On this sunny Saturday morning Stineli came out of the granary with a bundle of straw which she intended to braid into a broom. As she reached the path leading to Sils, she let her eyes follow along the dry, smooth way until her glance was arrested by the appearance of a strange young man coming in her direction. She knew from his dress that he was not a Silsan. He came more rapidly as soon as he noticed her and when quite close, stopped and looked at her. She glanced inquiringly at his face and immediately recognized her long-lost friend. Dropping her bundle, she ran to him, exclaiming: "O Rico, you are not dead after all! How glad I am to see you! How very tall you have grown! I would never have known you if it had not been for your face; nobody else has a face like yours. O Rico, how glad I am that you are here again!" Rico was pale,--the joy seemed too great,--and he had not been able to say one word. Stineli stood blushing in her pride of him, and waited for him to speak. "You have grown, too, Stineli," he said at length; "otherwise you are the same as ever. The nearer I got to the house the more afraid I became that you would be different, so that it would not seem the same here." "O Rico, if only grandmother could know!" said Stineli. "But I must take you to the others; they will all be so astonished to see you." When Stineli took Rico into the house the children, unaccustomed to strangers, began to hide. The two older ones, Trudt and Sam, came in a moment later and shyly said "Good morning" in passing. The mother simply inquired if there was anything she could do for the stranger. "Don't any of you know him?" inquired Stineli. "Why, mother, it is Rico." They were just exclaiming in surprise when the father came in to breakfast. Rico advanced to shake hands cordially, but the man looked at him blankly and said: "Are you a relative? There are so many I may not know them all." "Now father doesn't know him either!" exclaimed Stineli. "It is Rico, papa." "Why, Rico, to be sure," the father said, gazing at him from head to foot. "You look prosperous, my boy; I suppose you have learned a good trade. Let us sit down to breakfast, and then you must tell us about yourself." When Rico noticed that the grandmother did not come to breakfast, he asked for her. It was the father who answered that they had buried her beside the teacher a year ago. Rico said nothing, for the news came as a shock to him. He had counted upon the pleasure of seeing the dear old lady who had always shown him so much kindness. Rico was immediately urged to tell about his wanderings and how he happened to go away. He began his story from the night he left, but he spoke in detail only when he told of Mrs. Menotti and of Silvio's home. This led him easily to tell them the object of his visit to the hills, and to beg them to let him take Stineli back with him when he returned.