The sash was sadly patched and broken, a torn piece of paper hung half-way down across it. Gretel's face was pressed to the window.
"Can you see anything?" whispered Hilda at last.
"Yes—the father lies very still, his head is bandaged and all their eyes are fastened upon him. Oh, jufvrouw!" almost screamed Gretel, as she started back, and by a quick, dexterous movement shook off her heavy wooden shoes, "I must go in to my mother! Will you come with me?"
"Not now; the bell is ringing. I shall come again soon. Good-bye!"
Gretel scarce heard the words. She remembered for many a day afterward the bright, pitying smile on Hilda's face, as she turned away.
XXXIV
THE AWAKENING
An angel could not have entered the cottage more noiselessly. Gretel, not daring to look at any one, slid softly to her mother's side.