Vinzi had awakened meanwhile. When he gazed at his sister with his large dark eyes he still seemed lost in revery.
“Oh, I had such a wonderful dream,” he said. “Mother and I were in Litten, the place we went to last year. We went to church together and everything was exactly as we had seen it then. An organ was playing the most beautiful piece and it was more wonderful than I could tell you. Do you know what an organ sounds like?”
“Oh, Vinzi, you must come now. Please hurry up and don’t talk about an organ now,” Stefeli urged. “Mother has already taken in the coffee and father is having breakfast. You know we won’t have any fun if father gets cross. Do hurry up.”
With these words Stefeli ran away.
Vinzi had realized the truth of his sister’s words. He quickly jumped out of bed and completed his necessary toilet. Soon he stood in the room ready to start off. He speedily swallowed his milk and coffee and stuck the bread into his pocket, before the three others had half finished theirs. The father, looking at the boy, thought to himself, “He can hurry if he wants to. Perhaps something can still be done with him.” The mother had packed the children’s lunch neatly into a bag, which she hung around Vinzi’s shoulder. Stefeli now came skipping along with a straw hat on her head and in her hand a rod which Vinzi had cut for her. This she used for gently urging the cows ahead whenever they needed it, but she never beat them. When the children went out, followed by the parents, Vinzi discovered that he had left his whip in the barn. All cow-herds carried one in order just for fun to flick it sharply from time to time. A sound like thunder would re-echo from the mountains roundabout. As Vinzi did not care for this pastime with the whip he regularly forgot where he had put it. While he hunted about uncertainly his father began to frown. But suddenly, in leaps and bounds, his sister, who had noticed where he had left it, appeared with the whip.
At last the children started off. “Keep the cows from going across the stream, Vinzi,” the father called after them.
“Take care not to go too near the rushing stream yourselves,” was the mother’s last reminder.
“Yes, yes,” the children called back gaily, as they hurried along towards the mountain pasture. As soon as they arrived Stefeli began to shout violently. She had not forgotten that their man was to return to the farm as soon as they had arrived to take charge of the cows. He did not hear for quite a while because he happened to be on the other side of the roaring stream. Stefeli, however, did not give up till he had heard and understood her cries. He then hurried away.
“We have to see that the cows stay on our own pasture and that Schwärzeli does not jump about too much, for if she doesn’t eat she’ll get thin,” said Stefeli. “Come, Vinzi, let’s sit down over there under the tree; for if we leave our bag in the sun, the bread will get dry.”
Vinzi, who had already settled down, got up. He followed Stefeli, watching her while she carefully laid their provisions in the shadow of the broadest branches. Then they both sat down in the cool shade under the spreading tree where earlier the ground had been thoroughly dried by the sun.