When he had been four weeks in the sanitarium all hope disappeared, for
the doctor had exhausted every means.
"Now I will try one thing more," he said one morning to his wife. "I have
written to my friend, the Pastor, and asked him if the boy was very much
attached to his mother, and if so, to send for her right away. Perhaps to
see her again would make an impression on him."
The two women looked forward in great suspense to Elsbeth's arrival.
In the first week of September the last guests left the hotel in
Interlaken where Elsbeth had spent the summer. She immediately started on
her way home, for she wanted to get everything in order before Toni came
down from the mountain. She never thought but that he was still up there,
and had no suspicion of all that had happened. When she reached home, she
went at once to the Matten farm to enquire for Toni and to bring the goat
home.
The farmer was very friendly, and thought her goat was now by far one of
the finest, because she had had good fodder so long. But when Elsbeth
asked after her Toni, he broke off abruptly and said he had so much to do,
she must go to the Pastor, for he would have the best knowledge about the
boy. It immediately seemed to Elsbeth that it was a little strange for the
Pastor to know best what happened up on the mountain and while she was
leading home the goat, and thinking about the matter, a feeling of anxiety
came over her and grew stronger and stronger.
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