the sun set--I rose early from the straw pallet where I had tossed all
night, prevented from sleeping by the prospect of reunion, and the fever
of impatience I was in. The cold river revived me, and when we were
assembled in the breakfast-room I observed Edra watching me, with a
curious, questioning smile on her lips. I asked her the reason.

"You are like a person suddenly recovered from sickness," she replied.
"Your eyes sparkle like sunshine on the water, and your cheeks that were
so pallid yesterday burn redder than an autumn leaf." Then, smiling, she
added these precious words: "Yoletta will be glad to return to us, more
on your account than her own."

After we had broken our fast, I determined to go to the forest and spend
the day there. For many days past I had shirked woodcutting; but now it
seemed impossible for me to settle down to any quiet, sedentary kind of
work, the consuming impatience and boundless energy I felt making me
wish for some unusually violent task, such as would exhaust the body and
give, perhaps, a rest to the mind. Taking my ax, and the usual small
basket of provisions for my noonday meal, I left the house; and on this
morning I did not walk, but ran as if for a wager, taking long, flying
leaps over bushes and streams that had never tempted me before. Arrived
at the scene of action, I selected a large tree which had been marked
out for felling, and for hours I hacked at it with an energy almost
superhuman; and at last, before I had felt any disposition to rest, the
towering old giant, bowing its head and rustling its sere foliage as if
in eternal farewell to the skies, came with a mighty crash to the earth.
Scarcely was it fallen before I felt that I had labored too long and
violently: the dry, fresh breeze stung my burning cheeks like needles of
ice, my knees trembled under me, and the whole world seemed to spin
round; then, casting myself upon a bed of chips and withered leaves, I