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Amrei said to herself, almost aloud: "Who knows if she may not thus suddenly think of you? One cannot tell why she should, and yet perhaps she is thinking of you at this very moment. For in this place she promised to be your protectress whenever you came to her, it was yonder by the stunted willows. Why is it, that only the trees remain to be seen?
And now the mother thought that Amrei ought to have some refreshment. She wanted to cook an omelette immediately, but Amrei begged to be allowed to light the first fire in the house that was to prepare something for herself, and asked that she might cook something for her parents too. They let her have her way, and the two old people went with her into the kitchen.
Early the next morning Amrei told John all about what his parents had said to her, and what they had given her. And John cried out joyously: "Lord in heaven, forgive me! I could have believed such a thing of my mother, but of my father I should never have dreamt it! Why, you must be a witch! And look you! We will do that we won't tell either of them about the other.
But his wife put out her hand and held him, saying: "Let her finish what she has to say." And Amrei went on: "Believe me, I have sense enough to know that one cannot take a girl, out of pity, for a daughter-in-law. You can give me something, you can give me a great deal, but to take me for your daughter-in-law out of pity, is something you cannot do, and I do not wish you to do it.
But that evening, when, according to an arrangement of the village authorities, "Crappy Zachy" came to get Damie, and Black Marianne called for Amrei, the children refused to separate from each other, and cried aloud, and wanted to go home.
Amrei looked at him with eyes of wonder. If she could only bring herself to love this man! But she was almost afraid of him she could not help it. And to have him thus fall from the clouds, as it were, and compel her to love him, rather turned her against him. "Where is your wife?" asked Amrei. She very likely felt that a woman would have broached the subject in a more gentle and gradual manner.
"Amrei looks as if she were your sister, but she resembles still more Elizabeth, who died." "Yes; none of you have lost by it. If Elizabeth had lived, the property would have been smaller by one share anyway," observed the father. And the mother added: "But now she has been given back to us again."
The rest of that day Amrei did not offer her pitcher to any one else; she was afraid of having something given to her again. When she got home in the evening, Black Marianne told her that Farmer Rodel had sent for her, and that she was to go over to him directly. Amrei hastened to his house, and as she entered, Farmer Rodel called out to her: "What have you been saying to Farmer Landfried?"
She said to Amrei: "There untie that!" Amrei tried, but it was hard work. "Wait! I'll get a pair of shears and we'll cut it open!" "No," objected Amrei. "I don't like to do that! Just have a little patience, mother, I'll undo it all right!" The mother smiled; and Amrei, with great difficulty, but with a skilful hand, finally got the cord untied. Then the old woman said: "Good! That's fine!
Perhaps the fact that Amrei, even before she knew who he was, had accused him of not thinking it worth while to appear good and kind before men, had opened his heart. At all events he had so much to say now, every time he encountered her, that it seemed as if he had been keeping all his thoughts in a savings-box, which he was at last opening.
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