"Nothing, father, only I am so, so tired; and Fritz and Ella, they have not come to see me for so many days."
"Ah, I will call over there presently and send them across to thee. I have but one or two nails to put in this hood, and then thy carriage will be finished; that is good, is it not?"
"Delightful!" cried Violet, raising herself up in her chair to see better the last finishing touches put to her new possession; but as she did so her eyes fell for a moment on the pavement opposite, where a soldier was just stopping at the Adlers' door with a bundle of papers in his hand, surrounded and followed by a large and excited crowd.
"What is it? father, come here. There is such a fuss in the street. A soldier has just gone in at the Adlers' house, and all the people are standing at their door, and one woman is crying."
"I am afraid a great many women and children will cry before this evening is over," said her father very gravely, as he rose and went over to the window.
"Why, father?"
"Because their husbands and fathers will have to go away from them to the war, and leave them. Yes; it is just as I thought. It is the orderly corporal leaving the names at the different houses. Whose turn will it be next?"
"But Fritz's father cannot be sent to the war; he is not a soldier, father?"
"We must all be soldiers, little one, when a war comes, and we are called out to fight."