And, indeed, when I did coax our good prioress to give me such a load of things as she declared was not safe to give him, it did seem to me as though I had food enough for ten men; but he merely smiled when I cautioned him against eating all this stuff, and in less time than I can tell it he had actually eaten up everything so clean not a crumb was left, so that I had not been surprised had he lifted the dishes to his face and licked them off, as he had often done in his childhood. Thus for a few days I made him take abundance of rest and sleep, and between the Sisters and me he suffered not for food, but I refrained from asking anything of his absence, thinking it better to wait until he were more himself again. But one evening, as we were sitting in my _Kammer_, about a week after his return, neither of us saying a word for a long while--for with all his lively nature he was never so garrulous as I--not being able to curb my curiosity longer, I finally asked him, "What hast thou learned of our Sister Genoveva?" "Nothing," he replied sadly, "though I have sought everywhere for her." "Hast been among the Indians?" "Yea, and more than one of the French devils hath gone to his long home," he replied savagely. "Hast been among the Conestogas?" these being a peaceful Indian tribe living in a little town or village not many miles beyond Lancaster, toward the Susquehanna. "I went there straight on leaving thee, for that way pointed the footprints." "Could the Conestogas tell thee nothing?" "Nay, could not or would not--I know not which--though a half-witted one whispered to me when he thought none could hear, that he knew where the white sister was; but on pressing him for fuller knowledge he merely pointed back toward the northeast, whence I had come, saying, 'Up, high, with old woman,' but I paid no great heed to him, for he was not right in his head." "That night what didst thou make of the footprints?" "One was Genoveva's, that was plain to be seen; the largest, an Indian warrior's; the third, a squaw's or young Indian lad's, I have never made up my mind which," and then he said nothing more for a long while, but at last he looked at me suddenly, saying as though much puzzled, "Would that I knew what the half-witted one meant; it hath been with me day and night lately, so that I had no other will in me than to come back, for it is in my mind that Genoveva, if she be still alive, is not far away." After a bit he looked up at me as though he were ashamed to ask, "Dost believe, _Vaterchen_, that if she be nigh her spirit hath called me back?" To which I could only say, "I know not, though there be among us who claim they have had such communication, both with the living and the dead." And then in all the simpleness of a boy he asked, "Dost think our sister was caught up into the heavens like Elijah?" Ere I knew what I was saying I replied with some heat, for his question seemed like blasphemy to me, "Nay, nay, Elijah was a saint!"