"Out in the rain? No. I will not go," and he lay down again.

The other two drew him to his feet, and told him that it was the forest-keeper who was commanding them to leave the cabin.

"But where are we to go?" he asked. "We cannot sleep out in the rain."

"No, you are all to follow me to my house. I can have an eye over you there, and it will be less of an anxiety than to leave you to yourselves in this cabin."

They all pa.s.sed out, the triplets with Pixy keeping close to the forester and his lantern.

CHAPTER XII

A WELL-SPRING OF PLEASURE

They walked what seemed to the boys a long distance through the forest.

The rain had ceased, and the moon was trying to shed its rays through thin clouds, but in the dense shade the only light was the little circle upon the moist earth, given by the small lantern.

After a time a voice cried, "Who goes there?"

"Hans Hartman, my good friend," replied the forest-keeper.

"All right!" and another forest-keeper stood before them, much surprised to see seven instead of one.

"Have you captured poachers?"

"No, the older ones are gypsies," for in the dim light of the cabin he was quite sure that they belonged to that army of rovers.

"Are we then so dark?" asked the basket-maker, amused at the mistake.

"All animals look dark at night."

"Except a white cow," suggested the butcher.

"But, Hartman, you have three boys with you," continued the forest-keeper. "So young and yet night-strollers!"

"No, these boys are all right. They have been pa.s.sing their holiday in Frankfort, and are on their way home. They got lost in the forest, the rain came up and they took shelter in the abandoned cabin. One of them tells me that he is the son of Forest-keeper Krupp."

The forester said good-night, and they walked on for some distance and at length came to a clearing in the forest. Looking up, they could see the unchangeable stars, the same that looked down upon Mother Earth when she was fresh from the hands of her Creator. A tinkling brook lay across their path, which the forester cleared at a bound, and the three apprentices followed. The triplets halted to view the situation, but Pixy sprang across, then looked back as if to say, "It is nothing. Just give a spring and you are on this side," and they ran back, gave a long jump and were over.

A short distance beyond was the forest-keeper's cottage, a comfortable place for weary travelers on a wet night.

"I cannot give you all a sleeping place in my house," he said, "but can make room for the three smaller boys. You larger ones can go to the straw shed. You will find plenty of clean, dry straw, and there you can sleep until morning and shall have a good breakfast before you leave.

But before we part for the night, you must turn your pockets inside out that I may see that you have no matches or anything else that will strike a spark."

They agreed willingly, and he then led the way to the shed, took from a feed box a number of coa.r.s.e sacks for covering and said good-night.

"We are thankful to you for giving us this comfortable place to sleep,"

said the blacksmith. "We thought it harsh treatment to make us leave the cabin, but you have given us better quarters and we are truly obliged to you. You are certainly good to us."

"Yes, I try to be good to everybody, especially to hard-working boys out on their holiday, when I find that they are not common tramps who do not wish to work."

He left the shed and the boys followed him to his dwelling, and to a room adjoining the living-room.

"There are two straw-beds on this bedstead," he said. "One can be taken off and put on the floor, and one of you can sleep upon it, while the other two can have the one on the bedstead."

"I will take the one on the floor. Then Pixy can sleep with me," said Fritz.

"Suit yourselves about that, only take off your wet clothes, shoes and stockings, and my wife will put them about the kitchen fire, and they will be dry by morning."

The boys hurriedly disrobed, and the forest-keeper bade them good-night, and left the room.

Paul and Franz crept jubilantly under the coverings of the bed, and Fritz was equally glad for the piece of carpet which the forest-keeper had given him in lieu of a quilt, and with Pixy close to him, he was happier than many a king.

"Oh, it was good luck for us that Mr. Hartman came and took us away from that miserable place," exclaimed Paul the moment the door closed.

"I never was gladder in my life," affirmed Franz. "Now we feel safe, and are dry and warm and in good beds where we can sleep well."

"And whom have we to thank for it but the young gentleman from Odenwald--my Pixy," reminded Fritz. "If he had not barked, the forest-keeper would not have known we were there. Oh, we are so comfortable here, aren't we, Pixy? And we have you to thank for it."

Early the next morning the forester's wife went to the kitchen to make the wood fire on the hearth brighter, that the boys' garments might be thoroughly dry; for she had planned that they should sleep as long as they wished, and she would give the three apprentices their breakfast first that they might continue their journey. She made coffee and warm bread, and was putting them upon the table when she saw them come up from the brook, where they had washed hands and faces and combed their hair. Refreshed by rest and sleep, they looked much better than when the triplets first saw them.

The forest-keeper, who had risen early to attend to matters about the place, came in just as they finished their breakfast.

"I hope you slept well and have enjoyed your coffee," he said kindly.

"We enjoyed both heartily, Forest-master, and thank you for your goodness to us."

"Forest-master, you say? I am not that but only one of the keepers."

"We would do you honor, which is our reason for calling you by that name."

"But you do not honor one by giving him a higher t.i.tle than he is ent.i.tled to. Instead it humiliates him, or he thinks you are making sport of him."

"We did not mean it in either way, Mr. Hartman."

"I believe you, so we will not say anything more about it."

"Then, good-bye, Mr. Forester, and we thank you and your wife for your goodness to us. We will long remember that coffee. Tell the boys good-bye for us. They were afraid of us, but we meant them no harm.

Good-bye! Good-bye!"

The forester's wife now prepared breakfast for her husband and herself.

The blazing fire upon the hearth was doing its duty in bringing the boys' clothing to the state desired while they were sleeping the sleep of tired boyhood. They did not waken until near noon, but this would allow them to reach home before night; and they enjoyed their first meal of the day, arrayed in their dry and neatly-brushed garments, and refreshed by bathing their hands, faces and feet in the brook.

The day was bright and delightfully cool after the rain, and in fine spirits they bade the forest-keeper's wife good-bye as they set out for home.