Veronica And Other Friends | Page 5

been employed by Steffan, and she herself did not
relax her labors early and late, to oversee the work and keep all in
running order.
For the first few weeks after her mother's death little Veronica sat every
evening weeping silently by herself in a dark corner of the room. When
Gertrude found her thus grieving, she asked kindly what ailed her, and
again and again, she received only this sorrowful answer,
"I want my mother."

Gertrude drew the child tenderly towards her, caressing her, and
promising her that they would all go together some day to join her
mother, who had only gone on before, that she might get strong and
well again. And gradually this second mother grew to take the place of
her own, and no game, no amusement could draw the loving child away
from Gertrude's side. Only Dietrich could succeed in enticing her to go
with him now and then.
The lad's love for his mother showed itself in a louder and more
demonstrative manner. He often threw his arms about her neck, crying
passionately,
"My mother belongs to me and to nobody else."
Then Veronica's brows would knit over her flashing eyes, until they
formed a long straight line across her face. But she did not speak. And
Gertrude would put one arm about the boy's neck and the other about
the little girl's, and say,
"You must not speak so, Dietrich. I belong to you both, and you both
belong to me."
In general, the two children were excellent friends, and completely
inseparable. They were not happy unless they shared everything
together and wherever one went, the other must go too. They went
regularly to school every morning, and were always joined by two of
the neighbors' children, who went with them.
These were, the son of the shoemaker, long, bony Jost, with his little,
cunning eyes,--and the sexton's boy, who was as broad as he was long,
and from whose round face two pale eyes peered forth upon the world,
in innocently stupid surprise. His name was Blasius, nicknamed Blasi.
Often, on the way to school, quarrels arose between Dieterli and the
two other boys. It would occur to one of them to try what Veronica
would do if he were to give her a blow with his fist. Scarcely had he
opened his attack when he found himself lying on his nose, while
Dieterli played a vigorous tattoo on his back with no gentle fists. Or the

sport would be to plant a good hard snow-ball between Veronica's
shoulders, with the mortifying result to the aggressive boy, of being
pelted in the face with handfuls of wet snow, until he was almost stifled,
and cried out for mercy. Dieterli was not afraid of either of them; for
though smaller and thinner than either, he was also much more lithe,
and could glide about like a lizard before, behind and all around his
adversaries, and slip through their fingers while they were trying to
catch him. Veronica was well avenged, and went on the rest of her way
without fear of molestation. If one of the other lads felt in a friendly
mood, and wished to act as escort to the little girl, Dieterli soon gave
him to understand that that was his own place, and he would give it up
to no one.
Every evening "Cousin Judith" came for a little visit, to give Gertrude
some friendly advice about the children, or the household economy.
She used to say that the gentle widow needed some one now and then
to show claws in her behalf, and Judith knew herself to be in full
possession of claws, and of the power to use them, an accomplishment
of which she was somewhat proud. One evening she crossed over
between daylight and dark, and entered the room where Veronica was,
with her favorite plaything in her hand, moving it back and forth as she
sat in the window in the waning light. She could read very nicely now
for two years had passed since she had lost her own mother, and had
become Gertrude's child. Many a time had she read over the motto
which shone out so mysteriously from the breast of the opened rose.
To-day she was poring over it again, and her absorption in "that same
old rose," as Dieterli called it, had so annoyed the lively lad that he left
her, and had gone out into the kitchen to find his mother. When Judith
saw the girl sitting thus alone, buried in thought, she asked her what
she was thinking about in the twilight all by herself.
Dieterli, whom no sound ever escaped, had heard Cousin Judith come
in, and came running in from the kitchen to see what was going on.