So Aunt Ruth sat down and listened patiently; but with an unbelieving manner which hurt the kindly German far more than she dreamed.
“Yes, I doubt not they are excellent children, as children go; but I have had little experience.”
Mr. Pickel smiled.
“Your tone indicates that you have still had all that you desire—”
“No, no; thee must not say that, nor think it,” interrupted the lady quickly. “They are my sister’s children. It is right that I should be bothered with them, as well as that thee should be. Thee has certainly had thy share of their care.”
“Please do not look at it in that light, dear Fräulein. It is not the care that I dislike; indeed, that I never feel. It is that you and your mother should misjudge my children, and not understand how really good and delightful they are. Fritzy, now—” Here Ruth intercepted a grateful glance which the child raised to his uncle’s face, and could not fail to be touched by it. “Fritzy is a wonderfully obedient and honorable child.”
“Fritzy” began to prick up his ears; but he let them droop, so to speak, at sound of his aunt’s expressive “Humph!” But he was very tired of the whole subject, and longed to make an end of it. It was already afternoon of that day which had opened with such bright anticipations of a new donkey friendship, and all he had been able to accomplish in the way of it was to stand sorrowfully in the doorway of the passage, where Uncle Fritz had bidden him remain, and sigh in sympathy with Don’s mournful bray. At that very moment the echo of it came to their ears, and the boy left his uncle to walk to the window and look out.
Young as he was, Fritzy still hated to make promises, for he had already learned by observation that it is a very difficult matter to keep them. But he suddenly determined to run the risk of one, thinking by that means to cut short this wearisome talk and his own imprisonment, as well as bring back the right kind of a smile to his pretty aunt’s face. So he walked toward her, watching her eyes intently, and was relieved to find them “talking” no longer, or only in a gentle way.
“Aunt Ruth, I won’t never fight anybody any more. Truly, never.”
“That is a rash thing to say, Fritzy; how about the ‘quickness inside of you?’” asked his guardian, cautiously.