for all, kind and sympathetic, and to strive by her good deeds to
gain the love of her fellow-creatures.

A joyous family had lived in the little village school-house; though
they had poverty and want to fight against, these three happy human
beings did not consider this a misfortune, but a necessary evil of
life. They loved each other, and when the parents looked upon the
lovely, rosy countenance of their only child, they did not perceive
that their bread was hard and heavy, they did not miss the butter
and cheese without which the rich villagers seldom took a meal. And
when, on Sundays, Anna went with her parents to church, in the faded
red skirt, neat white body, and black bodice, which had been her
mother's wedding-dress, she heard the boys whisper amongst
themselves about her beauty and sweetness, and casting her eyes down
with timid blushes she did not perceive the jeering smiles of the
other girls who, though not as pretty, were proud that they were
richer and better dressed than the school-teacher's daughter.

But Death, in his inexorable manner, had disturbed this modest
happiness. In a year he took the schoolmaster Detzloff and his wife
from the little house which, to any one else, would have appeared a
pitiful hut, but which, to them, seemed a paradise. In one year Anna
became an orphan; she was entirely alone in the world, and, after
she had given to her dear departed ones the tribute of her sorrows
and tears, she had to arouse herself and create a new future. After
death only, the villagers became aware of the great worth of the
departed, they now admitted to the full the school-teacher's merits,
and were anxious to pay to the daughter the debt owing to the
father. As he had died partly from starvation, sorrow, and work,
they wished to prove themselves generous to his daughter, and