o to win her precious favor."

"Why shouldn't Mea meet her friend kindly again if she wants to, Kurt?"
said the mother. "Elvira knows well enough who has been offended this
time and has broken off the friendship. She will be only too glad when
Mea meets her half-way."

Kurt was beginning another protest, but it was not heard. Lippo and
Maezli arrived at that moment, loudly announcing the important news that
Kathy was going to serve the soup in a moment and that the table was not
even set.

The mother had put off preparations for dinner on purpose. During the
foregoing conversation she had repeatedly glanced towards the little
garden gate to see if Bruno was not coming, but he could not be seen yet.
So she began to set the table with Mea, while Lippo, too, assisted her.
The little boy knew exactly where everything belonged. He put it there
in the most orderly fashion, and when Mea put a fork or spoon down
quickly a little crookedly, he straightway put them perfectly straight
the way they belonged.

Kurt laughed out loud, "Oh, Lippo, you must become an inn-keeper, then
all your tables will look as if they had been measured out with a
compass."

"Leave Lippo alone," said the mother. "I wish you would all do your
little tasks as carefully as he does."

Dinner was over and the mother was looking out towards the road in
greater anxiety, but Bruno had not come.

"Now he comes with a big whip," Kurt shouted suddenly. "Something must
have happened, for one does not usually need a whip in school."

The younger boy opened the door, full of expectation. Bruno could not
help noticing his mother's frightened expression, despite the rage he was
in, which plainly showed in his face.

He exclaimed, as he entered, "I'll tell you right away what happened,
mother, so that you won't think it was still worse. I have only whipped
them both as they deserved, that is all."

"But, Bruno, that is bad enough. You seem to get more savage all the
time," the mother lamented. "How could you do such a thing?"

"I'll explain it right away and then you will have to admit that it was
the only thing to do," Bruno assured her. "The two told me last Saturday
that they had a scheme for to-day in which I was to join. They had
discovered that the lovely plums in the Rector's garden were ripe and
they meant to steal them. When the Rector is through with his lessons at
twelve o'clock he always goes to the front room and then nobody knew what
is goin