Year: 1874

The following morning Elizabeth,
soon after sunrise, went to cut grass at
place which she knew Conrad must
pass with his flock. AS soon as the
latter perceived her at distance, he
flew, accompanied by Harm, to meet
her, sat down beside her, and repeated
all his former VOWS and protestations of
love.


But Elizabeth answered her lover
very coolly, remarking that she had
heard all that thousand times over,
and if he had nothing to tell her of a
little cottage of his own, he already
knew her answer.


Conrad was about to take his leave
much detected, when a haIf-smiling
glance from Elizabeth induced him to
inquire why she was so cruel to him,
and what she wished him to do for her.
For the jokes sake, let us see wheth-
er you really are serious in your love
for me" said Elizabeth. The favorite
ram of the bishop had meanwhile
pressed between her and Conrad, and
now stood eating from her hands. If
desire you to give me your ram that
I may sell him"


Conrad's heart sunk within him.
Sadly he replied : "Any thing in this
world but that; if the bishop did not
in the evening get Harm to feed, there
would be pretty disturbance. Take
the best pet sheep in the whole flock
take all the fifty belonging to me,
only that single ram you cannot have"
"Look now," said Elizabeth, "you
men are all alike. Away with you and
your fifty sheep; even so small
pleasure as this my love refuses me
Truly he would be precious husband
to me when the honeymoon was over
Away to your bishop; let him feed his
ram, and do you leave me alone !''


They disputed thus a long while;
Conrad shed tears in his anger, and
Elizabeth at last confessed that she had
sold the ram for the house they had so
often wished to possess, and added that
she must deliver him up that very day,
cost what it might, as she had pledged
her word and could not bear the idea of
being called O liar. She then shed
tears, lamenting that this unhoped-for
pleasure of being able to get house
in which she and Conrad might live
comfortably with their children, should
be thus blasted. She asked if sheep
were not every day dying-if none were
ever lost-if none were ever stolen-if
the wolf never devoured one, and so
on. At last love conquered; Conrad
promised her to deliver her the ram be-
fore noon, and Elizabeth promised to
become his welded wife in a month.


Elizabeth walked quickly on to the
town, and Conrad gazed wistfully after
her; the pleasure he felt in being her
accepted lover was not little damped
by the idea of the interrogations which
he must undergo from his kind master,
in whose service he had been hitherto
so comfortable, and who was so very
| fond of the ram.


He now stood alone in the field where
Elizabeth had been cutting grass, with
his eyes fixed on the ground. At last
he struck his crook into the earth,
placed his coat upon it, and his cap
above it, and began a dialogue (Which
Harm occasionally interrupted by his
movements) with the figure thus con-
structed, which he meant should repre-
sent the bishop.


Good evening, my lord bishop p
"Thank you, Conrad, where is Harm ?"
Charm, my lord bishop why he is lost;
indeed he has wandered somewhere.
At this moment, while Conrad was thus
speaking, Harm pressed through be-
tween his legs to examine the figure to
which he saw his master making so
many profound reverences. "Conrad,
Conrad p continued the shepherd, in
his fanciful interlocutorship " Harm
knows his home; Harm could not lose
himself That will not do"


Another conversation, in which Con-
rad tried to represent the ram as stolen,
Harm interrupted by q violent blow
with which he meant to answer the bows
he saw his master making. "He is not
so easily caught p exclaimed Conrad.
"That will not do either"


Thus he talked with himself for about
half an hour ; but his imaginary dia-
logues always terminated with q shake
OF the head and these words: "Conrad,
that will not do p "And yet," added
he, {" I must before noon give up the
ram for I have promised it, and if
Elizabeth does not deliver it as she has
already sold it, she would be called
liar, and could not become my wife,"


At last he jumped up ioyfully and
exclaimed: Honesty is the best
policy That will do p He put on his
cap and his coat and drove forward his
flock, and before noon he had delivered,
with o deep sigh, his darling Harm to
Elizabeth, who, without rejecting any
more about the matter, exchanged him
for the price of the cottage.


That evening was fixed for Conrad's
trial. Both the bishops waited at
their posset-cup in the castle-yard for
the appearance of the shepherd who
was to decide their wager. The hearts
OF both beat strongly, and they spoke
but little, for each had strong desire
that the honor of constructing the tun
might fall to the lot of the other. But
Pete, the privy councillor, kept himself
quite cheerful, and secretly rejoiced
beforehand in the success of his we'll
laid plan, and the certainty of his vic
tory; for he had already had the
bishops favorite ram in his stable, and
how could Conrad venture to tell the
truth, when his doing so must draw up
on him the wrath of his master and
deprive him of his bread forever


So reasoned the privy councillor !;
meanwhile Conrad appeared driving
his flock across the castle-yard. Peter
smiled triumphantly, for already he
fancied the could trace fear and anxiety
at work in Conrad's countenance.


That evening no ram came bounding
up to bishop Henry, to receive his
accustomed portion. Where is
Harm ?" inquired the bishop, with a
| oor,, LiYi1 1oo1y have