Wiseli went to the kitchen and returned carrying the lamp in one hand and a bottle of fruit juice in the other.
"What are you bringing me?" asked the mother.
"I don't know myself. I found it on the kitchen table. See how it sparkles." The mother drew the cork. "It is raspberry juice, as fragrant as the berries fresh from the garden," she said.
Wiseli poured some of the rich juice into a tumbler and diluted it with water; this the mother drank in long draughts until the tumbler was emptied. "Leave it near me, Wiseli," she said. "It seems as if I could drink it all, I am so thirsty and it is so refreshing. I wonder who was so thoughtful as to bring it to me! It must have come from Mrs. Ritter's and very likely Trina brought it over."
"Trina always comes in when she brings anything. Was she here to-day?"
"No. No one came in."
"Joiner Andreas may have left it when he was here," said Wiseli.
"Wiseli!" exclaimed the mother. "Joiner Andreas has not been here either."
"But I saw him, mother. He came out of the house just as I came in. I nearly ran into him in my hurry. Didn't you hear any one? It seems strange that he should have been so quiet."