NEWS FROM DISTANT FRIENDS
contentment. Then he gathered up a whole pile of shawls and furs and said, smiling, “It is a good thing that grandmamma came up well provided for a winter’s campaign; we shall be able to make good use of these.”
“Foresight is a virtue,” responded the lady, amused, “and prevents many misfortunes. If we have made the journey over your mountains without meeting with storms, winds and cloudbursts, we can only be thankful, which we are, and my provision against these disasters now comes in usefully, as you say.”
The two had meanwhile ascended to the hay-loft and begun to prepare a bed; there were so many articles piled one over the other that when finished it looked like a regular little fortress. Grandmamma passed her hand carefully over it to make sure there were no bits of hay sticking out. “If there’s a bit that can come through it will,” she said. The soft mattress, however, was so smooth and thick that nothing could penetrate it. Then they went down again, well satisfied, and found the children laughing and talking together and arranging all they were going to do from morning till evening as long as Clara stayed. The next question was how long she was to remain, and first grandmamma was asked, but she referred them to the grandfather, who gave it as his opinion that she ought to make the trial of the mountain air for at least a month. The children clapped their hands for joy, for they had not expected to be together for so long a time.
The bearers and the horse and guide were now seen approaching; the former were sent back at once, and grandmamma prepared to mount for her return journey.
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