“My parents have given me authority to bid you a hearty welcome!  Now drink!”

“We are not used to it in the morning,” said a heavy man, with an uncommonly large nose; and he spread himself out in his chair.  This was George, John’s oldest brother.

“We drink only goose-wine (water),” said one of the women; and a scarcely-suppressed laugh went around the room.

Amrei felt the taunt, but kept her temper; and John’s sister was the first to take the glass and drink to her.  She first clinked her glass against John’s with a “May God bless you!” She only half responded to Amrei, who also held out her glass.  Now, the other women considered it impolite, even sinful,—­for, at the first draught, the so-called “John’s-draught,” it is looked upon as sinful to hold back—­not to respond; and the men also let themselves be persuaded, so that for a time nothing was heard but the clinking and putting down of glasses.

“Father is right,” old Dame Landfried at last said to her daughter.  “Amrei looks as if she were your sister, but she resembles still more Elizabeth, who died.”

“Yes; none of you have lost by it.  If Elizabeth had lived, the property would have been smaller by one share anyway,” observed the father.  And the mother added: 

“But now she has been given back to us again.”

The old man had hit the spot where, as a matter of fact, all of them were sore, although they tried to persuade themselves, and each other, that they were prejudiced against Amrei because she had come among them without any relatives of her own.  And while Amrei was talking to John’s sister, the old farmer said to his son in a low voice: 

“One would never imagine, to look at her, what she has.  Just think!—­she has a bag stuffed full of crown thalers!  But you must not say anything to any one about it.”

This injunction was so well obeyed, that within a few minutes every person in the room knew about the bag of thalers, with the exception of John’s sister, who afterward took great credit to herself for having been so friendly to Amrei, although she thought that Amrei had not a farthing of her own.

Sure enough!  John had gone out, and he was now entering again with a large bag, on which was written the name “Josenhans of Haldenbrunn;” and when he poured out the rich contents, which rolled rattling and clinking over the table, all were dumbfounded.  But the most astonished of all were the father and mother.

So Amrei had really had a secret treasure!  For there was much more here than either one had given her.  Amrei did not dare to look up, and every one praised her for her unexampled humility.  And now she succeeded in winning them all over to her side; and when the numerous members of the family took their leave in the evening, each one said to her in secret: 

“Look you; it was not I who was against you because you had nothing—­it was so-and-so, who was always opposing you.  I say now, as I said and thought before, that even if you had had nothing but the clothes you wore, you were cut out for our family; and I could not have wished for a better wife for John, or a better daughter-in-law for the old people.”