according to the habit of all liars.

'Business leads you to Mittwalden?' was the next question.

'Mere curiosity,' said Otto. 'I have never yet visited the

principality of Grunewald.'

'A pleasant state, sir,' piped the old man, nodding, 'a very

pleasant state, and a fine race, both pines and people. We reckon

ourselves part Grunewalders here, lying so near the borders; and the

river there is all good Grunewald water, every drop of it. Yes,

sir, a fine state. A man of Grunewald now will swing me an axe over

his head that many a man of Gerolstein could hardly lift; and the

pines, why, deary me, there must be more pines in that little state,

sir, than people in this whole big world. 'Tis twenty years now

since I crossed the marshes, for we grow home-keepers in old age;

but I mind it as if it was yesterday. Up and down, the road keeps

right on from here to Mittwalden; and nothing all the way but the

good green pine-trees, big and little, and water-power! water-power

at every step, sir. We once sold a bit of forest, up there beside

the high-road; and the sight of minted money that we got for it has

set me ciphering ever since what all the pines in Grunewald would

amount to.'

'I suppose you see nothing of the Prince?' inquired Otto.

'No,' said the young man, speaking for the first time, 'nor want

to.'

'Why so? is he so much disliked?' asked Otto.

'Not what you might call disliked,' replied the old gentleman, 'but

despised, sir.'

'Indeed,' said the Prince, somewhat faintly.

'Yes, sir, despised,' nodded Killian, filling a long pipe, 'and, to

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