e drawing to a
centre, and all stand round the pastor, bareheaded, for a minute or so.
I guessed that some words of holy thanksgiving were being said, and I
wished that I had stayed to hear them, and mark my especial gratitude
for having been spared to see that day. Then I heard the distant
voices, the deep tones of the men, the shriller pipes of women and
children, join in the German harvest-hymn, which is generally sung on
such occasions;[1] then silence, while I concluded that a blessing was
spoken by the pastor, with outstretched arms; and then they once more
dispersed, some to the village, some to finish their labours for the day
among the vines. I saw Thekla coming through the garden with Max in her
arms, and Lina clinging to her woollen skirts. Thekla made for my open
window; it was rather a shorter passage into the house than round by the
door. "I may come through, may I not?" she asked, softly. "I fear Max is
not well; I cannot understand his look, and he wakened up so strange!"
She paused to let me see the child's face; it was flushed almost to a
crimson look of heat, and his breathing was laboured and uneasy, his
eyes half-open and filmy.

"Something is wrong, I am sure," said I. "I don't know anything about
children, but he is not in the least like himself."

She bent down and kissed the cheek so tenderly that she would not have
bruised the petal of a rose. "Heart's darling," she murmured. He
quivered all over at her touch, working his fingers in an unnatural kind
of way, and ending with a convulsive twitching all over his body. Lina
began to cry at the grave, anxious look on our faces.

"You had better call the Fraeulein to look at him," said I. "I feel sure
he ought to have a doctor; I should say he was going to have a fit."

"The Fraeulein and the master are gone to the pastor's for coffee, and
Lottchen is in the higher vineyard, taking the men their bread and beer.
Could you find the kitchen girl, or old Karl? he will be in the stables,
I think. I must lose no time." Almost without waiting for my reply, she
had passed through the room, and in the empty house I could hear her
firm, careful footsteps going up the stair; Lina's pattering beside her;
and the one voice wailing, the other speaking low comfort.

I was tired enough, but this good family had treated me too much like
one of their own for me not to do what I could in such a case as this. I
made my way out into the street, for the first time sin