“Another time, Kaetheli, it is already so late I must go home,” and Sally ran away.  Kaetheli stood there much surprised and looked after her, and in her bright mind she thought:  “Sally has something new in her head, else I could have brought her to the cherry tree, for she is not always so anxious to go home; but I will find out what it is.”

Meanwhile Sally ran for a long stretch, then she began to walk slower, for she had to think over so many things and she was so lost in her plans that she forgot when she arrived at the garden which stretched from her home far into the meadows.  Ritz stood on the low wall and beckoned with wild gestures, for Sally had not seen him at first.

“Do come a little quicker so that you can tell something, else we will have to go to bed, for Auntie has already looked twice at her watch.  Were you in the barn at Kaetheli’s?  How many cows are in it?  Have you seen the young goat?”

But Sally had different things in her head.  She hastily stepped into the house, while Ritz followed.  The rest of the family were in the living-room.  Mother and Auntie were mending stockings; Father was reading a large church paper.  Edi, his head supported on both hands, sat lost in his history book.  Sally had hardly opened the door when she cried out with much excitement:  “Oh, Mother, you ought to have seen how friendly the lady was, and she is so beautiful and so gentle and so good, and quite an aristocratic lady; and Erick in his velvet suit is like a knight, and so fine and polite.  Edi could not find a nicer friend.”

They all looked surprised at Sally, and a pause followed this outburst.  Sally had quite forgotten that she was not to go to the strange people, and that she had given, as the object of her walk, the call on Kaetheli.  She now remembered everything and she grew very red.

“But, dear child,” said the mother, “did you really, in spite of opposition from me, press into the home of the strange people?  How could you enter the house without an excuse?”

“Not without an excuse, Mamma,” said Sally, somewhat embarrassed.  “’Lizebeth had given me a message for old Marianne.”

“Which the inquisitive Sally fetched in the kitchen for the purpose of carrying out her plan, that is clear,” remarked Auntie.  When the whole truth lay open to the light of day, Sally felt relieved and she returned with new zeal to her communication.  She had much to describe:  the empty room and the silk dress of the lady, and her sad glances, and then the knightly Erick with his joyous laughter and the merry eyes; but she could not describe it all so attractively as it seemed to her.

“So,” said Edi, looking up from his book, “now you have another friend.  It will go, no doubt, with him as with little Leopold!” After giving her this fling he bent again over his book and read on, taking no notice of anything.