Rain didn’t bother Jos at all. Everything that grew and brought in fruit interested him so much that he wanted to see it and have a hand in it if possible. Best of all, he liked it when the wood which had been felled had to be brought home from the forest. Then the horse was hitched to a large lumber wagon and Jos sat on the high seat beside the hired man. As soon as they had left the house behind them the man would say, “There, take them if you want to drive.” Giving Jos the reins, he stretched out full length in the wagon to sleep a little longer. Jos knew the horse well and the horse knew him, so the matter went very smoothly. Jos had already helped in every kind of farm work and knew exactly when things were in order or when something was amiss. He took hold of everything with such spirit and eagerness that he acquired an instinct for what was needed when matters went wrong.
In the beginning Vinzenz Lesa had said to his wife in a bitter tone,“Just look how he enjoys everything! He works with such an eagerness, as if it were his own. Look at the pleasure he finds in it all! And my own boy, for whom we work, has never even seen it.”
But everything had turned out to make Mrs. Lesa happy. Her husband spoke every day in a different tone about Jos. He could say quite cheerfully now: “The boy has four eyes in his head. He discovers what I overlook myself and the man would never have seen. He actually sees everything. I can entirely depend on him as on no one else, and he is so handy that it is a pleasure to see him work.”
Mrs. Lesa saw her husband’s growing delight in their young nephew with hearty feelings of gratitude. He was in a much better humor than he had been for years. When during the afternoon she was sitting quietly and undisturbed in her room, her thoughts unerringly dwelt upon Vinzi and she pondered about his future. She wondered if he would return after a year and take up the life his father wished him to, in which case he would never be really happy. Or if he had definitely chosen a new path for himself, which would forever estrange him from his father. She lost herself in imaginary conversations with her son, and the slightest noise made her start up, as she would think that her boy might have suddenly returned.
So it happened one day when her thoughts had been busy with Vinzi that the housedoor was opened and the noise of several footsteps neared the room. Mrs. Lesa had jumped up and running to the door had quickly opened it.
“Old friends, who are looking for shelter in your house,” said a vigorous man’s voice.
That same instant a slight hand grasped hers, then another. Only then could she really see them.
“Welcome! Welcome, Alida, Hugo! Welcome, Mr. Thornau!” she cried, heartily delighted. “Are you staying in our parts again?”
“Not exactly, but we are here for the present,” said Mr. Thornau, returning her friendly handshake. “We’ll stay here, if you will receive us. But if you say no, we’ll have to wander home again. Before everything else, I must tell you that I am bringing you two children who have lost their mother. They have asked me to come here, for nowhere else will suit them.”
Mrs. Lesa was won over already. “The poor children,” she said to herself, “and the poor father,” she added. Then she turned to the latter.