The great day had come. Hannah and Liseke hadn't slept a wink all night.
Mitz and family had come purring into the room in the early morning, as usual, but had been shamefully neglected. All six sat in a row by the bedside, watching indignantly the two heads peeping out from the feathers.
"To-day!" Hannah sighed rapturously.
How they got into their clothes, they never knew.
As for eating! why, they couldn't touch the delicious rolls, the glasses of milk, even that delicious preserve, "Apfel-kraut."
Max alone was himself, and, in his injured way, managed to eat enough for three. Yet, he was not satisfied; at the age of eight life had few attractions left for him.
Who could believe that a September day would be so long? Or that the old clock in the hall would go so ridiculously slow? There was a quiet jocularity in the motion of its long pendulum, as if it were laughing bitterly that anyone could be in a hurry. "Ha! ha! ha!" ticked the clock.
"Oh, dear!" Hannah said with a sigh, "will it never be three?"
How they kept their ears open to hear a crowd of men come stumbling up the stone steps with the weight of the piano!
"Perhaps it is already here," Liseke said, faintly.