Then she tried to persuade him that he had grown thin. The melancholy which Valentine could not hide from her she ascribed to some illness or other. The bad mountain-water was certainly to blame for it.
And she had good remedies against such complaints. They were not, indeed, of the drastic sort of which the professor at Keszmár had so large a store; her remedies were simply good and tasty dishes which she prepared for her little son with her own hands. She invented a savory dish against every ill of life, and you had only to taste of it to be instantly cured. And when the evil was caused by bad water, with what could you more certainly cure it than with good wine?
But Valentine's sadness would yield neither to the most delicate cookery nor to the most savory meats; he allowed the daintiest tit-bits to remain on his plate untouched, as if he meant to save them for someone else, and he drank the good wine mixed with water.
Worthy Dame Sarah vainly bothered her little son to tell her what was the matter with him. On all such occasions he would only smile, kiss his mother on the cheek, and tell her that there was absolutely nothing the matter with him, his disposition had only changed a little lately, he said. He naturally did not tell Dame Sarah anything of what had happened to him at school.
Now if anyone ever wants to know what is really going on at his own house, let him just go to his neighbor's and there he'll find out all about it.
One Sunday evening Dame Sarah came home from her neighbors', the Fürmenders.
"Why, Valentine!" she cried, "what is this I hear of you? Young Fürmender says that you were expelled from the school at Keszmár!"
"If he says so he speaks the truth."
Oh how delighted was Mistress Sarah when she heard these words!
"If it's only that which grieves you, my dear, good child!" said she, soothingly, "don't think anything more about it. Your father was expelled from three schools, but that did not prevent him from getting a wife and becoming sheriff. You, too, will pick up a nice girl, and may become sheriff as well, one day. Don't fret yourself about it. I never meant you to be a parson."