d brought him substantial help. She was the
daughter of a well-to-do farmer peasant and had a considerable dowry
when she married. Moreover she was extremely thrifty and industrious.
She never spent a halfpenny without carefully considering if a farthing
would not do as well. Better L1 in the pocket than 19s. 11-1/2d., she
used to say. She drove wonderful bargains at the market. She had no
eyes for the artistic and ornamental, though her house was so spick and
span, that it was good to look at in its cleanliness and order. She had
stored up everything she had possessed since her early youth, and was
said to use pins that were at least twenty years old. She managed to put
everything to use, and the boys' knickers were sometimes made of queer
materials.

One expression little Hansi often heard at home and that was the word
"_useful_." When she brought in a fresh bunch of darling, pink-tipped
daisies and wanted to find a corner for them and a tiny drop of water to
put them in, the whole family would exclaim: "Throw them away, what do
you want with those half-dead weeds; they're of no use." If one of the
neighbours gave her a ball or toy, it was the same story: "We've no room
for such rubbish here." Each child possessed a money-box, and every coin
was immediately put in. They had never had a penny to _spend_ in their
lives.

The garden was planted solely with vegetables and potatoes and herbs of
the most useful character. The scarlet beans in summer, however, would
brighten it up, and field poppies and dandelions sprang up in a quite
miraculous way to Hansi's delight. For in each flower was a jolly little
fairy, who talked to her and told her stories, because of her being a
seventh child and living at No. 7. Perhaps, too, because Hansi's natural
disposition made her look out for wonders, and her loving heart included
the field flowers among her friends.

Christmas was coming on; a pig had been killed. Hansi's father and
mother and big brother Paul stayed up all night making sausages, and the
children had sausage soup for dinner during the next week.

In preparation for Christmas, Hansi's mother baked large cakes (called
Stollen) of a plain quality, with currants few and far between. Food had
become very expensive during the last few years, and no one could deny
that seven children were a handful.

She went in to town and returned by electric tram, with the useful
things that were intended for Christmas presents for the