Page:Popular Tales of the Germans (Volume 1).djvu/229

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OF THE VEIL.
211

fruit-trees, planted vines, and reared melons, by which I could refreſh the weary traveller, I eſteem more meritorious than all the praying, faſting, and penance, that have raiſed the fame of my piety ſo high: theſe are works of more worth than even the romance of my life. Therefore,’ proceeded father Benno, addreſſing himſelf to his faithful companion, the attentive Friedbert; ‘therefore I would not have an active young man like you dream away your life in this dreary ſolitude. Stay, however, the ſhort time which yet remains to me, perform the laſt duties, and lay my bones in the grave which I dug many years ago, in oſtentatious hypocriſy, under yonder rocks. Then return again to the world, and earn by the ſweat of thy brow bread to feed a lovely wife and a blooming circle of boys and girls round thy table. The rape of the Sabines turned out a fortunate adventure to the Romans. Thou, if thou pleaſeſt, mayeſt try whether for-‘tune