"We will only do six to-day." "You really want me to come?" "An absence of three years, Uncle Ulrich, think of that, and a whole education to go through!" "Well! I won't refuse you, Jean; I am too delighted that you should have thought of me. I have even a second reason for agreeing to the journey and to thank you for it. I will tell you presently." He shut the window. In the silence of the woods Jean heard him call the old valet, who was second in command in Heidenbruch. "Pierre! Pierre! Ah! there you are! We are going for twelve days into the mountains. I take you with me. You will pack my bag; put it on your back with my nephew's bag. Take your shoes with the nails, your stick, and you will go in front to the halting-place, while Jean and I go to visit the cuttings. Do not forget my waterproof, nor my pocket medicine chest." Going into the house, the young man saw Uncle Ulrich, full of business and radiant, pass him, open the drawing-room door, go to the wall, take down a long object in copper on two nails, and go quickly upstairs again. "What are you taking away, uncle?" "My telescope." "Such an old one." "I cling to it, my friend; it belonged to my great uncle, General Biehler. It saw the back of the Prussians at Jena!" Half an hour later, in the meadow on the slope in front of the house was M. Ulrich, gaitered like Jean, with a soft hat, the telescope slung over his shoulder, his dog gambolling round him; old Pierre very dignified and solemn, carrying on his mountaineer's shoulders a great pack wrapped in linen and fastened by straps; then Jean Oberlé, bending over a staff-officer's map, which the others knew by heart, discussing the two ways to go--the way of the baggage and the way of the walkers. The discussion was short. The servant went on in front, bearing to the left to reach the village where they would sleep, while the uncle and nephew took a path to the middle of the mountain--in a north-easterly direction. "So much the better that it is a long way," said M. Ulrich, when they gained the shade of the wood. "So much the better. I wish it were for a lifetime. Two people who understand one another and go through the forest--what a dream!" He half shut his eyes, as painters do, and breathed in the mist with pleasure. "Do you know," he added, in the way he would have confided to him something delightful, "Do you know that we have had spring here for three days? There it is--that's my second reason!"