"You need not weep--I have done enough of it myself, already," said she. "But I knew it--you are a good child, and you would not be so cruel as to die before me. Get up and pick up my spindle. Have you eaten anything, Carl? You must be hungry." When Carl told her that he did not wish for anything, she replied, "Indeed, I have nothing but cold boiled potatoes. Now, do tell me, how did it seem when you were dead? You surely thought of me at the last moment? Tell me, did you not last night at three o'clock, wherever you were, say to yourself, 'Mother, I am not dead: I shall soon be with you--I will come soon--I will come soon?" Carl answered that he had really uttered those very words at the time mentioned. "That is right," said the old woman. She arose from her seat, took her son by the hand, and went on to say, "Now, come up into the village with me. Let us go with these gentlemen. Major, I thank you for the honor of your visit. I suppose I may go along with you?" We returned homewards. It was already known through the whole village, that the young man who had been lost and so sincerely deplored had returned. Friends poured forth from every doorway, while from the windows cries of "Welcome Carl!" were heard. On our way we met Marie, carrying a bundle of clover on her head. She threw her bundle away and hurried towards Carl; but when she came up to him she suddenly stopped, as if frightened. "Good-day, Marie. I am glad that you, too, have come to bid me welcome," said Carl. He extended both his hands to her, and she took hold of them, but did not utter a word. We walked on, and when I turned to look back, I saw Marie sitting on the bundle of clover, with her face buried in her hands. Rothfuss was the jolliest in the party. "Now one can see how untruthful the world is," he exclaimed. "Did not every one say how much he would give if only Carl were alive! He is here, now, and is alive again, and what do they give? Nothing. One ought not to do people the favor to die; anything in the world but death." We reached the house. Carl's mother walked up to my wife and said, "Madame Waldfried, here he is--my son Carl. Just as he has come back to all that is good, so will Ernst surely return. They were born on the same day--do you remember? There was a great storm at the time; and the nurse came directly from your house to mine. And at that very moment the lightning struck the tree that stands behind my house and tore it to pieces; and then the nurse said, 'This boy will see something of war.' "You did not believe in it, but it came to pass, nevertheless. Down in the valley there is a spring, and a mother's heart is like a spring, for it flows by day and night. Your Ernst--my Ernst--will return again." No one dared reply, but with Ernst everything was different.