"Wilhelm," says the father, "take leave of your mother here, and be sure you conduct yourself so that whatever you do, you may be able to think:—'My father and mother may know this;' and then, please God! you will, one day, once more cross this threshold in peace."
The mother embraces the lad, and says, sobbing:—
"I have nothing more to say; your father has said all; but if you find a plant of Edelweiss on the Swiss mountains bring it home for me."
The youth walks on, and his brothers and sisters call after him, "Good bye, Wilhelm!" While the father, turning to his wife, says:—"Annette, I only mean to go as far as the boundary with Wilhelm and Lorenz. Pilgrim will go on with them to their first night's quarters. I shall return soon."
"Quite right, but don't hurry back, and above all, don't take the parting so to heart; and tell Lisle Faller, as you pass, that I wish her mother and her to dine here."
The father goes forward with his son, and the mother says to the old woman:—
"It is a great comfort to me, that young Faller goes with Wilhelm on his travels."
We can relate why the young mother with the white hair, begged her son to bring her home a plant of Edelweiss from his travels.
It is a hard, painful, almost cruel story, but the sun of love beams brightly, at last, through the clouds.