Kaetheli was away like a shot, and Sally went thoughtfully back to the house.  Very soon the sitting-room was lighted up, where mother and aunt were seated at the table, and now the father also sat down.  Edi had long since waited with his book to see whether the lamp would be lighted in the room, for his mother had forbidden him to read in the twilight.  Ritz sat down to finish, with many a sigh, a delayed arithmetic lesson.  Now Sally entered the room; under each arm she carried four or five books of different sizes and makeup.  Panting under the heavy load she threw them on the table.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” cried Auntie, frightened, “now Sally will turn into a historical searcheress.”

“No, no,” cried Sally, “only give me a little room, I am obliged to look for something.”  She sat down at once behind the heap of books and began her work in earnest.  But she did not remain undisturbed for long, for the large amount of reading material which she had brought in attracted the eyes of all, and all at once the father, who had looked at the books from over his paper, said: 

“Sally, I see a book which is little suited for you to read.  Where did you get the Niebelungen song?”

“I was just going to ask,” said the mother, “what you intended to do with A.M.  Arndt’s war songs?”

Sally had taken along from all tables and book-cases what seemed to her a collection of songs.  These two books she had found in her father’s study and now she explained that she had to find Erick’s lost song, and what Kaetheli had told her about what was in it.

“Aha,” said Edi, and giggled a little, “on that account you took that book from the piano.  Erick will be pleased with the words you will get from this.”

He held the book before his sister and pointed with his finger to the title:  “Songs Without Words”.  Sally was not as thorough in her thinking as her brother was.  She had, in the zeal of her intention, thought that these were some particular kind of songs, and she now looked with some confusion at the book in which only black notes were to be found.  Ritz, too, was now roused to interest in the doings.  He too had taken up a book and read rather laboriously:  “Battle Sonnets” from—­

“What!  You have also been to my table, Sally?” the aunt interrupted the reader.  “You children are really terrible!  At any rate you ought to have been in bed long ago; it is high time, pack together.”

But this time Sally showed herself unusually obstinate.  She assured them that she could not sleep, not for the whole night, if she had not found the song.  She must bring it to Kaetheli, as she had promised to do so, and from fear that she should not find the song Sally worked herself into such a state of excitement that the mother interfered.  She explained to the child that they were not the kind of books where such a song could be found, and that the descriptions which Kaetheli had given were much too uncertain to find any song.  Sally herself should speak with Erick about what he still knew of his song, and then they would search for it together, for she too would gladly help the poor boy to keep in memory the song his mother had loved.