Directly after lunch Nika and Agnes had to hurry off to school again and the mother had to supervise Trina’s work, so Mux was entrusted with the task of entertaining Cornelli for a little while. That suited him exactly.
“Now, I’ll show you that Agnes has really broken a man on the wheel,” he said triumphantly.
“But I don’t believe it, Mux. And why should the man have held still?” asked Cornelli.
“You can read it here. See, it is written there!” said Mux, placing his picture book on Cornelli’s lap and pointing to a splendid colored picture. “Read what is written here,” he directed. “Dino once read it aloud to me and then I knew it.”
Cornelli read aloud: “Agnes orders Rudolph von Warth to be bound to the wheel.”
“Now you see it,” Mux said complacently.
Cornelli did not quite know what the picture was supposed to mean, so she began to read the story that explained it. She read more eagerly each instant, for it was described so vividly that she had to consume one page after another.
“Now you know it,” said Mux a little impatiently. “Now look at the goat wagon.”
“But Mux,” Cornelli said eagerly, “it is quite a different Agnes, it is a queen. You must never think any more that your sister has done such a dreadful thing.”
“Oh, but look at the goat wagon, now,” begged Mux, a little disappointed.