Before this image, on the right, was the deep grave, at the exact spot where, years ago, they had buried our mother's two children who had died. A mound of freshly-dug earth lay on either side of the grave.
Here the bearers let the coffin down to the ground and stripped it of all its finery; and it slid down into the pit as poor as it had left the cottage in the wood.
"Thou to-day, I to-morrow; and so I am content," murmured father.
Then they cast clods of earth into the grave and went away, went to the inn, tasted bread and wine and talked of everyday things. When it was twelve o'clock and, according to custom, the bells began to toll once more, as a last farewell to the departed, the men and women of the forest set out to return to their mountain valley.
We who belonged to one another sat together for a while longer and spoke sadly of the time that must now come and how to arrange for it. Then we took leave of one another: my father and brothers and sisters went home to the cottage in the wood, to live and die where mother had lived and died.
[20] Fasting or abstaining from flesh-meat on Saturdays, in honour of Our Lady, is a custom, an act of voluntary discipline, prevailing almost exclusively in the German and Austrian Highlands.--_Translator's Note._
[21] Hella, daughter of Laki and goddess of the dead, is the Persephone of Norse mythology.--_Translator's Note._
In the text version italics are represented with _underscore_ and small caps with ALL CAPS.
In the caption to the Frontispiece, the artist is named as Milicent Norris, elsewhere Melicent is used.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. The following corrections have been made:
Table of Contents: who went to prison -> period added after prison
p. 16: in the Murztal; -> Murztal changed to Mürztal
p. 18: bellettristic newspapers -> bellettristic changed to belletristic
p. 27: Sünders was printed with a breve mark above the u instead of ü
p. 76: something about him. -> added closing quotation mark after him.
p. 154: liked carved -> liked changed to like
p. 171: It can't be possible---- Why -> added exclamation mark after possible----
p. 172: as Grosshöfen -> as changed to at
p. 174: schoo teacher -> schoo changed to school