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 God!’ 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 passed 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 today,” 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 asserted. “But we won’t have any today, 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 midday 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 today 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 nobody 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 today 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 tonight. 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 passed 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
