Sometimes however the mother doubted whether there would
have been this perfect absence of all contest had the medal of the
firstborn chanced to hang round Friedmund's neck instead of
Eberhard's. At first they were entirely left to her. Their
grandmother heeded them little as long as they were healthy, and
evidently regarded them more as heirs of Adlerstein than as
grandchildren; but, as they grew older, she showed anxiety lest their
mother should interfere with the fierce, lawless spirit proper to
their line.
One winter day, when they were nearly six years old, Christina,
spinning at her window, had been watching them snowballing in the
castle court, smiling and applauding every large handful held up to
her, every laughing combat, every well-aimed hit, as the hardy little
fellows scattered the snow in showers round them, raising their merry
fur-capped faces to the bright eyes that "rained influence and judged
the prize."
By and by they stood still; Ebbo--she knew him by the tossed head and
commanding air--was proposing what Friedel seemed to disapprove; but,
after a short discussion, Ebbo flung away from him, and went towards
a shed where was kept a wolf-cub, recently presented to the young
Barons by old Ulrich's son.
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