"Papa can't guess it either, papa can't guess it!" rejoiced the small boy, jumping merrily around the room, for it gave him the keenest pleasure that even his father had missed it. The happy possessor of the great secret could still dash from one member of the family to another and puzzle them all.
Rolf was much put out, that Hun's foolish charade should attract so much attention without ever getting solved.
Relentlessly the days passed on.
"My dear Ninette," Uncle Titus said at breakfast one day, "we have only one more week, but I think we ought to add two more weeks to our stay, for I feel so well here. My dizzy spells have completely left me, and there is new vigor in my limbs."
"One can easily see that, dear Titus," replied his wife, delighted. "You look at least ten years younger than when we came."
"It seems to me, our new mode of life suits you also, dear, for I have not heard you complain for a long time now."
"That is true. Everything seems all changed somehow," answered Aunt Ninette. "The noise the children make is not a bit bad, when one knows them all, and I am glad we did not move from here. I even begin to miss it, when I do not hear their merry voices, and things do not seem quite right, when there is no noise in the garden."
"That's exactly the way I feel," agreed Uncle Titus. "I enjoy the lively boy so much, when he comes running to me every night. He can hardly control his eagerness to tell me what he has composed, and when I set him my task, he drinks in every word I say. It is pure pleasure to have such a boy to talk to."
"My dear Titus, how enthusiastic you are! That makes you seem younger than I have ever known you. We had better stay here as long as we can afford it," the aunt concluded. "Even our doctor could never have predicted such an improvement from our journey. It is just wonderful."
Immediately after this conversation, Dora rushed over to her friends, spreading the happy news. The prospect of her near departure had been a perfect nightmare to the child, and she felt like dying rather than living so far away from all the intimate friends she loved so dearly. Dora anticipated a broken heart on the day of their separation. As soon as the children heard about their playmate's lengthened stay, they crushed Dora from sheer transport and noisily expressed their happiness.