Agnes had just finished her last task and was throwing her books into a drawer, each more violently than the other. She was still terribly excited, and as soon as her mother came back to the room, she burst forth: “Oh, mother, if I am not allowed to study music any more, I would rather stop learning anything. Why can’t I become a servant girl? I could do the work well enough. As soon as I have earned enough money, I’ll buy a harp and then I can wander from house to house, singing and playing. I can easily live like that. Nobody needs to be a dressmaker. People can wear petticoats and jackets. That is enough, and those can be woven. All other children are better off than we are. They can learn what they please and we can’t learn anything!” An outburst of tears choked all further words. During her sister’s speech Nika had been quietly drawing, but she was holding her head lower and lower over her work without once looking up. She continued her studies, but her eyes seemed to be filling. Pushing her work away, she held her handkerchief before her face. “Oh, children,” said the mother, looking sadly at them, “do not be so desperate right away. You know that your good is my good as well, and that I am doing and shall keep on doing everything in my power to fulfill your ambitions. It would be my happiest joy to have your talents developed, so that you could devote all your lives to music and painting. If we should find it impossible, however, dear children, we must firmly believe that it would not have been for the best, had we succeeded, for God alone knows which way to lead us. “Do not lose your confidence in a kind Father in Heaven, for that is our greatest consolation. He won’t forget us, if we do not forget Him, and we must remember that He can see further than we can, for He knows why and where He is leading us. We cannot look into the future, but later we shall understand it all and realize why we had to bear our troubles. Out of them will come the greatest blessings.” “Now let us be happy again and let us sing a song,” said Dino, who loved to be gay and who liked to see everyone about him merry, too. “Let us sing: If winter’s storms are wild and long We know that spring is coming. To Agnes, whom I hear rebel, This consolation I here tell.” “Yes, Dino, it is easy enough for you to laugh,” Agnes exclaimed. “You would probably whistle another tune if you had to become a tailor. But you can learn and study everything you want to.” “I shall certainly not study everything,” Dino informed her. “But your singing is much nicer than your arguing, Agnes, so please begin, and if you don’t like my song, you can start another.”