October 30th

Fräulein Mildrid pays no attention to the older children, only to Marta and Gretl, but she still doesn't really spend time with them. She is a big reader, so whatever we are doing, she sits in the back and watches us as she reads. All that we have learned about her is that she is from a poor village somewhere around here, and she found the job because her uncle is one of the cooks.

Since the worm incident on the first night, we were have all been punished with the removal of desert. Not only that, but somehow, that night, father figured out it was Kurt who put the worm on the chair, so before he left for Vienna, he called Kurt into his office and spanked him like he did me. It was so painful to hear because Kurt is only 5 years old and just wanted his fathers attention.

After father left, things went back to usual. Each morning we would wake up and need to be downstairs at 8:00 for breakfast, then everyone besides Brigitta, Marta and Gretl would do our summer school work until 11:00, while the younger kids "played" with Fräulein Mildrid. Most of the time Brigitta sat on my lap because she loves to learn and Marta would play with dolls while Gretl slept, ate or played.

Father has called once since he has been away, and only to ask how we were behaving. Thankfully, Fräulein Mildrid reported that we have been well behaved, but we don't think that that will last for long.

Louisa came up with a great idea to play tricks on Fräulein Mildrid so she has to leave. On November 30th, it is Friedrich's, Louisa's, Kurt's, Brigitta's and my first day of school. We all decided that we would ditch school so that Fräulein Mildrid would have to come looking for us around town, only to find that we are still in bed. When she would go and wake us up, we would all pretend to be really sick... This will cause her to go and wash her hands, which in her sink would be a toad.

For our first major prank, this was very thought out. The only problem is that we couldn't tell the little kids (Kurt and younger) because they were blabber mouths, so we would have to keep it a secret until then, but we still have a month to figure it out.

Anyway, I think I hear Gretl crying, so I better go check on her. Good night!