Page:Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (IA dli.granth.77827).pdf/409

 required to prevent congestion of the brain then you were busy with that stripe.”

Tine went and kissed the little one.

“I have found her stomach, I have found her stomach!”

cried the little boy gaily; and the red lady was complete.

“Whose bedtime is it?” asked the mother.

“Mine; but I have not yet supped,” said little Max.

“You shall have some supper first of course.”

And she rose up, and gave him his simple supper, which she seemed to have fetched out of a well-secured cupboard in her room; for the noise of many locks had been heard.

“What are you giving him?” asked Havelaar.

“Oh, don’t be uneasy! It is biscuit out of the tin box from Batavia, and the sugar too has been kept under lock and key.”

Havelaar’s thoughts turned again to the point where they had been interrupted.

“Do you know,” he continued, “that we have not yet paid that doctor’s bill”

“Oh! that is very hard!”

“Dear Max, we live so economically here, we shall soon be able to pay all: moreover, you will certainly soon be appointed Resident, and then all will be arranged in a little time.”

“That is exactly the thing that makes me sad,” said Havelaar. “I should be so unwilling to leave Lebak