Ascension Day was very nearly there again, and with it, the completion of my bargain. But--it was like my luck!--just before the last evening, my thread gave out entirely. All my recollections, all the books which I could get hold of, all the little men and women whom I met were exhausted, drained, pumped dry beyond all hope. I implored my brother and sisters: "To-morrow is the last evening; make me a present of it!" There was a general outcry: "No, no, no presents! You got your Ascension cake!" Even the goats bleated their approval. The next day, I went about like a lost sheep. Then the thought suddenly came to me: "Deceive them! _Invent_ something!" But my conscience at once stepped in and cried aloud: "What you tell must be real! You really had the cake!" Nevertheless, an event occurred in the course of that day which made me hope that, in the heat of the excitement, it would release me from my duty. My brother Jakoberle lost his Zeitzerl. He went this way and that over the heath, he went into the wood and, crying and calling, hunted for the goat. But, at last, he brought her home, late in the evening. We ate our porridge quietly and went to our cribs; and a story was expected of me. All was silent. The listeners waited eagerly. The goats clashed their teeth together as they chewed the cud. "Very well, they shall have their story," said I. I reflected. I began: "There was once a great, great wood. And everything in the wood was dark. No little birds sang: only the screech-owl's cry was heard. But, even though the other birds had sung, all the boughs and all the leaves on the trees wept thousands and thousands of tears. In the middle of this wood is a heath, silent as the graveyard; and he who goes over it and does not turn back is never seen again. Once upon a time, two knees went over this heath; and inside those knees was blood." "Jesus Mar...!" gasped the elder of my little sisters; and all three crept under their coverlets. "Yes, two knees with blood inside them," I continued, "and they passed over the heath towards the dark wood, like a lost soul. But, all at once, the two bloody knees...." "I say, I'll give you my blue trouser-belt if you stop!" whimpered my brother in his fear and hid still deeper in the coverlet. "The two bloody knees stopped," I continued, "and on the ground lay a stone as white as a winding-sheet. Then two flickering lights appeared between the trees; and thereupon four more knees, _all with blood_--hovered to the same place...." "I'll give you my new pair of shoes if you stop!" Jakoberle panted in his trough and, for sheer terror, drew Zeitzerl to him by her beard. "And so they all six together passed through the dark wood and out upon the heath and over the oat-field to our house ... and here into the stable...."