“You give us splendid praise,” said Amrie.
“Yes, it is true,” said the old man, “though I say it to you. But, as I said, my wife is thoroughly good—almost too good—it displeases her if one does not immediately take her advice: she means so well that she thinks we do not know how good she is, if we do not imitate her. She cannot understand that the circumstances are unsuitable when we do not follow her. One thing remember; do things in your own way as you think right; that will please her. You will easily remark that she does not like to have one appear subject to her. Should any thing happen to go wrong, do not complain to your husband; nothing can be worse, than that a man should stand between his mother and her daughter-in-law. And the mother says, ‘I am nothing now; my daughter-in-law governs; even one’s own children forsake one in her old days.’ And the daughter-in-law says, ‘Now I know what you are; you let your wife be oppressed.’ I advise you if any thing of this kind happens, to tell me in secret, and I will help you. Say nothing to your husband; he has been a little spoiled by his mother. Only go on quietly, and come to me. I am your natural protector, and, indeed, related to you by a distant connection with your mother.”
He now sought to connect the different branches of his family, but he could not find the right threads, became tangled like a snarled skein of yarn, and concluded with, “You may believe it upon my word, though I cannot reckon it aright.”
The time had come when he gave away, not merely false groschens from his hoards, but it gave him pleasure to part with good honest money.
One evening he called Amrie to him and said, “Look, my girl, you are brave and sensible, but you do not know what men are. My John, indeed, has a good heart, but it may yet sometimes vex him that you came to him with nothing of your own. Here, take this, but let no living soul know from whence it came; say, that by your industry you have saved it. Here, take it.” He put into her hand a stocking well filled with crown dollars, and added, “I intended he should first receive them after my death; but it is better so; he will have it now, and think it came from you. Your whole history is so strange, so contrary to all probability, that it may well be possible that you possessed a secret treasure. Do not forget that there are two and thirty crown dollars; they are each worth a groschen more than common dollars. Lock it well up in the chest where you keep your linen, and take the key always with you. On Sunday, when the relations of the family are all collected, shake them out upon the table.”
Amrie took the stocking very reluctantly and said, “I am not willing to do this; if it is necessary, I think John is the person to receive this money.”
“It is necessary. John, however, may take it; but still, conceal it quickly. I hear John coming. Quick, wrap it in your apron. I believe John is jealous of me.”
They parted hastily from each other. The same evening the mother took Amrie into the store-room, and brought an apparently heavy sack out of a trunk, and said, “Pray untie that string for me.”
Amrie found it very difficult. “Wait, I will bring you the scissors; we will cut it.”
“No,” said Amrie, “I would not willingly do that. Have a little patience, I shall soon untie it.”