He had no mind to drop it now; and he looked as if he had suffered a severe loss.

Elsli saw his disappointment, and she hastened to propose a remedy.

Why not put the motto on the other side of the banner?
Oscar could print the verse in large letters on a piece of paper, and she would fasten it upon the banner, on the side opposite the Alpine roses.

That was a clever thought.

Oscar's spirits rose again, and the banner would be really in the end far handsomer than he had expected.
"You are the smartest girl I know, Elsli," cried the lad; and this unexpected praise brought the color into Elsli's cheeks, for she was little accustomed to notice, much less to commendation.
"How many Swiss have you found and invited to join our society ?" continued Oscar.
Elsli confessed that she had discovered but one; the baker's boy who brought fresh bread to the house every day; and she could not induce him to join the society.