on such pretty colors so that the bees and the insects may come to them
and be friendly with them? Just think! Herr Knopf says so. Oh, what
a tiny little nose a bee must have! And I've often seen that the
humble-bee isn't very smart; it flies up to a flower twice, three
times, and it might know that there was no honey there. The
humble-bee's stupid, but the honey-bees, they are the prettiest
creatures in the world. Don't you love them more than anything else?"

"No, I love horses and hounds more."

"And only think," Lilian went on, "that the bees never hurt me nor
uncle, but aunt has to take care. Have you ever caught a swarm?"

"No."

"If you're ever a great, rich gentleman, you must get some bees too.
But the bees do well only in a family where there's peace; Herr Knopf
told me so. And when we start to-morrow, my father's going to take a
bee-hive with him. Ah, if we can only take it safe to the New World;
'twould be frightful if all the good bees had to die on the way. But
'twill be very nice when they wake up in America, and fly away, and see
wholly different trees there."

"Is it really true that you're going away to-morrow?"

"Yes, my father has said so, and when he's said it, there's nothing can
hinder; you may be just as sure of it as that the sun will rise. My
father, uncle, and Herr Knopf have talked about you a great deal."

"About me?"

"Yes, they've wondered ever so much what you're going to do. Are you
really worth so many hundred millions?"

"Yes, Lilian, all the money in the whole world is mine."

"Ah, what do you say! you must think I'm a goose; I'm not so simple as
all that. But what do you mean to be?"

"A soldier."

"Oh, that's nice; then you'll come over to us, and help kill all the
people dead who keep slaves. My father and uncle say 'twill be done
soon. Ah, if 'twere only now as 'twas in the old times, then we'd go
away together into the great forest, far off into the world, and then
we'd come to a castle where there were only wee-bit, tiny dwarfs, and
there'd be one hermit, a good man with a snow-white beard, whom all
the animals in the wood loved--and Herr Knopf might be just such a
hermit--yes he's to be our hermit, and he'll be named Emil Martin.
Come, we'll call him after this brother Martin."

Thus the children amused each other, and Roland again asked,--

"Why must you go away so soon as to-morrow?"

"And why must you stay here any longer?" answered Lilian.

"I must stay