When they reached the joiner's gate, Mrs. Ritter bade Wiseli enter without her. "Since I know that you like to go to him, I shall not need to go in, but you can tell the joiner that I will be over in the morning, and you must come to me for anything you may want at any time. Good-by."
It was with a light heart that Wiseli ran up the path to the house, for she rejoiced that she was to see the man who had been so kind to her, and that this was to be her home for a few weeks. She understood what was expected of her, and she knew that the joiner was in bed, with no one else in the house, so she entered without ringing. How homelike everything seemed as she looked about! At the farther end of the room she noticed, through the parted curtains, a large bed freshly dressed with a white spread and pillows; she wondered who slept in that room. Then she tapped lightly on the joiner's door, which she opened as soon as she heard a response. The joiner raised himself on his elbow to see who was there.
"Wiseli!" he exclaimed, as if in doubt whether to be glad or sorry. "Come over here and give me your hand." Wiseli silently did as she was told.
"I am sorry that you had to come to me."
"Why?"
"I only mean that perhaps you would a little rather not have come. Mrs. Ritter is always so kind that you did it to please her, didn't you?"
"No, not at all. She never asked me to do it for her. She wanted to know if I cared to come, and I said, 'Yes.' There is no place in the whole world where I should have been so glad to go as to your house."
This must have satisfied the joiner, for his head dropped back to the pillows, and he tried to look at Wiseli, but the tears persisted in filling his eyes.
"What must I do?" asked Wiseli, when he said nothing further.