“But master,” said Uli, “you always told me to save and be thrifty, and then I’d be somebody; that the man who had nothing was nothing.”

“Quite right, Uli,” said the master, “that’s what I said and what I still say.  A man is happier when thrifty than when extravagant, and he’s no man if he can’t provide for his old age while he’s young and single.  If a man doesn’t begin well while he’s young he’ll come to a bad end.  A good lad with some money can marry more easily than a vagabond, and should look for a good wife; but the richest isn’t always the best.  Some women I’d rather take without a farthing than others with a hundred francs.  Everything depends on the person.  Do as you will, but consider it well.”

“To be sure, Elsie’s a wretched creature,” said Uli, “but she can improve; many a girl has been thin when young, and has grown stout in old age; and she’s not really bad tempered, especially when she’s contented.  When she’s angry—­then, to be sure, she doesn’t know just what she’s saying, and throws my position in my face, and twits me about other girls; but when she’s contented again she can be quite amusing, and has the best heart in the world.  She’s given me presents, Lord knows how many, and would have given me lots more if I hadn’t kept stopping her.”  “Do as you will,” said Johannes, “but I tell you again:  consider it well.  It seldom turns out well when such different folks come together, and it has rarely turned out well when a servant has married his master’s daughter.  I set great store by you; to another man I wouldn’t have said so much.  Now I must go home; come and see us some time when you have the leisure; then we’ll talk the matter over some more, if it’s not too late.”

Uli looked discontentedly after his master.  “I shouldn’t have thought,” he reflected, “that he would grudge me my good fortune.  But that’s the way with these cursed farmers; they’re all alike; they don’t want to see a servant get hold of a farm.  Johannes is one of the best of ’em; but he can’t stand it either to see his servant get to be richer than he is and own a finer farm.  Why else should it have mattered to him whether Elsie’s pretty or ugly?  He didn’t just lookout for a pretty one when he married.  They seem to think it’s almost a sin when the like of us thinks of a farmer’s daughter, and still many a one might be glad if she got a mannerly servant for a husband and didn’t have to live like a dog on the farm all her life.”  But he said to himself that he wouldn’t let himself be dissuaded so easily; the thing had gone on too long and there had been too much talk about it for him to back out that way.  But the affair must be brought to a conclusion, he thought; he wanted to know where he stood, once and for all; he was tired of hanging between door and hinge.  He’d tell Elsie that she must speak with her parents; by autumn the banns must be published, or he’d leave at Christmas; he wouldn’t be made a fool of any longer.