Cornelli wanted to withdraw quickly, but the boy called out: “Please come in and let us get acquainted. Mrs. Martha has already told me about you. Just come in,” he continued, when he saw that Cornelli still hesitated. “If you want to be alone with Mrs. Wolf I can easily go to my own room.” Cornelli felt that it was very nice of the boy not to resent her words and to be willing to give place to her. She therefore entered. Martha had already put a chair in readiness for her and greeted her heartily. “I expected you, Cornelli,” she said. “Just sit down here a little with our guest. His name is Dino Halm and he already knows your name. I am sure you will have a good time together. I’ll go up in the meantime and if you need me you can find me in the room upstairs.” Martha, thinking that the children could get acquainted better if they were left alone, had planned to unpack her new arrival’s things while they were together. She put his belongings neatly away in the wardrobe and the drawers in order to make him feel at home in his tidy little chamber. “Why did you think that we did not come?” asked Dino as soon as Martha had left the room and Cornelli was sitting beside him silently. “Because I did not see the carriage,” she replied. “The carriage? Well, I can believe you,” said Dino. “We walked more than an hour, in fact, nearly two, before we got here from the station. Do you just hop into a carriage when you go to the station?” “Yes, I do; I always go there with Papa,” replied Cornelli. “But where do the horses always come from?” Dino wanted to know. “From our stable,” was the answer. “Have you your own carriage and two horses of your own, just to be able to drive about?” Dino questioned, full of astonishment. “Yes, we have the two brown ones and six others to carry away the iron from the foundry.” “Good gracious, eight horses!” Dino exclaimed. “You are lucky to be able to sit in a carriage with your father and drive around!” “Can’t you do that?” asked Cornelli. “Never in my life,” Dino replied in a voice full of conviction. “First of all, I do not have a father. Besides that, we do not own a stable and horses. How lucky you are! Have you anything else in the stable?” “Oh yes, lots more. Six cows and a large gray stable cat,” Cornelli informed him. “Then there is an old nanny goat and a young snow white kid, about whose neck I tied a red ribbon. You are going to drink milk from our cow, did you know that?” “Oh, I shall love to do that!” Dino exclaimed. “Do you think I’ll be allowed to go to the stable and look at the horses?” “Certainly you will; Matthew will love to show them to you, and Martha will willingly let you go. If I only could go with you!” And Cornelli uttered a deep sigh.