dared to look
around the room, but now she looked up.
A boy, a little taller than she, was carrying a small easy chair and
placed it before Sally. He looked at her with such a merry face as the
restrained laughter came so visibly out of his eyes, that the sight
brought a complete reversion in Sally's feelings, and she, all at once,
laughed right out; upon which, the boy too, relieved his feelings by a
bright peal of laughter, for the rushing in and then the confusion of the
unexpected guest had long since tempted him to laugh; but he was too
well trained to dare to break out.
"Well, my child," said the mother with that winning voice, "and what
has brought you to me?"
"I have--I ought to--I wanted," Sally began hesitatingly, "I wanted to
give a message to Marianne--" Sally could not stop at half the truth.
The sad, friendly eyes of the lady were penetratingly resting on hers, so
everything had to come out as it was.
"That is lovely and friendly of you, that you want to see us, dear little
girl. How did you hear of us?" asked the lady, and took off Sally's
straw hat, while she put the question to the child. She placed the hat on
the table and smoothed her hair with a mother's touch.
Now Sally related all in full confidence how it had happened, and that
she and her two brothers had wanted to come yesterday to find out who
was coming to live with Marianne, and to find out how the piano and
all the other things could find room in the little house. Sally now, for
the first time, looked around the room and she had to wonder a little,
for she saw only the piano and four bare walls, and then there were the
two easy chairs on which she and the lady were sitting, and the small
table. She knew that besides this room there was a very small bedroom,
where two beds could hardly find room. Sally could not set herself to
rights; all was so different from what she had imagined. She had
expected to see strange and foreign things standing about everywhere
and now she saw nothing besides an old piano. And yet the lady who
sat before her in a black silken dress looked more aristocratic than Sally
could ever have imagined; and the boy in his velvet suit looked quite
like the old knights in Edi's beautiful picture book, and he had brought
her a seat without anyone telling him, and was more refined and
courteous than she had ever before seen a boy.
When Sally turned her surprised eyes again to the lady, she saw such a
painful expression in her face that it came involuntarily into her mind
how the mother had said, that of course "she would not go there for the
sake of staring at the people," and she felt that she was doing something
very much like it. Sally rose. All at once she remembered to whom she
really wanted to go, so she said hastily: "I must go to Kaetheli; she may
be sick." With these words she quickly offered her hand to the lady.
The lady, too, had risen; she took the proffered hand, held it between
both of hers, and looked once more so lovingly into the child's eyes,
that her little heart was moved. Then she kissed her forehead and said:
"You dear child, you were a friendly picture in our quiet room."
Then she let go of her hand, and Sally went through the open door into
the small kitchen. The boy, meanwhile, had opened the house door and
now he stood outside quite courteously, like a doorkeeper, to bid Sally
good-bye.
"Are you not coming to school tomorrow?"
"Yes, indeed," was the answer.
That pleased Sally very much and she at once decided that he must
become Edi's friend, for she had taken a great liking to the boy and
when he was Edi's friend then he would be hers too, and he must come
every Sunday afternoon and spend it with them and they would teach
him all kinds of games; and many undertakings passed through her
brain, for with this friend everything could be carried out; he was so
entirely different from other boys and girls in the school. "Then you are
coming to-morrow?" she asked with happy expectation.
"Where shall I come?" he questioned in return.
"To school, of course."
"Yes, indeed, I'll come to school."
"Well, then, good-bye," said Sally, giving her hand, "but I do not know
your name."
"Erick--and yours?"
"Sally."
Now they shook hands, and Erick remained standing in the doorway
until Sally had turned round the hedge, then he shut
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