"No; at the very spot itself!" said Wolfgang, observing the place attentively. "Do you see yonder tree, which has been felled in by-gone times?" he continued, addressing the men, who pressed round him. "The lower part is wanting--it has been used for rails; and yonder--yes, it's a fact, I am not mistaken!--yonder stood the fence. Look you, here are some single, half-rotten portions of it." "But the field!" said Becher, alarmed. "Was this thicket," replied the German, "now, it is true, a chaos of woods and underbrush. The land, for that matter, seems very good!" "But we were to find land fit for the plough!" exclaimed Herbold, advancing, in real alarm. "You don't mean to tell us that this wilderness is the fifteen-acre field!" "I have never been here before," replied Wolfgang, quietly, "and must therefore examine the place first. But if your land has not been cultivated for fifteen years, you may rely, in case this really should not be it, that it will hardly look better than that which lies before you! But we will hope for the best! Look you, a road has once led through here, this tree has formerly been blazed, although the bark has almost grown together again. It will be best to leave the wagon with the women behind us, and go round this wilderness, first of all; if we can't find the houses, we may come upon the section line--for according to your deed the land has really been surveyed--then we shall know directly where we are and what we are about." "I doubt that!" said the shoemaker, to Schmidt. "One tree looks to me just like another, here; and if I were called upon, at this moment, to say from which direction we came here, I should have to guess!" "Well, I must admit, too," said Schmidt, "that so long as the roads here are in no better condition, so long I shall not wander far from the rest--for whoever loses himself is done for!" "Come along!" said the tailor; "there's a house to be searched for!" "Where is the house, then?" asked the shoemaker, quickly. "Well, that's just what they're searching for!" grinned the tailor. "Stupid as you are, you must know that!" "Hark ye," said the shoemaker, savagely, "drop your larks--none of us are in the humour to listen to your nonsense just now! But let us go along, too; I should like to know whether our guide has found the right way!"