"Gracious maiden, permit me--" He saluted her on the cheek.
She watched him down the hill, and then turned on her heel, with an ejaculatory "Humph!--what manners!"
A young man is busily examining the water-worn rocks along the edge of a Tyrolese stream. Now and then he strikes them with a large sledge-hammer, eagerly snatches up something alive, and pops it into a basket. A wild _jödel_ from a mountain-side, half a mile off, makes him look up, and discovers the face of our old, but not very respectable, acquaintance, Franz.
The wild cry was uttered by a girl, who, in course of time, drew near him, knitting as she came along; for a Tyrolese woman never is idle.
"Can't you see, Theresa? Look at that nice basket of fish."
"How can you be about such nonsense, when every man deserving the name of a man is up in arms? I am quite ashamed of you!"
"Well, Theresa, you are not over-polite; but don't you know that some must plough, and some must sow, and some must handle the mattock and hoe?"
"Well, all I can say is, I think it very contemptible of you!"
"Why, now, Theresa, I call that very unkind! Do you know I was catching these smelts on purpose for you?"
"I would not give a pin for them; I am not dainty in my eating, and if I were, we have plenty of good trout in the Passeyr, to be caught at our own door."
"These would fetch a good price in Innsbruck market, I can tell you!"
"Then you had better carry them to Innsbruck market. Only, take care none of our Passeyrers ask you where you have been these three days."
"Why, Theresa, how bitter you are! You've never had a civil word to say to me since I beat Rudolf at bowls."
"Very likely you might; but I have forgotten all about it. People that attend to nothing but hammering stones for smelts, and playing bowls and ninepins, are likely to excel in such things."
"I do attend to a precious lot of things besides--"
"What? Oh, looking after the cows, and smuggling brandy, and selling bad horses for good ones--well, you do all that, I allow."
Franz did not answer her for a few minutes, but leapt actively from rock to rock along the stream; darting here and there on a smelt, and coming back with his hands full.
"There!" said he, throwing them into the basket; "perhaps your mother will accept them of me, if you won't; so I'll carry them to her, and we can walk along together. I've a word or two to say to you."