Stineli

“ It was not an easy task for Stineli to get away, for Peter, Sam, and Urschli had the measles, and a goat was sick at the stable. She was kept busy from the time she returned from school until late at night. Saturday she worked all day and much later than usual, but did it so willingly and was so cheerful that her father said: "Stineli is a perfect treasure. ”

“ Stineli went to Silvio's bedside, and said softly, "Be a good boy, Silvio; and to-morrow I will tell you the very prettiest and drollest story about Peterli; but now do not make a noise."
Silvio really did keep quiet, and Stineli went after Rico. When they reached the hedge, Rico turned about, and pointed towards the brightly lighted window that looked so pleasant and friendly from the garden, and said, "Go back there, Stineli. You belong there, and there you are at home; but I belong in the streets. I am a homeless fellow, and shall always be so: now let me go away." ”

“ At last, after they had found a big beanpole, Stineli ventured to say, "But father, if Rico went along the high-road, then he could not fall into any thing, could he?"
"Oh, perhaps he might," replied her father. "Such thoughtless boys as he often stray off the road, and fall into ravines and places: they don't know themselves where they are going, and he was always moving about more or less." ”

“ Do you know, Stineli, when you are travelling and stop at an inn, and eat something and sleep there, then there is something to pay, and you must have money for that."
"Oh! we have lots of money," cried Stineli triumphantly. But her companion was not triumphant.
"That is exactly as good as nothing. I know that by the affair of the fiddle," he said sadly.
"Then it will be better for you to stay at home, Rico. Look! it is beautiful here at home, I am sure."
The lad sat thoughtfully silent for a long time, leaning his head on his hand, and his eyebrows brought in a close line down over his eyes. ”

“ Stineli continued, "and I can do nothing for him, so I have asked God to help him, and Rico has promised that he will do [Pg 117] his part. I feel sure that this burden can be lifted from you in the same way, if you will only ask Him to make it right in His sight. My grandmother has taught me that we are all governed in harmony by the Creator so long as we seek the divine will. It is like a great chorus in which every member sings in tune because he is governed by the harmony of music, and so I always try to put myself back where I belong, when I feel any discord. ”

“ Off flew Stineli, like a bird whose cage-door has suddenly been opened; and outside stood Rico, who had been waiting for a long time. They went on together, across the meadow towards the wood.
On the mountains the sun was shining brightly, and the blue heavens lay over all the landscape. They were obliged to pass, for a little while, through the shade in the snow; but the sun was shining a little farther on, and shimmered on the waters of the lake, and there were lovely dry spots on the slope that was almost hanging over the lake. ”

“ His mother was so cast down, that she did not seem to Stineli the same person at all. When she, at last, recovered her spirits a little, she said,—
"Come here, Stineli. Sit down here by my side: I want to tell you something.
"I have something that lies very heavily at my heart; so heavily, that sometimes it seems to me that I cannot bear it any longer. It is true you are young, but you are so sensible, and have seen a great deal; and it seems to me that I should be relieved if I could talk it over with you.
"You see how Silvio suffers, and how ill he is,—my only son. ”

“ There is nothing but children's racket here at home."
Stineli did not speak. She only looked anxiously towards Rico, wondering if he would not say any thing more since her father seemed so decided, and whether he would take Trudi with him as proposed. The lad, however, looked calmly at her father, saying, "No: that won't do at all. It is precisely Stineli whom the sick boy Silvio wishes, and nobody else; and he knows very well what he wants. He would only send Trudi home again, and she would have taken the journey for nothing. ”

“ I am sure I don't know where it is."
"O Rico, what are you saying!" cried the astonished Stineli, letting the moss fall unheeded in her lap. "You are at home here, of course. You are always at home where your father and mother—" Here she stopped abruptly as she remembered that Rico had no mother and that his father had not been at home for ever so long, and she shuddered as she thought of his aunt, of whom she had always been afraid. She scarcely knew how to continue, yet it grieved her to see Rico so sadly silent. ”

“ There cannot be a more beautiful lake than this one anywhere," she said confidently.
"Yes, yes, Stineli! You ought to see the lake I know about just once," said Rico; and looked so longingly across the lake, that it seemed as if that which he wanted to see began just beyond their vision.
"Over there are no dark fir-trees, with sharp needles, but shining green leaves, and great red flowers; and the mountains are not so high and dark, nor so near, but lie off in the distance, and are purple; and the sky and the lake are all golden and still and warm. ”

“ She could always put on three stockings and fasten two shoes before Trudi had even placed the legs of the little one she was helping in the right position. And while her mother was calling for Stineli to help her in the kitchen, and the little children wanted her in the bedroom, her father was sure to shout out from the stable for Stineli to come to his help, for he had mislaid his cap, or his whip-lash was in a knot, and she found the one in a trice,—it was generally on the meal-box,—and her limber fingers had no trouble in untying the knotted lash. ”

“ Bergamo, saying that some one was there who was to take Stineli back with him. There was no way out of it now, so the preparations for the journey began. Silvio cried and cried because his Stineli was going away.
"You must be sure to come back," said Mrs. Menotti. "Promise your father anything he wants if he will only let you come."
Rico said scarcely a word when Stineli went, but it seemed to him that she took all the sunshine in the world away with her. The clouds remained from November to the following Easter. ”

“ But Stineli was too much excited to be subdued by any thing. She ran on towards her grandmother, and said, "You have no idea how beautifully Rico can fiddle; and we have made a song of our own, for ourselves only. ”

“ The best part of it, of course, would be to have him with her or near her again, and how she would love Silvio for sending Rico back to her! Thoughts like these kept surging through her brain while the father was considering the matter.
"It would, no doubt, be a good thing for Stineli," he said. "I should like to have her get out among people and learn their ways; but there is no use to talk about it, for she can't be spared. We could let Trudt go just as well as not."
"Yes," agreed the mother; "I couldn't possibly get along without Stineli. I am willing that Trudt should go if she wants to." ”

“ The nearer I got to the house the more afraid I became that you would be different, so that it would not seem the same here."
"O Rico, if only grandmother could know!" said Stineli. "But I must take you to the others; they will all be so astonished to see you."
When Stineli took Rico into the house the children, unaccustomed to strangers, began to hide. The two older ones, Trudt and Sam, came in a moment later [Pg 98] and shyly said "Good morning" in passing. The mother simply inquired if there was anything she could do for the stranger. ”

“ Many beautiful Sundays followed; and, whenever it was possible, the grandmother so arranged it that Stineli got, now and then, a spare moment; but the work in the house increased daily. Rico passed many hours standing on the threshold of his cottage looking longingly across the way, in the hope of seeing Stineli come out.
Towards September, when people often sat before their houses in order to enjoy, to the utmost, the last warm evenings of the season, the schoolmaster placed himself before his door, but he looked very thin and coughed continually ”

“ They walked on in silence, and after reaching their favorite place on the bridge, stood listening to the splash of the waves below them until Rico said, "Really, Stineli, if it were not for you, I wouldn't stay here any longer. I would go ever so far away, it would make little difference where, since there is no one that cares for me and I shall always have to live in hotels, and sleep in storerooms, and play for dances where people act as if they were crazy. ”

“ Now the grandmother's rebuke made her ashamed. "I will go back," she said, as she stepped out into the dark field. "Rico may have come home while I have been standing here." In her heart she knew that she would be glad to find this true, but the little house was empty and still.
Early the next morning the neighbors set forth to search carefully in the ravines and along the approaches to the glacier. When Stineli's father noticed that she had followed the others he said, "That is right, Stineli; you can get into places where bigger folk could not go." ”

“ Stineli told of Rico's longing to see the pretty lake he remembered, and how she had advised him to make the trip. "I am sure," she said, "that Rico started for the lake, but father says that he would get killed anyway."
"We have a right to hope for something better," said the grandmother. "Have you forgotten the song we sang the last night that Rico was with us? ”

“ Do you know the way?"
"No," answered Rico, "but I know that you have to go up the Maloja. I have been as far as that with my father, and he showed me the road that leads ever and ever so far down toward the lake. It is such a long way that you could hardly get there."
"It would be easy enough," remarked Stineli. "All you have to do is just to keep right on going farther and farther and at last you must get there."
"Yes," said Rico, "but father told me something else too. You have to go to hotels to eat and to sleep on the way, and it takes money for that." ”

“ Stineli was tireless in her efforts to please the sick child. She adapted everything at hand to his entertainment. Having always lived with children, she understood how to amuse them. In a remarkably short time she had learned all the Italian that Silvio used. She soon began to tell him stories, although some words failed her and others came with painful slowness for a time.
Now that Mrs. Menotti was freed from the care of Silvio, she formed the habit of going to meet Rico when she saw him coming. She was always eager to express her appreciation of Stineli. ”

“ She sorely missed Rico and the grandmother, the only ones who had ever regarded her comfort, but she tried hard to keep her cheerful nature uppermost, although she often thought, "The world is not the same now that they are gone."
On this sunny Saturday morning Stineli came out of the granary with a bundle of straw which she intended to braid into a broom. As she reached the path leading to Sils, she let her eyes follow along the dry, smooth way until her glance was arrested by the [Pg 97] appearance of a strange young man coming in her direction. ”

“ At the moment when Florence and Susan Nipper presented themselves at Mrs. Mac Stinger’s door, that worthy but redoubtable female was in the act of conveying Alexander Mac Stinger, aged two years and three months, along the passage, for forcible deposition in a sitting posture on the street pavement: Alexander being black in the face with holding his breath after punishment, and a cool paving-stone being usually found to act as a powerful restorative in such cases. ”

“ For twenty years and more, every boy in the village had nursed designs on old Cap'n Steiner's apples. Men who were growing slightly bald still rubbed their vests and told ruefully how near, such and such a night, they came to getting a hatful of the old fellow's Strawberry Reds. So powerful a magnet had this tree stood to predaceous youth that the old Captain had grown schooled in craft, and in time had learned all the arts and tricks and dodges of his besiegers. ”

“ I 'm a-going to whale the hide off you!"
"Well, do it!" said Lonely, sulkily, looking as though he would be much relieved at such a procedure.
"Silas!" cried Miss Arabella from the side door. "Silas! Don't you be hard on that poor child!"
"He-he! He-he! Hard on him—the worst young limb in all Chamboro! Why, whalin' 's too easy for him!"
EACH VINDICTIVELY EYEING THE OTHER
"I declare to goodness, Silas Steiner, you 're a worse old tyrant than I ever took you for! ”

“ The old Captain was suddenly startled by the shrill and terrified voice of Miss Arabella. His first thought was that Lonely had made good his escape.
"Silas! Silas! Quick! On them logs, there—there, above the landing! It's Pauline Augusta! Be careful, child! Oh, be careful!"
Miss Arabella was already hurrying toward the river-bank. The strands of hemp rope dropped from the old Captain's fingers.
"Stand steady, child, stand steady! Be still!" screamed Miss Arabella. ”

“ He made a fatal miscalculation, and one minute later, when he fell to the ground, he was as lifeless as the dummy which preceded him.
How this savage managed to reach the roof, puzzled Stinger beyond expression. He sat bolt upright on the ridge, looking around in the blank darkness, listening and thinking, and speculating upon the all-absorbing problem.
"It must be they rigged up some sort of ladder by cutting down a sapling; then they've leaned it aginst the eaves and he has shinned up, almost rubbing agin the muzzles of our guns,—but he won't climb any more ladders of that kind I reckon." ”