"At
least we are as far as this. It really is an undertaking to keep in
order a handful of children where one always differs from the last. Now
I have luckily gotten through for today. What? Not yet? What is the
matter, Bruno?"
The latter, approaching his uncle with clear signs that he wanted him for
something, had pulled him aside.
"I want to ask you for something," said Bruno. "I wonder if you will do
me a great favor, Uncle Philip. Salo and I have so much to talk about
still and he must leave to-morrow, I wanted to ask you if Kurt can sleep
beside you in the guest room and Salo could sleep in Kurt's bed in my
room."
"What are you thinking of," the uncle said irritably. "You should hear
what your mother would say to that. The idea of having a Wallerstaetten
for a guest and offering him a bed which has been used already. That
would seem a real crime in her eyes. That can't be; no, it mustn't. I
hope you can see it, too, don't you?"
"Yes," Bruno said, much depressed, for he had to agree. But Uncle could
not stand such downcast spirits.
"Listen, Bruno," he said, "you realize that we can't do it that way. But
an uncle knows how to arrange things and that is why he is here. This is
the way we'll do. I'll sleep in your bed, and Salo and you can sleep in
the guest-room. Will that suit?"
"Oh, thank you, Uncle Philip! There is no other uncle like you," Bruno
cried out in his enthusiasm.
So Uncle Philip's last difficulty was solved for to-day and everybody was
willing to go to bed.
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