"Strange!" remarked Grubert. "Has Tonie taken it for any purpose?"
"Hast thou taken a roll of my towelling, Tonie?" asked Blonda, for her brother came in just at that moment.
"I? No, little sister; what should I want with it?" replied the boy, in great surprise.
"It is quite impossible that it should have been stolen," said Grubert, "for no one comes here but our dear pastor and poor Freskel Valden."
"Was Freskel here this morning?" asked Tonie.
"Yes," answered his father. "He came just after breakfast, when thou wert one out into the forest and Blonda to the goat shed."
"What could he want at so early an hour, I wonder!" said Tonie. "Why, he must have risen at about three o'clock in the morning to come all the way from where the Valdens live now. What could have been his purpose?"
"Who can tell?" said Grubert. "Thou knowest how strange he is, with his whims and his fancies. He sat down here in the kitchen by the fire, and warmed himself, and presently I left him, for I had promised to see Pastor Oshart as early as I could. When we all returned to dinner, as thou knowest, Blonda, Freskel was no longer here."
"It is strange! Passing strange!" said Blonda.
But as there was no accounting for her loss, the subject was dropped, and nothing more was said about it.