"From Grenwitz, mother."
"From Grenwitz? Is it possible? That is where I came from. I beg your pardon, sir, are you on a visit there?"
"Not exactly. I teach the boys."
"Is that possible?"
"Why not?"
"Well, the candidates for the ministry generally look very differently."
Oswald laughed.
"And you are walking the long way quite alone, mother?"
"I have not a soul who could walk with me; my husband died ever so long ago, and my boys died and my girls died--they all died."
The old woman smoothed the folds of her dress on her knee as if she meant to say: All buried, and the earth smoothed down over them, and there is an end of them all.