to the time which meant the inexorable end of playing. This usually
happened when everybody was most eager and everything else was forgotten
for the moment. As soon as the clock struck, playing was discontinued,
the evening song was sung and then followed the disappearance of the two
little ones. While the older children put away the toys, the mother went
to the piano to choose the song they were to sing.

Maezli had quickly run after her. "Oh, please, mama, can I choose the
song to-day?" she asked eagerly.

"Certainly, tell me which song you would like to sing best."

Maezli seized the song-book effectively.

"But, Maezli, you can't even read," said the mother. "How would the book
help you? Tell me how the song begins, or what lines you know."

"I'll find it right away," Maezli asserted. "Just let me hunt a little
bit." With this she began to hunt with such zeal as if she were seeking
a long-lost treasure.

"Here, here," she cried out very soon, while she handed the book proudly
over to her mother.

The latter took the book and read:

"Patience Oh Lord, is needed,
When sorrow, grief and pain"--

"But, Maezli, why do you want to sing this song?" her mother asked.

Kurt had stepped up to them and looked over the mother's shoulder into
the book. "Oh, you sly little person! So you chose the longest song you
could find. You thought that Lippo would see to it that we would sing
every syllable before going to bed."

"Yes, and you hate to go to bed much more than I do," said Maezli a little
revengefully. It had filled her with wrath that her beautiful plan had
been seen through so quickly. "When you have to go, you always sigh as
loud as yesterday and cry: 'Oh, what a shame! Oh, what a shame!' and you
think it is fearful."

"Quite right, cunning little Maezli," Kurt laughed.

"Come, come, children, now we'll sing instead of quarrelling," the mother
admonished them. "We'll sing 'The lovely moon is risen.' You know all
the words of that from beginning to end, Maezli."

They all started and finished the whole song in peace.

When the mother came back later on from the beds of the two younger
children, the three elder ones sat expectantly around the table, for Kurt
had told them of their mother's promise to tell them the story of the
family of Wallerstaetten that evening. They had already placed their
mother's knitting-basket on the table in preparation of what was to come,
because they knew that she would