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It was the hardest hour of the day for Mux, for it was his bedtime. His mother always took him by the hand, to lead him to bed, before she began to talk with the three elder children. Every evening he put up a fight, for the wily youngster always thought that by obstinate resistance he could break the rule.
When he was left alone with his mother and Mux one day, and all the others were busy with their preparations, he said: "Tell me what I could do, mother." "Draw him a picture of the beautiful goat," Mux advised. He knew that Dino could draw animals well, and to him there was no finer animal in all the world than the goat. "What a knowing goat boy you are, Mux," Dino exclaimed.
Next morning, when Cornelli had just gotten up, Mrs. Halm entered her room. "Cornelli," she said, taking the child's hand, "you have made us all so happy! You have done much for Dino by helping him to pass many pleasant hours, and you have entertained my little restless Mux so wonderfully that he can hardly live without you any more.
"Zailor, ees fai! ay and zarve un raight. Her can't kape out o' the watter here, whur a' must goo vor to vaind un, zame as a gurt to-ad squalloping, and mux up till I be wore out, I be, wi' the very saight of 's braiches. How wil un ever baide aboard zhip, wi' the watter zinging out under un, and comin' up splash when the wind blow.
If Matthew could not be found and Cornelli and Dino were busy with their own plans and did not need him, Mux knew another friend who always gave him a good reception, that friend was Esther. He loved to find her in the vegetable garden, which was also full of surprises for him.
Halm had seriously told the children not to make any remarks about Cornelli's hair in case she should come. She had told them not to show any surprise if Cornelli wore her hair in a rather strange fashion and not to notice it further; that was the way the mother wished it to be. Little Mux was very much pleased at having a new companion.
The gardener constantly thought out pleasant surprises for Mux, who showed a decided taste for farming. If Matthew had to do some important work where Mux was in his way, he always devised a plan to keep the boy amused elsewhere: "Go down there to the raspberry hedge, Mux!" he would say. "The berries are finest and biggest there, because the sun has cooked them through.
The habit was a part of him, as real a thing in his constitution as the black ring in his fur. It was a very dirty habit, here in captivity, even if it went by the name of washing. Of course Mux could not be blamed for his soiled wash-water. That was my fault; only I couldn't be changing it every time he soaked up a fistful of earth in his endeavor to wash something to eat out of it.
If Mux looked a little timidly at the large cabbage heads, Esther said to him: "Don't be afraid of them, Mux. If I cook cabbage, everybody else likes it so much that you won't have to eat it at all, and you can take the potatoes which I serve with it." Mux often accompanied Esther to the kitchen, where he soon picked up a lot of useful knowledge.
If Nika could not even talk about her sorrow, she might have the deepest sorrow of all. "Now we shall go to Dino," she said, hurrying to the door which the little boy had pointed out to her. "But wait! I shall first show you our big picture book. You'll love it," Mux assured her. "There is something in it that looks just like you; it is an owl that has rags over its eyes like you.
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