We had a great hope! I saw it in Seppi’s eyes. We thought, “If he cannot leave the house, he cannot be drowned.” Seppi asked, to make sure:
“Must he stay in all day, or only the morning?”
“All day. It’s such a pity, too; it’s a beautiful day, and he is so unused to being shut up. But he is busy planning his party, and maybe that is company for him. I do hope he isn’t too lonesome.”
Seppi saw that in her eye which emboldened him to ask if we might go up and help him pass his time.
“And welcome!” she said, right heartily. “Now I call that real friendship, when you might be abroad in the fields and the woods, having a happy time. You are good boys, I’ll allow that, though you don’t always find satisfactory ways of improving it. Take these cakes—for yourselves—and give him this one, from his mother.”
The first thing we noticed when we entered Nikolaus’s room was the time—a quarter to 10. Could that be correct? Only such a few minutes to live! I felt a contraction at my heart. Nikolaus jumped up and gave us a glad welcome. He was in good spirits over his plannings for his party and had not been lonesome.
“Sit down,” he said, “and look at what I’ve been doing. And I’ve finished a kite that you will say is a beauty. It’s drying, in the kitchen; I’ll fetch it.”
He had been spending his penny savings in fanciful trifles of various kinds, to go as prizes in the games, and they were marshaled with fine and showy effect upon the table. He said:
“Examine them at your leisure while I get mother to touch up the kite with her iron if it isn’t dry enough yet.”
Then he tripped out and went clattering down-stairs, whistling.