In fact, Barefoot was quickly and deeply affected by every thing; her heart was of the tenderest emotion, but she was at the same time strong, and light-hearted as a child. She was, as Mariann had remarked at her first sleeping under the roof, of the quickest sensibility. Waking and sleeping, laughing and weeping, went hand in hand. Every experience and every emotion was deeply felt, but it was quickly over; and she was herself again.
She continued to weep.
“You give me a heavy heart,” whimpered Dami, “and it was heavy enough before, that I must go to find a home among strangers. You should have cheered me—instead of so——so——”
“Honest thinking is the best cheering,” said Barefoot—“that does not make one sad. But you are right. You have enough to bear, and a single pound laid upon a heavy load may break one down. I have been stupid; but come, I will see what the sun has to say, when the father stands again before it. No, that was not what I meant to say. Come—now you shall know where we must go to take leave. If you were only going a very short distance, you must still go to this place to take leave. I am also sad enough, that I shall have you no longer with me. No—I mean that I shall be no longer with you. I would not govern you as people say. Yes, yes! old Mariann is right. Alone is a terrible word. We do not at first learn its full meaning. So long as you were there, across the street,—even if I was a whole week without seeing you,—what did that matter? I could see you at any moment, and that was as well as though we had been together,—but now? Ah! well; you will not be out of the world. But I pray thee take care of thyself. Do not come to any harm. And if you tear your clothes, send them to me; I will still sew and mend for you. Now come,—now we will go to the—to the churchyard!”
Dami opposed this, and again, with the excuse that he was sad enough already, and that it would only make him worse, Barefoot yielded this point also. He took off his father’s clothes, and she packed them in the sack that she had once worn as a mantle when she took care of the geese, and upon which remained the name of her father. She charged Dami to send it back to her by the first opportunity.
The brother and sister walked on together, till a Hirlingen wagon came through the village. Dami hailed it, and packed his bundle upon it. Then he went hand in hand with his sister out of the village, while Barefoot sought to cheer him.
“Do you remember the riddle I gave you about the oven?”
“No!”
“Think,—what is the best thing about an oven? Try to remember.”
“No!”