Ann it was who first conceived the idea of going with Young Kubbeling
to the Futterers' house and there making enquiries as to the roads to
Genoa, and also concerning the merchants who might there be found ready
and willing to ship his falcons for sale in Alexandria; inasmuch as that
it was only by journeying in a galleon which sailed not from Venice that
we could escape Ursula's spies; and that Kubbeling should suffer loss
through us we could by no means allow. And whereas old Master Futterer
himself was now in Nuremberg, he declared himself willing to buy the
birds on account of his own house, at the same price as the traders in
Venice; nor was the Brunswicker any whit loth, forasmuch as that he might
presently get a better price on the Lido, when it should be known that he
had other ways and means at his command. Also the journey by Genoa gave
us this advantage: that we were bound to no time or season. Old Master
Futterer pledged himself to find a ship at any time when Kubbeling should
need it.

Whereas we purposed to set forth in the middle of December, we went to
the forest-lodge early in that month, and as it was with me at that time,
so, for sure, must it be with the swallows and the nightingales or ever
they fly south over mountains and seas. Never had the pure air been
sweeter, never had I looked forward to the future with greater hope and
strength or higher purpose. And my feeble, sickly Aunt Jacoba, meseemed,
was like-minded with me. In spirit, ever eager, she was with us already
in that distant region, and albeit of old she ever had preferred Ann
above me, now on a sudden the tables were turned; she could never see
enough of me, and when at last Ann was fain to go home to town with Uncle
Christian, she besought so pressingly that I would stay with her that I
was bound to yield; and indeed I was well content to tarry there, the
forest being now in all its glory.