CHAPTER IV
THE DISTANT LAKE WITHOUT A NAME
When Stineli awoke the following morning, she instantly realized thatit was Sunday. The grandmother's words of the previous evening werestill fresh in her memory, "You deserve the whole afternoon to-morrow,and you shall have it."
After dinner, when Stineli had finished all the necessary duties andwas prepared to join Rico, Peter called from his bed, "Stineli, come,stay with me!"
The two others who were ill shouted, "No, no, Stineli, we want you!"
The father said, "I should like to have you go to the barn and take alook at the goat first."
"Hush, everybody!" broke in the grandmother. "Stineli shall go inpeace. I will look after these things myself. Remember, dear, thatwhen the vesper bell rings, you are to come home like good children."The grandmother knew that there would be two of them.
Stineli flew away like a bird for whom the door of its cage had beenopened, and went directly to Rico, who was waiting as usual. The sunwas shining pleasantly, and the heaven was an unbroken blue above themas they crossed the meadow to reach the hill beyond. They still foundpatches of snow in the shaded places, until they got up where thewhole surface had been exposed to the sun; from here they could seethe waves beating steadily against the rocks on the shore. Theysearched for a dry place on a cliff directly over the water, and herethey sat down. The wind was blowing a sharp gale at this height; itwhistled in their ears and swayed the woods above them like a livingmass of green.
"Oh, see, Rico, how beautiful it is here!" exclaimed Stineli as shelooked about. "I am so glad that spring has come again. See how thewater sparkles in the sunlight. There really cannot be a prettier lakethan this one."
"I should say there is!" exclaimed Rico. "You ought to see the one Imean! No such black fir trees with needles grow by my lake. We haveshining green leaves and large red flowers there. The hills are not sohigh and black, nor so near, but show their violet colors from adistance. The sky and water are all a golden glow, and there is such awarm, fragrant air that one can always sit on the shore without beingcold. The wind never blows like this, and there is no snow to coverone's shoes as ours are covered now."
This description convinced Stineli that Rico was not speaking of aplace that he had simply dreamed about, so she said half sadly:"Perhaps you can go there sometime and see it again. Do you know theway?"
"No," answered Rico, "but I know that you have to go up the Maloja. Ihave been as far as that with my father, and he showed me the roadthat leads ever and ever so far down toward the lake. It is such along way that you could hardly get there."
"It would be easy enough," remarked Stineli. "All you have to do isjust to keep right on going farther and farther and at last you _must_get there."
"Yes," said Rico, "but father told me something else too. You have togo to hotels to eat and to sleep on the way, and it takes money forthat."
"But think of the money we own together!" cried Stineli.
Rico frowned and said: "That doesn't amount to anything. I found thatout when I wanted to buy a violin."
"Then you had better stay at home and not go, Rico. It is always niceto be at home."
Rico sat lost in thought, his head resting on his arm. Stineli wasbusy gathering some moss and shaping it into pillows, which sheintended to take to the sick ones when she and Rico went home. Shethought nothing of Rico's silence until he said: "You say that I canstay at home, but it seems to me exactly as if that were something Idid not have. I am sure I don't know where it is."
"O Rico, what are you saying!" cried the astonished Stineli, lettingthe moss fall unheeded in her lap. "You are at home here, of course.You are always at home where your father and mother--" Here shestopped abruptly as she remembered that Rico had no mother and thathis father had not been at home for ever so long, and she shuddered asshe thought of his aunt, of whom she had always been afraid. Shescarcely knew how to continue, yet it grieved her to see Rico so sadlysilent. She impulsively took his hand and said, "I should like to knowthe name of the lake where it is so beautiful."
Rico meditated a moment. "I don't know it, Stineli. I wonder what itcan be and why I can't remember it!"
"Let us try to find out," suggested Stineli; "then, when we get moneyenough, you will be able to find your way to it. We might ask theteacher about it, and possibly grandmother could tell us."
"I think my father will know, and I will ask him just as soon as hecomes back."
They heard the vesper bell ringing in the distance. They roseimmediately and ran through the bushes and snow, down the hill andacross the meadow. In a few moments they were panting beside thegrandmother, who stood at the door waiting for them. She greeted themhastily and motioned for Stineli to pass into the house; then sheadded to Rico: "I think that you had better go in when you get to thehouse to-night, instead of waiting awhile outside. It may be better."
No one had ever spoken like that to him before, and he wondered whyshe asked it of him. He wished to obey the grandmother, but he couldnot help entering the house reluctantly.