Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/187

 by the blow, she sank down on a truss of straw, and covering her tearful eyes with her apron, that she might not see the last agonies of the poor kids, she sobbed: “Miserable wretch that I am, what will become of me, what will that hardhearted man say when he comes home? I have now lost everything on earth that it had pleased heaven to bestow on me. But no,” she immediately went on, blushing, and almost shuddering at what she had said, “these poor things, though I loved them, are not all on earth that God has given me; have I not still Stephen and my children? Let me learn to do without the good things of this world, so long as my husband and children remain to me. The dear baby, I myself can still nourish; and for the three others, there is water in the well. Stephen will storm, he will beat me; well, it wontwon’t [sic] be for the first time, and will be soon over. I have no negligence to reproach myself with. In a few weeks the harvest will come on, and I shall pick up a little money by reaping, and in the winter I will spin till midnight; by degrees I shall scrape together enough to buy another goat, and then some kids will follow in due time.”

These reflections restored her courage, and she dried up her tears. As she now looked once more at the departed goat and kids, she saw at her feet a leaf that glittered and shone as bright as pure gold; she picked it up, and finding it also as solid and