now turned to his visitors, and told them they must eat\ntheir meat without bread.  But that was not all.  He told them they\nmust give him enough money to build new houses and barns to take the\nplaces of those they had destroyed, and also to buy new seed for\ngrain.\n\n\"It is wrong,\" he said, sternly, \"to carry on war against those who\nare helpless, and to take away their seeds and tools from the poor\npeasants.\"\n\nIt was a sensible speech.  It made the knights ashamed of the way\nthey had been carrying on war in the country, and they left the\ncastle wiser and better men.\n\nAll this happened long, long ago, before Germany could be called one\ncountry, for the different parts of the land were ruled over by\ndifferent people and in different ways.\n\nThis same Count Frederick, their father told them, had great love for\nthe poor.  When he was still quite young, he made a vow.  He said, \"I\nwill never marry a woman of noble family.\"\n\nNot long after this, he fell in love with a princess.  But he could\nnot ask her to marry him on account of the vow he had made.\n\nHe was so unhappy that he went into the army.  He did not wish to\nlive, and hoped he would soon meet death.\n\nBut the fair princess loved Frederick as deeply as he loved her, and\nas soon as she learned of the vow he had made, she made up her mind\nwhat to do.\n\nShe put on the dress of a poor singing-girl, and left her grand home.\nShe followed Frederick from place to place.  They met face to face\none beautiful evening.  Then it was that the princess told her lover\nshe had given up her rank and title for his sake.\n\nHow joyful she made him as he listened to her story!  You may be sure\nthey were soon married, and the young couple went to live in\nHeidelberg Castle, where they were as happy and as merry as the day\nis long.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nTHE GREAT FREDERICK\n\n\"I declare, Hans, I should think you would get tired of playing war,\"\nsaid Bertha.  She was sitting under the trees rocking her doll.  She\nwas playing it was a baby.\n\nHans had just come home after an afternoon of sport with his boy\nfriends.  But all they had done, Bertha declared, was to play war and\nsoldiers.  She had watched them from her own yard.\n\n\"Tired of it!  What a silly idea, Bertha.  It won't be many years\nbefore I shall be a real soldier.  Just picture me then!  I shall\nhave a uniform, and march to music.  I don't know where I may go,\neither.  Who knows to what part of the world the emperor will send\nhis soldiers at that time?\"\n\n\"I know where you would like to go in our own country,\" said Bertha.\n\n\"To Berlin, of course.  What a grand city it must be!  Father has\nbeen there.  Our schoolmaster was there while he served his time as a\nsoldier.  At this very moment, it almost seems as though I could hear\nthe jingling of the officers' swords as they move along the streets.\nThe regiments are drilled every day, and I don't know how often the\nsoldiers have sham battles.\"\n\nHans jumped up from his seat under the tree and began to march up and\ndown as though he were a soldier already.\n\n\"Attention, battalion!  Forward, march!\" Bertha called after him.\nBut she was laughing as she spoke.  She could not help it, Hans\nlooked so serious.  At the same time she couldn't help envying her\nbrother a little, and wishing she were a boy, too.  It must be so\ngrand to be a soldier and be ready to fight for the emperor who ruled\nover her country.\n\n\"The schoolmaster told us boys yesterday about the grand palace at\nBerlin.  The emperor lives in it when he is in the city,\" said Hans,\nwheeling around suddenly and stopping in front of Bertha.\n\n\"I think you must have caught my thoughts,\" said the little girl,\n\"for the emperor was in my mind when you began to speak.\"\n\n\"Well, never mind that.  Do you wish to hear about the palace?\"\n\n\"Of course I do, Hans.\"\n\n\"The schoolmaster says it has six hundred rooms.  Just think of it!\nAnd one of them, called the White Room, is furnished so grandly that\n2,400,000 marks were spent on it.  You can't imagine it, Bertha, of\ncourse.  I can't, either.\"\n\nA German mark is worth about twenty-four cents of American money, so\nthe furnishing of the room Hans spoke of must have cost about\n$600,000.  It was a large sum, and it is no wonder the boy said he\ncould hardly imagine so much money.\n\n\"There are hundreds of halls in the palace,\" Hans went on.  \"Some of\ntheir walls are painted and others are hung with elegant silk\ndraperies.  The floors are polished so they shine like mirrors.  Then\nthe pictures and the armour, Bertha!  It almost seemed as though I\nwere there while the schoolmaster was describing them.\"\n\n\"I never expect to see such lovely things,\" said his sober little\nsister.  \"But perhaps I shall go to Berlin some day, Hans.  Then I\ncan see the statue of Frederick the Great, at any rate.\"\n\n\"It stands opposite the palace,\" said her brother, \"and cost more\nthan any other bronze statue in the world.\"\n\n\"How did you learn that, Hans?\"\n\n\"The schoolmaster told us so.  He said, too, that it ought to stir\nthe blood of every true German to look at it.  There the great\nFrederick sits on horseback, wearing the robe in which he was\ncrowned, and looking out from under his cocked hat with his bright,\nsharp eyes.  That statue alone is enough to make the soldiers who\nmarch past it ready to give their lives for their country.\"\n\n[Illustration:  Statue of Frederick the Great.]\n\n\"He lived when the different kingdoms were separated from each other,\nand there was no one ruler over all of them.  I know that,\" said\nBertha.\n\n\"Yes, he was the King of Prussia.  And he fought the Seven Years' War\nwith France and came out victorious.  Hardly any one thought he could\nsucceed, for there was so much against him.  But he was brave and\ndetermined.  Those two things were worth everything else.\"\n\n\"That wasn't the only war he won, either, Hans.\"\n\n\"No, but it must have been the greatest.  Did you know, Bertha, that\nhe was unhappy when he was young?  His father was so strict that he\ntried to run away from Germany with two of his friends.  The king\nfound out what they meant to do.  One of the friends was put to\ndeath, and the other managed to escape.\"\n\n\"What did his father do to Frederick?\" Bertha's eyes were full of\npity for a prince who was so unhappy as to wish to run away.\n\n\"The king ordered his son to be put to death.  But I suppose he was\nangry at the time, for he changed his mind before the sentence was\ncarried out, and forgave him.\"\n\n\"I wonder how kings and emperors live,\" said Bertha, slowly.  It\nseemed as though everything must be different with them from what it\nwas with other people.\n\n\"I'll tell you about Frederick, if you wish to listen.\"\n\n\"Of course I do, Hans.\"\n\n\"In the first place, he didn't care anything about fine clothes, even\nif he was a king and was born in the grand palace at Berlin.  His\ncoat was often very shabby.\n\n\"In the next place, he slept only about four hours out of the whole\ntwenty-four for a good many years.  He got up at three o'clock on\nsummer mornings, and in the winter-time he was always dressed by\nfive, at the very latest.\n\n\"While his hair-dresser was at work, he opened his most important\nletters.  After that, he attended to other business affairs of the\ncountry.  These things were done before eating or drinking.  But when\nthey had been attended to, the king went into his writing-room and\ndrank a number of glasses of cold water.  As he wrote, he sipped\ncoffee and ate a little fruit from time to time.\n\n\"He loved music very dearly, and sometimes rested from his work and\nplayed on his flute.\n\n\"Dinner was the only regular meal of the day.  It was served at\ntwelve o'clock, and lasted three or four hours.  There was a bill of\nfare, and the names of the cooks were given as well as the dishes\nthey prepared.\"\n\n\"Did the king ever let them know whether he was pleased or not with\ntheir cooking?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"Yes.  He marked the dishes he liked best with a cross.  He enjoyed\nhis dinner, and generally had a number of friends to eat with him.\nThere was much joking, and there were many clever speeches.\n\n\"When the meal was over, the king played on his flute a short time,\nand then attended to more business.\"\n\n\"Did he work till bedtime, Hans?\"\n\n\"Oh, no.  In the evening there was a concert or lecture, or something\nlike that.  But, all the same, the king was a hard-working man, even\nin times of peace.\"\n\n\"He loved his people dearly, father once told me,\" said Bertha.  \"He\nsaid he understood his subjects and they understood him.\"\n\n\"Yes, and that reminds me of a story the schoolmaster told.  King\nFrederick was once riding through the street when he saw a crowd of\npeople gathered together.  He said to his groom, 'Go and see what is\nthe matter.'  The man came back and told the king that the people\nwere all looking at a caricature of Frederick himself.  A caricature,\nyou know, is a comical portrait.\n\n\"Perhaps you think the king was angry when he heard this.  Not at\nall.  He said, 'Go and hang the picture lower down, so they will not\nhave to stretch their necks to see it.'\n\n\"The crowd heard the words.  'Hurrah for the king!' they cried.  At\nthe same time, they began to tear the picture into pieces.\"\n\n\"Frederick the Great could appreciate a joke,\" said Bertha.  \"I\nshould think the people must have loved him.\"\n\n\"He had some fine buildings put up in his lifetime,\" Hans went on.\n\"A new palace was built in Berlin, besides another one the king\ncalled 'Sans Souci.'  Those are French words meaning, 'Without a\nCare.'  He called the place by that name because he said he was\nfree-hearted and untroubled while he stayed there.\n\n\"I've told you these things because you are a girl.  But I'll tell\nyou what I like to think of best of all.  It's the stories of the\nwars in which he fought and in which he showed such wonderful\ncourage.  So, hurrah for Frederick the Great, King of Prussia!\"\n\nHans made a salute as though he stood in the presence of the great\nking.  Then he started for the wood-pile, where he was soon sawing\nlogs with as much energy as if he were fighting against the enemies\nof his country.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nTHE BRAVE PRINCESS\n\n\"Listen, children!  That must be the song of a nightingale.  How\nsweet it is!\"\n\nIt was a lovely Sunday afternoon.  Every one in the family had been\nto church in the morning, and come home to a good dinner of bean soup\nand potato salad.  Then the father had said:\n\n\"Let us take a long walk over the fields and through the woods.  The\nworld is beautiful to-day.  We can enjoy it best by leaving the house\nbehind us.\"\n\nSome of the neighbours joined the merry party.  The men smoked their\npipes, while the women chatted together and the children frolicked\nabout them and picked wild flowers.\n\nHow many sweet smells there were in the fields!  How gaily the birds\nsang!  The air seemed full of peace and joy.\n\nThey all wandered on till they came to a cascade flowing down over\nsome high rocks.  Trees grew close to the waterfall, and bent over it\nas though to hide it from curious eyes.\n\nIt was a pretty spot.\n\n\"Let us sit down at the foot of this cascade,\" said Bertha's father,\n\"It is a pleasant place to rest.\"\n\nEvery one liked the plan.  Bertha nestled close to her father's side.\n\n\"Tell us a story.  Please do,\" she said.\n\n\"Ask neighbour Abel.  He knows many a legend of just such places as\nthis.  He has lived in the Hartz Mountains, and they are filled with\nfairy stories.\"\n\nThe rest of the party heard what was said.\n\n\"Neighbour Abel!  A story, a story,\" they cried.\n\nOf course the kind-hearted German could not refuse such a general\nrequest.  Besides, he liked to tell stories.  Taking his long pipe\nout of his mouth, he laid it down on the ground beside him.  Then he\ncleared his throat and began to speak.\n\n\"Look above you, friends.  Do you see that mark on the rocky platform\noverhead?  I noticed it as soon as I got here.  It made me think of a\nwild spot in the Hartz Mountains where there is just such a mark.\nThe people call it 'The Horse's Hoof-print.'  I will tell you how\nthey explain its coming there.\n\n\"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.  Her name was\nBrunhilda, and she lived in Bohemia.  She lived a gay and happy life,\nlike most young princesses, till one day a handsome prince arrived at\nher father's palace.  He was the son of the king of the Hartz country.\n\n\"Of course, you can all guess what happened.  The prince fell in love\nwith the princess, and she returned his love.  The day was set for\nthe wedding, and the young prince went home to prepare for the great\nevent.\n\n\"But he had been gone only a short time when a powerful giant arrived\nat Brunhilda's home.  He came from the far north.  His name was Bodo.\n\n\"He asked for the princess in marriage, but her heart had already\nbeen given away.  She did not care for the giant, even though he gave\nher the most elegant presents,--a beautiful white horse, jewels set\nin gold, and chains of amber.\n\n\"'I dare not refuse the giant,' said Brunhilda's father.  'He is very\npowerful, and we must not make him angry.  You must marry him, my\ndaughter, in three days.'\n\n\"The poor maiden wept bitterly.  It seemed as though her heart would\nbreak.  But she was a clever girl, and she soon dried her tears and\nbegan to think of some plan by which she might yet be free.  She\nbegan to smile upon the giant and treat him with great kindness.\n\n\"'I should like to try the beautiful horse you brought me,' she said\nto him.  He was much pleased.  The horse was brought to the door.\nThe princess mounted him and rode for a time up and down in front of\nthe palace.\n\n\"The very next day was that set apart for the wedding.  The castle\nwas filled with guests who feasted and made merry.  The giant entered\ninto everything with a will.  He laughed till the floors and walls\nshook.  Little did he think what was taking place.  For the princess\nslipped out of the castle when no one was watching, hurried into the\nstable, and leaped upon the back of her swift white horse.\n\n\"'Lower the drawbridge instantly,' she called to the guard.  She\npassed over it, and away she flew like the wind.\n\n\"You were too late, too late, O giant, when you discovered that\nBrunhilda was missing.\n\n\"He flew out of the castle, and on the back of his own fiery black\nhorse he dashed after the runaway princess.\n\n\"On they went!  On, on, without stopping.  Over the plains, up and\ndown the hillsides, through the villages.  The sun set and darkness\nfell upon the world, but there was never a moment's rest for the\nmaiden on the white horse or the giant lover on his black steed.\n\n\"Sometimes in the darkness sparks were struck off from the horses'\nhoofs as they passed over rough and rocky places.  These sparks\nalways showed the princess ahead and slowly increasing the distance\nbetween herself and her pursuer.\n\n\"When the morning light first appeared, the maiden could see the\nsummit of the Brocken ahead of her.  It was the home of her lover.\nHer heart leaped within her.  If she could only reach it she would be\nsafe.\n\n\"But alas! her horse suddenly stood still.  He would not move.  He\nhad reached the edge of a precipice.  There it lay, separating the\nprincess from love and safety.\n\n\"The brave girl had not a moment to lose.  The giant was fast drawing\nnear.  She wheeled her horse around; then, striking his sides a sharp\nblow with her whip, she urged him to leap across the precipice.\n\n\"The spring must be strong and sure.  It was a matter of life and\ndeath.  The chasm was deep.  If the horse should fail to strike the\nother side securely, it meant a horrible end to beast and rider.\n\n\"But he did not fail.  The feet of the brave steed came firmly down\nupon the rocky platform.  So heavily did they fall that the imprint\nof a hoof was left upon the rock.\n\n\"The princess was now safe.  It would be an easy matter for her to\nreach her lover's side.\n\n\"As for the giant, he tried to follow Brunhilda across the chasm.\nBut he was too heavy and his horse failed to reach the mark.  The two\nsank together to the bottom of the precipice.\"\n\nEvery one thanked the story-teller, and begged him to tell more of\nthe Hartz Mountains, where he had spent his boyhood days.  The\nchildren were delighted when he spoke of the gnomes, in whom he\nbelieved when he was a child.\n\n\"Every time I went out in the dark woods,\" he said, \"I was on the\nlookout for these funny little fairies of the underground world.  I\nwanted to see them, but at the same time I was afraid I should meet\nthem.\n\n\"I remember one time that my mother sent me on an errand through the\nwoods at twilight.  I was in the thickest part of the woods, when I\nheard a sound that sent a shiver down my back.\n\n\"'It is a witch, or some other dreadful being,' I said to myself.\n'Nothing else could make a sound like that.'  My teeth chattered.  My\nlegs shook so, I could hardly move.  Somehow or other, I managed to\nkeep on.  It seemed as though hours passed before I saw the lights of\nthe village.  Yet I suppose it was not more than fifteen minutes.\n\n\"When I was once more safe inside my own home, I told my father and\nmother about my fright.\n\n\"'It was no witch, my child,' said my father.  'The sound you\ndescribe was probably the cry of a wildcat.  I thank Heaven that you\nare safe.  A wildcat is not a very pleasant creature to meet in a\nlonely place.'\n\n\"After that, I was never sent away from the village after dark.\n\n\"My boy friends and I often came across badgers and deer, and\nsometimes foxes made their way into the village in search of poultry,\nbut I never came nearer to meeting a wildcat than the time of which I\nhave just told you.\"\n\n\"What work did you do out of school hours?\" asked Hans.  The boy was\nthinking of the toys he had to carve.\n\n\"My mother raised canary-birds, and I used to help her a great deal.\nNearly every woman in the village was busy at the same work.  What\nconcerts we did have in those days!  Mother tended every young bird\nshe raised with the greatest care.  Would it become a good singer and\nbring a fair price?  We waited anxiously for the first notes, and\nthen watched to see how the voices gained in strength and sweetness.\n\n\"It was a pleasant life, and I was very happy among the birds in our\nlittle village.  Would you like to hear a song I used to sing at that\ntime?  It is all about the birds and bees and flowers.\"\n\n\"Do sing it for us,\" cried every one.\n\nHerr Abel had a good voice and they listened with pleasure to his\nsong.  This is the first stanza:\n\n  \"I have been on the mountain\n  That the song-birds love best.\n  They were sitting, were flitting,\n  They were building their nest.\n  They were sitting, were flitting,\n  They were building their nest.\"\n\nAfter he had finished, he told about the mines in which some of his\nfriends worked.  It was a hard life, with no bright sunlight to cheer\nthe men in those deep, dark caverns underground.\n\n\"Of course you all know that the deepest mine in the world is in the\nHartz Mountains.\"\n\nHis friends nodded their heads, while Hans whispered to Bertha, \"I\nshould like to go down in that mine just for the sake of saying I\nhave been as far into the earth as any living person.\"\n\n\"The sun is setting, and there is a chill in the air,\" said Bertha's\nfather.  \"Let us go home.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nWHAT THE WAVES BRING\n\nBertha's mother had just come in from a hard morning's work in the\nfields.  She had been helping her husband weed the garden.\n\nShe spent a great deal of time outdoors in the summer-time, as many\nGerman peasant women do.  They do a large share of the work in\nploughing the grain-fields and harvesting the crops.  They are much\nstronger than their American cousins.\n\n\"Supper is all ready and waiting for you,\" said Bertha.\n\nThe little girl had prepared a dish of sweet fruit soup which her\nmother had taught her to make.\n\n[Illustration:  Bertha's Home.]\n\n\"It is very good,\" said her father when he had tasted it.  \"My little\nBertha is getting to be quite a housekeeper.\"\n\n\"Indeed, it is very good,\" said her mother.  \"You learned your lesson\nwell, my child.\"\n\nBertha was quite abashed by so much praise.  She looked down upon her\nplate and did not lift her eyes again till Gretchen began to tell of\na new amber bracelet which had just been given to one of the\nneighbours.\n\n\"It is beautiful,\" said Gretchen, quite excitedly.  \"The beads are\nsuch a clear, lovely yellow.  They look so pretty on Frau Braun's\nneck, I don't wonder she is greatly pleased with her present.\"\n\n\"Who sent it to her?\" asked her mother.\n\n\"Her brother in Cologne.  He is doing well at his trade, and so he\nbought this necklace at a fair and sent it to his sister as a\nremembrance.  He wrote her a letter all about the sights in Cologne,\nand asked Frau Braun to come and visit him and his wife.\n\n\"He promised her in the letter that if she would come, he would take\nher to see the grand Cologne cathedral.  He said thousands of\nstrangers visit it every year, because every one knows it is one of\nthe most beautiful buildings in all Europe.\n\n\"Then he said she should also see the Church of Saint Ursula, where\nthe bones of the eleven thousand maidens can still be seen in their\nglass cases.\"\n\n\"Do you know the story of St. Ursula, Gretchen?\" asked her father.\n\n\"Yes, indeed, sir.  Ursula was the daughter of an English king.  She\nwas about to be married, but she said that before the wedding she\nwould go to Rome on a pilgrimage.\n\n\"Eleven thousand young girls went with the princess.  On her way home\nshe was married, but when the wedding party had got as far as\nCologne, they were attacked by the savage Huns.  Every one was\nkilled,--Ursula, her husband, and the eleven thousand maidens.  The\nchurch was afterward built in her memory.  Ursula was made a saint by\nthe Pope, and the bones of the young girls were preserved in glass\ncases in the church.\"\n\n\"Did Frau Braun tell of anything else her brother wrote?\" asked her\nmother.\n\n\"He spoke of the bridge of boats across the river, and said she would\nenjoy watching it open and shut to let the steamers and big rafts\npass through.  And he told of the Cologne water that is sold in so\nmany of the shops.  It is hard to tell which makes the town most\nfamous, the great cathedral or the Cologne water.\"\n\n\"Father, how was the bridge of boats made?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"The boats were moored in a line across the river.  Planks were then\nlaid across the tops and fastened upon them.  Vessels cannot pass\nunder a bridge of this kind, so it has to be opened from time to\ntime.  They say it is always interesting to see this done.\"\n\n\"Yes, Frau Braun said she would rather see the bridge of boats than\nanything else in the city.  She has already begun to plan how she can\nsave up enough money to make the trip.\"\n\n\"I will go over there to-morrow to see her new necklace,\" said\nBertha.  \"But what is amber, father?\"\n\n\"If you should go to the northern part of Germany, Bertha, you would\nsee great numbers of men, women, and children, busy on the shores of\nthe ocean.  The work is greatest in the rough days of autumn, when a\nstrong wind is blowing from the northeast.\n\n\"Then the men dress themselves as though they were going out into a\nstorm.  They arm themselves with nets and plunge into the waves,\nwhich are bringing treasure to the shore.  It is the beautiful amber\nwe admire so much.\n\n\"The women and children are waiting on the sands, and as the men\nbring in their nets, the contents are given into their hands.  They\nseparate the precious lumps of amber from the weeds to which they are\nclinging.\"\n\nTheir father stopped to fill his pipe, and the children thought he\nhad come to the end of the story.\n\n\"But you haven't told us yet what amber is,\" said Bertha.\n\n\"Be patient, my little one, and you shall hear,\" replied her father,\npatting her head.  \"As yet, I have not half told the story.  But I\nwill answer your question at once.\n\n\"A long time ago, longer than you can imagine, Bertha, forests were\ngrowing along the shores of the Baltic Sea.  There was a great deal\nof gum in the trees of these forests.  It oozed out of the trees in\nthe same manner as gum from the spruce-tree and resin from the pine.\n\n\"Storms arose, and beds of sand and clay drifted over the forests.\nThey were buried away for thousands of years, it may be.  But the\nmotion of the sea washes up pieces of the gum, which is of light\nweight.\n\n\"The gum has become changed while buried in the earth such a long,\nlong time.  Wise men use the word 'fossilized' when they speak of\nwhat has happened to it.   The now beautiful, changed gum is called\namber.\n\n\"There are different ways of getting it.  I told you how it comes\ndrifting in on the waves when the winds are high and the water is\nrough.  But on the pleasant summer days, when the sea is smooth and\ncalm, the men go out a little way from the shore in boats.  They\nfloat about, looking earnestly over the sides of the boats to the\nbottom of the sea.\n\n\"All at once, they see something.  Down go their long hooks through\nthe water.  A moment afterward, they begin to tow a tangle of stones\nand seaweed to the shore.  As soon as they land, they begin to sort\nout the great mass.  Perhaps they will rejoice in finding large\npieces of amber in the collection.\n\n\"There is still another way of getting amber.  I know Hans will be\nmost interested in what I am going to say now.  It has more of danger\nin it, and boys like to hear anything in the way of adventure.\"\n\nHans looked up and smiled.  His father knew him well.  He was a\ndaring lad.  He was always longing for the time when he should grow\nup and be a soldier, and possibly take part in some war.\n\n\"Children,\" their father went on, \"you have all heard of divers and\nof their dangerous work under the sea.  Gretchen was telling me the\nother day about her geography lesson, and of the pearl-divers along\nthe shores of India.  I did not tell her then that some men spend\ntheir lives diving for amber on the shores of our own country.\n\n\"They wear rubber suits and helmets and air-chests of sheet iron.\"\n\n\"How can they see where they are going?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"There are glass openings in their helmets, and they can look through\nthese.  They go out in boats.  The crew generally consists of six\nmen.  Two of them are divers, and four men have charge of the\nair-pumps.  These pumps force fresh air down through tubes fastened\nto the helmet of each diver.  Besides these men there is an overseer\nwho has charge of everything.\n\n\"Sometimes the divers stay for hours on the bed of the sea, and work\naway at the amber tangles.\"\n\n\"But suppose anything happens to the air-tubes and the men fail to\nget as much air as they need?\" said Hans.  \"Is there any way of\nletting those in the boat know they are in trouble?  And, besides\nthat, how do the others know when it is time to raise the divers with\ntheir precious loads?\"\n\n\"There is a safety-rope reaching from the boat to the men.  When they\npull this rope it is a sign that they wish to be drawn up.  But I\nhave told you as much about amber now as you will be able to\nremember.\"\n\n\"Are you very tired, father dear?\" said Bertha, in her most coaxing\ntone.\n\n\"Why should I be tired?  What do you wish to ask me?  Come, speak out\nplainly, little one.\"\n\n\"You tell such lovely fairy-tales, papa, I was just wishing for one.\nSee!  The moon is just rising above the tree-tops.  It is the very\ntime for stories of the wonderful beings.\"\n\nHer father smiled.  \"It shall be as you wish, Bertha.  It is hard to\nrefuse you when you look at me that way.  Come, children, let us sit\nin the doorway.  Goodwife, put down your work and join us while I\ntell the story of Siegfried, the old hero of Germany.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE MAGIC SWORD\n\nFar away in the long ago there lived a mighty king with his goodwife\nand his brave son, Siegfried.  Their home was at Xanten, where the\nriver Rhine flows lazily along.\n\nThe young prince was carefully taught.  But when his education was\nnearly finished, his father said:\n\n\"Siegfried, there is a mighty smith named Mimer.  It will be well for\nyou to learn all you can of him in regard to the making of arms.\"\n\nSo Siegfried went to work at the trade of a smith.  It was not long\nbefore he excelled his teacher.  This pleased Mimer, who spent many\nspare hours with his pupil, telling him stories of the olden times.\n\nAfter awhile, he took Siegfried into his confidence.  He said:\n\n\"There is a powerful knight in Burgundy who has challenged every\nsmith of my country to make a weapon strong enough to pierce his coat\nof mail.\n\n\"I long to try,\" Mimer went on, \"but I am now old and have not\nstrength enough to use the heavy hammer.\"\n\nAt these words Siegfried jumped up in great excitement.\n\n\"I will make the sword, dear master,\" he cried.  \"Be of good cheer.\nIt shall be strong enough to cut the knight's armour in two.\"\n\nEarly the next morning, Siegfried began his work.  For seven days and\nseven nights the constant ringing of his hammer could be heard.  At\nthe end of that time Siegfried came to his master with a sword of the\nfinest steel in his right hand.\n\nMimer looked it all over.  He then held it in a stream of running\nwater in which he had thrown a fine thread.  The water carried the\nthread against the edge of the sword, where it was cut in two.\n\n\"It is without a fault,\" cried Mimer with delight.\n\n\"I can do better than that,\" answered Siegfried, and he took the\nsword and broke it into pieces.\n\nAgain he set to work.   For seven more days and seven more nights he\nwas busy at his forge.  At the end of that time he brought a polished\nsword to his master.\n\nMimer looked it over with the greatest care and made ready to test it.\n\nHe threw the fleeces of twelve sheep into the stream.  The current\ncarried them on its bosom to Siegfried's sword.  Instantly, each\npiece was divided as it met the blade.  Mimer shouted aloud in his\nJoy.\n\n\"Balmung\" (for that was the name Siegfried gave the sword) \"is the\nfinest weapon man ever made,\" he cried.\n\nSiegfried was now prepared to meet the proud knight of Burgundy.\n\nThe very first thrust of the sword, Balmung, did the work.  The head\nand shoulders of the giant were severed from the rest of the body.\nThey rolled down the hillside and fell into the Rhine, where they can\nbe seen even now, when the water is clear.  At least, so runs the\nstory.  The trunk remained on the hilltop and was turned to stone.\n\nSoon after this Mimer found that Siegfried longed to see the world\nand make himself famous.  So he bound the sword Balmung to the young\nprince's side, and told him to seek a certain person, who would give\nhim a fine war-horse.\n\nSiegfried went to this man, from whom he obtained a matchless steed.\nIn fact it had descended from the great god Odin's magic horse.\nSiegfried, you can see, must have lived in a time when men believed\nin gods and other wonderful beings.\n\nHe was now all ready for his adventures, but before starting out,\nMimer told him of a great treasure of gold guarded by a fearful\nserpent.  This treasure was spread out over a plain called the\nGlittering Heath.  No man had yet been able to take it, because of\nits terrible guardian.\n\nSiegfried was not in the least frightened by the stories he heard of\nthe monster.  He started out on his dangerous errand with a heart\nfull of courage.\n\nAt last, he drew near the plain.  He could see it on the other side\nof the Rhine, from the hilltop where he was standing.  With no one to\nhelp him, not even taking his magic horse with him, he hurried down\nthe hillside and sprang into a boat on the shore.\n\nAn old man had charge of the boat, and as he rowed Siegfried across,\nhe gave him good advice.  This old man, as it happened, was the god\nOdin, who loved Siegfried and wished to see him succeed.\n\n\"Dig a deep trench along the path the serpent has worn on his way to\nthe river when in search of water,\" said the old boatman.  \"Hide\nyourself in the trench, and, as the serpent passes along, you must\nthrust your sword deep into his body.\"\n\nIt was good advice.  Siegfried did as Odin directed him.  He went to\nwork on the trench at once.  It was soon finished, and then the young\nprince, sword in hand, was lying in watch for the dread monster.\n\nHe did not have long to wait.  He soon heard the sound of rolling\nstones.  Then came a loud hiss, and immediately afterward he felt the\nserpent's fiery breath on his cheek.\n\nAnd now the serpent rolled over into the ditch, and Siegfried was\ncovered by the folds of his huge body.  He did not fear or falter.\nHe thrust Balmung, his wonderful sword, deep into the monster's body.\nThe blood poured forth in such torrents that the ditch began to fill\nfast.\n\nIt was a time of great danger for Siegfried.  He would have been\ndrowned if the serpent in his death-agony had not rolled over on one\nside and given him a chance to free himself.\n\nIn a moment more he was standing, safe and sound, by the side of the\nditch.  His bath in the serpent's blood had given him a great\nblessing.  Hereafter it would be impossible for any one to wound him\nexcept in one tiny place on his shoulder.  A leaf had fallen on this\nspot, and the blood had not touched it.\n\n\"What did Siegfried do with the golden treasure?\" asked Hans, when\nhis father had reached this point in the story.\n\n\"He had not sought it for himself, but for Mimer's sake.  All he\ncared for was the power of killing the serpent.\"\n\nAs soon as this was done, Mimer drew near and showed himself\nungrateful and untrue.  He was so afraid Siegfried would claim some\nof the treasure that he secretly drew Balmung from out the serpent's\nbody, and made ready to thrust it into Siegfried.\n\nBut at that very moment his foot slipped in the monster's blood, and\nhe fell upon the sword and was instantly killed.\n\nSiegfried was filled with horror when he saw what had happened.  He\nsprang upon his horse's back and fled as fast as possible from the\ndreadful scene.\n\n\"What happened to Siegfried after that?  Did he have any more\nadventures?\" asked Bertha.\n\n\"Yes, indeed.  There were enough to fill a book.  But there is one in\nparticular you girls would like to hear.  It is about a beautiful\nprincess whom he freed from a spell which had been cast upon her.\"\n\n\"What was her name, papa?\" asked Gretchen.\n\n\"Brunhild, the Queen of Isenland.  She had been stung by the thorn of\nsleep.\"\n\nOdin, the great god, had said, \"Brunhild shall not awake till some\nhero is brave enough to fight his way through the flames which shall\nconstantly surround the palace.  He must then go to the side of the\nsleeping maiden and break the charm by a kiss upon her forehead.\"\n\nWhen Siegfried, in his wanderings, heard the story of Brunhild, he\nsaid, \"I will make my way through the flames and will myself rescue\nthe fair princess.\"\n\nHe leaped upon the back of his magic steed, and together they fought\ntheir way through the fire that surrounded the palace of the sleeping\nbeauty.  He reached the gates in safety.  There was no sign of life\nabout the place.  Every one was wrapped in a deep sleep.\n\nSiegfried made his way to the room of the enchanted princess.  Ah!\nthere she lay, still and beautiful, with no knowledge of what was\ngoing on around her.\n\nThe young knight knelt by her side.  Leaning over her, he pressed a\nkiss upon her forehead.  She moved slightly; then, opening her blue\neyes, she smiled sweetly upon her deliverer.\n\nAt the same moment every one else in the palace woke up and went on\nwith whatever had been interrupted when sleep overcame them.\n\nSiegfried remained for six months with the fair Brunhild and her\ncourt.  Every day was given up to music and feasting, games and\nsongs.  Time passed like a beautiful dream.  No one knows how long\nthe young knight might have enjoyed this happy life if Odin had not\nsent two birds.  Thought and Memory, to remind him there were other\nthings for him yet to do.\n\nHe did not stop to bid Brunhild farewell, but leaped upon his horse's\nback and rode away in search of new adventures.\n\n\"Dear me, children,\" exclaimed their father, looking at the clock,\n\"it is long past the time you should be in your soft, warm beds.\"\n\n\"Papa, do you know what day to-morrow is?\" whispered Bertha, as she\nkissed him good night.\n\n\"My darling child's birthday.  It is ten years to-morrow since your\neyes first looked upon the sunlight.  They have been ten happy years\nto us all, though our lives are full of work.  What do you say to\nthat, my little one?\"\n\n\"Very happy, papa dear.  You and mother are so kind!  I ought to be\ngood as well as happy.\"\n\n\"She is a faithful child,\" said her mother, after Bertha had left the\nroom.  \"That is why I have a little surprise ready for to-morrow.  I\nhave baked a large birthday cake and shall ask her little friends to\nshare it with her.\n\n\"Her aunt has finished the new dress I bought for her, and I have\nmade two white aprons, besides.  She will be a happy child when she\nsees her presents.\"\n\nThe mother closed her eyes and made a silent prayer to the All-Father\nthat Bertha's life should be as joyful as her tenth birthday gave\npromise of being.","title":"Bertha, Our Little German Cousin","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":15502}