I--in short, I fancy you will manage the affair best.

It is so beautiful to-day! Could you not take the children a long walk?
It would do both them and you good, and upon the way you would have an excellent opportunity for an explanation.

Should this be of no avail, then I will--but I would gladly avoid being angry with him; one has things enough to vex one without that." The Judge was not the only person in the house whom the sun inspired with thoughts of rambling.

The Candidate had promised the children on some "very fine day" to take them to a wood, where there were plenty of hazel-bushes, and where they would gather a rich harvest of nuts.
Children have an incomparable memory for all such promises; and the little Franks thought that no day could by any possibility be more beautiful or more suitable for a great expedition than the present, and therefore, as soon as they discovered that the Candidate and their parents thought the same, their joy rose actually as high as the roof.
Brigitta had not hands enough for Petrea and Eva, so did they skip about when she wished to dress them.
Immediately after noon the procession set forth; Henrik and the Queen-bee marched first, next came Eva and Leonore, between whom was Petrea, each one carrying a little basket containing a piece of cake, as provision for their journey.

Behind the column of children came the mother, and near her the Candidate, drawing a little wicker-carriage, in which sate little Gabriele, looking gravely about with her large brown eyes.
"Little Africa"-- so the children called their little dark-eyed neighbour from the Cape--stood at her door as the little Franks tripped forth from theirs.