she was silent, and every now and then she furtively wiped away a tear.

"Where are we going, mother?" asked the boy.

"We must go to the doctor's, Dietrich," she answered, "your father is very
ill." And she led them along the foot path toward the little town, where
the white houses shone in the sunlight. Fohrensee was a new place, that
had sprung up as if in one night from the soil, and now stood there a
great white spot against the dark hillside. Not long before, it had been
only a little cluster of houses standing in a protected spot on the side
of the hill, not very far below Tannenegg. It was so situated that the
biting north wind, which blew so sharply over the exposed houses of
Tannenegg, did not reach the nook where little Fohrensee lay bathed in the
full light of the sun. But the little place was high enough to be visited
by all the cooling breezes, and was healthy, pure and fresh, to a
remarkable degree. When, not long before this time, an enterprising
inn-keeper discovered its health-giving qualities, and built an inn there,
guests filled it so rapidly that he soon put up another. Soon, one after
another, little inns sprang up, as from the ground, and then a crowd of
trades-people came up from the valley, and settled around, for the number
of guests constantly increased, and the strangers found the spot so
favorable to health, that it became a favorite winter resort. And thus the
obscure little Fohrensee became, in a few years, a large and flourishing
town, stretching out in every direction.

Gertrude, however, walking sturdily along with the children, was not
going as far as Fohrensee, with its shining white houses. She turned off
into a foot path that led to several scattered dwellings up on the
hillside, and soon reached an open space, on which stood a handsome house,
with large stables near by. Out from the stable, a hostler had just led a