"You may well believe that Vinzenz Lesa had some good reason," replied her husband. "But I have asked myself the same question and am unable to answer it. All I remember is that he told me something about some fault in the boy. When that man from Leuk asked if Vinzi's reserve and such-like annoyed us, I recalled that Vinzenz thought our boys were more interested in their work and wished his son were so, and thought a summer with us, in altogether different surroundings, might help him. He was right, for Vinzi is as a lark now and makes everybody else merrier than they were."
The happy shouts of the returning boys were now heard, and the father went outside to help them, while the mother turned to the kitchen; she could now put the food on the table, and that would avoid impatience at waiting and prevent burned throats, too.
Next day the man from Leuk returned from Domo. As Lorenz seated himself by his side, the caller asked, "Now, what shall I report?"
"Tell my Cousin Vinzenz everything here is going along well," began Lorenz, "and say that his boy is happy. He sings and whistles like a bird in the seed fields, and we all join in."
"And that we love him as though he belonged to us," added Josepha. "Say that we want to keep him until the last days of autumn."
"Yes," agreed Lorenz, "and we would like it still better if he would leave the lad with us through the winter. He has not annoyed anyone on the whole mountain, but on the contrary, has made them all happy."
"Vinzenz Lesa will be glad to hear that," said the man, "and I will report to him all you say. Mrs. Lesa will ask how the boy is looking, but I suppose I will not be able to see him."
"No; the boys are all on the pasture from six in the morning till six in the evening, singing and playing the pipe, and wishing for nothing better," explained Lorenz. "That news will please my cousin better than if you had found the lad in the house."
"And tell his mother that she has no need to worry," continued Josepha. "Her boy is as lively as a brook trout, and if he were not, I would care for him as for one of my own boys."
"Now, that's fine," said the messenger from Leuk, well satisfied as he started on his way, happy at the news he could carry to Mrs. Lesa, who had urged him to inquire into the smallest details—many more than he could remember.