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Huldbrand and the fisherman sprang from their seats and were on the point of following the angry girl.
Before they reached the cottage door, however, Undine had long vanished in the shadowy darkness without, and not even the sound of her light footstep betrayed the direction of her flight.
Huldbrand looked inquiringly at his host; it almost seemed to him as if the whole sweet apparition, which had suddenly merged again into the night, were nothing else than one of that band of the wonderful forms which had, but a short time since, carried on their pranks with him in the forest.
But the old man murmured between his teeth: This is not the first time that she has treated us in this way.
Now we have aching hearts and sleepless eyes the whole night through; for who knows, that she may not some day come to harm, if she is thus out alone in the dark until daylight.
Then let us for God's sake follow her, cried Huldbrand, anxiously.
What would be the good of it? replied the old man.
It would be a sin were I to allow you, all alone, to follow the foolish girl in the solitary night, and my old limbs would not overtake the wild runaway, even if we knew in what direction she had gone.
We had better at any rate call after her, and beg her to come back, said Huldbrand; and he began to call in the most earnest manner: Undine!
Undine!
Pray come back!
The old man shook his head, saying, that all that shouting would help but little, for the knight had no idea how selfwilled the little truant was.
But still he could not forbear often calling out with him in the dark night: Undine!
Ah! dear Undine, I beg you to come backonly this once!
It turned out, however, as the fisherman had said.
No Undine was to be heard or seen, and as the old man would on no account consent that Huldbrand should go in search of the fugitive, they were at last both obliged to return to the cottage.
Here they found the fire on the hearth almost gone out, and the old wife, who took Undine's flight and danger far less to heart than her husband, had already retired to rest.
The old man blew up the fire, laid some dry wood on it, and by the light of the flame sought out a tankard of wine, which he placed between himself and his guest.
You, sir knight, said he, are also anxious about that silly girl, and we would both rather chatter and drink away a part of the night than keep turning round on our rush mats trying in vain to sleep.
Is it not so?
Huldbrand was well satisfied with the plan; the fisherman obliged him to take the seat of honor vacated by the good old housewife, and both drank and talked together in a manner becoming two honest and trusting men.
It is true, as often as the slightest thing moved before the windows, or even at times when nothing was moving, one of the two would look up and say: She is coming!
Then they would be silent for a moment or two, and as nothing appeared, they would shake their heads and sigh and go on with their talk.
As, however, neither could think of anything but of Undine, they knew of nothing better to do than that the old fisherman should tell the story, and the knight should hear, in what manner Undine had first come to the cottage.
He therefore began as follows: It is now about fifteen years ago that I was one day crossing the wild forest with my goods, on my way to the city.
My wife had stayed at home, as her wont is, and at this particular time for a very good reason, for God had given us, in our tolerably advanced age, a wonderfully beautiful child.
It was a little girl; and a question already arose between us, whether for the sake of the newcomer, we would not leave our lovely home that we might better bring up this dear gift of heaven in some more habitable place.
Poor people indeed cannot do in such cases as you may think they ought, sir knight, but, with God's blessing, every one must do what he can.
Well, the matter was tolerably in my head as I went along.
This slip of land was so dear to me, and I shuddered when, amid the noise and brawls of the city, I thought to myself, 'In such scenes as these, or in one not much more quiet, thou wilt also soon make thy abode!'
But at the same time I did not murmur against the good God; on the contrary, I thanked him in secret for the newborn babe; I should be telling a lie, too, were I to say, that on my journey through the wood, going or returning, anything befell me out of the common way, and at that time I had never seen any of its fearful wonders.
The Lord was ever with me in those mysterious shades.
As he spoke he took his little cap from his bald head, and remained for a time occupied with prayerful thoughts; he then covered himself again, and continued: On this side the forest, alas! a sorrow awaited me.
My wife came to meet me with tearful eyes and clad in mourning.
Oh!
Good God!'
I groaned, 'where is our dear child? speak!
With him on whom you have called, dear husband,' she replied; and we now entered the cottage together weeping silently.
I looked around for the little corpse, and it was then only that I learned how it had all happened.
My wife had been sitting with the child on the edge of the lake, and as she was playing with it, free of all fear and full of happiness, the little one suddenly bent forward, as if attracted by something very beautiful in the water.
My wife saw her laugh, the dear angel, and stretch out her little hands; but in a moment she had sprung out of her mother's arms, and had sunk beneath the watery mirror.
I sought long for our little lost one; but it was all in vain; there was no trace of her to be found.
The same evening we, childless parents, were sitting silently together in the cottage; neither of us had any desire to talk, even had our tears allowed us.
We sat gazing into the fire on the hearth.
Presently, we heard something rustling outside the door: it flew open, and a beautiful little girl three or four years old, richly dressed, stood on the threshold smiling at us.
We were quite dumb with astonishment, and I knew not at first whether it were a vision or a reality.
But I saw the water dripping from her golden hair and rich garments, and I perceived that the pretty child had been lying in the water, and needed help.
Wife,' said I, 'no one has been able to save our dear child; yet let us at any rate do for others what would have made us so blessed.'
We undressed the little one, put her to bed, and gave her something warm; at all this she spoke not a word, and only fixed her eyes, that reflected the blue of the lake and of the sky, smilingly upon us.
Next morning we quickly perceived that she had taken no harm from her wetting, and I now inquired about her parents, and how she had come here.
But she gave a confused and strange account.
She must have been born far from here, not only because for these fifteen years I have not been able to find out anything of her parentage, but because she then spoke, and at times still speaks, of such singular things that such as we are cannot tell but that she may have dropped upon us from the moon.
She talks of golden castles, of crystal domes, and heaven knows what besides.
The story that she told with most distinctness was, that she was out in a boat with her mother on the great lake, and fell into the water, and that she only recovered her senses here under the trees where she felt herself quite happy on the merry shore.
We had still a great misgiving and perplexity weighing on our heart.
We had, indeed, soon decided to keep the child we had found and to bring her up in the place of our lost darling; but who could tell us whether she had been baptized or not?
She herself could give us no information on the matter.
She generally answered our questions by saying that she well knew she was created for Gods praise and glory, and that she was ready to let us do with her whatever would tend to His honor and glory.
My wife and I thought that if she were not baptized, there was no time for delay, and that if she were, a good thing could not be repeated too often.
And in pursuance of this idea, we reflected upon a good name for the child, for we now were often at a loss to know what to call her.
We agreed at last that Dorothea would be the most suitable for her, for I once heard that it meant a gift of God, and she had surely been sent to us by God as a gift and comfort in our misery.
She, on the other hand, would not hear of this, and told us that she thought she had been called Undine by her parents, and that Undine she wished still to be called.
Now this appeared to me a heathenish name, not to be found in any calendar, and I took counsel therefore of a priest in the city.
He also would not hear of the name of Undine, but at my earnest request he came with me through the mysterious forest in order to perform the rite of baptism here in my cottage.
The little one stood before us so prettily arrayed and looked so charming that the priest's heart was at once moved within him, and she flattered him so prettily, and braved him so merrily, that at last he could no longer remember the objections he had had ready against the name of Undine.
She was therefore baptized 'Undine,' and during the sacred ceremony she behaved with great propriety and sweetness, wild and restless as she invariably was at other times.
For my wife was quite right when she said that it has been hard to put up with her.
If I were to tell you The knight interrupted the fisherman to draw his attention to a noise, as of a rushing flood of waters, which had caught his ear during the old man's talk, and which now burst against the cottage window with redoubled fury.
Both sprang to the door.
There they saw, by the light of the now risen moon, the brook which issued from the wood, widely overflowing its banks, and whirling away stones and branches of trees in its sweeping course.
The storm, as if awakened by the tumult, burst forth from the mighty clouds which passed rapidly across the moon; the lake roared under the furious lashing of the wind; the trees of the little peninsula groaned from root to topmost bough, and bent, as if reeling, over the surging waters.
for Heaven's sake, Undine. cried the two men in alarm.
No answer was returned, and regardless of every other consideration, they ran out of the cottage, one in this direction, and the other in that, searching and calling.
End of chapter.