"Then the landlord will have a mother, and that's much better than a wife," declared Hugo. "When Mrs. Lesa visits us some day, you will have to receive her as the landlord's mother and make a great banquet for her."
This idea was highly approved, and they immediately began to discuss how the festival should be celebrated. Alida invented the most astonishing plans, including the use of torches and rockets, until Jos declared:
"Our cows will jump over the fences in fright, and the people at the feast will have to run after them in their holiday clothes."
This idea brought bursts of laughter from all four, but they soon dropped the discussion and lay down to rest in the deep shade. Fanned by the leafy boughs overhead, they slept as well as if they had been lying on a prince's bed, and the fresh air and warm sunshine brought a ruddy glow to Hugo's pale cheeks.
That evening when the quartet wandered home, Hugo turned aside with Jos, and both boys disappeared in the stable.
"Now he's begun it too," mourned Stefeli. "I wonder what they have to do in there!"
"Just let him go," remarked Alida. "He's much happier when he's with Jos, like today; I've noticed that."
[CHAPTER XI]
ONCE AGAIN THE OLD SONG
AUTUMN came that year altogether too soon for the Lesa household. The children did not like to think their days on the pasture were coming to an end, that two of them would soon be living far away in a great city, another go up into the mountains, while Stefeli would stay behind, a sad and lonely little girl.