As the conversation suddenly halted at her entrance, she looked roguishly at them all in turn, and said, “There you’ve been talking about me again behind my back and my left ear tingled; you just wait!  Uli, is it nice to begin accusing me that way, when I turn my back for just a minute?”

“He didn’t accuse you,” said the old mistress, “just the opposite; but I told him to look out for you, for he’d never get your match again.  Oh, if men only knew how the second wife often turns out, they’d be more careful of the first!  Not that I can complain.  My husband I love and value; I couldn’t get a better one, and he allows me all I want; but I see how it goes elsewhere.”

“I was listening hard,” answered Johannes; “but you ended up all right.  You’re right!  In some places the women have a hard time, in others the men; it always depends on where there’s understanding and then the belief that there’s a God in Heaven.  Where there’s no belief, evil is king.”

Hereupon they were invited into the back room.  There the soup was already served, a quart of wine was on the table, and beside it a little pot of sweet, tea.  She thought she’d make tea right off, said the hostess; then anybody could take it that wanted to; some liked it, some didn’t.  With unfeigned friendliness Freneli played the hostess, filled the glasses, passed them around, and urged her guests to empty them; all felt comfortable and at home.  Uli sat down near the master and asked him this and that—­how to arrange his stables; what he thought it paid best to plant; when he sowed this and that; what this or that soil was best for.  Johannes answered like a father, then asked in his turn, and Uli gave his experience.

At first the women listened; but then Freneli’s heart overflowed with questions and she sought advice about the hundred and one things in which a farmer’s wife ought to be past-master; told how she had done things heretofore, but wondered whether they could not be done better and more profitably.  Joyfully the old mistress revealed her secrets, but often said, “I think you do it better; I must try that too.”  The comfortable homeliness of the party lured in host and hostess, sensible people, and both helped to advise and discuss what was best, and showed their pleasure in much that they heard.  And the more they heard the more desire to learn did Uli and Freneli display and the more humble did they become; they harkened to the experiences of the older people and impressed them upon their memories, not burdened with useless things.

The afternoon passed by without their knowing it.  All at once the sun cast a golden beam into the room, and all that was in it floated transfigured in its light.  They started up in alarm at the unexpected light, which almost seemed to come from a sudden conflagration.  But the hostess bade them to be at ease; that was only the sunlight; the sun always shone in there in the spring before it set.