The Banner of the Upright Seven

camp, till I hold the reins! Heaven knows, I'll make you feel that you've got a wife!"

With that she rowed rapidly, without looking round at him again, towards her father's yard and home.

Karl, however, filled with triumph and bliss, called after her, "Good night, Miss Hermine Frymann; that tasted good."

Mrs. Hediger had told her husband nothing but the truth when she caused him to go out. She had merely saved up the message to use when she thought best, and then had done so at the right moment. A meeting really was held, a meeting of the Band of Seven, or of the Staunch, or of the Upright, or of the Lovers of Liberty, as they interchangeably called themselves. They were simply a circle of seven old and tried friends, all master-craftsmen, patriots, arch-politicians and stern domestic tyrants after the pattern of Master Hediger. Born, one and all, in the previous century, they, as children, had seen the downfall of the old régime, and then for many years had lived through the storm