questions, since the most innocent interrogatory might be taken as an
offense, only to be expiated by solitary confinement and a
bread-and-water diet; or, if not punishable in that way, it would
probably be regarded as a result of the supposed collision of my head
with a stone. To be reticent, observant, and studious was a safe plan;
this had served to make me diligent and attentive with my lessons, and
my gentle teacher had been much pleased with the progress I had made,
even in a few days. Her words on the hill had now, however, filled me
with anxiety, and I wanted to go a little below the surface of this
strange system of life. Why was this large family--twenty-two members
present, besides some absent pilgrims, as they are called--composed only
of adults? Again, more curious still, why was the father of the house
adorned with a majestic beard, while the other men, of various ages, had
smooth faces, or, at any rate, nothing more than a slight down on the
upper lip and cheeks? It was plain that they never shaved. And were
these people all really brothers and sisters? So far, I had been unable,
even with the most jealous watching, to detect anything like love-making
or flirting; they all treated each other, as Yoletta treated me, with
kindness and affection, and nothing more. And if the head of the house
was in fact the father of them all--since in two centuries a man might
have an indefinite number of children--who was the mother or mothers? I
was never good at guessing, but the result of my cogitations was one
happy idea--to ask Yoletta whether she had a living mother or not? She
was my teacher, my friend and guardian in the house, and if it should
turn out that the question was an unfortunate one, an offense, she would
be readier to forgive than another.

Accordingly, next day, as soon as we were alone together I put the
question to her, although not without a nervous qualm.