"I know all that," replied Hediger, "but a year is a long time, and when it's gone there's another to come. I can assure you that it frightens me every time one of them comes into the house with a better cigar than usual. Will he not fall a victim to habits of luxury and self-indulgence? If I see one of their young wives coming along in a new dress, I fear that she is plunging her husband into difficulties and debt. If I see one of them talking in the street to a man who lives beyond his means, a voice within me cries, 'Will he not lead him into some piece of folly?' In short, you see that I feel myself humble and dependent enough, and am far from wishing to add a feeling of obligation towards a rich kinsman, and from turning a friend into a master and patron. And why should I want my cocky young son to feel rich and safe, and to run round under my eyes with the arrogance that such a fellow assumes when he has never had the slightest experience of life? Shall I help to close the school of life to him so that he shall early become hard-hearted, an unmannerly and insolent duffer, who doesn't know how to earn his bread, and still has a tremendous opinion of himself? No, rest easy, my friend, here is my hand on it. No kith and kin for us!" The two old men shook hands, the others laughed, and Buergi said, "Who would believe that you two who have just spoken such wise words in the cause of the fatherland, and have rapped us so hard on the knuckles, would turn round and do anything so foolish. Thank Heaven, I've still a chance to dispose of my double bed and I propose that we give it to the young couple for a wedding present." "Voted!" cried the other four, and Pfister, the innkeeper, added, "And I demand that my cask of Swiss blood be drunk at the wedding, which we shall all attend." "And I'll pay for it if there is a wedding," shouted Frymann angrily, "but if not, as I know for certain will be the case, you pay for the cask, and we'll drink it at our meetings until it's gone." "We'll take the wager," they agreed; but Frymann and Hediger pounded the table with their fists and continued to repeat: "No kith and kinship for us! We don't want to be kinsmen, but independent, good friends!" This declaration brought the eventful meeting at last to an end, and staunch and upright the Lovers of Liberty wandered to their homes. The next day at dinner, after the journeymen had gone, Hediger informed his son and his wife of the solemn decision of the day before, that from now on no romance between Karl and the carpenter's daughter would be tolerated. Mrs. Hediger, the "Gunsmithy," was so tempted to laugh by this decree that the last drop of wine in her glass, which she was just about to swallow, got into her windpipe and caused a terrible fit of coughing. "What is there to laugh at about that?" said Master Hediger irritatedly.