Behind her came the Herr Professor, Franz and Otto, bearing books, old weapons and each a purse of gold.
"Now, the maids," cried Marianne. "Here, Gretchen, oh, that is fine!" for the rosy-cheeked girl laid on the pile her peasant necklace of old coins.
Elise, the other, gave the gold pins with which she fastened her headdress.
"And the Gracious Frau," they said, glancing at Madame von Stork, "can give half our wages."
While they talked, in came Ludwig and Pauline. With them was a tiny child, bearing in her dimpled, chubby hands an earthen pot or bank in which people save money. Ludwig led her to the table.
"For the dear Fatherland," she lisped, and she laid her little offering with the rest.
Ludwig and Pauline added theirs, the one, gold, the other, linen, silver and ornaments.
For a moment there was silence, then the Herr Professor stepped to the table. His eye glanced from Bettina's shaven head to the bank of the tiny Ernchen. Then he held his hands above the gifts.
"Dear Father in Heaven," he said, "bless the offerings of great and small, rich and poor, to the use of the dear Fatherland, and let truth and rightousness prosper."
"Amen," said all the "Stork's Nest."