But; as I say, don't put your
husband between two fires. He has been a bit spoiled by his mother, but
he'll grow more manly now. Just keep on pushing ahead, and think of me
as one of your family, and as your natural protector. For that is true;
on your mother's side I am very distantly related to you."
And now he tried to disentangle a strangely intricate genealogy; but be
was unable to find the right thread, and succeeded only in getting the
different relationships more and more mixed up, like a skein of yarn.
And at last he always concluded by saying:
"You may believe me on my word that we are related; for we _are_
related, although I can't quite figure out how."
And now the time before his end had really come, when he no longer gave
away merely bad grosschens; it did him good to donate at last a part of
his possessions having some real significance and value. For one evening
he called Amrei out behind the house and said to her:
"Look, my girl, you are good and sensible, but you don't know just how it
is with a man. My John has a good heart, but some day it may possibly
annoy him, the thought that you had absolutely nothing of your own. So
then, take this, but don't tell a soul anything about it, or from whom
you got it. Say that you worked hard and saved it up. There--take it!"
He handed her a stocking full of round thalers, and added:
"That was not to have been found until after I was dead; but it is
better so--he'll get it now and think it came from you.
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