t himself to lower his head and look sad when his mother waved a bad
report in his face in her nervous excitement: "So that's all one gets
in return for all one's worry?"

How ambitious women are! Paul Schlieben smiled; he took it more
calmly. Well, he had not had the hard work that Kate had had. As the
boy had missed so many lessons owing to his illness, she had sat with
him every day, and written and read and done sums and learnt words and
rules and repeated them with him indefatigably, and set him exercises
herself besides the schoolwork, and in this manner he had succeeded in
getting his remove into the fourth form with the others at Easter, in
spite of the weeks and weeks he had been away from school. She had
drawn a deep breath of relief: ah, a mountain had been climbed. But
still the road was not straight by any means. When the first blackbirds
began to sing in the garden he became No. 15 in his form--that is to
say, an average pupil--when the first nightingale trilled he was not
even among the average, and when summer came he was among the last in
his form.

It was too tempting to sow, plant, and water the garden, to lie on
the grass in the warm sunshine and have a sun bath. And still better to
rove about out of doors along the edges of the wood or bathe in the
lake and swim far out, so far that the other boys would call out to
him: "Come back, Schlieben, you'll be drowned."

"Be thankful that there is so much life in him," said Paul to his
wife. "Who would have thought only six months ago that he would ever be
like this? It is fortunate that he isn't fond of sitting indoors.
'Plenty of fresh air,' Hofmann said, 'plenty of movement. Such
a severe illness always does some harm to the constitution.' So let us
choose the lesser of two evils. But still the rascal must remember that
he has duties to perform as well."

It was difficult to combine the two. Kate felt she was becoming
powerless. When the boy's eyes, which were as bright as sloes, implored
her to let him go out, she dared not keep him back. She knew he had not
finished his school-work, had perhaps not even commenced it; but had
not Paul said: "One must choose the lesser of two evils," and the
doctor: "Such a severe illness always leaves some weakness behind,
therefore a good deal of liberty"?

She suddenly trembled for his life; the horror of his illness was
still fresh in her mind. Oh, those nights! Those last terrible hours in
which the fever had