Uli had a bad night.  As they wanted to start at three in the morning the hours for sleep were few, but it seemed as if they would not pass.  He could not sleep; many things busied his thoughts and tossed him restlessly back and forth, and every thirty seconds he reached for his watch.  The whole importance of what he was now to become rolled itself upon his soul with its entire weight.  Then again lovely pictures danced before his closed eyes. [Illustration:  FIRST DANCING LESSONS From the Painting by Benjamin Vautier] The spirit-hour was not long past when he left his bed, in order to give the horse his fodder and to brush and curry him thoroughly.  When he had finished this work he went to the well and began a similar task on himself.  Then playful hands enfolded him and Freneli brought him her loving morning salute.  A glad hope had drawn her to the well, and they lingered to caress each other in the cold morning air as if mild evening zephyrs were blowing.  All anxiety and oppression forsook him now, and he hastened the preparations for their departure.  Soon he could go into the house for the hot coffee which Freneli had made and for the white bread and cheese her aunt had provided.  Little peace did the girl have at the table, for the fear of having forgotten something would not let her rest; again and again she looked over the bundle of her belongings, and even then her aunt’s fur-lined shoes were nearly left behind.  At last she stood there all in readiness, sweet and beautiful.  The two maids, whom curiosity had drawn from their beds, encircled her with their lights, and were so absorbed in admiration that they forgot that oil makes spots and that fire kindles; a little more and Freneli, soaked in oil, would have gone up in flame.  Alas, in the fleshy bosoms of the poor maids heaved the yearning:  Oh, if they once had such pretty clothes, they would be as pretty as Freneli; and then they too could ride off to be married to such a handsome man!

Long before three o’clock they drove out into the cold, frosty morning.  Amid question and answer the flickering stars paled and sought their sky-blue beds, and the good mother sun began to weave golden curtains about them out of sparkling rays of light, so that their chaste retirement, their innocent sleep, might not be sullied by the eyes of curious sinners.  Jack Frost shook his curls more mightily; driven by the sun from the little stars to the dark bosom of the earth, away from his heavenly sweethearts, he tried to caress earthly ones, wanted to embrace Freneli and put his cold arms about the warm girl; his white breath was already playing in the tips of her cap.  The girl shivered and begged Uli to take refuge just a moment in a warm room; she was shaking through and through, and they would reach their destination soon enough.