Immensee | Page 4

there
the company took down the provision baskets from the carriages and
walked the rest of the way. The road lay first of all through a pine
grove, where it was cool and darksome, and the ground was all strewed
with pine needles.
After half an hour's walk they passed out of the gloom of the pine trees
into a bright fresh beech wood. Here everything was light and green;
every here and there a sunbeam burst through the leafy branches, and
high above their heads a squirrel was leaping from branch to branch.
The party came to a halt at a certain spot, over which the topmost
branches of ancient beech trees interwove a transparent canopy of
leaves. Elisabeth's mother opened one of the baskets, and an old
gentleman constituted himself quartermaster.
"Round me, all of you young people," he cried, "and attend carefully to
what I have to say to you. For lunch each one of you will now get two
dry rolls; the butter has been left behind at home. The extras every one
must find for himself. There are plenty of strawberries in the
wood--that is, for anyone who knows where to find them. Unless you
are sharp, you'll have to eat dry bread; that's the way of the world all
over. Do you understand what I say?"
"Yes, yes," cried the young folks.
"Yes, but look here," said the old gentleman, "I have not done yet. We
old folks have done enough roaming about in our time, and therefore
we will stay at home now, here, I mean, under these wide-spreading
trees, and we'll peel the potatoes and make a fire and lay the table, and
by twelve o'clock the eggs shall be boiled.
"In return for all this you will be owing us half of your strawberries, so

that we may also be able to serve some dessert. So off you go now, east
and west, and mind be honest."
The young folks cast many a roguish glance at one another.
"Wait," cried the old gentleman once again. "I suppose I need not tell
you this, that whoever finds none need not produce any; but take
particular note of this, that he will get nothing out of us old folks either.
Now you have had enough good advice for to-day; and if you gather
strawberries to match you will get on very well for the present at any
rate."
The young people were of the same opinion, and pairing off in couples
set out on their quest.
"Come along, Elisabeth," said Reinhard, "I know where there is a
clump of strawberry bushes; you shan't eat dry bread."
Elisabeth tied the green ribbons of her straw hat together and hung it on
her arm. "Come on, then," she said, "the basket is ready."
Off into the wood they went, on and on; on through moist shady glens,
where everything was so peaceful, except for the cry of the falcon
flying unseen in the heavens far above their heads; on again through the
thick brushwood, so thick that Reinhard must needs go on ahead to
make a track, here snapping off a branch, there bending aside a trailing
vine. But ere long he heard Elisabeth behind him calling out his name.
He turned round.
"Reinhard!" she called, "do wait for me! Reinhard!"
He could not see her, but at length he caught sight of her some way off
struggling with the undergrowth, her dainty head just peeping out over
the tops of the ferns. So back he went once more and brought her out
from the tangled mass of briar and brake into an open space where blue
butterflies fluttered among the solitary wood blossoms.
Reinhard brushed the damp hair away from her heated face, and would
have tied the straw hat upon her head, but she refused; yet at his earnest
request she consented after all.
"But where are your strawberries?" she asked at length, standing still
and drawing a deep breath.
"They were here," he said, "but the toads have got here before us, or the
martens, or perhaps the fairies."
"Yes," said Elisabeth, "the leaves are still here; but not a word about
fairies in this place. Come along, I'm not a bit tired yet; let us look

farther on."
In front of them ran a little brook, and on the far side the wood began
again. Reinhard raised Elisabeth in his arms and carried her over. After
a while they emerged from the shady foliage and stood in a wide
clearing.
"There must be strawberries here," said the girl, "it all smells so sweet."
They searched about the sunny spot, but they found none. "No," said
Reinhard, "it is only the smell of the heather."
Everywhere was a confusion of raspberry-bushes and holly, and