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“One hundred dollars is little enough for the Bible,” said Everett; “but we shall not discuss its purchase now.”

“Yet thou wilt buy it if it is offered to thee by Brother Brandt?” Adolph Schneider asked, persistently pressing the subject of the sale.

Everett looked straight at the school-master, and his friendly eyes gave Gerson Brandt confidence.

“I would buy it if it was cheerfully offered by Mr. Brandt,” he replied.

The village fool aroused himself and stretched lazily. Then, taking from his pocket a little yellow gourd, he marked upon it with a big pocket-knife.

As Schneider and Everett left the school-house they saw that something unusual had happened, for a crowd was moving up the street. Women were leaning over fences. Children followed the crowd at a distance.

The Herr Doktor stood for a moment as if uncertain what to do. It was quite impossible for him to hasten, and he was of a phlegmatic nature not easily excited.

“Some one must be hurt,” Everett remarked. “I think they are carrying a man.”