Cornelli merely shook her head and gave no answer. Matthew looked over at the child a few more times, but said no more.
Esther, carrying a large basket, now arrived. As she was going to the vegetable garden she called over to the child: “You must have a specially nice book to be sitting there so quietly, Cornelli.”
Cornelli shook her head.
“No?” laughed Esther. “All right, then, come with me and I’ll show you how many yellow plums there are going to be this year; the whole tree is full and they are already beginning to ripen.”
“I don’t care,” said Cornelli.
“No?” laughed Esther. “All right, then, plums,” Esther exclaimed. “And our large juicy pears are beginning to get ripe, too. Don’t you want to come and see how long it will be before they are ripe?”
“No,” was the reply.
Esther now went her ways. A short time after that Matthew joined her. “What is the matter with the child, Esther,” he asked. “She is so changed! One can hardly recognize any more our gay and friendly Cornelli. And why does she have her hair hanging into her face that way? One absolutely does not know her any more.”
“That is just what I say,” Esther replied. “I really can’t understand it. One hardly ever sees the child, and if one does meet her somewhere, she scarcely says a word. She never sings or laughs the way she used to, and she always wears such a terribly unhappy expression that it fairly makes one’s heart ache. How happy the child used to be!
“They say that she needs to be educated, and it may be so; but since she is getting an education she is absolutely changed, and not for the better. However, things may go well again when her education is finished.”