One day when mother was reading a book which absorbed her attention, and so was safe not to interfere with them, they thought, the children stole down to the pond. Hermann and Fritz were waiting for them. It was a pre-conceived plan. "Come along and get in," they shouted to the girls. "I daren't," said Lottchen. "Mother would be so cross; she has forbidden us to go near the water." "You are surely not going to spoil the fun," said Trudel. "Come along; I'm going to get in first. I can swim, you know!" "But not in mud and water-weeds," said Lottchen wisely. The boys began to laugh at them. "Why, you're funky, I do believe; the pond isn't really deep anywhere," they said. So with beating hearts the children got into the boats, Trudel with Fritz, and Hermann, who was the eldest of the party, with Lottchen. It was splendid, quite a real adventure. "Sit still in the middle of the boat," said Fritz; "I think we had better keep near the bank." "It's going down on my side; O dear, what shall I do?" said Trudel. "I don't like it! I want to get out." "You're a bit too heavy and upset the balance," said Fritz. "Very well, then, get out!" Trudel tried to do so; but the boat was very wobbly. It was not so easy; her foot slipped, and in she stepped with one foot into the deep mud. She grasped convulsively hold of a willow bush that grew on the bank. Meanwhile Hermann, seeing the predicament they were in, jumped out of his boat, leaving poor Lottchen quite alone. She began to scream with all her might and main, and she could make a fine noise when she chose. Mother heard the cries though she was some way off and flew to the pond. The maids who were bleaching the linen in the meadow, came running to the rescue as well, as fast as their legs could carry them. Lotty was soon helped out of the boat. Trudel had rescued herself with Hermann's assistance, and she looked very red and ashamed of herself. She said she did not wish for any more Robinson Crusoe adventures of that sort. Mother naturally gave the children a good talking to; but she thought they had been punished enough this time for their disobedience, by the fright they had had. PART II THE TREE MAN There was a tree in the garden that was ideal to climb, and mother allowed the children to do so, for she had been very fond of climbing herself when she was a child. They wore old serge skirts and jerseys that they could not spoil. This tree made a splendid arbour, or house with a suite of rooms. Lottchen sat up in the branches like a little bird, and like a little bird she sang all the songs she knew. From this tree you could see the mountain called the Stellerskuppe and the blue sky through the tree-stems on the summit. At sunset time, the sky behind the trees turned a golden colour, till it looked like a picture of fairyland. It was a fine view, but still you could not see from here the famous oak-tree, where the little green tree man lived. This was ten minutes' walk from the farm.