“Oh, Mr. Falcon, you are still as fond of joking as ever,” Apollonie returned.  “So you think that my rose-beds are as fine as those up there used to be?  Indeed, who has ever seen the like of them or of my wonderful vegetable garden in the castle-grounds?  There has never been such an abundance of cauliflower and peas, such rows of bean-poles, such salad-beds.  What a delight their care was to me.  Such a garden will never be seen again.  I have to sigh every time when I think that anything so beautiful should be forever lost.”

“But that can’t be helped,” Uncle Philip answered.  “There is one great advantage you have here.  Nobody can possibly disturb your Sunday peace.  You need not throw up your hands and exclaim:  ’Falcon is the worst of all.’”

“Oh, Mr. Falcon, so you still remember,” Apollonie exclaimed.  “Yes, I must admit that the three young gentlemen have trampled down many a young plant of mine.  Still I should not mind such a thing if I only had the care of the garden back again, but it doesn’t even exist any more.  Mr. Trius’s only harvest is hay and apples, and that is all he wants apparently, because he has thrown everything else out.  Please do not think that I am swimming in pure peace here because no boys are stamping down my garden.  Oh, no!  It is very difficult to read my Sunday psalm in peace when I am given such a bitter soup of grief to swallow as I got yesterday.  It keeps on burning me, and still I have to swallow it.”

“You probably mean the Knippel-soup from yesterday?” Kurt interrupted, full of lively interest.  Loneli had only just told him that things had gone very badly the day before when she had returned home all soiled from her fall and with the empty milk-bottle.  So he felt more indignant than before and had immediately interpreted Apollonie’s hint.  “I want to tell you, Apollonie, that it was not Loneli’s fault in the least.  Those rascals enjoy sticking out their feet and seeing people tumble over them.”

“The child can’t possibly have behaved properly, Kurt, or the district attorney’s sons would not have teased her.”

“I’ll fetch Bruno right away and he’ll prove to you that Loneli did nothing whatever.  He saw it,” Kurt cried eagerly with the intention of fetching his brother, who had already started up the hill.  But his mother detained him.  It was not her wish to fan Bruno’s rage afresh by the discovery that Loneli had been considered guilty.  She therefore narrated the incident to Apollonie just as Bruno had reported it.

Loneli’s blue eyes glistened with joy when the story was told according to the truth.  She knew that the words spoken by the rector’s widow had great weight with her grandmother.

“Can you see now that it was not Loneli’s fault?” Kurt cried out as soon as his mother had finished.

“Yes, I see it and I am happy that it is so,” said Apollonie.  “How could one have suspected that boys who had a good education should want to hurt others without cause?  The young Falcon would never have done such a thing, I know that.  He only ran into the vegetable garden because his two friends were chasing him from both sides.”