Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 7, 2025
To-morrow he would not suspect, but would be as he had always been, and it would shock me to hear him laugh, and see him do lightsome and frivolous things, for to me he would be a corpse, with waxen hands and dull eyes, and I should see the shroud around his face; and next day he would not suspect, nor the next, and all the time his handful of days would be wasting swiftly away and that awful thing coming nearer and nearer, his fate closing steadily around him and no one knowing it but Seppi and me.
When the evening of the last day came we stayed out too long; Seppi and I were in fault for that; we could not bear to part with Nikolaus; so it was very late when we left him at his door. We lingered near awhile, listening; and that happened which we were fearing. His father gave him the promised punishment, and we heard his shrieks.
For a long time they sat there while the storm raged about them. Then the thunder went roaring away farther and farther down the valley, the rain ceased, and the sun came out. "The storm's over," said Seppi. "Let's get out of here." The goats had already scattered and were nibbling tufts of wet grass, when the two children crawled out from under the rock.
They gave up the milking lesson for the time being, but when the long day was over and they were on their way down the mountain-pass in the late afternoon, they came to a wide level space. Here they paused, and, while Seppi stood with his arm about Nanni's neck and fed her handfuls of green grass, Leneli really did milk enough for a refreshing drink to sustain her on the long homeward journey.
My noise was just as good as yours! I'll stop if you will." Seppi grumpily laid aside his horn and sat hugging his knees and looking at the wonderful view spread out before them. Across the valley the Rigi lifted its crest to the sky. Little toy villages, each with its white spire, lay sleeping silently in the sunshine. On the shores of the lake far below he could see the city of Lucerne.
"This is your chance! Trust the good God, do not be afraid, and soon your troubles will be over and you will be once more in your mother's arms." He stood on a rock and watched the little procession until a bend in the path hid it from sight, then he went back to his lonely pasture. For an hour or so, the children trudged quite cheerfully on their way. "This isn't hard at all," said Seppi.
"We can't get home that way; that's certain," said Seppi, pointing to the buried pass. "And we can't stay here either," moaned Leneli; "not if there is a way out in any direction." "There's the path Father and Fritz took this morning," said Seppi. "We might try that. It must go somewhere." "Perhaps that is blocked too," said Leneli. "I'll go a little way and see," said Seppi.
Seppi paused with his mouth open for a bite. "Why, I'm not, either!" he said with surprise. Leneli's eyes grew big. "Seppi," said she earnestly, "do you suppose, maybe, we're heroes like Peter of Lucerne, after all, and never knew it?" Seppi thought about this so seriously that for a minute he forgot to eat. Then he said, "Why, of course we are! We were scared but we did the right thing!
"Oh, it is no matter, lad; it was merely that I noticed the discrepancy. It is several days, and you cannot be expected to remember precisely. One is apt to be inexact when there is no particular circumstance to impress the count upon the memory." "But there was one, sir," said Seppi, eagerly. "What was it, my son?" asked the astrologer, indifferently.
Then he was gone; but his voice came back to me through the rain and darkness saying, "Yes, tell Seppi, but no other." It was the answer to my thought. Sleep would not come.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking