The Two Baronesses Author:Hans Christian Andersen Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The Students' Daughter. HERMAN had drawn an amusing little picture in his sketch-book of the whole party as they were then dressed, and on ano... more »ther leaf a sketch of himself, as the seasick student — a picture that was very successful, on account of the resemblance. The conversation had taken another turn; the wind had fallen somewhat, but the rain, on the contrary, -poured down faster : the water ran in streams from the windows, down the walls, and along the floor in a sort of channel, which it had formed for itself. They were in the middle of their sporting stories, and Count Frederick related his last badger-hunt so vividly, that Herman, as he said, really thought he felt the charcoal creak in his boots. " Such animals I can shoot!" continued Frederick; " foxes, martens, and large birds of prey; but a stag, a roe — no ! I am not a true sportsman ! Only think of standing on the watch, waiting, lurking, and looking at the royal animal, springing by so light and hovering ; and then to send the ball hissing after it, to set the dogs on it, to see them catch and tear that shining, brown skin ; and then to see the expanding eyes of the animal! it is like a human being in the deepest affliction! I have seen it, and I threw away the gun; there was something in the animal's eyes that made me abashed and sad ! No, I would not be a sportsman, but a seaman ! it is a free and proud life ! it is something to wrestle with the wind and the storm, and to become master over them ! " " For my part," said Herman, " I am not fond of wrestling with the sea, neither in one way nor the other. I have had enough of it these two nights past; but with respect to seal- hunting, I have been once on such a tour; it was during avacation ! How strange we looked in our clothes ; much t...« less