d was deeply immersed in a little book he had taken with him. Mea
had discovered the most beautiful forget-me-nots she had ever seen in all
her life, which grew in large masses beside the gurgling mountain stream.
Beside herself with transport, she flew from place to place where the
small blue flowers sparkled, for she wanted to pick them all.

Kurt had climbed a tree and from the highest branch he could reach was
searchingly studying the castle, as if something special was to be
discovered there. Maezli, having discovered some strawberries, had pulled
Lippo along with her. She wanted him to pick those she had found while
she hunted for more in the meantime. The mother was very busy keeping an
eye on them all. Kurt might become too daring in his climbing feats.
Maezli might run away too far and Lippo might put his strawberries into
his trousers-pocket as he had done once already, and cause great harm to
his little Sunday suit.

"You fuss and worry too much about the children," Uncle Philip said.
"Just let the children simply grow, saying to them once in a while, 'If
you don't behave, you'll be locked up.'"

"Yes, that certainly sounds simple," said his sister. "It is a pity you
have no brood of your own to bring up, Philip, as lively as mine, and
each child entirely different from the others, so that one has to be
urged to a thing that another has to be kept from. I get the cares
without looking for them. A new great worry has come to me to-day, which
even you won't be able to just push aside."

Mrs. Maxa told her brother now about the morning's interview with the
wife of the district attorney. She told him of the problem she had with
Bruno's further education, because the lessons he had been having from
the Rector would end in the fall, and of her firm intention of keeping
him from living together with his two present comrades. The three had
never yet come together without bringing as a result some mean deed on
one side and an explosion of rage on the other.

"Don't you think, Philip, that it will be a great care for me to think
that the three are living under one roof? Don't you think so yourself?"
Mrs. Maxa concluded.

"Oh, Maxa, that is an old story. There have been boys at all times who
fought together and then made peace again."

"Philip, that does not console me," the sister answered. "That has never
been Bruno's way at all. He never fights that way. But it is hard to
tell what he might do in a fit of ange