child? Come
here, Walter, directly minute!'

   "Want to go with father," said Walter, beginning to cry, for his father
had promised to take him with him the next time he went to the town,
and he had saved his pocket-money for the occasion.

   "Oh, let the boy come," said Tell. "William will stay with you, won't
you, William?"

   "All right, father," said William.

   "Well, mark my words," said Hedwig, "if something bad does not happen I
shall be surprised."

   "Oh no," said Tell. "What can happen?"

   And without further delay he set off with Walter for the town.

   In the meantime all kinds of things of which Tell had no suspicion had
been happening in the town. The fact that there were no newspapers in
Switzerland at that time often made him a little behindhand as regarded
the latest events. He had to depend, as a rule, on visits from his
friends, who would sit in his kitchen and tell him all about everything
that had been going on for the last few days. And, of course, when
there was anything very exciting happening in the town, nobody had time
to trudge up the hill to Tell's châlet. They all wanted to be in the
town enjoying the fun.

   What had happened now was this. It was the chief amusement of the
Governor, Gessler (who, you will remember, was

    not

   a nice man),
when he had a few moments to spare from the cares of governing, to sit
down and think out some new way of annoying the Swiss people. He was
one of those persons who

   "only do it to annoy,

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