CHAPTER XLIX.
Thoma was not curious to learn why Peter was talking with his mother so long, nor would it have given her pleasure had she known, for he whispered:
"Mother, hereafter you mustn't let father roam around the world this way, and I'll help you keep him at home. We've helped him through, and that's enough. He must be quiet now, and not keep people gaping at him."
The mother looked at Peter sadly, as though looking at a stranger. Peter understood the look to mean something quite different, and continued confidingly:
"We've got the upper hand now, mother; but we won't make a noise about it. Before, you weren't accounted anybody; neither was I. 'Twas always the farmer and Thoma; we two were never spoken of. Now help me. You can do it smoothly as a wife can, and I'll be quiet about it too. Not a soul shall notice that I control the farm. But, on the other hand, you must see to it that he doesn't roam around any more. Of course he's told you that he lost a great deal of money in stocks. However, that's past and over with. We won't say a word of reproach to him about it, but I'll guarantee that he shan't squander any more."
"Is our whole house bewitched?" said the mother, speaking her thoughts aloud--"Is our house no longer a home? Where shall I go?"
"Mother, you mustn't talk so, nor look at it that way. I am here, and you shall see what I'll do. Good fortune has followed us for your sake. Wherever I've been, people say, 'Yes certainly, Landolin must be helped out of his trouble, for Johanna's sake.'"
"Not for my sake," exclaimed his mother. "Your father is innocent, and he proved himself so; nothing is due to me."
"Of course not, and everything is all right. And besides, now let me tell you something. That Tobias is an unfaithful rascal. I shall only keep him through harvest; then I'll send him away. He may claim that it was he who lied father out of the scrape, but that won't help him; on the contrary he must learn that we don't fear him. Father was acquitted at the trial, and no appeal can be taken from that. I asked the lawyer."
After an astonished silence his mother asked,