CORNELLI
ing to the door which the little boy had pointed out to her.
“But wait! I shall first show you our big picture book. You’ll love it,” Mux assured her. “There is something in it that looks just like you; it is an owl that has rags over its eyes like you. But you must not talk about it, because Mama has forbidden it.”
“No, no, I don’t want to see the book. Please take me to Dino now,” Cornelli urged.
Mux pulled Cornelli away from the kitchen at last and, not far from there, opened a door.
“Are you coming at last, Cornelli?” Dino cried to her. He was sitting up in bed. He glanced happily at his approaching friend, and Cornelli, too, felt deep joy at seeing him again. The hours she had spent with him had been the only happy ones she had had all summer.
Quickly sitting down by his bed, she began to relate to him everything that had happened in Iller-Stream since his departure. Dino asked many questions that Cornelli had to answer, and the time went by they knew not how.
Mux had disappeared. As long as he could not have his new friend’s whole attention, he
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