all. The Pastor first tried every means to make Toni
speak, and asked him if he would like to go to his mother, but it was all
in vain, Toni did not give the least sign of understanding or interest.

Then the pastor sat down, wrote a letter and said to the herdsman's boy:

"Go back to the Matten farm and tell the farmer to harness his little
carriage and send it to me, and then I will see that Toni goes to-day to
Bern. He is very sick; say that to the farmer."

The farmer harnessed immediately, glad that further responsibility was
taken from him and he had only to carry Toni as far as the railway. But
the Pastor sent down to his sexton, an older, kindly man, who had given
him a helping hand for years in many matters of responsibility. He was
commissioned to take Toni with all care to the great sanitarium in Bern
and to give the letter to the doctor there, a good friend of the Pastor's.
A half hour later, the open carriage with the high seat drove up in front
of the Pastor's house. The sexton climbed up, placed the sick boy beside
him, held him carefully but firmly and thus Toni drove out into the world,
with a horse, for the first time in his life. But he sat there with no
sign of interest. It was as if he were no longer conscious of the outer
world.

CHAPTER FOURTH

IN THE SANITARIUM

The doctor of the sanitarium was sitting with his family around the family
table, engaged in merry conversation on various subjects. Even the lady
from Geneva, who spent several hours a day with the family, seemed to-day
a little infected by the children's gayety. She had never before taken so
lively a part in the discussion, which the school-children carried on
about different interests.

This lady's beloved and gifted son had died not long before; on this
account she had fallen into such deep sadness that her health had suffered
greatly and therefore she had been brought to the sanitarium to recover.

The animated conversation was suddenly interrupted by a letter which was
handed to the doctor.

"A letter from an old friend, who is sending me a patient to the
sanitarium. He is a young boy, hardly as old as our Max--there, read it."
Whereupon the doctor handed the letter to his wife.

"Oh, the poor boy!" exclaimed his wife. "Is he here? Bring him in. Perhaps
it will do him good to see the children."

"I think he is quite near," said the doctor; he went out, and soon came in
again with the sexton and Toni. He led the f