always home where father and mother"--She stopped suddenly. Rico had no
mother, and his father had been away now for a very long time; and the
cousin? Stineli never went near that cousin, who had never spoken one
pleasant word to her. The child did not know what to say, but it was not
natural to her to remain long in uncertainty. Rico had already fallen
into one of his reveries, when she grasped him by the arm, and said,--

"I should just like to know something; that is, the name of the lake
where it is so lovely."

Rico pondered. "I do not know," he said; and felt very much surprised
himself as he spoke.

Now Stineli proposed that they should ask somebody what it was called;
for even if Rico had ever so much money, and was able to travel, he must
know how to inquire the way, and what the name of the lake was. They
began at once to think of whom they should inquire,--of the teacher, or
of the grandmother.

At last it occurred to Rico that his father would know better than
anybody else, and he thought he would certainly ask him when he came
home again.

The time had slipped away quickly as they sat talking, and presently the
children heard the distant sound of a bell. They recognized the sound.
It was the bell for prayers.

They sprang up quickly, and ran off, hand in hand, down the hill-side
through bushes, and through the snow across the meadow; and it had
scarcely stopped ringing when they reached the door where the