the next day there seemed little if any diminution of the excitement. the crowd was not quite so dense; but ordinary business appeared for the time almost suspended. people were rushing up and down the street with slips of paper in their hands on which were printed the latest telegrams; and persons who were usually engrossed with their work in the early hours of the day were standing at the doors of their shops and houses discussing the great news of impending war, news which gathered with every hour fresh confirmation.
violet, of course, seated as usual in her chair in the window, could not but notice the bustle and the stir beneath; but it did not frighten or distress her, for her father had brought his work up to her room quite early this morning, and when he was near her she always reposed on his strength and courage in place of her own.
[pg 56]
but john was both distressed and disturbed; and presently seeing that violet's hair was a little blown about by the wind, he made it a pretext for closing over the casement, so that she might not hear what the people were talking about so earnestly in the street underneath; and for a time his efforts were successful.
it was only as the day wore on and it came near the time when he had to go to the store for orders that she grew restless, and the anxious pleading look came into her eyes which he never could bear to see, and which to-day he felt less able than ever to withstand.
"i shall not be long away, darling," he said softly as he gathered up his tools and laid them on the broad window-sill beside her. "see, i am not taking away my work materials, and i shall be back almost before thou thinkest that i am gone. i will send kate to sit with thee, and thou canst teach her how to paint the ducks for the magnet-box, only this time i would not give them scarlet wings; black, i think, would be better."
violet smiled at the idea of kate's trying to paint the ducks—kate, who was so blind that she could not see a cockroach creeping across the kitchen floor, and the length of whose nails would sadly interfere with her holding the paint-brush.
[pg 57]
"i would rather have fritz to sit with me," she said plaintively.
"fritz! ah, well; but is not this the time for his school?"
"he has not been at school all to-day. i have seen him ever so often at the window. see, father, he is there now; and oh! only look what a dress he has got on."
she burst out laughing, and even john with his heavy heart could not repress a smile, for there at the window opposite stood fritz with an enormous spiked helmet on his head; a huge military coat buttoned across his chest, which covered his whole body; and a pair of riding-boots on his legs, which evidently encumbered him a good deal, for just at this moment, while john and violet were gazing at him, he made a sudden rush at some unseen enemy beside the curtain, and one of the boots doubling up at the ankle he fell waddling on the floor, his helmet tumbling off his head and going almost out of the window, while all his efforts to get up again, even with the assistance of fat ella, who tugged at him with all her might and main, were fruitless.
again violet burst out into one of those rare fits of real childlike laughter which always delighted and refreshed poor john's heart; but to-day, though he[pg 58] smiled somewhat grimly, he turned away quickly to the door, saying as he went: "i shall see about fritz coming to sit with thee; but if his mother will not permit it thou must be content for awhile with kate."
"yes, yes," cried violet after him; "but do, please, send fritz here. i have something so particular to ask him."
she watched her father as he crossed over the street to the baker's. he was such a great tall man that he had generally to stoop as he went in at the doorway; but to-day madam adler met him at the entrance to the bakery, and they held what seemed to the watcher at the window upstairs a very lengthy conversation. madam adler, who was a round fat little body, gesticulating somewhat wildly, pointed first up the street and then down it, and clutched every now and then at her cap, which was hanging half off the back of her head, while she gazed up at the great tall man beside her, whose grave eyes were fixed intently upon her face, and who listened earnestly while she poured forth a torrent of words, not one of which violet could hear from the buzz and noise in the street beneath.
fritz, who had regained his legs by this time, was now standing in the window opposite, making frantic signs across to violet, who at first remained quite unconscious of his efforts; but presently looking up[pg 59] she saw him waving a sword furiously across the street to attract her attention; and seeing now he had secured it, he proceeded to make a sudden lunge at ella, digging the weapon apparently deep into the very middle of her body. ella immediately collapsed on the floor, and fritz continued for some time to prod her violently. violet screamed and turned away her head; but when she looked round again, ella, with an enormous brown paper helmet on her head, was standing beside fritz in the very middle of the window grinning from ear to ear, while her assailant, still martially attired in the old trailing coat, and with a face flushed with victory, had his arm thrown affectionately round her neck.
by-and-by, as violet still gazed across and smiled more and more at fritz's excited movements, she saw her father enter the room opposite. he sat down in a chair a little distance from the window and called fritz over to him, and a conversation ensued apparently of some interest, as fritz never lifted his eyes from john's face while he was speaking to him, and ella's countenance also assumed a kind of rigid stolidity most unnatural to it.
but this tranquillity did not last long; for no sooner had john left the room, having shaken hands with fritz and kissed ella, than a kind of secondary [pg 60]excitement seemed to take possession of the children. fritz first took off his own helmet, and then, while ella was stooping down to unloosen her brown paper leggings, he snapped hers off also with a summary politeness which ella seemed for a moment to resent; but fritz had no time, evidently, to give to trifles. he laid both helmets on the foot of a couch which projected out into the window, and then he rapidly divested himself of his coat and his huge leather boots, winding up by planting ella on the end of the sofa and tugging violently at her less cumbersome leggings, until the little girl descended suddenly upon her back on the floor.
this time a few tears evidently softened the heart of the warrior, for he stooped down, lifted ella from the ground, and covered her face with kisses; and in a few minutes violet saw them both emerge from their house hand-in-hand and cross over the street, and push through the gathering of people towards the door of her own house, which opened immediately beneath her window.
she felt rather sorry that ella had come across with her brother, for she had something to say to fritz, a question to ask him in secret about some subject which was troubling her, and which she felt she could only confide to him in private. but when the door of her[pg 61] room opened and ella burst in all smiles and health and happiness, and rushed over to fling her dimpled arms round violet's neck, she forgot for a time about her secret; and her spirits rose, and her white face broke into one of its sudden smiles, as she noticed scraps of cord and paper still sticking to ella's fat legs which fritz had evidently been too hurried to remove.
"what hast thou been doing all this morning, ella?" she asked curiously; "and why has fritz not been at school? i have seen him ever since i was dressed, playing in the window."
ella's cheeks suddenly deepened to a purple red, and she gazed towards her brother with eyes which said plainly, "thou must give an answer to this question."
"i have not been at school because—because, well, because i did not go; and besides i was busy doing lots of other things."
ella's face looked decidedly relieved by this explanation of her brother's, which was entirely satisfactory to her own mind; but violet was much puzzled by fritz's words and still more perplexed by his manner, which was strange and quite unlike himself.
while she was pondering with herself what it all meant ella broke in upon the silence.
[pg 62]
"yes, fritz was doing lots of things all the morning—killing and cutting and stabbing the french, and he gave me an awful scrape on the arm; just look at it, violet!" and ella turned round the fattest of arms to violet for compassionate inspection, across which just at the pink and dimpled elbow there certainly was a most undeniable and somewhat gory scratch.
"hold thy tongue, thou little gabbling goose of a chatterbox," cried fritz, turning suddenly round in real anger and casting a glance of withering scorn upon his unhappy sister; "hast thou already forgotten what i said to thee in the hall downstairs?"
"i did not say anything about the war," said ella in reply, covering her face suddenly with her frilled pinafore and grasping on to the side of the invalid's chair, while she stretched out her hand as if to defend herself;—"i did not say one word about the war, did i, violet?"
"no, no; she said nothing—nothing that i heard. she is a good little lamb, and thou must not frighten her, fritz," cried violet soothingly, as she drew the little sobbing girl over to her side and held her arm tightly round her fat waist.
"she is a good little new-born donkey," snorted fritz still in much virtuous anger; "she has no more[pg 63] sense than the head of a pin. i told her something only a moment ago downstairs, and the instant she gets up into the room she must begin to let out the whole secret."
"what secret?"
"about the war," sobbed ella.
"about what war? i do not understand. why is it a secret, and why should ella not tell me?" she added in a distressed voice.
"he said if i did tell thee he would cut my tongue out with his sword, and give me to the policeman to put me into the prison," sobbed ella.
"for shame, fritz! how couldst thou frighten her so?" said violet with quite a hot flush on her usually pale face.—"i will not let him touch thee, ella. there, put down thy apron; fritz was only laughing at thee."
"of course," cried fritz contemptuously; "but she is such a little thrush, she would swallow a camel, hump and all, if one only held it up to her mouth."
this brilliant sally was suggested by the descent of one of violet's newly-painted animals upon fritz's head from the window-ledge above.
"i would not swallow a camel—i am not a thrush," still sobbed ella, hiding her face against violet's chair.
"well, well, what does it signify? stop crying,"[pg 64] cried fritz, making an effort over himself to recover his usual gallantry. "come along, let's have some fun.—may we take down all those old beasts overhead and have a game with them?—may we, violet? we have not played at crossing the desert for ages."
"yes, yes; only take care. some of them are quite sticky, and one or two have broken legs; but there are lots of other animals in the noah's ark in the corner."
"all right; now we shall have real good fun," cried fritz, tugging ella's lingering arm from the rungs of violet's chair with reassuring roughness and making room for her on the bench beside him. "now, thou shalt be noah, and violet shall be aaron, and i will be moses with the rod."
"what rod?" asked ella, gazing up at her brother rather doubtfully with eyes all wet and smudged with tears, while she wriggled herself into a more comfortable position on the carpenter's hard bench beside him.
"oh, not the rod thou meanest," he replied reassuringly as he emptied out pell-mell a whole box full of animals upon the table—cows, sheep, ducks, elephants, and canary birds, all heaped up in a mound of wild confusion.
ella had by this time her yellow curly head[pg 65] pillowed confidingly against fritz's left shoulder, and perfect harmony was restored between them. violet was now the most silent of the three. for some minutes past she had seemed in a reverie, and occasionally she looked anxiously across at fritz, as if longing but fearing to ask him some question.
whether he was aware of these longing, sorrowful glances directed towards him, it was impossible to tell. one might perhaps have thought so from the way he rambled on in a foolish, disconnected style, while he ranged the animals two by two along the edge of the table, and elicited shrieks of laughter from ella by making the broken-legged elephant sit on its tail, while the no-legged goose was given a lift across the desert, seated between the horns of a scarlet cow.
at last they were all arranged in order, from the elephant down to the little red spotted lady-bird, which was fully as large as the mouse some distance in front of it; and ella was desired to keep her feet and arms under the table, as every time she stretched them out she was certain to overturn a whole cavalcade of animals.
"now moses is going to drive them all into the ark, and i am moses," cried fritz triumphantly; "and any that are stupid and won't go in for me, aaron[pg 66] can pick up and push them in after moses, as hard as he likes."
"but moses did not drive the animals into the ark, nor aaron either," said violet smiling.
"yes, yes," shouted ella, kicking her toes against the underneath part of the table, so that several of the astonished animals suddenly leaped high into the air and then fell down on their sides—"yes, yes; fritz is right. moses drove them in, every one, into the ark; he whacked them with his rod, and off they galloped."
"for shame, ella!" cried violet, though she could not help laughing a little as she looked at the joyous round face opposite her, stretched in innocent smiles from ear to ear; "it was noah who drove the animals into the ark; and besides, that story is in the bible."
"but fritz said it was moses," repeated ella, whose confidence in fritz's veracity was not easily to be shaken.
"i know i did, but i was wrong. it was noah of course—only, what does it matter? i never can remember the names of those very old men; and besides i don't much care for bible stories—i like bits of them, that's all."
"oh!" said violet, with a sound of such unmistakable dismay in her voice that fritz looked up[pg 67] surprised; "thou dost not care for bible stories, fritz?"
"no, he does not; only bits—bits the size of a crumb," chimed in ella, who was busy crushing the heads of two stags together, to the total destruction of their antlers.
"hold thy tongue, ella," cried fritz angrily; "i do like some bible stories, of course: daniel in the lions' den; and gehazi, who was turned white for telling a lie—that's a grand story; and the little child who was standing in the corn in the sun and got a headache, and who was made alive after he was dead, and given back to his mother—i like that best of all."
"so do i," screamed ella, whose mirth was momentarily becoming more irrepressible. "get in, old humpy back, into thy box; get in, i say, old beast." this speech was addressed to a kind of violet-coloured camel which had stuck in the entrance to the ark and was now standing head downwards amongst its imprisoned comrades with its heels elevated in the air.
"ella, thou great goose, thou stupid little child, what art thou saying? thou must not speak of humps to violet." a sudden push from fritz's elbow sent the astonished ella rolling off the bench on to the floor.
"violet," cried fritz, suddenly looking up and[pg 68] taking no notice whatever of his sister's descent, for at this moment a spasm of recollection had flashed across his mind, "dost thou know, violet, the lamplighter's girl has a mother? i saw her yesterday morning in the market selling fish."
"selling fish?" said violet, repeating fritz's words in a curious, absent manner.
"yes; and such an old lobster i never saw. her hands were just like claws, and—but what is the matter with thee? why art thou crying? it is all the fault of that horrid little ella. but never mind; mother slapped me for speaking about thy hump, and ella shall get slapped too."
"i am not crying," said violet, vainly trying to keep back a sob; "it is only because i have been waiting so long, fritz, to say something to thee."
"not about the war?" cried fritz, colouring crimson and bending his face down suddenly on the table. "i promised thy father i would tell thee nothing about it."
"it is nothing about war. it is a secret, but—but i could not say it to thee before ella; she would not understand."
"well, ella shall go.—come along home, thou little good-for-nought, and i will carry thee across on my back."
[pg 69]
ella at these words half moved out from her hiding-place under the wooden table, whither after her fall she had retreated in some dudgeon, but she almost immediately drew herself in again, and said flatly,—
"ella will not go home; mother will smack her for calling the camel a—"
"hist, thou little goose; mother will do nothing of the kind. get up quickly, or i will not carry thee at all; there, hold on tightly now and keep thy heels quiet, for it is getting so dark and the stairs are so narrow i might fall down and break thy neck. say good-evening now to violet, and away we go."
he carried ella over to violet's chair, and the little maiden put her soft loving arms about her neck and kissed her with all the strength of her childish heart.
"ella did not make thee cry, violet, did she? ella did not know that thou wast so fond of the poor—" she did not finish her sentence, for fritz whirled her away suddenly.
but violet called down the stairs after her, "ella did not make violet cry; ella is a good girl. good-evening, sweet ella."
it was almost dusk when fritz returned, and john had not yet come home. violet heard the boy's step on the stairs, and her heart beat so fast that the neck[pg 70] of her little purple frock heaved up and down flutteringly.
she had packed away all the animals she could fit into the noah's ark, and the others she had placed in a heap on the window-sill. there was nothing now on the table before her but her mother's bible and the book with the gold-spotted cover.
for the twentieth time since fritz had left the room, she had opened this book at the picture of the little hunchback and as hastily closed it again. "i will ask him first, and then i will show it to him," she said in a whisper to herself as she looked up nervously at the opening door.
but fritz came in quite unconscious of the fluttering heart; his own was beating so hard that he had to sit down on the chair by the stove to get his breath, and it was some moments before he gasped,—
"well, if ever i take that great fat ella on my back again! i would rather carry a cow to market on my shoulders than have her hanging on to my neck and throttling me. first she made me carry her up to the top of the house, to the very garret, because she said mother was there; and then all the way down again, because she said mother was in the bakehouse. then i had to haul her all the way off again down the street to madame bellard's, and up to the[pg 71] top of that house, where we found mother and madame bollard crying over their coffee like two sea-crabs; and there i left ella gaping at them with her eyes nearly falling out on her cheeks. pah! she weighs at the least three tons."
"what were they crying about?" asked violet curiously; "i saw so many people crying in the street to-day."
"people often cry when they have nothing else to do," he said, jumping up suddenly from his chair and raking out the ashes from the stove vehemently,—"at least ella does; but of course they had something to cry for—only it is a secret, and thou must not ask me."
"a secret?" she said, nervously pushing the little book in front of her up and down the table. "thou hast not asked me yet, fritz, what my secret is."
"what is it, then?" he asked, coming close up to the table; and then recognizing the gold-spotted cover on the back of which violet's fingers were trembling visibly, he added, "is it about the lamplighter's girl? or hast thou perhaps found out the name of the little mother?"
"no," said violet, shaking her head; "i cannot think who the mother is. but oh, there is such a lovely story in her book, fritz, and i want so much to ask of thee, 'is it true?'"
[pg 72]
"show it to me," said fritz cheerfully. "of course i can tell it to thee at once."
but violet covered the book with both her hands; and though it was now almost dusk, he noticed how the blood rushed over her white face, and she looked for a little while out of the window.
"no, no—in a minute thou shalt see it; but first thou wilt tell me one thing, wilt thou not, fritz? only one thing, but quite, quite truly;" and she turned her eyes upon him so earnestly that the boy felt almost frightened.
"of course i will answer thee truly; but first i must hear thy question."
"if mother were here she could tell me all i want to know," sighed violet, putting off the dreaded moment; "and father, i know he could also tell me, only he does not like me to talk about hunchbacks."
"about hunchbacks!" cried fritz with a sudden gasp; "i do not know anything about hunchbacks."
"yes, yes, thou dost," she cried excitedly. "i am a little hunchback; thou knowest that; thou saidst so thyself, fritz, one day long ago. and now thou wilt tell me this one thing. is it true—" she paused and breathed more quickly than ever; the question was evidently one of gigantic importance.
"is what true?"
[pg 73]
"that god gives the little hunchbacks these humps?"
"yes, of course; that is to say, first they get a fall or something, and then god gives them the humps afterwards."
"and what does he put into them?"
"what? i do not understand thee."
"is there not something inside of every poor hunchback's hump?"
"yes, of course there is."
"well, and what is it, fritz? dear fritz, tell me what it is." the question was breathed with actual pain.
"dost thou mean what is in thy hump—this thing?" and fritz laid his hand very softly on her shoulders.
"yes."
"why, any one knows that. bones, of course; i can feel them."
"bones?" she gasped.
"yes; bones, and flesh, and skin, and all that kind of thing."
violet's eyes distended; an anguish crept into them that appalled even fritz. she drew the spotted book quickly over to her, and said slowly, as she opened it at the story of the hunchback, "look at that picture,[pg 74] fritz: that little sick child had 'wings' in her hump, lovely silver wings; and are not books like this true, fritz? there are angels in the page, and the little girl flies up to her mother, and people would not write what was not true about angels and—and heaven."
the question was a little puzzling; but fritz answered it without hesitation.
"the stories in this book are all fairy tales. look at the cover and thou canst see that for thyself."
"fairy tales? but are fairy tales never true?"
"no; at least none that i ever read."
"but god, and the angels, and heaven are all in that book, and they are true; and the little sick hunchback, that is not a fairy tale, for i am sick just like her; and why—why must that one little bit be untrue? and besides," sobbed violet, whose whole courage and hope seemed almost to have forsaken her,—"besides, the words under that picture are in the bible. i found them in mother's own bible: 'no more tears.'" as she lifted up her face to fritz for some hope, some consolation, immense tears were running down her cheeks, and the boy felt a tightening in his own throat too.
"what does it matter?" he said as he pushed the spotted book away from her; "i will throw this[pg 75] old thing out of the window if it makes thee cry. thou dost not want wings; thou art the best little angel in all edelsheim: and, besides, flies have wings, and they are horrid beasts; and so why need one care?" and he threw his arms round her neck, and kissed her wet face, and whispered every loving name he could think of into her ear.
