face would wear, and that tickled me so much that I was mad enough to play the trick.  Now don’t let us talk any more about it, Mina,” he said coaxingly, as he slipped his arm round her waist again.  “No, I won’t allow that,” said Mina.  “And,” she went on, “the parson said that if he were to make the story known, you’d never get a living all your life.”  “Then I hope that he’ll tell every one what I did and it’ll end all the bother.”  “What do you mean?” asked Mina, pushing him from her and staring at him in perplexity.  “Are you in earnest?”

“Never more so in my life.  I’ve entered the pulpit for the first and last time.”  “Rudolph!” cried Mina in astonishment.  “What’s the use of trying to make me a clergy man,” said Rudolph quickly.  “Look at Godfrey and then look at me.  Do you think I should make a good parson?  And then, there’s another thing, even if I were so well up in theology that I could puzzle the learned professors themselves, they would never pass me in the examination.  All that they care about is having men who can adopt all their cant phrases.  If I were the apostle Paul himself they’d refuse to pass me, if they caught sight of this little scar upon my cheek.”  “What are you going to do then?” asked Mina anxiously, and laying her hand upon his arm, she added:  “Oh, don’t be a soldier!” “I should think not!  No, I want to be a farmer.”  “The confounded young rascal!” muttered Braesig.  “Yes, my own dear little Mina,” continued Rudolph, drawing her to his side on the bench, “I intend to be a farmer; a real good, hard-working farmer, and you, dear Mina, must help me to become one.”  “What!” said Braesig to himself, “is she to teach him to plough and harrow?” “I, Rudolph?” asked Mina.  “Yes, my sweet child,” he answered, stroking her smooth hair and soft cheeks; then taking her chin in his hand, he raised her face toward him, and looking into her blue eyes, went on:  “If I could only be certain that you’d consent to be my little wife as soon as I’d a home to offer you, it would make everything easy to me, and I should be sure of learning to be a good farmer.  Will you, Mina, will you?” Mina began to cry softly, and Rudolph kissed away the tears as they rolled down her cheeks, and then she laid her little round-head on his shoulder.  Rudolph gave her time to recover her composure, and after a few minutes she told him in a low whisper that she would do as he asked, so he kissed her again and again.  Braesig seeing this exclaimed half aloud:  “The devil take him!  Stop that!” Rudolph found time to tell her in the midst of his kissing that he intended to speak to his father that afternoon, and said amongst other things that it was a pity Braesig was not there, as he was sure he would have helped him to make his explanation to his father, who, he knew, thought a great deal of Braesig’s advice.  “The young rascal to catch my fish!” muttered Braesig.  Then Mina said:  “Braesig was here this morning and dined with us.  I daresay