"I would have taken it to my uncle Franz the huntsman," answered Philip; "but I am glad to have found it for His Highness, because he was kind to my mother." "Kind to your mother? When?" asked Count Maurice. "On the day my little brother was buried," answered Philip. "You told her that the Americans were not cruel. You made her cry, and she has been better ever since." "A small matter for gratitude!" said Count Maurice. "I remember now. Your father was a recruit. But, my boy, you have done me a great service. This picture is very dear to me. What shall I do for you in return?" "Give him a gold-piece," said Count Victor; "I dare say he would like to spend it at the fair." "I do not ask any reward," said Philip, blushing; "only, if I might make so bold—if Your Highness would condescend so far—" "Oh, you need not make any apologies," said Count Maurice, good-humouredly. "My Highness is no such very grand personage if you come to that, since my whole domain is not very much bigger than your father's farm. But what can I do to give you pleasure?" "If Your Highness would come to our house again and tell my mother more about America," answered Philip. "What you said the other night did her so much good. Even Brother Gotthold has never been in America, though he is going some day. If Your Highness would but visit us again—" "I will certainly do so, and that very soon," said Count Maurice. "Meanwhile, do me the favour to spend this gold-piece for anything you may fancy. Nay, you must not refuse. That is not gracious.—The youngster has an independent spirit," he observed to his brother as they turned away and left the churchyard. "There are plenty more like him," answered Count Victor. "The spirit of independence is in the very air nowadays; and if it is so now, how do you think it will be when the men come home from America? Our countrymen are not all blockheads. They will learn what the Americans are fighting about." "A good many will not come back," observed count Maurice. "They are deserting by hundreds at a time, I hear, and the country-people are kind to them and afford them shelter and food." "And small blame to them! Who would not do the same, treated as these poor villagers have been? For my part, I would like to emigrate to America myself, settle on a farm in the wilderness, and follow the laws of Nature among her savage children." "Or have the laws of Nature follow you in the shape of a sound ague or a country fever," said Count Maurice, laughing, "or perhaps furnish a spectacle to her savage children in their own peculiar manner." "As well that as the aimless life one lives now—a slave to court formalities and royal etiquette, or, at the best, dancing attendance on old Fritz and observing his humours." "I would rather be a slave to court formalities than to a Mohawk Indian," said Count Maurice.