“Tell me frankly,” concluded the cousin, “have you another reason for hesitating in keeping Jos?”
“That is my only reason,” was the firm reply.
“Then Jos shall stay here and you can send him home any time it suits you.”
Lorenz quickened his pace now, for he wished to have plenty of leisure left to talk with cousin Stefane and her little daughter. He already felt bound to them in great friendship.
When the evening was over, he wanted to say good-bye to Stefeli for he had to leave early the next morning, when she would be sound asleep. But Stefeli, giving her hand, refused to do so, and in the morning, long before sunrise, she stood under the door and looked at her uncle with laughing eyes. She had grown so fond of this friendly man that she did not mind getting up so early; she had firmly made up her mind to see him off.
But Stefeli also had another plan. As soon as her uncle was downstairs she said casually, “Can Jos stay here now? Can he stay all summer till fall?”
“Yes, yes,” smilingly replied the uncle, “till your father sends him away.”
The mother had prepared steaming coffee to strengthen her relative on his homeward journey. Jos had got up even before Stefeli and could be heard outside with the father. The boy had seen the stable door open and had run in to examine his uncle’s beautiful cows, one after the other. Vinzenz seemed well pleased with this early visit. The boy uttered one cry of admiration after another, as well as suitable observations about the different animals. For a time the farmer watched the boy as he went from stall to stall and looked at all the cows. But when Jos was so lost in the contemplation of the tidy stable and its inhabitants that he had forgotten everything else, the uncle said:
“I think we had better go to the house before your father leaves. He might escape us otherwise.”
“Dear me, I never thought of that!” exclaimed Jos, and bounded away like an arrow.