She
was weeping--but in the midst of her tears was she also praying for her
son. "Oh, good Lord," she said, "protect my child from the dangers of
the world. Let him not again sin against thy laws. Be thou to him a
shield, a fortress of defence, and let him love thy word and law.
Preserve him, I pray thee, to me good and pure, and let my eyes behold
my child again, ere they are closed in death."
Hans was deeply moved by these words of his poor forsaken mother, and he
also prayed. He prayed that her hopes might be fulfilled; and that he
might be a comfort and a blessing to her old age; and he said to
himself, that he would henceforth lead a life of usefulness and peace;
and so he went forth, strong in purpose, yet full of tenderness and
love.
After this parting, many years passed over Frau Gensfleisch's head ere
she beheld her son again; and few and far between were the tidings of
him that reached her cottage. Long and weary years were they to her; and
the hope so long deferred of seeing him again made, indeed, her heart
grow sick. Many and many a time would she go on foot into the town to
make inquiries of Father Gottlieb as to whether aught had been heard of
the absent one; and if by chance she was told of some traveller who had
come into the town from the south, she would go there though ever so
weak and weary, and never rest until she had found the stranger out, to
question him herself about all the youths whom he might have fallen in
with, in the hope that her Hans might have been one of them.
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