Next Monday you will be there, and this very
day you must start. What a happy feast we shall have there!--not like
the hasty meal you gave the hussar-officer amid the thunder of cannon
and the blazing roofs of Rebenheim. Do not forget to have cherries, dear
Caroline, for dessert; I think they will be fully ripe by that time."
With these words the colonel hurried away to escape the thanks of this
good family, and, in truth, to conceal his own tears. So rapidly did he
disappear that Ehrenberg could scarcely accompany him down the steps.
"Oh, Caroline," said the happy father when he returned, "who could have
imagined that the little cherry tree I planted in the flower-garden the
day you were born would ever produce such good fruit?"
"It was the providence of God," exclaimed the mother, clasping her
hands. "I remember distinctly the first time the blossoms appeared on
that tree, when you and I went out to look at it, and little Caroline,
then an infant in my arms, was so much delighted with the white flowers.
We resolved then to educate our daughter piously, and prayed fervently
to God that she, who was then as full of promise as the blossoms on the
tree, might by his grace one day be the prop of our old age. That prayer
is now fulfilled beyond our fondest anticipations. Praise for ever be to
the name of God!"
Edith declared that this was one of the very sweetest stories Miss
Harson had ever told them, and Clara and Malcolm were equally well
pleased with it.
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