The mother sat down at the piano.
"Come, let us sing our morning song, now," she said. "We can't wait for uncle, because he might come back too late from his walk." Opening the book, she began to sing "The golden sun—with joy and fun."
The children taking up the melody sang it briskly, for they knew it well. Mäzli was singing full of zeal, too, and wherever she had forgotten the words, she did not stop, but made up some of her own.
Two stanzas had been sung when Kurt said, "We must stop now or it will get too late. After breakfast it is time to go to school."
The mother, assenting, rose and went to the table to fill their cups.
But Lippo broke into a loud wail. Pulling his mother back, he cried, "Don't go! Please don't! We must finish it. We have to finish it. Come back, mother, come back."
She tried to loosen the grip of the boy's firm little fingers on her dress and to calm him, but she did not succeed, and he kept on crying louder and louder: "Come back! You said one must not leave anything half done. We didn't finish the song and we must do it."
Kurt now began to cry out, too: "Let go your pincher-claws—we'll get to school late."
Mea's voice joined them with loud exclamation against Lippo, who was trying hard to pull his mother back, groaning loudly all the time.
Uncle Philip entered at this moment.