es of the boy the red full calix
of the rose flew open, disclosing a glittering golden verse that lay in
the centre of the flower. Then Veronica pushed the paper-strip back, and
the rose folded its leaves and was a perfect flower again.

Quite dazzled by this wonderful magic the little boy stared with amazement
at the rose, and then seized it to try for himself.

While the children were playing, Veronica's mother was being laid in her
grave. After awhile Cousin Judith came back into the room. She was
"cousin" to all Tannenegg, though related to no one. She came back to take
the rose, and put it into the hook, which she replaced in the cup-board.
"Sit still awhile longer, children;" she said, "and presently your mother
will come for you. Be good and do not trouble her, for she has enough to
bear already."

It was the little boy's mother she meant, and the children knew it. They
knew also very well, that they must be good and not trouble her, for they
had seen her for two days going about the house with eyes red with
weeping. Presently she entered the room, and took the children one by each
hand, and went to the door with them. She seemed to be struggling with sad
and heavy thoughts. She usually spoke cheerily to the children, but now
she was silent, and every now and then she furtively wiped away a tear.

"Where are we going, mother?" asked the boy.

"We must go to the doctor's, Dietrich," she answered, "your father is very
ill." And she led them along the foot path toward the little town, where
the white houses shone in the sunlight. Fohrensee was a new place, that
had sprung up as if in one night from the soil, and now stood there a
great white spot against the dark hillside. Not long before, it had been
only a little cluster of houses standing in a protected spot on the side
of the hill, not very far below Tannenegg. It was so situated that the
biting north wind, which blew so sharply over the exposed houses of
Tannenegg, did not reach the nook where little Fohrensee lay bathed in the
full light of the sun. But the little place was high enough to be visited
by all the cooling breezes, and was healthy, pure and fresh, to a
remarkable degree. When, not long before this time, an enterprising
inn-keeper discovered its health-giving qualities, and built an inn there,
guests filled it so rapidly that he soon put up another. Soon, one after
another, little inns sprang up, as from the ground, and then a crowd of
trades-pe