“Won’t you please tell me what the lesson is?” asked Katrina, very softly.
The lady looked into the great searching eyes and answered: “They will teach you that under the power of love, or goodness, even the simplest, homeliest thing may be transformed, that is to say changed, into a thing of beauty. This picture of which I speak represents Elizabeth on her errands of mercy. She is carrying a basket of food to the poor of Eisenach when her husband meets her on the way. He wishes to know what she carries in her basket, and lifts the top to see. On looking in he beholds, not bread, with which she had started on her way, but exquisite and fragrant crimson roses,—such roses, my dear, as these.”
With this the speaker stooped and kissed Katrina on the forehead; while at the same moment the child caught sight of a small, silver Maltese cross shining on the lady’s breast.
“Now, Katrina, we must not keep the others waiting. Come with me; I want my good friends over here to know such a dear little castle maiden.” Whereupon the lady led the way to where her two companions stood. Both Mrs. Shaler and her son, when Katrina was introduced, and made them a quaint and pretty curtsy, showed much pleasure; while the former whispered something about the dear, old-fashioned child. To the little girl’s delight, she found that all three of her new acquaintances spoke her own language well. They had spent several years in Germany, and Mr. Robert Shaler had only lately taken a degree at Leipsic.
“You will go with us, won’t you, dear? Your father will be willing, I am sure.” The lady, as she spoke, looked questioningly toward Rudolf, who, with a bunch of keys swinging in his hand, had just come out to meet them and show them through the castle.
“But Fritz!” the child protested as her father, having given his consent, selected one of the keys, with which he unlocked the iron gates.
“Who is Fritz?” the lady asked.
“He’s my comrade,” replied Katrina; “and he has waited a long, long time to see the castle. He’s had so many chances; but he said he wouldn’t go inside until I could see it with him. What would he think if I should go without him!”
“Then, if you and Fritz have agreed to go together, you must surely carry out your promise; so we will take him with us.”
“But Fritz isn’t here,” and there was a look of distress in the child’s usually sunny face. “He lives down there in Eisenach.”