72 THE GARDEN OF A 



while she began to cry softly, saying between 

 sniffs : 



" So many years furniture clothes milk, 

 vegetables took care of them measles 

 whooping-cough that good carpet good as new 

 that front door never will we never will trust 

 anybody again ! " 



But of course we shall, you know ! 



Thus Peter Schmidt passed from the open fields to 

 the shoeshop. 



On election day father saw him at the polls. In 

 the evening when driving in the moonlight past some 

 land that Peter had ploughed deep and left in great 

 furrows for the frost to sweeten, father saw a strange 

 object on the ground. Stopping, he crossed the road 

 to see if it was some creature or merely a shadow. 



It was Peter stretched in a fresh furrow, his head 

 buried in his arms, his whole body shaken by sobs, 

 while crouching trembling by the wall was the little 

 boy. 



Report reached us that late the same night Peter, 

 mingling with his new comrades of the shop, was half 

 urged, half forced to drink with them to honour his 

 first vote. The rank liquor was strange to him, he 

 became deeply drunk, and half led, half dragged, he 

 was left upon his doorstep. 



