There was no longer any tie to bind Carl to his native village.  All his kin, as well as Katrine’s, were in the grave.  He was not bred a miller, and did not feel competent to manage the mill.  Besides, his mind had received new ideas while he was in the army.  He had heard of countries where men were equal before the laws, where the peasant owed no allegiance but to society.  The germ of liberty had been planted in his breast, and he could no longer live contented with the rank in which he had been born.  At least he wished that his children might grow up free from the chilling influences that had fallen upon him.  At his earnest persuasion, Katrine consented that the mill should be sold, and soon after, with his wife and child, he went to Bremen and embarked for America.

* * * * *

We must now follow the absconding Stolzen, who, with his bag of thalers, had made good his escape into England.  He lived in London, where he found society among his countrymen.  His habitual shrewdness never deserted him, and from small beginnings he gradually amassed a moderate fortune.  His first experiment in proposing for a wife satisfied him, but in a great city his sensual nature was fully developed.  His brutal passions were unchecked; conscience seemed to have left him utterly.  At length he began to think about quitting London.  He was afraid to return to Germany, for, as he had left Carl to all appearance dead, he thought the officers of the law would seize him.  He determined to go to Australia, and secured a berth in a clipper ship bound for Melbourne, but some accident prevented his reaching the pier in season; the vessel sailed without him, and was never heard of afterwards.  Then he proposed to buy an estate in Canada; but the owner failed to make his appearance at the time appointed for the negotiation, and the bargain was not completed.  At last he took passage for New York, whither a Hebrew acquaintance of his had gone, a year or two before, and was established as a broker.  Upon arriving in that city, Stolzen purchased of an agent a tract of land in a Western State, situated on the shore of Lake Michigan; and after reserving a sum of money for immediate purposes, he deposited his funds with his friend, the broker, and started westward.  He travelled the usual route by rail, then a short distance in a mail-coach, which carried him within six miles of his farm.  Leaving his luggage to be sent for, he started to walk the remaining distance.  It was a sultry day, and the prairie road was anything but pleasant to a pedestrian unaccustomed to heat and dust.  After walking less than an hour, he determined to stop at a small house near the road, for rest, and some water to quench his thirst; but as he approached, the baying hounds, no less than the squalid children about the door, repelled him, and he went on to the next house.  He now turned down a green lane, between rows of thrifty trees, to a neat log-cabin, whose nicely-plastered walls and the regular fence inclosing it testified to the thrift and good taste of the owner.  He knocked; all was still.  Again, and thirsty as he was, he was on the point of leaving, when he heard a step within.  He waited; the door opened, and before him stood——­Katrine!