"
The child ran, but not fast, her heart was so heavy within her, and her
limbs trembled; and at last she had to stop and give way to her tears,
for she became more and more sure, with every step, that her mother
would never waken more. But she went on again soon, although she could
not stop her tears, for her sorrow increased as she went. In the beech
grove, full a quarter of an hour's walk from the church, stood the
house of her cousin Gotti; and presently Wiseli entered the door, still
crying bitterly. Her cousin's wife stood in the kitchen, and asked
harshly, "What is the matter with you?" Wiseli replied, between her
sobs, that the neighbor had sent her to ask her cousin Gotti to come
quickly to her mother. Probably the woman suspected, from the child's
look, that her mother was more ill, for she spoke a little less roughly
than usual. "I will tell him. You can go home: he is not here now." So
Wiseli turned about, and reached home more quickly than she came, for
she was returning to her mother. The neighbor stood by the
doorstep,--she could not wait inside the room: it was not pleasant to
her. But the child stepped in, and went to her place by her mother's
side that she had kept all through the night. There she sat weeping,
and only said, now and then, softly, "Mother." But no answering word
came to her. At last Wiseli said, bending over her, "Mother, you can
hear me, although you are in heaven now, and I cannot hear your
answer.
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