greatest surprise. “Is it a cross with sparkling stones?”
“Yes, exactly that.”
“What have you done with it, Moni? Give it to me. Did you find it?”
“No, Jörgli from Küblis found it.”
Then Paula wanted to know who he was and where he lived, and to send some one to Küblis at once to get the cross.
“I will go as fast as I can, and if he still has it I will bring it to you,” said Moni.
“If he still has it?” said Paula. “Why shouldn’t he still have it? And how do you know all about it, Moni? When did he find it, and how did you hear about it?”
Moni looked on the ground. He didn’t dare say how it had all come about, and how he had helped to conceal the discovery until he could no longer bear it.
But Paula was very kind to Moni. She took him aside, sat down on the trunk of a tree beside him, and said with the greatest friendliness:
“Come, tell me all about how it happened, Moni, for I want so much to know everything from you.”
Then Moni gained confidence and began to relate the whole story, and told her every word of his struggle about Mäggerli and how he had lost all happiness and dared no longer look up to the dear
