Mary Mapes Dodge

“ By this time Hans had nearly forgotten his proposed errand to Amsterdam. His mother had seldom spoken so familiarly to him. He felt himself now to be not only her son, but her friend, her adviser:
"You are right, Mother. We must never give up the watch. For the father's sake we will guard it always. The money, though, may come to light when we least expect it."
"Never!" cried Dame Brinker, taking the last stitch from her needle with a jerk and laying the unfinished knitting heavily upon her lap. "There is no chance! ”

“ Besides, the gentry are so hard on us poor folks that if they saw such a thing in our hands, even if we told all, they might suspect the father of--"
Hans flushed angrily.
"They would not DARE to say such a thing, Mother! If they did, I'd. . ."
He clenched his fist and seemed to think that the rest of his sentence was too terrible to utter in her presence.
Dame Brinker smiled proudly through her tears at this interruption.
"Ah, Hans, thou'rt a true, brave lad. We will never part company with the watch. In his dying hour the dear father might wake and ask for it." ”

“ The money in the pouch and the stocking, in the big chest?' But I might as well have talked to a stone. I might as--"
The mother's voice sounded so strange, and her eye was so bright, that Hans, with a new anxiety, laid his hand upon her shoulder.
"Come, Mother," he said, "let us try to forget this money. I am big and strong. Gretel, too, is very quick and willing. Soon all will be prosperous with us again. Why, Mother, Gretel and I would rather see thee bright and happy than to have all the silver in the world, wouldn't we, Gretel?" ”