"That I do, mother," he answered sadly, "though you have almost pulled down the cottage in searching." "Aye; but it was of no use," moaned the dame, "_'hiders_ make best finders.'" Hans started. "Do you think the father could tell aught?" he asked mysteriously. "Aye, indeed," said Dame Brinker, nodding her head, "I think so, but that is no sign. I never hold the same belief in the matter two days. Mayhap the father paid it off for the great silver watch we have been guarding since that day. But, no--I'll never believe it." "The watch was not worth a quarter of the money, mother." "No, indeed; and your father was a shrewd man up to the last moment. He was too steady and thrifty for silly doings." "Where _did_ the watch come from, I wonder," muttered Hans, half to himself. Dame Brinker shook her head, and looked sadly toward her husband, who sat staring blankly at the floor. Gretel stood near him, knitting. "That we shall never know, Hans. I have shown it to the father many a time, but he does not know it from a potato. When he came in that dreadful night to supper he handed the watch to me and told me to take good care of it until he asked for it again. Just as he opened his lips to say more, Broom Klatterboost came flying in with word that the dyke was in danger. Ah! the waters were terrible that holy Pinxter-week! My man, alack, caught up his tools and ran out. That was the last I ever saw of him in his right mind. He was brought in again by midnight, nearly dead, with his poor head all bruised and cut. The fever passed off in time but never the dullness--_that_ grew worse every day. We shall never know." Hans had heard all this before. More than once he had seen his mother, in hours of sore need, take the watch from its hiding-place, half-resolved to sell it, but she had always conquered the temptation. "No, Hans," she would say, "we must be nearer starving than this before we turn faithless to the father!" A memory of some such scene crossed her son's mind now; for, after giving a heavy sigh, and filliping a crumb of wax at Gretel across the table, he said: "Aye, mother, you have done bravely to keep it--many a one would have tossed it off for gold long ago." "And more shame for them!" exclaimed the dame, indignantly. "_I_ would not do it. Besides, the gentry are so hard on us poor folks that if they saw such a thing in our hands, even if we told all, they might suspect the father of----" Hans flushed angrily. "They would not _dare_ to say such a thing, mother! If they did--I'd----" He clenched his fist, and seemed to think that the rest of his sentence was too terrible to utter in her presence. Dame Brinker smiled proudly through her tears at this interruption. "Ah, Hans, thou'rt a true, brave lad. We will never part company with the watch. In his dying hour the dear father might wake and ask for it." "Might _wake_, mother!" echoed Hans, "wake--and know us?"