"Oh, you must not be superstitious, dear friend," answered the visitor.
"I have been told that newborn babes often have something old in their
features; they soon lose that."

"Surely you, too, have children?" asked Frau Elsbeth.

"Oh, I am still such a young wife," answered her visitor, blushing.
"Scarcely six months married. But--" and she blushed still more.

"God be with you in your time of trouble," said Frau Elsbeth; "I will pray
for you."

The stranger's eyes grew moist. "Thanks, a thousand thanks," she said.
"And let us be friends, I entreat you, with all my heart. Shall I propose
something? Take me as godmother for your youngest child, and do me the same
favor when Heaven blesses me."

The two women pressed each other's hands silently. The bond of friendship
was sealed.

When the visitor had left her, Frau Elsbeth looked round with a shy, sad
look. "Just now everything here was bright and sunny," she murmured, "and
now it has become so dark again."

After a short time, in spite of the nurse's opposition, the two eldest boys
rushed into the sickroom with joyful clamor. Each had a bag with sweets in
his hand.

"The strange lady has given us this," they shouted.