To think of
it! Why did you never say a word, Cornelli?"

"But what should I have said?" Cornelli asked, very much frightened.

"You must not be afraid," Mux now calmed her, "I'll help you, if she
should want to hurt you."

"Don't be so unnaturally stupid, Mux!" his sister ejaculated as she
ran to the next room. Here her mother was already standing in the open
door. "Have you heard it, Mother? Come out and let Cornelli sing her
song again!"

"Yes, indeed! I have heard it with pleasure and great wonder," said
the mother, approaching Cornelli. "You have a voice, dear child, that
we all should love to hear again. Have you often sung before?"

"Oh yes," said Cornelli. "Martha has taught me many songs, but--"

"What do you mean by but?" Agnes quickly interrupted her. "I know now
what a voice you have. I have to go quickly to my music lesson, but
you must sing a lot with me to-night. No buts will be allowed then."

"Oh, Cornelli, won't you sing with us tonight?" asked the mother kindly.
"We know now how well it sounds, and I do not see why you should still
hesitate."

"I can't sing properly when I am afraid, for then it does not sound
well," Cornelli replied.

"Why should you be afraid?" asked the mother. "You know us all so well
now."

"Oh, because I am not like Agnes and Nika. I can't do anything they
do and I don't look the way they do," said Cornelli. With these words
she frowned again in the old way, so that one could see it through the
thick fringes of hair that covered her forehead.

The mother said no more and went out.

"Just stay with me, Cornelli; then you don't have to be afraid of
anything," Mux said protectingly. "I am afraid of nothing in the whole
world--except of the dark," he added quickly, for he had seen Cornelli's
penetrating eyes looking at him through her hair, and felt that he had
to tell the truth, for she was sure to find him out. "No," he continued,
"I won't be even afraid of that if you stay with me all the time."

Agnes had finished her school work sooner than ever that day. She ran
to the 