The Swiss Twins | Page 5

the steeple began to ring, and the sound floated out across the
green fields spangled with yellow daffodils, and reached Mother Adolf
where she stood. Bells from more distant villages soon joined in the
clamor, until all the air was filled with music and a hundred echoes
woke in the mountains.
The tiny wooden cuckoo heard them and ticked loudly with satisfaction.
"Everybody follows me," he said to himself proudly. "I wake all the
bells in the world."
"Where can the children be?" said Mother Adolf aloud to herself,
looking about the garden. "I haven't heard a sound from either the baby
or the Twins for over an hour," and, making a hollow between her
lands, she added her own bit of music to the chorus of the hills.
(line of music notation)
she sang, and immediately from behind the willows which fringed the
brook at the end of the garden two childish voices gave back an
answering strain.
(line of music notation)
A moment later two sunburned, towheaded, blue-eyed children, a boy
and girl of ten, appeared, dragging after them a box mounted on rough
wooden wheels in which there sat a round, pink, blue- eyed cherub of a

baby. Shouting with laughter, they came tearing up the garden path to
their mother's side.
"Hush, my children," said Mother Adolf, laying her finger on her lips.
"It is the Angelus."
The shouts were instantly silenced, and the two children stood beside
the mother with clasped hands and bowed heads until the echoes of the
bells died away in the distance.
Far down on the long path to the village a man, bending under the
weight of a huge basket, also stood still for a moment in silent prayer,
then toiled again up the steep slope.
"See," cried Mother Adolf as she lifted her head, "there comes Father
from the village with bread for our supper in his basket. Run, Seppi,
and help him bring the bundles home. Our Fritz will soon be coming
with the goats, too, and he and Father will both be as hungry as wolves
and in a hurry for their supper. Hark!" she paused to listen.
Far away from out the blue shadows of the mountain came the sound of
a horn playing a merry little tune.
"There's Fritz now," cried Mother Adolf. "Hurry, Seppi, and you,
Leneli, come with me to the kitchen. You can give little Roseli her
supper, while I spread the table and set the soup to boil before the goats
get here to be milked." She lifted the baby in her arms as she spoke,
and set off at a smart pace toward the house, followed by Leneli
dragging the cart and playing peek-a- boo with the baby over her
mother's shoulder.
When they reached the door, Leneli sat down on the step, and Mother
Adolf put the baby in her arms and went at once into the quiet house.
Then there was a sound of quick steps about the kitchen, a rattling of
the stove, and a clatter of tins which must have pleased the cuckoo, and
soon she reappeared in the door with a bowl and spoon in her hands.
The bowl she gave to Leneli, and little Roseli, crowing with delight,
seized the spoon and stuck it first into an eye, and then into her tiny
pink button of a nose, in a frantic effort to find her mouth. It was
astonishing to Baby Roseli how that rosebud mouth of hers managed to
hide itself, even though she was careful to keep it wide open while she
searched for it. When she had explored her whole face with the spoon
in vain, Leneli took the tiny hand in hers and guided each mouthful
down the little red lane.

Over their heads the robin in the cherry tree by the door sat high up on
a twig and chirped a good-night song to his nestlings. "Cherries are ripe,
cherries are ripe, cherries are ripe in June," sang the robin. At least that
is what Leneli told the baby he said, and surely she ought to know.
Before Baby Roseli had finished the last mouthful of her supper, Father
and Seppi appeared with the bundles, and then there was the clatter of
many little hoofs on the hard earth of the door- yard, and round the
corner of the old gray farm-house came big brother Fritz with the goats.
With Fritz came Bello, his faithful dog, barking and wagging his tail
for joy at getting home again. Bello ran at once to Leneli and licked her
hand, nearly upsetting the bowl of milk in his noisy greeting, and the
baby crowed with delight and seized him by his long, silky ears.
"Down, Bello, down," cried Leneli, holding the bowl high out