'A very Christian wish, and expressed in choicely elegant phraseology, everyone must admit.'
'Only think, Hannè, he has never been at Berlin, and is not betrothed there. Carl only made these assertions because he could think of no other way of making my father agree to our wishes,' said Jettè, almost crying.
'What! he is not engaged? He has never been in Berlin? Well! he is the greatest story-teller I ever met. Did he not stand up, and make positive declarations of these events, with the most cool audacity? It is too bad. Lying is the worst of all faults--it is the root of all evil.'
'No, my little Hannè, idleness is the root of all evil.'
'I dare say you abound in that root too. But I don't think you can ever have studied the early lesson-books, from which all children should be instructed. I shall myself hear you your catechism to-morrow, and rehearse to you the first principles of right and wrong; so that when you leave us, you may be a little better acquainted with the doctrines of Christianity than you are at present.'
'But he leaves us to-morrow, Hannè; he has assured us of that.'
'We positively will not allow him to make his escape,' said Hannè. 'At night we shall lock him in his room, and during the day Thomas shall watch him. That boy sticks as fast as a burr,--he won't easily shake him off.'
'But suppose I were to get out by the window? You cannot well fasten that on the outside.'
'And break your neck, forsooth. No, no; that way of making your exit won't answer.'
'Oh, people can climb up much higher than my window, and descend again without breaking their necks,' said I.