This lady's beloved and gifted son had died not long before; on this account she had fallen into such deep sadness that her health had suffered greatly and therefore she had been brought to the sanitarium to recover.
The animated1 conversation was suddenly interrupted by a letter which was handed to the doctor.
"A letter from an old friend, who is sending me a patient to the sanitarium. He is a young boy, hardly as old as our Max—there, read it." Whereupon the doctor handed the letter to his wife.
"Oh, the poor boy!" exclaimed his wife. "Is he here? Bring him in. Perhaps it will do him good to see the children."
"I think he is quite near," said the doctor; he went out, and soon came in again with the sexton and Toni. He led the former into a bay window and began talking with him in a low tone. Meanwhile the doctor's wife drew near to Toni, who on entering had pressed into the nearest corner. She spoke2 kindly3 to him and invited him to come to the table and eat something with her children. Toni did not move. Then lively little Marie jumped down from her chair and came to Toni with a large piece of bread and butter.
"There, take a bite," she said encouragingly.
Toni remained motionless.
"See, you must do so," and the little girl bit a good piece from the bread and held it to him, then again a little nearer, so he only needed to bite into it. But he stared in front of him and made no motion. This silent resistance frightened Marie and she drew back quietly.
Then the doctor came, took Toni by the hand and went out followed by the sexton.
Poor Toni's appearance had made a great impression on the children. They had become perfectly4 quiet.
Later when they had gone to bed and the two women were sitting alone together, the doctor came back again. In reply to their urgent questions he informed them about all that the sexton had told him concerning Toni's illness and his life with his mother, and that no one had ever noticed anything wrong with the boy before, only he had always been a quiet, gentle child and more slenderly built than any of the other village children.
The women asked how he had come into this condition in the summer up on the beautiful mountain, and the doctor explained that it was not so strange, if one knew how terrible the thunder storms were up in the mountains. "Besides," he concluded, "a delicate child, such as this boy, all alone without a human being near, for whole weeks, even months long, without hearing a word spoken, might well be so terrified through fear and horror in the awful loneliness that he would become wholly benumbed."
Then the lady from Geneva, who took an unusual interest in poor Toni's fate, exclaimed in great excitement:
"How can a mother allow such a thing to happen to her child! It is wholly inconceivable, quite incomprehensible!"
"You really can have no idea," replied the doctor soothingly6, "what poor mothers are obliged to let happen to their children. But don't believe that it causes them less pain than others. You see how many suffer that we know nothing about, and how hard poverty oppresses."
"Will you be able to help the poor young boy?" asked the lady from Geneva.
"If I can only bring out the right emotion in him," he replied, "so that the spell, which holds him imprisoned7, can be broken. Now everything in him is numbed5 and lifeless."
"Oh, do help him! Do help him!" begged the sick lady imploringly8. "Oh, if I could do something for him!" And she walked to and fro thinking about a way to help, for Toni's condition went deeply to her heart.
It was the second week of August, when Toni came to the sanitarium. Day after day, week after week passed and the doctor could only bring the same sad news to the two women, who every morning awaited his report with great anxiety. Not the slightest change was noticed. Every means was tried to amuse the boy, to see if he would perhaps laugh. Other attempts were devised to disturb him, to make him cry. They performed all kinds of tricks to attract his attention. All, all were in vain; no trace of interest or emotion was aroused in Toni.
"If he could only be made to laugh or to cry once!" repeated the doctor over and over again.
When he had been four weeks in the sanitarium all hope disappeared, for the doctor had exhausted10 every means.
"Now I will try one thing more," he said one morning to his wife. "I have written to my friend, the Pastor11, and asked him if the boy was very much attached to his mother, and if so, to send for her right away. Perhaps to see her again would make an impression on him."
The two women looked forward in great suspense12 to Elsbeth's arrival.
In the first week of September the last guests left the hotel in Interlaken where Elsbeth had spent the summer. She immediately started on her way home, for she wanted to get everything in order before Toni came down from the mountain. She never thought but that he was still up there, and had no suspicion of all that had happened. When she reached home, she went at once to the Matten farm to enquire13 for Toni and to bring the goat home.
The farmer was very friendly, and thought her goat was now by far one of the finest, because she had had good fodder14 so long. But when Elsbeth asked after her Toni, he broke off abruptly15 and said he had so much to do, she must go to the Pastor, for he would have the best knowledge about the boy. It immediately seemed to Elsbeth that it was a little strange for the Pastor to know best what happened up on the mountain and while she was leading home the goat, and thinking about the matter, a feeling of anxiety came over her and grew stronger and stronger. As soon as she reached home, she quickly tied the goat, without going into the cottage at all, and ran back the same way she had come, down again to Kandergrund.
The Pastor told her with great consideration, how Toni had not borne the life on the mountain very well and they had been obliged to bring him down, and since it seemed best for him that he should go at once to a good physician for the right care, he had sent the boy immediately to Bern.
His mother was very much shocked and wanted to travel the next day to see for herself if her child was very ill.
But the Pastor said that would not do, but that she should wait until the doctor allowed a visit, and she could be sure that Toni was receiving the best care.
With a heavy heart Elsbeth went back to her cottage. She could do nothing but leave it all to the dear Lord, who alone had been her trust for so many years. But it was only a few days later when the Pastor sent her word that she was to go to Bern at once, as the doctor wished her to come.
Early the following day Elsbeth started. About noon she reached Bern and soon was standing16 in front of the door of the sanitarium.
She was led to the doctor's living-room and here received with great friendliness17 by his wife and with still keener sympathy by the lady from Geneva, who had so lived in the history of poor Toni and his mother that she could hardly think of anything else but how to help these two. She had had only the one child and could so well understand the mother's trouble. She had even asked the doctor to allow her to be present when he took the boy to his mother, in order to share in the joy, if the poor boy's delight at seeing her again would affect him as they hoped.
Soon the doctor appeared, and after he had prepared the mother not to expect Toni to speak at the first moment, he brought him in. He led him by the hand into the room, then he let go and stepped to one side.
The mother ran to her Toni and tried to seize his hand. He drew back and pressed into the corner staring into vacancy18.
The women and the doctor exchanged sad looks.
His mother went up to him and caressed19 him. "Toneli, Toneli," she said again and again in a tender voice, "don't you know me? Don't you know your mother any more?"
As always before Toni pressed against the wall, made no motion and stared before him.
In tender tones the mother continued mournfully:
"Oh, Toneli, say just a single word! Only look at me once! Toneli, don't you hear me?"
Toneli remained unmoved.
Still once again the mother looked at him full of tenderness, but only met his staring eyes. It was too much for poor Elsbeth, that the only possession she had on earth, and the one she loved with all her heart, her Toni, should be lost to her, and in such a sad way! She forgot everything around her. She fell on her knees beside her child, and while the tears were bursting from her eyes, she poured out aloud the sorrow in her heart:
Oh God of Love, oh Father-heart,
In whom my trust is founded,
I know full well how good Thou art—
E'en when by grief I am wounded.
Oh Lord, it surely can not be
That Thou wilt20 let me languish21
In hopeless depths of misery23
And live in tears of
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