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    “In the woods, near the sea I have lived
     Many a day! 
     Ho, ho, ho,
     Ha, ha, ha,
     It is so lovely on the earth!”

Thus sang or hummed Carl as he proceeded on his way.

Suddenly he experienced a strong desire to rush into the woods to listen to the sighing of the wind as it swept through the high branches of the trees.  In this music Carl took such delight that he would listen to it, for hours, while great tears of pleasure and excitement would roll down his sun-burnt cheeks.  But it was the pleasure and excitement of a religious enthusiast in the house of the God he worshipped.  Carl never spoke of these sentiments, and how would it have been possible for him to do so.  He never thought from whence they originated.  He followed his inclination only.

While Carl was thus engaged he suddenly saw an object which caused him instantly to neglect the sound of his favorite music.  In the grass near the fence over which Carl was about climbing, he saw the slumbering huntsman, with the freshly killed game reposing at his side.

Carl, without knowing why, had conceived the idea that Magde disliked Mr. Fabian H——­, and as for himself, he instinctively hated that worthy gentleman.  And another thought entered his head as he looked upon the game.  He remembered that Magde had once said:  “Ah! had we but a hare or a partridge, how delicious it would be!  But such things are too good for us, they must be sent to the manor house.”

Carl laughed silently.  He extended his hand towards the sleeping man, and then withdrew it undecidedly.  Our friend Carl possessed a few indistinct ideas concerning the law of meum and teum.  By dint of great exertion, his father had implanted in his mind the great necessity of observing the eighth commandment, and upon the present occasion the lesson of his younger days interfered in a great degree with the accomplishment of his present designs; for as he gazed upon the objects of his envy, he muttered to himself: 

“The Eighth Commandment: Thou shalt not steal!”

His brain was not only troubled with the eighth, but the words of the tenth commandment came to his memory, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass.”

As he thus spoke, and thought first of the commandments and then of Magde, he continued to advance and retreat, wavering in his decision, and he might have remained in this state until Mr. Fabian awoke, had not a bright idea forced itself upon his mind.

“O,” exclaimed he, “the commandments say nothing about game!” and as even the veriest simpleton has it in his power to convince himself of the purity of an action, however wrong, Carl soon satisfied himself with the excuse which he had so ingeniously invented.  He entirely forgot the closing line of the commandment, “nor anything that is his,” which, however, would not bear consideration on that occasion.  He therefore seized the two hares that were nearest him, and by the assistance of a long stick he gained possession of the partridges also.