cold on the next four, and minced on the sixth, with sippets of toast
round the edge of the dish. Sometimes it was only a bird (as on the
cover of this book), and then Hedwig would say, "Mark my words, this
fowl will not go round." But it always did, and it never happened that
there was not even a fowl to eat.

   [Illustration: Frontispiece]

   In fact, Tell and his family lived a very happy, contented life, in
spite of the Governor Gessler and his taxes.

   Tell was very patriotic. He always believed that some day the Swiss
would rise and rebel against the tyranny of the Governor, and he used
to drill his two children so as to keep them always in a state of
preparation. They would march about, beating tin cans and shouting, and
altogether enjoying themselves immensely, though Hedwig, who did not
like noise, and wanted Walter and William to help her with the
housework, made frequent complaints. "Mark my words," she would say,
"this growing spirit of militarism in the young and foolish will lead
to no good," meaning that boys who played at soldiers instead of
helping their mother to dust the chairs and scrub the kitchen floor
would in all probability come to a bad end. But Tell would say, "Who
hopes to fight his way through life must be prepared to wield arms.
Carry on, my boys!" And they carried on. It was to this man that the
Swiss people had determined to come for help.

   [Illustration: PLATE II]

   Talking matters over in the inn of the town, the Glass and Glacier, the
citizens came to the conclusion that they ought to appoint three
spokesmen to go and explain to Tell just what they wanted him to do.

   "I don't wish to seem to boast at all," said Arnold of Sewa, "but I
think I had better be one of the three."

   "I was thinking," said Werner Stauffacher, "that it would be a pity
always to be chopping and changing. Why not choose the same three as
were sent to Gessler?"

   "I don't desire to be unpleasant at all," replied Arnold of Sewa, "but

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