the next morning fritz and ella came over quite early, before violet was up, to see her. her head ached still, and aunt lizzie had advised her to stay in bed until after her dinner. all night she had lain with the silver watch clasped in her hand, and all the morning too she had held it tightly pressed in towards her. "it had belonged once to a little girl who was now in heaven;" that had been the burden of her thoughts ever since she had heard its history. "this little sick child had stretched out her wings and flown straight up to god." the doctor had said so; and she remembered a day, long ago, when she had heard her father say to her mother that the doctor was the best and kindest man in all edelsheim. and then poor violet, burying her head deep down in the pillows, had said, in a low voice of entreaty, "o good lord jesus, give violet wings, too, and take her soon to heaven."
[pg 137]
fritz was, for him, quite nervous when he first entered the room, and ella kept as much in his shadow as possible. every one in the house and in the street had been talking about violet, and her great trouble since the departure of the regiment; and fritz had come to look upon his little friend as a kind of curiosity, to be approached with an unusual degree of compassion and gentleness.
but the ruse of the old policeman, to distract her thoughts for a time, had succeeded almost beyond his hopes. she was quite like herself this morning, and stretched out her hand at once to her playfellows affectionately, and said with some excitement,—
"fritz, look at my watch."
"thy watch! who gave it thee?"
"i do not know," she said, with a slow, sweet smile; "it came in the basket. it has got forget-me-nots on one side, and margaret on the other; and the little girl it belonged to is in heaven."
"how dost thou know?"
"the doctor said so. she was very very sick, and when the flowers and the larks came, god gave her wings, and she flew right up there."
"where?" asked fritz.
"there; far away, over the roofs and over the[pg 138] steeple, high, high; ever so high up, up, till at last she was with god."
"and who was she? what was her name?" questioned fritz.
"i do not know," said violet, shaking her head. "but, fritz, i was wondering. i was thinking all last night that perhaps it was the same little sick girl who had the book. thou rememberest, dost thou not? it came in the basket too."
"what book?"
"about the little hunchback," said violet in a whisper.
"oh!" cried fritz, with quite a visible start; "yes; of course i remember the fairy-tale book. we thought at first it was the girl with the oranges; but she cannot be in heaven, because i saw her to-day."
"no, not a bit of that girl is in heaven," cried ella joyously. "fritz and i saw her to-day. fritz climbed up the steps, and gave her hair a chuck; and she jumped round so fast that she fell over, and bumped down every step—bump, bump, bump—and all the oranges galloped after her. when she got to the bottom," screamed ella, "she was sitting in the middle of her own basket, and her heels up in the air—so;" and ella plumped down on her back on the floor, and elevated two of the stoutest legs imaginable.
[pg 139]
"she bellowed after us that she would call the police," cried fritz, continuing the story with much zest; "but i screamed back to her that the police would put her in prison for sticking pins in her oranges and sucking them, as i have seen her do hundreds of times. then she flew into a worse rage, and said that she would run home and tell her father. so ella and i laughed, for she would have a long way to run to tell her father—would she not, violet?"
"yes," she said quickly; but the smile which had risen at the children's story suddenly died out from her lips.
fritz said, "perhaps she would have to run all the way to paris; and it would be nicer to pick up oranges out of the gutter than cannon balls, and be bursted all to pieces by powder."
aunt lizzie cried "hush!" and rose from her chair by the stove; but the children did not hear her, and went on excitedly,—
"and do you know, there has been fighting already, and lots of people killed; but not in our regiment," added fritz hastily, for he was alarmed at the sudden agony that came into violet's face.
"i saw the picture," cried ella at the tip-top of her voice. "i saw it in the shop window—a man climbing up a great steep rock with no head on him at all.[pg 140] it had just been banged off his body by a gun. and another man on his face, with only one leg. and dost thou know what fritz said? if he had been there the french people would never have got into that town—not they, old blockheads as they are."
"what town?" asked violet, almost in a whisper.
"saarbrück, near the rhine. but it was all a shabby trick of the french; so all the people say. and we will make them pay for it by-and-by; see if we won't. we will hunt them out of it again with cannons, and powders, and drums."
"yes, with powders and drums!" shouted ella.—"and dost thou know, violet, fritz wanted to go to the war with father, and beat a big drum all day with an apron on him; and he screamed so, father said 'perhaps.' and all night ella cried and cried, and never stopped; and in the morning father got out of his bed and kissed ella, and said fritz must stay at home and take care of me. and fritz was in such a rage he tore ella's night-cap in two, and flung it in the bread-oven."
"come, now, we have had enough noise for one afternoon," said aunt lizzie quietly. "suppose we all sit round the stove and let violet rest; her head has ached all the morning, and she looks very tired."
"oh no, aunt lizzie; let them stay," said violet[pg 141] and she stretched out her hands to the children. "i have not seen fritz for so many days, nor ella either."
"mother would not let us come," said fritz bluntly. "she said thou wouldst be busy saying good-bye to thy father and crying, and it would be no use bothering."
"yes, very busy crying," said ella plaintively.
"and i am going to begin now and say my prayers," observed fritz, whose eyes had suddenly rested on violet's bible lying on the table beside her bed. "mother says ella and i ought to pray every morning and every night for father to come home safe; and so i am going to begin to-night."
"and didst thou not always say thy prayers every morning and every night?" asked aunt lizzie in some surprise.
"oh yes, i always say them," observed fritz; "but i don't think about them; at least not much."
"he does not think about them one scrap," said ella cheerfully; "he stares at the wall, and goes sound asleep; and sometimes he looks round at me, and begins to laugh; and sometimes he rattles his heels on the ground until mother comes up and smacks him."
aunt lizzie shook her head at this history; and violet said in a very low voice,—
[pg 142]
"o fritz, is not ella joking?"
"no," replied fritz truthfully. "i don't much care for saying prayers. i like to ask god for things which i think he will give me, but it tires me to say the same thing so often. at least one month i used to pray every day for a lovely gray pony that was in the field, and i never got it. and, besides, every morning when i woke i used always to say to god, 'good lord god, make little violet well;' and yet thou art still sick, and weaker and weaker. and then," continued fritz, bending close down beside her, and speaking in a whisper, "once i prayed in the day, too, when i read that book about the little hunchback girl. i went straight home and asked god to give thee wings too; and yet thou hast never got them."
"yes," said ella in a very grave tone, having overheard the whisper, "he went straight home and locked the door, and would not let ella in; and ella banged and banged, and it was all no use. and then she put her eye to the keyhole, and fritz was saying his prayers at the kitchen table; and ella heard him say, 'please, good lord jesus, put wings on violet's hump, like the little girl in the story. amen.'"
"hush! we have had quite enough talking for one day," cried aunt lizzie again hurriedly, her face flushing crimson, as she gazed in anguish at the little sick[pg 143] girl in the bed. "away with thee, ella! away with thee too, fritz! i cannot have my little girl tired."
but violet flung her arms round fritz's neck affectionately, and cried out gratefully, "thou dear, good fritz!" then putting her lips to his ear, she said in a low whisper, "the lord jesus does always hear when fritz prays, and he will give me wings, and he will do all that fritz asks him."
