ed forth and said that she would keep the little boy until
she was leaving. In three weeks she was going to move down to Oakwood to
her cousin's, for her house was as good as sold. The officials were
greatly pleased with this offer; many things could turn up in three
weeks, and for the time being the little waif was cared for. So they
parted from one another satisfied with their work.

CHAPTER VI

A Lost Hymn

The next morning, when the mother lay still and pale on her bed, Erick
woke up; Marianne, who had watched for his wakening, came to his couch
and said:

"Dear Erick, your mother has gone, last night, to heaven, and now she
feels very happy, and looks down on you and watches to see whether you
stay good and honest so that sometime you may come to her."

First he had answered quite quietly: "Yes, I know, Mother has told me
that it would come so." But when he went to his mother and looked at her
for a long, long time and she did not open her eyes, then he sat down on
a footstool and cried quietly. As long as his mother lay there he could
not be made to leave her, and when she was carried out, then he sat down
in the spot where she always had sat, and did not go away the whole day.
But he was quite still, and although he wept, he did it so quietly that
no sound could be heard.

The day after the officials had been there and Marianne had taken Erick
from the empty room upstairs to her little home, she thought that it
would be best if he were to go to school and again come in contact with
other children, so that he might become happy again and make a little
noise with them; for this quiet weeping seemed sadder to Marianne than
if he had sobbed aloud. So she told him on that morning, that it would
be best for him if he were to go to school. In an instant Erick obeyed,
took out his books, packed them in his bag and started on his way to
school. So it went on from day to day, and gradually it seemed to
Marianne that Erick grew more and more as he used to be; but the sunny,
joyous face which he used to have had not yet returned, and something
like shyness had come to him, which never before had been noticed in
him. It seemed as if a safe, strong wall, which formerly had protected
him, had fallen down, and as though he looked for the first time on
things and people which surrounded him and which were strange to him.
The safe wall had been the great love of his mother, which had encircled
him everywhere.

Two w