Mr. and Mrs. Birkenfeld had gone to church, and with them Paula and Miss Hanenwinkel. In the sitting-room², Jule and Hunne were harmoniously³ discussing over a big dish of hazel-nuts, in how many different ways they could make the nutcracker crack a nut. The twins, since the lesson they had had in the wash-house, had returned contented⁴ to the mimic⁵ ark, with its wooden men and women, and they were now playing with it on the school-room table, which they had all to themselves to-day. Rolf had early betaken himself to the garden, and had settled down in a sequestered⁶ summer-house, where he could think over all sorts of things, without fear of being disturbed.

 

After the flood had subsided⁷ (a flood this time without water), and when the dove had returned with the olive-branch, and quiet was restored in the land, new schemes began to work in Lili's busy little head.

 

"What do you say, Wili, to coming down-stairs to look at Rolf's new bow; he left it in the passage-way last evening."

 

Wili was all agog⁸ at the idea, and they both scampered⁹ down-stairs. Lili knew the corner where Rolf had placed the bow, and there too was the quiver, with its two feathered arrows.

 

"Just see how jolly this is;" said Lili, "you pull this string back, and put the arrow here, and then let the string fly, and off goes the arrow like anything. I saw just how Rolf did it; and suppose we try to see how it works!"

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