"No, Daddy."
"Aren't you angry with us?"
"No, Daddy: what should I be angry for?"
"Then be as you used to be, Addie. When you're not cheerful, everything in the house is so sad."
The boy smiled.
"I'll try, Daddy."
"But why try? Just be it, be it!"
No, Van der Welcke would not, could not tell him.
"I'll try, Daddy."
And he moved to go back to his books.