“Let her be for once,” said the mother.  “Till now you have always gone after her; so do what she wishes this time.  It is wrong to call Loneli raggedy; few people are as honest and agreeable as Apollonie and her grandchild.”

Mea was ready with many more complaints, for whenever anything bothered her, she felt the need to tell her mother.  She realized, though, that she had to put off further communications for a quiet evening hour.

Bruno had approached, and turning to his mother, asked in great suspense:  “Mother, what did Mr. Rector write to you?  Have the plum-thieves been discovered?”

“I do not think that they have brought his decision about, but I am sure they hastened it.  Read the letter,” said his mother, handing it to him.

“That is not so bad,” Bruno said after reading it.  “As soon as you send me to town I shall be rid of them at last, and I won’t have to bother about them any more.  You know, mother, that all they care about is to do mean and nasty things.”

“But they will go to town, too, and then you will be thrown together.  There won’t be anybody then who cares for you and will listen to you,” the mother lamented.

“Do not worry, mother, the town is big and we won’t be so close together.  I’ll keep far enough away from them, you may be sure.  Don’t let it trouble you,” Bruno reassured her.

Kurt was so much occupied at lunch with his own plans and ideas that he never even noticed when his favorite dessert appeared on the table.  Lippo, seriously looking at him, said quite reproachfully, “Now you don’t even see that we have apple-dumpling.”  Such an indifference seemed wrong to the little boy.

But Kurt even swallowed the apple-dumpling absent-mindedly.  After lunch he begged his mother’s permission to be allowed to leave immediately, because he still had so much to talk over with his friends.  “I’ll tell you all about it afterwards, mother.  Be sure that I am doing something right that ought to be done,” he reassured her.  “If only I can go now.”  Having obtained permission, he shot away, and arriving at the school-house, flew into the midst of a crowd of boys.  But before their plan could be carried out the children were obliged to sit two whole hours on the school-benches.  It truly seemed to-day as if they would never end.

Lux, the sexton’s boy, who preferred pulling the bell-rope and being violently drawn up by it to sitting in school, tapped his neighbor’s sleeve.

“How late is it, Max?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Max,” Lux whispered again, “the second expedition will be more fun than the first.  I look forward to it more, don’t you?”

“You can look forward to the shame-bench if you don’t keep quiet,” Max retorted, squinting with his eyes in the direction of the teacher.