Where Is Child No 12?

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Read a dramatic lore my grandmother used to tell. We're at the end of the 19th century. My grandmother was the oldest child of twelve. Her father was a day-labourer. They had some animals but were poor as church mice as the Germans say. As there was hardly any room in the cottage for the whole family, the children were outside as often as possible. The older children had to look after the younger ones. So their mother wasn't anxious when she didn't see them all the time. One afternoon they were playing in the woods when suddenly they noticed a fire in the neighbouring village. Of course, they were excited and ran there at once. After all, there were no distractions in those days. At least none for poor children in a village. When they returned home much later, mother noticed that there was no pram. "Where's the baby?" There should have been a pram with a baby inside but there wasn't. In their excitement they had forgotten it in the woods when they had run to watch the fire. Meanwhile it was pitch dark. No street lamps in a village in those days. I don't know how the search party found the way, but they did. The pram was still where the children had left it. The baby was asleep and all was well. If the older children were spanked is also something I don't know but I think they were. I'm sure my great-grandparents were in hysterics then and understandably so. But today the event would be on a completely different scale involving police, dogs and what not. ---- Photo: PNP.de. I've found it on the net. It shows a German family. If you deduce from the photo that Germans have large families, you're very much mistaken. The average number of children in a German family is 1,57! I always wonder what the 0.57 child looks like. :-) When the story took place, hardly anyone had a camera and poor people did not go to a photographer to have their photos taken.