Cornelli Part 3

Agnes ran into the next room and as quickly out again. "Where is mother?

Mother, mother!" she called, opening one door after another.

"Here I am, Agnes, but do not be so violent," sounded the mother's voice from the kitchen.

Agnes ran to her. "Mother, what is Mux saying? Is it really true? I know that Mr. Schaller has been here and that he can tell us what we have to do. What did he say? Is it really true what Mux has said? Oh, I'll never eat again! I don't want to sleep or do anything any more.

Everything, then, is lost!"

Agnes was frightfully excited. Her cheeks were dark red and her eyes seemed to shoot forth flashes of lightning.

"But, child, you must not speak this way. Do not get so terribly excited," the mother calmly admonished her. "There is no time now to discuss a subject which we have to talk over quietly. We shall do so to-night. You know perfectly well that I have the greatest sympathy for your wishes and ambitions, and that it means as much to me as to you. As soon as we have a quiet hour together we can talk it all over."

These words quieted the child. She knew that her mother always shared every experience with them. In coming to town, mother and daughter had hoped to be able to carry out their most fervent wish, namely, the completion of Agnes' musical education. Agnes could count on her mother's help. It was for the happiness of both of them. So Agnes went out to the kitchen to do her work as usual. Both the sisters always helped to lighten their mother's work, for their only servant was quite a young girl, who did not do much besides run errands.

Mux went back to his former place. He was intensely pleased with the great effect and excitement his words had produced on Agnes. Hearing somebody else coming upstairs, he prepared to repeat his speech.

When Nika was near enough to hear him he said: "A fat gentleman has been here, and when he was gone mother said: 'Oh G.o.d!' and you are not to paint any more trees and flowers."

Nika, not having seen Mr. Schaller, did not understand these words.

Unruffled and silent, she pa.s.sed Mux and went into the other room, which disappointed Mux terribly. So when he heard Dino coming up the stairs, he unloaded his disappointment on him.

"We are not going to have them to-day," he announced.

"What do you think we will have? What am I supposed to be thinking of, little guesser?" Dino called out.

"Oh, I know. Whenever you think we are going to have green peas for lunch, you run up very quickly. You can't even wait, you love them so," Mux a.s.serted. "But we won't have any to-day, for we are going to have cabbage instead. There, now you have it!"

"Now come in and we'll see who makes a worse face about it, you or I!"

With these words Dino took his little brother's hand, and together they ran into the room. Very soon afterwards, the family all sat down to their mid-day meal. On most days the children would be telling their mother about the happenings of the morning. They would all talk at once until it was quite hard for her to do them all justice. But to-day it was different. It seemed as if a storm was in the air; everybody was silent, and on all faces, except one, heavy clouds seemed to be resting. Nika sat brooding and staring in front of her, for Agnes had interpreted to her their little brother's words. She swallowed very hard on every mouthful, because she had to swallow a great deal more besides. Agnes was frowning so that her whole forehead was like one huge wrinkle. The mother, too, was busy with deep thoughts, as one could see from her worried expression.

Mux, who generally was extremely talkative, was quietly nibbling on his dish of cabbage, with many a deep sigh. Dino alone was merry. He glanced with great expectation from one to the other, and his lunch did not keep him very busy.

"I am expecting a thunderstorm," he said, while the quiet was still unbroken. "Nika is going to let loose the lightning which is flashing under her lashes, and Agnes will follow with the thunder. After this I predict a heavy rainstorm, for Mux can hardly keep back his tears about this cabbage."

"But you have eaten much less cabbage than I have," Mux cried out.

"I do this only from moderation, my little man, so that n.o.body will get too little."

"I would answer you about the thunder and the cabbage, Dino, if I had time," Agnes at last exploded. "But I have a music lesson at one o'clock and I have enough to swallow without this horrid cabbage."

"I only wish you could be more moderate in other things instead of in eating, Dino," said the mother with a melancholy smile. "You have hardly eaten anything, and I heard you cough all night. Your health worries me dreadfully, Dino. Did you cough much in school this morning?"

"Certainly, mother. But that is nothing to worry about," Dino replied merrily. "It always goes away again. My professor said to-day that it would have been better for me to remain in the pastoral fields of my native village, than to have sought the dust-laden corners of town.

But I answered: 'Unfortunately the Latin language does not sprout from the pastoral fields, professor.'"

"Oh, I hope you did not answer that," the mother said, quite frightened.

"Oh yes, but only in my thoughts! Please, mother, don't worry about me," Dino implored.

"I am afraid that your professor is right," the mother said with a sigh. "But I have a plan which we shall talk over to-night. I shall also talk over our guardian's proposal, girls. Please try not to look so terribly unhappy, for everything is not yet lost."

"Oh, it will come to that in the end," said Nika, leaving the room.

"Yes, and much worse, I guess," said Agnes. Violently pushing her chair in place, she departed, after thrusting her music into a folder.

"What can be worse than when all is lost?" Dino called after her. "I know what," responded Mux knowingly, while Agnes looked back at Dino as if to say: If I had time I certainly would give an answer to you.

"What is it, wise little man?" asked Dino.

"If she had to eat nothing but cabbage all the time," replied Mux, full of a conviction which he seemed to have acquired from his own experience.

Dino, too, prepared to depart. With a sorrowful look, the mother pa.s.sed her hand over the boy's thick hair. "Please be careful, and do not run too fast," she begged. "It's very bad for you to sit in the cool school room when you are so overheated. I can scarcely ever see you go, without anxiety."

"But I am surely not as sick as that, little mother," Dino said, tenderly embracing her. "When somebody has a cough it always goes away again after a while. That is the way with me. Be merry and everything will be all right in the end. But I have to go now, it is late," he exclaimed.

"But do not hurry so terribly, Dino, there is time enough yet, and remember what I told you," she called after him. Then stepping to the open window, she followed the running boy down the street with her eyes.

Dino gave Mrs. Halm great anxiety, for he seemed more delicate every day. Her watchful eye had detected how poor his appet.i.te had been lately. Despite that, the boy had a very sweet disposition and was always full of fun. He was always anxious to have everybody in a good humor, and above all, his mother. Of all the burdens she had to bear, the trouble about her son's health was the hardest. One could see this by the painful expression on her face when she left the window and sat down beside her work table.

Mux was just repeating a question for the third time, but his mother did not hear him. Loudly raising his voice he said once more: "Oh, mother, why does one have to eat what the cows get?"

"What do you mean, Mux? What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I saw it in my picture book. The leaves the cows get are just the same as those in the kitchen," he explained none too clearly, but the mother understood him directly. She remembered how interestedly he had looked at the cabbage leaves when the girl had brought them home from market. She also bore in mind a picture in his favorite book, where a stable boy was shown giving a glossy brown cow splendid green leaves to eat.

"So you still have the cabbage in your head, Mux?" said the mother.

"You must not be dissatisfied when there are so many poor children who have to go hungry. While you get bread and good vegetables, they may be suffering."

"Oh, can't we send them the rest of the cabbage?" Mux quickly suggested.

"Come and work on the embroidery I have started for you, Mux. We shall see who can beat to-day. Perhaps that will clear away your thoughts about the cabbage. Come and sit beside me, Mux."

The mother put a little chair beside hers and placed the work in the boy's nimble fingers. Now a race with st.i.tches began, and in his zeal to beat his mother he at last forgot the subject that had troubled him so much.

The late evening had come and the children's work for school was done.

Mrs. Halm put the big mending basket away and took up her knitting.

The time had come, when, cl.u.s.tering eagerly about their mother, the children told her all the troubles and joys of the day.

It was the hardest hour of the day for Mux, for it was his bedtime.

His mother always took him by the hand, to lead him to bed, before she began to talk with the three elder children. Every evening he put up a fight, for the wily youngster always thought that by obstinate resistance he could break the rule. His mother, however, knew well that his success would only result in dreadful yawns and heavy eyes.

This evening he found himself ready for bed before he had had time to prepare for his fight. His mother seemed anxious to have him in bed punctually that night. The boy was always reconciled to his fate when she sat down a moment beside his bed to hear of anything that might be troubling him. Mux, knowing that all conversation was irrevocably closed after his prayers were said, would try every night to prolong this period.

After Mux had climbed into bed, he said thoughtfully: "Don't you think, mother, that if people planted cherries where cabbage now grows everybody could eat cherries instead of cabbage?"

"We simply have to stop now, Mux," Mrs. Halm replied to his astonishment, for he had hoped to start a long conversation.

"Well, Mux, you don't seem to be able to get over the cabbage to-day.