panionship? I have not a
single friend in all Tannenburg. I have nobody in all the world with whom
I can be intimate."

The mother suggested that Paula might be a little more friendly with her
sister Lili, and also with Miss Hanenwinkel. But Paula declared, that Lili
was much too young, and the governess much too old. The latter was really
only twenty, but to Paula she seemed very old indeed. For girls to be
intimate, she declared they must be of the same age, so that they could
thoroughly understand each other's feelings, and they must be always
together. Without such a friend Paula said there was no real pleasure in
life, for a girl needed some one to whom she could confide her secrets,
and who would tell her own in return.

"Yes, Paula is at the romantic age," said her brother. "I am sure that for
a long time she has peeped into every field flower to see if it would not
suddenly unfurl a hidden banner, and turn into a Joan of Arc. Every little
mole that she sees in the fields, she half suspects may wear a seal-ring
on his little finger, and be a Gustavus Vasa in disguise, searching amid
the mole-hills for his lost kingdom."

"Do not be so teasing, Jule," said his mother reprovingly. "There is
certainly something very delightful in such an intimacy as Paula
describes. I had such an experience myself, and the memory of that happy
time is dear to me even now!"

"Oh, do tell us again about your dear friend Lili, mamma," exclaimed
Paula, who had often heard her mother speak of this intimate friendship,
and had indeed formed her own ideal upon that model. Lili also joined her
sister in begging for the story, and even more urgently, for she knew
nothing about this friend, although she bore the same name.

"Was not I named for her, mamma?" she asked, and her mother assented. "You
all know the long manufactory under the hill," continued Mrs. Birkenfeld,
"with the large house surrounded by a beautiful garden. Lili, my friend,
lived there, and I remember very well the first time I ever saw her.

"I was about six years old, and I was playing one day in the parsonage
garden with my simple dolls, which I set up on flat stones, that I always
collected for seats for my children, whenever and wherever I found them.
For I had no such outfit for my dolls as you children have now, no sofas
and chairs and other furniture. You all know that your grandfather was the
pastor in Tannenburg, and we led a very simple life at the parsonage.