noon
The Candidate had promised the children on some `` very fine day '' to take them to a wood , where there were plenty of hazel-bushes , and where they would gather a rich harvest of nuts . Children have an incomparable memory for all such promises ; and the little Franks thought that no day could by any possibility be more beautiful or more suitable for a great expedition than the present , and therefore , as soon as they discovered that the Candidate and their parents thought the same , their joy rose actually as high as the roof . Brigitta had not hands enough for Petrea and Eva , so did they skip about when she wished to dress them . Immediately after noon the procession set forth ; Henrik and the Queen-bee marched first , next came Eva and Leonore , between whom was Petrea , each one carrying a little basket containing a piece of cake , as provision for their journey . Behind the column of children came the mother , and near her the Candidate , drawing a little wicker-carriage , in which sate little Gabriele , looking gravely about with her large brown eyes . `` Little Africa '' -- so the children called their little dark-eyed neighbour from the Cape -- stood at her door as the little Franks tripped forth from theirs . Petrea , with an irresistible desire to make her acquaintance , rushed across the street and offered her the piece of cake which she had in her basket .