Cornelli nodded with understanding; she had not forgotten how she had complained to Martha, and how Martha had told her to seek God’s help. Martha had assured her that the help would always come, even if it revealed itself differently from the way she expected. Now it had all turned out so gloriously, and so much more splendidly than Cornelli could ever have imagined!
There had never been such rejoicing in the house as Agnes started when she and Nika had retired to their room in the evening and Cornelli had come to pay her accustomed little evening visit. She skipped and danced about the room like a newly freed bird and called out: “Now our troubles are over and no secret fears can scare us any more. Now we can sing all we want and can live here with you every summer, Cornelli. Oh, we are the happiest creatures in all the world, and it has all happened through you, Cornelli; you wonderful, incomparable Cornelli!”
Agnes, seizing her friend’s hand, jumped about with her in the room at such a rate that Nika had to calm her. The elder sister warned Agnes that the Director might have to repent of his kindness to them if their lengthy stay began with such violent noise. One could see, though, that Nika was willing enough to join the others in their antics.
“The day on which you came to our house, Cornelli,” she said, “has really been more blessed than any other day in the year. So we must always celebrate it as a great feast day.”
Nika had lately been very sweet and friendly to Cornelli, and the younger girl had been very happy about it. But had never dreamed that Nika would ever speak to her like this.
When Esther heard that the Halm family was going to remain for the present and return every year, she said: “Oh, I am glad. That is much better than if some other people I know had to come back. It is better for me and for Cornelli, as well as for the whole house.”
“Oh, if I could only come again, too!” said Trina, whose face in these days was always beaming. “Oh, one feels so happy here!”
“That is very true,” Esther affirmed. “I do not see why you shouldn’t. You don’t need to worry, Trina. If Cornelli and I wish you well, we’ll see that you come here again.”
The Director did not like the thought of losing his large new family so soon, so he said one day to Mrs. Halm: “I am very anxious to prolong the children’s holiday this year till late in the fall. Dino, who is more in need of his studies than the others, is least able to go back to town, because he ought to be thoroughly strengthened and made absolutely well. If it should be necessary for him to study, we have our good Mr. Maelinger, who can give him lessons.” The mother agreed, for she also was very anxious to have Dino as well as possible, and she was very grateful to her benefactor for making this possible.
“There is another reason which makes a longer stay necessary,” continued the Director. “As I fully intend to visit you and the children several times during the winter, I have rented a more comfortable apartment for you, because I was rather afraid of finding your tower-like dwelling a little inconvenient for me. The apartment will be ready for you in the late autumn, and I want you to get all the rest you can before you move there, for it is sure to involve some additional work for you. I hope sincerely that you do not resent my step.”
“I can only thank you continually,” said the mother now. The children arrived at the same moment, and all further words from her were swallowed up in their loud and stormy manifestations of joy. Cornelli had already told them of her father’s plan to let them all stay in Iller-Stream till winter time.
When all the fruit had ripened on the trees and Dino was shaking one of them and Cornelli another, Matthew looked over from the barn door, happily rubbing his hands. Right under the tree he saw the other children, one biting into an apple, the other into a pear.
“It certainly is different now from last year,” he said, smiling to himself. “There is not a rotten plum or a lonesome pear in all the orchard.”
Every evening, when the last songs resounded in the house, there were some of thanks and praise which rose up to Heaven like a loud rejoicing.
More than once the Director said to his little daughter, when she gave him her goodnight kiss: “Did not God mean well with us, Cornelli, when he guided Martha to write such an inviting notice to the paper?”
Colophon
Cornelli
was published in 1890 by
Johanna Spyri.
It was translated from German in 1920 by
Elisabeth P. Stork.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David Reimer,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2004 by
Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
The Orchard,
a painting completed in 1937 by
Henry Tonks.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
December 9, 2024, 8:06 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/johanna-spyri/cornelli/elisabeth-p-stork.
The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.
Uncopyright
May you do good and not
