the lowest branch, let his legs dangle in the air, and shouted: "Here he is!"--Bump! He came down on the ground, and stood before the lovers with an expression on his red face which seemed to say that he considered himself a competent judge on even the most delicate points of feeling. The two young people were not a little startled. Mina hid her face in her hands as Lina had done, but she did not cry; and she would have run away like Lina if she and uncle Bräsig had not always been on the most confidential terms with each other. She threw herself into uncle Bräsig's arms, and in her desire to hide her blushing face, she tried to burrow her little round-head into his waistcoat-pocket, exclaiming: "Uncle Bräsig, uncle Bräsig, you're a very naughty old man!"--"Oh!" said Bräsig, "you think so, do you?"--"Yes," answered Rudolph, who had mounted his high horse, "you ought to be ashamed of listening to what you were not intended to hear."--"Moshoo Rudolph," said the old bailiff stiffly, "I may as well tell you once for all, that shame is a thing that must never be mentioned in connection with me, and if you think that your grand airs will have any effect upon me, you're very much mistaken."--Rudolph saw clearly that such was the case, and as he did not want to quarrel with the old man for Mina's sake, he relented a little, and said more gently that he would think nothing more of what had occurred, if Bräsig could assure him that he had got into the tree by accident, but still he considered that Bräsig ought to have coughed, or done something to make his presence known, instead of sitting still and listening to the whole story from A to Z.--"Oh," said Bräsig, "I ought to have _coughed_, you say, but I _groaned_ loud enough, I can tell you, and you couldn't have helped hearing me if you hadn't been so much taken up with what you yourself were about. But _you_ ought to be ashamed of yourself for having fallen in love with Mina without Mrs. Nüssler's leave."--Rudolph replied that that was his own affair, that no one had a right to meddle, and that Bräsig understood nothing about such things.--"What!" said Bräsig. "Have you ever been engaged to three girls at once? _I_ have, Sir, and quite openly too, and yet you say that I know nothing about such things! But sneaks are all alike. First of all you catch my fish secretly in the black pool, and then you catch little Mina in the arbour before my very eyes. No, no, let him be, Mina. He shall not hurt you."--"Ah, uncle Bräsig!" entreated Mina, "do help us, we love each other so dearly."--"Yes, let him be, Mina, you're my little god-child; you'll soon get over it."--"No, Mr. Bräsig," cried Rudolph, laying his hand on the old man's shoulder, "no, dear good uncle Bräsig, we'll never get over it; it'll last as long as we live. I want to be a farmer, and if I have the hope before me of gaining Mina for my wife some day, and if," he added slyly, "you will help me with