“Certainly, mother. But that is nothing to worry about,” Dino replied merrily. “It always goes away again. My professor said to-day that it would have been better for me to remain in the pastoral fields of my native village, than to have sought the dust-laden corners of town. But I answered: ‘Unfortunately the Latin language does not sprout from the pastoral fields, professor.’” “Oh, I hope you did not answer that,” the mother said, quite frightened. “Oh yes, but only in my thoughts! Please, mother, don’t worry about me,” Dino implored. “I am afraid that your professor is right,” the mother said with a sigh. “But I have a plan which we shall talk over to-night. I shall also talk over our guardian’s proposal, girls. Please try not to look so terribly unhappy, for everything is not yet lost.” “Oh, it will come to that in the end,” said Nika, leaving the room. “Yes, and much worse, I guess,” said Agnes. Violently pushing her chair in place, she departed, after thrusting her music into a folder. “What can be worse than when all is lost?” Dino called after her. “I know what,” responded Mux knowingly, while Agnes looked back at Dino as if to say: If I had time I certainly would give an answer to you. “What is it, wise little man?” asked Dino. “If she had to eat nothing but cabbage all the time,” replied Mux, full of a conviction which he seemed to have acquired from his own experience. Dino, too, prepared to depart. With a sorrowful look, the mother passed her hand over the boy’s thick hair. “Please be careful, and do not run too fast,” she begged. “It’s very bad for you to sit in the cool school room when you are so overheated. I can scarcely ever see you go, without anxiety.” “But I am surely not as sick as that, little mother,” Dino said, tenderly embracing her. “When somebody has a cough it always goes away again after a while. That is the way with me. Be merry and everything will be all right in the end. But I have to go now, it is late,” he exclaimed. “But do not hurry so terribly, Dino, there is time enough yet, and remember what I told you,” she called after him. Then stepping to the open window, she followed the running boy down the street with her eyes. Dino gave Mrs. Halm great anxiety, for he seemed more delicate every day. Her watchful eye had detected how poor his appetite had been lately. Despite that, the boy had a very sweet disposition and was always full of fun. He was always anxious to have everybody in a good humor, and above all, his mother. Of all the burdens she had to bear, the trouble about her son’s health was the hardest. One could see this by the painful expression on her face when she left the window and sat down beside her work table. Mux was just repeating a question for the third time, but his mother did not hear him. Loudly raising his voice he said once more: “Oh, mother, why does one have to eat what the cows get?” “What do you mean, Mux? What are you talking about?” she asked.