“With pleasure. But you must eat some, too,” said Dino. “No, I don’t want to,” Cornelli replied. “Just try whether they are good. If you do not like them, you can leave them or give them to the birds.” “Oh, but there is nothing that tastes as sweet and splendid as these golden plums!” cried Dino, while he was slowly eating one after another. “What a shame! I wish I had known how much you like them; you really ought to have told me,” Cornelli said. “There are none left on the tree and they are the last that were lying on the grass. But very soon we’ll have the best juicy pears--they are perfectly delicious, I think, even better--and then I’ll bring you some every day.” “Yes, it certainly would be great to have a pear feast with you every day,” said Dino, looking admiringly at the last reddish plum before he ate it. “It is easy enough for you, Cornelli. You can stay right here under the pear tree, but I have to go away. I’ll have to spend my time behind the school house walls, regretting all that I have lost.” “But you are not going away,” said Cornelli with dismay. It had never occurred to her that this happy companionship could ever end. “Yes, I have to. If I could, I would stay here much longer with our good friend Martha. She is better than anybody I know except my mother, and she takes care of me as if I were a silkworm.” “Yes, and when you go, everything is over,” said Cornelli, speaking as if Dino were her enemy. Her eyes glowed at him from under her hair and she seemed to be accusing him of some bitter wrong. She now turned away, as if to say: Now I do not want to hear of anything more. But Dino understood her sudden anger. “No, Cornelli,” he said soothingly, “just the opposite will happen. It is not over at all, because it has only just begun. I have planned with Martha to-day that I shall come again next summer and the summer after and every year after that, till we are both old and gray.” But Cornelli only saw the immediate future before her and what was going to happen now; she could not look so far ahead. “Yes, but it is so long till next year, that you are sure to forget all about me a hundred times,” she said crossly, as if she were chiding her companion. “No, I won’t do that,” said Dino quietly. “I won’t forget you once, least of all a hundred times. I’ll prove it to you, Cornelli. Let us still have a good time together and enjoy the four remaining days that I can stay here. Let us look forward, also, to the time when I shall come again. Just think how much the kid will have grown by then! We shall be able to drive together. I’ll be the coachman and you’ll be the lady in the carriage. That will be splendid!”