Part 6 (1/2)

”I will help you,” said Catherine, after she had looked on for a few minutes.

”This is no labor for you,” said Lambert, looking up.

”So, once for all, you must not speak,” serenely replied Catherine. ”If you want a princess in your house you must at once send me away again.

I own myself unfit for that.”

Lambert smiled with pleasure when he saw how skillfully she took hold of the matter, and how handy she was. He now noticed for the first time that the roses had again blossomed on her cheeks; and as she now, in helping him, bent over and back, the agreeable play of the lines of her slender, girlish body filled him with trembling delight.

”But you also should not be unemployed,” said Catherine.

The young man, blus.h.i.+ng deeply, returned to his work with redoubled zeal, so that it was soon completed.

”What comes next?” asked Catherine.

”I intended to go up into the woods to look after my pine trees. There will be probably more to do there than here, where my kind uncle has kept every thing so well in order. But about woodcraft he understands little or nothing; and Conrad concerns himself only with his hunting.

It was fortunate that I could do the chief labor before I left home in the spring.”

He hung the gun, which leaned against the hedge near him, over his shoulder and looked at Catherine.

Lingering he said: ”Will you go with me? It is not far.”

”That is truly fortunate,” said Catherine. ”You know I am shy of long roads. Will you not rather saddle Hans?”

She called the horse, grazing in an enclosure near by, in which there was also a small flock of black-wooled sheep. He p.r.i.c.ked up his ears, came slowly, swinging his tail, and put his head over the bars.

”You good Hans,” said Catherine, brus.h.i.+ng the thick forelock out of the eyes of the animal, ”I gave you a good deal of trouble on the long journey.”

”The trouble was not so very great. Is it not so, old Hans?” said Lambert.

Hans seemed to think that to such an idle question no answer was necessary and went on quietly chewing his last mouthful of gra.s.s.

The young people stood and looked on and stroked the head and neck of the animal, while in the branches of a blossoming apple tree a robin-redbreast sang. Their hands touched. Lambert's large eyes a.s.sumed a determined expression and then were raised with a cordial look to the blus.h.i.+ng face of the maiden.

”Now you must also show me the barn-yard,” said Catherine.

”Cheerfully,” said Lambert.

They entered the barn-yard which like the house was inclosed with a stone-wall of the height of a man, and contained several low buildings formed of logs. First the stable in which, in the winter and in bad weather, Hans, the cows and the sheep stayed quietly together. This was now empty with the exception of a couple of half-grown pigs grunting within a part.i.tion, and a large flock of hens and turkeys which had been contentedly scratching in the straw, but now, frightened at the unwelcome intrusion, cackling and flying apart rushed out of the open door. Then they entered the work-shop, in which Lambert worked during the winter, and where, besides excellent timber and all kinds of tools, there were standing, begun and finished, tubs which would have done credit to a cooper.

”In the fall these are all filled with tar and rosin,” said Lambert, ”and sent to Albany. It won't be long before I must stick to this, and my Uncle Ditmar, of whom I learned coopering, will help me, I suppose, and also Conrad, though he does not like mechanical labor. Still he can do anything he pleases, and does it better than one who devotes his life to it.”

Catherine was pleased to hear that Lambert was so proud of his younger brother, but did not speak of it. It seemed to her as if a dark shadow had pa.s.sed over her heart, which had but now been as sunny as the surrounding golden, spring landscape.

They left the barn-yard and, ascending by degrees, soon reached the edge of the woods, which here extended back farther from the level ground, so that, as they turned about, the valley lay like a great meadow in the woods, in the midst of which was the blockhouse on the hill. The creek was concealed by the reeds which fringed its sh.o.r.e.

Deep peace rested in happy quietude on the earth in its morning freshness. But up in the air there appeared an unusual spectacle. The eagle which Catherine had before observed had been joined by another.

They sailed directly over the house and wound their circles together swifter and ever swifter until, with loud outcries, they rushed against each other, striking with their mighty wings, whirling round each other, clasping each other, and falling like a stone. Then again they separated, sailed aloft, again rushed together, until at length one flew toward the woods followed by the other.

”A hateful sight,” said Catherine. ”The angry beasts!”

”We are accustomed to that,” said Lambert.