The bedroom of the two younger brothers was exactly opposite that of Nicodemus, who took the bed of the absent Benedict. Two or three times in the night he got up, and went to listen at Wally's door; she talked and wandered a good deal, and once Nicodemus could clearly understand that she was speaking of a vulture. "Ah," thought he, "she too will have seen the vulture when she came up, and the fright comes back to her in her dreams." Early in the morning, before breakfast even, the restless Leander was up and out; he did not come home till nearly mid-day. "Well, how is she getting on?" he asked as he came in. "Just the same; she doesn't come to herself at all, and she's always in dread of people who, she thinks, want to take her away." Leander scratched his head behind his ear. "Then I can't shoot yet. Only think now--there's the vulture outside still sitting on the roof." "Never!" "Ay, when I went out this morning, I couldn't see him anywhere; then I thought, he's flown away, and I went after him for nearly three hours. Then when I get home, there he is, sitting quietly on the roof again." "Well," said Nicodemus, "that's a thing that might make one really uneasy, if one happened to be superstitious." "Ay, indeed. One might almost think of the phantom maidens of Murzoll, and that they meant to play me a rogue's trick." "God be praised!" said a rough deep voice, and Benedict the second brother, who had been away on a journey, now walked in. "Ay, God be praised thou'rt back again," cried his brothers together. "What's the news? What's thou been doing?" "Oh, nothing much; they've only sent me from Herod to Pilate again down in the Court-house, and crammed me with half-promises. I only know that all Oetzthal, man and beast of all three genders, may break neck and limb over the road here before we get the path." The speaker threw off his knapsack discontentedly and seated himself on the bench by the stove. "Is there anything to eat?" he said. "Directly," said Nicodemus, who did the cooking himself, and he fetched in the soup. He also brought a bowl of milk, and took it in to the sick girl; Leander's eye followed him enviously. Benedict was hungry and fell to on the soup without observing what his brother had done: Nicodemus soon returned, and silently, like all peasants, who seem to fear when performing the solemn act of eating that they will get out of time if they speak, the three spooned up the soup in a measured rhythmical movement, so that neither of them should get more nor less than his share. When they had eaten, the weary Benedict lighted his pipe and stretched himself comfortably on the bench.