clutches, was betrayed by his own village people, and flogged through
the line, and how they rubbed vinegar and salt into his wounded back;
how he escaped from the battlefield and found refuge in this
wilderness--a changed man, quarrelsome, with an uncontrollable temper,
which led him into many a brawl; and how, under great provocation, he
had stabbed a wood-burner at the inn, and had been beaten within an inch
of his life by the wood-cutters. His life was now ebbing away fast, and
he had good reason to fear that his uncontrollable temper would live in
his son. Hence his exhortation to his wife. Black Matthias died a few
hours after he had told me of his sad life.

And so I get to know them all, and make friends with them all,
especially with the children, and with the shepherd lad Berthold and the
poor milkmaid Aga. There was a wedding down at Heldenichlag, where they
have a parish church, and dancing and merrymaking at the inn all night.
Next morning Berthold went to the priest. He wanted to marry Aga, but
the priest told him he was too young, too poor; he could come back again
in ten years! The poor lad is left speechless and does not know how to
explain _why_ he wants to be united for ever with his Aga. Sadly he
leaves the room, but out in the open air his spirit returns to him. On
the second day of the wedding feast there was no holding him. He was the
wildest and merriest of the lot. In the afternoon we all returned to
Winkelsteg in the forest.

1815.

I know I must begin with a church. And at last I have obtained the
baron's consent. I have designed the plan myself--it must be large
enough to hold all who are in need of comfort here, and bright and
cheerful, for there is darkness enough in the forest. And the steeple