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+Project Gutenberg’s What Sami Sings with the Birds, by Johanna Spyri
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: What Sami Sings with the Birds
+
+Author: Johanna Spyri
+
+Translator: Helen B. Dole
+
+Posting Date: February 9, 2011 [EBook #9482]
+Release Date: December, 2005
+First Posted: October 5, 2003
+Last Updated: November 19, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT SAMI SINGS WITH THE BIRDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WHAT SAMI SINGS WITH THE BIRDS
+
+BY
+
+JOHANNA SPYRI
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATED BY HELEN B. DOLE
+
+1917
+
+[Illustration: “Up in the ash-trees the birds piped and sang merrily
+together.”]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+   FIRST OLD MARY ANN
+
+   SECOND AT THE GRANDMOTHER’S
+
+   THIRD ANOTHER LIFE
+
+   FOURTH HARD TIMES
+
+   FIFTH THE BIRDS ARE STILL SINGING
+
+   SIXTH SAMI SINGS TOO
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+UP IN THE ASH-TREES THE BIRDS PIPED AND SANG MERRILY TOGETHER.
+
+WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM WITH ALL YOUR HOUSEHOLD GOODS?
+
+SUCH STRAY WAIFS AS YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DO ANYTHING.
+
+
+
+
+WHAT SAMI SINGS WITH THE BIRDS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIRST
+
+OLD MARY ANN
+
+
+For three days the Spring sun had been shining out of a clear sky and
+casting a gleaming, golden coverlet over the blue waters of Lake Geneva.
+Storm and rain had ceased. The breeze murmured softly and pleasantly up
+in the ash-trees, and all around in the green fields the yellow
+buttercups and snow-white daisies glistened in the bright sunshine. Under
+the ash-trees, the clear brook was running with the cool mountain water
+and feeding the gaily nodding primroses and pink anemones on the
+hillside, as they grew and bloomed down close to the water.
+
+On the low wall by the brook, in the shadow of the ash-trees, an old
+woman was sitting. She was called “Old Mary Ann” throughout the whole
+neighborhood. Her big basket, the weight of which had become a little
+heavy, she had put down beside her. She was on her way back from La Tour,
+the little old town, with the vine-covered church tower and the ruined
+castle, the high turrets of which rose far across the blue lake. Old Mary
+Ann had taken her work there. This consisted in all kinds of mending
+which did not need to be done particularly well, for the woman was no
+longer able to do fine work, and never could do it.
+
+Old Mary Ann had had a very changeable life. The place where she now
+found herself was not her home. The language of the country was not her
+own. From the shady seat on the low wall, she now looked contentedly at
+the sunny fields, then across the murmuring brook to the hillside where
+the big yellow primroses nodded, while the birds piped and sang in the
+green ash-trees above her, as if they had the greatest festival to
+celebrate.
+
+“Every Spring, people think it never was so beautiful before, when they
+have already seen so many,” she now said half aloud to herself, and as
+she gazed at the fields so rich in flowers, many of the past years rose
+up and passed before her, with all that she had experienced in them.
+
+As a child she had lived far beyond the mountains. She knew so well how
+it must look over there now at her father’s house, which stood in a field
+among white-blooming pear-trees. Over yonder the large village with its
+many houses could be seen. It was called Zweisimmen. Everybody called
+their house the sergeant’s house, although her father quite peacefully
+tilled his fields. But that came from her grandfather. When quite a young
+fellow, he had gone over the mountains to Lake Geneva and then still
+farther to Savoy. Under a Duke of Savoy he had taken part in all sorts of
+military expeditions and had not returned home until he was an old man.
+He always wore an old uniform and allowed himself to be called sergeant.
+Then he married and Mary Ann’s father was his only child. The old man
+lived to be a hundred years old, and every child in all the region round
+knew the old sergeant.
+
+Mary Ann had three brothers, but as soon as one of them grew up he
+disappeared, she knew not where. Only this much she understood, that
+her mother mourned over them, but her father said quite resignedly
+every time: “We can’t help it, they will go over the mountains; they
+take it from their grandfather.” She had never heard anything more
+about her brothers.
+
+When Mary Ann grew up and married, her young husband also came into the
+house among the pear-trees, for her father was old and could no longer do
+his work alone. But after a few years Mary Ann buried her young husband;
+a burning fever had taken him off. Then came hard times for the widow.
+She had her child, little Sami, to care for, besides her old, infirm
+parents to look after, and moreover there was all the work to be done in
+the house and in the fields which until now her husband had attended to.
+She did what she could, but it was of no use, the land had to be given up
+to a cousin. The house was mortgaged, and Mary Ann hardly knew how to
+keep her old parents from want. Gradually young Sami grew up and was able
+to help the cousin in the fields. Then the old parents died about the
+same time, and Mary Ann hoped now by hard work and her son’s help little
+by little to pay up her debts and once more take possession of her fields
+and house. But as soon as her father and mother were buried, her son
+Sami, who was now eighteen years old, came to her and said he could no
+longer bear to stay at home, he must go over the mountains and so begin a
+new life. This was a great shock to the mother, but when she saw that
+persuasion, remonstrance and entreaty were all in vain her father’s words
+came to her mind and she said resignedly, “It can’t be helped; he takes
+it from his great-grandfather.”
+
+But she would not let the young man go away alone, and he was glad to
+have his mother go with him. So she wandered with him over the mountains.
+In the little village of Chailly, which lies high up on the mountain
+slope and looks down on the meadows rich in flowers and the blue Lake
+Geneva, they found work with the jolly wine-grower Malon. This man, with
+curly hair already turning grey and a kindly round face, lived alone with
+his son in the only house left standing, near a crooked maple-tree.
+
+Mary Ann received a room for herself and was to keep house for Herr
+Malon, and keep everything in order for him and his son. Sami was to work
+for good pay in Malon’s beautiful vineyard. The widow Mary Ann passed
+several years here in a more peaceful way than she had ever known before.
+
+When the fourth Summer came to an end, Sami said to her one day:
+
+“Mother, I must really marry young Marietta of St. Legier, for I am so
+lonely away from her.”
+
+His mother knew Marietta well and besides she liked the pretty, clever
+girl, for she was not only always happy but there were few girls so good
+and industrious. So she rejoiced with her son, although he would have to
+go away from her to live with Marietta and her aged father in St. Legier,
+for she was indispensable to him. Herr Malon’s son also brought a young
+wife home, and so Mary Ann had no more duties there, and had to look out
+for herself. She kept her room for a small rent, and was able to earn
+enough to support herself. She now knew many people in the neighborhood,
+and obtained enough work.
+
+Mary Ann pondered over all these things, and when her thoughts returned
+from the distant past to the present moment, and she still heard the
+birds above her singing and rejoicing untiringly, she said to herself:
+
+“They always sing the same song and we should be able to sing with them.
+Only trust in the dear Lord! He always helps us, although we may often
+think there is no possible way.”
+
+Then Mary Ann left the low wall, took her basket up again on her arm and
+went through the fragrant meadows of Burier up towards Chailly. From time
+to time she cast an anxious look in the direction of St. Legier. She knew
+that young Marietta was lying sick up there and that her son Sami would
+now have hard work and care, for a much smaller Sami had just come into
+the world. Tomorrow Mary Ann would go over and see how things were going
+with her son and if she ought to stay with him and help.
+
+Mary Ann had scarcely stepped into her little room and put on her house
+dress, to prepare her supper, when she heard some one coming along with
+hurried footsteps. The door was quickly thrown open and in stepped her
+son Sami with a very distressed face. Under his arm he carried a bundle
+wrapped up in one of Marietta’s aprons. This he laid on the table, threw
+himself down and sobbed aloud, with his head in his arms:
+
+“It is all over, mother, all over; Marietta is dead!”
+
+“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, what are you saying?” cried his mother in the
+greatest horror. “Oh, Sami, is it possible?”
+
+Then she lifted Sami gently and continued in a trembling voice:
+
+“Come, sit down beside me and tell me all about it. Is she really dead?
+Oh, when did it happen? How did it come so quickly?”
+
+Sami willingly dropped down on a chair beside his mother. But then he
+buried his face in his hands and went on sobbing again.
+
+“Oh, I can’t bear it, I must go away, mother, I can’t bear it here any
+longer, it is all over!”
+
+“Oh, Sami, where would you go?” said his mother, weeping. “We have
+already come over the mountains, where would you go from here?”
+
+“I must go across the water, as far as I possibly can, I can’t stay here
+any longer. I cannot, mother,” declared Sami. “I must go across the great
+water as far as possible!”
+
+“Oh, not that!” cried Mary Ann. “Don’t be so rash! Wait a little, until
+you can think more calmly; it will seem different to you.”
+
+“No, mother, no, I must go away. I am forced to it; I can’t do any
+different,” cried Sami, almost wild.
+
+His mother looked at him in terror, but she said nothing more. She seemed
+to hear her father saying: “It can’t be helped. He takes it from his
+grandfather.” And with a sigh she said:
+
+“It will have to be so.”
+
+Then there sounded from the bundle a strange peeping, exactly as if a
+chicken were smothering inside. “What have you put in the bundle, Sami?”
+ asked the mother, going towards it, to loosen the firmly tied apron.
+
+“That’s so, I had almost forgotten it, mother,” replied Sami, wiping
+his eyes, “I have brought the little boy to you, I don’t know what to
+do with it.”
+
+“Oh, how could you pack him up so! Yes, yes, you poor little thing,” said
+the grandmother soothingly, taking the diminutive Sami out of one
+wrapping and then a second and a third.
+
+The father Sami had wrapped the little baby first in its clothes, then in
+a shawl, and then in the apron as tight as possible, so that it couldn’t
+slip out on the way, and fall on the ground. When little Sami was freed
+from the smothering wrappings and could move his arms and legs he fought
+with all his limbs in the air and screamed so pitifully that his
+grandmother thought it seemed exactly as if he already knew what a great
+misfortune had come to him.
+
+But father Sami said perhaps he was hungry, for since the evening before
+no one had paid any attention to the little baby. This seemed to the
+sympathetic Mary Ann quite too cruel, and she realised that if she didn’t
+care for the poor little mite it would die. She wrapped him up again
+carefully in his blanket, but not around his head, and carried him
+upright on her arm, not under it, as one carries a bundle. Then she ran
+all around her room to collect milk, a dish and fire together, so that
+the starving little creature might have some nourishment. As she sat on
+her stool, and the little one eagerly sipped the milk, while his tiny
+little hand tightly clasped his grandmother’s forefinger like a
+life-preserver, she said, greatly touched:
+
+“Yes, indeed, you little Sami, you poor little orphan, I will do what I
+can for you and the dear Lord will not forsake us.”
+
+And to the big Sami she said:
+
+“I will keep him, but don’t take any rash steps! In the first great
+sorrow many a one does what he later regrets. See, you can’t run away
+from sorrow, it runs with you. Stay and bear what the dear Lord sends. He
+is not angry with you. Hold to him still in time of sorrow, then the sun
+will shine tomorrow! It will be the same with you as it has been with so
+many others.” Sami had listened in silence, but like one who does not
+understand what he hears.
+
+“Good night, mother! May God reward you for what you do for the boy,” he
+said then, after wiping his eyes again. Then he pressed his mother’s
+hand, and went out of the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SECOND
+
+AT THE GRANDMOTHER’S
+
+
+Old Mary Ann had now to begin over again, where she had left off
+twenty-one years before, to bring up a little Sami. But then she was
+fresh and strong, she had her husband by her side, and lived at home
+among friends and acquaintances. Now she was in a strange land and was a
+worn-out woman, and felt that her strength would not last much longer.
+But little Sami did not realise all this. He was tended and cared for as
+if his grandmother wanted to make up to him every moment for what he had
+lost, and she was always saying to him, pityingly:
+
+“You poor little thing, you have nobody in the world now but an old
+grandmother.”
+
+Moreover it was so. Father Sami could not be consoled. As soon as his
+young wife was buried he went away, and must have landed a long time ago
+in the far away country.
+
+Little Sami grew finely, and as his grandmother talked with him a great
+deal, he began very early to imitate her. His words became more and more
+distinct, and when the end of his second year came, he talked very
+plainly and in whole sentences. His grandmother didn’t know what to do
+for joy, when she realised that her little Sami spoke not a word of
+French, but pure Swiss-German, as she had heard it only in her native
+land. He spoke exactly like his grandmother, who was indeed the only one
+he had to talk with.
+
+Now every day her baby gave her a new surprise. First he began to say
+after her the little prayer she repeated for him morning and evening;
+then he said it all alone. She had to weep for joy when the little one
+began to sing after her the little Summer song she had learned in her own
+childhood and had always sung to him, and one day suddenly knew the whole
+song from beginning to end and sang one verse after another without
+hesitation.
+
+In spite of all the grandmother’s trouble and work, the years passed so
+quickly to her, that one day when she began to reckon she discovered that
+Sami must be fully seven years old. Then she thought it was really time
+that he learned something. But suddenly to send the boy to a French
+school when he didn’t understand a word of French seemed dreadful to her,
+for he would be as helpless as a chicken in water. She would rather try,
+as well as she possibly could, to teach him herself to read. She thought
+it would be very hard but it went quite easily. In a short time, the
+youngster knew all his letters, and could even put words together quite
+well. That something could be made out of this which he could understand
+and which he did not know before was very amusing to him, and he sat over
+his reading-book with great eagerness. But to go out with his grandmother
+to deliver her mending and to get new work was a still greater pleasure
+to him, for nothing pleased him better than roaming through the green
+meadows, then stopping at the brook to listen to the birds singing up in
+the ash-trees.
+
+The changeable April days had just come to an end and the beaming May sun
+shone so warm and alluring that all the flowers looked up to it with
+wide-open petals. Mary Ann with Sami by the hand, her big basket on her
+arm, was coming along up from La Tour. The boy opened both his eyes as
+wide as he could, for the red and blue flowers in the green grass and the
+golden sunshine above them delighted him very much.
+
+“Grandmother,” he said taking a deep breath, “to-day we will sit on the
+low wall for twelve long hours, won’t we, really?”
+
+“Yes, indeed,” assented his grandmother, “we will stay there long enough
+to get well rested and enjoy ourselves; but when the sun goes down and it
+grows dark, then we will go. Then all the little birds are silent in the
+trees and the old night-owl begins to hoot.”
+
+This seemed right to Sami, for he didn’t want to hear the old owl hoot.
+Now they had reached the wall. A cool shadow was lying on it; below the
+fresh brook murmured, and up in the ash-trees the birds piped and sang
+merrily together and one kept singing very distinctly:
+
+“Sing too! Sing too!”
+
+Sami listened. Suddenly he lifted up his voice and sang as loud and
+lustily as the birds above, the whole song that his grandmother had
+taught him:
+
+  Last night Summer breezes blew:--
+  All the flowers awake anew,
+  Open wide their eyes to see,
+  Nodding, bowing in their glee.
+
+  All the merry birds we hear
+  Greet the sunshine bright and clear;
+  See them flitting thru the sky,
+  Singing low and singing high!
+
+  Flowers in Summer warmth delight:--
+  What of Winter and its blight?
+  Snowy fields and forests cold?
+  Flowers are by their faith consoled.
+
+  Songsters, all so blithe and gay,
+  Know ye what your carols say?
+  How will your sweet carols fare
+  When your nests the snow-storms tear?
+
+  All the birdlings everywhere
+  Now their loveliest songs prepare;
+  All the birdlings gayly sing:--
+  “Trust the Lord in everything!”
+
+Then Sami listened very attentively, as if he wanted to hear whether the
+birds really sang so.
+
+“Listen, listen, grandmother!” he said after a while. “Up there in the
+tree is one that doesn’t sing like the others. At first he keeps singing
+‘Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!’ and then the rest comes after.”
+
+“Yes, yes, that is the finch, Sami,” she replied. “See, he wants to
+impress it upon you, so that you will think about what will always keep
+you safe and happy. Just listen, now, he is calling again: Trust! trust!
+trust! trust! trust! Only trust the dear Lord.”
+
+Sami listened again. It was really wonderful, how the finch always
+sounded above the other birds with his emphatic “Trust! trust! trust!”
+ “You must never forget what the finch calls,” continued the grandmother.
+“See, Sami, perhaps I cannot stay with you much longer, and then you will
+have no one else, and will have to make your way alone. Then the little
+bird’s song can oftentimes be a comfort to you. So don’t forget it, and
+promise me too that you will say your little prayer every day, so that
+you will be God-fearing; then no matter what happens, it will be well
+with you.”
+
+Sami promised that he would never forget to pray. Then he became
+thoughtful and asked somewhat timidly:
+
+“Must I always be afraid, grandmother?”
+
+“No, no! Did you think so because I said God-fearing? It doesn’t mean
+that: I will explain it to you as well as I can. You see to be
+God-fearing is when one has the dear Lord before his eyes in everything
+he does, and fears and hesitates to do what is not pleasing to Him,
+everything that is wicked and wrong. Whoever lives so before Him has no
+reason to fear what may happen to him, for such a man has the dear Lord’s
+help everywhere, and if he has to meet hardship oftentimes, he knows that
+the dear Lord allows it so, in order that some good may come out of it
+for him, and then he can sing as happily as the little birds: ‘Only trust
+the dear Lord!’ Will you remember that well, Sami?”
+
+“Yes, that I will,” said Sami, decidedly, for this pleased him much
+better, than if he had to be always afraid.
+
+Now the setting sun cast its last long rays across the meadows, and
+disappeared. The grandmother left the wall, took Sami by the hand and
+then the two wandered in the rosy twilight along the meadow path,
+then up the green vine-clad hill to the little village of Chailly up
+on the mountain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRD
+
+ANOTHER LIFE
+
+
+One morning, a few days later, Mary Ann was so tired she couldn’t get up.
+Sami sat beside her waiting for her to be fully awake in order to go into
+the kitchen and make the coffee. His grandmother opened her eyes once and
+fell asleep again. She had never done anything like this before. Now she
+was really awake. She tried to raise herself up a little, then took Sami
+by the hand and said in a low voice:
+
+“Sami, listen to me, I must tell you something. See, when I am no longer
+with you, you have no one else here, and are an entire stranger. But
+there over the mountains you have relatives, and you must return to them.
+Malon will tell you how to get there. You must go to Zweisimmen. There
+ask for the sergeant, your cousin, who lives in the house with the big
+pear-trees near it. Tell him your grandmother was the sergeant’s Mary Ann
+and your father was Sami. Work hard and willingly, you will have to earn
+your living. There in the chest is some money in the little bag; take it,
+it is yours; don’t spend it foolishly. Sami, think of what you promised
+me. Don’t neglect to pray, it will bring you comfort and happiness which
+you will need. Try to associate with God-fearing people and live with
+them, then you will learn only good. Go, now, Sami, and call Herr Malon.
+I must talk with him.”
+
+Sami went and came back with the man of the house. He stepped up to Mary
+Ann’s bed, and tried to encourage her, as that was his way. But he was
+alarmed at her appearance and wanted to go for the doctor, as he told
+her. But she held him fast and tried with great difficulty to express
+herself in his language, for she had only a scanty knowledge of it. Malon
+nodded his head understandingly and then hurried away. When he returned
+to the room a couple of hours later with the doctor, Sami was still
+sitting in the same place by the bed, waiting very quietly for his
+grandmother to wake up again. The doctor drew near the bed. Then he spoke
+with Malon a while, and finally came to Sami. He told him his grandmother
+would never wake again, that she was dead.
+
+Malon was a good man; he said he himself would go with Sami part of the
+way until he found some one who could talk with him and take him further;
+but he must put all his belongings together in a bundle. Then the two men
+went away.
+
+After a while the young woman of the house came, for the forsaken boy had
+deeply aroused her sympathy. She found Sami still sitting in the same
+place by the bed. He was looking steadfastly at his grandmother and
+weeping piteously. The woman spoke to him, but he did not understand her.
+Then she took everything out of the cupboard and drawers, packed them
+into a bundle and showed Sami that he was to eat the bread and milk on
+the table. Sami swallowed the milk obediently, but the woman put the
+bread in his pocket. Then she led the boy once more to the bed, that he
+might take his grandmother’s hand in farewell.
+
+Sami obeyed still sobbing, and let himself be led away by the woman. Herr
+Malon was already waiting beside his little cart in which lay Sami’s
+bundle. The boy understood that he was to draw the cart, but he knew not
+where. He wept softly to himself for it seemed to him as if he were going
+out into the wilderness where he would be wholly alone. Malon went on
+ahead of him.
+
+It was the same way Sami had often gone with his grandmother down to La
+Tour. When he came to the wall by the brook, he sobbed aloud. How lovely
+it had been there with his grandmother! He could not see the way because
+of his falling tears, but he heard Herr Malon’s heavy step in front of
+him, and he followed after. At the little station house above the
+vine-covered church Malon stopped. Soon after the train came puffing
+along. Malon got in and pulled Sami after him, and they started away.
+Sami crouched in a corner and did not stir. They travelled thus for an
+hour. Sami did not understand a word that was spoken around him, although
+several times one and another tried to talk with him a little, for the
+softly weeping boy had indeed awakened their sympathy.
+
+The train stopped again. Malon got out and Sami followed him. They went a
+short distance together and then Malon stepped to the left into a large
+garden and then into the house. Here he talked a while with the man of
+the house, who from time to time looked pityingly at Sami. Then Malon
+took Sami’s hand, shook it and left him behind alone in the big room.
+
+After some time the man of the house came back and a sturdy fellow behind
+him. The latter began to talk in Sami’s own language. He wanted to
+console the boy and said he would soon go on in a carriage. Then Sami
+asked if he was his cousin, and if this was the village of Zweisimmen?
+But the fellow laughed loudly and said he was no cousin, but a servant
+here in the inn, and the place was called Aigle. Sami would have to
+travel an hour longer and would not reach Zweisimmen before twelve
+o’clock at night. But there was a coachman here from Interlaken, who had
+to go back and would take him along.
+
+The man of the house had bread and eggs brought for Sami and when he said
+he wasn’t hungry, he put everything kindly into the boy’s pocket. Then he
+led the boy out. Outside stood a large coach with two horses and high up
+on the top sat the driver. No one was inside. Sami was lifted up, the
+driver placed him next himself and drove away. At any other time this
+would have pleased Sami very much, but now he was too sad. He kept
+thinking of his grandmother, who could no longer talk with him and would
+never wake again. After some time the driver began to talk to him. Sami
+had to tell him where he came from and to whom he was going. He told him
+everything, how he had lived with his grandmother, how she had fallen
+asleep early that day, and did not wake up again; and that he was going
+to find a cousin in Zweisimmen and would have to live with him. Sami’s
+childish description touched the driver so deeply that he finally said:
+
+“It will be too late when we reach there, you must stay with me
+to-night.”
+
+Then when he saw Sami’s eyes close with the approaching twilight and only
+open again when they went over a stone, and the two of them up on the box
+were jounced almost dangerously against each other, he grasped the boy
+firmly, lifted him up and slipped him backwards into the coach. Here he
+fell at once fast asleep and when he finally opened his eyes again, the
+sun was shining brightly in his face. He was lying in his clothes on a
+huge, big bed in a room with white walls. In all his life he had never
+seen such walls. He looked around in consternation. Then the coachman of
+the day before came in the door.
+
+[Illustration: “Where have you come from with all your household goods?”]
+
+“Have you had your sleep out?” he said laughing. “Come and have some
+coffee with me. Then I will take you to your cousin. Some one else must
+carry your bundle. It is too heavy for you.”
+
+Sami followed him into the coffee-room. Here the good man kept pouring
+out coffee for the boy, but Sami could neither eat nor drink.
+
+When the coachman had finished his breakfast, he rose and started with
+Sami on the way to the sergeant’s house. It was not far. At the house in
+the meadow among the pear-trees he laid Sami’s bundle down, shook him by
+the hand and said:
+
+“Well, good luck to you. I have nothing to do in there and have
+farther to go.”
+
+Sami thanked him for all his kindness, and gazed after his benefactor,
+until he disappeared behind the trees. Then he knocked on the door. A
+woman came out, looked in amazement first at the boy, then at his big
+bundle, and said rudely: “Where have you come from with all your
+household goods?”
+
+Sami informed her where he had come from and that his grandmother was
+Mary Ann, and his father, Sami. Meanwhile three boys had come running up
+to them, placed themselves directly in front of him, and were looking at
+him from top to toe with wide-open eyes. This embarrassed Sami
+exceedingly.
+
+“Bring your father out,” said the mother to one of her boys. Their father
+was sitting inside at the table, eating his breakfast.
+
+“What’s the matter now?” he growled.
+
+“There is someone here, who claims to be a relative of yours. He doesn’t
+know where he is going,” exclaimed his wife.
+
+“He can come in to me, perhaps I can tell him, if I know,” replied the
+man, without moving.
+
+“Well, go in,” directed the woman, giving Sami an assisting push. The boy
+went in and replied very timidly, where he had come from and to whom he
+had belonged. The peasant scratched his head.
+
+“Make quick work of it,” said the woman impatiently, who had followed
+with her three boys.
+
+“I think we have enough with the three of them, and there are people who
+might need such a boy.”
+
+“This is quickly decided,” said the peasant, thoughtfully cutting his
+piece of bread in two; “send all four boys out.”
+
+After this command had been carried out, he continued slowly: “There is
+no help for it. It was stipulated at the time the house was sold, that
+room must be made in the house if either Mary Ann, Sami or the child
+should come back. Besides, it is not so bad as it seems. Where three
+sleep together there is room for a fourth, and he can do some work for
+his food. The parish can do something for his clothes.”
+
+His wife had no desire to have a fourth added to her three boys, for her
+own made enough noise and trouble for her. She protested, saying she
+knew how it was with such stray children and they could expect to have a
+fine time!
+
+But it was of no use; it was decided that Sami should have a place in the
+house. The farmer brought in the bundle and carried it up to the oldest
+boy’s room, where until now the broad-shouldered Stöffi had slept in a bed
+alone. He could take Sami in with him, for he was smaller than the other
+two; Michael and Uli could stay together as before.
+
+Then the woman opened the bundle. She was not a little surprised, when
+she found inside not only Sami’s clothes, all in the best of order, but
+also two good dresses, aprons and neckerchiefs. She called Sami up to
+her, and showed him the corner in the chest where she had put his things.
+Then she said she would take the woman’s clothes for herself, since he
+could surely make no use of them. The clothes which his grandmother had
+always worn were so dear to Sami, that he looked on with sad eyes, as
+they were carried away, but he thought it had to be so.
+
+He had already made the acquaintance of the three boys. They had shown
+him below in front of the house how one of them could best throw down the
+others, and had demonstrated all sorts of useful tricks. But as each
+tried to outdo the others in showing off his knowledge, a struggle ensued
+and the tricks were immediately applied; one threw another over the
+third, Sami was knocked and thrown around by all three.
+
+When he now came down from his room a voice from the barn called out:
+“Come here and help pull.”
+
+Sami ran along. There stood the two younger boys, Michael and Uli, with
+great hoes on their shoulders, and Stöffi beside a cart which had to be
+taken along. They waited for their father, and then all went out to the
+field. Here Stöffi and Sami had to rake together the grass, which the
+father cut, and load it on the cart, and bring home to the cows. Michael
+and Uli had to hoe the weeds in the next field near by. Now it appeared
+that Sami did not know at all how to use the rake, for he had never done
+such work.
+
+“He shall weed with Uli, and Michael can do this work,” said the farmer.
+
+But when Sami tried to do this, the hoe was too heavy for him, and he
+could do nothing.
+
+“Then kneel on the ground and pull them up with your hands,” said
+the farmer.
+
+Sami squatted down and pulled at the weeds with all his might. The ground
+was hard and the work very tiresome. But Sami did not forget how his
+grandmother had impressed it upon him to do all his work well and
+willingly.
+
+At noon the two weeders took their hoes on their shoulders and Sami had
+to pull the cart, which was now much heavier than on the way there. The
+boy had to use all his strength, for Stöffi showed him plainly that he
+would not take upon himself the larger part of the work.
+
+Then when they passed by the field the father indicated to each one the
+piece he would have to weed that afternoon; for he himself would be
+obliged to go to the cattle market. They would find a smaller hoe at home
+for Sami to take with him in the afternoon, for pulling up the weeds was
+too slow work.
+
+After the boys had worked several hours in the afternoon, they sat down
+in the shade of an old apple-tree to eat their luncheon, and the piece of
+black bread with pear juice tasted very good after the hot work.
+
+“Have you ever seen a bear?” asked Stöffi of Sami.
+
+He said he had not.
+
+“Then you would be fearfully frightened if you should suddenly see one,”
+ continued Stöffi; “only those who know them are not afraid of them. This
+evening there is to be one in the village, and, as I am almost through
+with my piece in the field, you can finish it, so I can go early to see
+the bear.”
+
+Sami agreed. When all four had begun to hoe again, Stöffi soon exclaimed:
+
+“Well, you won’t have much more to do now, Sami, but keep your
+promise, or--”
+
+Stöffi doubled up his fist, and Sami understood what that meant.
+
+He had hardly gone when Michael said:
+
+“See, Sami, there isn’t much left of mine, you can do that too; I am
+going to see the bear.”
+
+Whereupon Michael ran off.
+
+“Me, too,” cried Uli, throwing down his hoe. “You can finish that
+also, Sami.”
+
+When the twilight came on and the family put the sour milk and the
+steaming potatoes on the table, Sami was missing.
+
+“I suppose he will keep us waiting,” remarked the farmer’s wife
+sharply. When all had finished and the milk mugs were empty, the woman
+cleared them away and placed the few potatoes left over on the kitchen
+table and growled:
+
+“He can eat here, if he wants anything.”
+
+It was quite dark, and Sami still had not come. Just as the other three
+were being sent to bed, he came in, so tired he could hardly stand. The
+woman asked him harshly, if he couldn’t come home with the others. The
+farmer assumed that the piece he had told Sami to weed had been too much
+for him to do, and he said consolingly:
+
+“It is right that you wanted to finish your work, but you must
+work faster.”
+
+Sami understood the signs which Stöffi made behind his father’s back,
+that he was to keep silent about the bear, and he was too much afraid of
+the three boys’ fists to say anything about it.
+
+He preferred to go straight to bed, for he was too tired to eat. But he
+couldn’t go to sleep. He had received so many new impressions, he had
+borne so much anguish, and had to do so much work besides, he could think
+of nothing else. But now his grandmother came before his eyes again as
+she had prayed with him at evening and had been so kind to him, and
+everything she had told him. He wanted so much to pray, it seemed to him
+as if his grandmother was near and told him the dear Lord would always
+comfort him if he prayed, and that comfort he was so anxious to have.
+
+He was so troubled, when he wondered if he could do his work the next
+day, so that the farmer would not be cross, and how his wife would be,
+for he was very much afraid of her, and how it would be with the boys,
+who forced him to make everything appear contrary to the truth.
+
+Then Sami began to pray and prayed for a long time, for he already began
+to feel comforted, because he could take refuge with the dear Lord and
+ask Him to help him, now that he had no one left in the world to whom he
+could speak and who could assist him. When at last his eyes closed from
+great weariness he dreamed he was sitting with his grandmother on the
+wall and above them all the birds were singing so loud and so joyfully
+that he had to sing with them: “Only trust the dear Lord!”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTH
+
+HARD TIMES
+
+
+The following morning Sami was awakened by loud tones, but it was no
+longer the birds singing; it was the farmer’s wife ordering the boys
+harshly to get up right away. She had already called them three times,
+and if this time they didn’t obey, their father would come. Then they
+all sprang out of bed and in a few minutes were down-stairs, where
+their father was already sitting at the table and would not have waited
+much longer.
+
+The day did not pass very differently from the one before, and thus
+passed a long series of days. There was already a change in the work.
+
+Sami, little by little, learned to do everything very well, for he took
+pains and followed his grandmother’s advice carefully. He always had
+something to do for the other boys still, so that he never finished his
+work a moment before supper-time. But he was no longer late. A change had
+also come about in this. Stöffi had learned that there was one thing Sami
+could not or would not do which he himself could do very well: he could
+not tell a lie.
+
+He had been late again a couple of times, but had never told the reason.
+Finally, however, the farmer had spoken harshly:
+
+“Now speak out, and tell why you can’t get through your work faster; you
+are quick enough when anyone is watching you.”
+
+Then Sami had accordingly told all the truth, and the father had
+threatened to beat the boys if they didn’t do their work themselves.
+Afterwards Stöffi had thrashed Sami to punish him, and had warned him
+that he would do it every time Sami complained of him.
+
+Sami had replied that he had never complained and didn’t want to do so,
+but when his father questioned him he could only tell him the truth.
+Stöffi tried to explain to him that it didn’t matter whether he told the
+truth or not, but here he found Sami more obstinate than he had expected,
+and no matter what fearful threats he hurled at him, he always said the
+same thing in the end:
+
+“But I shall do it.”
+
+This firmness was the result of Sami’s sure conviction that the dear Lord
+heard and knew everything and that lying was something wicked, which did
+not please Him.
+
+So Stöffi had to find some other way to get off from his work early and
+make Sami finish what he left. He found that all three could never dare
+abandon their work and leave it for Sami, but one of them might do so
+each evening, and he threatened to punish his brothers severely if they
+would not agree to this. Then there would always be three or four
+evenings in succession when Stöffi wanted to go away early; then the
+brothers had to stay and work, and this led to many a quarrel, with heavy
+blows which regularly fell upon Sami.
+
+So he never had any happy days. But every evening he could be alone with
+his thoughts of his grandmother, of all the beautiful bygone days and all
+the good words she had spoken to him. Nobody troubled him, or called to
+him, or pulled him then, as usually happened all day long.
+
+Thus the Summer and Autumn passed away, and a cold Winter had come. There
+was no more work to be done in the fields and meadows, but there were all
+sorts of things to be done to help the farmer in the barn and his wife in
+the house and the kitchen. This Sami had to do.
+
+Meanwhile their own three boys could go to school, which had now begun
+again, for they had to get some education. Sami could get that by and by.
+In the Summer he had acquired a good deal of quickness and now did his
+work so skilfully that the farmer said a couple of times:
+
+“I would not have believed it, for in the Summer he was always the last.”
+
+Sami now thought that everything would go easier than in the Summer, but
+something came which was much harder to bear than the extra burden of
+work, which was too much for the others.
+
+Every day the boys fought in the field outside, and Sami, as the
+smallest, always came off with the most blows. But that was the end of
+it, and when the boys came home at night no one thought any more about
+it. In the evening the three boys were assigned to the little room with
+the feeble light of a low oil lamp, to do their arithmetic for school,
+while Sami had to cut apples and pears for drying. From the first the
+three were angry because Sami had no arithmetic to do, and then one would
+accuse the other of taking the light away from him, and all three would
+scream that Sami didn’t need any at all for his work. Then one would pull
+the lamp one way, and another the other way, until it was upset and the
+oil would run over the table into Sami’s apples. Then there would be a
+really murderous tumult in the darkness; all hands would grope in the oil
+and one would always outcry the others. Then the mother would come in
+very cross and want to know who was always starting such mischief. Then
+one would blame the other, and finally the blame would fall on Sami,
+because he made the least noise. Usually the farmer too came in then, and
+his angry wife would always reply that she had indeed said the boy would
+be an apple of discord in the house, and a Winter like this they had
+never experienced. Often Sami had to endure many hard words and
+undeserved punishment. On such evenings he remained sleepless for a long
+time sitting on his bed.
+
+Then he would rack his brains as to how it could happen so, since his
+grandmother had told him that if he was God-fearing everything would
+happen for the best. That he should be so scolded and badly treated was
+not the best for him. He really wanted to be God-fearing and not forget
+that the dear Lord saw and heard everything. But Sami was still very
+young and could not know, what he later knew, that it is good for
+everyone if he learns early in life to bear hardship. Then when the evil
+days, which none escape, come again later on, he can cope with them
+bravely, because he knows them already and his strength has become
+hardened; and when the good days come he can enjoy them as no one else
+can who has never tasted the bad ones.
+
+At this time Sami knew nothing about this and almost never went to sleep
+without tears; indeed, he often wondered whether the birds were still
+calling up in the ash-trees: “Only trust in the dear Lord!” and if it
+were still true that everything would come out right. The only comfort
+for him was that his grandmother had told him so positively, and he held
+fast to that.
+
+It was a long, hard Winter. The snow lay so deep and immovable on the
+meadows and trees, that Sami often asked with anxiety in his heart, if it
+would ever entirely disappear, so that the meadows would be green
+again, and the flowers become alive. It was already April, and the cold
+white covering of snow still lay all around. Then a warm wind from the
+South blew all one night into the valley, and when on the next day a very
+warm rain fell, the obstinate snow melted into great brooks. Then came
+the sun and dried up all the brooks, and everywhere the new young grass
+sprang up over the meadows.
+
+The four boys came across the big street of the village and turned into
+the meadow. They were pulling along the cart, on which lay the cooking
+utensils which the farmer’s wife had just purchased at the annual fair in
+the village. The boys had followed their mother’s command to go slowly
+and carefully, so that nothing would be broken, for they knew very well
+that their mother set great store by these things, and it was worth while
+to follow her instructions.
+
+Now that they had come safely over the rough street and had turned into
+the meadow road, two pulling, two pushing, they wanted to rest a little
+while. They stopped under the first large pear-tree, stretched
+themselves out on the ground and looked up into the blue sky. In the
+pear-tree above, the birds were singing merrily together, and suddenly
+one piped up in the midst of the others, always the same note, exactly as
+if he had a special call to give.
+
+“There he is,” cried Sami, springing up from the ground with delight.
+Then he listened again, and again sounded the staccato call, clear and
+sharp above the singing of all the other birds.
+
+“Do you hear it? Do you hear it?” cried Sami in his delight. “Now he is
+calling again: ‘Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!’ And then they all sing
+together: ‘Only trust the dear Lord!’”
+
+“You are just talking nonsense!” exclaimed Stöffi to the happy Sami. “The
+bird is more knowing than you are. That is the rain bird; I know him
+well. He notices the rain-wind and is calling: ‘Shower! Shower! Shower!’
+Then we know it is going to rain.”
+
+But Sami would not give up what was so dear to him and kept saying
+to himself:
+
+“But he is singing: ‘Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!’”
+
+“Keep quiet!” continued Stöffi sharply to him. “You are nothing but a
+little tramp, who can’t do anything and doesn’t know anything and twists
+everything he hears.”
+
+Then the blood rose to Sami’s cheeks and the tears came into his eyes
+and, more courageously than usual towards Stöffi, he cried:
+
+“I don’t do that, but you have done it many times!”
+
+Then Stöffi sprang up and seized hold of Sami to throw him down; but in
+his anger Sami turned quite differently from usual, so that Stöffi had to
+call the others to help him.
+
+A great struggle ensued; the blows became more and more violent, first on
+one side and then on the other. Suddenly the cart was upset. A fearful
+cracking and crashing sounded, and a great heap of red, brown and white
+crockery lay on the ground. Dumb with fright, the boys stood and looked
+at the destruction.
+
+Stöffi was the first to recover himself.
+
+“We will say that a wheel came off the cart, and it suddenly fell down.”
+ He immediately picked up a big stone in order to pound out the nail and
+take the wheel off from the axle.
+
+“I shall say just how it all happened, that we quarreled, and upset the
+wagon,” said Sami calmly.
+
+Then Steffi’s wrath rose to its height.
+
+“You traitor, you spy and mischief-maker!” he screamed. “You are nothing
+but a ragamuffin. We will force you.”
+
+“You cannot,” said Sami, “and you are no good either! If you were
+God-fearing, you would not want to lie so.”
+
+“Well, well,” they all screamed together, and shaking their fists in the
+most threatening way. “You needn’t say that. We are just exactly as
+God-fearing as you, and even much more so!”
+
+Suddenly a new thought came to Stöffi. He ran off with all his might, and
+Michael and Uli rushed after him. Sami saw that they were hurrying to the
+house; he followed slowly after. The farmer’s wife had come back to the
+house by a shorter way, and the farmer was just returning home too from
+the field, when the three boys came rushing along. The whole family was
+standing in great excitement at the door and all were talking loudly
+together and making threatening gestures, when Sami came along. He was
+met by the farmer, shaking his fist, and his wife threw such harsh words
+at him that he stood quite dumfounded.
+
+“That was the last straw,” she said, “that after all the kindness he had
+received he should tell them they were not God-fearing people.”
+
+Then the farmer joined in. Such talk was insolent from Sami, and it had
+been known for a long time how upright they were in his house, before
+such a scamp had come there and tried to show them the way. Then his wife
+began again and said Sami would have nothing more to do in her house; for
+he had brought nothing but trouble since he stepped into it; he could go
+to his room, and she would come right along.
+
+Sami was so surprised and confused by all the attacks and charges, that
+he had stood quite dumb until now. Now he wanted to explain how the cart
+had been upset, but the father said they knew everything already, and all
+he had to do was to go to his room. He obeyed.
+
+Soon the farmer’s wife came upstairs, packed Sami’s things together and
+tied them up again into a bundle, which was now much smaller than when
+he had brought it there, for some pieces of his old things had been
+worn out and were not replaced, and his grandmother’s clothes were no
+longer there.
+
+While she was packing the woman kept on talking very angrily about Sami’s
+wickedness and insolence, so that he now for the first time understood it
+all. The boys had stated that he had reproached them for not being
+God-fearing people; they had punished him for it, and through his
+resistance he had overturned the cart. Sami now tried to explain to the
+woman that it had not happened so, but she said she knew enough, threw
+his tied-up bundle beside his bed, and went out.
+
+Now for the first time Sami was able to think over what had happened to
+him and what was going to come. Then he was angry because he had to bear
+such injustice and not once have a chance to speak. And now he was driven
+out, or perhaps he would be sent to people where it would be even worse
+for him. Then he was so overcome with anger and fear and anguish, that he
+began to cry aloud and called out:
+
+“Yes, yes, Grandmother, you said if I was God-fearing everything would
+happen to me for the best; and I have been, and now it has happened
+this way!”
+
+But with the thought of his grandmother, there rose in his heart all the
+memories of his life with her, how they had wandered so peacefully
+through the meadows, and how beautiful it had been under those trees, how
+the birds had sung and the brook murmured, and suddenly Sami was mightily
+overcome, and he exclaimed:
+
+“Away! away! Over there! over there!”
+
+From that moment on a bright light rose in his heart. It was hope in a
+new life as beautiful as the first had been. Then Sami said his evening
+prayer gladly and fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTH
+
+THE BIRDS ARE STILL SINGING
+
+
+The next morning when Sami sat at the table with the family, no one said
+a word to him. The farmer’s wife pushed a piece of bread towards his
+coffee-cup and made up an unfriendly face. The farmer was no different.
+The three boys looked sourly down at their coffee-cups, for they had no
+good consciences, and all three feared that their lies of the day before
+might yet be found out, if Sami should happen to speak.
+
+When they rose from the table, the farmer said shortly:
+
+“Get your bundle! I shall have to lose more time with you, until I have
+found a place for you, for surely no one will want you.”
+
+Since the night before a change had taken place in Sami. He no longer
+hung his head, as he had done almost always before from fear; he lifted
+it up and said:
+
+“I know already where I must go.”
+
+The farmer and his wife looked at each other in astonishment.
+
+“I want to go over the mountains,” he added.
+
+“Yes, that is best, that he should go back there, where he came from,”
+ said the farmer’s wife quickly; “there will no doubt be someone going
+over there from the inn. Go quickly with him up there.”
+
+This seemed right to the farmer also. The leave-taking was as short as
+possible, and Sami was light-hearted when he started with his little
+bundle on his back away from his cousins’ house.
+
+At the inn, sure enough, they found a driver who was going with a big
+wood-wagon to Château d’Æux. He was ready to take the boy with him and
+thought he would be able to find someone to take him farther, if the boy
+knew his way down there on the French side. The farmer said Sami had been
+brought up there and wanted to go back, he knew where.
+
+Now the driver was ready. Sami’s bundle was thrown into the wagon and the
+boy seated on it.
+
+“Good luck!” said the farmer, gave Sami his hand and went away.
+
+Then the driver swung himself up on his seat and the two strong horses
+started off. Although the wood-wagon was far less handsome and easy than
+the coach in which Sami had come, still he sat much happier in his hard
+seat than when he had left his grandmother lying so alone and had to go
+away, without knowing where. Now he was going home, where he knew
+everything and where everything was dear to him, every tree and every
+wall by the way; and although he wouldn’t see his grandmother any longer,
+he would find all the places where he had been with her and where it was
+more beautiful than anywhere else. With these thoughts a multitude of
+questions arose in Sami’s mind: Would everything be still the same as
+before? Would the ash-trees still be standing there by the wall? and the
+red and yellow flowers be growing on the hillside? And Sami had so much
+to think about that he didn’t notice how the time was passing. So he was
+very much astonished when the wagon stopped, for they had come to a large
+village, and the driver took firm hold of him, lifted him up and set him
+down on the street. Sami looked around him. They had stopped in front of
+an inn, above which a big brown bear stood for a sign and which was
+surrounded by all kinds of vehicles. But he couldn’t look around any
+longer, for the driver had already seized him again and lifted him
+together with his bundle into another team and then went away. Soon he
+came back with a large piece of bread and said:
+
+“There, eat; you still have far to go.”
+
+“Are we yet in Château d’Æux?” asked Sami.
+
+“Yes, to be sure, but you are going farther,” was the reply; then the
+driver disappeared.
+
+Sami was now sitting in a small country wagon to which an enormous horse
+was harnessed. No one was as yet up in the high seat, but Sami was seated
+with his bundle back in the empty space on the floor. Then two big, stout
+men climbed up on the high seat, and they started away. After a short
+time Sami’s eyes closed involuntarily, he slipped off on the floor of
+the wagon, his head fell over on his bundle, and he sank into a deep
+sleep. When he woke again, he was still in the wagon on the floor, but
+everything was quiet around him; he did not hear the horse trotting; the
+wagon was no longer moving forward. It looked very strange all around
+him. He looked, and looked again, until he realized what had happened.
+The wagon was standing without horse or driver in a shed; they had
+forgotten Sami and left him lying there.
+
+“Where can I be?” Sami asked himself. The door of the shed stood open,
+and outside there was bright sunshine. Sami climbed down from his
+sleeping-place, stepped outside and went a little way farther around the
+house, which stood directly in front of the shed. Then he knew
+everything about it--there stood the house with the garden, where he had
+taken the beautiful coach; right before him was the railway station--he
+was in Aigle again. Only a little way farther in the train and he would
+be at home!
+
+Then it came to Sami that here he could no longer talk with the people,
+for now he was among the French. But he knew what to do. He still had the
+little bag with his grandmother’s money. He ran to the place where the
+people were getting their tickets, laid a piece of money in front of the
+little window, and said: “La Tour!”
+
+Immediately he had his ticket; he sprang into the train, which was
+already standing outside, and crouched down quickly in his corner, the
+very same corner where he had sat before with Herr Malon. He knew all the
+names which were called out at the stations; nearer and nearer he
+came--now--“La Tour!” He jumped down and ran to the right across the
+fields, then to the left up the hill. He knew every tree along the way.
+Now--there stood the wall, there stood the ash-trees and their tops were
+waving to and fro. Underneath, the clear brook was murmuring, and above,
+on the hillside, the bright sun was shining on the big golden primroses
+and the red anemones. It was all exactly as it had been before! Moreover,
+above--oh, that was the most beautiful of all!--up in the ash-trees the
+birds were piping and singing as loudly and as merrily as ever and, to be
+sure, there was the chief singer, the finch. “Trust! Trust! Trust!
+Trust!” sounded his clear song, and all the birds joined in with their
+warbling and rejoiced loudly:
+
+“Only trust the dear Lord!”
+
+Sami was so overcome because everything was still exactly the same as he
+had known it before, that he stood speechless for a long time and
+listened, looking around him and listening again. It seemed so good to
+him and he had never felt such happiness in his heart since that evening
+when he had sat there with his grandmother. Now his grandmother rose so
+vividly before him, that he suddenly threw himself down on the wall and
+wept. She was no longer there, and would come back to him no more. But
+all the good words she had spoken to him here that evening rose vividly
+in his heart, and it seemed as if he distinctly heard her talking again,
+and as if she must really be quite near and see him.
+
+Sami straightened himself up again, sat a while longer listening, and
+then began to think what he should do. At first he wanted to go to Malon
+and ask him if he could work for him, perhaps get out the weeds in his
+vineyard. But he could not explain to him why he was there again; they
+would not understand each other and Malon might think he had done
+something wrong and had been sent away for it by his cousin. But perhaps
+the woman who always gave mending to his grandmother would set him to
+work in her garden. She lived down below, near the Lake. He jumped down
+from the wall. Once more he looked at the hillside, and up into the tree,
+but he could come here again; he was here and could stay here.
+
+On the way he thought how he could explain to the woman what he wanted to
+do for her. He would bend down and show her how he could pull up the
+weeds; then he would show her by a gesture that he knew how to hoe.
+
+There stood already the old castle of La Tour before him, with its two
+high, weather-beaten towers, which he had looked at so many times. All
+around and high up thick ivy covered the old walls, and above them
+multitudes of merry birds were chirping. Sami had to stop and listen to
+their happy singing for a while, then he went along by the high old wall
+around the courtyard, for he wanted to see if it was still the same as
+before down below in the lonely place where the water kept falling on the
+old stones and singing a gentle song. He had once stood there a long time
+with his grandmother. There lay the place before him, but it was not
+lonely. A big wagon was standing there, with a grey cover stretched over
+it. No horse stood in front of it, but a thin nag was nibbling the hedge,
+and this evidently belonged to the wagon. Near the old castle tower a
+fire was blazing merrily; a man was sitting by it, hammering with all his
+might. Close by him four little children were crawling around on the
+ground. Sami stood still at this unexpected sight, then came slowly a
+little nearer. Then he heard the man warning the children not to come so
+near the fire. This he was doing in Sami’s own language, exactly as all
+the people in Zweisimmen had spoken. This gave courage to Sami; he came
+along quite near, and watched the man mend a hole in an old pan.
+
+“Does it please you?” asked the man, after Sami had looked on attentively
+for some time. The boy answered by nodding his head.
+
+“Are you French, that you can’t talk?” asked the man again.
+
+Sami then said he could talk, but not at all in French, but he was glad
+that the tinker spoke German, because otherwise he would not be able to
+understand anyone there.
+
+“Whom do you belong to?” asked the man again.
+
+“Nobody,” answered Sami.
+
+Then the man wanted to know where he had come from and why he had come
+among the French. Sami told him his history, and how he had only come
+there again that morning.
+
+“And now don’t you know at all what you are going to do, and where you
+are going?” asked the man.
+
+Sami said he did not.
+
+“If I knew that you would do something, and not just stand around and
+look in the air, I would give you work,” continued the man, “but such
+stray waifs as you are not willing to do anything.”
+
+Meanwhile a woman had come from the wagon. She had heard her husband’s
+last words.
+
+“Take him,” she said. “What work is there for him? He might run errands;
+all boys can do that. I never get through with the running about and the
+four bawlers, and the cooking besides; take him!”
+
+“Well, stay here,” said the man; “you can carry the pan back; it is very
+good that you know the way.”
+
+Sami had suddenly found a place; he did not himself know how, but he was
+very glad about it. Quite content, he started out with his pan and did
+exactly as the tinker had told him. He wandered through the long street
+of La Tour, went into every house and showed his mended pan. He made
+significant gestures, to make the people understand that he would like to
+get more articles to mend. This he did so eagerly and earnestly that most
+of the people burst out laughing, and this put them in such good humor
+that they always found a pan or a kettle with a hole in it which they
+handed him to be repaired.
+
+Thus in a short time Sami had collected as much old stuff as he was able
+to carry, and could now take his pan to the house pointed out to him,
+where it belonged. Then he turned back.
+
+[Illustration: “Such stray waifs as you are not willing ta do anything.”]
+
+The tinker was very much pleased with Sami’s harvest and his wife said
+very kindly, if he kept on doing like that, he would get along all right,
+but he must sit down at once and have some supper. The four little
+children were no longer there. Sami guessed that they were lying out in
+the wagon asleep. On the fire a pot was now standing. It was bubbling
+merrily inside and from under the cover came forth a very inviting odor.
+Sami had never been so hungry in his life before, for he had had nothing
+the whole day but the rest of the piece of bread which the driver had
+given him the day before in Château d’Æux.
+
+The woman took the cover off the pot and filled three dishes with the
+good-smelling soup. Each of the three now placed his dish before him on
+the ground, and the meal began.
+
+Nothing had ever tasted so good to Sami in all his life as this soup. It
+was not a thin soup, it was as thick as pulp, of cooked peas and
+potatoes, and with this quite large lumps of meat came into his spoon.
+
+When he had finished, the woman said:
+
+“You can go to sleep whenever you want to. In the back of the wagon there
+is room, and your bundle will make a good pillow.”
+
+This seemed a little strange to Sami, and he said:
+
+“Must I sleep in my clothes?”
+
+The woman thought he would find that he would not be too warm in the
+night. He would be ready all the sooner in the morning. Then he could
+wash his face quickly down in the lake and be all in order again for
+the next day.
+
+Sami was tired. He went immediately to the wagon and climbed up from the
+back, and was able to slip in under the big cover. There was a little
+room where he could lie down, and next him came the four little children,
+one after another. Sami sat down and said his evening prayer. Then he
+thought of his grandmother for a while, and what she would say if she
+could see him thus in the wagon, and know that he would have to sleep all
+the time in his clothes, and if only she could see how it looked in the
+wagon, so dirty and in disorder. She had been so neat and orderly about
+everything and had kept him so clean from a baby up. But she had never
+spoken to him about this, as about other things which he must avoid, and
+perhaps the people were quite God-fearing; then he ought to stay with
+them. That would be as his grandmother wished. Then he placed his bundle
+under his head, and went peacefully to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTH
+
+SAMI SINGS TOO
+
+
+Sami had now been working five days for the tinker, and had passed his
+nights in the wagon. He was well treated, for the man and his wife were
+pleased with him. Every day Sami dragged along such a pile of old pans,
+pots and kettles, that they both wondered where he found them. His
+grandmother had not charged him in vain to do everything he had to do
+as well as he possibly could, because the dear Lord always saw what he
+was doing.
+
+He never loitered on the way, and if a woman was going to send him away
+quickly and would not listen to him, then he looked at her so
+beseechingly that she would find an old pan somewhere and bring it out.
+From morning till night he ran with the greatest zeal, in order to get as
+much work as possible for his master, and the praise he won every evening
+he enjoyed as much as the savoury soup which followed.
+
+Nevertheless Sami was not very well contented. Every evening as he sat in
+the wagon, he had to think what his grandmother would say to all the dirt
+around him, and things pleased him less and less. The woman did not do
+for the little children as his grandmother had done for him. All four
+crawled around in the dirt and looked so that Sami didn’t care to have
+anything to do with them. If they cried they were knocked this way and
+that, and at night the woman took up one after another from the ground,
+put it in the wagon, pulled the dirty grey blanket over them and went
+away again.
+
+The largest boy could talk quite well. He could have learned a little
+prayer long before this, but the woman never taught him any.
+
+Such a homesickness for his grandmother now arose in Sami’s heart every
+evening that he had to bury his head deep in his bundle, so that no one
+would hear him sob.
+
+Often on his expeditions he would come near the wall, under the
+ash-trees, but he never went over to it, for he had to work and did
+not dare sit idle and listen to the birds. But every time he had
+looked longingly there and sent a whistle from a distance as greeting
+to the birds.
+
+From the old house on the hillside, from which one could look down at the
+ash-trees and the wall, he had brought a little kettle to the tinker, and
+was delighted at the thought of taking it back again, for then he could
+look down there for a moment and perhaps hear the birds.
+
+Two days had passed, and Sami hoped that on the following day the little
+kettle would be ready. When he returned that evening to the fire with his
+last collection, the tinker was sitting thoughtfully there, turning the
+little kettle round and round in his hands. His wife was looking over his
+shoulders and both were scrutinizing the old kettle as if it were
+something unusual.
+
+“It is as like the other as if it were its brother,” said the wife. “You
+know how the man said you must not spoil the pictures scratched on it,
+and on that account he gave you so much more for it. Here are exactly the
+same figures on this, and the nose in front has just the same curve as
+the other, which he would not have mended for fear it would be spoiled.”
+
+“I see it all, surely,” said the man, “but I don’t know what can be done
+about it. With the other one I could say, it couldn’t be mended any
+more, for it looked much worse than this, and the people didn’t know
+that the old stuff was worth anything, and I wouldn’t have believed it
+was myself.”
+
+“They won’t know either. The boy brought the kettle from the old house
+up there. They only know the ground they hoe, but not such a thing as
+this. Just say it can’t be mended any more, it is not good for anything,
+and give them something for the copper. They will be satisfied enough.
+If we go back to Bern we will take it to the man, who will give eighty
+francs for it.”
+
+“That is true. We can do that,” said the man, delighted; “perhaps they
+won’t want anything for the kettle when they know they can’t use it any
+more. Come, Sami,” he called to the boy, who stood staring at them on the
+other side of the fire, and had heard and understood everything--“come
+here, I want to tell you something.”
+
+Sami obeyed.
+
+“Run quickly up to the old house, where you brought the little
+kettle from, and say it isn’t good for anything, that it can’t be
+mended any more.”
+
+Sami, filled with horror, stared at the man. “Now hurry up and go along,”
+ said his wife, who was still standing there; “you understand well enough
+what you have to do.”
+
+Sami continued looking at the man without moving, as if he really had not
+understood his words.
+
+“What is the matter with you? Why don’t you hurry along?” snarled the
+man to him.
+
+“I can’t do that. You are not God-fearing if you do such a thing as
+that,” said Sami.
+
+“What is it to you, what I do? Be quick and go along!” commanded the
+tinker, and his wife screamed angrily:
+
+“Do you think a little beggar like you is going to tell us what is
+God-fearing? We ought to know much better than you! Will you do at once
+what you are told, or not?”
+
+Sami did not stir.
+
+“Will you go and do what I told you, or--”
+
+The man raised his hand high up. Sami was pale with fright. Suddenly he
+turned around, ran to the wagon, took his bundle out, and ran with all
+his might up the road, turned to the right between the high walls and
+rushed on into the open field. Not a moment did he stop running, until
+he had reached the ash-trees. The spot was like a place of refuge to him.
+Breathless, he sat down on the wall. The twilight was already coming on
+and it was perfectly still all around. No one had run after him as he
+feared. He was quite alone.
+
+Now he began to think. It was all done so quickly that he had only now
+come to his senses. Yes, it was right that he had run away, for what he
+had to do was something wrong, and he had to come away because they were
+not God-fearing. It surely would seem right to his grandmother that he
+had done this. But where should he go now? The people had all gone home
+from the fields, perhaps were already asleep. Up in the ash-trees not
+one little bird made a single sound. They were surely all in their nests
+and fast asleep. If the dear Lord kept them up there in the trees safe
+from all harm, so that they could sleep so well, He would surely protect
+him too under the trees. In this spot he always had the feeling that his
+grandmother was nearer to him than anywhere else, and this gave him
+confidence. So he laid himself down under the tree quite trustfully and
+immediately after he had ended his evening prayer, his eyes closed, for
+the brook was murmuring such a beautiful slumber song under the
+ash-trees there.
+
+Golden sunshine was streaming in Sami’s eyes when he awoke. Above him all
+the birds were warbling their morning song up into the blue sky. It
+sounded like pure thanksgiving and delight. It awakened in Sami’s heart
+the same tones, and he had to sing praise and thanksgiving, for the dear
+Lord had protected him too so well through the night and let His golden
+sun shine on him again. With a clear voice Sami joined in the glad chorus
+and sang a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, the only one he knew:
+
+  “Last night Summer breezes blew:--
+  All the flowers awake anew,”
+
+And when he had come to the end, he sang like the merry finch with all
+his might:
+
+  “Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!
+  Only trust the dear Lord!”
+
+The song had awakened in Sami new assurance that he would find a piece of
+bread and some worthy work. This he wanted to look for now, for his
+grandmother had not impressed it upon him in vain from his earliest days,
+that in the morning after praying one should immediately go to work. So
+Sami started off.
+
+He did not go down to the Lake this day, lest he should come near the
+tinker. With his bundle under his arm he wandered up the gradually rising
+field road. Where this crossed the narrow street, leading over to
+Clarens, Sami met a child’s carriage which a girl was pushing in front of
+her. She wore a spotless white cap and a white apron. Over the carriage,
+too, was spread a snow-white cover, and out from under it peeped a little
+head with bright golden hair and a little white hat on it.
+
+This unusual neatness and the smart appearance of the carriage attracted
+Sami very much and he followed along the same way. On the white carriage
+robe was worked a wreath of blue silk, but not of flowers. It was of
+strange figures. The shining blue silk on the white cloth looked so
+beautiful that Sami could not keep his eyes away from it. Suddenly it
+became plain to him that the strange figures were letters, but he had
+never seen any like them in his life. Their appearance captivated him
+more and more. Then he began to try to see if he couldn’t spell them out
+and perhaps read the words. He tried as hard as he could, but it was
+difficult. Sami kept beginning over again from the first. Finally he made
+out all the words. It was a proverb which read thus:
+
+  “So let the little angels sing:
+  This child is safe beneath our wing.”
+
+This proverb reminded him so much of his grandmother; he didn’t know why,
+but it seemed to him as if she had prayed exactly like this over his bed.
+The tears came to his eyes, and yet it seemed so good, just as if he had
+found his home again. The girl now turned suddenly to the left from the
+road, and went through the high iron gate which stood open, and led into
+a wide courtyard. Great, ancient plane-trees stood inside and cast their
+broad shade over the sunny courtyard. A large flower garden surrounded
+the high stone house, which looked forth from behind the trees.
+
+Sami followed the carriage into the courtyard. It stopped under
+the trees.
+
+“What do you want here? That is the way out,” said the girl impatiently
+to Sami, pointing so plainly to the gate that Sami would have understood
+the meaning of her words even if her language had been foreign. But it
+was surely German, and he had understood it all very well, although he
+could not speak like that himself. His grandmother had told him that
+there were people who spoke just like the reading in the books.
+
+Sami did not reply, and the girl did not wait for him. She snatched the
+child quickly out of the carriage, took the beautiful robe over her arm,
+and went into the house.
+
+Meanwhile a little girl had come out of the house and was standing at
+some distance gazing at Sami with two big eyes. Now she came quickly
+forward, jumped nimbly into the empty carriage, and said:
+
+“Come, give me a ride!”
+
+“Where?” asked Sami.
+
+“Out there along the road, and far, far away!”
+
+Sami obeyed immediately. For a long while he trotted along without
+stopping. The little girl seemed to enjoy the ride. She looked so eagerly
+around with her bright eyes on every side, as if she couldn’t see enough.
+Then they came to a meadow thick with flowers.
+
+“Hold still! Hold still!” cried the little one suddenly, and sprang with
+a big jump out of the low carriage.
+
+“Now we must have all the flowers, every single one! Come!”
+
+And the little girl was already in the midst of the grass, stamping
+bravely forward. But Sami said quite prudently:
+
+“You mustn’t go so into the grass. It is forbidden. But see, if we go
+around outside and take all the flowers you can reach, there will be a
+big bunch.”
+
+The little one came out, for she knew that she ought not to do what was
+forbidden. Then the flowers were gathered according to Sami’s advice, but
+the little companion soon had enough of such exertion, seated herself on
+the ground and said:
+
+“Come, sit down by me. But you must not speak French to me. I have to
+learn that with Madame Laurent, but I would rather speak German, and you
+must do so too.”
+
+“I don’t speak French, I don’t know how,” replied Sami; “but I can’t
+speak like you either.”
+
+“Where do you come from then, if you don’t speak German and don’t speak
+French?” the little one wanted to know.
+
+Sami thought for a moment, then he said:
+
+“First I came from Chailly and then from Zweisimmen.”
+
+“No, no,” interrupted the little one warmly. “People are never from
+two places, only from one. I am from Berlin, in Germany, you see. Then
+Papa bought an estate and now we are living on Lake Geneva. What is
+your name?”
+
+Sami told her.
+
+“And my name is Betti. Why did you come into the courtyard when Tina
+wanted to send you out?”
+
+Sami had to think for a while, then he said:
+
+“Because those words were on the robe, I knew they were God-fearing
+people where it belonged, and my grandmother told me I must stay with
+such people and never go away, for I should learn nothing but good
+from them.”
+
+“Must you stay with us now, and never go away again?” asked little
+Betti eagerly.
+
+“Yes, I think so,” answered Sami. “Perhaps I can weed the garden.”
+
+“That is right,” said Betti, delighted. “You see, Tina will not take me
+in the carriage; she says I am too big. Will you take me every day in the
+carriage to the meadow for ever so many hours?”
+
+“Yes, indeed, I will do that gladly,” promised Sami, “and you shall have
+all the flowers. Then I will take you besides to the trees where all the
+birds sing ‘Only trust the dear Lord!’ and where the finch cries so loud
+above them all: ‘Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!’ Have you heard him too?”
+
+At this description little Betti’s eyes grew bigger and brighter with
+expectation.
+
+“Come now, let’s go right away to the birds,” she exclaimed, jumped up
+and ran in haste to the carriage.
+
+Sami followed.
+
+At this moment Tina, with a very red face, came running up from below.
+Her looks did not portend anything good.
+
+“So I have found you at last,” she cried angrily from a distance.
+“Everybody is running around looking for you--your three brothers, the
+servants, the coachman--everybody! I have run myself half dead for you.
+Sit down in the carriage, you naughty little thing. The little tramp can
+go where he likes. No, he must come back again; his bundle is lying in
+the courtyard. So he can pull the carriage if he has to come with us.”
+
+Little Betti did not seem very much frightened by this lively speech. She
+climbed quickly into the carriage and said gaily: “Go ahead, Sami!”
+
+He obeyed quite crushed, for now he could only return for his bundle;
+then he would have to go away again, and he had so firmly believed this
+was the place where he was to stay according to his grandmother’s advice,
+and it had pleased him so much. He had started out in the morning full of
+trust from the song of the birds, and now he was returning very
+down-hearted the same way.
+
+When the three on their way home came to the courtyard, a tall man was
+standing there, looking out up and down the road; a lady was coming out
+of the house and going in again very restlessly, and three young boys
+were running first one way and then another, screaming at the top of
+their voices:
+
+“She is nowhere to be seen! She is nowhere to be seen!”
+
+But there she was, drawn by Sami, just coming into the courtyard. Before
+any question, reproach or accusation could be heard in regard to the
+unlawful expedition, Betti had run straight to her Papa, and in his
+delight that she was safely there again, he had taken her in his arms,
+and with the greatest eagerness she said:
+
+“He will take me every day in the carriage, Papa, the whole day long, if
+I like, and bring all the flowers to me, because I must not go in the
+high grass. And he must always stay with us, because his grandmother knew
+about it, and, Papa, think, he knows birds that sing a whole song, and
+the finch sings above them all: ‘Trust! Trust!’ We were going right to
+see them when Tina came and we had to come home. But now we can go, can’t
+we, Papa, right away? Sami will take me there again; he isn’t tired yet.
+Only say yes, Papa.”
+
+“Your story is wonderful,” said her Papa, laughing. “Where is the little
+coachman whom you have engaged and who, according to his grandmother’s
+advice, must stay with us?”
+
+Meanwhile the three brothers had come running along and, together with
+their mother, stood near their father under the gateway, so that Sami,
+who with his bundle on his arm was trying to go out, could not pass
+through, and had betaken himself very quietly to a corner of the
+courtyard. The master of the house now placed his daughter on the ground
+and looked towards the boy. But he was already surrounded, for during
+their little sister’s story the three brothers had made their examination
+and calculation and then had turned to the boy. Nine-year-old Edward had
+decided with satisfaction that Sami was the one he had for a long time
+needed, for since the donkey, which had been given to him at Christmas,
+had overturned him and his little cart three times running, his father
+had forbidden him to drive out again without the coachman, Johann. But
+when Edward wanted to go out driving Johann was always occupied some
+other way, and when Johann announced that he could go it didn’t suit
+Edward at all. Now Sami was found, an attendant whom he could call
+whenever he wanted him.
+
+Eleven-year-old Karl was an enthusiastic archer, but to have to be always
+running after his arrows after they were shot and to hunt for them was
+very irksome to him. Suddenly someone was found whom he could make use of
+to hunt for his arrows.
+
+Fourteen-year-old Arthur had permission to sail in his boat on the lake,
+but he needed some one to steer for him. Now here was a satisfactory boy,
+on the spot, whom he could teach, and have to steer for him. So it
+happened that there was a great uproar when their Papa drew near the
+group in the corner of the courtyard.
+
+“Keep him, Papa, I have enough work for him to do!” cried Arthur, while
+Karl’s voice was heard above his screaming:
+
+“Let him stay here, Papa, please, I need him so much!”
+
+But Edward’s piercing voice was heard above the other two:
+
+“Papa, he can drive the donkey, he must stay with us, then Johann won’t
+need to come with me any longer!”
+
+And in the midst of all sounded Betti’s high little voice, untiringly:
+
+“Can we go to see the birds now, Papa? Can we go now to the birds?”
+
+Then Papa turned away from the noisy group and said, laughing:
+
+“My dear wife, what do you say to this whole story?”
+
+The lady addressed had until now listened silently and watched Sami,
+whose eyes grew brighter and brighter the louder the children begged for
+him to stay. She looked at him kindly and said first of all she would
+like to know from him where he came from, and what the story which Betti
+told about his grandmother meant; he ought to tell where he had been
+living hitherto, who his parents were and who his grandmother was.
+
+The kind lady had inspired Sami with great confidence and he now told
+from the beginning all that he knew about his life up to the present
+moment, and also how he had come into the courtyard, on account of the
+proverb, which led him to believe that here lived the people with whom he
+should stay.
+
+When Sami came to an end, the lady turned to her husband and said:
+
+“It is the dear Lord who has led him here. We cannot send him away!”
+
+The children all shouted together for joy.
+
+“Can we go to the birds now, Papa? Right away?” repeated Betti with
+irrepressible eagerness.
+
+“By and by, by and by,” said her father, soothingly. “Sami is going with
+me first up to Chailly, to show me where Herr Malon lives. I want to talk
+with him. When we come back, we will see what to do first.”
+
+The mother understood that her husband wanted to have Herr Malon’s
+assurance that everything Sami had told was true, and held back the
+children, who all four were anxious to explain immediately to Sami what
+they desired of him.
+
+“But bring him back again, Papa!” cried Betti following after them as
+they started away.
+
+Herr Malon was very much surprised to see Sami again, and moreover in
+such company, for he recognized the master of the plane-tree estate at
+once. After the first greeting Sami was sent out doors for a little, and
+this delighted him very much, for now he could look at the garden again
+and the crooked maple-tree, under which he had so often sat with his
+grandmother.
+
+Herr Malon assured his guest that all Sami’s words were correct and
+besides gave a description of Old Mary Ann, her fidelity and
+conscientiousness, so that the gentleman was very glad to have such good
+news to carry to his wife.
+
+A loud shout of delight welcomed them on their return, and still louder
+was the applause, when their father announced that Sami was henceforth to
+remain in the house and be the children’s playmate.
+
+Sami did not know what to make of it. Since his grandmother’s death, no
+one had shown the slightest pleasure in his presence; on the contrary
+everywhere he had felt as if he were tolerated only out of pity, and now
+he was received with loud rejoicing by the children of a house to which
+he had been more attracted than anywhere else before, and where his
+grandmother would be glad to see him; of that he was sure. His heart was
+so overflowing with joy that he wanted to sing aloud and give praise and
+thanksgiving evermore like the finch:
+
+“Trust! Trust! Only trust the dear Lord!”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is now ten years since Sami entered the plane-tree estate. Whoever
+passes by there on a beautiful Spring day will surely stand still at the
+high iron gateway and listen for a little, for there is seldom heard such
+a merry song as sounds from the thick branches of the planetrees. Up in
+the tree sits the young gardener pruning the branches. At the same time
+he sings continually, like the merriest finch, and carols loudest the end
+of his song, accompanied by all the birds:
+
+“Only trust the dear Lord!”
+
+The young gardener is Sami. At first he received a good knowledge of
+reading, writing and arithmetic with the children of the house; later,
+according to his great wish, he was trained as a gardener of the estate.
+But he is now not only gardener, he has much more to oversee about the
+estate than any one would imagine. Arthur, who has just finished his
+studies, is still an ardent sailor. Without Sami, no trip is possible,
+and Arthur is apt to say:
+
+“Without God’s help and Sami’s assistance I should have been drowned
+twenty times.”
+
+When Karl comes from the university in his vacation, his first question
+is, “Where is Sami?” and this he asks numberless times every day, for
+without him he can never get ready. He alone knows where to find
+everything Karl needs in vacation-time for his amusements, from his old
+bow and quiver up to his riding whip and gun.
+
+Edward has now given up his donkey cart and instead is interested in
+strange animals, which have their dwelling-place in the back of the
+courtyard and often make a great spectacle there. He owns two marmots,
+two parrots and a monkey. No one could manage these and keep them in
+order but Sami, and he does it so well and so successfully that Edward
+often exclaims:
+
+“Without Sami everything we have would go to ruin, animals and people,
+the animals for want of proper care and the people from anger over it.”
+
+But Betti still remains Sami’s greatest friend. She can call him at any
+hour of the day she pleases, Sami is immediately on the spot, and Betti
+knows he is more devoted than any one else and besides can keep secrets
+like a stone. No one knows how many little notes he has to carry every
+week to the neighbouring estates. Sami will not tell, for her brothers
+would laugh at their sister Betti’s endless correspondence which she has
+with numerous girl friends around on all the estates. Sami is her most
+devoted friend, for he would run through fire and water for her without
+hesitation. He never forgets what persuasive words in his behalf Betti
+used with her father, when, broken-hearted, he was going to fetch his
+bundle and go away again.
+
+The youngest, Ella, with golden curls, who has taken over the donkey and
+cart from her brother Edward, is entrusted to Sami’s especial care when
+she desires to go for a drive. Whenever she brings out her white robe to
+spread over her knees, Sami’s eyes sparkle with delight and thankfulness
+as he remembers how the proverb led him to his good fortune, and still
+more at the memory of his grandmother, who brought about all this good,
+and whom he never forgets.
+
+When, recently, a lady, owning one of the neighbouring estates, proposed
+to Herr von K. to transfer his merry gardener to her, merely because the
+servants in her house had sullen faces, he replied:
+
+“You can have him, just as much as you can have one of my own children,
+if you should try to entice one away. Sami is the most faithful,
+trustworthy, conscientious person who has ever come in my way. I can
+leave my whole house and go wherever I will, I know that everything will
+be taken care of, as if I stood by. This is so because Sami has another
+Master besides me, before whose eyes he performs all his work. The dear
+Lord himself sent my glad-hearted Sami to me, and I esteem him. He
+belongs to my house, and it shall remain his home!”
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg’s What Sami Sings with the Birds, by Johanna Spyri
+
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