Cornelli shook her head. “You said once that my mother was different from anybody,” she said. “So I can’t ever be like her; you said so yourself, Martha.” “Yes, yes, I have said that,” confirmed Martha. “But I have to explain something to you, Cornelli. If you can’t become exactly like your mother, you certainly can become more like her than anybody else, for you are her child, and a child always has something from her mother. I have seen you look at me just the way she did, with the same brown eyes; but not when you frown the way you do to-day. You must try to watch the two ladies very carefully in all they do and in the way they speak. They are your mother’s kind, and that is why I am so glad that you can watch their manners and can try to imitate them. You can learn to resemble your mother in your ways, if you copy the ladies.” “Yes, I shall do that,” agreed Cornelli. “Just the same, I am not terribly pleased that they are here and that everything has to be changed. Oh dear, I have just remembered that I have to be back now and drink some hot coffee and milk, because Miss Dorner says that the afternoons are so frightfully long in the country they have to be interrupted. At that time I always used to get from the garden some apples or cherries or whatever else there was, and they always tasted so awfully good. If I only could lengthen my afternoon, which seems too long to them! I never can do all I plan to do. Good-bye, Martha.” And with these words Cornelli ran away. CHAPTER IV THE UNWISHED-FOR HAPPENS Esther, the able mistress of the kitchen, was standing in the garden picking green peas, which hung in clusters from the vines. They had ripened quickly in the sunny June weather. “Come down here, Cornelli!” she called. “Just see how many peas there are! Why do you steal about so quietly nowadays, and why don’t you run the way you used to?” “I am not allowed to do anything any more,” replied Cornelli, approaching her. “Mina is beginning to tell me that I even must not jump, for it might tangle my hair. I wish I had not a single hair left; then I could at least run and jump about.” “No, no, child; that would look too dreadful. Just imagine it! But don’t get sad on account of that,” Esther consoled her. “Just jump around as before! Your hair can always be put in order again. Why haven’t you come into the kitchen lately to see if things taste right?” “I am not allowed to; Miss Dorner says that is bad manners,” Cornelli informed her. “Oh, I see! Well, you might do worse things. However, you must obey! Yes, you have to obey,” Esther repeated. “Don’t you go to Miss Mina any more, either, when she fixes the dessert?” Cornelli shook her head. Miss Mina had quickly understood the new order that had begun in the household and accordingly had suited herself to it. When she thought the ladies would not approve of an old custom, she dropped it quickly, and Cornelli had soon noticed her change of attitude.