What Sami Sings with the Birds | Page 4

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