"Quietly, quietly! I am coming to that," her husband continued in the same tone. "You know that last fall I was up on the Simplon where my cousin Lorenz Lesa lives. He has a farm up there with a few fine cows. It is a small place but everything is kept in excellent order. I took quite a liking to it, and the boy must go there. He'll come to his senses when he sees how happy and contented other boys are with such a life."
"Is it really possible you are going to send our boy away?" lamented his wife. "And high up into the mountains? It must be dreadfully lonesome up there. I can scarcely imagine how it is. I do not know your cousin or his wife. How will they take to a boy sent to them as a good for nothing, whom his parents could not manage? It is as though our Vinzi had become a criminal and was sent into exile."
"You need not get so wrought up about it, my dear," he began. "I am not doing this to punish him, but to bring him up properly. Cousin Lorenz is a good and just man, and will not ill-treat the boy. And Cousin Josepha is an altogether worthy woman who is rearing three boys it is a pleasure to look upon. I have seen them in the midst of their cows and I never heard such yodeling, such a cracking of whips, such joking. They acted as if they were out for a holiday. Our boy will learn from them, nothing can be better than the farm."
Many anxious questions filled her mind, but she knew she could do nothing more. Vinzi must go; that was settled, and she knew of no other place to send him. She only asked her husband how soon he would go; surely they must ask whether the cousins would take him. Then her husband explained that it had been settled between them the fall before that Vinzi was to go to them for the summer and that in return, one of their sons was to spend a summer in their home. It would do the mountain boy good to see a new place and different ways of working, and the other boys might wake up Vinzi. Mr. Lesa added that he believed a man in the valley was planning to drive his cattle over the mountain and that would be a good opportunity to send Vinzi with him.
The mother went to bed that night with a heavy heart, and at dawn went quietly to Vinzi's room to hear what he had done and to prepare him for what was coming. Vinzi woke to find her sitting on the edge of his bed holding his hand in hers.
"Tell me, Vinzi," she began, "now while we are alone together, what you did yesterday to make your father so angry. Were you in mischief? Tell me everything."
Vinzi thought for a moment, then remembered how angrily Mrs. Troll had sent him away. Perhaps his father had heard about that, so he related the whole incident.
A great load fell from the mother's heart; Vinzi had done no wrong. But she understood very well how the neighbor's words had angered her husband, for Vinzi had caused him much secret worry and vexation. She explained to the lad how he had done wrong not to tell her about the matter, and asked if he had not thought he ought to tell them at home before beginning the lessons. Vinzi said candidly that he had feared his father would not give permission, and as he had such an intense desire to learn something about music, both Stefeli and he had decided the afternoon was a good time for him to leave the pasture, and if nothing happened to the cows his father could not say anything. But his mother told him his silence had been wrong, and now he would have to accept the consequences, which she hoped would be for his good. Then she unfolded his father's plan and told how he hoped Vinzi would learn to enjoy farm work and how she prayed he would return so bright and happy that his father would be pleased with him.
In spite of the care his mother took to tell him the decision to send him away, Vinzi's look of alarm brought tears to her eyes, though she was proud he uttered no word of complaint.
Everything went on as usual that day, and the children spent the hours out in the pasture. Stefeli was accustomed to Vinzi's long silences, even though she could not hear all he seemed to hear.