"Yes, I see it and I am happy that it is so," said Apollonie. "How could
one have suspected that boys who had a good education should want to hurt
others without cause? The young Falcon would never have done such a
thing, I know that. He only ran into the vegetable garden because his
two friends were chasing him from both sides."

Uncle Philip laughed: "I am glad you are so just to me, Mrs. Apollonie.
Even when you scolded the Falcon properly for tramping down your plants,
you knew that it was not in maliciousness he did it but in self-defence.
I am afraid it is time to go now" and with these words he heartily shook
his old acquaintance by the hand. The two little ones, who had never
left his side, were ready immediately to strike out once more.

They soon reached the hill and the castle, which was bathed in the soft
evening light, lay openly before them. A hushed silence reigned about
the gray building and the old pine trees under the tower, whose branches
lay trailing on the ground. For years no human hand had touched them.
Where the blooming garden had been wild bushes and weeds covered the
ground.

The mother and uncle, settling down on a tree-trunk, looked in silence
towards the castle, while the children were hunting for strawberries on
the sunny incline.

"How terribly deserted and lonely it all looks," Uncle Philip said after
a while. "Let us go back. When the sun is gone, it will get more dreary
still."

"Don't you notice anything, Philip?" asked his sister, taken up with her