Sami had now been working five days for the tinker, and had passed his nights in the . He was well treated, for the man and his wife were pleased with him. Every day Sami dragged along such a pile of old pans, pots and kettles, that they both wondered where he found them. His grandmother had not charged him in vain to do everything he had to do as well as he possibly could, because the dear Lord always saw what he was doing.  
He never loitered on the way, and if a woman was going to send him away quickly and would not listen to him, then he looked at her so that she would find an old pan somewhere and bring it out. From morning till night he ran with the greatest , in order to get as much work as possible for his master, and the praise he won every evening he enjoyed as much as the savoury soup which followed.
 
Nevertheless Sami was not very well . Every evening as he sat in the wagon, he had to think what his grandmother would say to all the dirt around him, and things pleased him less and less. The woman did not do for the little children as his grandmother had done for him. All four crawled around in the dirt and looked so that Sami didn’t care to have anything to do with them. If they cried they were knocked this way and that, and at night the woman took up one after another from the ground, put it in the wagon, pulled the dirty grey blanket over them and went away again.
 
The largest boy could talk quite well. He could have learned a little prayer long before this, but the woman never taught him any.
 
Such a homesickness for his grandmother now arose in Sami’s heart every evening that he had to bury his head deep in his bundle, so that no one would hear him .
 
Often on his expeditions he would come near the wall, under the ash-trees, but he never went over to it, for he had to work and did not dare sit idle and listen to the birds. But every time he had looked there and sent a whistle from a distance as greeting to the birds.
 
From the old house on the hillside, from which one could look down at the ash-trees and the wall, he had brought a little kettle to the tinker, and was delighted at the thought of taking it back again, for then he could look down there for a moment and perhaps hear the birds.
 
Two days had passed, and Sami hoped that on the following day the little kettle would be ready. When he returned that evening to the fire with his last collection, the tinker was sitting thoughtfully there, turning the little kettle round and round in his hands. His wife was looking over his shoulders and both were the old kettle as if it were something unusual.
 
“It is as like the other as if it were its brother,” said the wife. “You know how the man said you must not spoil the pictures scratched on it, and on that account he gave you so much more for it. Here are exactly the same figures on this, and the nose in front has just the same curve as the other, which he would not have mended for fear it would be spoiled.”
 
“I see it all, surely,” said the man, “but I don’t know what can be done about it. With the other one I could say, it couldn’t be mended any more, for it looked much worse than this, and the people didn’t know that the old stuff was worth anything, and I wouldn’t have believed it was myself.”
 
“They won’t know either. The boy brought the kettle from the old house up there. They only know the ground they hoe, but not such a thing as this. Just say it can’t be mended any more, it is not good for anything, and give them something for the . They will be satisfied enough. If we go back to Bern we will take it to the man, who will give eighty francs for it.”
 
“That is true. We can do that,” said the man, delighted; “perhaps they won’t want anything for the kettle when they know they can’t use it any more. Come, Sami,” he called to the boy, who stood staring at them on the other side of the fire, and had heard and understood everything—“come here, I want to tell you something.”
 
Sami obeyed.
 
“Run quickly up to the old house, where you brought the little kettle from, and say it isn’t good for anything, that it can’t be mended any more.”
 
Sami, filled with horror, stared at the man. “Now hurry up and go along,” said his wife, who was still there; “you understand well enough what you have to do.”
 
Sami continued looking at the man without moving, as if he really had not understood his words.
 
“What is the matter with you? Why don’t you hurry along?” the man to him.
 
“I can’t do that. You are not God-fearing if you do such a thing as that,” said Sami.
 
“What is it to you, what I do? Be quick and go along!” commanded the tinker, and his wife screamed angrily:
 
“Do you think a little beggar like you is going to tell us what is God-fearing? We ought to know much better than you! Will you do at once what you are told, or not?”
 
Sami did not stir.
 
“Will you go and do what I told you, or—”
 
The man raised his hand high up. Sami was pale with fright. Suddenly he turned around, ran to the wagon, took his bundle out, and ran with all his might up the road, turned to the right between the high walls and rushed on into the open field. Not a moment did he stop running, until he had reached the ash-trees. The spot was like a place of refuge to him. Breathless, he sat down on the wall. The was already coming on and it was still all around. No one had run after him as he feared. He was quite alone.
 
Now he began to think. It was all done so quickly that he had only now come to his senses. Yes, it was right that he had run away, for what he had to do was something wrong, and he had to come away because they were not God-fearing. It surely would seem right to his grandmother that he had done this. But where should he go now? The people had all gone home from the fields, perhaps were already asleep. Up in the ash-trees not one little bird made a single sound. They were surely all in their nests and fast asleep. If the dear Lord kept them up there in the trees safe from all harm, so that they could sleep so well, He would surely protect him too under the trees. In this spot he always had the feeling that his grandmother was nearer to him than anywhere else, and this gave him confidence. So he laid himself down under the tree quite trustfully and immediately after he had ended his evening prayer, his eyes closed, for the was murmuring such a beautiful song under the ash-trees there.
 
Golden sunshine was streaming in Sami’s eyes when he awoke. Above him all the birds were warbling their morning song up into the blue sky. It sounded like pure thanksgiving and delight. It in Sami’s heart the same tones, and he had to sing praise and thanksgiving, for the dear Lord had protected him too so well through the night and let His golden sun shine on him again. With a clear voice Sami joined in the glad chorus and sang a of praise and thanksgiving, the only one he knew:
 
“Last night Summer breezes blew:— All the flowers awake anew,”
 
And when he had come to the end, he sang like the merry with all his might:
 
“Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust! Only trust the dear Lord!”
 
The song had awakened in Sami new assurance that he would find a piece of bread and some work. This he wanted to look for now, for his grandmother had not impressed it upon him in vain from his earliest days, that in the morning after praying one should immediately go to work. So Sami started off.
 
He did not go down to the Lake this day, lest he should come near the tinker. With his bundle under his arm he wandered up the gradually rising field road. Where this crossed the narrow street, leading over to Clarens, Sami met a child’s carriage which a girl was pushing in front of her. She wore a spotless white cap and a white . Over the carriage, too, was spread a snow-white cover, and out from under it peeped a little head with bright golden hair and a little white hat on it.
 
This unusual neatness and the smart appearance of the carriage attracted Sami very much and he followed along the same way. On the white carriage robe was worked a wreath of blue silk, but not of flowers. It was of strange figures. The shining blue silk on the white cloth looked so beautiful that Sami could not keep his eyes away from it. Suddenly it became plain to him that the strange figures were letters, but he had never seen any like them in his life. Their appearance captivated him more and more. Then he began to try to see if he couldn’t spell them out and perhaps read the words. He tried as hard as he could, but it was difficult. Sami kept beginning over again from the first. Finally he made out all the words. It was a proverb which read thus:
 
“So let the little angels sing:
This child is safe beneath our wing.”
 
This proverb reminded him so much of his grandmother; he didn’t know why, but it seemed to him as if she had prayed exactly like this over his bed. The tears came to his eyes, and yet it seemed so good, just as if he had found his home again. The girl now turned suddenly to the left from the road, and went through the high iron gate which stood open, and led into a wide courtyard. Great, ancient plane-trees stood inside and cast their broad shade over the sunny courtyard. A large flower garden surrounded the high stone house, which looked from behind the trees.
 
Sami followed the carriage into the courtyard. It stopped under the trees.
 
“What do you want here? That is the way out,” said the girl impatiently to Sami, pointing so plainly to the gate that Sami would have understood the meaning of her words even if her language had been foreign. But it was surely German, and he had understood it all very well, although he could not speak like that himself. His grandmother had told him that there were people who just like the reading in the books.
 
Sami did not reply, and the girl did not wait for him. She snatched the child quickly out of the carriage, took the beautiful robe over her arm, and went into the house.
 
Meanwhile a little girl had come out of the house and was standing at some distance gazing at Sami with two big eyes. Now she came quickly forward, jumped nimbly into the empty carriage, and said:
 
“Come, give me a ride!”
 
“Where?” asked Sami.
 
“Out there along the road, and far, far away!”
 
Sami obeyed immediately. For a long while he along without stopping. The little girl seemed to enjoy the ride. She looked so eagerly around with her bright eyes on every side, as if she couldn’t see enough. Then they came to a meadow thick with flowers.
 
“Hold still! Hold still!” cried the little one suddenly, and sprang with a big jump out of the low carriage.
 
“Now we must have all the flowers, every single one! Come!”
 
And the little girl was already in the midst of the grass, stamping bravely forward. But Sami said quite :
 
“You mustn’t go so into the grass. It is forbidden. But see, if we go around outside and take all the flowers you can reach, there will be a big bunch.”
 
The little one came out, for she knew that she ought not to do what was forbidden. Then the flowers were gathered according to Sami’s advice, but the little companion soon had enough of such , seated herself on the ground and said:
 
“Come, sit down by me. But you must not speak French to me. I have to learn that with Madame Laurent, but I would rather speak German, and you must do so too.”
 
“I don’t speak French, I don’t know how,” replied Sami; “but I can’t speak like you either.”
 
“Where do you come from then, if you don’t speak German and don’t speak French?” the little one wanted to know.
 
Sami thought for a moment, then he said:
 
“First I came from Chailly and then from Zweisimmen.”
 
“No, no,” interrupted the little one warmly. “People are never from two places, only from one. I am from Berlin, in Germany, you see. Then Papa bought an estate and now we are living on Lake Geneva. What is your name?”
 
Sami told her.
 
“And my name is Betti. Why did you come into the courtyard when Tina wanted to send you out?”
 
Sami had to think for a while, then he said:
 
“Because those words were on the robe, I knew they were God-fearing people where it belonged, and my grandmother told me I must stay with such people and never g............