“I must say they look nice,” said Marianna, gazing after the group with visible satisfaction. “I see no pride there, Magdalene, but neatness and cleanliness in the children as well as in the mother. Everything looks well on her and I wonder how she does it. She just wore what we do, only it looks better on her. Didn’t the boy’s black curls tumble out from his cap in a nice way! And I like the way the little one with the snub nose has her brown hair braided about her head. She looks as bright and happy as a little bird.”
“What else have you to say?” retorted Magdalene, slightly annoyed.
“You are right; I should do better to go my way instead of idly talking,” said Marianna, getting ready to leave. “It does one good to see people who teach their children good manners and keep them as if they meant to make them into something decent. There are too many of the other kind, and one often wonders if it is possible to raise children to anything good. That woman has given me a mind to imitate her as far as I can, for I’d like my children to look as nice and speak as politely as hers. I must go now. Do not take amiss anything I said. Good-bye, Magdalene.”
Marianna set out now and hurried along towards the height. Mrs. Lesa in the meantime climbed up the mountain slope with her children. They kept on talking steadily, sometimes the boy alone or the girl, and sometimes both at once.
“Just think, mother,” the boy informed her, “the child is hardly any bigger than Stefeli. When we passed Mrs. Troll’s house yesterday evening we first saw her standing before the door, then she ran into the house and suddenly we heard the most beautiful music through the open window. I asked the brother who had stayed outside with a book what it was and he said, ‘Alida is playing the piano.’ Imagine, such a young child! I should have loved to listen a while, but I was afraid to, because Stefeli said that it was late and we had to go home.”
“And so it was,” Stefeli affirmed. “I should have loved to stay, too, but we had to go home. Don’t you remember, father was already at table when we came? I found out that the boy’s name is Hugo and that the crooked lady lives with them, because I heard Alida say to her brother, ‘I simply have to go in now, otherwise Fraulein will fetch me in and everything will go crooked.’”
“No, no, Stefeli, it was not meant that way,” said the mother. “I don’t think the lady is crooked. The idea probably was that things would go crooked with Alida if she did not obey. Are not the children’s parents with them?”
“No I don’t think so, but I am not sure. What do you think, Vinzi?” asked Stefeli, turning toward her brother.
He gave no answer.
“What makes you stare into the distance, Vinzi, and why don’t you answer?” now asked the mother.