father it was not for poverty
I wore my old gown. And the stocking went on filling, so full that
sometimes when I woke at night, I'd get up, soft and quiet, and go feel
it in the moonlight. Then, on my knees, I would thank our Lord that my
little ones could in time get good learning, and that the father might
rest from labor in his old age. Sometimes, at supper, the father and I
would talk about a new chimney and a good winter room for the cow, but
my man had finer plans even than that. 'A big sail,' says he, 'catches
the wind--we can do what we will soon,' and then we would sing together
as I washed my dishes. Ah, 'a smooth wind makes an easy rudder.' Not a
thing vexed me from morning till night. Every week the father would take
out the stocking and drop in the money and laugh and kiss me as we tied
it up together. Up with you, Hans! There you sit gaping, and the day
a-wasting!" added Dame Brinker tartly, blushing to find that she had
been speaking too freely to her boy. "It's high time you were on your
way."

Hans had seated himself and was looking earnestly into her face. He
arose and, in almost a whisper, asked, "Have you ever tried, Mother?"

She understood him.

"Yes, child, often. But the father only laughs, or he stares at me so
strange that I am glad to ask no more. When you and Gretel had the fever
last winter, and our bread was nearly gone, and I could earn nothing,
for fear you would die while my face was turned, oh! I tried then!
I smoothed his hair and whispered to him soft as a kitten, about the
money--where it was, who had it? Alack! He would pick at my sleeve and
whisper gibberish till my blood ran cold. At last, while Gretel lay
whiter than snow, and you were raving on the bed, I screamed to him--it
seemed as if he MUST hear me--'Raff, where is our money? Do you know
aught of the money, Raff? The money in the pouch and the stocking, in
the big chest?' But I might as well have talked to a stone. I might
as--"

The mother's voice sounded so strange, and her eye was so bright, that
Hans, with a new anxiety, laid his hand upon her shoulder.

"Come, Mother," he said, "let us try to forget this money. I am big
and strong. Gretel, too, is very quick and willing. Soon all will be
prosperous with us again. Why, Mother, Gretel and I would rather see
thee bright and happy than to have all the silver in the world, wouldn't
we, Gretel?"

"The mother knows it," said Gretel, sobbing.

Sunbeams

D