“She’s a poor, thin little creature, to be sure,” said Heiri; “and it strikes me, now and then, that she is delicate; but usually she is so quiet that I don’t take much notice of her.  Now, the boy is much more like his mother; he’s always busy about something, especially about keeping things clean.  He can’t abide dirt, any more than Gritli could, and he is always at the little ones to make them come and be washed at the spout.  Of course the little boys won’t stand that, and they set up a scream, and then out comes their mother, and there’s a grand row!  I scarcely ever come home at night that Marget doesn’t come complaining of the boy for plaguing the younger children.  She wants me to punish him, but when the little fellow stands up before me, and looks straight into my eyes with such a look of his mother about him, I cannot bring myself to strike him.  Then Marget is vexed and begins to scold, and I do not like to vex her, for she works hard and means all right.  I have often thought that perhaps you, Mrs. Stein, would speak a word for me to Marget about punishing the boy; for anything from you would have great weight with her.”

“Certainly I will, with pleasure.  But tell me about Elsli; is Marget kind to her?”

“Well, this is how it is,”—­and Heiri drew a little nearer the hedge and spoke in a confidential tone—­“the little girl is more like me, and gives in easily and is not obstinate about having her own way, as her poor mother was.  She does what she is bid, and never answers back when Marget scolds, nor ever complains, though she has to work from the time she gets home from school till she goes to bed; always carrying the baby, or doing something about the house.”

“But you must not let her do too much, Heiri,” said Mrs. Stein seriously.  “I am very anxious about her.  Ask Marget to come over and see me:  tell her I have some clothes which my children have out-grown, and I should like to give them to her if she will come for them.”

“Thank you; I will certainly send her.  Good-night I hope you will have good luck with the cauliflowers”; and, with another shake of his good friend’s hand, Heiri went off to the smithy.

The doctor’s wife stood lost in thought for several minutes.  She was looking towards her vegetables, but she was thinking of neither beet nor cauliflower, though her eyes were resting on the neat rows before her.  This talk with Heiri had brought the old days of her childhood forcibly back to her memory.  She saw the pretty Gritli with her big brown eyes, as she used to sit weaving forget-me-nots into pretty wreaths with her skilful fingers; always putting a few into her belt and into her hair.  Gritli was the child of poor parents, but she was always neatly dressed, and, though her clothes were of the coarsest stuff, yet there was a peculiar look of daintiness about her, which, with the bit of color in flower or ribbon that was never wanting in her costume, gave the impression that she had just been dressed by an artist, as a model for a picture.  Many criticised this daintiness and many laughed at it, but it made no difference to Gritli; for indeed it was only the instinctive expression of the girl’s natural longing for the beautiful.