Heimatlos Part 23

It was with a light heart that Wiseli ran up the path to the house, for she rejoiced that she was to see the man who had been so kind to her, and that this was to be her home for a few weeks. She understood what was expected of her, and she knew that the joiner was in bed, with no one else in the house, so she entered without ringing. How homelike everything seemed as she looked about! At the farther end of the room she noticed, through the parted curtains, a large bed freshly dressed with a white spread and pillows; she wondered who slept in that room. Then she tapped lightly on the joiner's door, which she opened as soon as she heard a response. The joiner raised himself on his elbow to see who was there.

"Wiseli!" he exclaimed, as if in doubt whether to be glad or sorry.

"Come over here and give me your hand." Wiseli silently did as she was told.

"I am sorry that you had to come to me."

"Why?"

"I only mean that perhaps you would a little rather not have come.

Mrs. Ritter is always so kind that you did it to please her, didn't you?"

"No, not at all. She never asked me to do it for her. She wanted to know if I cared to come, and I said, 'Yes.' There is no place in the whole world where I should have been so glad to go as to your house."

This must have satisfied the joiner, for his head dropped back to the pillows, and he tried to look at Wiseli, but the tears persisted in filling his eyes.

"What must I do?" asked Wiseli, when he said nothing further.

"I am sure I don't know, Wiseli," said the joiner, gently. "I shall be glad to have you do exactly as you please, if you will stay with me a while first and keep me company."

Wiseli could scarcely believe she had heard aright. n.o.body but her mother had ever spoken to her like that. Her first thought was that her mother would be glad if she knew how kind he was. There was the same tenderness in his tones that she used to feel in the mother's, and she unconsciously loved him in the same way. She took his hand in both of hers and chatted with him as freely as if she had always known him.

"I am afraid I ought to be getting dinner," she said at length; "what should you like to have me cook for you?"

"I want you to have just what you like," replied the joiner.

This, however, did not satisfy Wiseli, for she desired above all else to please him, so she asked question after question until she found out what she wanted to know. She knew how to make the soup he said he liked, and she realized now that she had learned many useful things from her aunt, even if they had been taught without kindness. Wiseli prepared the joiner's dinner on a tray and carried it to him.

"I wish you would draw the little table over here and eat your dinner with me," said the joiner. "Mine will taste so much better if you will."

Wiseli was again surprised, but she said, "That is just what mamma would have said."

What a pleasant dinner that was! The joiner was so considerate of Wiseli's comfort that it made the humblest task a pleasure to her.

"Now what are you going to do?" he asked, when they had finished dinner and Wiseli rose from the table.

"I am going to wash the dishes," she replied.

"I suppose such things have to be done," said the joiner, "but I think, since this is your first day with me, that you might stack them up and do them to-morrow; you know there are only a few."

"Why, I should be so ashamed if Mrs. Ritter should happen to come in that I shouldn't know what to do," said Wiseli, and she turned such a serious face to him that he laughed.

"All right," he said; "only remember that you are to do just as you like while you are with me."

Wiseli had not thought that it could be so much fun to do up the dinner work. When it was finished, she said to herself, "Now this kitchen is nice enough for any one to inspect."

She had been told that the alcove opening off from the living room was to be hers, so she hung her few garments in the closet opening from one corner of the room. When she returned to the joiner's room he said, "Good, I have been waiting for you a long time."

"Haven't you a stocking that I could knit while I sit here?" she asked, as she took the chair beside the bed.

"Of course not," answered the sick man; "you have already done too much, and I want you to rest now."

"But I am not allowed to sit idle except on Sunday. Besides, I can knit and talk at the same time."

"If you will be any more contented with a stocking, get one, by all means, but please remember that I don't want you to work unless you prefer to do so," said the joiner.

In this quiet way they pa.s.sed one day after another. Everything Wiseli did pleased the joiner, and she was thanked for every little service as if it were of the utmost importance. The patient gained so much in strength that he was soon clamoring for permission to get up. The doctor told him that he might sit up whenever he wished, and much of his time was now spent sitting in the bay window in the living room, where the warm suns.h.i.+ne helped to make the days cheerful. He liked to watch his little housekeeper moving about at her household duties, and she succeeded in making his house more attractive than he had ever hoped to see it.

Wiseli so enjoyed herself in this comfortable home, where she had the a.s.surance of being cared for and protected, that she sometimes forgot she must soon give it up and return to her uncle at Beechgreen.

CHAPTER VIII

THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS

In the home on the hill they talked often of the good joiner and Wiseli. Mrs. Ritter went to see them every morning, and she always brought encouraging news home with her. Otto and Miezi were planning a surprise for Andreas and Wiseli in which they meant to celebrate their friend's recovery. To-day, however, they had a celebration in their own home, for it was their father's birthday. It had seemed like a real holiday to the children ever since they got up in the morning, and now they were about to enjoy the birthday feast. They were all in the best of humor. After the first course had been served, there was placed before Mrs. Ritter a covered dish which, when the cover had been removed, displayed a cabbage head looking as fresh and natural as if it had just come from the garden.

"That dish is certainly pretty enough to be praised," said the father; "but really I was expecting to see something else, Marie. You know at every feast I am on the lookout for my favorite vegetable, the artichoke. Isn't it on the menu to-day?"

"There," broke in Miezi, "that is just what he called me! Twice he called me that, and he had his big stick raised like this, and he was going--"

Miezi had her arm raised to ill.u.s.trate the man's attempt to strike her, when she suddenly caught the warning look from her brother across the table, and remembered her promise not to tell her parents about what had happened that night. In her great confusion her face grew scarlet, and she pushed her arms as far as possible under the table.

"I am surprised to have my birthday celebration take this turn," said the father. "On one side of the table my daughter speaks of something about which we have heard nothing, while, on the opposite side, my son kicks my leg until it feels as if it might be black and blue. I should like to know, Otto, where you learned such gymnastics."

It was now Otto's turn to blush, which he did to the roots of his hair. He had intended to hush his sister with the kicks, but evidently he had not struck where he intended. For a time he was too embarra.s.sed to look his father in the face.

"Well, Miezchen, what was the rest of the story which Otto did not allow you to finish? You say he called you a dreadful name, raised his stick at you, and--?"

"Then, then," began Miezi,--she realized, now, that she had told, and must sacrifice the candy rooster in consequence,--"then he didn't kill me, anyway."

The father laughed heartily. "It was good of him not to kill my little girl, but what then?"

"That was all."

"The story has a happy ending," said the father. "The stick remains poised in the air and little Miezchen comes home as the artichoke. Now let us forget everything except that this is my birthday and that we are to do justice to the feast provided."

Otto, however, still felt somewhat disturbed, and after dinner went off to a corner by himself. He seemed to be reading, but instead, he was thinking about what had happened, for he was very sure that his mother would never again let him go with the others to coast by moonlight.

Miezi went to her room to take a last look at the candy rooster with which she must part, now that she had failed to keep her promise. Mrs.

Ritter was seated at the window trying to explain to herself the strange actions of her children. She became more and more restless as she thought about it, and finally went in search of Miezi, whom she found at the foot of the bed in a very unhappy state of mind.

"Miezchen, mamma has come to have a talk with you. I want you to tell me when it was that you were frightened by that man."

"The night that we went coasting by moonlight. I know he called me that word papa used at the table to-night."