12 UNDINE.
keep turning and turning on our rusli-mats, and trj'ing in vain to sleep. Wliat is your opinion?"
Huldbrand was well pleased with the plan ; the fisher- man pressed him to take the empty seat of honour, its worthy occupant having now left it for her couch ; and they relished their beverage and enjoyed their chat, as two such good men and true ever ought to do. To be sure, whenever the slightest thing moved before the windows^ or at times when even nothing was moving, one of them would look up and exclaim, •' Here she conies!" Then would they continue silent a few moments, and afterward, when nothing appeared, would shake their heads, breathe out a sigh, and go on with their talk.
But as neither could think of any thing but Undine, the best plan they could devise was, that the old fisherman should relate, and the knight should hear, in what manner Undine had come to the cottage. So the fisherman began as follows :
" It is now about fifteen years since I one day crossed the wild forest with fish for the city-market. My wife had remained at home as she was wont to do ; and at this time for a reason of more than common interest, for al- though we were beginning to feel the advances of age, God had bestowed upon us an infant of wonderful beauty. It was a little girl ; and we already began to ask ourselves the question, whether we ought not, for the advantage of the new-comer, to quit our solitude, and, the better to bring up this precious gift of Heaven, to remove to some more inhabited place. Poor jjeople, to be sure, cannot in these cases do all you may think they ought, sir knight ; but we must all do what we can.
" Well, I went on my way, and this affair would keep running in my head. This slip of land was most dear to Hie, and I trembled when, amidst the bustle and broils of the city, I thought to myself, ' In a scene of tumult like this, or at least in one not much more quiet, I must soon take up my abode.' But I did not for this murmur against
