For some reason Ivan suddenly decided to tell her.
"I fell through the window. This one I got yesterday"—he touched it—"this one I got Monday; this one I got last week." He revealed another that she had not discovered, lurking behind his left ear.
"But surely you didn't fall through the window as often as that!" gasped Miss Clarkson. The small boy surveyed her wearily.
"But yes," he murmured, in unconscious imitation of Praulein. "I must fall through the window every day when the sun shines."
Miss Clarkson held him off at arm's-length and stared at him.
"In Heaven's name, why?" she demanded.
Ivan explained patiently. Miss Clarkson listened, asked a few questions, gave way to a moment of uncontrollable emotion. Then she called together the other children, and again heard the story. It came disjointedly from each in turn, but most fluently, most picturesquely, most convincingly, from the lips of Augustus Adolphus Schmidtt and the fair Josephine. When they had finished their artless recital, Miss Clarkson sought Fraulein von Hoffman. That afternoon, beside the big open fire in the children's winter play-room, Fraulein von Hoffman addressed her young charges in words brief but pointed, and as she talked the mission of Ivan at Locust Hall took on a new significance, clear to the dullest mind.
"You were very cruel to Ivan—ach, most cruel! And he is not to fall any more, anywhere, on anything, you understand," explained the German, clearly. "He has no tasks any more. He is but to be happy, and you should love him and take care of him, because he is so small. That is all."
Ivan exhaled a sigh of deep contentment. Then he looked around him. The great logs on the andirons were blazing merrily. In the hands of Josephine a corn-popper waved above them, the corn inside burning unobserved as she lent her ears to Fraulein's earnest words. Ten apples, suspended on strings, swung from the mantel, spinning slowly as they roasted. It was a restful and agreeable scene to the eyes of little Ivan.
Josephine felt called upon to defend her friends.