Edi must have just read something that made him solemn, for he looked quite restrainedly up from his book and said quite seriously:  “You see, Sally, you do not at all know what friendship is, for you believe that one can have a new friend every week.  But one ought to have only one friend for the whole life, and one must drag his enemy three times around the walls of Troy.”

“Then he will have to make a nice journey if he comes from Upper Wood,” remarked Sally quickly.

The mother meanwhile had left the room, and Aunt rose from her work.

“You will get quite barbaric from pure historical research,” she said, turning to Edi, “but now it is high time to go to bed, quick!  But where is Ritz?”

Ritz had withdrawn behind the stove a full hour ago in the hope of there escaping his fate for some time.  But sleep had overcome him in the dark corner.

“Now we have the trouble,” the aunt cried, when the sleeper had been discovered, and only with the greatest difficulty she woke him.

While Auntie was pushing and shaking the sleepy Ritz, Edi had tried several times to get near her, but she had always escaped him.  Now a quiet moment came.  Ritz was at last awake.  Edi quickly stepped up to his aunt and said:  “I did not mean alive, only after his death, like Achilles did.”

“Now he too is talking in his sleep and says all kinds of nonsense,” the aunt cried quite excitedly, for she had long since forgotten Edi’s judgment on the enemy and she did not know what he was talking about.  “No, no, it cannot go on like this, children must go to bed in good time, else the whole household gets out of joint.”

Edi wanted to explain once more, only to make it clear to her, and not to have to go to bed misunderstood, so he had followed her about, and now a greater misunderstanding had arisen.  There was no more chance for explanation.  Ritz and Edi were shoved into their room, the light put on the table, the door was closed, and away went Auntie.

“I am sure Mother will come to us.  I must explain everything to her,” Edi said to himself, for to be so misunderstood disquieted the thinking Edi exceedingly.  And the mother came as she did every evening, and she promised to make everything clear to Auntie, so he could be pacified and find the sleep which Ritz long since had found again.

CHAPTER III

’Lizebeth on the Warpath

On the following morning ’Lizebeth stood full of expectation at the kitchen door, and made all kinds of signs when Sally came rushing into the living-room from breakfast.  The signs were indeed understood by the child but she had no time to go to the kitchen.  She waved her school-bag and shouted in rushing by ’Lizebeth:  “When I come from school; it is too late now!” Followed by Edi and Ritz she continued her run.