The thought of never seeing Nonnenwald again gave him for the present little concern. He had no near relatives; both his brothers had been killed in the Seven Years' War, into which they had been forced as he had been into his late situation. He could not be expected to feel very much loyalty toward his sovereign. No; he would make a home in this New World for himself and his family—such a house as he could see from his window on the other side of the river. He would buy a cow or two, and—But here the cows began to multiply themselves unaccountably, and the landgrave of Hesse to appear on the scene in the shape of a fat pig urgently begging not to be sold to Joses Dandy. In short, Caspar fell sound asleep in the midst of his day-dreams, and awoke mightily refreshed and able to take as reasonable a view of matters as his friend could desire. The next day he was taken out for a drive, and the next he crept out for a little walk round the garden, leaning on the arm of his faithful nurse and accompanied by Kitty, whose delight at the recovery of her friend was unbounded. She had quite made up her quarrel with Recompense Joake, though they now and then had a little passage-at-arms. Caspar found much to admire and wonder at, and his companions had enough to do to answer his questions. The walk did him no harm, and the next day he was able to go down to the river-side. Caspar now gained strength rapidly, and began to try his hand at little bits of work. He made a fine cradle for Kitty's doll. He mended all the hinges about the place, and treated a case of complicated disorder in the head of Deborah's spinning-wheel to the admiration of everybody. He took lessons in English, and read all the books in the house, and told stories about things in the old country, till Kitty clapped her hands with delight, and Recompense declared that if it were not a sin to repine, he should feel to be discontented at having seen so little of the world. Nay, it is said that worthy was actually heard to laugh aloud, thereby contradicting the notion prevalent among his friends that he did not know how to perform that operation.