At last Wolfgang spoke. "Grandfather, now I have it. In your forest garden are your grandson trees. The seed comes from the trees that you planted. And now I know something. I know it quite positively, but I can keep it to myself. Father always says that one should not be too hasty in talking of important things that one intends to do; it is best to sleep on them first. If one is of the same mind the next morning, it is all right. I shall tell it you tomorrow, but not to-day. My idea is a good one, and I think it will please you as much as it does me." We took up our path, and stopped where some woodcutters were rolling the trunk of a tree down the mountainside; it bounded over young trees in its way, and Wolfgang said. "Won't it crush them?" "Oh, pshaw!" said a wood-cutter, "They'll straighten themselves again. We have to do the same thing ourselves." We reached the spot where my woodmen were at work. Wolfgang at once took hold of an axe and helped them lustily. But here, too, he showed his good judgment. He was not hasty, as novices usually are, and soon succeeded in copying the manner of the workmen. We kept up our walk until we reached the mountain lake. The last time I had been in this spot was twenty years ago, with Gustava; and now it seemed as if I were there for the first time in my life. There lay the lake, surrounded by steep, pine-covered walls; not a sound was heard, save at times the roaring of the trees, and the solemn beating of the waves against the shore. The sun shone on the water, and its ripples sparkled like so many glittering diamonds. "Do you come here often?" asked Wolfgang. "No; the last time I was here was with grandmother, twenty years ago." It went hard with me to leave the lake. Who knows whether I shall live to return there again? It will ever remain unchanged; for generation after generation shall come here, as to a shrine, and yield itself up to the mysterious influence of the place. When we at last started to leave, I was often obliged to turn and look back. I constantly felt that now it must be full of its awful beauty, and that I had seen it for the last time. It was towards evening when I reached the house. I had not been so tired for a long time; for climbing forest-clad mountains, while excited by emotions, be they ever so joyous, is apt to exhaust one. But I was looking forward into a happy future. When I awoke on the following morning, Wolfgang stood at my bedside, and said: "Grandfather, it has rained during the night; our plants are thriving beautifully. Now I can tell you--I have determined to become a forester." I had, on the previous day, explained to Wolfgang a beautiful provision of nature; how, when, through accident, the growth of the main trunk of the pine-tree is interfered with, a side branch becomes converted into the main trunk. None of my sons had become foresters, and now Julius and Wolfgang were side-branches that made up for it.