Now and then Dame Brinker stepped noiselessly over the
threshold and listened, to be certain that her husband slept.
"What grand news it will be for him," she said, laughing, "when
he is strong enough to bear it. How I should like to put the
pouch and the stocking, just as we find them, all full of money,
near him this blessed night, for the dear man to see when he
wakens."
"We must get them first, Mother," panted Hans, still tugging away
at his work.
"There's no doubt of that. They can't slip away from us now,"
she answered, shivering with cold and excitement as she crouched
beside the opening. "Like enough we'll find them stowed in the
old earthen pot I lost long ago."
By this time Hans, too, began to tremble, but not with cold. He
had penetrated a foot deep for quite a space on the south side of
the tree. At any moment they might come upon the treasure.
Meantime the stars winked and blinked at each other as if to say,
"Queer country, this Holland! How much we do see, to be sure!"
"Strange that the dear father should have put it down so woeful
deep," said Dame Brinker in rather a provoked tone. "Ah, the
ground was soft enough then, I warrant.
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