{"product_id":"2940013803558","title":"WHAT SAMI SINGS WITH THE BIRDS","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   FIRST OLD MARY ANN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   SECOND AT THE GRANDMOTHER'S\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   THIRD ANOTHER LIFE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   FOURTH HARD TIMES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   FIFTH THE BIRDS ARE STILL SINGING\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   SIXTH SAMI SINGS TOO\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUP IN THE ASH-TREES THE BIRDS PIPED AND SANG MERRILY TOGETHER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM WITH ALL YOUR HOUSEHOLD GOODS?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSUCH STRAY WAIFS AS YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DO ANYTHING.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWHAT SAMI SINGS WITH THE BIRDS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER FIRST\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOLD MARY ANN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor three days the Spring sun had been shining out of a clear sky and\u003cbr\u003ecasting a gleaming, golden coverlet over the blue waters of Lake Geneva.\u003cbr\u003eStorm and rain had ceased. The breeze murmured softly and pleasantly up\u003cbr\u003ein the ash-trees, and all around in the green fields the yellow\u003cbr\u003ebuttercups and snow-white daisies glistened in the bright sunshine. Under\u003cbr\u003ethe ash-trees, the clear brook was running with the cool mountain water\u003cbr\u003eand feeding the gaily nodding primroses and pink anemones on the\u003cbr\u003ehillside, as they grew and bloomed down close to the water.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the low wall by the brook, in the shadow of the ash-trees, an old\u003cbr\u003ewoman was sitting. She was called \"Old Mary Ann\" throughout the whole\u003cbr\u003eneighborhood. Her big basket, the weight of which had become a little\u003cbr\u003eheavy, she had put down beside her. She was on her way back from La Tour,\u003cbr\u003ethe little old town, with the vine-covered church tower and the ruined\u003cbr\u003ecastle, the high turrets of which rose far across the blue lake. Old Mary\u003cbr\u003eAnn had taken her work there. This consisted in all kinds of mending\u003cbr\u003ewhich did not need to be done particularly well, for the woman was no\u003cbr\u003elonger able to do fine work, and never could do it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOld Mary Ann had had a very changeable life. The place where she now\u003cbr\u003efound herself was not her home. The language of the country was not her\u003cbr\u003eown. From the shady seat on the low wall, she now looked contentedly at\u003cbr\u003ethe sunny fields, then across the murmuring brook to the hillside where\u003cbr\u003ethe big yellow primroses nodded, while the birds piped and sang in the\u003cbr\u003egreen ash-trees above her, as if they had the greatest festival to\u003cbr\u003ecelebrate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Every Spring, people think it never was so beautiful before, when they\u003cbr\u003ehave already seen so many,\" she now said half aloud to herself, and as\u003cbr\u003eshe gazed at the fields so rich in flowers, many of the past years rose\u003cbr\u003eup and passed before her, with all that she had experienced in them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a child she had lived far beyond the mountains. She knew so well how\u003cbr\u003eit must look over there now at her father's house, which stood in a field\u003cbr\u003eamong white-blooming pear-trees. Over yonder the large village with its\u003cbr\u003emany houses could be seen. It was called Zweisimmen. Everybody called\u003cbr\u003etheir house the sergeant's house, although her father quite peacefully\u003cbr\u003etilled his fields. But that came from her grandfather. When quite a young\u003cbr\u003efellow, he had gone over the mountains to Lake Geneva and then still\u003cbr\u003efarther to Savoy. Under a Duke of Savoy he had taken part in all sorts of\u003cbr\u003emilitary expeditions and had not returned home until he was an old man.\u003cbr\u003eHe always wore an old uniform and allowed himself to be called sergeant.\u003cbr\u003eThen he married and Mary Ann's father was his only child. The old man\u003cbr\u003elived to be a hundred years old, and every child in all the region round\u003cbr\u003eknew the old sergeant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMary Ann had three brothers, but as soon as one of them grew up he\u003cbr\u003edisappeared, she knew not where. Only this much she understood, that\u003cbr\u003eher mother mourned over them, but her father said quite resignedly\u003cbr\u003eevery time: \"We can't help it, they will go over the mountains; they\u003cbr\u003etake it from their grandfather.\" She had never heard anything more\u003cbr\u003eabout her brothers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Mary Ann grew up and married, her young husband also came into the\u003cbr\u003ehouse among the pear-trees, for her father was old and could no longer do\u003cbr\u003ehis work alone. But after a few years Mary Ann buried her young husband;\u003cbr\u003ea burning fever had taken him off. Then came hard times for the widow.\u003cbr\u003eShe had her child, little Sami, to care for, besides her old, infirm\u003cbr\u003eparents to look after, and moreover there was all the work to be done in\u003cbr\u003ethe house and in the fields which until now her husband had attended to.\u003cbr\u003eShe did what she could, but it was of no use, the land had to be given up\u003cbr\u003eto a cousin. The house was mortgaged, and Mary Ann hardly knew how to\u003cbr\u003ekeep her old parents from want. Gradually young Sami grew up and was able\u003cbr\u003eto help the cousin in the fields. Then the old parents died about the\u003cbr\u003esame time, and Mary Ann hoped now by hard work and her son's help little\u003cbr\u003eby little to pay up her debts and once more take possession of her fields\u003cbr\u003eand house.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47176468726000,"sku":"2940013803558","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013803558","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}