| Share page |
|
TWO VISITS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES 69
to learn something, and the time for it has arrived. I have come to tell you now, neighbor, so that you may be able to think it over and make your arrangements during the summer. This is the last winter that the child can spend without any instruction; next winter she must go to school, and every day."
"I shall not do it, pastor," said the old man decidedly.
" Do you really suppose, then, that there is no means of bringing you to terms if you will persist so obstinately in your unreasonable behavior ?" said the pastor somewhat warmly. " You have been about the world a great deal and have had an opportunity to see and learn much, and I should give you credit for better sense, neighbor."
" Indeed ! " said the old man; and his voice showed that he was no longer so perfectly calm in his mind; "and does the pastor suppose that I would really send a delicate child next winter on icy mornings through storm and snow down the mountain, a two hours' journey, and let her come back again at night, when it often blusters and rages so that any one of us would be lost in the wind and snow, and she only a little child ? Possibly the pastor can recall her mother, Adelheid ; she used to walk in her sleep and have ill turns. Shall the child, too, be made to suffer from such a struggle? Just let any one come and try to compel me ! I will go into every court with her, and then we shall see who is going to compel me!"
" You are quite right, neighbor," said the pastor with |
||