"Now let us go up there," said Frau Doerr, "and then we will sit down and pick buttercups and make a wreath out of the stems. It is always so much fun to poke one stem into another until the wreath or the chain is done." "Yes, yes," said Lena, whose fate it was not to be free from small embarrassments. "Yes, yes. But now come, Frau Doerr, the path leads this way." And talking thus they climbed the little slope and seated themselves at the top on a heap of weeds and rubbish that had been lying there since the previous autumn. This heap was an excellent resting place, and also afforded a good point of view from which one could overlook a ditch bordered with willows and grass, and could not only see the northern row of houses of Wilmersdorf, but could also plainly hear, from a neighboring smoking-room and bowling-alley, the fall of the ninepins and more plainly still the rolling back of the heavy ball along the two noisy wooden rods of its track. Lena enjoyed this, and took Botho's hand and said: "See, Botho, I understand that so well (for when I was a child we lived near such a bowling-alley) that when I just hear the ball hit, I know at once how much it will make." "Well," said Botho, "then we can bet." "And what shall we bet?" "We shall think of something." "Very well. But I only have to guess right three times, and if I say nothing it doesn't count." "I am satisfied." And so they all three listened, and Frau Doerr, who grew more excited every minute, swore by all that was holy that her heart was throbbing and that she felt just as if she were sitting before the curtain at the theatre. "Lena, Lena, you have undertaken too much, child; it really is not possible." And so she would have continued, if they had not just then heard a ball hit and after one dull blow come to rest against the side guard. "Missed," cried Lena. And this was actually the case. "That was easy, too easy," said Botho. "I could have guessed that myself. Let us see what happens next." And then, two more strokes followed, without Lena speaking or moving. But Frau Doerr's eyes seemed to pop out of her head more and more. But now, Lena rose at once from her place, there came a small, hard ball and one could hear it dance, vibrating over the board with a tone in which elasticity and hardness were curiously mingled. "All nine," said Lena. And in a moment the falling of the ninepins was heard and the attendant only confirmed what scarcely needed confirmation. "You have won, Lena. We must eat a philopena to-day and then we'll call it square. Isn't that right, Frau Doerr?" "Why certainly," said Frau Doerr winking. "It is all square." And so saying, she took her hat off and began to swing it about as if it had been her market hat. Meanwhile the sun had gone down behind the Wilmersdorf church tower and Lena proposed to start for home, "it was growing so chilly; but on the way they would play tag: she was sure that Botho could not catch her." "We shall soon see."