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Noémi hastened out to fetch it, as it was kept ready. The invalid swallowed it, and said he felt the better for it. Noémi seemed delighted at the good news. "Well, and what is Dodi doing?" asked Michael. Noémi trembled lest he should see the throbs of her heart at the question. "He is asleep," she replied, gently. "Asleep? But why asleep now? He is not ill?" "Oh, no; he is all right."
I have an idea; I will fell the dead walnuts and build of them a little house for Dodi." Therese clasped her hands in astonishment. But Noémi's answer was to kiss her little Dodi and say to him, "Dost thou hear?" Michael interpreted the wonder on Therese's face as incredulity.
In Timar's torture the words escaped him, "Oh, my little Dodi!" The fugitive laughed with a knavish grin. "I'll be his father, a very good sort of father "
Noémi could not speak; she bent over Michael and pressed a kiss on his lips. "That was his message, the treasure!" cried Michael, and the kiss sent him to sleep. The child sent it to him from his own slumber. The next morning he asked again about the boy. "Take Dodi out into the air; it is bad for him to be in the house; carry him into the garden." They were about to do so.
"Does Dodi play with his little man?" "Oh, yes, he is always playing with him" (
Her little Dodi had the croup, the most dangerous of all childish maladies, against which all the skill of the physician is often powerless. Mortally terrified, Noémi rushed to her child. The face of the innocent creature was quite changed. It was not crying this disease has no characteristic cry, but so much the more dreadful is the suffering.
Noémi pressed both her hands to her heart, and drove back the outward expression of her agony with superhuman courage. Yes, he is already singing in heaven, amidst the angelic choir among the innumerable seraphim! that was the song he joined in. Toward evening Michael sent Noémi out. "Go and put Dodi to bed, and give him a kiss for me." She did so. "What did Dodi say?" he asked her.
"That is not fresh cold water, it is quite warm. Do you want me to die of thirst?" Noémi bore his crossness patiently. And when Michael fell asleep again, she ran out to Dodi. The two women replaced each other, so that as long as Michael slept, Therese sat by him, and when he awoke she gave Noémi a sign to leave her sick child and take her place by Michael's bed.
Almira crawled to her beloved master, raised her head to him once again, licked his hand, then fell back dead. "Will you never leave us again?" faltered Noémi. "Don't leave us alone any more," begged little Dodi. Michael pressed both to his breast, and his tears streamed over his dear ones. "Never never never!" With the last days of March the hard winter of this year came to an end.
Then Michael had another task before him; he must teach Dodi to read. Dodi was a lively, healthy, good-tempered boy, and Timar said he would teach him everything himself reading, writing, swimming, also gardening and mason's and carpenter's work. He who knows these trades can always earn his bread. Timar fancied things would always go on thus, and he could live this life to the end of his days.
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