Erick and Sally

ost

le on her bed, Erick woke up; Marianne, who had wa

she feels very happy, and looks down on you and watches to see whe

not open her eyes, then he sat down on a footstool and cried quietly. As long as his mother lay there he could not be made to leave her, and when she was carried out, then he

she told him on that morning, that it would be best for him if he were to go to school. In an instant Erick obeyed, took out his books, packed them in his bag and started on his way to school. So it went on from day to day, and gradually it seemed to Marianne that Erick grew more and more as he used to be; but the sunny, joyous face which he used to have had not yet returned,

n he came home, he found his piece of bread and his cup of milk ready on the table if Marianne was not there to give it to him. When she was there, she often said: "Go out a little to play with the children, Erick, it will be good for you and you wi

ows from those big fists would fall upon her back if she should be caught, she rushed over the field toward the hedge and into Marianne's little garden, almost throwing down Erick on her way. At this instant the quick-running Churi would have caught K

h her goal. When the latter had rested a little she came running back again, for she indeed had felt Erick's chivalrous service and she was very grateful to him. Sh

t play with you. I do not

e game. Come along!" Saying this, Kaetheli took

d held each other's hands. In the middle of the circle stood the excluded child. This child had to strike someone's hand at random and then there was a race around the circle to see who wou

play any more," cried

as stung him, or perhaps they play the same game where he used

hey were playing again with grea

he stood at a little distance from the organ grinder and listened with strained attention to all the melodies. When the man left, the boy went quietly toward the cottage,

opped, ran away and did not return. Once a number of wandering journeymen had passed by; they had sung loud and joyously their wander-songs, one after the other. Away was Erick, and one could see him far away, quietly following the singing men. Once trumpet blasts sounded across the meadow to the playing children-for one of Middle Lot was with the players in the army and was

look Erick's inactivity and his stubborn resistance to being moved. Kaetheli too had become impatient, for in the farthest corner of the goat-shed, whither she had crawled, she felt herself secure from being found, and now, all at once, she discovered that there was no

have the greatest fun, all at once you run away like a hare, or you stand there like a statue and

the boy had gone. Erick took a deep breath and

e done that. You have spoiled the game now four or five times-that is surely not kind of you, do you think it is?" They had by this time arrived a

emanded Kaetheli, rather huffed, for she could not yet get over the fact that sh

self. "Do you see, there is a beautiful song which my mother sang every day, and also on the last day, and I should so much like to hear that so

into pity. "You must not be sad on that account, for I can help you," she said readily. "I k

e words together; but I remember well the melody. Do yo

st sing on," encouraged

surprised, shook her head. "I never have heard that song, but perhaps we sing it, only a lit

s, green trees, you know, with

ow I am going to sing it to you." And with a fir

oses in t

ds are in

er it i

er it i

confidence that it must be it. But Er

g, there is no similarity b

rees are in the song," she said, "or perhaps, Erick, yo

rst there is a great feast, where they all come and throw dow

unt," Kaethel

haps

e of the count right away; now listen!"

on a hig

ked int

ship came

s did hoist

l, E

y: "Not at all, not a bit like it! Perhaps the s

heli, whose tender heart was filled with compassion. "

r her with great surprise, and wondered

all stood Ritz. "Get Sally, Ritz, but be quick," Kaetheli called up to him. That just suited Ritz, for he

o be found in the song, whether it was joyous or sad, and then she began to guess and to try whether it could be this one or that, but none seemed to fit according to the descriptions, and suddenly Kaetheli jumped up and exclaimed: "The evening bells are ringing

down. Edi had long since waited with his book to see whether the lamp would be lighted in the room, for his mother had forbidden him to read in the twilight. Ritz sat down to finish, with many a

tie, frightened, "now Sally will t

books and began her work in earnest. But she did not remain undisturbed for long, for the large amount of reading material whic

tle suited for you to read. Where

the mother, "what you intended t

songs. These two books she had found in her father's study and now she explained that

count you took that book from the piano. Erick wil

. She had, in the zeal of her intention, thought that these were some particular kind of songs, and she now looked with some confusion at the book in which only

d the reader. "You children are really terrible! At any rate you o

find the song Sally worked herself into such a state of excitement that the mother interfered. She explained to the child that they were not the kind of books where such a song could be found, and that the descriptions which Kaetheli had given were

she willingly packed together he