“Come down here, Cornelli!” she called. “Just see how many peas there are! Why do you steal about so quietly nowadays, and why don’t you run the way you used to?”
“I am not allowed to do anything any more,” replied Cornelli, approaching her. “Mina is beginning to tell me that I even must not jump, for it might tangle my hair. I wish I had not a single hair left; then I could at least run and jump about.”
“No, no, child; that would look too dreadful. Just imagine it! But don’t get sad on account of that,” Esther consoled her. “Just jump around as before! Your hair can always be put in order again. Why haven’t you come into the kitchen lately to see if things taste right?”
“I am not allowed to; Miss Dorner says that is bad manners,” Cornelli informed her.
“Oh, I see! Well, you might do worse things. However, you must obey! Yes, you have to obey,” Esther repeated. “Don’t you go to Miss Mina any more, either, when she fixes the dessert?”
Cornelli shook her head.
Miss Mina had quickly understood the new order that had begun in the household and accordingly had suited herself to it. When she thought the ladies would not approve of an old custom, she dropped it quickly, and Cornelli had soon noticed her change of attitude.
“I don’t care if I never can go to the pantry any more, I don’t care,” Cornelli exploded now. “She can eat all the things herself which drop beside the plate. I don’t care. I don’t want anything as long as I can go to the little kid in the stable; it really is the most cunning creature in the whole world. Have you seen it yet, Esther?”
“Certainly I have, and why not?” the cook replied. “Matthew took me out to the stable as soon as it was born. You can certainly go to see it as long as it is in our own stable. Just go there as much as you like! Nobody can forbid you that.”
“My teacher is coming,” Cornelli now exclaimed, “and I have to go.”