"Mother," said Thoma, "you must go to sleep. It is past midnight; and the doctor thought that the trial would scarcely be finished in one day."
The mother barely turned her head, and then looked out again. Is Cushion-Kate awake, too, thought she.
Yes, she was awake, but she could not afford a light. Perhaps, at the same moment, she was thinking of Landolin's wife. "She has not deserved such misery; but neither have I; and I have no one else; nothing but this gnawing sorrow."
Suddenly Cushion-Kate straightened herself. She heard footsteps.
"Have you brought anything for me?" she asked the frightened messenger.
"For Landolin's Thoma," he answered, pulling out the blue envelope.
"Do you know what is in it?" asked Cushion-Kate.
"But you do know. Say, is Landolin sentenced to death?"
"I'll lose my place if you tell anybody."
"I swear to you by all the stars I'll tell no one. I have no one to tell. I beg of you, have pity!"
"Acquitted? And my son is dead! Ye stars above, fall down and crush the world. But no: you are fooling me. Don't do that!"
"You have sworn that you would not tell," said the messenger, and hastened away. But Cushion-Kate threw herself on the ground, and wept and sobbed.
In the meantime the messenger had reached Landolin's house.
"Do you bring good news?" his wife called from the window.
Thoma hastened down the stairs with the light, and returned quickly with the open dispatch in her hand, and cried out:
"Father is acquitted. Not guilty by the court."
The mother sank on her knees. It was long before she could speak a word. At length she said, half smiling, half weeping:
"He will sit there at the table, there on the bench, once more! He will eat and drink there again! Wait, Cooper! I'll bring you something. You must be tired."
Thoma drew her mother into a chair, and then brought food and drink.
"Yes; eat and drink," said the mother. "Why are you so silent, Thoma? Why are you not happy? Eat your fill, Cooper, and take the rest with you. Oh, if I could only give food and drink to the whole world! Oh, if I could only awaken the dead, I would eat only half enough all the rest of my life! He should have the best of everything. Praise and thanks be to God! my husband is free; it is so good of him to send word that he is well. Yes, no one understands his good heart as well as----Cooper, go to Cushion-Kate, and tell her that I will come to see her to-morrow morning. As long as I live I will divide with her as though she were my sister. Tell her to be calm, and thank God with me. It would not have done her any good if the verdict had been different. Go, Cooper; go now."