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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32502-8.txt b/32502-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e71596 --- /dev/null +++ b/32502-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6145 @@ +Project Gutenberg's What Happened to Inger Johanne, by Dikken Zwilgmeyer + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Happened to Inger Johanne + As Told by Herself + +Author: Dikken Zwilgmeyer + +Illustrator: Florence Liley Young + +Translator: Emilie Poulsson + +Release Date: May 23, 2010 [EBook #32502] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +WHAT HAPPENED + +TO + +INGER JOHANNE + +[Illustration: Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into the +boat.--_Page 22._] + +WHAT HAPPENED + +TO + +INGER JOHANNE + +AS TOLD BY HERSELF + +Translated from the Norwegian of + +DIKKEN ZWILGMEYER + +_by_ EMILIE POULSSON + +[Illustration] + +ILLUSTRATED _by_ + +FLORENCE LILEY YOUNG + +BOSTON + +LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + + +Published, October, 1919 + +COPYRIGHT, 1919, +BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + +_All Rights Reserved_ + +What Happened to Inger Johanne + +_Norwood Press_ + +BERWICK & SMITH CO. + +NORWOOD, MASS. +U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I, INGER JOHANNE 11 + +I. OURSELVES, OUR TOWN, AND OTHER THINGS 13 + +II. AN INTERRUPTED CELEBRATION 31 + +III. MY FIRST JOURNEY ALONE 41 + +IV. WHAT HAPPENED ONE ST. JOHN'S DAY 59 + +V. LEFT BEHIND 70 + +VI. IN THE MEAL CHEST 86 + +VII. PETS: PARTICULARLY CAROLA-CAROLUS 93 + +VIII. CHRISTMAS MUMMING 113 + +IX. MOTHER BRITA'S GRANDCHILD 123 + +X. THE MASON'S LITTLE PIGS 143 + +XI. LOCKED IN 156 + +XII. AT GOODFIELDS 170 + +XIII. OLEANA'S CLOCK 179 + +XIV. A TRIP TO GOODFIELDS SAETER 186 + +XV. LOST IN THE FOREST 204 + +XVI. TRAVELING WITH A BILLY-GOAT 223 + +XVII. IN SCHOOL 239 + +XVIII. WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME 253 + +XIX. MOVING 273 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into +the boat (page 22) _Frontispiece_ + +FACING PAGE + +The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him away 40 + +They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they could 68 + +She told me the whole story of her life 80 + +And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below! 110 + +The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big heavy snowslide right +down on the little shoemaker 124 + +She began to shriek and point and throw up her arms 152 + +And smashed a window-pane with it 166 + +"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock" 184 + +How we wandered,--round and round, up and + down, hither and thither! 208 + +The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's mouth 236 + +I stood on the barn steps with a long whip 260 + + + + +WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE + + + + +I, INGER JOHANNE + + +I have always heard grown people say that when you meet strangers and +there is no one else to introduce you, it is highly proper and polite to +introduce yourself. Uncle Karl says that polite people always get on in +the world; and as I want dreadfully to do that, I will be polite and +tell you who I am. + +Everybody in our town knows me; and they call me "the Judge's Inger +Johanne," because my father is the town judge, you see; and I am +thirteen years old. So now you know me. + +And just think! I am going to write a book! If you ask, "What about?" I +shall have to say, "Nothing in particular," for I haven't a speck more +to tell of than other girls thirteen years old have, except that queer +things are always happening to me, somehow. + +Probably it isn't easy to write a book when you have never done it +before, especially when thoughts come galloping through your head as +fast as they do through mine. Why, I think of a hundred things, while +Peter, the dean's son, is thinking of one and a half! But, easy or not, +since I, Inger Johanne, have set my heart on writing a book, write it I +will, you may be sure; and now I begin in earnest. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +OURSELVES, OUR TOWN, AND OTHER THINGS + + +OURSELVES + +There are four brothers and sisters of us at home, and as I am the +eldest, it is natural that I should describe myself first. I am very +tall and slim (Mother calls it "long and lanky"); and, sad to say, I +have very large hands and very large feet. "My, what big feet!" our +horrid old shoemaker always says when he measures me for a pair of new +shoes. I feel like punching his tousled head for him as he kneels there +taking my measure; for he has said that so often now that I am sick and +tired of it. + +My hair is in two long brown braids down my back. That is well enough, +but my nose is too broad, I think; so sometimes when I sit and study I +put a doll's clothespin on it to make it smaller; but when I take the +clothespin off, my nose springs right out again; so there is no help for +it, probably. + +Why people say such a thing is a puzzle; but they all, especially the +boys, do say that I am so self-important. I say I am not--not in the +least--and I must surely know best about myself, now that I am as old as +I am. But I ask you girls whether it is pleasant to have boys pull your +braids, or call you "Ginger," or to have them stand and whistle and give +cat-calls down by the garden wall, when they want you to come out. I +have said that they must once for all understand that my braids must be +let alone, that I will not be whistled for in that manner, and that I +will come out when I am ready and not before. And then they call me +self-important! + +After me comes Karsten. He has a large, fair face, light hair, and big +sticking-out ears. It is a shame to tease any one, but I do love to +tease Karsten, for he gets so excited that he flushes scarlet out to the +tips of his ears and looks awfully funny! Then he runs after me--which +is, of course, just what I want--and if he catches me, gives me one or +two good whacks; but usually we are the best of friends. Karsten likes +to talk about wonderfully strong men and how much they can lift on their +little finger with their arm stretched out; and he is great at +exaggeration. People say I exaggerate and add a sauce to everything, but +they ought to hear Karsten! Anyway, I don't exaggerate,--I only have a +lively imagination. + +After Karsten there is a skip of five years; then comes Olaug, who is +still so little that she goes to a "baby school" to learn her letters, +and the Catechism. I often go to fetch Olaug home, for it is awfully +funny there. When Miss Einarsen, the teacher, and her sister say +anything they do not wish the children to understand, they use P-speech: +Can-pan you-pou talk-palk it-pit? I went there often on purpose to +learn it, for it is so ignorant to know only one language. But now I +know both Norwegian and P-speech. Olaug always remembers exactly the +days when the school money is to be paid, for on those days each child +who brings the money gets a lump of brown sugar. Once a year the +minister comes to Miss Einarsen's to catechize the children; but Miss +Einarsen always stands behind the one who is being questioned and +whispers the right answer. "Oh, Teacher is telling, Teacher is telling!" +the children say to each other. "Yes, I am telling," says Miss Einarsen. +"How do you think you would get along if I didn't?" On examination days +Miss Einarsen always treats to thin chocolate in tiny cups, and the +children drink about six cups apiece! Well, that's how it is at Olaug's +school. + +After Olaug comes Karl, but he is only a little midget. He thinks he can +reach the moon if he stands on a chair by the window and stretches his +arms away up high. He is perfectly wild to get hold of the moon because +he thinks it would roll about so beautifully on the floor. + + +OUR TOWN + +We live in a little town on the sea-coast. It is much more fun to live +in a little town than a big one, for then you know every one of the boys +and girls, and there are many more good places to play in; and all the +sea besides. Oh, yes! I know very well that there are lots of small +towns that do not lie by the sea. They must be horrid! + +Think how we have the great ocean thundering in against the shore, wave +after wave. Oh, it is delightful! Any one who has not seen that has +missed a really beautiful sight. It is beautiful both in summer and +winter; but I do believe it is most beautiful and wonderful in the time +of the autumn storms. Go up on the hilltop some day in autumn, where the +big beacon is, and look out over the sea! You have to hold on to your +hat, hold on to your clothes, hold on to your body itself, almost. +Whew-ew! the wind! How it blows! How it blows! And the whole ocean +looks as if it were astir from the very bottom. Big black billows with +broad white crests of foam come rolling, rolling, rolling in--one wave +does not wait for the other. And how they break over the islands out +where the lighthouse is! The lighthouse stands like a tall white ghost +against the dark sea and the dark sky;--sinks behind an enormous wave, +rises again, sinks and rises again. How swiftly the clouds fly! How the +ocean seethes and roars! We hear it all over town, sobbing, roaring, +thundering! Away in by the wharves of the market square the waters are +all in a turmoil. The little boats rock and rock, and the big ships dip +up and down. The wet rigging sparkles, the mooring chains strain and +creak, and there is _such_ a smell of salt in the air! You can almost +taste the salt with your tongue. + +In such weather the damaged ships come in. One autumn there came a +Spanish steamship, with a green funnel and a white hull. It lay with +almost its whole stern under water when the pilot from Krabbesund +brought it in. That was jolly; not for the people on board,--it was +anything but jolly for them,--but for us children. + +When we choose, we go out into the harbor in boats and row round and +round among the strange ships. At last, very likely, the sailors call +out to us and ask us to come on board, and then it doesn't take us long +to scramble up the ladder, you may be sure! On board, it is awfully +jolly. Once a French skipper gave us some pineapple preserves; but +generally we only get crackers. When the Spanish ship was in, the +streets swarmed with foreign sailors, with long brown necks and burning +black eyes. Then the old policeman, Mr. Weiby, strutted about, and sent +Father long written reports about street rows and disturbances. The +Spaniards didn't bother themselves a mite about old Weiby, puffing +around with his chin high in the air! + +Sometimes on summer afternoons when the water lies calm and shining, we +slip off and borrow a boat (Mr. Terkelsen's, quite often) and go rowing +around the island. Then, afterwards, we float about,--dabbling and +splashing in the darkened water until evening comes on. Ah! that is +pleasure! + + +AN ADVENTURE + +One summer evening Massa Peckell, Mina Trap and I saved two people from +drowning; and we were praised for it in the newspapers. Really it is +most delightful to see your name in print! I should like ever so much to +do something else that the papers would praise me for, but I don't know +what it could be! + +This is how it happened that time. We had borrowed old Terkelsen's boat +and rowed quite a way out. From a wharf on one of the islands another +boat laden with wood came towards us. The wood was in slabs and chips +and was piled high fore and aft. Down between the piles sat two children +rowing. As they came nearer we saw that it was Lisa and George, the +lighthouse-keeper's children. Mina and I were rowing, but I was so much +stronger that I kept rowing her round and round, so that we were +laughing and having a jolly time. Probably George and Lisa were watching +us and forgetting all about their top-heavy boat; for, the next thing we +knew, both piles of wood, George and Lisa, and the boat were all upset +in the water. It was a dreadful thing to see! + +"We--we'll go ashore and get help!" shrieked Massa. Humph! A pretty time +they would have if we did that! Mina and I had more sense, so we turned +our boat quickly and were over to the spot in two or three strokes of +the oars. The boat was completely capsized and the chips floated over +the water as thick as a floor. But George and Lisa were nowhere to be +seen! + +Then you may believe that Mina and I yelled with all our might! You know +how it sounds over the water. My! how we did shriek! It must have been +heard all over town. I saw people away back on the wharves running to +the water to see what was the matter. + +Then, there bobbed Lisa's head up among the chips, and Mina and I hauled +her up by the arms into the boat. Massa had to hang away over on the +starboard so that _our_ boat shouldn't upset, too. Old Terkelsen is +always so mad when we take his boat without leave. I can't imagine, for +the life of me, why he should get so provoked over it. We always bring +it back just as good as ever! Massa and Mina and I have no desire, +forsooth, to set out to sea through the Skagerak and sail away with it! +But on that day it was fortunate that we had taken his boat, and not +some miserable little thing belonging to anybody else. + +As soon as Lisa got her breath, she cried out: "Oh! the chips! the +chips!" But just then George's head appeared, and Mina and I made a grab +for him; but he was so stupidly heavy that we couldn't pull him in; so +we only held him fast and screamed and screamed. Out from the wharves +and from the islands came ever so many boats and lots of people. Those +minutes that we hung over the edge of that boat and held on with all +our might to the half-drowned George, who was as heavy as lead--shall I +ever forget? George was drawn up into another boat and they took us in +tow. Lisa sat like a drowned rat and cried till she choked. Then Massa +began to cry, too;--and so we came to the wharf. + +For several days after the rescue I couldn't go into the street without +people's stopping me and wanting a full account of how it all happened. +Really, it is quite troublesome to be famous; but I like it pretty well, +nevertheless. + +When Mina and I met that stout, lighthouse-Lisa on the street next time, +we couldn't imagine how we had ever been able to drag her into the boat! +But you mustn't expect _gratitude_ in this world. Many a time since then +has Lisa come tiptoeing along after us on the street, tossing her head +this way and that, mimicking us, to show how self-important we are! And +_that_ after we saved the stupid creature from drowning! + + +OUR HOME + +We live up on a hill in a lovely old house. People call it an old +rattletrap of a house, but that is nothing but envy because they don't +live there themselves. There are big old elm-trees around the house +which shade it and make the back part of the deep rooms quite dark. The +rafters show overhead, and the floors rock up and down when you walk +hard on them, just because they are so old. There is one place in the +parlor floor where it rocks especially. When no one is in there except +Karsten and myself, we often tramp with all our might where the floor +rocks most, for we want dreadfully to see whether we can't break through +into the cellar. + +There are several gardens belonging to our house. One big garden has +only plum-trees with slender trunks and a little cluster of branches and +leaves high, high up. When I walk down there under the plum-trees, I +often imagine that I am down in the tropics, wandering under palm-trees. +I have a garden of my own, too. I wouldn't have mentioned it +particularly if there weren't one remarkable fact about it. Really and +truly, nothing will grow in it but that dark blue toad-flax--you know +what that is. Every single spring I buy seeds with my pocket money, and +plant and water and take care of them, but when summer comes there is +nothing in the garden but great big toad-flax stalks all gone to seed. +It is awfully tiresome, especially when they have such a horrid name. + + +PLAYMATES + +Now I think it is time to describe all of us boys and girls who play +together, and whom I am going to tell about in my book. + +There is Peter, the dean's son, with his sleepy brown eyes and freckles +as big as barleycorns. Peter is a cowardly chap. He never has any +opinion of his own. And if he had one he would never dare to stand by it +if you contradicted him. He's terribly afraid of the cold, too, and goes +about with a scarf wound around his neck, and mittens if a single +snowflake falls. Still, Peter is very nice indeed; he does everything +that I want him to. + +Then there is my brother Karsten, but I've told you about him. He is a +little younger than the rest of us. + +Another boy is Ezekiel Weiby. He is fourteen years old and has an +awfully narrow face--not much broader than a ruler. He is very clever +and reads every sort of book. But when he is out with the rest of us, he +wants us all to sit still and hear him tell about everything he has been +reading. For a while that is very pleasant, but I get tired of it pretty +soon, for I hate to sit still long at a time. That is a very funny +thing. Other people get tired of walking or running about, but I can't +stand it to sit still. + +Nils Trap is the bravest of all the boys. He never wears an overcoat, +but goes around with his hands in his pockets whistling a funny tune: + + "Ho, hei for Laaringa!" + +which you probably don't know. Nils Trap clambers like a cat up in the +rigging of the vessels. Some people say that they have seen him lie out +straight on the ball at the top of the big mast of the _Palmerston_ and +spin himself round. But others say that is a whopper, for the +_Palmerston_ is the biggest ship in town with the very highest masts. +Perhaps he could lie and balance himself on top of it, but spin himself +round! That he couldn't do if he tried till he was blue in the face. + +Then there are Massa, and Mina, and I. Mina is Nils's sister and my best +friend. She has a gold filling in one of her front teeth. Oh, if I could +only have such a shining little spot as that in my teeth! Mine are only +plain straight white ones and they look really dull beside hers. + +Massa Peckell is plump and easy-going. She thinks the most beautiful +thing is to be pale and thin. She heard that it would give you a +delicate pale skin if you drank vinegar and ate rice soup, so she tried +it as hard as she could. But her beauty-cure only gave her the +stomach-ache. Her fat, red cheeks are just like Baldwin apples still. + +Every day, summer and winter, we are together, all of us that I have +written about here. In summer there is a lot of fun to be had +everywhere, but especially on the delightful hill back of our house--(I +will tell you all about that hill some other time),--but in winter, +humph! What can girls and boys do in such horrid mild winters as we are +now having, I should really like to know! Last year we had no snow to +speak of, and here it is now after New Year's and I haven't yet, to my +recollection, seen a single snowflake which didn't melt in five minutes, +or any ice that didn't break through as soon as you stamped your heel on +it. If I could only make a journey to the North Pole and do what I +wanted to there, I should send down some lovely soft snow-drifts and +some smooth blue glistening ice in a jiffy, to all the boys and girls +who are wishing for them day after day. + +In the meantime I am glad that I have begun to write this book in +winter, otherwise I should be bored to death. + +Of course we go out-of-doors now too, even though the mild weather is +disgusting; but when it storms as hard as it did in the autumn, making +the old elm-trees crash and swish so that we can scarcely hear ourselves +talk, then it is not comfortable to play out-of-doors, I assure you. At +such times we often shut ourselves up in the little room over the +wood-shed. There is nothing up there but a keg of red ochre which we +paint ourselves with, but really we have lots of fun there, +nevertheless. + +Ezekiel always seizes the chance to give a lecture in the wood-shed, and +his words gush out like water from a fountain. When I get tired of it, I +sneak around behind him and give him a little English punch in the back, +for I am very clever at boxing, you must know. "Come on! Can you use +your fists like an Englishman?" And then I roll my hands round very +fast, just as I have seen the English sailors do, and give him a quick +punch in the stomach with my fist. + +Ezekiel squirms about like a worm, and defends himself with his small +weak fingers. The others laugh, and Ezekiel and I laugh with them, and +so we all laugh together. + + * * * * * + +Well, now you know us all, and you know what it is like around here. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AN INTERRUPTED CELEBRATION + + +My, how well I remember the day that we almost killed the dean's wife! +That sounds queer; but it really was a live dean's wife that we really +came within a hair's breadth of killing. And that, while we were just +playing and celebrating the Seventeenth of May--the day when Norway +adopted her own constitution, you know. + +Now you shall hear how it happened. + +Right behind our old house we have a whole big breezy hill. If any of +you live down on the coast, you will know how beautiful it is and what +fun one can have up on such a hill. If you have only seen it as you went +by on the steamer, you would never imagine how lovely it is up on bare +gray hills that look out towards the sea. Little soil, but lots of +sunshine; wherever there is a tiny crevice, fine long blades of grass, +buttercups, and yellow broom will immediately start up. Wild rose bushes +and juniper cling to the hillside here and there, and then the heather +away up on the top;--all over the whole flat top nothing but purple +heather. Above is the clear blue sky; and out there the sea in a great +wide circle--nothing to shut off the view; oh, it is glorious! + +This has really nothing to do with the dean's wife, but I only wanted to +explain what it was like up there on the hill. For it was up there that +Nils Trap, Ezekiel, Peter, Karsten, Mina, Massa, and I played, many a +pleasant day. + +Right at our yard the hill begins to be steeper; first comes a little +walled-in garden, then terraces and cliffs, big rocks and little rocks, +then down a steep precipice, and then up a few steps again where you +have to use hands and feet both, and grab hold of the heather and +juniper if you want to go farther up. + +About half-way up the hill there is a great big rock jutting out, which +you can only climb on one side, and that with the greatest difficulty. +This is our fort. Here we have both batteries and bastions, a room for +bullets and cannon-balls, a room for powder, and a dungeon. From up +there we have the most splendid view down over the town with its low +gaily painted wooden houses, and the small leafy linden-trees that creep +up through the streets. From our fort people down there look just like +darning-needles; from the very top of the hill they look like a swarming +mass of little pins. + +I remember distinctly that particular Seventeenth of May; the spring had +come so early that we already had fine young birch leaves and clear mild +air. For several days we had been talking about a feast that we wanted +to have in the dungeon, for there we should be wholly out of sight. +There was to be a salute, speeches and songs. Peter and Karsten were +always the gunners. With much trouble we had carried big stones up to +the fort; these we threw with all our might down again over the +precipice. This was our way of giving a salute; it made no little +racket, you may be sure! The boys were to provide something to drink, +and we the cake and glasses. We were never allowed to take any glasses +up on the hill, except old goblets with the feet broken off. I thought +then it was terribly stingy of Mother not to let us have proper glasses. + +Ezekiel made the speech in honor of the day. I can still see his thin +white fingers round the broken glass while he spouted and speechified +about "our young freedom crowns this day of liberty with flowers." I had +lately read the whole speech in an old children's paper, and of course +had to confide this fact to Mina; the others wanted to know what we were +laughing about, and at last all the listeners were laughing and +whispering to each other; but Ezekiel stuck to it. After the speech four +stones were thrown down. Karsten was beaming. "Oh, oh, what a crash!" he +kept saying. + +After that Ezekiel made a speech in honor of Sweden; at the end of the +speech he suggested that we should sing: + + "See yonder by the Baltic's salt waves," + +but as none of us knew the tune, and Ezekiel himself hadn't a speck of +music in him, the song wouldn't go. For it didn't help us at all for him +to insist that he heard the tune plainly in his head. Then Nils Trap +made a speech in honor of the ladies; I remember how I admired the few +telling words: "A cheer and four shots for the ladies!" Not a bit more! +I thought that sounded so awfully manlike. + +Peter rushed off to the top of the fort to fire off the shots, Karsten +after him, his hair standing on end. The stones went crashing over--the +next moment we heard a doleful shriek from below. Peter came rushing +down to the dungeon, ashy-gray under his freckles, crying: + +"Oh, Mother--Mother----" + +We all dashed up instantly. Down below the fort, just at the foot of the +precipice, stood the dean's little crooked wife, with a purple kerchief +over her head and one slender hand held up in the air. The stone, which +had been fired off in honor of the ladies, lay less than two feet from +her! + +Even to this day I am sorry that I didn't run to her at once and go back +with her down the hill. That didn't occur to any of us, I think. When we +found that she hadn't been hit, but was only terribly frightened at +seeing the great stone in the air right over her, we almost thought, up +there in the fort, that it was rather unseemly of the dean's wife to +scream out so. + +She crept down the hill alone; she had just gone up to see to a white +bed-spread that was hanging on a bush to dry. + +Our festive mood was gone, however,--shocked out of us, as it were. + +Karsten struck into the air with clenched fists, as he always does when +he is excited. It wasn't so very dangerous, he protested; for if _he_ +had been the dean's wife, of course he would have seen what direction +the stone was taking in the air, and if it went that way, why then he +would have jumped to one side--like this--and if the stone went the +other way, why then you could just jump to the other side. Besides, if +the dean's wife had been, as she ought to have been, as strong as Nils +Heia, for instance, then she might have stood perfectly still, fixed her +eyes on the stone, held her hands to catch it, and tossed it away. Yes, +wouldn't Nils Heia have done it that way? Wouldn't he be strong enough +for that? + +But very soon the horror of it came over me; just think, if Peter had +killed his own mother! I remember clearly that I wouldn't have anything +more either to eat or drink, and Nils Trap teased me, and said I had +grown quite white around the nose with fright. + +As we sat there looking at each other and not able to get started on +anything again, suddenly we heard a voice: + +"Peter." + +"That's Father," said Peter, and crouched away down so that he couldn't +possibly be seen from below. + +"Hush--sh--keep still--hush!" We lay in a heap, frightened and silent. + +"Peter," came again from below. "Come down this instant. I know you are +up there." + +"Hush--just keep still, not a sound." + +Dead silence. + +"Well, if you don't come at once----" The dean was furious; we could +hear that in his voice. + +"I've got to go," said Peter, standing up. "I've got to--I've got +to----" He scrambled out; the rest of us just stuck our heads up to see +what would happen. + +There stood the dean with no hat, just in his wig, and furiously angry. +It was no fun to be Peter now. He was everlastingly slow about +clambering down. The dean scolded up towards our six heads, sticking out +of the dungeon: + +"Yes, just try such a thing again--just try it--your backs shall suffer +for it--big boys and girls as you are--killing people with stones!" + +"Yes, but we didn't kill anybody," called Karsten. + +I was perfectly appalled at Karsten's daring to call out such a thing to +the dean, who, however, paid not the least attention; Peter had at last +come within his reach, so he had something else to do. + +First a box on one ear: "I'll teach you,"--then a box on the other ear: +"almost killing your own mother"--and he kept on hitting. But only +think; although I felt so terribly sorry for Peter, so sorry that I +believe I should have been glad to take the blows in his place--I was as +much to blame as he--yet there was something so fearfully exciting in +watching Peter and the dean down there, that I almost felt disappointed +when the dean took Peter by his left ear and dragged him away. The boys +had lately made a little path down the hill and to the back gate of the +dean's garden. It was lucky for Peter that there was some sort of a +beaten track, now that he was being led along it by the ear. + +"You can depend upon it that Peter will get a thrashing," said Karsten, +who also felt the excitement of the moment. "But if it were I"--he grew +very earnest--"I'd throw myself on my back and stretch my legs up in +the air and kick so that nobody could come near me. He shouldn't beat +me, no indeed, he'd soon find that out." + +It was all over with the celebration. Ezekiel proposed that we should +finish up the refreshments--we divided the cake equally--and then we +clambered down; but we took the path to our garden, not to the dean's. +We only whispered, we didn't speak a single loud word, till we got down. +We got a scolding, a thorough scolding, from the dean, but Mother cried +when she heard what a calamity we had nearly brought about. And I minded +Mother's tears much more than I did the dean's scolding. + +Afterwards, when we asked Peter what had happened to him, he didn't +answer, but just smiled feebly. + +Yes, that is the way our Seventeenth of May celebration was +interrupted! + +[Illustration: The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him +away.--_Page 39._] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MY FIRST JOURNEY ALONE + + +Well! I didn't travel entirely alone, either, you must know; for, you +see, I had Karsten with me. But he was only nine years old that summer, +so that it was about the same or even worse than traveling alone. To +make a journey with small children by steamer isn't altogether +comfortable, as any grown person will tell you. + +It is curious how tedious everything gets at home in your own town when +you have decided to make a journey. Whatever it might be that the boys +and girls wanted to play--whether it was playing ball in the town +square, or hide-and-go-seek in our cellar, or caravans in the desert up +on the hilltop, or frightening old Miss Einarsen by knocking on her +window (which is generally great fun)--it all seemed stupid and +tiresome beyond description now. + +For I was going to travel, going on a journey, and that is the jolliest, +jolliest fun! Alas! for the poor stay-at-homes who couldn't go away but +had to walk about the same old town streets, and smell street dust, and +gutters, and stale sea-water in by the wharves. + +But I have clean forgotten to tell you where I was going. Mother has a +sister who is married to a minister. They live fifteen or twenty miles +from our town and we go there every summer. But this summer, it had been +decided that Karsten and I should go there alone for the first time. + +The afternoon before we were to set out I went down back of our +wood-shed, where all the boys and girls that I go with generally come +every afternoon. It was hot enough to roast you and awfully dry and +dusty; but I took my new umbrella down with me all the same. It wasn't +really silk, but I had wound it and fastened it so tightly together that +it looked just as slender and delicate as a real silk one. I wouldn't +play ball with the rest of them. I just stood and swung my umbrella +about. + +"Have you got a new umbrella?" said Karen. "Is it a silk one?" asked +Netta. "You've got eyes in your head," I answered. And so they all +thought it was a silk one. I couldn't play ball with them, I said, +because I had to go in and pack. Now that wasn't true at all, for I knew +well enough that Mother had done all the packing; but it sounded so +off-hand and important. They all teased me to stay down with them for a +while, but no indeed, far from it. "I have too much to do. I start +to-morrow morning early. Good-bye." + +"Good-bye and a happy journey," shouted the company. + +When I got in the house I was a little sorry that I hadn't stayed out +with the others; for I hadn't a thing to do but go from one room to +another and tighten the shawl-straps for the twentieth time at least. I +thought the afternoon would never come to an end. + +Early in the morning, before it was really light, the maid came into the +room and shook me and whispered, "Now you must get up. It's half-past +four o'clock. Get up! The steamer goes at half-past five, you know." Oh, +how dreadfully sleepy I was, but it was great fun all the same. The sun +was not shining into my room yet, but on the church tower it glowed like +a fire. The weather was going to be good. Hurrah! All the doors and +windows of the sleeping-rooms stood wide open. It was so sweet and fresh +and quiet everywhere, fragrant with the smell of the trees and fresh +garden earth outside. We went in to say good-bye to Father and Mother at +their bedside. + +"Remember us to everybody and be nice, good children," said Mother. + +"Don't lose everything you have with you," said Father. Humph! +_Lose_--Father seemed to forget that I was nearly grown up now. + +As we went down the hill, the stones under the elm-trees were still all +moist with dew. Oh! how quiet it was out-of-doors! Suddenly away down +in the town a cock crew. Everything seemed very strange. + +Karsten and I ran ahead and Ingeborg, the maid, came struggling after us +with our big green _tine_.[1] Suddenly a desperate anxiety came over me. +Suppose the steamboat should go off and leave us! Then how we ran! We +left Ingeborg and the _tine_ and everything else behind. When we turned +round the corner into the market square, the sun streamed straight into +our eyes and there by the custom-house wharf lay the steamboat, with +steam up and sacks of meal being put on board. Karsten and I dashed +across the square. Pshaw! we were in plenty of time. There wasn't a +single passenger aboard yet. It is a little steamboat, you know, that +only goes from our town over to Arendal. I got Karsten settled on a +seat, kneeling and facing the water, and then established myself in a +jaunty, free and easy manner by the railing as if I were accustomed to +travel. Ole Bugta and Kristen Snau and all the other clodhoppers on the +wharf should never imagine that this was the first time I had been +aboard a steamboat. + +[Footnote 1: Tine (pronounced teeŽne) a covered wooden box with handle +on top.] + +Soon that skin-and-bone Andersen, the storekeeper, got on the boat, and +then came little Magnus, the telegraph messenger, jogging along. Magnus +is really a dwarf. He is forty years old and doesn't reach any higher +than my shoulder; but he has an exceedingly large old face. He clambered +up on a bench. He has such short legs that when he sits down his legs +stick straight out into the air, just as tiny little children's do when +they sit down. Then came Mrs. Tellefsen, in a French shawl, and +dreadfully warm and worried. "When the whistle blew the first time, I +was still in my night-clothes," she confided to me. + +The whistle blew the third time. I smiled condescendingly down to +Ingeborg, our maid, who stood upon the wharf. I wouldn't for a good deal +be in her shoes and have to turn back and go home again now. Far up the +street appeared a man and woman shouting and calling for us to wait for +them. "Hurry up! Hurry up!" shouted the captain. That was easier said +than done; for when they came nearer I saw that it was that queer Mr. +Singdahlsen and his mother. Mr. Singdahlsen is not right in his mind and +he thinks that his legs are grown together as far down as his knees. So +he doesn't move any part of his legs in walking except the part below +his knees. Of course he couldn't go very fast. His mother pushed and +pulled him along, the captain shouted, and at last they came over the +gangway and the steamboat started. + +The water was as smooth and shining as a mirror, and it seemed almost a +sin to have the steamboat go through it and break the mirror. Over at +the Point the tiny red and yellow houses shone brightly in the morning +light and the smoke from their chimneys rose high in the quiet air. + +Then my troubles with Karsten began. Yes, I entirely agree that children +are a nuisance to travel with. In the first place, Karsten wanted to +stand forever and look down into the machinery room. I held on to him by +the jacket, and threatened him and told him to come away. Far from it! +He was as stubborn as a mule. Humph! a great thing it would have been if +he had fallen down between the shining steel arms of the machinery and +been crushed! O dear me! At last he had had enough of that. Then he +began to open and shut the door which led into the deck cabin; back and +forth, back and forth, bang it went! + +"Let that be, little boy," said Mr. Singdahlsen. Karsten flushed very +red and sat still for five whole minutes. Then it came into his head +that he absolutely must see the propeller under the back of the boat. +That was worse than ever, for he hung the whole upper part of his body +over the railing. I held fast to him till my fingers ached. For a minute +I was so provoked with him that I had a good mind to let go of him and +let him take care of himself;--but I thought of Mother, and so kept +tight hold of him. + +We went past the lighthouse out on Green Island. The watchman came out +on his tiny yellow balcony and hailed us. I swung my umbrella. "Hurrah, +my boys," shouted Mr. Singdahlsen in English. "Hurrah, my boys," +imitated Karsten after him. Little Magnus dumped himself down from the +seat and waved his hat; but he stood behind me and nobody saw him. It +was really a pretty queer lot of travelers. + +Just then the mate came around to sell the tickets. Father had given me +a five-crown note for our traveling expenses. As Karsten and I were +children and went for half-price, I didn't need any more, he said. So +there I stood ready to pay. + +"How old are you?" asked the mate. + +Now I have always heard that it is impolite to question a lady about her +age; I must say I hadn't a speck of a notion of telling that sharp-nosed +mate that I lacked seven months of being twelve years old. + +"How old are you?" he asked again. + +"Twelve years," said I hastily. + +"Well, then you must pay full fare." + +I don't know how I looked outside at that minute. I know that inside of +me I was utterly aghast. Suppose I didn't have money enough! And I had +told a lie! + +Now my purse is a little bit of a thing, hardly big enough for you to +get three fingers in. I took it out rather hurriedly--everything that I +undertake always goes with a rush, Mother says. How it happened I don't +know, but my five-crown note whisked out of my hand, over the railing +and out to sea. + +"Catch it! Catch it!" I shouted. + +"That is impossible," said the mate. + +"Yes, yes! Put out a boat!" I cried. All the passengers crowded together +around us. + +"Did the five crowns blow away?" piped Karsten. + +"Was it, perhaps, the only one you had?" asked the mate. Ugh! how horrid +he was. Storekeeper Andersen and Mrs. Tellefsen and the mate laughed as +hard as they could. Karsten pulled at my waterproof. + +"You're a good one! Now they will put us ashore because we haven't any +money. You always do something like that!" + +"Are you going to put us ashore?" I asked. + +"Oh, no," said the mate. "I will go up to your father's office and get +the money some time. That's all right." + +Pshaw! that would be worse than anything else. Father would be raving. +He always says I lose everything. + +"You'll catch it from Father," whispered Karsten. + +Oh, what should I do! What should I do! Karsten and Mr. Singdahlsen +clambered up on some rigging away aft to get sight of the five-crown +note. Mr. Singdahlsen peered through the hollow of his hand and both he +and Karsten insisted that they saw it. But that couldn't help us any. + +Oh! how disgusting everything had become all at once. The visit at +Uncle's and Aunt's would be horrid, too. To go there alone in this way, +and have to talk alone with Uncle, a minister, and all the other +grown-up people at the rectory--it would be disgustingly tiresome. There +was nothing that was any fun in the whole world. It would be disgusting +to go home again; for Father would be so dreadfully angry--and it was +most disgusting of all to be here on the steamboat where everybody +laughed at me. + +And all on account of an old rag of a five-crown bill which had blown +away. Besides, I had told a lie and said I was twelve years old. +Oh-oh-oh! how sad everything was! + +I sat with my hand under my cheek, leaning against the railing and +staring into the sea. All at once a plan occurred to me which I thought +a remarkably good one then. Now I think it was frightfully stupid. I +would ask the mate if he wouldn't take something of mine as payment for +our passage. + +I had a little silver ring--one of those with a tiny heart hanging to +it;--I thought of that first. I took it off of my finger and looked at +it. It was really a tiny little bit of a thing--it couldn't be worth so +very much. At home I had a pair of skates, sure enough. I would +willingly sell them. But I couldn't possibly ask the mate to go up into +our attic and get them and sell them for me. What in the world should I +give him? Suddenly a brilliant idea struck me. My new umbrella--he +should have my new umbrella. And I would tell the mate at the same time +that I had made a mistake, that I wasn't twelve years old, only eleven +years and five months. I took the umbrella and went quickly across the +deck to find the mate. To be on the safe side I took the ring off of my +finger and held it in my hand. It might be he would want both ring and +umbrella. But it was impossible to find him. I wandered fore and aft and +peeked into all the hatchways--but I couldn't get a glimpse of that +sharp nose of his anywhere. Finally I discovered him sitting in a little +cabin, writing. + +I established myself in the doorway and swung my umbrella. To save my +life I couldn't get out a single word of what I had planned to say. +Think of having to say "I told you a lie!" + +"Do you want anything?" asked the mate at last. + +"Oh, no!" I said hastily. "Well, yes. How far is it to Sand Island now?" + +"An hour's sail, about;"--at the very minute that he was speaking these +words a terrible shriek was heard from aft, a loud shriek from several +people all screaming as hard as they could. I never was so scared in my +whole life. The mate almost pushed me over, he sprang so quickly out of +the door. All the people aft were crowded at one side. In the midst of +the shrieks and cries I heard some one say, "Man overboard!" + +O horrors! It must be Karsten! I was sure of it. I hadn't thought of him +or taken any care of him for the last ten minutes. I hardly know how I +got aft, my knees were shaking so. The steamboat stopped and two sailors +were already up on the railing loosing the life-boat. + +"Karsten! Karsten! Karsten!" I cried. All at once I saw Karsten's light +hair and big ears over on a bench. He was throwing his arms about in the +air and was frightfully excited. "This is the way he did," shouted he; +"he hung over the railing this way, looking for the five crowns."--It +was Mr. Singdahlsen who had fallen overboard. Oh, poor Mrs. Singdahlsen! +She cried and called out unceasingly. + +"He is weak in the understanding!" she cried, "and therefore the Lord +gave me sense enough for two--so that I could look after him;--catch +him--catch him. He will drown before my very eyes." + +I held Karsten by the jacket as in a vise. I was going to look after him +now. The boat was by this time close to Mr. Singdahlsen. They drew his +long figure out of the water and laid him in the bottom of the boat. The +next minute they had reached the side of the steamer again, clambered +up with Singdahlsen, and laid him on the deck. He looked exactly as if +he were dead. They stripped him to his waist, and then they began to +work over him according to the directions in the almanac for restoring +drowned people. If I live to be a million years old I shall never forget +that scene. + +There lay the long, thin, half-naked Singdahlsen on the deck, with two +sailors lifting his arms up and down, Mrs. Singdahlsen on her knees by +his side drying his face with a red pocket-handkerchief, the sun shining +baking hot on the deck, and the smoke of the steamer floating out far +behind us in a big thick streak. At length he showed signs of life and +they carried him into the cabin. Then, what do you suppose happened? +Mrs. Singdahlsen was angry at _me_! Wasn't that outrageous? The whole +thing was my fault, she said, for if I hadn't lost the five crowns, her +son wouldn't have fallen overboard. + +"Now you can pay for the doctor and the apothecary, and for my anxiety +and fright besides," said Mrs. Singdahlsen. But everybody laughed and +said I needn't worry myself about that. + +"You said yourself that you had sense enough for two, Mrs. Singdahlsen," +said Storekeeper Andersen. + +"I haven't met any one here who has any more sense," said Mrs. +Singdahlsen stuffily. + +"Humph!" thought I to myself, "if I had to pay for Mrs. Singdahlsen's +fright the damages would be pretty heavy." + +Just then we swung round the point by the rectory, where Karsten and I +were going to land. Uncle's hired boy was waiting for us with a boat. I +recognized him from the year before. He is a regular landlubber, brought +up away back in a mountain valley, and is mortally afraid when he has to +row out to the steamboat. His face was deep red, and he made such hard +work of rowing and backing water, and came up to the steamboat so +awkwardly, that the captain scolded and blustered from the bridge. At +last we got down into the rowboat and were left rocking and rocking in +the steamer's wake. + +John, the farm boy, mopped his face and neck. He was all used up just +from getting a rowboat alongside the steamer! + +"Whew, whew! but it's dreadful work," said he. + +The rectory harbor lay like a mirror. The island and trees and the +bath-house stood on their heads in the clear, glassy water; and between +the thick foliage of the trees there was a wide space through which we +could see the upper story of the rectory and the top of the flagstaff. +It is worth while to go traveling after all. I won't give another +thought to that old rag of a five-crown bill. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WHAT HAPPENED ONE ST. JOHN'S DAY + + +Well; what I am going to tell about now hasn't the least thing to do +with St. John's Day itself,--you mustn't think it has; not the least +connection with fresh young birch leaves and strong sunshine and +Whitsuntide lilies and all that. Far from it. It is only that a certain +St. John's Day stands out in my memory because of what happened to me +then. + +Yes, now you shall hear about it. First I must tell you of the weather. +It was just exactly what it should be on St. John's Day. The sky looked +high and deep, with tiniest white clouds sprinkled over the whole circle +of the heavens, and the sunshine was glorious on the hills and mountains +and on the blue, blue sea. + +Since it was Sunday as well as St. John's Day, I was all dressed up. To +be sure my dress was an old one of Mother's made over, but the insertion +was spandy new and there was a lot of it. I'd love to draw a picture of +that dress for you, if you wanted to have one made like it. + +Perhaps I had best begin at the very beginning, which was really +Karsten's stamp collection. He does nothing but collect stamps, and talk +and jabber about stamps the whole day long. He swaps and bargains, and +has a whole heap of "dubelkits," as he calls them. These duplicates he +keeps in a tiny little box. He means to be very orderly, you see. + +To tell the truth, Karsten is perfectly stupid about swapping. The other +boys can fool him like everything. He doesn't understand a bit how to do +business, and so I always feel like taking charge of these stamp +bargainings myself. If I see a boy I don't know very well, peeping +around the corner or sneaking up the hill, I am right on hand, for boys +that want to trade never come running; they act as if they were spying +round and lying in wait for some one. + +The instant Karsten sees them he comes out with his stamp album. He +stands there and expounds and explains about his stamps, with such a +trustful look on his round pink face, while the other boys watch their +chance to fool him; and before he knows it, some of his very best +specimens are gone. That's the reason why I have taken hold. + +As soon as I see a suspicious-looking boy on the horizon--that is to say +on the hill--I go out and stand at the corner in all my dignity and +won't budge, and I always put in my word you may be sure. Karsten +doesn't like it, but anyway, he had me to thank for a rare Chili stamp. + +But it was that very same rare stamp that brought about all my trouble +on St. John's Day, because Nils Peter cheated that stupid donkey of a +Karsten out of it the next time he saw him. And that was on St. John's +Day, the very day after I had got it for him. + +"I believe you would give them your nose, if they asked for it," I said +to Karsten. "You'd stand perfectly still and let them cut your nose +nicely off, if they wished." + +"You think you are smart, don't you?" said Karsten fiercely. + +As Olaug came out just then (she is my little sister, you remember), I +shouted to her: + +"Run as fast as you can to Nils Peter and tell him Inger Johanne says +for him to give up that Chili stamp instantly. I'll hold Karsten while +you run." + +He would have run after Olaug to catch her before she should have time +to ask Nils Peter for the stamp, for he thought that would be too +embarrassing. + +Just as I got a good grip on Karsten, Olaug started. Oh, how she +ran!--just like a race-horse, with her head high. Her hat fell off and +hung by its elastic round her neck. She ran down the hill and up over +Kranheia at top speed. + +But you may believe I had a job of it standing there and holding fast to +Karsten. He pushed and he struck and he scolded. My! how he did behave! + +But I held on and watched Olaug to see how far she had got. I was high +on the hill, you know, and could see a long way. + +"O dear! Olaug will burst a blood-vessel running like that," I thought. +My! now she is there--now away off there. Karsten squirmed and +struggled; now Olaug is on the path up Kranheia,--she's slowing down a +little. + +Impossible for me to hold Karsten any longer. I had to let go. He was +off like an arrow, his hair standing up straight and his feet pounding +the ground like a young elephant's. + +O pshaw! Running like that he would soon catch Olaug. It was frightfully +exciting, like a horse-race or a hunt after wild animals. + +Well, that isn't a very good comparison, for nothing could be less like +a wild animal than Olaug; but it was awfully exciting to see whether she +would keep ahead and get the Chili stamp from Nils Peter. + +So that I might see better how the race ended I sprang up to our +chicken-yard, or rather beyond it, on our own hill. You could see the +whole path up over Kranheia better from there than from any other place. +But just where I must be to see best was that awfully high board fence, +too high for me to see over, that went from the chicken-yard quite a +long way beyond on the hill. + +Pooh! What of it? I just wiggled a board that was already loose, pulled +it away and stuck my head in the opening. It was a little narrow but I +got my head through. Oh--oh! Karsten had caught up to Olaug and run past +her like an ostrich at full speed--I've always heard that an ostrich +runs faster than anything else in the world--yes, there he was swinging +in towards Nils Peter's house. + +O pshaw! Now that Chili stamp was lost for ever and ever. + +Olaug had plumped herself right down; she had to sit still and get her +breath, poor thing! + +Now that there was nothing more for me to watch, I started to draw my +head back out of the narrow opening between the thick boards. But, O +horrors! It stuck fast! I couldn't possibly get it back. I turned and +twisted my head this way and that, and up and down; I tried to pull and +squeeze it back, but no, that was utterly impossible. How in the world I +had ever got my head through the opening in the first place I can't +understand to this day, but that I had got it through was only too sure. + +New struggles to get loose--I thought I should tear my ears +off--Goodness gracious, what should I do! + +At first I wasn't a speck afraid. I just wriggled and pulled as hard as +I could. But when I realized that I simply could not free myself, a sort +of terror came over me. + +Just think--if I never got my head out? Or suppose there came a cross +dog and bit me while my head was as if nailed fast in the fence! And +suppose nobody found me--(for of course nobody would know that I had run +up here beyond the chicken-yard)--and perhaps I should have to stay +caught in the fence the whole night, when it was dark. + +I cried and sobbed, then I called; at last I screamed and roared. I +heard the hens in the yard flap their wings and run about wildly, +evidently frightened by the noise I made. + +Down on the road, people stood still and gazed upward; then of course I +shrieked the louder. But no one looked up to the chicken-yard; and even +if they had, they couldn't very well see, from so far down, a round +brown head sticking through a brown fence. I roared incessantly, and at +last I saw a woman start to run up the hill--and then a man started--but +they did not see me and soon disappeared among the trees, although I +kept on bawling, "Help! I am right here! I am caught in the fence!" + +Just then I saw Karsten and Nils Peter come out of Nils Peter's house. +They stood a moment as if listening, and naturally they recognized my +voice. + +Then they started running. If Karsten had raced over there, he +certainly raced back again, too. + +I kept bawling the whole time: "Here! here! in the fence! I am stuck +fast in the fence!" It wasn't many minutes before both Karsten and Nils +Peter stood behind me. + +"Have you gone altogether crazy?" said Karsten in the greatest +astonishment. + +I felt a little offended, but there's no use in being offended when you +haven't command over your own head, so I said very meekly: + +"Ugh! such a nuisance! My head is stuck fast in here. Can't you help +me?" + +Would you believe it? They didn't laugh a bit--awfully kind, I call +that--they just hauled and pulled me as hard as they could; it fairly +scraped the skin off behind my ears and I thought I should be scalped if +they kept on. + +"No, it's no use," I said, crying again. "Run after Father, run after +Mother, get everybody to come--uh, hu, hu!" + +Well, they came. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the whole lot of +them behind me. + +Now there _was_ a scene! The same story began again; they pulled and +twisted my head, Father gave directions, I cried and Olaug cried and +everybody talked at once. + +"No," said Father at last, "it can't be done. Hurry down to Carpenter +Wenzel and ask him to come and to bring his saw with him." + +"Uh, huh! He'll saw my head off!" I wailed. + +But Mother patted me on the back and comforted me, and all the others +standing behind kept saying it would be all right soon, while I stood +there like a mouse in a trap and cried and cried. + +But it was Sunday and the carpenter was not at home. + +"Run after my little kitchen saw then," said Mother. "Bring the +meat-axe, too," called Father. + +Oh, how would they manage? It seemed to me my head would surely be sawed +or chopped to pieces. + +[Illustration: They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they +could.--_Page 67._] + +Well, now began a sawing and hammering around me. When Mother sawed I +was not afraid, but when Father began I was in terror, for Father, who +is so awfully clever with his head, is so unpractical with his hands +that he can't even drive a nail straight. So you can imagine how clumsy +he would be about getting a head out of a board fence. + +The others all had to laugh finally, but I truly had no desire to laugh +until my head was well out. In fact, I didn't feel much like laughing +then either, for really it had been horrid. + +Ever since that time Karsten and Nils Peter have teased me about that +Chili stamp. They say that getting my head stuck fast was a punishment +for putting my oar in everywhere. Think of it--as if I _did_ try to +manage other people's affairs so very much! + +But it certainly is horrid when you can't control your own head. You +just try it and see. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LEFT BEHIND + + +Never in my life have I traveled so far as when Mother, Karsten and I +visited Aunt Ottilia and Uncle Karl. And so unexpected as that journey +was! I hardly had time to rejoice over it, even. It was all I could do +to get time to write a post-card to Mina, who was visiting her +grandmother at Horten, to ask her to come down on the wharf and see me, +when the steamer stopped there on its way. + +When we are to start on a journey, Father is always terribly afraid that +we shall be too late for the steamboat. + +"Hurry--hurry," he keeps saying, as he goes in and out. Mother gets +tired of it, but that makes no difference. Besides, all husbands are +like that, Mother says; unreasonable when other people go away, and +still worse to travel with. + +An hour and a half before the steamboat could be expected, we had to +trudge down to the wharf; for Father wouldn't give in. Mother had to sit +on a bench down there, with meal-sacks all around her; but Karsten and I +and Ola Bugta and the other longshoremen on the wharf went up on Little +Beacon to look for the steamboat. + +People usually wish for good weather when they are going to travel; but +I wish for a storm; for to plunge through the waves, up and down, must +be awfully jolly. And besides, it is so stupid that I have never been +seasick, and don't know what it's like. + +"What kind of weather do you think we'll have, Ola Bugta?" I asked him, +up on Little Beacon. + +Ola Bugta took the quid out of his mouth. "Oh, it is fine weather +outside there." O dear, then we should have good weather to-day, too! + +Well, at last we saw a faint streak of smoke far off in the mist. +Karsten and I almost tumbled head over heels down the hill to tell +Mother that now we saw the smoke. Karsten had a new light spring coat +for the journey. He looked queer in it, for it was altogether too long +for him. I took the liberty of saying that he looked like a lay preacher +in it; not that I ever saw a lay preacher in a light spring coat; but +Karsten looked so tall and proper all at once. + +Hurrah! now the steamer was in Quit-island Gap. How much more +interesting a steamer looks when you are going to travel on it yourself! +It made a wide sweep when it came from behind the island, and glided in +a big graceful curve up to the wharf. There were a great many passengers +on the boat. As soon as the gangway touched the wharf, I wanted to go on +board, but the mail-agent pushed me aside. "The mail first," said he. +But I ran on right after the mail. + +Oh, how awfully jolly it was! The deck crowded with passengers, and +trunks, and _tines_, and traveling-bags; the delightful steamboat smell; +all my friends standing on the wharf; and I tremendously busy carrying +Mother's portmanteau and hold-all on board. I certainly went six times +back and forth across the gangway. O dear! so many boxes had to be put +on board, I thought we should never get off. I nodded and nodded to +every one on the wharf. At last I nodded to Ola Bugta; but he didn't nod +back; he just turned his quid in his mouth. + +Finally we started. + +Whenever I go down on the wharf to watch the steamboat, it seems to me +almost as if it were always the same people traveling. But to-day there +were a whole lot of different kinds of people. + +The first person I noticed was a tall old lady who had a footstool with +her. Think of traveling with a yellow wooden footstool! If she had only +sat still,--but she and the footstool were constantly on the go. At last +she must have thought that I looked exactly cut out to carry the stool +for her. + +"Little girl," she said, "you're a good girl, aren't you, and will help +me a little?" After that I couldn't go anywhere near her without there +being something I must do for her. The worst was hunting for a parasol +that she couldn't find. + +"There is lace over the weak place in it, my dear," said she. After this +instruction I did find it. Then she offered me some candy, but it looked +so gummy that I gave it to Karsten. I saw that he had to chew it well. + +Mother had met a childhood friend and they sat talking together +incessantly. Just think, it was twenty-two years since they had seen +each other. How queer it would be to see my best friend Mina again in +twenty-two years, with some of her teeth gone and a double-chin. + +For a wonder Karsten sat perfectly still by Mother's side with his hands +deep in the pockets of his new coat; and he didn't open his mouth; but I +ran about the whole time. I wasn't still an instant. + +Off by herself on a bench sat a fat woman wrapped in a shawl, with a big +covered basket which she dipped down into every other minute. Both +sausage and fancy cakes came up out of the basket. She looked at me as +if she would like to offer me something, and munched and munched. + +Before long I went down below. When you were in the saloon the boat +shook delightfully; the big white lamps that hung from the ceiling +rattled and jingled, and there was such a charming steamboat smell. +Everywhere on the reddish-brown plush sofas, ladies and gentlemen with +steamer-rugs over them lay drowsing. I took a newspaper, for it looked +grown-up to sit reading; but I didn't want to read the paper, after all, +so I went straight up on deck again. + +But the weather had changed! It was not anything like so bright as when +we started. There were already little white-capped waves, and the wind +whistled across the deck; and now the ship began to plunge enough to +suit me. + +Oh--up--and--down--up--and--down! + +I crept to the very stern and sat down beside the flag; for I thought it +looked as if the boat rocked most there. You know, I wanted to rock as +much as possible. + +The steamer laid its course more out to sea. Each time we went down into +the waves the water stood foaming white around the bow. The wind took a +fierce grip on the awning as if it would tear it to pieces, and my hair +blew about my face; this was just what I liked! Hurrah! + +But little by little all the other passengers disappeared from the deck. +Mother and her friend were the first; Karsten tagged after them. Mother +called out something to me at the moment she was disappearing down the +cabin stairs, but I didn't know what it was. + +Oh, everything was so glorious! This was fun; if only they would go +farther out to sea, farther yet--farther yet. + +The lady with the footstool had disappeared long ago. The yellow +footstool was taking care of itself and tumbled from one side to the +other. Then a stewardess came up with a message from Mother that I +should come down-stairs at once. That must have been what she said when +she was disappearing down the cabin stairs. + +In the cabin Mother and Karsten lay pale as death, each on a sofa. I +must lie down, too, Mother said. Really, I hadn't any wish to lie down +on a sofa now that the fun on deck was just beginning; but as long as +Mother said so---- + +Hurrah! Cups and plates and trays crashed over each other in the +serving-room, people fell over each other on the stairs. The +traveling-wraps hanging out in the corridor, and the green curtains +before the staterooms swung violently back and forth, the ship tossed +so. + +"Isn't there any one that will help me?" begged a complaining but +familiar voice behind one of the curtains. That was certainly the lady +with the footstool. I jumped behind the curtain; yes, so it was. She was +sitting on the edge of her berth; she said she didn't believe she could +get out again if she squeezed herself in, she was so fat. + +You may be sure she set me to work. She had lost all her things, one +wrister here and one wrister there; I had to find everything, a bouquet +in the saloon, and overshoes under the sofa. Finally it was the +footstool up on deck. + +It was only fun to run up on deck again. Of course I tumbled from one +side to the other and laughed and laughed, enjoying it hugely. + +When I was down-stairs again, the stewardess must have thought that I +flew around too much and was in the way, for she pushed me suddenly into +a stateroom. There sat the woman with the covered basket. + +"Isn't there any one that will help me?" the complaining voice kept on +in the stateroom opposite us. + +"Can you imagine why such folks travel?" said the woman, jerking her +head in the direction the voice came from, "when they have their good +home, and their good bed and everything to suit them--why should they +rove around from pillar to post?" + +"What are you traveling for?" + +"Oh, I have been on a little trip off to Grimstad, to my sister's, for +three weeks; I didn't think I should stay longer than a week at the +most, so I didn't take more than one change with me, and you must excuse +me if I look rather untidy." + +No, I assured her, she didn't look in the least untidy. But she was +awfully funny, I can tell you. She told me the whole story of her life. +Her husband was a skipper; twice she had been with him to the Black Sea, +"and once across the equator as far as a place they call Buenos Ayres, +and it was so elegant, my dear, with riding policemen in the streets." + +And the whole time we were talking she chewed and munched. For there had +been some one in Grimstad named Gonnersen, who was so polite that he had +bought a whole basket of cakes for her on the journey. "Will you +condescend to help yourself to a cake?" she said suddenly. + +"Gonnersen was so polite"--was the last I heard as she crossed the +gangway at Fredriksvern. That was where she lived. Then she stood on +the wharf and waved to me, still eating. + +Now there was only Larvik and Vallö before we got to Horten; there I was +to meet Mina;--hurrah, hurrah, how glad I was! + +But it is certainly a good thing that you don't know what is going to +happen; for it was at Horten I got left behind, all because the steamer +rang only once at the Horten wharf; and that, I must say, is a shame, +when people have bought their tickets to go on farther. + +Yes, it was disgusting;--but now you shall hear exactly how it happened. +When we got to Horten, Mina stood on the wharf with a new red parasol. +Mother and Karsten were still in the cabin lying down. I ran ashore at +once, you may be sure. Mina and I thought it was great fun to talk +together; for we had not seen each other for more than two weeks. + +[Illustration: She told me the whole story of her life.--_Page 79._] + +"Grandmother lives up there," said Mina, "up there, see--come here, only +two or three steps farther, and you'll see better; see, there is the +garden, and the doll-house with red curtains. Do you see the +doll-house?--only a few steps more,--and there is the bowling-alley in +Grandmother's garden----" + +We ran up and up; then the steamer bell rang. "It will be sure to ring +three times," I said. + +"Oh, surely," said Mina, and went on explaining: "Do you see that white +boat with a flag----" + +I heard a suspicious sound from the steamer, and turned round as quick +as lightning. Yes, really, it was putting off from the wharf; first it +backed a little, and then started forward full speed. I dashed with +great leaps down the road and across the wharf. + +"Stop--stop--stop, I am going with you----" + +But if you think there was any one who cared whether I called or not, +you are mistaken. Not a person on board even turned his head, and the +longshoremen on the wharf laughed as hard as they could. There went the +steamer with Mother and Karsten! + +I wonder if you can imagine my feelings; I was in such despair that I +plumped myself down on the wharf and cried. What would Mother think? She +would certainly be afraid that I had fallen overboard when I disappeared +all at once without leaving a trace;--and what would Father say?--and +how in the world could I get to Uncle Karl's now? + +Oh, how I cried that time on the wharf at Horten! At last I had to go +home with Mina. And Mina's grandmother was very sweet, she really was; +and Horten was really a pretty town, and I can well believe there were +many nice people in it; but as for me, I thought it was horrid to be +there. I didn't care about the doll-house with red curtains, or +anything, though it was the prettiest doll-house I ever saw in my life, +with two little rocking-chairs with little embroidered cushions, in the +parlor, and little pudding-forms and colanders on the kitchen walls. + +But Mina's grandmother telegraphed to Mother at Dröbak that I was safe +and sound at Horten; and late in the evening a telegram came from Mother +at Uncle Karl's, saying that I was to borrow some money from Mina's +grandmother and that I was to take a little steamer up the fjord early +the next morning. + +Such queer things are always happening to me! I never heard of any girl +who was left behind as I was on the wharf at Horten. Mina's grandmother +wanted me to stay there a few days, and would have telegraphed to Mother +to ask if I might; but I didn't want to stay, for I longed so +unspeakably for Mother. That night I lay awake for hours and hours, and +began to feel that I should never see Mother again. + +Well, in the gray light of the next morning I sat on the damp deck of a +little steamer, with two big bags of cakes. Mina stood on the wharf +waving and yawning too, for she wasn't used to getting up at five +o'clock. + +I was very cold, and ate one cake after another, and dreaded what Mother +would say when I got to my journey's end. It would be a very different +arrival from what I had expected. + +There were no other passengers on board, but a big dog who stood tied, +with his address on his back. And I didn't have much pleasure with him +either, for he growled at me when I patted him. + +Later the captain came and talked with me. When I told him that I had +been left behind on the Horten wharf the afternoon before, he laughed so +that he got purple in the face. Now can you see anything to laugh at? +For all that, the captain was very kind, for he let me go up on the +bridge with him, and there I stayed all the time until we arrived. + +On the wharf stood Uncle Karl, Mother, and Karsten waiting. Mother shook +her head and looked much displeased; but Uncle Karl, with his big white +mustache, laughed and nodded. + +"I'm thankful to see you again," said Mother. "You must know I was +worried about you." + +"Beautiful eyes, the puss has," said Uncle Karl suddenly. + +I looked around astonished, for there didn't seem to be any puss +anywhere. But only think! he meant me. I have looked carefully at my +eyes since, but I don't think they are beautiful at all, for they are +too round and look so surprised. + +Oh, what fun we had at Uncle Karl's! I do not know that I should ever +come to an end if I tried to tell about it, so I won't begin, for I have +a tremendous gift of gab when I once get started;--at least that is what +everybody says. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN THE MEAL CHEST + + +We have an awfully cosy cellar, you must know. Of course the whole house +is old and rather tumbledown, so the cellar is nothing very fine; but it +is awfully cosy and exactly right for playing in, in bad weather. I +don't know a cellar in the whole town that is cosier; and I am fairly +well acquainted with all of them, you may be sure. + +Our cellar isn't underground. It is a high basement and in it is a big +brewery and laundry, a big servant's room, and a big wine cellar where +there is never any wine; on the other side of the basement is the +storeroom for food and the potato cellar. The walls are brown and dark +just from age; and the floor rocks so that I often wonder that the big +casks and barrels, and fat Christine and Maren the washerwomen, who are +forever washing there, do not fall through, perhaps into some deep +abyss underground. But it must be tough, that floor, for it still holds. + +One day there was disgusting weather. Withered leaves flew around your +ears and the streets were soaking wet and muddy. Nils, Peter, Karen and +Antoinette had come up to our hill in order to have fun of some kind in +the drizzling weather; and we hit upon playing hide-and-seek in our +cellar. We divided into sides; Peter, Karsten and I on one side and the +other three on the other. Nils, Antoinette and Karen hid themselves +first; but they just ran up into the kitchen and Ingeborg, the cook, +drove them down again; so nobody had a chance to search for them. Then +Peter, Karsten and I were to hide. Peter and Karsten placed themselves +in the big box-part of the mangle, and I put some sacks over them and +there they were, beautifully hidden. + +For myself, I thought of creeping into a cupboard in the brewery. But +when it came to the point, I found that my legs had grown so long since +I last hid there that there wasn't room enough for them. I was at my +wits' end. Any instant I expected Nils to whirl like a tempest into that +room. I sprang into the wine cellar and looked about with a frantic +glance. Only bare shelves, not a thing to hide one's self in. Oh, yes! +There stood a meal chest. I lifted the lid--the chest was empty. Quick +as a flash I jumped in and slammed the lid down. + +There I lay. It was pretty close quarters but not so bad after all. +Hurrah! What a first-rate hiding place! No one had ever before thought +of hiding here. + +I lay still, rejoicing over being so wonderfully well hidden. The +minutes began to drag. At last I heard Karen and Antoinette running +about and searching. Twice they were in the wine cellar. + +"No--there is nobody here," they said. I kept still as a mouse, of +course. Now they had found Peter and Karsten in the mangle box, for +there was a great uproar out there. + +"But Inger Johanne! Where is Inger Johanne?" + +"You'll be pretty smart if you find me!" I thought. + +They ran about a while and rummaged in the brewery and then I heard them +go out into the court. I lay still as a stone a little longer but it +began to be somewhat warm in the meal chest, so I thought I would lift +the lid a little. I pushed my back against it--but what in the world! It +would not go up! + +Once more I tried--and once more----Exactly what had happened I don't +know, but there was a hook on the lid and when I hastily slammed the lid +down, the hook probably dropped and caught on a nail in the meal chest +itself. + +In the first instant I can't say that I was terribly afraid. I kept on +trying to get the lid up and all the time I thought, "They will soon +come in here again to look for me and then I'll shout!" + +But far from it. No one came. It was perfectly silent. I heard nobody +either in the brewery or out in the court or up in the kitchen. And all +at once terror overwhelmed me,--terror at being shut up in that small +place. It was as if I were in a grave. So I screamed, and banged on the +lid, and kicked. Then I listened again. Not a sound was to be heard. + +It was hot as fire in the meal chest. My face burned. How I screamed! + +"Help me! I'm in the meal chest! help! oh, help!" + +No, not a sound. What in the world would happen to me? I could scarcely +get my breath--no--I knew I couldn't breathe any more. Yet again I +shrieked. I cannot understand why nobody heard me. My breathing was +short and difficult. No, I could not hold out--I surely could not +breathe any more. + +"Oh, Mother! Mother! Help me!" + +Then I heard some one in the court and then footsteps in the brewery. I +screamed again. Some one opened the door to the wine cellar and I heard +Maren's voice. + +"What's that? What's that?" + +"Maren, oh, Maren!" I called from the meal chest. Like a flash the door +was shut again and I heard Maren running as fast as her legs could carry +her up the kitchen stairs. + +To think that she should run away without helping me! That seemed too +sad and dreadful, when I was in such distress, and I cried and sobbed as +hard as I could. And now I could scarcely get my breath again. + +"Oh! oh! help, help!" + +I could not scream any more, I was so strangely weak. Then I heard many +feet in the kitchen above my head. They came nearer, and down the +stairs, and then the door was opened. All I could do now was to call +very faintly. + +"Oh! Mother, Mother!" + +At the same instant the lid of the meal chest was quickly thrown open. +There stood Mother and Maren and Ingeborg, the cook. Mother lifted me +out; I was crying so hard I could not say a word, nor explain at all +how it happened. However, a little while after I was as lively as ever. + +"Oh, you ugly Maren--who wouldn't help me!" + +"I thought it was a shriek from the underworld!" said Maren. "And I was +so frightened! It clutched my heart. Oh! I shall never get over it." +Maren sat on the corner of the potato bin and wept aloud. + +Mother didn't know whether to scold Maren or to laugh at her. She +behaved exactly as if it were she and not I who had been shut up in the +meal chest. + +Maren took surely a hundred Hofmann's drops and still she was poorly, +and for many days she whimpered and whined about her fright at the meal +chest. And even yet she cannot hear any mention of meal, or of a chest +or of screaming, without her invariably saying: + +"Yes, it's a wonder that I didn't get my death that time you were shut +up in the meal chest--but I've had a swollen heart ever since then--and +that I can thank you for." + +But Mother says that's all nonsense. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PETS: PARTICULARLY CAROLA-CAROLUS + + +One day a man from Vegassheien came into our kitchen with four live +chickens that he wanted to sell. All hens, he said. We had never had any +pets at our house except Bouncer, our big black cat; and Karsten and I +were seized at once with an overwhelming desire to own these four +half-grown, golden-brown chickens, who lay so patiently in the bottom of +the peasant's basket, put their heads on one side and looked up at us +with their little round black eyes. Oh, if Mother only would buy these +darling chickens for us! It is such fun to have pets. + +Speaking of pets makes me think of Uncle Ferdinand, and the pet monkey +he had. + +You know Uncle Ferdinand? The elegant old gentleman dressed in gray, +who bows so politely, and has such a friendly smile for everybody. Yes, +all the world knows him. He is not really my uncle--or any one's uncle, +that I know of; every one just calls him Uncle, because it seems as if +it exactly suited him. He is certainly the kindest person in the world. +All poor people love him; and he likes all people and all animals. + +His wife is Aunt Octavia, and they are very rich and live in a charming +house, with lots of rooms, where there are a great many beautiful +things, works of art and such things. Off in her little boudoir, Aunt +Octavia lies on a sofa all day. She is not really ill, Mother says; she +just lies there because she is so rich. My! if I had as much money as +Aunt Octavia, I should do something besides lie on a sofa with my eyes +shut! + +Uncle Ferdinand and Aunt Octavia have no children. That is why they are +both so terribly fond of pets. Aunt Octavia likes best little white +silky poodles that are bathed in luke warm soap-suds, wrapped in a +bathing sheet and combed with a fine comb, and that roll across the +floor like little white balls. I really believe she likes such silky +poodles better than anything else in the world. + +But Uncle Ferdinand likes monkeys best. The pet monkey he had was +brought home on one of his ships. The sailors on board had named it +"Stomach," because it was such a great eater, and it was called that all +the rest of its life. + +Uncle Ferdinand certainly was in a scrape that time. At first he didn't +dare to tell Aunt Octavia that he thought of bringing a monkey into the +house; but the ship that Stomach had come on was to leave, you see, and +then Uncle Ferdinand had to tell. I can imagine just how it went for I +know how they talk together. + + * * * * * + +"Wouldn't you like to have a nice new plaything, Octavia? really a +charming plaything, my dear?" + +"A plaything? What do you mean?" + +"A very amusing plaything that jumps about and plays tricks, and could +climb up the curtains, for instance, or sit on your shoulder and eat +cakes." + +"Sit on my shoulder! The man has gone crazy! Don't come any nearer, +Ferdinand, I beg of you. You are ill!" + +"Oh no, Octavia my dear, my mind is all right. I mean--I mean--just a +monkey, my darling." + +"Good heavens! Is he calling me a monkey? What do you mean?" + +"My love, I only mean that there is a monkey on board the ship, that I +would so much like to have here at home." + +"And that is what you were beating about the bush so for! Well, well, +that is just like you. However, I agree to anything you like, of course; +let the creature come--let it come. It will strangle me some fine day, +but I am used to that--I mean, I am used to saying yes and yielding to +others." + +And that is how Stomach came into the house. + +It was the liveliest, most mischievous monkey you can imagine. It stayed +most of the time in Uncle Ferdinand's office. Up and down the +book-shelves it climbed, just like a squirrel; now and then it threw +itself across the room from one bookcase to another. One time it sprang +straight onto the big lamp that hung from the ceiling, and made the +chimney and shade come down in jingling fragments. Stomach hung from one +of the chains, miserable and screaming with fright. This performance it +never repeated. + +Stomach loved nothing in the world so much as matches. Whenever it got +hold of a box of matches it was overjoyed, and immediately climbed up on +the highest bookcase. Here it sat and tossed the matches one by one down +on the carpet. When it grew tired of this it flung the whole box, aiming +with amazing success right at the top of Uncle Ferdinand's head. Uncle +Ferdinand always sat patiently waiting for this last shot; then he got +down on his knees, and picked up every single match! + +But what caused Uncle Ferdinand the most trouble and care was that Aunt +Octavia had strictly forbidden that the monkey should ever come anywhere +near her. Uncle Ferdinand was on pins and needles for fear this should +happen, and scarcely did anything all day but go around shutting doors +to keep Stomach away from her. + +All the servants had been instructed to do the same. Sometimes they were +furious with Stomach, but when it had the toothache and sat with its +hand under its little swollen cheek, and rocked sorrowfully back and +forth like a little sick child, their hearts softened towards it and +they forgave all its pranks. But to keep Stomach within bounds grew more +and more difficult. It unfastened the window-catches, promenaded along +the house walls and on the window-sills. Now and then it whisked through +an open window of another house, returning with the most unbelievable +things, water-jugs and pillows, and cologne-bottles which it emptied +out very thoughtfully and slowly over the dahlia bed. + +No one must even mention Stomach's name before Aunt Octavia. "The mere +name of that disgusting creature nauseates me," she said. Uncle went +about as if on eggs and grew even more careful about shutting the doors. +But one day, in spite of all the caution, the terrible thing happened; +the monkey got into Aunt Octavia's room. Some one had forgotten to shut +a door; like a flash Stomach darted through, ran noiselessly over the +soft carpet even into the sacred boudoir, gave a spring up onto Aunt +Octavia, who lay with closed eyes on her sofa, and burrowed its whole +little body in under her arm. + +Then there was a hullabaloo! Aunt Octavia shrieked at the top of her +lungs, and people rushed in. + +"I lie here helpless," said Aunt Octavia; "it could have strangled me. +Ferdinand, what was its object? I ask you, Ferdinand, what was it +thinking of, when it burrowed in under my arm?" + +"Perhaps it wanted to warm itself," said Uncle Ferdinand meekly. + +"Warm itself!" said Aunt Octavia scornfully. "To bite me in the heart +was what it wanted." + +Nothing would satisfy her but that Uncle must take Stomach to the doctor +to be chloroformed, though he would rather have done anything else in +the world! + +But Uncle Ferdinand's monkey really hasn't the least thing to do with +the chickens from Vegassheien that Karsten and I wanted, and that I +began to tell about. + +Hurrah! Mother would buy the four chickens, but only on condition that +Karsten and I should take care of them. Would we do this? + +Why, of course; it would be only fun. I never imagined then all the +bother and rumpus that would come of it. + +Up in our old barn, that has stood for many years unused, there is a +room partitioned off that we call the salt stall, I don't know why. Here +we established our four chickens. I immediately gave them names: Lova, +Diksy, Valpurga, and Carola. Karsten and I stuffed them with food, and +all day they went about scratching in our kitchen garden, where, +however, nothing ever grows. With shallow, sandy soil, and a frightful +lot of sun, you might know it couldn't amount to anything. + +The first thing I did in the morning was to let out the chickens. They +flapped and fluttered around me in the fresh, cool morning stillness +under the maples. It always takes some time for the sunshine to get down +to our place, because of the hill. + +Lova, Diksy, and Valpurga were quite ordinary long-legged chickens that +scratched and picked all day long, but Carola began little by little to +behave with more dignity. She stepped out vigorously, and scratched +sideways, stood still for minutes at a time, just as if she were +listening for something, and always let the others help themselves +first. And one fine day she stood on the barn steps, flapped her wings, +and crowed--a regular hoarse, cracked chicken's crow--but crow she did. +Of course she had to be christened over again, and so I called her +Carolus. + +And it is Carolus' doings that I want to tell about. Not the first year +he lived; he was well enough behaved then. All summer the chickens were +up in the salt stall, but when winter came they were moved down into our +cellar because of the cold. Br-r-r-r! Hens have a wretched time in +winter. The snow lay thick against the cellar window and shut out what +little gray daylight there was, and down there on the stone floor in the +dampness sat all four chickens and moped, their heads drawn down into +their feathers. At such times one can be very glad not to have been born +a hen. However, I went down there every day and comforted them. + +"Think of the summer," I said, "think of the rich ground under the +dewberry hedges, and of the whole kitchen garden in the long sunny +days." + +Carolus flapped his wings a little, but the others didn't even do +that--they were utterly discouraged. + +But at last came the summer. + +Lova, Diksy, and Valpurga each laid a pretty little egg every day up in +the salt stall. What fun it is to go and hunt for eggs! You go and poke +around and hunt and hunt, but they are clever and sly, these hens, and +hide themselves well under pieces of board and rubbish. By and by, off +in some corner you see a gleam of white and there are the eggs, round +and smooth and warm. + +Carolus had become a fine noble-looking cock with long curved +tail-feathers which shone with metallic colors in the sun; but oh, the +trouble he gave me! + +Right at the foot of our hill lives Madam Land in a little old gray +house. Madam Land keeps hens, too. Well! nothing would do but that +Carolus must go down to her chicken-yard. It wasn't half as nice as our +kitchen-garden but he couldn't keep away from it a single day. + +The instant the hens were let out in the morning Carolus made a dash +down the hill, flying and running straight to Madam Land's gate. If the +gate were not open, Carolus flew over the board fence and down into the +midst of Madam Land's flock of hens. I called and I coaxed; I scolded +him and chased him. No, thank you! Carolus crowed and squawked, and flew +up on the board fence; he put his head on one side and looked down at +me, and no sooner was I well out of the way than he was in the yard +again and there he stayed all day. + +Every single night I had to go down to get him after he had gone to +roost with Madam Land's hens. Then there was a racket, I can tell you! +The hens cackled and squawked and flew down from the roost, even hitting +against my face as they flew. You couldn't hear yourself think in Madam +Land's hen-house. + +But I took firm hold of my good Carolus. He kicked and struggled, but I +held his shining warm body close to me and could feel his heart beating +and hammering as I ran home with him. + +Every single night this performance had to be gone through, and every +single night Madam Land stood in her kitchen door and scolded when I +went past with Carolus in my arms. + +"Oh, yes! he's the pampered one--oh, yes, he's the one that's getting +fat--he eats enough for four hens--there's surely law and justice to be +had in such cases--yes, indeed, he's the pampered one." I could hear +Madam Land's voice following me all the way up our hill. + +Madam Land herself doesn't look as if she were pampered. Her husband is +a boatman. She is frightfully saving. They say in the town that Madam +Land boils only three potatoes for dinner every day, "two potatoes for +Land, one for the maid, and I don't need any," says Madam Land. And only +think, day after day she had to see that big Carolus of ours eating out +of the dish she had filled for her own hens. Any one could understand +Madam Land's being angry. + +One day Madam Land came up to our house to complain to Mother about +Carolus. + +Now I hadn't said a word to Mother about the way Carolus had been +behaving lately. I had a dark misgiving that it would work against my +gallant Carolus in some way. Mother was very much annoyed, and said that +I was to be so good as to keep Carolus shut up hereafter. For two days I +kept him in the salt stall. He hopped up on the window-sill and pecked +at the small green panes. But the third day I was so terribly sorry for +him that I let him out. + +"You'll see he has forgotten all about it," said Karsten. +Forgotten!--no, thank you! Carolus was already off. He screeched for joy +and flew straight into Madam Land's yard. + +"Well, then, we'll tie him," said Karsten suddenly. That was an +excellent idea, I thought. First we found a long string, and then we +went down after the sinner. Naturally he didn't want to come home again; +Madam Land's whole yard was just one uproar of frightened hens, we ran +about so, driving them here and there, before we got hold of Carolus. We +tied the string around his leg and tethered him beside the barn steps. + +After we had done this, I went in to study my lessons, but I hadn't been +studying five minutes before I had a queer feeling of uneasiness, and +had to go out to see how Carolus was getting on. There he lay on the +ground; he had twisted and wound the string around himself countless +times,--he just lay on his side and gasped. I freed him in no time; for +a moment he lay still, then he got up suddenly, flapped his wings hard +and--away he went, with outspread wings that fairly swept the ground, +and disappeared in Madam Land's yard. That night I didn't go to get him. +The fact is I didn't dare to, because of Madam Land. + +As I came home from school the next day I went round by Madam Land's. +Carolus stood in the yard eating Madam Land's chicken-feed and sour milk +with excellent appetite. His big red comb hung down over one eye. The +other eye, that was free, he turned towards me as if he would say, "I +know you well enough, Mistress Inger Johanne, but go your way--I intend +to stay here for good and all." + +"Well," I thought, "let them scold as they please about you, Carolus; +you are surely the most beautiful cock in all the world--but you are +mine, you must remember." + +When evening came I had studied out a plan for catching Carolus without +Madam Land's seeing me. She kept her hens in a part of the wood-shed +that was boarded off. Behind this was an open field, and high up in the +back wall, right under the roof, there was a little window that always +stood open. Through that window I meant to go to get Carolus. There was +an old ladder in our barn; I got Peter and Karsten to carry it down the +hill and set it up under the window. Both Peter and Karsten wanted to +climb up, but I said no; such a difficult undertaking no one but myself +could manage. + +It was about nine o'clock in the evening and growing dark. I climbed the +ladder and got to the top round all right. But whether it was that the +ladder was rotten or that Peter and Karsten let go of it,--I had no +sooner got hold of the window-sill and dragged myself in than down fell +the ladder, breaking all to pieces as it fell. + +So there I was in a pretty fix! And how Karsten and Peter laughed down +below! I was furiously angry with them, especially at the way Peter +laughed. When Peter laughs it is just as if some one had suddenly +tickled him in the stomach; he doubles himself together, twists like a +worm, and laughs without making a sound. But Karsten roared at the top +of his voice. + +"Will you stop your laughing, Karsten? You will betray me making such a +noise." + +"How will you get down again?" + +"Oh, I'll jump down." It was certainly ten or twelve feet to the ground. +"Now I am going in after Carolus; I'll drop him down from here, and you +must be sure to catch him." + +I groped my way down the half-dark stairway from the loft, stumbled +along, in the pitch-black darkness of the shed, over a chopping-block +and a heap of shavings, and at last got to the part of the wood-shed +where the hens were. I opened the door softly and fumbled with my hand +along the roost they were sitting on. But, O dear! O dear! such a +squawking and screeching! You haven't the least idea how Madam Land's +hens could squawk. It was exactly as if I were murdering them all at +once. Outside of the wall I could hear Karsten fairly howling with +laughter. I kept fumbling around in the dark, for I wanted to find +Carolus. I think I got hold of every single hen; all their beaks were +stretched wide, letting out one and the same piercing squawk. + +[Illustration: And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below!--_Page +109._] + +Then I heard the door of Madam Land's kitchen thrown open, and footsteps +across the yard--then Madam Land's voice, "Come with your stick, Land, +there are thieves in the hen-house." The door of the wood-shed was +opened and Madam Land's maid burst in and saw me. "It is the judge's +Inger Johanne, madam," she called. + +"Is it that spindleshanks again?" I heard Madam Land say--yes, she +really said "spindleshanks"; but to me she only said, "Your cock is not +here, girl; he has not been here all day--not for two or three days, I +believe." + +"But he was here this morning." + +"Not at all. You didn't see straight. He is not here, I tell you." + +I ran home completely at a loss. What in the world had become of +Carolus? The next day I searched everywhere. I went around to all the +houses in the neighborhood and asked after my cock. No, no one had seen +him anywhere. + +Then all at once a frightful suspicion arose in my mind: Madam Land had +cut off Carolus' head! + +Oh, what a shame, what a shame!--what a shame for her to do that! How I +cried that day! It did no good for them to say at home that perhaps +Carolus would come back, and that even if he didn't, it wasn't at all +sure that Madam Land had made an end of him; he might easily have just +gone astray himself. + +No, I didn't believe that for a moment. It was Madam Land who had +murdered him, and I thought it was mighty queer of Father that he +wouldn't put her on bread and water for twenty days, for she deserved +it. + +The only thing that consoled me was that I myself never had to see +Carolus served up in white sauce in a covered dish on the dinner table. +Never--never in the world--would I have tasted a bit of Carolus! + + * * * * * + +Well, something always does happen to pets--think of Uncle Ferdinand's +monkey. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CHRISTMAS MUMMING + + +It was Christmas Eve when we went mumming, and oh! how glorious the +moonlight was! Down in our streets and up over our hills the moon shines +clearer than it does anywhere else on the face of the globe, I'll wager. + +Massa, Mina and I had dressed ourselves up in fancy costumes. "If any +one asks where you are from," said Mother, when we were ready to start, +"you can safely say, 'From the Land of Fantasy.' You certainly look as +if you came from there." + +Massa had on a light blue dress trimmed with gold-colored cord. It was +one of Mother's heirlooms from Great-grandmother Krag, and had a tiny +short waist and big puffed sleeves. Massa wore also a green velvet hat, +and her thick long flaxen hair hung loose down her back. + +Mina was dressed in silk from top to toe; an old-time dress of flowered +brown silk with a train, a green silk shawl and a big white silk bonnet +that came away out beyond her face. + +When the others were ready, there was nothing fine left for me, so I had +to take a white petticoat, and a dressing sacque, and a big +old-fashioned Leghorn hat that Mother had worn when she was young. To +decorate myself a little, I carried a beautifully carved _tine_ in one +hand and a red parasol in the other. We all wore masks, of course,--big +pasteboard masks, which came away down over our chins, with enormous +noses and highly colored red cheeks. + +Well, off we went and soon stood at the foot of our hill in a most +daring mood, ready for all sorts of pranks. + +I don't know who proposed that we should go first to Mrs. Berg's, but we +all chimed in at once. We crept softly up to her door-step. + +Unluckily for us, as it happened, Mrs. Berg has a great iron weight on +her street door,--so that it will shut of itself, you know. What the +matter was, I can't imagine, but as soon as we had given one knock at +the door, down fell that iron weight to the floor with a thundering +crash. We were so frightened that we were on the point of running away +when Mrs. Berg and her husband came bustling out to the door with a +lighted lamp. + +"No, thanks," said Mrs. Berg, as soon as she caught sight of us. "I +don't want anything to do with such jugglery as this! Out with you, and +that quickly!" + +"Oh, no, little Marie," said her husband. "You ought to ask the little +young ladies in. They are not street children, don't you see?" Mina's +magnificent clothes evidently made an impression on him. + +Mrs. Berg mumbled something about its being all the same to her what +sort of people we were, but Mr. Berg had already opened the door and +respectfully asked us to walk in. + +It was as hot as a bake-oven in the sitting-room, and so stuffy and +thick with tobacco smoke that I thought I should smother behind my mask. +Mr. Berg bowed and bowed and set out three chairs for us in the middle +of the room. Now we had planned at home that we would use only P-speech +while mumming, for then no one would know us. + +"May I ask where these three elegant ladies come from?" asked Mr. Berg. + +Massa undertook to answer, but she was never very clever at P-speech and +she got all mixed up: + +"From-prom. Fan-tan-_pan_--pi-ta--sa-si p-p-p----" she stammered, in a +hopeless tangle, while Mina and I were ready to burst with laughter. + +"Bless us! These must be foreigners from some very distant land,--they +speak such a curious language. You must treat them with something, +Marie." + +Marie didn't appear very willing to treat us to anything, but she went +over to a corner cupboard and brought out a few cookies,--pale, +baked-to-death "poor man's cookies." They looked poor, indeed! I +shuddered before I stuck a piece into my mouth. + +To eat with a mask on, when the mouth is no wider than the slit in a +savings-bank, has its difficulties, I can tell you. The little I did get +in tasted of camphor. Mrs. Berg must have kept her medicines in the same +closet with the cakes. + +"Perhaps the little ladies would like something more," said Mr. Berg. + +"No, thanks--No-po, thanks-panks." And we all three rose to go. We +curtsied and curtsied. Mr. Berg bowed and bowed. Mrs. Berg turned the +key in the street door after us with a snap, and I heard her say +something about "that long-legged young one of the judge's!" + +Oh! how we laughed! "Now we will go to Mrs. Pirk's," said I. + +"Inger Johanne! Are you crazy? She is worse than Mrs. Berg!" + +"That makes it all the more wildly exciting! Come on!" + +We crept stealthily into Mrs. Pirk's kitchen. It was pitch dark in there +except for a little light through the keyhole of the sitting-room. + +"Hush! Keep still!" Mrs. Pirk coughed suddenly and we all quaked. + +"Now she will surely come!" Silence again. We were half-choked with +laughter. + +"I am going to clear my throat," said I. "Ahem!" + +"Ahem!" I gave a very loud, strong one the second time. + +A chair was hastily shoved aside in the sitting-room, the door opened, a +sharp light fell on our three fantastic figures, and Mrs. Pirk stood in +the doorway with her spectacles on her nose. I stepped forward. + +"Good-pood day-pay!" Mrs. Pirk went like a flash to the fireplace and +grabbed a broom-stick. + +"Get out!" she cried. "Out with you!" + +So out of the door we ran, stumbling and tumbling over each other, Mrs. +Pirk after us with her uplifted broom, out into the moonlit street. Oh! +it was unspeakable fun to be chased out-of-doors that way by Mrs. Pirk! + +Well--then we went on to the Macks'. + +They were sitting alone in their big light sitting-room, as we went in. +Mrs. Mack was playing "patience" and Mr. Mack sat by her side smoking +his long pipe and pointing out with the end of it which card he thought +she ought to take next. + +We pressed close together around the door and curtsied. + +"Why, see! Welcome to youth and joy!" said Mrs. Mack, rising. "What nice +young people these are to come to visit a pair of old folks like us!" + +Mr. Mack came forward and pointed with the end of his pipe over our +heads, saying: + +"Up on the sofa with you! Up on the sofa with you, all three!" + +So there we sat, as if we were distinguished guests, with the lamp +shining full upon us. + +"I see you have a _tine_ with you," said Mr. Mack, looking at the _tine_ +I carried. "Have you something to sell, perhaps? And where may these +pretty little ladies be from?" + +"I-pi sell-pell butter-putter," said I. + +"We are from the Land of Fantasy," said Massa, without attempting +P-speech again. + +"Why! They don't make butter in the Land of Fantasy, do they?" asked +Mrs. Mack. + +Just then the servant came in with an immense tray, and on it was +something very different from Mrs. Berg's camphorated cookies, I assure +you! I thought with grief of my mask mouth no bigger than a savings-bank +slit. + +"And now what about unmasking?" said Mr. Mack. "That is, if these ladies +from the Land of Fantasy are willing to liven up an evening for a couple +of old people." + +Were _willing_! We took our masks off in a jiffy. But, would you believe +it? Mr. Mack said he knew me the very minute we came in! + +Mrs. Mack took a glass of Christmas mead and recited: + + "Oh! I remember the happy ways + Of my gay and innocent childhood days. + And I love to feel that my old heart swells, + With the same pure joy that in childhood dwells." + +"Mamma composed that herself," said Mr. Mack, gazing admiringly at his +wife. + +Later in the evening, Mrs. Mack danced the minuet for us, holding up her +skirt and singing in a delicate old-lady voice. Then she said: + +"Do you remember, Mack? Do you remember that they were playing that air +the evening you asked me to marry you?" + +"_Do_ I _remember_?" And Mr. Mack and his wife beamed tenderly at each +other. + +"Think! That such a homely woman as I should get married!" said Mrs. +Mack to us on the sofa. + +"You homely!" and Mr. Mack gave the dear old lady a kiss right on the +mouth. + +"Now we shall see, children, whether, when you get old, you have done +like Mack and me. We have danced a minuet our whole life through, and +the memories of youth have been our music." + +When we went home at the end of the evening, we had our pockets crammed +full of apples and nuts and cakes. + +It is jolly fun to go out mumming at Christmas! Just try it! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MOTHER BRITA'S GRANDCHILD + + +It was an afternoon in the spring. There had been a heavy fall of snow +the day before and then suddenly a thaw set in. So very warm was the air +and the sun so burning hot that the water from the roof gutters came +rushing and tumbling out in regular waterfalls; and big snowslides from +the housetops thumped down everywhere, making a rumbling noise all along +the streets. + +The walking I won't try to describe. There were no paths made, just the +frightfully soft melting snow, so deep that it came exactly half-way to +your knees. So there wasn't much pleasure in walking, I assure you; and +we hadn't a thing to do. + +The steamships from both east and west were delayed by the snow-storm, +so there was no fun in going to the wharf and hanging around there. +Usually it is amusing enough,--always something new to see and something +happening; and now and then we have fun seeing the queer seasick people +on board the ships. Just outside of our town there is a horribly rough +place in the sea where cross currents meet, and the passengers look +forlorn enough when the ship gets to the wharf. + +But all this isn't really what I meant to tell about now; I started to +tell about the afternoon when we played a lot of pranks simply because +there wasn't a thing else to do. Truly, that was the reason. Now you +shall hear. + +Karen, Mina, Munda, and I were together that afternoon. Not a person was +to be seen on the street and it was disgustingly quiet and dull +everywhere. The only pleasant thing was that there came a tremendously +big heavy snowslide right down on the little shoemaker, Jorgen. + +[Illustration: The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big, heavy snowslide right down on the little +shoemaker.--_Page 123._] + +Well, I don't mean that that was a pleasure exactly, you understand, but +it made a little variety. + +Just as he came around the corner, by Madam Lindeland's, b-r-r-r! there +was a rumbling above, and down upon him slid a whole mass of snow from +Madam Lindeland's steep sloping roof. He was knocked completely over, +and all we could see of him was a bit of his old brown blouse sticking +up through the snow. + +In a flash Mina, Munda, Karen, and I were on the spot, digging him out +with our hands. Before you could count ten, he was up, but you had +better believe he was angry! Not at us exactly, but at the snow, and the +thaw, and the town itself that was so badly arranged that people walking +in the streets might be killed before they knew it. + +"Preposterous, the whole business," grumbled the shoemaker. "Who would +dream that there would be such a thaw right on top of such an +unreasonable snow-storm--and in March, too!" + +Then he noticed that he had lost his cap, so we dug in the snow again, +searching for it, and had lots of fun before we finally found it. + +All this excitement over the snowslide made us crazy for more fun, and +we decided that we would go to Madam Graaberg and ask her if she had +white velvet to sell. Madam Graaberg has a little shop in a basement and +sells almost nothing but _lu-de-fisk_ (fish soaked in lye, with a rank +odor). + +First we peeped in the window between the glasses of groats. Yes, there +were many people in the shop and Madam Graaberg stood behind the counter +as usual. She is as big as three ordinary women and her eyes are as +black as two bits of coal; and my! how they can flash! + +We plumped ourselves down into the shop, all four of us. It smelled +frightfully of _lu-de-fisk_ and the whole floor was like a puddle from +all the wet feet. A fine place to go to ask for white velvet! And Madam +Graaberg has an awful temper, let me tell you! + +There were many customers to be waited on before us, so we stood +together in a bunch at the farthest end of the counter. The time dragged +on and on before they had all got their _lu-de-fisk_, for that was what +they wanted, the whole swarm of them. + +On the counter beside me, there was a big new ball of string in an iron +frame, the kind that whirls around when you pull the string. The end of +the string dangled so invitingly close to me, and waiting for Madam +Graaberg to be ready to attend to us was so tedious, that I busied +myself with taking the end of the string and slyly tying it fast to one +of the buttons on the back of Munda's coat. Of course I meant to untie +the string before we went out, but Madam Graaberg turned suddenly to us. + +"What do you want, children?" asked she, portly and dignified, towering +over the counter. + +We were all a little bewildered because she had come to us so abruptly, +but we pushed Munda forward. My, how uncomfortable she looked! + +"Have you any white velvet for sale?" asked Munda feebly. + +I gave a spring towards the door, for it seemed best to get away at +once. Two maids stood there, who roared with laughter. "Ha ha! Ha ha! +Madam Graaberg, that's pretty good. Ha ha!" + +"White velvet," hissed Madam Graaberg. "White velvet! Make a fool of me +in my own lawful business, will you? Out of my shop this instant!" + +She didn't need to tell us twice. We dashed helter-skelter out of the +door, all four of us, splashing the mud and slush recklessly. + +Suddenly Munda cried out, "Oh, I'm fast to something! I'm fast to +something behind!" + +Just think! I had forgotten to untie the string from the button! I +thought I heard a buzzing noise when we flew out of the door, but it +never occurred to me that it could be the string-ball whirling around in +its frame. + +There was no time now to untie the knot, for Madam Graaberg was right +out in the street and calling after us. They were not exactly gentle +words she was using, either, you may well believe! + +"Oh, but I'm fast--I'm fast!" shrieked Munda again. + +"Tear off the button!" I shouted. Munda made some desperate efforts to +get hold of her own back. No use; so I took hold of the string and gave +a great jerk and off came the button. Munda was free and we dashed round +the street corner. + +"Uh, uh huh!" sobbed Munda. "Mother'll be so angry about that button!" + +"Pooh!" said I. "Just sew the hole up, and you can always find a button +to put over it. But oh, girls! How jolly angry Madam Graaberg was!" + +"Yes, and wasn't she funny when she said, 'Out of my shop this +instant'?" + +We were tremendously pleased with our joke. We talked and +laughed--enjoying ourselves immensely; but we hadn't had enough +tomfoolery yet. + +"Girls," I said, "now let's go to Nibb's shop and ask whether he has +white velvet." + +All were willing. To think of asking that queer Mr. Nibb for white +velvet, when he kept only shoe-strings and paraffin for sale! My! but +that would be fun! Mr. Nibb always has the window shades tight down over +his shop windows, so that not the least thing can be seen from the +street. He isn't exactly right in his mind--and do you know what he did +once? + +It was in church and I sat just in front of him and had on my flat fur +cap. He is a great one to sing in church and he stands bolt upright and +sings at the top of his voice. And just think! He laid his hymn-book on +top of my cap just as if it were a reading desk, and I didn't dare to +move my head because he might get in a rage if I did. So he sang and +sang and sang, and I sat and sat there with the hymn-book on the top of +my head. + +Well--that was that time--but now we stood there in the street +considering as to whether we should go in and ask him if he had white +velvet. + +"No, we surely don't dare to," said Karen. + +"Oh, yes we do," said I. "He can't kill us." + +"Who knows?" said Karen. "He isn't just like other people." + +"Pooh! When there are four of us together----" No, they didn't want +to--so I suddenly threw the shop door wide open and then we had to go +in. Mr. Nibb came towards us bowing and bowing. We pushed Munda forward +again. + +"Have you any white----" began Munda in a shaking voice. And then our +courage suddenly gave way and Karen, Mina, and I sprang to the door as +quick as lightning, slamming the door after us, and not stopping until +we were at the farther corner of the street. And then we saw that Munda +wasn't with us! Why in the world hadn't she come out? What was happening +to her? We rushed back and listened outside the shop door. Not a sound +was to be heard. Karen and Mina were both as white as chalk. + +"It's all your fault," they whispered to me. "Who knows what danger +Munda is in?" + +At that I was so frightened that I didn't know what I was doing, and I +threw the door open at once. + +There sat Munda on a chair in the middle of the shop, holding a big +apple, and Mr. Nibb stood with his legs crossed, leaning against the +counter in a jaunty attitude and talking to her. + +"Are there many dances in the town nowadays--young ladies?" asked Mr. +Nibb, turning to us, as we, pale as death, entered the shop. + +No answer. + +"Or engagements among the young people perhaps," he continued--polite to +the last degree. + +"People live so quietly in this town;--one might call himself buried +alive here, so that a visit from four promising young beauties +is--ahem--an adventure!" + +Dear me! how comical he was! None of us said a word. Suddenly Munda got +up. + +"A thousand thanks," she said and curtsied--the apple in her hand. + +"Thank you," we echoed, all curtseying; though really I haven't the +least idea what we were thanking him for! + +"Ah--bah!" said Mr. Nibb waving his hand. "It is I who must thank you. I +am much indebted to the young ladies for this delightful call." + +With this he opened the door, and came away out on the steps and bowed. + +Oh, how we laughed when he had gone in and the door was shut again. We +laughed so we could scarcely stand. + +"What did he do when you were alone, Munda?" + +"He sprang after a chair," said Munda. "And then he sprang after an +apple--and then he stood himself there by the counter just as you saw +him and began to talk--oh! how frightened I was!" + +"What did he say?" + +"Ha ha! he--ha ha!--he asked me if I were engaged!" + +"Ha ha ha! that was splendid." + +"And just then you all came in." + +"Ha ha! Ha ha ha!" + +By this time it was so late that we must start for home and we took the +quickest way, over High Street. It was almost dark and there was +scarcely a person in sight, as we ran up the street through the March +slush and mud. + +"Oh, let's knock on Mother Brita's windows!" said I, and we knocked +gaily on the little panes as we ran past the house. + +At that moment Mother Brita called from her doorway. + +"Halloa!" she called. "Come here a minute. God be praised that any one +should come! Let me speak to you." + +We went slowly back. Perhaps she was angry with us for knocking on her +windows. + +"Here I am as if I were in prison," said Mother Brita. "My little +grandchild is sick with bronchitis and I can't leave him a single +minute; and my son John, you know him, is out there at Stony Point with +his ship, and is going to sail away this very evening, and he sails to +China to be gone two years,--and I want so much to say good-bye to +him--two whole years--to China--but I can't leave that poor sick baby in +there, for he chokes if some one doesn't lift him up when the coughing +spells come on--oh, there he's coughing again!" + +Mother Brita hurried in, and all four of us after her. A tiny baby lay +there in a cradle, and Mother Brita lifted him and held him up while the +coughing spell lasted. He coughed so hard that he got quite blue in the +face. + +"O dear! You see how it is! Now he'll go away--my son John--this very +evening, and I may never see him again in this world, uh-huh-huh!" + +Poor Mother Brita! It seemed a sin and a shame that she should not at +least see her son to bid him good-bye. + +"I'll sit here with the baby until you come back, Mother Brita," said I. + +"Yes, I will too." + +"So will I, and I." All four of us wanted to stay. + +"Oh, oh! What kind little girls!" said Mother Brita. "I will fly like +the wind. Just raise him up when the spells come on. I won't be long on +the way either going or coming. Well, good-bye, and I'm much obliged to +you." With that Mother Brita was out of the house, having barely taken +time to throw a handkerchief over her head. + +There we sat. It was a strange ending to an afternoon of fun and +mischief. The room was very stuffy; a small candle stood on the table +and burned with a long, smoky flame, and back in a corner an old clock +ticked very slowly, tick--tock!--tick--tock! + +We talked only in whispers. Very soon the baby had another coughing fit. +We raised him up and he choked and strangled as before, and after the +coughing, cried as if in pain, without opening his eyes. Poor little +thing! Poor baby! + +Again we sat still for a while without speaking; then--"I'm so +frightened--everything is so dismal," whispered Karen. + +Deep silence broken only by the clock's ticking and the baby's +breathing. + +"I think I must go," she added after a minute. + +"That is mean of you," whispered I. + +"I must go, too," whispered Munda. "They are always so anxious at home +when I don't come." + +"I must go too," whispered Mina. + +Then I got a little angry. "Oh well, all right, go, every one of you! +All right, go on, if you want to be so mean." + +And only think, they did go! They ran out of the door, all three, +without a word more. Just then the baby had another attack and I had to +hold him up quite a long time before he could get his breath again. + +And now I was all alone in Mother Brita's little house. Never in my +life had I been in there before, and it was anything but pleasant, you +may well believe. It was very dark in all the corners, and the poor baby +coughed and coughed; the candle burned lower and lower and the clock +ticked on slowly and solemnly. No sign of Mother Brita. + +Well, I would sit here. I wouldn't stir from here even if Mother Brita +didn't come back before it was pitch-dark night--no, indeed, I would +not. I would not. Not for anything would I leave this pitiful little +suffering baby alone. + +He was certainly very sick, very, very sick; perhaps God would come to +take him to-night. Just think, if He should come while I sat there!---- + +At first this made me feel afraid, but then I thought that I need not be +afraid of God--of Him who is kinder than any one in the world! The baby +coughed painfully and I lifted him up again. + +Everything was so queer, so wonderfully queer! First had we four been +racing about, playing pranks and thinking only of fun all the +afternoon--perhaps it was wrong to play such mischievous pranks--and now +here was I alone taking care of a little baby I had never known anything +about;--a little baby that God or His angels might soon come for and +take away. I had not the least bit of fear now. I only felt as if I were +in church,--it was so solemn and so still. In a little while, this poor +baby might be in Heaven,--in that beautiful place flooded with glorious +light,--with God. And I, just a little girl down here on earth, was I to +be allowed to sit beside the baby until the angels came for him? + +I looked around the bare, gloomy room. It might be that the angels who +were to take away Mother Brita's grandchild were already here. Oh, how +good it would be for the poor little baby who coughed so dreadfully! + +The clock had struck for half-past seven, for eight o'clock, and +half-past eight, and there was just a small bit left of the candle. The +sick baby had quieted down at last, and now lay very still. + +There came a rattling at the door; some one fumbled at the latch and I +stared through the gloom with straining eyes, making up my mind not to +be afraid. The door opened slowly a little way, and Ingeborg, our cook, +put her round face into the opening. + +"Well, have I found you at last? And is it here you are? I was to tell +you to betake yourself home. Your mother and father have been worrying +themselves to pieces about you, and----" + +"Hush, Ingeborg! Be still. He is so sick, so very sick." + +Ingeborg came over to the cradle and bent down. Then she hurriedly +brought the bit of candle to the cradle. + +"Oh, he is dead," she said slowly. "Poor little thing! He is dead,--poor +little chap!" + +"Oh no, Ingeborg, no!" I sobbed. "Is he dead? For I lifted him up every +single time he coughed. Oh, it is beautiful that he is dead, he +suffered so, and yet,--oh, it seems sad, too!" + +"I will stay here with him now until Mother Brita comes home," said +Ingeborg. "For you----" + +"How did you know I was here?" + +"Why, Karen and Munda came into the kitchen just a few minutes ago, and +told me." + +She said again that she would stay in my place, but I couldn't bear to +go before Mother Brita came back. + +Shortly after, Mother Brita hurried in, warm, and out of breath. "Oh, +oh! how long you have had to wait," she said in distress. "I couldn't +find John at Stony Point, I had to go away into town. I suppose you are +angry that I stayed so long." + +"The baby had to give up the fight, Mother Brita," said Ingeborg. + +"Give up? What? What do you say?" + +"I lifted him up, Mother Brita, every time he coughed, I did truly," +said I, and then I burst out crying again. I couldn't help it. + +"Yes, I am sure you did, my jewel," said Mother Brita, "and God be +praised that He has taken the baby out of his poor little body. Never +can pain or sin touch him now." + +Mother and Father said that I had done just right to stay, and when +Mother kissed me good-night she said she was sure that the dear God +Himself had been with me and the poor little baby. And that seemed so +wonderful and beautiful and solemn that I could never tell any one, even +Mother, how beautiful it was. + +Up in the churchyard there is a tiny grave, the grave of Mother Brita's +grandchild. I know very well just where it is and I often put flowers +upon it in the summer. What I like best to put there are rosebuds, +fresh, lovely, pink rosebuds. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MASON'S LITTLE PIGS + + +Ugh! I can't stand rainy weather! Especially in summer! Perhaps some +people may like a nasty drizzling rain that keeps on day after day right +in the middle of summer, so that the gooseberries drop from the bushes, +and there is only a soft wet plot of ground where one expected big, +magnificent strawberries and had joyfully kept watch for them day after +day. As for the rose-bushes, only the yellow hips are left on them. Half +decayed rose petals lie sprinkled on the wet earth, and the mignonette +and daisies lie flat on the ground all mouldy and limp. + +Our old house on the hill is the most delightful house in town,--that is +really true--but in rainy weather it is perhaps a little wet up there. +All the water which gathers on the hilltop back of the house runs down +towards us, you see. It trickles and streams in brooks and tiny +waterfalls over the stones, through moss and heather, takes with it a +lot of earth from the kitchen garden (where, truth to tell, there wasn't +much beforehand), and washes out deep gullies in our hillside, leaving +only the clean stones. Every time that it rains really in earnest for +several days, Father has to put wagon-loads of new earth on the hill to +make it look a little respectable again. + +Detestable as these long rainy spells are, Karsten and I have lots of +fun afterwards, when it has poured down by tubfuls for several days and +the hilltop is really soaking and running over with water. + +Karsten and I build waterworks, you see; we build dams and make sluices +and waterfalls. That's fun, I can tell you! + +Massa and Mina can't imagine how I can enjoy myself with anything like +that now that I am so old--thirteen. They make fun of me and tattle +about it at school and to the boys; but I don't bother myself the least +grain about that. I get my feet sopping wet, sure enough, and the bottom +of my dress, and way up my sleeves; and then I have to creep up the back +stairs to change my clothes so that Mother won't see how wet they are. +But oh! the fun Karsten and I have! + +Sometimes we begin away back on the hilltop and make sluices, and wall +them up with heather and moss, so as to make the water run where we want +it to. Karsten carries the stones and gets fiery red in the face, even +with his hat off. I do the walling up and give the orders, for I am the +engineer, you see. + +It must be awfully nice to be an engineer when you are grown up, but sad +to say, I never can be, since I am a girl. However, Karsten can be the +engineer and I can sit in his office and be the one to manage the whole +concern, just as I do on the hilltop here; for Karsten can never think +of anything new to do, but I can. + +A little way down the hill we have our reservoir which all the streams +run into. It is in a particularly good place, a deep hollow close to the +top of the steepest precipice on the whole hill. All it needs is a +little walling up on one side, but that has to be very strong and solid; +for sometimes we have more than two feet of water in the reservoir, and +then it will easily overflow. + +After we have it all built, comes the great moment of letting the +waterfall loose. Karsten and I each have a stout stake,--quick as +lightning we punch a hole through the dam, and down rushes the waterfall +over the precipice. The yellowish marsh water which we have led to the +pool from way back on the hilltop is one mass of white foam. It thunders +and crashes and spatters just like a real waterfall. + +The only nuisance about it is that it lasts so short a time. Even if the +pond is full up to the brim the water can all run out in five minutes. +On that account we always try to let off the waterfall when there is +some one besides ourselves to see it. It doesn't matter who it is, even +if it is only the stone-breaker's child, but we must have at least one +spectator, or we shouldn't care to let off the waterfall. + +Right on the slope below the precipice is the cottage of Soren, the +mason. Our land joins on to his farm. When we let out the waterfall the +water streams down over our land right behind the big walnut tree. It +had always taken the very same course and it never entered my head that +it _could_ take any other. + +But now you shall hear. It had rained twelve days on a stretch, and that +just as the summer vacation had begun. In fact, it seems to me it always +does--every year. Well, never mind that. At any rate Karsten and I were +almost bored to death. It was all right for Karsten to stand out in the +rain and sail birch bark boats in the brewing vat which stood full of +water out in the farmyard, but I outgrew such play years ago, of course. +As for sitting and reading books in the very middle of the summer, there +is no sort of sense in that. At least _I_ don't think there is any fun +in it; so I will say outright that I was dreadfully bored. + +Finally, one day, out came the sun. It shone and it glittered. The +grass, the fences, and the washed-out stones all dripped and sparkled as +the sun sent its blazing light upon them. And there wasn't a crack or a +crevice on the whole hilltop that wasn't brimming over with water. + +Oh! what a waterfall we could make to-day! + +"Karsten! Karsten! Will you come with me and make a waterfall?" + +Karsten had been so desperately bored the afternoon before that he had +put up a swing in the loft. As I called him I saw his face up there in +the dusty green window. The second after, he was down in the yard, and +we were both off for the hilltop. The one single tool that we have to +work with is a little old trough which we use for dipping up water when +we need to. + +Oh! such a summer day as it was up on that hilltop! with the sun +sparkling on the wet purple heather, on the blueberries and red +whortleberries and great wavy ferns covered with pearly water-drops! +But Karsten and I had something else to do, I can assure you, than to +look at all this beauty. For to-day we were going to make Niagara Falls! +We had water enough. + +O my! how Karsten and I slaved that morning! We made an entirely new +watercourse so that we had ever so much more water for the pond. And +then the pond itself had to be made better and bigger. It was ready to +overflow any minute,--it was so full. Karsten slipped in twice and got +wet way above his knees. My! how we laughed! + +It seemed as if there was always a little tuft of moss to stuff in or a +stone to lay in better position, in order to make the pond really tight +and firm; but at last we had it finished. + +But now there was no one at hand, not a single person, to admire the +glorious sight of the waterfall, and I didn't want to have all our hard +work go for nothing. Karsten wanted to let the waterfall loose anyway, +but I wouldn't do it, and we had almost got into a quarrel when, as +good luck would have it, Thora Heja came trudging along across the +hilltop. Thora Heja is an old peasant woman who used to work in the +fields but now goes round getting her living by drowning cats and +cutting hens' heads off for people. + +"Thora Heja, where are you going?" I called out. + +"Oh! I am going down to attend to two hens at the sexton's," shouted +Thora across to us. + +"Wait a little and you shall see Niagara Falls!" + +"See what?" + +"Wait a little and you shall see something wonderful!" + +Karsten and I grabbed our big stakes and quick as lightning tore away +the dam. However it happened, I really don't know, but it must be that +we tore away some big stones we had never disturbed before, and that our +doing this made the whole waterfall take an entirely different +direction. It foamed and crashed--you couldn't hear yourself think!--It +was really magnificent. + +"Hurrah!" shouted Karsten and I. + +But right through the tremendous roar of the waterfall, there came +cleaving the air the wildest pig squeal you ever heard, from the ground +down below us. The waterfall kept on roaring, and the pig squeals grew +worse and worse. + +It never occurred to me for a moment that the pig squeals had anything +to do with our waterfall. We couldn't see what was going on below from +where we stood. I thought Thora Heja was behaving in the queerest way, +however, for instead of standing quietly and admiring the waterfall as +we had expected, she began to shriek and point and throw up her arms +beseechingly and try to tell us something; finally she took to her heels +and vanished through the wet grass down the steep hillside, shouting and +screaming as she went. + +Soon after we heard many voices down below all talking at once, but the +waterfall kept on with its rush and noise, for, as I have said, there +was a tremendous lot of water in the pond that day. All this happened in +a much shorter time than it takes me to write it, you know. + +I heard Soren, the mason's, angry voice. + +"Such a thing as this sha'n't be permitted! I won't have it--not if I +swing for it! Even if it is the judge's children themselves----" + +A sudden suspicion popped into my head. + +"Karsten! Something must have gone wrong with our waterfall!" + +"I'll run down and see!" + +"No! Are you crazy? Don't go! Can't you hear how angry Soren, the mason, +is?" + +By this time the whole pond had emptied itself out. The waterfall had +subsided into little trickling rills, coursing in straggling lines down +the precipice. Then Soren, the mason, appeared in the distance, having +reached a piece of ground where he could look across to where we were. + +[Illustration: She began to shriek and point and throw up her +arms.--_Page 151._] + +He is a thin old man, and dresses in white mason's clothes, and has a +frightfully sharp chin. He was as red in the face as a boiled lobster, +shook his fists at us and shouted: + +"Aha! it's a good thing I have witnesses here against you--you two +rapscallions! setting waterspouts running all over people. You shall +hang for it! you shall hang for it! Two little pigs are dead and the +others nigh unto it. If there never has been a lawsuit before, there +shall be one now for such imposition and abuse. I am going to your +father this very minute to complain of you." + +And Soren, the mason, started up the hill in a terrible hurry, straight +to Father's office. + +Karsten and I looked for an instant at each other. I had a cowardly wish +to run away at once. + +"What shall we do?" asked Karsten. "Shall we hide up on the top of the +hill here all day?" + +"No--we had better go down right away. We shall have to defend ourselves +from Soren, the mason." + +"Yes, perhaps he will say that we set the waterfall on his pigs on +purpose." + +When we got home, there stood Father on the door-steps and Soren, the +mason, down in the yard. + +Oh! how Soren looked! He was wringing his hands and crying and +threatening. Father had a deep wrinkle between his eyes. That's always a +sign that he is angry. + +"What is this I hear? Have you drowned two young pigs of Soren's?" + +"The waterfall went into his pig-pen instead of over our ground," +whimpered Karsten. + +"Explain how it happened," said Father to me; and I explained the whole +of it exactly as it was. I tell you it was lucky for us that we _had_ +come down from the hilltop! + +"Here are ten crowns to pay for your little pigs, Soren," said Father, +"and I hope that will make it all right between us." + +But for Karsten and me it wasn't all right by any means--for I had to +break open my savings-bank and pay Father back for the pigs. And I had +been saving ever since Christmas and had over seven crowns in it. Ugh! +it is horrid that young pigs are such tender little creatures! And all +that afternoon I was kept under arrest up in the trunk-room on account +of the waterfall disaster. + +Karsten got a whipping. He had to give up his savings, too, but there +were only fifteen öre in his bank, for Karsten shakes the money out of +the slit of his savings-bank almost as soon as he has put it in. + +That was the last time in my whole life that I made a waterfall. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +LOCKED IN + + +Right below our old house on the hillside stands the church. It is a +little wooden church, white-painted and low, with irregular windows, one +low and another high, over the whole church. The doors are low and even +the tower is low; the spire scarcely reaches up over the big +maple-trees, as we can see from our windows. But then the maple-trees +are tremendously big. + +Every one in town says that the bells in our church tower are +remarkable. They are considered unusually musical, and I think they are, +too; and nothing could be more fun than to stand up in the tower when +those great bells are being rung! + +It is awfully thrilling--exactly as if your ear-drums would be split. +When you put your fingers in your ears, draw them quickly out, stuff +them in again--it is like a roaring ocean of sound. You should just hear +it! + +It is great fun to slip in after old Peter, the bellows-blower, when he +is going up to ring the bells; to grope your way up the steep worm-eaten +stairs with cobwebs in every corner,--and the higher you go the narrower +and steeper are the stairs; to hide yourself back of the timbers and in +the corners so that Peter sha'n't see you; to stand there in that +tremendous bell-clanging and then to rush down over the old stairs as if +you were crazy, before Peter has shut the tower windows again and +shuffled his way down. + +Peter would be furious if he saw us, you know. However, he has seen us +sometimes, for all our painstaking, though he can't hear us--he is deaf +as a post--and he certainly can scold; and when he scolds he threatens +us with all the worst things he knows of--telling the minister and the +dean and everybody. + +But his scolding doesn't make much difference. Our clambering up into +the tower certainly can't do the least harm to any one; so, even after +he has scolded us, the next time we see him slinking along and squeezing +himself in through the church door (he never opens it wider than just +enough to push himself through exactly like a little black mouse +creeping through a crack), we are right after him, you may be sure. +Sometimes there will be ten or twelve of us, without his knowing a thing +about it. + +But once I got rather the worst of it when I stole up to the church +tower after Peter. It was grewsome, I can tell you, for only think, I +got locked in the church! I have been up in the tower since, just the +same, only I don't dare to go alone any more, though I wasn't exactly +alone that time I'm telling you about, either; I had my little brother, +Karl, with me. But as he was only a little bit of a fellow, he wasn't +any help. + +It was one Saturday afternoon. Every Saturday at five o'clock the +church bells are rung to ring the Sabbath in. Karl and I were just +passing the church when Peter came slinking along with his trousers +turned up as usual. It was an afternoon towards autumn, not dark +yet--far from it--but not so very light either. And how the wind blew +that day! almost a gale. The big maple-trees creaked and groaned. All at +once I had an overwhelming desire to run up into the tower and hear how +the bells sounded when the wind blustered and howled so around the +church. + +"You go home now, Karl," said I, "run as fast as you can. Just let me +see how fast you can run." Oh no! indeed, he wouldn't. He just clung +fast to me and wanted to go with me. Oh well--pooh!--I could just as +well take him along. It would be fun for him, too, to hear the bells. + +When I thought Peter was well up the first flight of stairs I pushed +open the heavy church door with its lead weight, and Karl and I squeezed +into the church. He was heavy to drag up the stairs and I hauled and +dragged as hard as I could, and he never whimpered once,--just thought +it was great fun. + +Peter had already begun to ring. The gale raged up here as if we were +out on a wild sea, and sent mournful wails through all the cracks and +openings. The church tower itself seemed to sway! + +I had got Karl up the last flight of stairs. Back of the great +cross-beam we were splendidly hidden. I peeped out once or twice. Peter +stood with his eyes shut and pulled and pulled on the great rope. The +big bells swung back and forth over our heads. + +Oh! how the bells clanged and how the wind howled and roared! I had to +force myself to stand still and not jump over to the window to look down +upon the trees as they swayed and bowed in the strong blast. But I must +not do it, of course, for then Peter would see me and I should only get +another long scolding preachment. Besides, I had all I could do to keep +fast hold of Karl. He was determined to go out from behind the beam, +and every time the bells rang louder than usual he screamed with +delight. He was welcome to scream as loud as he liked, Peter could hear +nothing of it anyway. + +But all of a sudden, and very much sooner than I had expected, Peter +stopped ringing. One, two, three--he slammed the tower windows shut. As +quickly as possible I hurried Karl down the first two flights, but by +that time Peter was almost upon us. Without thinking of anything except +that Peter mustn't see us, I dragged Karl back into a dark corner, +though it was dusky everywhere. At that moment Peter passed us. He +shuffled along close to us and I could hear how carefully he groped his +way down the stairs. + +All at once it flashed over me that he would get down from the tower +before we did, lock the door and go away. I clutched Karl and dragged +him along over the nearly dark stairs, he stumbling, falling and crying +a little. Peter was already in the weapon-room. + +"Peter, Peter!" I shouted anxiously. "Don't lock it! Don't lock it! I am +up here." + +But do you suppose that Peter heard? Not a bit! + +He opened the heavy church door and slammed it shut again. By that time +I was right there, shouting and hammering at the door; but the key +turned in the lock and Peter went his way round the corner. + +Yes, he had gone, and there were we! + +I was so afraid,--I don't believe I was ever so afraid in my whole long +life! I hammered on the door with my fists, I shouted and screamed. +Nobody heard me. Outside, the storm howled and roared. + +No, I knew well enough that in such weather no one would think of coming +to the churchyard, not even a child or a maid with a baby-carriage. And +the church door opened on the churchyard, not on the street. It was +impossible for any one to hear us all the way from the street in such a +storm. + +I turned around almost wild with fright. What could I do? +Perhaps--perhaps we could get out through a window. + +But if we tried that, we must go into the church itself. And just think! +I got more afraid than ever when I thought of that, for all the ghost +stories I had ever heard came to my mind. Suppose that Mina's +great-grandfather, for instance, whose tomb was in there, should come +walking down the church aisle, stiff and white! + +I clutched Karl's hand so tightly that he screamed. + +"Karl dear--little man--we must go into the church. You won't be afraid, +will you?" + +Karl looked uncertain as he gazed at me and asked: + +"Are you afraid?" + +Then I realized that I must be brave; and when there is a "must" you +can, you know; and there is no use in whimpering, anyway. + +"Are you afraid?" asked little Karl again. + +"Oh, no--no, indeed." + +So I opened the door of the church and peeped in. Rows upon rows of +empty seats showed dimly through the half darkness, but there wasn't the +least sign of Mina's great-grandfather. + +I pulled Karl along, and we almost ran up the church aisle. The whole +time I felt as if something was behind me that I must be on the watch +against. + +O dear, O dear, how frightened I was! + +No, the windows were altogether too high up in the wall even to think of +reaching. For an instant I had a desperate idea of piling seats up on +top of the pulpit and trying to reach a window in that way, but all the +seats were fastened to the floor, and, of course, to move the pulpit was +impossible for me. + +All at once the thought of the bells struck me--I could ring the bells! +I need only climb up to the tower, shove the shutters aside as I had +seen Peter do many a time, and then just ring and ring till people came +and unlocked the church. + +But, O dear!--then the whole town would know of it and talk of it +forever. How frightfully embarrassing that would be! + +No, no, I wouldn't ring the bells. I'd rather shout myself hoarse. So +Karl and I screamed: "Open the door for us! Open the door, open the +door!" But the storm outside roared and howled louder than we could and +no one heard us. We didn't keep quiet an instant. We ran back and forth +screaming, and banging and kicking on all the doors. + +Suddenly I thought of the vestry. Like a flash I darted in there. Oh! +what a relief--what a relief! The windows here were low--only a few feet +above the ground; here it would be easy enough to get out. I rushed to a +window--but would you believe it! there wasn't a sign of a hook or a +hinge! These windows hadn't been opened in all the hundreds of years the +church had stood. That's the way people built in old times. + +Here I was right near the ground and yet couldn't get out. In my +desperation I seized an old book with a clasp that lay there, and +smashed a window-pane with it, and then I stuck my face through the +broken pane and shouted out into the storm, "Open the door!" + +Not a person was to be seen; but merely to feel the fresh air blowing on +my face gave me more courage. + +"Has God a knife?" suddenly asked Karl. + +Yes, I thought He had. + +"Well, if He has a knife, He could just cut the door to pieces, and then +we could go out." + +At that moment I saw old Jens pass the window as he came shambling +through the churchyard. He is a dull-witted fellow who lives at the +poorhouse. + +I wasn't slow in getting my face to the window again, you may be sure! + +"Jens, Jens-s-s! Come and open the door. I'm locked in the church." + +Never in my life shall I forget how Jens looked when he heard me call. +He sank almost to his knees; his lips moved quickly but without a sound +coming forth. + +[Illustration: And smashed a window-pane with it.--_Page 165._] + +At last, when he had quite got it into his head that it was my familiar +face he saw at the vestry's broken window, he drew near very cautiously. + +"Is she in the church?" was what came from him finally in the utmost +amazement. + +"Why, yes, you can see that I am," said I. "Run as fast as you can and +get some one to open the door. Get the minister or the deacon or Peter, +the bellows-blower." + +Jens set down a tin pail he carried and seemed to be thinking deeply. + +"But how came she in church?" + +I had no wish to explain to him. + +"Oh, never mind that! Just run and get the key, do please, Jens." Then +Jens trudged away. + +Oh, how long he was gone! I stared and stared at the lilac bushes +swaying back and forth before the window, twisting and bending low in +the storm, and I waited and waited, but no Jens appeared. It grew darker +and darker and Karl cried in earnest now, and wanted to smash all the +windows with the clasped book. The only thing that gave me comfort was +Jens' tin pail. It lay on the ground shining through the dark. I +reasoned that Jens was sure to come back to get his pail. Finally I +heard footsteps and voices, a key was put in the lock, and there at the +open door stood the deacon, Jens, and the deacon's eight children. + +"Who is this disturbing the peace of the church?" asked the deacon with +the corners of his mouth drawn down. + +"I haven't disturbed anything," said I. "I only want to get out." + +"There must be an explanation of this," said the deacon. "I have no +orders to open the church at this time of the day." + +I began to be afraid that the door would be shut again! + +"Oh, but you will let me out!" said I pleadingly. + +"Ah, in consideration of the circumstances," said the deacon. I did not +wait to hear more, but squeezed myself and Karl out and through the +deacon's flock of children. + +Since that day when I meet old Jens, he bows to me in a very knowing +way; and if I want to tease him I say, "Weren't you the 'fraid-cat that +time I called to you from the church?" + +I myself was more afraid than he was, but old Jens couldn't know that. + +And what do you think of my having to pay for the pane of glass I broke +in the vestry? Well--that was exactly what I had to do, if you please. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AT GOODFIELDS + + +Now you shall hear about my summer vacation and all sorts of things. + +We stayed at a farm in the country in a high valley. The farm was called +Goodfields, and they certainly were good fields, for such fat horses, +and such round cows, and such rich milk I never saw before in all my +life. For the horses could hardly get between the shafts of the +wagons--that is really true--and the cows were like trolls' cows; the +trolls' cows (in the fairy stories) are so well taken care of that they +shine so you can almost see your face in them, you know. The Goodfields +cows could thank old Kari, the milkmaid, for their plumpness. + +Kari is seventy and looks very, very old. + +All through the week she never sat down, but went puttering about the +whole day long; on Sunday evenings she sat out on the hill and smoked +her clay pipe. I used to lie beside her on the grass. + + "The horse and the man + Have to bear all they can. + But the cow and the wife + Fare the hardest in life," + +said old Kari. And therefore she always raked away the best hay from the +horses and stuffed the cows with it. + +It was out on the hill that Kari told about the Goodfields brownie in +the old days. Old Kari's mother had often driven in a sledge over +Goodfields hill while the brownie stood behind on the runner chuckling +and laughing. But the queer thing was that when they stopped at the top +of the hill or down in the valley, they didn't see him, but no sooner +had they started off than there was the brownie on the runner again. + +It is really horrid that there are no brownies in the world any more! + +Goodfields lay high up among the mountains. There were great green hills +and meadows stretching down towards the fjord, and dark spruce forests +above on the mountain, and far below, the still, shining fjord. And +behind each other as far as we could see there were just mountains, +exquisite blue mountains, rising into the bright sunny air. + +The buildings were very big; there was nothing small at Goodfields, two +big main houses with big drawing-rooms and big canopied beds and big +down puffs, and big goats' milk cheeses like mountains, and big +milk-pans. + +That's the way it was at Goodfields, beauty and plenty everywhere. And +it all belonged to Mother Goodfields. And she was the nicest person in +the world, for she was so kind. She wasn't the least bit cross when we +tagged after her in the dairy and the grain-house, and we might eat all +the green gooseberries in the garden, if we wanted to. And everybody who +was poor and sick went to Mother Goodfields, as all the people in the +neighborhood called her. She was big and strong and earnest and helped +them all. She was a widow and had no children, and it seemed to her so +lonely on the big farm that she took summer boarders. + +On the fjord the little steamboat went up one day and down the next, +with foreigners who sat stretching their legs out on the deck and stared +sleepily at the mountains. + +I am not fond of mountains, to tell the truth. Ugh! when you stay among +them it seems so cramped and horrid. You feel just like a little ant at +last. No, give me the sea, with its seaweed tossing on the waves, and +its rocking boats and vessels, and the reefs and the fresh wind. + +There were many times at Goodfields when it was so downright hot in the +valley that I felt like crying when I thought of the sea. My brother +Karsten felt exactly the same. + +There were eight mothers and eleven children and five teachers at +Goodfields that summer. I can't describe them, it would take too long; +besides all grown up women are alike, it seems to me. There were only +two big children of my age at Goodfields, Petter Kloed and Andrine Voss. +Petter Kloed was very elegant; only think, he wore yellow gloves way off +there in the country. And what he liked best in the world was ice-cream +and champagne. Never in my life had I tasted either ice-cream or +champagne, but I didn't say so, for that would be awkward. And then +Petter Kloed was not really nice to his mother, I think, and that was a +great shame, for Mrs. Kloed doted on him, and would give him anything if +he only looked at it. + +Andrine Voss was hardly pretty at all, but she had awfully long +eyelashes and when she half shut her eyes she looked very mysterious. +But she only looked so, she wasn't the least bit mysterious, for she was +my best friend and did everything I wanted her to the whole summer. + +We have decided that she shall marry a county judge, and I a doctor, +but we will live in the same house and have just the same number of +children. And we are going to be friends all our lives. + +The other children who were at Goodfields that summer were just little +ones, some roly-polys and some thin, pale, little things who were +dressed in laces and took malt extract, and had legs no bigger than +drumsticks. + +One Sunday we went to church. Four fat horses and four wagons started +from Goodfields with the churchgoers. + +It was so peaceful and so beautiful; down on the fjord one boat after +another set out from the opposite side bringing people to church; the +boats left a broad streak behind them in the calm, smooth water. + +We drove past little groups of peasants--women and girls with white +linen head-dresses, and men in shirt-sleeves with their jackets over +their arms, for the sun was roasting hot on the open roads. "Good +cheer," they all greeted us with, and when we had passed I heard them +whisper to each other: "They are the summer folk from Goodfields." + +More and more people gathered along the quiet roads; and there on a +height stood the church,--a white wooden church with a low tower, and a +church-bell which rang with a cracked sound out over the leafy forest +and the fields and the still water. + +The horses were tied in a long row on the other side of the road, and +the boys and men stood leaning against the stone wall around the +churchyard, but the women were farther in among the graves. They all +exchanged greetings, shaking hands loosely, standing well away from each +other. "Thanks for our last meeting," they said, looking quickly away. +It was so queer. People don't do like that in town. + +They sang without an organ, and it sounded so innocent, somehow, and the +church door stood wide open to the sunshine. But what do you think +happened? In came a goat right in the midst of the hymn. + +The church clerk stood in the choir door and led the singing; one of his +arms was of no use; I had heard of that. All at once there in the open +church door stood a goat. I wonder what's going to happen now, thought +I. + +The goat turned his head first one way, then the other,--then as true as +you live he came pattering in. Patter, patter, sounded short and sharp +over the church floor. Every one turned to look, and the singing died +away, little by little, but no one got up to put the goat out. + +Farther and farther up towards the choir pattered the goat. Suddenly the +clerk saw him. For a moment he looked terribly bewildered, then very +thoughtfully he laid his psalm-book aside and walked down the aisle. + +Then you should have seen the clerk engineer the goat out with his one +arm. He had hold of one horn, and the goat resisted, and the clerk +shoved, and so, little by little, they worked themselves down the +church. Oh, I shall never forget it! + +The singing stopped altogether, except that one and another old woman +off in the corners held the tune with shaky voices. I was awfully +interested in seeing how the goat and the clerk got on. If it had been +I, I should have hurried that goat out faster than the clerk did, I'll +wager. + +Down by the door the goat got all ready to jump, wanting to start up the +aisle again. If the tussle had lasted a moment longer I should have had +to laugh--but then the clerk made a mighty effort, turned the goat +entirely around, and there it was--out! + +The clerk in the meantime had risen to the occasion, for at the very +instant that the goat went head over heels down the steps, he took up +the tune just where he had left off, and sang all the way up the aisle. +Awfully well done of him, I think. + +There! Now you understand what it was like at Goodfields, and now you +shall hear about all the different things that happened in our summer +vacation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OLEANA'S CLOCK + + +At Goodfields, the houses for the farm laborers are up in the forest. +Towards Goodfields itself, the forest is thick and dark, but up where it +has been cleared, willows and alders grow in clumps, and there are tiny +little fields and still smaller potato patches, belonging to each +sun-scorched hut with its turf roof and windows of greenish glass. From +the clearing you can look upward to the mountains, or downward, over the +thick pines and through the leafy trees, to the smooth, shining fjord. + +All the huts for the farm-hands were full to running over with children. +In Henrik-hut there were nine, in Steen-hut eight, and in North-hut +eleven; and they were all tow-headed and bare-footed and all had mouths +stained with blueberries. + +Henrik-hut was the place we summer-boarder-children liked best because +there was a dear old grandmother there with such soft, kind eyes. She +could not go out any more, but sat always in an armchair beside the +window; on the window-sill lay her much-worn brown prayer-book. + +Oleana was Grandmother Henrik-hut's daughter. She was big, very much +freckled, always good-natured, and talked a steady stream, often about +her husband. She didn't seem highly delighted with him. + +"Poor Kaspar!" said Oleana. "He hasn't brains enough for anything. No, I +can truly say he hasn't much sense under his hat. Things would be pretty +bad at Henrik-hut if there were no Oleana here." And Kaspar agreed with +her perfectly. + +"I haven't much sense, or learning either," said Kaspar. "But that's the +way it goes in the world,--one clever one and one stupid one come +together; and so Oleana manages everything, you see." + +Even with Oleana to manage, however, things had often been bad enough at +Henrik-hut. They had almost starved at times, Grandmother, Kaspar, +Oleana and all the nine children. + +"It isn't worth speaking of now," said Oleana, "the hard scratching we +have had many a time. But when the summer boarders,--fine city +folk,--came to Goodfields, luck came to Henrik-hut." + +Oleana did the washing for these summer guests and earned money that +way, you see. + +"It's just as if all this money were given to me!" said Oleana. "For our +Lord fills the brooks with water and the work I put on the clothes is +nothing to count." + +There were beds everywhere in the one room of the hut, and what with +shelves and clothes, wooden bowls and buckets and even shiny +scrap-pictures on the walls, there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere. The +floor was shiningly clean, however, and strewn with juniper boughs, and +the sun shone cheerily through the greenish window-panes, on +Grandmother and the nine tow-headed children, and all. + +Oleana had been married twenty-one years and in all that time had never +owned a clock. Through the long darkness of the winter afternoons and +evenings, when the snow lay thick and heavy on the pine-trees round +about, and the roads were blocked in every direction with high drifts, +there they would be in the hut;--Oleana and Grandmother and the nine +tow-heads and the husband without much sense under his hat,--and not +even the clever Oleana would have the remotest idea what o'clock it was. +In summer she looked at the sun to tell the time, and on clear winter +nights at the stars; though to see these, she had to get up in the cold +and breathe on the thickly frosted window-pane to make a space to peep +through. + +One day while I was at Henrik-hut talking with Oleana, it occurred to me +that we summer-boarder-children might put our money together and buy a +clock for Oleana. The grown-up people wanted to help, and so we got a +lot of money; and a big clock with a white dial and red roses was bought +in the city. + +Then it was such fun surprising Oleana with it! We had an awfully jolly +time. A message was sent to her asking her to come to Goodfields; and +down she came with her hair wet and smooth, and a clean stiff +working-dress on, but having no notion what we wanted of her. + +The clock had been hung up in the hall at Goodfields and its shining +brass pendulum was swinging with a slow and sure tick-tock. All the +ladies stood around and I was to present the clock. + +"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock;--and that's it." + +Oleana looked as if the sky had fallen. + +"Oh no, no, no!" she cried. "It isn't possible--of course not! Why +should I have that clock?" + +"Because you have so many children," said I. + +Just then the clock struck six clear strokes, and Oleana began to cry. + +"I never knew there were such kind people in the world," said Oleana, as +she stood with folded hands, looking up at the clock through her tears. +"Never, never!" + +She didn't know how she got home, she told us later, only she had felt +as if she were walking on air, she was so happy. + +"And I didn't know enough to thank any one either. I was as if I had +clean gone out of my wits!" + +The first few nights that the clock hung on the wall at Henrik-hut, +Oleana did not have much sleep, for every time the clock struck, she +awoke and called down blessings on all the guests at Goodfields. + +"Everything goes by the clock with us now," said Oleana. "It's nothing +at all to do the work at Henrik-hut when you have a clock." + +[Illustration: "Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock."--_Page +183._] + +When the dark winter comes, when it snows and blows and the roads are +blocked, how pleasant it will be to think that Oleana Henrik-hut, away +up in the forest above Goodfields, has a clock ticking and ticking, and +striking the hours; and that she does not need now to get up in the +cold, dark nights, breathe upon the frosted panes and peep up at the +stars to find out the time! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A TRIP TO GOODFIELDS SAETER + + +Mother Goodfields had made us a regular promise,--and shaken hands on +it,--that we should go to the saeter some time during the summer. +Goodfields saeter lay about fourteen miles west in the mountains. Every +day I reminded Mother Goodfields of her promise so that she should not +forget it, you see. For it often seems to me that grown-up people forget +very easily. + +We had decided beforehand that it was to be Petter Kloed, Karsten, +Andrine, and I who should go. + +None of the grown-ups would join us. Mrs. Proet said she should have to +be well paid to go, and really, such fine, fashionable ladies as she +aren't fit for a saeter anyway. Miss Mangelsen was afraid there would be +fleas, and Miss Melby was afraid that she being so stout, the boat we +had to cross the mountain lake in would not be strong enough to bear +her. Miss Jordan had been at a hundred saeters, she said, and the only +difference among them was that one was a little dirtier than another; +and that degree of difference she wouldn't bother herself to see, she +said. Mrs. Kloed is so nervous she never dares do anything. So at last +there were none to go but Petter, Karsten, Andrine, and myself, as I +have said. + +Karsten had taken it into his head that at saeters there were always +bears, and that cream at saeters was always exactly an inch thick; and +bears and inch-thick cream were what he wanted to see. Petter Kloed +wished to get hold of certain mountain flowers that he could classify. +Such botany I will have nothing to do with. I smell the flowers and +think they are charming, but I don't care a button which class they +belong to, not I! As for going to the saeter, Andrine and I wanted to go +just for the fun of going. + +Well, one day in August, Olsen, the farm-boy, and Trond Oppistuen were +going to the saeter to cut hay. If we wished, we were welcome to go +along with them. + +If we wished! Hurrah! + +The next morning off we went. The lunch, and Andrine, and I, and +Karsten, and Petter Kloed were in a wagon, and Trond and Olsen walked +alongside with their scythes and rakes on their shoulders. + +Far, far up the mountain we were to go--away up where the trees looked +no taller than half a pin's length, and the thin light air was white and +shining; up there and then far along to the west. + +Olsen was red-haired and freckled, small and wiry. He kept step with the +horse the whole way, but Trond lagged behind us down the slope. + +We all sang, each our own tune, as we climbed. The air was clear, oh! so +clear! The farms in the valley grew smaller and smaller, and the birch +trees we passed were little and stunted. + +Whenever Petter Kloed jumped out of the wagon after a flower or +anything, we whipped the horse so as to get as far ahead of him as +possible; Petter is as lazy as a log and hates to walk a step, so it was +good enough for him. + +Any boy with more grown-up, mannish airs than Petter Kloed puts on could +not be found the world over. He wears long trousers and has been in the +theatre a thousand times, he says; he smokes cigarettes too; and, +always, about everything, no matter what it is, he says, pooh! he has +seen that before; so it seems as if there were nothing left that could +amuse him. Andrine admires him sometimes, I know that very well, but +such silly puppies can go or stay for all I care. However, it was jolly +to have him with us on the saeter trip,--just for the fun of teasing +him, you know. + +Karsten and Petter disputed the whole time as to how high we were in the +air and how high up it was possible to breathe. At last they got all the +way to the moon and Jupiter. + +"I'll bet you anything you choose that Jupiter has air that people could +breathe," said Karsten. + +"That's just the kind of thing such a cabbage-head as you would bet on," +said Petter Kloed. + +At that--only think! Karsten pitched into Petter and then they began to +fight in the back of the wagon. + +"Are you Tartars both of you?" said I, and took a tight grip in the back +of Karsten's jacket. "Don't you jump out of your skin now! If you fly at +people this way as you are always doing, you shall trot back to +Goodfields alone!" + +"He--he is just as much of a cabbage-head as I am," mumbled Karsten, but +he didn't dare to say another word, for after all, he has to respect me, +you see. + +Then I suggested that we should eat some of our luncheon. It's so +pleasant to eat out-of-doors! + +We were high, high up on the mountain, where we could see nothing but +forests and mountains, a whole sea of dark, thick pine forests, and just +mountains and mountains and mountains. There we drank toasts to Norway, +to the summer, and to each other, and sang: "_Ja, vi elsker dette +landet_," our national song, you know, and had an awfully jolly time. + +But up there it was so still, so still! Nothing but gray-brown moor and +dwarf birches, and willows and ice-cold mountain brooks. Far over across +the moor we could see the road like a narrow gray ribbon in the +monotonous brown. Far west were the snow-capped peaks, sharp, jagged and +blue, and with great snow-drifts. It was very beautiful, unspeakably +strange and still. We all grew silent. + +"Ugh! I wouldn't be alone here for a good deal," said Andrine. + +"I would just as soon be here in pitch darkness--if I only had my knife +with me," said Karsten. + +At that instant a ptarmigan flew up right at the side of the road, and +Karsten came near falling backwards out of the cart and measuring his +length on the ground. + +You may be sure we all made fun of him then. + +"He would like to be alone on the mountain, he would! And yet he tumbles +over in fright at a ptarmigan!" + +"If you can stand like a lamp-post in a cart that wobbles the way this +rickety old cart does, I'll cover you with gold," said Karsten, +offended. + +That's the way we kept on. We quarreled and had a jolly time. + +All at once a flock of goats came scrambling down the road as scared as +if their lives were in danger. And we all wished that we might see a +bear. Can you think of anything more exciting than to meet a bear on the +road? + +Petter Kloed would just go very quietly to him and scratch his back. He +had done that a hundred times in the menagerie, he said. For if you just +approached a bear in the right way it was a very good-natured beast, +said Petter Kloed, as he lit a cigarette back there in the cart. + +Karsten would rather wrestle with the bear and strangle him; for if any +one wanted to see a muscle that was a stunner, they could just look +here; and Karsten turned up his jacket sleeves while we all examined his +muscle. + +The road was unspeakably long, however. The horse jogged on and on but +we didn't seem to get a bit farther. After we had eaten all the +luncheon, I thought that never in the world would this road come to an +end. When we asked Olsen how much farther we had to go, he would only +say, "Far away there--and far away there." All I could think of was the +fairy tale about the prince who had to go beyond the mountain into the +blue. Andrine got drowsy and wanted to sleep, and I had to take Karsten +in front with us; for, strangely enough, the longer we rode the less +room there was for Karsten's and Petter's legs in the back of the wagon. +At last they did nothing but kick each other, so Karsten had to come in +front and Petter could sit in lonely grandeur on the wooden lunch-box. + +Finally we came in sight of the water that we had to cross. It was a +large lake, black and still. + +"Hurrah! You must wake up now, Andrine!" + +There lay the boat we were to row over in, and there was the enclosure +where the horse was to be left. Oh, how good it was to stretch one's +legs after sitting so long! + +But now Karsten began to put on airs. He wanted to show how clever he +was in a boat, so he took command, gave orders, and thrashed the air +with his arms,--you never saw such behavior. + +"He's a great fellow in a boat," said Trond. + +The stones at the edge of the lake were wet and slimy. Petter Kloed +clambered into the boat with great care. + +"Look out for yourself, you landlubber!" said Karsten. Then he pressed +an oar hard against a stone to shove the boat out from shore. +Everything was to go at full speed, you see, but the oar slipped and +Karsten went head over heels into the water. It was only by a hair's +breadth that we escaped having that flat, rickety boat turn upside down +with us all. I can tell you I was thoroughly frightened then. I have +always heard that there is no bottom to these mountain lakes, but that +the water goes straight through the earth! Although we were scarcely +more than a fathom's length from shore, the water was deep black, and +you couldn't see any bottom. + +"Oh! Karsten! Karsten!" + +His head bobbed up between the water-lilies and broad green leaves, and +Olsen hauled him up into the boat. + +"Ah-chew! Pshaw! Ah-chew! that horrid oar!" sneezed and scolded Karsten, +as soon as he got his breath. "Horrid old boat! Horrid old water! +Ah-chew!" + +"Now we must row fast," said Trond--"so that this body doesn't get sick, +he is so wet." And Trond and Olsen began rowing briskly over the water. +But Karsten lay in the bottom of the boat with Andrine's and my +raincoats over him, looking awfully fierce and gloomy. I can't tell you +how tempted we were to tease him, but we were so high-minded and +considerate that we didn't do it. Of course, I might have teased him +myself, but if Petter Kloed had tried it, he would have had me to reckon +with. Karsten was furious if we even spoke to him. + +"Are you cold?" I asked. + +"Hold your tongue," said Karsten. + +Trond and Olsen rowed so that the sweat ran down their faces, and soon +there we were, across. We saw Goodfields saeter above the hill and began +running, all four of us. Nobody was to be seen outside the hut, and we +nearly frightened the life out of Augusta, the milkmaid, when we stormed +in upon her. But when she had gathered herself together, she laughed and +her white teeth fairly glistened. + +"Now this is grand! I never could have thought of anything like this!" +said Augusta, the milkmaid. + +Then Karsten had to be undressed and put into Augusta's bed, and all his +clothes were hung by the hearth and Augusta built up such a hot fire to +dry them that they made everything steamy. Suddenly she remembered that +the son from Broker farm was staying at a near-by saeter just now. +Perhaps he had some clothes that Karsten might borrow. Olsen was sent +over there and came home with some things. It was mighty good that +Karsten could get up, for he wasn't very agreeable while he lay in bed, +you may be sure. + +What a sight he was when he was dressed! I shall never forget it. With a +jacket that reached below his knees and Augusta's kerchief on his +head--oh, he did look so funny! But not the least shadow of a smile did +we dare allow ourselves, for he would at once have flown under the +sheepskin bedclothes again, crosser than ever. That's the way Karsten +is, you see. + +Oh, pshaw! A fine rain had begun, the mountains were perfectly black, +and patches of fog lay all around. + +"Perhaps you'd like to fish," said Augusta; "they usually bite in such +weather." + +Trond and Olsen had begun to cut the grass around the hut, and Petter +Kloed and Karsten started off with fishing-rods over their shoulders. +You should have seen Karsten with the fishing-rod and with the kerchief +on his head. + +Andrine and I wanted to help Augusta get dinner, for it was exactly like +playing in a doll-house, only much more fun! Augusta made some +cream-porridge and her face shone like a polished sun--with the heat and +the anxiety that the porridge should be good. We had salt in a paper +cornucopia, milk in wooden bowls, and shining yellow wooden spoons to +eat with. + +What fun! Even if the rain were trickling down the window, we were +enjoying ourselves tremendously. + +Well, now you shall hear what a hullabaloo there was at the saeter that +afternoon. + +It had begun to grow dark, for it was the last of August. Trond and +Olsen had gone to another saeter to see some friends of theirs. +Immediately after dinner Petter and Karsten had gone out to fish again, +because before dinner they had caught only a baby trout about as long as +your finger. However, Karsten broiled that, insides and all. + +Just as Augusta, Andrine and I were milking out in the barn, we heard a +scream that I shall never forget. I thought it was Karsten's voice, and +I was so frightened I didn't know what to do with myself. The whole moor +was so dark that nothing was to be seen. There came another scream, and +without a word Augusta ran out on the moor. But an instant after Karsten +came rushing around the corner of the barn, with face pale as death and +his hair standing straight up. + +"A bear! A bear! He is after me! Oh, help! Oh, oh!" + +Into the barn he dashed, Andrine and I at his heels, hastily shutting +the door. It was pitch-dark in the barn. + +"Was he after you? Where is Petter?" + +My heart was pounding. Bears usually knocked a barn-door in with one +whack, and here we stood in pitch-black darkness. + +Karsten was so out of breath he could scarcely speak. + +"Oh! the way he ran! I never would have believed a bear could run so!" +panted Karsten. + +"Oh!--oh!--oh!" shrieked some one outside the barn. "Help! oh, help!" + +It was Petter's voice, and we heard also an animal breathing quickly and +then something like a growl. + +As with one impulse Andrine, Karsten, and I sprang into a stall behind a +cow. The bear would surely take the cow first before it took us. How +unspeakably frightened I was! Karsten wanted to get behind Andrine and +me too, and puffed and pushed himself in, and we got to fighting there +in the stall just from sheer fright. + +There came a horrible thump against the barn-door, it burst open and +Petter Kloed tumbled into the barn on all fours; and leaping on his +back was a big black beast. + +How Petter howled I could never give you any idea, for such a howl must +be heard if you are to know what it was like. Karsten and I shrieked +with him; and all the cows got up, rattled their chains, and bellowed. + +"Ha ha! Ha ha!" laughed Augusta from the barn-door. "Did any one ever +see such doings! Oh, I really must laugh! I was pretty sure it was the +dog, old Burmann. There hasn't been a bear on this mountain the whole +year. Shame on you, Burmann, to frighten folk this way!" + +"How you did howl, Petter!" said Karsten, coming out of the stall. + +"Perhaps you didn't scream," said Petter Kloed. + +They quarreled and disputed till the sparks flew, as to which had been +the most scared. But my knees trembled so I had to sit down on a +milking-stool, and Andrine cried and sobbed, she had been so +frightened. + +Karsten got braver and braver. + +"I was no more scared out of my wits than I ever am," said he. "I +screamed only because--because--well, just so that Petter could hear +where I was!" + +"Such a horrid dog!" said Petter, reaching after Burmann. + +"You could just have scratched his back as you do to bears in +menageries," said I. Augusta laughed so that her laughter echoed through +the whole place, and I teased them as much as I could. When I really +make a point of it, I'm awful at teasing--it is such fun. + +"Ugh! Girls are nothing but rubbish," said Karsten. + +"To think that you didn't strangle the bear with such muscles as you +have," I said. + +"If you don't keep still!" said Karsten threateningly. + +It was such fun! I laughed till my cheeks ached. + +My! but that was an awfully jolly and delightful visit to the saeter. +But at night Andrine and I slept in a bed that was as hard as a stone, +and Andrine lay the whole night right across the bed and squeezed me +almost to death. + +In the morning the air and everything was oh, so fresh! Our hair blew +all over our faces; we washed in the brook and the water was so cold +that our finger-nails ached. + +After breakfast we started home again. We stood up in the wagon and +shouted hurrah as long as we could see Augusta in the saeter hut door, +and after that we sang all the way down the mountain. + +But that story of the bear at the saeter Petter and Karsten had to hear +all summer long, for they were just as puffed up as ever. + +Nothing impresses such conceited boys, you know. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LOST IN THE FOREST + + +Oh, that awful, awful time! Even now I can wake in the middle of the +night, start up in bed and stare around frightened and trembling, for I +dream that I am in the dark forest alone, as I was that time at +Goodfields. Well, I wasn't absolutely alone, but I was the oldest, you +see, and so I had all the responsibility for both of us, and that is +almost worse than to be alone. + +It was little brother Karl who was with me. We children were going to +have a blueberry party--that was the beginning of the whole thing. We +wanted to treat all the grown-up boarders, and Mother Goodfields, and +the maids too. They should all have blueberries with powdered sugar, +nothing else; anyway that was enough. But we should need a lot of +blueberries, oh, a frightful lot of them! + +So we went off, each choosing his own clump of bushes, and picked and +picked; and then Karlie-boy and I got lost. Now, you shall hear. + +It was in the morning, a very hot morning. The air in the valley had +been perfectly still all night. We had slept beside open windows with +only a sheet over us. + +Immediately after breakfast I flew to the forest, for I knew a place +where I wanted to pick berries all by myself. Just as I was climbing +over the fence of the home hill-pasture, Karl saw me and called out, "I +want to go with you--it's mean of you--oh! oh! to run away from me--I +want to go too." + +He made such a hullabaloo with his screaming that I had to stop and wait +for him. But one ought never in the world to humor screeching children, +for no good comes of it. How much better it would have been for Karl if +he had not been with me that long frightful day in the forest, and that +queer evening in crazy Helen's hut,--for that is where we finally found +ourselves. + +Yes, when I have children, I shall be awfully strict and decided with +them. + +It was cool there in the forest. The sunshine came in only in golden +stripes and spots. Never in my life have I seen so many blueberries and +such high blueberry bushes as we found that day. I picked and picked. +Meanwhile Karl ate and ate, till he was nothing but one big blueberry +stain,--he smeared himself so with the juice. + +"Did Noah have berries with him in the ark?" asked Karl. + +"No, indeed." + +"Then all the blueberries must have been drowned in the flood." + +"Ugh, what a silly you are!" + +"Well, anyway, Noah had cannon with him in the ark." + +Oh, I get so sick of cannons with Karl! Whatever he talks about, he +always mixes up something about cannons in it. + +It was unspeakably fresh and still in the forest. I ran from one +blueberry patch to another, but you may chop my head off if I +understand in the least how it happened that we got lost; for I usually +keep my eyes open and have my wits about me too. + +All at once Karl sat himself down in a blueberry patch. + +"Ugh--blueberries are disgusting," said he. + +"That's because you have stuffed yourself with them," I replied. + +"I want some bread and butter," said Karl. "And I'm tired--so tired." + +"Oh, keep still." + +A minute after, it was exactly the same. + +"I'm so tired, so tired." + +O dear! I should certainly have to take him home. We were in a little +open space. Pine-trees stood close together around it, whispering +softly. To save my life, I could not remember which direction we had +come from; there were little mounds and moss and blueberry patches and +pine-trees everywhere. + +Whoever knew such a pickle as this? How in the world had we come here? I +couldn't tell--no matter which way I looked. I sprang here and I ran +there to find something I recognized, but I got more and more bewildered +and Karl grew crosser and crosser. He kicked at his basket of +blueberries. + +"Horrid old berries! I want to go home--I'm just mad at everything here. +I'm mad as can be." + +If you have never been in a great forest, you cannot possibly imagine +anything so bewildering. Trees and trees and trees in every direction +and nothing else; no clear space, no opening anywhere. But even yet I +wasn't a bit afraid. The sunshine was bright, the forest air fragrant +and I had three quarts of blueberries in my basket--three quarts at the +very least. But Karl was heavy to drag along and my berry basket weighed +down my other arm, and there was no end to the trees. + +[Illustration: How we wandered,--round and round, up and down, hither +and thither.--_Page 208._] + +O me! How we wandered,--round and round, up and down, hither and +thither! We would go ten steps in one direction, then five steps in +another--I didn't know where we had been or where we hadn't. All at once +everything seemed to be rough and horrid; great trees, uprooted, lay +topsy-turvy in our way, rotten branches were under foot everywhere, and +the ground was boggy and swampy. The whole place was dreadful. + +I remember perfectly that it was right there that I began to be +afraid--so terrified that I felt as if down inside of me I was shivering +with fear, for I happened to think that we might meet a bull in the +forest,--Kaspar's bull that is horribly fierce; and of all things in the +world I am most afraid of a bull. + +"Oh, Karlie boy, Karlie boy! We are lost!" + +He gave one glance at me and burst out crying. Louder and louder he +cried, and heavier and heavier he was to drag along, as if he were a big +log that would not budge from its place. It was weird and uncanny +somehow,--that he should scream so loud in the silent forest. And if +there were a bull anywhere in the forest, even far away, it could hear +his crying; and then it would come leaping--it would come leaping---- + +I listened and listened, I seemed to hear with a thousand ears--and I +looked and searched to see if I could not recognize even one tree or one +blueberry clump. But no; never in the world had I been in this place +before. Then we turned and went in exactly the opposite direction. Ugh! +No, no--the forest was just as thick and dark there. Hark! Did something +crash then? + +"Oh, do be still, Karlie boy!" I listened, holding my breath; perhaps it +was only a bird flying. + +Well, now we would go straight on this way. And there was nothing to be +afraid of; the bright sun was shining, and I had lots and lots of +blueberries, and going this way we would surely get out of the forest. +Thus I comforted myself. + +"Pooh! We'll soon find the way out, you and I." + +"If we had a cannon, we could fire it off, and then they would hear it +at Goodfields," said Karl. + +For once I was glad of Karl's cannon. I talked and talked about cannon +simply to fix my thoughts on something else than the forest, and Karl +dried his tears and asked whether there were any great big cannon, as +big as--as the whole earth, and didn't I think that the Pope had more +cannon than any one else in the world? + +"Hush, Karlie boy! keep still. Do you hear something?" + +Yes, it was cow-bells. Oh, perhaps Kaspar's bull was coming, that awful +bull. "Oh, hurry, hurry, Karlie boy!" We dashed ahead, over branches and +mounds; we ran and ran; I stopped and listened, scarcely breathing. + +"Do you hear it, Karlie boy?" + +Yes, the cow-bells sounded loud and clear through the silence. Well, +anyway, we should soon be out of the forest--I thought I knew where we +were now. + +"Run, Karlie boy! Run, run." There now! There was an opening in the +forest! We rushed forward; but just imagine! We were in that little open +place again,--there where everything was so horrid, where the great +split tree-trunks lay in the swampy moss,--just where I had begun to +have that shivery fear deep down inside of me. We had walked round and +round in a circle. + +And there were the cows! Beyond where the trees were close together, I +saw a black cow that lifted its head and sniffed at us; and other cows, +many cows,--and oh! there was Kaspar's bull! + +I was wild with fright; probably it was then that I threw away my +basket, for I saw it no more. Over hillocks and moss, through bushes and +thickets, I dragged Karl--who was now pale as death, with big wide open +staring eyes, and utterly silent. + +The whole herd was after us, now at a slow trot, now leaping; the bull +was ahead and gave a short, low roar from time to time. Oh! oh! What +should we do! Oh! Karl, Karl!---- + +We had nowhere to turn and no one to help us. What should we do? Then I +prayed--not aloud, but oh, how earnestly! And suddenly I saw that there +was a rock just beyond us--an enormous moss-grown rock. Thither we +rushed. I tore myself on the bushes till I bled. I fell, but rushed on +again till we reached the rock; then I climbed up, gripped tight with +hand and feet, hauled Karl up after me, higher and higher up, as far as +we could get. The rock was perhaps two or three yards high. We were +saved from the bull. And it was God who had saved us, I was sure of +that. I had never seen that rock before anywhere in the forest. + +The bull had made a great leap and stood just below us pawing the +ground, tail in the air. Oh, how he bellowed! + +I held Karl in my arms. The bull could not reach us. He pawed the earth +so that moss and dirt rose in a whirl; he ran around the rock and +bellowed horribly, making as much noise as ten ordinary bulls would +make. And all the cows followed him round and round the rock, lowing and +acting crazy like him. + +Never, never in my life have I been so frightened. Karl grew paler and +paler. Oh, what if he should die of terror? + +"There's nothing to be afraid of now, Karlie boy," I said in a shaky +voice. "The bull could never get up here. No indeed--he can be mighty +sure of that, horrid old beast!" + +"He can be mighty sure of that, horrid old beast!" repeated Karlie boy +with white lips. + +How long did we sit there? I'm sure I don't know. It must have been a +long time, for the sunshine disappeared from among the trees, the cows +laid themselves down in a circle around the rock, the bull went to and +fro. If he went a little way off, he would come rushing back again and +begin to behave worse than ever. The ground about the rock was torn up +as if there had been a great battle there. + +I have often tried to remember what I thought of, all those long hours +on the rock, with that fierce bull below us. I really believe I didn't +think of anything but keeping tight hold of Karl; nor did we talk very +much either. Karl didn't even mention cannon a single time. + +A gentle breeze stirred the tree-tops and the shadows had grown darker +under the close branches when the cows finally began to stir themselves. +Slowly, very slowly, they trailed off between the trees, the bull being +the last to go. As if for a farewell, he dug his horns into the earth +and sent bits of moss flying up to us. At last, at last, he, too, had +gone. + +When the cows started homeward it must have been five or six o'clock, +and we had been in the forest the whole day long. Oh, how hungry, how +awfully hungry I was! And Karl was as pale as a little white flower. +Never--even if I live to be ninety years old--never shall I forget that +summer day on the big moss-grown rock with Kaspar's bull down below. + +Well, then I did something unspeakably stupid. Instead of going the way +the cows had taken (which of course led right to Kaspar's farm), Karl +and I went exactly the opposite way, farther into the forest. Ugh! how +could any one be such a stupid donkey! I'm disgusted whenever I think of +it. + +Karl and I walked on and on for an eternity it seemed. It grew darker +and darker and the air was full of mysterious sounds, low murmurs and +rustlings; my heart thumped frightfully. Just think, if we had to stay +in the forest all night when it was pitch dark! Suppose we never found +our way out to people again---- + +Oh, that big, big forest! + +I did not cry once, I didn't dare to, you see, for Karl's sake. I just +stared and listened, and the forest murmured softly--softly, the whole +time. + +Once in a while we sat down and then Karl would weep bitterly with his +head in my lap, poor little fellow! + +"Now we'll soon get to Goodfields, Karlie boy, and Mother will be so +glad to see us--oh, so glad! Won't it be jolly?" + +"Yes--and then I'm going to have a hundred pieces of bread and butter." + +Suddenly we stumbled against a fence! And as suddenly my weariness +vanished. Where there was a fence, there must be people. We jumped +over the fence. Beyond it was a little cleared space where +stood--yes--really--a tiny hut. Then--wasn't it queer? I was so glad +that I began to cry violently as I dashed towards the house. + +It was so very dark that I could not distinguish anything clearly, but I +could see that there was some one sitting on the door-stone. And just +imagine! When we drew nearer, I saw that it was Crazy Helen, an old +half-witted woman who went about among the farms begging. Many a time +through the summer had she been at Goodfields, and she had told us that +she lived all alone in the forest, high, high up on the mountain. + +I can't possibly tell how I felt when I saw her; not that I was really +afraid of poor Helen, but it was all so strange--so queer. + +"Are you coming here?" asked she, looking up at us and laughing. She had +on the same old brown coat, a man's coat, that she always wore, and was +smoking a clay pipe. + +"Can you tell us the way to Goodfields?" I asked. + +"Goodfields--nice folks at Goodfields; nice mistress there. I know her +very well," said Crazy Helen. + +"Yes--but how shall we go to get there?" I asked again as I sat down +beside her on the door-step. + +"Why, just over that way," said Crazy Helen, pointing back where we had +come from. "Just go that way and you'll get to Goodfields." + +What in the world should I do? How frightened Mother must be about us! +And there was Karl asleep at my side on the bare ground. All kinds of +thoughts were whirling round in my head. Perhaps it was best to let +Karl sleep here in Crazy Helen's hut, and in the morning people might +find us; or Helen could go with us and show us the way to Goodfields. + +"May I lay him on your bed?" I asked, pointing to Karl. + +"Nice little boy is asleep," said Helen. So I put Karl on Crazy Helen's +bed. The floor of the hut was just bare earth, and there was no +furniture but one old stool, I think; but Karl was in a sound sleep and +safe, perfectly safe. + +Then I seated myself again on the door-step beside poor Helen. They had +always said at Goodfields that she had never in the world been known to +do any harm, so I was not really afraid of her. The twinkling stars +shone down upon us, and the forest trees waved noisily. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Crazy Helen, slapping her knees. + +Ugh! it wasn't exactly pleasant here; but sleep I would not; no, no, I +would not. I would just sit up and take care of Karl, but oh, how +unspeakably tired I was! + +"Shall I dance a little for you?" asked Crazy Helen. + +"Oh, no!" I answered. + +Ugh! That would be horrible. On the lawn at Goodfields where, laughing +and joking, we all sat around together and watched Helen dance, it was +very jolly, but it wouldn't be so in the least here in the dark forest, +and alone with her. But if you'll believe it, she began to dance, +notwithstanding--such a queer dance! + +She whirled herself about, hopped off slant-wise, then whirled again +like a spinning top, while the trees sighed in the wind, and the bright, +clear stars looked down on the little space before the hut and on Crazy +Helen dancing. + +Never in my life had I seen anything so queer, so weird. + +"Ho! Heigho!" she sang, as she spun round and round. + +"Hi! Halloa!" some one answered from the forest. + +I sprang up. "Halloa!" I shouted. It must be some one from Goodfields, +some one who was trying to find us, oh, thank God! + +"Halloa!" "Hey there!" + +The shouting was nearer; there were lights among the trees and now the +people came nearer still--now over the fence--oh! oh--it was Trond and +Lisbeth from Goodfields. Oh, oh! how glad I was! I flew in and began to +shake Karl. + +"Karlie boy, wake up--get up--we're going to Mother." But Karl's eyes +would not open, he was so sound asleep. Trond, the farm man, came in and +took him in his arms. Oh, oh! it is impossible to say how glad I was! + +They had been searching for us since four o'clock and now it was ten. +They had called and shouted, and not a sound had we heard. + +Mother had been unspeakably anxious and terrified and wanted to go to +the forest herself, to search, but Mother Goodfields had said no to +that, "because Trond and Lisbeth know the forest better," she had told +Mother. + +Crazy Helen sat herself down on the door-step again, and slapped her +knees and laughed, as before, out into the night. + +Just think of all I lived through in that one day! And still I haven't +told half how strange and uncanny it all was,--the long, long day in the +forest and Crazy Helen dancing under the stars. + +When I got to Goodfields, I ate three eggs and eight slices of bread and +butter, and drank four cups of chocolate. I truly did. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TRAVELLING WITH A BILLY-GOAT + + +Would you believe it? Karsten got a live billy-goat as a present from +Mother Goodfields, and I got a live wild forest-cat from Jens Kverum's +mother. Of course I wanted something alive since Karsten had the goat, +so I begged and teased Agnete Kverum until she finally said I might have +the yellow-brown cat I wanted. Not that I would not rather have had the +goat, you may be sure, though naturally I wouldn't let Karsten know +that. He was puffed up enough over it, as it was. + +Well, anyway, we took both the goat and the cat with us when we went +home; but anything so difficult to travel with you can't possibly +imagine. Now you shall hear the whole story from first to last; for if +anybody else has a desire to take a real live goat or cat with them on +the train or into the ladies' cabin of the steamboat, they had better +know all the bother and row-de-dow it will make. I advise every one +against doing it. All the people who are traveling with you get angry, +although it is scarcely to be expected that a billy-goat or a wild cat +will behave nicely in a ladies' cabin. At any rate, ours didn't. Listen +now. + +Mother Goodfields had any number of goats. They were all up at the +saeter except two, and these roamed in the forest with the cows, because +each of them had an injured leg. But one day one goat was missing and +nobody in the world could find it. + +Old Kari mourned for it constantly and talked of nothing else. Every day +she pictured to herself a new horrible way it had met its death. Either +it had got caught in a mountain crevice and starved to death, or a wolf +had taken it, or Beata Oppistuen had butchered it without any right to. +"That Beata! You could expect any kind of doings from her." Old Kari +went to and fro in the forest seeking the goat till far into the night. + +But one fine day there on the forest side of the farm fence stood the +lost goat with a tiny little baby-goat at her side. And that kid was the +prettiest and cunningest you ever set eyes on. It had a soft silky +little beard, and it stood on its hind legs and hopped and skipped as if +it would jump over into the field. + +The cows came and sniffed at it; the other goat, that had stayed at home +with them, examined it very particularly; and the little kid danced, +zigzag and every which way; and so it was introduced to society, you +might say. + +How we children ran after that little billy-goat! But Karsten was the +worst, for he went to the forest every single day to tend it and brought +it home every single night. + +"I rather think I shall have to give you that kid," said Mother +Goodfields to Karsten one night as he came along carrying it. + +From that time Karsten was a changed boy altogether, for he didn't give +a thought to the big lake that he had cared so much about all summer. In +his brain there was absolutely nothing but that billy-goat. It ate +bread and butter and drank out of a teacup; and one night when Mother +went up to bed she caught a glimpse of Billy-goat's beard above the +blanket beside Karsten's head. Just imagine! Karsten was going to let +the kid sleep with him. But Mother put a stop to that and Karsten had to +hurry down-stairs and out to the barn with the goat. + +Karsten never allowed me to touch Billy-goat and so I wanted to have a +pet animal of my own. I considered seriously for a day or two as to +whether I should not ask Mother Goodfields for a brown calf that was +kept out in the pasture; but one fine morning it was slaughtered, so +there was an end to that plan. Then I brought my desire down to Agnete +Kverum's cat. It was golden-brown and had long hair and was exactly like +a big cosy muff; and in the muff were two great yellow eyes. Whenever I +went up to the Kverum place it sat curled together on the door-sill and +purred and was perfectly charming. I didn't give Agnete a minute's rest +or peace, and so, as you know, I got the cat. + +Strangely enough, Mother was not in the least overjoyed when I came back +carrying the forest-cat. + +"I don't like these presents," said Mother. "There will only be tears +and heartbreak when you have to leave them." + +"Leave them!" exclaimed Karsten and I in one breath. "Oh, but you know +they must go back home with us!" + +"The goat is so smart about going up and down stairs," said Karsten. +"And it likes to drink out of a teacup and it can perfectly well stay in +the hotel garden over night in the city." + +"Are you crazy, you two?" said Mother. "It would never do in the world." + +But we teased and begged so, that Mother finally said yes--we might take +them. For the potato-cellar was full of rats, she said, that the cat +might take care of; and you could always get rid of a goat in our town. +And I promised that I would hold on to the cat through the whole +journey, and Karsten would hold on to the kid, and Mother needn't think +they would be any worry or nuisance to her at all. No indeed--far from +it. + +Well, off we went. When Mother talks of our journey home from the +country that time, she both laughs and cries. First we had to drive +nearly twenty-five miles. Mother and Karl and Olaug, and the kid and +Karsten, and the forest-cat and I, and the hold-all and lunch-basket and +bundle of shawls--all were in one carriage. Nobody kept quiet an +instant, for Karlie boy wanted to know who lived in every single house +along the road, and Olaug whimpered and wanted to eat all the time, and +the forest-cat could not by hook or crook be made to stay in any basket, +but would sit on the driver's seat and look around; so you see, I had to +stand and hold it so it should not fall out of the carriage. And the +goat kicked into the air with all its four legs and would not lie in +Karsten's lap a minute. You had better believe there was a rumpus! + +Mother said afterwards that she just sat and wished that both the cat +and the goat would fall out of the carriage; she would then whip up the +horse and drive away from them, she was so sick of the whole business. + +At last we came to the first place where we were to stay over night. +Karsten and I took our pets with us to our rooms. They should not be put +into a strange barn and be frightened, poor things! But oh, how those +rooms looked in the morning! I can't possibly describe it. + +Mother was desperate. + +"Do let us get away from this place," she said. "There's no knowing how +much I shall have to pay; it will be a costly reckoning, I'll warrant +you." + +It was. + +Well, we all hurried, and flew down to the little steamer. It was +cram-jam full of passengers,--ladies who sat with their opera-glasses +and were very elegant and looked sideways at you; and sun-burnt +gentlemen with tiny little traveling caps. They all looked hard at +Karsten and me with our animals in our arms. + +The billy-goat bleated and was determined to get down on to the deck, +and the cat miaowed and the ladies drew their skirts close and looked +indignant. + +"Go into the cabin!" said Mother. + +Karsten and I scrambled down below with the goat and the cat. There +wasn't a living soul there, nothing but bad air and red velvet sofas. We +let go of both the goat and the cat. It would be good for them to stir +their legs a little, poor creatures! + +Pit-pat! pit-pat! Away went the goat to a sofa, and snatched a big bite +out of a bouquet of stock that lay there. One long lavender spray hung +dangling from Billy-goat's mouth. + +"Oh, are you crazy? Catch your goat! Catch your goat!" + +But the flowers were gone and the goat was dancing sideways over the +cabin floor. + +From the sideboard sounded a thud and a horrible rattle te-bang of +glass and silver. The cat had sprung right up into a big bowl of cream +and all the cream was running down on the sofa. + +It is a horrible sight to see two quarts of cream flowing over a red +velvet sofa! Oh, how frightened I was! + +"Hold the door shut, Karsten!" I said. "I'll try to dry it up." + +With shaking hands I tried to mop up the cream with my +pocket-handkerchief, while the cat and the kid lapped and drank the +cream that trickled down to the floor; and Karsten held the door shut +with all his might. + +But it was like an ocean of cream. It was impossible--impossible for me +to dry it up. + +"Oh, Karsten! what shall we do?" + +"It was your cat that did it." + +"Yes, but your goat ate the stock." + +"Let's run away," said Karsten; and carrying the goat and the cat we +rushed up the narrow cabin stairs. But, O horrors! There wasn't any sort +of a place where we could hide.--And how it did look down in the cabin! +And Mother didn't know the least thing about it. O dear! O dear! + +"If they only don't throw Billy-goat and the cat overboard!" said +Karsten thoughtfully. + +"Are you up here again?" called Mother. + +"Ye-es." + +We ran away out forward, away to the bow of the boat. Usually I think +there is nothing so jolly as to sit far, far out in the bow, seeing +nothing of the boat back of me, just as if I were gliding forward high +up in the air. But to-day it wasn't the least bit jolly, for all that +cream down on the sofa was frightful to think of. Karsten and I couldn't +talk of anything else. He was angry, however, because I hadn't mopped it +up. + +"Well, but I couldn't wipe it up with nothing." + +"Oh, you could have taken your waterproof or something out of our +trunk." + +I was really struck by that thought. Perhaps--perhaps I could get hold +of something to wipe up all that disgusting cream with. We both got up +from the box where we had been sitting. O horrors! There stood the +dining-room stewardess facing us. No sight could have been more terrible +to me. + +"Oh, here you are, are you? Of course it was you who have got things in +such a condition in the dining-saloon." + +I looked at Karsten and Karsten looked at me. + +"Yes, the cat upset the bowl," I said faintly. + +"Well, it's a pretty business," said the stewardess. "And we are in a +fine fix and no mistake. Dinner spoiled, no more cream for the +multerberries, and they're nothing without it, the whole cabin running +over with cream, the sofa absolutely ruined, glasses broken,--oh, you'll +have a handsome sum to pay! Well, you've got to go to the Captain," and +she swaggered across the deck. + +But now Mother had heard about it, and she came towards us with a face I +can't describe,--and the Captain came; and there Karsten and I stood +holding the goat and the cat in our arms. + +Oh, it was an awful interview! The Captain wasn't gentle, not he, and +Mother had to pay heaps of money. + +"There is no sense in traveling with such a menagerie," said the +Captain. + +The passengers who had nothing but dry multerberries for dessert were +certainly angry with us, and Mother was most unhappy. But the cat lay in +my lap and blinked with its yellow eyes and purred like far-away +thunder,--it was so happy; and Billy-goat rubbed its head with that +silky beard against Karsten's jacket and looked up at him with its +trustful black eyes; so neither Karsten nor I had the heart to scold. +And it wouldn't have done any good, anyway. + +At the train, trouble began again, for just imagine! No one knew what +the freight charges should be for a kid. The ticket-agent stuck his head +out of his window to stare at the innocent little creature, and the +station-master pulled at his mustache and stared too; and they turned +over page after page in their books and whispered together. At last they +made out that the cost would be the same as for a cow. Mother shook her +head but paid. (I was glad I had my cat in a basket where no one noticed +it, and it slept like a log.) + +Since the kid was so very tiny, Karsten was allowed to take it into the +compartment with us, for it was absolutely impossible to let that baby +go alone into the cattle-car. + +"Thank goodness!" said Mother when she finally got us all settled. "Now +there are only five hours more of this part of the journey." + +Two ladies were in the compartment--one very severe-looking who had a +lorgnette, the other fat and jolly, with awfully pretty red cherries on +her hat. Little Billy-goat stood on the seat and ate crackers, making a +great crunching. The fat lady laughed at it till she shook all over, but +the severe lady drew the corners of her mouth down, looking crosser +than ever. + +Karsten was so glad to have some one admire the kid that he made it do +all the tricks it could. However, that was soon over, for it could not +do anything except stand on two legs. + +Just as it stood there on two legs, with the most innocent face you can +imagine, it gave a little leap--oh, oh! up towards the hat of the fat +lady; and that very instant the beautiful red cherries crackled in +Billy-goat's mouth. + +"Oh, my new hat!" screamed the fat lady. + +"It is outrageous that one should be liable to such treatment," said the +cross lady. + +"That's the time you got fooled, Billy-goat!" said Karl, "for you got +glass cherries instead of real cherries." + +Mother had lost all patience now and no mistake; and the kid had to go +under the seat and lie there the whole time. And Mother offered the fat +lady some chocolates and some of Mother Goodfields' home-made cakes that +we had brought for luncheon, and begged her pardon again and again for +Billy-goat's behavior; so that finally the fat lady was a little +appeased. The goat had eaten four of the glass cherries and there were +eight still left on the hat, so it wasn't wholly spoiled. + +[Illustration: The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's +mouth.--_Page 236._] + +"Well, all I know is I would never have stood it," said the lady with +the lorgnette. + +The forest-cat behaved beautifully, sleeping the whole time on the +train; and we all grew tired, oh! so tired. I couldn't look out of the +window at last, I was so utterly tired out. And I did not bother myself +about either the cat or the billy-goat. + +Finally we rumbled into the city and to the station platform. + +But Mother was altogether right in saying that it would never do in the +world to have a billy-goat in the city. When we got to the hotel where +we were to spend that night, there stood the host at the door. He is a +very cross man. When he saw Billy-goat in Karsten's arms he was furious +at once. He had not fitted up his rooms for animals, he said, and the +goat would please be so good as to keep itself entirely outside of them. +So Billy-goat was put into the pitch-dark coal-cellar--and had to stay +there the whole night. + +When we went down the next morning it stood on two legs and danced +sideways from pure joy. But when Karsten took it out into the court, +pop! away went the goat over the low fence into the hotel-keeper's +garden, then out by an unlatched gate into the wide, wide world. + +"No," said Mother firmly, "you may not go to look for it, nor will I ask +the police to find it. If I haven't suffered and paid enough for that +creature----" + + * * * * * + +Poor little Billy-goat! It was a sin and a shame that we ever took you +away from the forest at Goodfields! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN SCHOOL + + +Oh, such fun as we had in school that time when Mr. Gorrisen was our +teacher! It was a regular comedy. He was a tiny little man. Antoinette +and I were taller than he, so you can judge for yourself. And I never in +my life saw any one with such round eyes as he had. + +You should just have seen those eyes when we were having a little fun at +our desks. With a hard, fixed stare, not letting his gaze wander for an +instant, his eyes bored themselves right into the culprit. + +Down from the platform he came, with slow, measured step across the +floor,--his eyes not moving for a second,--came nearer and nearer and +nearer; ugh! then his finger tips grabbed the very tip-end of your ear +and there they held tight like a vise. No one can have the faintest +idea how painful it was. And all without one word; not a syllable came +over Mr. Gorrisen's lips. + +I wonder, I really do, that there is anything left of the tips of my +ears since then, considering the many times Mr. Gorrisen took hold of +them! + +And he was mighty quick about giving us poor marks! If I didn't know +every single thing in the lesson by heart, so that I could rattle it +off, I got a "4" immediately. + +It was at that time, however, that I hit upon the plan of cutting out +the bad marks from my report book, for a "4" or "5" looks perfectly +disgusting in a report. But an innocent little square hole,--that's no +harm, as it were. + +"But, Inger Johanne," said Father, "what is that?" + +"Oh, well, Father, there was a bad mark there," I answered. "And I +didn't dare come home with such a mark, so I just cut it out." + +The first time I did it, Father wasn't so very angry; but when I did it +again and again, he was furious. So I had to give it up. Then when I +really came to think about it, I saw it was wrong, so I would not do it +any more, anyway. + +Once we had Mr. Gorrisen on Examination Day. Mrs. White, with her light +kid gloves on, sat in a chair on the platform and listened, holding +Karen's dirty German reading-book by the tip edge. She looked +continually at the book but she didn't understand a word,--I'll wager +anything you like she didn't,--for she never turned over the page when +she should have. I saw that plainly. On a seat near the door sat Madam +Tellefsen, who had come to listen to Mina; she did not put on any airs, +though. She never once pretended to understand German, but laid the book +down beside her on the seat and sat there sweltering in her French shawl +and looking rather helpless. + +Enough of that. I was just carving my name on my desk-lid--very deep and +nice it was to be--when all at once I noticed that Mr. Gorrisen was +looking at me. He stared as if he were staring right through me, stared +steadily as he came across the room. + +Oh, my unlucky ear-tip! His fingers held it as tight as a vise. Up I +must get from my seat and across the floor was I led by the ear to the +corner of the room. There he let go of me. + +Well! Imagine that! A pretty sight I made standing in the corner on +Examination Day! If only Mrs. White and Madam Tellefsen had not been +sitting there! They would surely go and tattle about it all over town. + +Truly I would not stand there any longer. Mr. Gorrisen was reading a +piece aloud just then, so all at once I lay flat down on the floor and +crept over to the desks. Once I had got under the desks, it was easy +enough. Kima Pirk gave me a horrid kick in the back, and Karen whacked +my head when I was directly under her desk, but that was only because I +pinched them as I passed. I could hear them all whispering and +whispering above me--it was great fun--and I crept farther and farther. +I thought I would go to the last desk, you see. There, now I had reached +it. I got up and settled myself in the seat, wearing a most innocent +expression. + +I looked at Mrs. White. Her face seemed to get sharper and narrower just +from severity; but Madam Tellefsen laughed so that she had to hold the +end of her French shawl over her face. I had got very warm and my hair +was very dusty from that expedition under the desks, but I didn't mind +that. + +Fully five minutes passed before Mr. Gorrisen saw me. But all at once +when I had begun to feel pretty safe, came: + +"Why, Inger Johanne! Have you walked out of the corner without +permission?" + +"No, I have not walked, Mr. Gorrisen," said I. + +"She crept," the others murmured faintly. + +"She crept," said Kima aloud from her desk in the front row. + +"What is this, Inger Johanne?" asked Mr. Gorrisen severely. + +"It was so tedious to stand there, Mr. Gorrisen," I said. + +"Yes, that was exactly why you were put there." + +"And so I crept over here when you didn't see me." + +Without another word, down across the floor he came. I turned my right +ear towards him, for the left ear burned horribly even yet from the +other time. But he evidently thought that an ear-pinch was too gentle a +punishment for creeping through the whole class-room. I was taken by the +arm and led along out of the door. Outside in the hall he shook me by +the arm. Oh, well! it was just a little shake anyway,--but then I had to +hang around in that hall until the lesson was all over. + +I can't understand now how I ever dared to creep that way in Mr. +Gorrisen's class. O dear! I have been awfully foolish many +times--unbelievably foolish! + +Then there was that day Mr. Gorrisen fell off his chair. I was put out +in the hall that day, too. But all the others ought to have been sent +out as well, for we all laughed together. It was just because I couldn't +stop laughing that I had to go. I surely have spasms in my cheeks, for +long after all the others have stopped I keep on--I can't help it. + +We were having our geography lesson. Mr. Gorrisen sat in an armchair by +the table and stared at us, for he was not the kind of teacher that +sharpens pencils or polishes his finger nails or does anything like +that. He just sits and sways back and forth in his chair and stares +incessantly. Well, never mind that. The lesson was on the peninsula of +Korea. I remember distinctly. + +"Now, Minka, Korea lies----" He swayed and swayed in his chair. + +"Korea lies--ahem! Ko-re-a lies----" + +Minka glanced anxiously around to see whether any one would whisper to +her--"Korea lies between----" + +There came a frightful explosive bang; the chair had gone over backward, +making a horrible noise, and Mr. Gorrisen's small legs were up in the +air above the corner of the table. + +Oh, what shrieks of laughter pealed out through the class-room! But +quick as a flash Mr. Gorrisen was up again. He sat himself in the +armchair as if nothing had happened, only his face was flaming red up to +his hair. It was exactly as if there had been no interruption whatever, +to say nothing of such a noisy comical topsy-turvy. + +"Korea lies where, Minka?" + +But that was more than I could bear. I burst out laughing again--he, he! +ha, ha!--and all the others joined in. If he had only laughed himself, I +don't believe it would have seemed so funny--but he was as solemn as an +owl. + +"Stop laughing instantly." He struck the table with his ruler so that +the room rang. We quieted down at once except for a hiccough here and +there, but the worst of it was that Mr. Gorrisen stared only at me. I +fixed my eyes on an old map on the wall and thought of all the saddest +things I could, but it was of no use. My laughter burst out again; I was +so full of it that it just bubbled over. + +Mr. Gorrisen swayed back and forth in his chair as usual as if to show +how perfectly unembarrassed he was. But suddenly--true as Gospel--if he +didn't almost tip over again! He clutched frantically at the table, gave +a guilty glance at me. "Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" I could hear my own laughter +above all the rest. + +Mr. Gorrisen was up in a trice, and I was hurried out of the door so +quickly that, almost before I knew it, I stood out in the cold hall. I +nearly froze, it was so bitterly cold there; for it was nearly Christmas +time, you see. + +I opened the door a tiny bit just far enough to put my nose through the +crack. + +"Mr. Gorrisen." + +"Well?" + +"It's so cold out here. I won't laugh any more." + +"Very well. Come in." + +And so I went in again. At recess they all said they wondered how I ever +dared ask Mr. Gorrisen to let me come in from the hall. + +"Pooh!" said I. "I dare do anything with Mr. Gorrisen." + +"Oh-h! you don't either! Far from it!" + +"Well, I'd really dare pretty nearly anything. I'm not afraid of him." + +"Would you dare sing right out loud in his class?" asked Karen. + +"Pooh! that wouldn't be anything much to do," said Minka. Then they all +began to tease me. + +"Fie, for shame! She is so brave and yet she does not dare to do such a +little thing as that!" + +"You shall see whether I dare or not," I said. And, would you believe +it? I did sing aloud one time in Mr. Gorrisen's geography class. + +It was several days after he had tipped over. I had been watching my +chance in all his classes, but somehow it didn't seem to come. One day, +however, I was just in the humor, and in the midst of the silence, while +Mr. Gorrisen sat and wrote down marks in the record book, I sang out at +the top of my voice: + + "'Sons of Norway, that ancient kingdom'"-- + +I did not once glance at Mr. Gorrisen but looked around at all the +others who lay over their desks and laughed till they choked. And I sang +on: + + "'Manly and solemn, let the sound rise!'" + +Not a sound had come from the platform till that instant. Then I heard +behind me the click, click, click of Mr. Gorrisen's heels across the +floor and out of the door. + +"You'll catch it! oh, you'll catch it, Inger Johanne." + +"Oh, I wouldn't be in your shoes for a good deal!" + +"Well, it was you who teased me to do it," I said. + +"Yes, but to think that you should be so stupid as to do such a thing." + +I did really get a little scared, especially because it was so long +before Mr. Gorrisen came back. + +"Run away!" said one. + +"Hide under your desk," said another. + +But there he was in the doorway and the Principal with him. + +"What is all this, Inger Johanne?" said the Principal. "You are too big +to be so wild now. You are not such a bad girl, but you are altogether +too thoughtless and use no judgment." + +"Yes," I said. I was so glad the Principal didn't scold any harder. + +"Of course you will be marked for this in your report-book; and remember +this," the Principal shook his finger at me threateningly, "it won't do +for you to behave like this many times, Inger Johanne. You won't get off +so easily again." But as he went out of the door I saw that he smiled. +Yes, he did, really. + +But Mother didn't smile when she saw the marks. + +"Are you going to bring sorrow to your father and mother?" she said. And +those beautiful brown eyes of hers looked sad and troubled. + +Just think! It had never occurred to me that it would be a sorrow to +Father and Mother for me to sing out loud in class. Oh, I was awfully, +awfully disgusted with myself. I hung around Mother all the afternoon. + +First and foremost I must beg Mr. Gorrisen's pardon, Mother said. It +seemed to me I could ask the whole world's pardon if only Mother's eyes +wouldn't look so sorrowful. I wanted very much to go right down to Mr. +Gorrisen's lodgings; but Mother said she thought it was only right that +I should beg his pardon at school, so that all the class should hear. It +was embarrassing, frightfully embarrassing, to ask Mr. Gorrisen's +pardon--but I did it notwithstanding. I said, "Please excuse me for +singing out in class." + +"H'm, h'm," said Mr. Gorrisen. "Well, go back now and take your seat." + +Since then I have sat like a lamp-post in his classes--yes, I really +have. Many a time I should have liked to have some fun--but then I would +think of Mother's sorrowful eyes and so I have held myself in and kept +from any more skylarking. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME + + +I was going to school one day, but was pretty late in getting started. +The trouble was that our yellow hen, Valpurga, had been sick, and since, +of course, I couldn't trust any one else to attend to her, I had made +myself late. + +When hens begin to mope, keeping still under a bush, drawing their heads +way down into their feathers, and just rolling their eyes about, that's +enough;--it is anything but pleasant when it is a hen you are fond of. +That's the way Valpurga was behaving. I gave her butter and pepper, for +that is good for hens. + +But it wasn't about Valpurga I wanted to tell. It was about the +circus-riders being here. + +The clock in the dining-room said five minutes of nine, and I hadn't +eaten my breakfast, hadn't studied any of my German grammar lesson, and +had to get to school besides. Things went with a rush, I can tell you; +with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, the German grammar open in +the other, I dashed down the hill. + +"Prepositions which govern the dative: _aus_, _ausser_, _bei_, +_binnen_--_aus_, _ausser_, _bei_,"--pshaw, the ragged old book! There +went a leaf over the fence, down into Madam Land's yard. It was best to +be careful in going after it, for Madam Land's windows looked out to +this side, and she was furious when any one trod down her grass. I +expected every moment to hear her knock sharply on the window-pane with +her thimble. She didn't see me though, and I climbed back over the fence +with the missing leaf. + +--"_aus_, _ausser_----" + +Round the corner swung Policeman Weiby with a stranger, a queer-looking +man. The stranger was absolutely deep yellow in the face, with +black-as-midnight hair, and black piercing eyes. On his head he wore a +little green cap, very foreign-looking, and on his feet patent leather +riding-boots that reached above his knees. + +Weiby puffed, threw his chest out even more than usual and looked very +much worried. It must be something really important, for day in and day +out Weiby has seldom anything else to do than to poke his stick among +the children who are playing hop-scotch in the street. + +Though I was so terribly late, of course I had to stand still and look +after Weiby and the strange man until they disappeared around the corner +up by the office. Something interesting had come to town, that was +plain. Either a panorama, or a man who swallowed swords, or one who had +no arms and sewed with his toes. Hurrah, there was surely to be some +entertainment! + +I got to school eleven minutes late. A normal-school pupil, Mr. +Holmesland, had the arithmetic class that morning. He sat on the +platform with his hand under his cheek supporting his big heavy head, +and looked at me reproachfully as I came in. I slipped in behind the +rack where all the outside things hung, to take off my things, and to +finish the last mouthful of my bread and butter. + +Pooh, I never bother myself a bit about Mr. Holmesland. I walked boldly +out and took my seat. Another long reproachful look from the platform. + +"Do you know what time it is, Inger Johanne?" + +"Yes, but I couldn't possibly come before, Mr. Holmesland, because I had +to attend to some one who was sick." + +"Indeed,--is your mother sick?" + +"Oh, no"--he didn't ask anything more, and I was glad of it. + +"What example are you doing?" I asked Netta, who sat beside me. + +"This," she showed me her slate, but above the example was written in +big letters: "_The circus has come!_" + +The arithmetic hour was frightfully long. At recess we talked of +nothing but the circus. Netta had seen an awfully fat, black-haired +lady, in a fiery red dress, and a fat pug dog on her arm; they certainly +belonged to the circus troupe, for there was no such dark lady and no +such dog in the whole town. Mina had seen a little slender boy, with +rough black hair and gold earrings--and hadn't I myself seen the +director of the whole concern? It was queer that I was the one who had +most to tell, though, as you know, all I had seen of the circus troupe +was the strange man with Policeman Weiby as I passed them on the hill. + +We had sat down to dinner at home; Karsten hadn't come; we didn't know +whether it was the circus or our having "_lu-de-fisk_" for dinner that +kept him away. + +Suddenly the dining-room door was thrown open, and there he stood in the +doorway, very red in the face and so excited he could hardly speak. + +"Can the circus-riders keep their horses in our barn?" he asked, all out +of breath. You know we had a big, old barn that was never used. Karsten +had to repeat what he had said; we always have to speak awfully clearly +to Father; he won't stand any slovenly talk. + +Father and Mother looked at each other across the table. + +"Well, I don't see any objection," said Father. + +"But is it worth while to have all that hub-bub in our barn?" said +Mother. I was burning with eagerness as I listened. + +"It is probably not very easy for them to find a place for all their +horses here in town," said Father, "and I shall make the condition that +they behave themselves there." + +"Well, as you like," said Mother. + +Outside in the hall stood the same man I had seen in the morning, and +another fellow of just the same sort, but smaller and rougher-looking. +Father went out and talked with them; the one in the green cap mixed in +a lot of German. "_Danke schön--danke schön_," they said as they went +away. + +Hurrah!--the circus-riders were to keep their horses in our barn, right +here on our place--hurrah!--hurrah! what fun! + +The horses were to come by land from the nearest town, nobody knew just +when. I took my geography up on the barn steps that afternoon to study +my lesson. I didn't want to miss seeing them come, you may be sure. + +Little by little, a whole lot of children collected up there. Away out +on the Point they had heard that the circus-riders were to have our +barn. Some of the boys began to try to run things, and to push us girls +away, but they learned better soon enough. + +"No, sir," I gave one a thump--"be off with you; get away, and be quick +about it, or you'll catch it." + +Most of the boys in the town are afraid of me, I can tell you, because I +have strong hands and a quick tongue, and behind me, like an invisible +support, is always Father, and all the police, who are under him--so +it's not often any one makes a fuss. Besides, I should like to know +when you should have the say about things if not on your own barn steps. + +More and more children gathered; they swarmed up the hill. I stood on +the barn steps with a long whip. If any one came too near--swish! + +At last--here came the horses! First a big white horse that a groom was +leading by the bridle, then two small shaggy ponies, then a big red +horse that carried his head high, and then the whole troop following. +Some were loose and jumped in among us children; the grooms scolded and +shouted both in German and in Polish; a few small, rough-coated dogs +rushed around catching hold of the skirts of some of the girls, who ran +and screamed. + +Suddenly a little swarthy groom got furious at all of us children who +were standing around and drove us down the hill. It made me angry to +have him chase me away too, especially because all the others saw it. At +first I thought of making a speech to him in German and telling him who +I was and that the barn was mine; but I didn't know at all what barn was +in German, so I had to give it up. + +[Illustration: I stood on the barn steps with a long whip.--_Page +260._] + +In the moonlight that evening the fat lady in the red dress, and two +little girls came to see to the horses. Afterwards they sat for a long +time out on the barn steps watching the moon. The two little girls had +long light hair down their backs and short dresses above their knees. + +I leaned against the dining-room window with my nose pressed flat, and +stared at them. Oh, what a delightful time those little girls had! +Think! to travel that way--just travel--travel--travel, to ride on those +lovely horses, and wear such short fancy skirts, and have your hair +flowing loose over your back. + +I never was allowed to go with my hair loose,--and I suppose I shall +have to stay in this poky town all my days; and never in the world shall +I get a chance to ride on a horse, I thought. + +At night I lay awake and heard the horses stamping and thumping up in +the barn. After all, even this was good fun, almost like being in the +midst of a fairy tale. + +The next day I was again late to school. There was not a single one of +the swarthy fellows to be seen around the barn, so I climbed up on the +wall and stuck grass through a broken window-pane to the big white +horse. I patted him on his smooth pinky nose: "Oh, you sweet, lovely +horse!"--I must go down for more grass, the very best grass to be found +he should have. + +"Inger Johanne, will you be so good as to go to school? It's very +late"--it was Father calling from the office window; so there was an end +to that pleasure. + +Down by the steamboat-landing, in the big open square, the circus tent +had been set up. Karsten and I were down there two hours before the +performance was to begin. I was the first of all the spectators to go +inside. It was a tremendously big, high tent, three rows of seats around +it, and a staging of rough boards for the orchestra. Anything so +magnificent you never saw. At last the performance began. + +But to describe what goes on at a circus, that I won't do. About +ordinary things, such as are happening every day at home, I can write +very well, as you know, but anything so magnificent as that circus I +can't describe. + +I was nearly out of my wits, people said afterwards. I stood up on the +seat--those behind me were angry, but that didn't bother me at +all--clapped my hands and shouted "Bravo!" and "Hurrah!" Towards the +last the riders, when they came in, gave me a special salute in that +elegant way, you know, holding up their whips before one eye. I liked +that awfully well. I was fairly beside myself with joy. + +Well, now I knew what I wanted to be: I wanted to be a circus-rider! For +that was the grandest and jolliest thing in the whole world. Did you +ever feel about yourself that you were going to be something great, +something more than every one else, as if you stood on a high mountain +with all the other people far below you? Well, I had felt like that, and +now I knew what it was that I should be. + +I lay awake far into the night and thought and thought. Yes, it was +plain, I should have to run away with the circus-riders. I could not +have a better opportunity. Certainly Father and Mother would never let +me go. It would be horrid to run away, but that was nothing; a +circus-rider I must be, I saw that plainly. The worst was, all the oil I +had heard that circus-riders must drink to keep themselves limber and +light. Ugh! no, I would not drink oil; I would be light all the same, +and awfully quick about hopping and dancing on the horses. + +And after many years I would come back to the town. No one would know me +at first, and every one would be so terribly surprised to learn that the +graceful rider in blue velvet was the judge's Inger Johanne. + +I forgot to say that we were to have two free tickets every evening +because Father was town judge. The first evening Karsten and I went, +but the second evening Mother said that the maids should go. + +"You were there last night," said Mother. "We can't spend money on such +foolishness; to-morrow evening you may go again." + +Oh, how broken-hearted I was because I couldn't go to the circus that +evening! and Mother called it foolishness! If she only knew I was going +to be a circus-rider! I wouldn't dare tell her for all the world. + +In the evening, when it was time for the performance to begin, I went +down to the steamboat-landing just the same. The fat lady with the +shining black eyes sat there selling tickets; the people crowded about +the entrance, some had already begun to stream in; the big flag which +served as a door was constantly being drawn aside to let people in, and +at every chance I peeked behind the flag. To think that I wasn't going +to get in to-night! Suppose I ran home and asked Father very nicely for +a ticket; perhaps there was still time. + +"Won't you have a ticket?" asked the black-eyed lady. She said she +remembered me from the evening before when I had been so delighted. + +"No, I have no money," said I, and my whole face grew red. It really was +embarrassing, but since she asked me I had to tell the truth. + +"If you will stand there by the door and take the tickets, you may come +in and look on," she said. + +Wouldn't I! Just the thing for me! Not even a cat should slip in without +a ticket. I was very strict at the door and pushed away the sailors who +wanted to force themselves in. I was terribly clever, the lady said. + +And so I went in again, and enjoyed it just as much as I had the evening +before. I was tremendously proud of having earned my ticket, for in that +way it was as if I were taken at once right into the circus troupe. +Every single night they performed I would take the tickets--yet no one +in the whole town would know that Inger Johanne meant to go away with +the circus. I would wait till the very last day it was in town before I +asked the fat dark lady, who was the director's wife, if I might go. Of +course I knew her now. + +And I must say good-bye to Father and Mother and my brothers and sister, +or I couldn't bear it. I wouldn't stay away forever, no, far from it, +only a little while, until I was a perfectly splendid performer. + +All at once it occurred to me that I ought to practise a little on +horseback before I offered myself to the circus troupe. I ought at least +to know what it was like to sit on a horse. + +There certainly couldn't be any better opportunity than there was now, +when our whole barn was full of horses. But I must take Karsten into my +confidence; he would have to help me to climb through a hole in the back +of the barn, for the grooms always fastened the barn door when they went +away. At noon there was never any one up there, so I planned to crawl in +then and practice getting on and off of a horse. Yes, I would stand up +on him too,--on one leg--stretch out my arms, and throw kisses as they +do at the circus. + +"Karsten," said I the next day, "what should you say if I became a +circus-rider?" + +"You--when you're knock-kneed!--you would look nice, Inger Johanne, you +would." + +"You look after your own knees, Karsten, I'm going to be a circus-rider, +all the same, I really am." + +"Oh, what bosh!" + +"Well, you'll see; when the circus-riders go I'm going with them. You +mustn't tell a soul, Karsten, but a circus-rider is what I'm going to +be." + +Karsten looked at me rather doubtfully. + +"But you must help me to get into the barn through that hole at the +back, for I shall have to practice, you understand." + +"Well, will you give me that red-and-blue pencil of yours then?" + +"Oh, yes, only come along." + +We stole behind the barn. Karsten kept hold of me while I climbed +up--there, now I was in the barn. How it looked! When twelve horses must +stand in five stalls, there isn't much room left, you know, and they had +been put every which way,--one pony stood in the calf-pen. + +All the horses except two were lying down resting. The white horse over +by the window was standing up; he turned around and looked at me with +big sorrowful eyes. It had really been my plan to get on him, for he was +the handsomest of them all, but I didn't dare to venture among the big +shining bodies of the horses lying all over the floor. No, I should have +to be satisfied with the little black one that stood in the calf-pen. +Karsten had thrust the upper part of his body in through the hole. I +went up to the black horse. + +"He is angry; he is putting his ears back; look out, Inger Johanne!" +called Karsten. + +"Pooh--do you think I mind that?" I climbed up on the calf-pen. For a +moment I wondered whether I should try to stand on the horse at once. I +put out my foot and touched him--no, he was so smooth and slippery, it +would certainly be best to sit the first time I got on a horse. I gave a +little jump, and there I sat. + +O dear! What in the world was happening? I didn't know, but I thought +the horse had gone crazy. First he stood on his fore legs with his hind +legs in the air, and then on his hind legs, and threw me off as if I +were nothing at all. I fell across the edge of the calf-pen--oh, what a +whack my arm got! I literally couldn't move it for a whole minute; and +there was a grand rumpus in the barn; some of the horses got up and +whinnied, and the black one that I had sat on kicked and kicked with his +hind legs every instant. + +I could just see the top of Karsten's head at the hole now. + +"Oh, Karsten--Karsten." + +"Are you dead, Inger Johanne?" + +I don't really know how I got out through the hole with my injured arm. +But outside of the barn I sat down right among all the nettles and +cried. + +When I went into the house there was a great commotion. Everybody was +scared and the doctor was sent for. My sleeve was cut up to the +shoulder, and the doctor said I had broken a small bone in my wrist, and +besides had sprained and bruised my arm about as much as I could. + +"You do everything so thoroughly, Inger Johanne," said the doctor. + +When I was in bed with my arm in splints and bandages, I began to cry +violently. Not so much because of my arm--though I cried a little about +that, too--but most that I should have thought I could run away from +Father and Mother, who were so good. I told Mother the whole thing. + +"But now I'll never--never--never think of running away again, Mother." + + * * * * * + +The day the circus-riders left with the horses, I stood at the window +with my arm in a sling and watched them. + +But only think! Karsten wouldn't give up, and I had to hand over my +red-and-blue pencil to him even though I didn't run away with the +circus-riders! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MOVING + + +Twice, that I can remember, Father had tried to get a position off in +the country, and each time I had been so sure we were going to move that +I had imagined exactly how everything would be in our new home. A big +old farmhouse, yes, for I like old, old houses; an immense garden, with +empress pears and every possible kind of berry; big red barns and +out-houses; big pastures all around; cows and calves, and horses to go +driving with wherever I wished. I should like best a red horse with a +white mane, a horse that looked wild; and a little light basket-phaeton. +And I would drive, and crack my whip--oh, how I would snap it! And there +would be a lot of hens that I would take care of myself, for I am +dreadfully interested in hens. + +Once, I told all around town that we were to move to Telemarken. I +really believed it myself. Everybody in town heard of it and at last it +got into the paper, and, O dear! it wasn't true at all, and it was I who +had told it. That time Father was furious with me. + +After that I never heard a word about Father's looking for a position; I +suppose they were afraid I should tell of it again. And so it was like +lightning from a clear sky and I was completely astounded when Mother +told me one morning at breakfast that Father had got a position in +Christiania, and that we were to move away. + +"Well, may I tell about it now?" I asked. "Yes, now you may say all you +like," said Mother. + +I couldn't get another mouthful down after hearing the news, but hurried +off to school. Not a soul had come when I got there, so I had to wait, +alone with my great news, for five long minutes. The first to come was +Antoinette Wium; she had hardly opened the door when I called out: + +"I am going to move away from town." + +Then I planted myself firmly at the door, and told every single one that +came in. Before the first recess was over, the whole school and all the +teachers knew that we were to move to Christiania. + +I was so glad, I didn't know what to do. The first few days I just went +around telling it down on the wharves and everywhere. + +All at once everything seemed so tedious in town. I didn't care any +longer about what my friends were talking of; all I wanted was to talk +about Christiania. When I was alone I sang to myself: "We shall travel, +travel, travel," mostly to the tune of + + "_Ja, vi elsker dette landet,_" + +for that has such a swing to it. + +I must say that now, for the first time, I understood how Lawyer Cold +felt. He is a fat young man from Christiania who has settled in our +town, but is in despair because he has to live here. He comes up to +Father's office and sits and talks by the hour, complaining, until he +puts Father in a bad humor, too. It is Karl Johan Street that he misses +so frightfully, he says. And to think that now I was going to Karl Johan +Street and should see all the cadets and all the fun! I could understand +Lawyer Cold's feelings perfectly now. Oh, oh, how delightful it will be! + +I began at once to go around to say good-bye, although we were not to +leave for three or four months. I went to all the cottages and huts +round about. One day I went by Ellef Kulaas' house up on the hill. He +was standing outside of his door. He is tall, and his whole body seems +to be warped, and he never looks at people, but off anywhere else. + +"Good-bye, Ellef, I am going away," said I. + +Ellef didn't answer; he only turned his quid in his mouth. + +"We are going to Christiania," I went on. + +"Yes, I was there once," said Ellef. "It's a dangerous Sodom." + +"But aren't there plenty of splendid things to see, Ellef?" + +"Oh, yes--I wanted most to see that big mountain Gausta. They told me +I'd have to take a horse and wagon to get there; but I went to see the +old dean that used to be here,--he lived high up--and when I looked out +of his skylight I saw everything, Gausta and the churches and the whole +kit and boodle. I saved a lot of money that way. I went up there twice +and looked through the skylight, and so I saw the whole show,--for +nothing too. I suppose hardly anybody sees it any better." + +Humph! As if I'd be satisfied like Ellef Kulaas with seeing things +through the dean's skylight! + +There were many places where I said good-bye several times. At last they +laughed at me, and I had to laugh too. One day I went by Madam Guldahl's +house. Madam Guldahl always stands at her garden gate and talks with +people who are passing. + +"Good-bye, Madam Guldahl, we are going to Christiania," said I. + +"You may if you want to. I am thankful to live here rather than there." + +"Why is that?" + +"Oh, I was there six weeks on account of my bad leg--such hurrying and +running in the streets you never saw. I didn't know a soul in the +streets; what pleasure could there be in that, I'd like to know! One day +I saw Ellef Kulaas on the street there, and I was so glad I wanted to +throw my arms around his neck. People went by each other without once +looking at each other--not at all as though it was immortal souls they +were passing." + +I wondered a little whether I should want to throw my arms round Ellef +Kulaas' neck if I met him on Karl Johan Street; but I hardly thought I +should. + +There were three farewell parties for me in the town, with tables loaded +with good things at all the places, and at table they always "toasted" +me, singing: + + "_Og dette skal vaere Inger Johanne's skaal!_ + _Hurrah!_" + +I sang with them myself, and it was quite ceremonious. It's awfully good +fun to be made so much of. The girls all wanted to walk arm in arm with +me and be awfully good friends, and I promised to write to them all. + +At home all the floors were covered with straw and big packing-cases; +chairs and sofas were wrapped in matting; a policeman went around +sorting and packing for several days, and Mother wore her morning dress +all day long. It was all horribly uncomfortable and awfully pleasant at +the same time. + +I packed a box of crockery, and it was really very well done, but the +policeman packed it all over again. After that I wasn't allowed to do +anything except run errands. + +At school I gave away my scholar's-companion and my eraser and my +pencils and pen-holders, and an old torn map, as keepsakes. + +On Saturday, after prayers, the Principal said: + +"There is a little girl here who is soon to leave us. It is Inger +Johanne, as we all know. We shall miss you, Inger Johanne. You are a +good girl in spite of all your pranks. May everything go well with you. +God bless you." + +This was terribly unexpected. Oh, what a beautiful speech--I began to +cry--oh, how I cried! The very moment the Principal said: "There is a +little girl here who is soon to leave us," everything seemed perfectly +horrid all at once. + +Just think, to leave the school and my friends, and the town, and +everything, and never, never come back! + +I laid my head down on the desk and cried, and cried, and couldn't stop. +I had thought only of all the new things I was going to, and not that I +should never in the world live here again,--here where I had been so +happy. + +O dear! if we were only not going, if we were just to stay here all our +lives. At last the Principal came down and patted me on the head, and +then I cried all the more. + +When I got home they could hardly see my eyes, I had cried so. + +"Now you see, Inger Johanne, it's not all pleasure, either," said +Mother. + +The last day, I ran up on the hill, and said good-bye to all the places +where we used to play, to Rome and Japan, to Kongsberg and the North +Cape,--for we had given names to some of them. + +"Good-bye!" I shouted across the rocks and the heather and the juniper, +"Good-bye!" I ran and ran, for I wanted to see all the places where we +had played, before I went away forever. At home, on the outside wall of +our old house, I wrote in pencil, "Good-bye, my beloved home!" + +But I didn't cry, except that time at school. + +At the steamboat-wharf, when we were leaving, it was only fun. The wharf +was packed full of people, and they all wanted to talk to us and shake +hands, and they gave Mother bouquets and gave me bouquets; and there +was such a crowd and bustle and talk and noise before all our things +were finally on board! Only one thing was horrid, and that was that +Ingeborg the maid cried so sorrowfully. She was not going with us; she +stood on the wharf by herself and cried and cried. + +"Don't cry, Ingeborg; you must come and visit us--yes, you must, you +must; don't cry!" + +"I can't do anything else," said Ingeborg, sobbing aloud. + +Now I had to go on board and the steamboat started. + +"Good-bye, good-bye"--I ran to the very stern right by the flag, and +waved and waved. I could see Massa and Mina on the wharf all the way to +where we swung around the islands. + +I stood staring back at the town. + +Now Peckell's big yellow house vanished, and now the custom-house; now I +could see nothing but the little red house high up on the hill; and at +last that vanished too. + +But I still stood there, looking back and looking back at the gray +hills. Among them I had lived my whole life long! + + * * * * * + +Other hills and islands came into view, and the sea splashed up over +them, but not one of them did I know. + +How strange that was! + +Nevertheless, I suddenly felt awfully glad, and I began to sing at the +top of my voice to the old tune (no one heard me, the sea roared so +mightily): + + "Oh! I love to travel, travel!" + + +THE END + + +TOP-OF-THE-WORLD STORIES + + Translated from the Scandinavian Languages + By EMILIE POULSSON and LAURA POULSSON + Illustrated in two colors by Florence Liley Young + +[Illustration] + +These stories of magic and adventure come from the countries at the "top +of the world," and will transport thither in fancy the children who read +this unusual book. They tell of Lapps and reindeer (even a golden-horned +reindeer!), of prince and herd-boy, of knights and wolves and trolls, of +a boy who could be hungry and merry at the same time--of all these and +more besides! Miss Poulsson's numerous and long visits to Norway, her +father's land, and the fact that she is an experienced writer for +children are doubtless the reasons why her translations are sympathetic +and skilful, and yet entirely adapted to give wholesome pleasure to the +young public that she knows so well. + + "In these stories are the elements of wonder and magic and + adventure that furnish the thrill so much appreciated by + boys and girls ten or twelve years of age. An aristocratic + book--one that every young person will be perpetually proud + of."--_Lookout, Cincinnati, O._ + + "In this book the children are transported to the land they + love best, the land of magic, of the fairies and all kinds + of wonderful happenings. It is one of the best fairy story + books ever published."--_Argus-Leader, Sioux Falls, S. D._ + + +YULE-TIDE IN MANY LANDS + +By MARY P. PRINGLE and CLARA A. URANN + + Fully illustrated and decorated + 12mo Cloth Price, $1.50 + +[Illustration] + +The varying forms of Christmas observance at different times and in +different lands are entertainingly shown by one trained in choosing and +presenting the best to younger readers. The symbolism, good cheer, and +sentiment of the grandest of holidays are shown as they appeal in +similar fashion to those whose lives seem so widely diverse. The first +chapter tells of the Yule-Tide of the Ancients, and the eight succeeding +chapters deal respectively with the observance of Christmas and New +Year's, making up the time of "Yule," or the turning of the sun, in +England, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, and +America. The space devoted to each country has at least one good +illustration. + + "The descriptions as presented in this well-prepared volume + make interesting reading for all who love to come in loving + contact with others in their high and pure + enjoyments."--_Herald-Presbyter, Cincinnati._ + + "The way Yule-Tide was and is celebrated is told in a simple + and instructive way, and the narrative is enriched by + appropriate poems and excellent illustrations."--_Cleveland + Plain Dealer._ + + "It is written for young people and is bound to interest + them for the subject is a universal one."--_American Church + Sunday School Magazine._ + + +Famous Children + +By H. TWITCHELL Illustrated + +[Illustration] + +We have here a most valuable book, telling not of the childhood of those +who have afterwards become famous, but those who as children are famous +in history, song, and story. For convenience the subjects are grouped as +"Royal Children," "Child Artists," "Learned Children," "Devoted +Children," "Child Martyrs," and "Heroic Children," and the names of the +"two little princes," Louis XVII., Mozart, St. Genevieve, David, and +Joan of Arc are here, as well as those of many more. + + +The Story of the Cid For Young People + +By CALVIN DILL WILSON Illustrated by J. W. KENNEDY + +Mr. Wilson, a well-known writer and reviewer, has prepared from +Southey's translation, which was far too cumbrous to entertain the +young, a book that will kindle the imagination of youth and entertain +and inform those of advanced years. + + +Jason's Quest + +By D. O. S. LOWELL, A. M., M. D. Illustrated + +[Illustration] + +Nothing can be better to arouse the imagination of boys and girls, and +at the same time store in their minds knowledge indispensable to any one +who would be known as cultured, or happier than Professor Lowell's way +of telling a story, and the many excellent drawings have lent great +spirit to the narrative. + + +Heroes of the Crusades + +By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS Cloth Fifty illustrations + +The romantic interest in the days of chivalry, so fully exemplified by +the "Heroes of the Crusades," is permanent and properly so. This book is +fitted to keep it alive without descending to improbability or cheap +sensationalism. + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON + + +CHRISTMAS IN LEGEND AND STORY + +A Book for Boys and Girls + +Compiled by ELVA S. SMITH + +Cataloguer of Children's Books, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, + +and ALICE I. HAZELTINE + +Supervisor of Children's Work, St. Louis Public Library + +Illustrated from Famous Paintings + +[Illustration] + +In their experience in providing reading for children, these trained and +efficient librarians saw the need of a book that should group the _best_ +of real literature regarding Christmas. With wide research and great +pains they have gathered the noblest, grandest, sweetest, and most +reverent of all that eminent writers in varying lands and in different +times have told us in prose and verse of the origin and sentiment of +this "gracious time." The style and decoration of the book are in +keeping with its contents. + + "Clad in green, red and gold, the Christmas colors, comes + this collection of all the sweetest and noblest stories and + legends that have gathered round the birthday of the Son of + Man. This is an interesting volume, full of the spirit of + Christmas."--_The Churchman._ + + "It is a superb book, beautifully printed, illustrated from + famous paintings and splendidly bound. It is as well adapted + to the adult as to the children, and will be read with + interest, enjoyment and delight by many an older one."--_The + Brooklyn Citizen._ + + "The literary standard of all these tales is exceptionally + high, and the two editors of the volume are to be + congratulated on their choice of selections for it."--_The + Christian Register._ + + "It is redolent of Christmas cheer and reverence. The + Yuletide spirit breathes from every page. The illustrations, + taken for the most part from old paintings, are an + invaluable embellishment of the attractive text."--_Columbus + Dispatch._ + + "Perhaps the best and most comprehensive collection of good + literature published regarding the birth of Christ and the + celebration of His birthday is this well illustrated, + clearly-written and plainly-printed book by two experts in + children's reading. It will help to keep the spirit of + Christmas alive throughout the year."--_The Continent._ + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +Lothrop, Lee & Sherpard Co. Boston + + +New Editions of Two Favorite Books + + +THE LANCE OF KANANA + +A STORY OF ARABIA + +By HARRY W. FRENCH ("Abd el Ardavan") + +Two-color illustrations by Garrett Net, $1.25 + +[Illustration] + +Kanana, a Bedouin youth, though excelling in athletic prowess, is +branded, even by his father, as a coward because he prefers the humble +lot of a shepherd to the warrior's career that he, the son of a sheik +known as the "Terror of the Desert," was expected to follow. "Only for +Allah and Arabia will I lift a lance and take a life," he maintained. +Opportunity to prove his worth soon comes, and the supposed coward, +understood too late, becomes in memory a national hero. + + "The stirring story of the loyalty and self-sacrifice of a + Bedouin boy is well worth the attractive new edition in + which it now presents its rare picture of fervid + patriotism."--_Continent, Chicago._ + + +THE ADVENTURES OF MILTIADES PETERKIN PAUL + +By JOHN BROWNJOHN + +Frontispiece by John Goss Illustrated by "Boz" + +[Illustration] + +Here is a child classic reissued in a finer and handsomer form, in +response to the persistent demand of those who know the mirth-provoking +quality of the exploits of the ingenious small boy named Miltiades +Peterkin Paul and spoken of as "a great traveler, although he was +small." Whoever has once enjoyed the story of the restless little lad +who imitated Don Quixote, and did many other things, is permanently +charmed by it. + + "This youthful Don Quixote, with his travels and exploits, + drives 'dull care' away from the elders and delights the + juniors."--_Watchman, N.Y._ + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Boston + + +The Young Folks' Book of Ideals + +By DR. WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH + +Fully illustrated 8vo Cloth 500 pages + +[Illustration] + +This is intended to be the fundamental book in the library of boys and +girls between twelve and eighteen, and it deserves its place in +interest, fullness, and worth. The great educator, G. Stanley Hall, has +demanded "a secular Bible," and it is not too much to say that this +meets the demand. One may go farther, and say that no other modern +writer has so wisely, so safely, and at the same time so entertainingly +provided what young people long to be told if only it be done capably +and pleasingly. Dr. Forbush is a sincere man, and in both writing and +speaking combines keen wit and great learning with a rich store of +personal experience in a way that entitles him to rank as the leading +authority on making the best of youthful life. The book is produced in a +style worthy of its really great contents. + + "A book of general culture for young people which deserves a + fundamental place in the library of boys and girls between + twelve and eighteen, because of its interest, fullness and + worth. The invaluable knowledge for young people imparted, + is presented in a style so pleasing and entertaining that + young readers will find it not only convincing, but + intensely interesting. It is an ideal book to place in the + hands of young people."--_Zion's Herald._ + + "It is a book of unusual inspiration. It will help teachers + and parents and will prove a stable balance for the young + mind in forming its habits of thought and living."--_Buffalo + News._ + + "There is a combination of keen wit and great learning with + a rich store of personal experience that entitles the author + to rank among the leading writers of youthful + life."--_Atlanta Constitution._ + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Happened to Inger Johanne + As Told by Herself + +Author: Dikken Zwilgmeyer + +Illustrator: Florence Liley Young + +Translator: Emilie Poulsson + +Release Date: May 23, 2010 [EBook #32502] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>WHAT HAPPENED</h1> + +<h4>TO</h4> + +<h1>INGER JOHANNE</h1> + +<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 482px;"> +<img src="images/image5.jpg" width="482" height="650" alt="Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into the +boat.—Page 22." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into the +boat.—<i>Page 22.</i></span> +</div> + +<h1>WHAT HAPPENED</h1> + +<h3>TO</h3> + +<h1>INGER JOHANNE</h1> + +<h2>AS TOLD BY HERSELF</h2> + +<h4>Translated from the Norwegian of</h4> + +<h2>DIKKEN ZWILGMEYER</h2> + +<h3><i>by</i> EMILIE POULSSON</h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 290px;"> +<img src="images/image6.jpg" width="290" height="94" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED <i>by</i></h4> + +<h2>FLORENCE LILEY YOUNG</h2> + +<h4>BOSTON</h4> + +<h4>LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.</h4> + + +<p class="center"> +Published, October, 1919<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1919,<br /> +By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>All Rights Reserved</i><br /> +<br /> +What Happened to Inger Johanne<br /> +<br /> +<i>Norwood Press</i><br /> +<br /> +BERWICK & SMITH CO.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Norwood, Mass.</span><br /> +U. S. A.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p> +CHAPTER <span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">I, Inger Johanne</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></span><br /> +<br /> +I. <span class="smcap">Ourselves, Our Town, and Other Things</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_13'>13</a></span><br /> +<br /> +II. <span class="smcap">An Interrupted Celebration</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></span><br /> +<br /> +III. <span class="smcap">My First Journey Alone</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></span><br /> +<br /> +IV. <span class="smcap">What Happened One St. John's Day</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></span><br /> +<br /> +V. <span class="smcap">Left Behind</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VI. <span class="smcap">In the Meal Chest</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VII. <span class="smcap">Pets: Particularly Carola-Carolus</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VIII. <span class="smcap">Christmas Mumming</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></span><br /> +<br /> +IX. <span class="smcap">Mother Brita's Grandchild</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></span><br /> +<br /> +X. <span class="smcap">The Mason's Little Pigs</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_143'>143</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XI. <span class="smcap">Locked In</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XII. <span class="smcap">At Goodfields</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_170'>170</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XIII. <span class="smcap">Oleana's Clock</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_179'>179</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XIV. <span class="smcap">A Trip to Goodfields Saeter</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_186'>186</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XV. <span class="smcap">Lost in the Forest</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_204'>204</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XVI. <span class="smcap">Traveling with a Billy-Goat</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_223'>223</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XVII. <span class="smcap">In School</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_239'>239</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XVIII. <span class="smcap">When the Circus Came</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_253'>253</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XIX. <span class="smcap">Moving</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_273'>273</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p> +Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into +the boat (page 22) <span class="tocnum"><i><a href="#front">Frontispiece</a></i></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="tocnum">FACING PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him away <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></span><br /> +<br /> +They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they could <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></span><br /> +<br /> +She told me the whole story of her life <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below! <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big heavy snowslide right +down on the little shoemaker <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_124'>124</a></span><br /> +<br /> +She began to shriek and point and throw up her arms <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></span><br /> +<br /> +And smashed a window-pane with it <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_166'>166</a></span><br /> +<br /> +"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock" <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></span><br /> +<br /> +How we wandered,—round and round, up and down, hither and thither! <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_208'>208</a></span><br /> +<br /> +The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's mouth <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_236'>236</a></span><br /> +<br /> +I stood on the barn steps with a long whip <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2>WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I, INGER JOHANNE</h2> + + +<p>I have always heard grown people say that when you meet strangers and +there is no one else to introduce you, it is highly proper and polite to +introduce yourself. Uncle Karl says that polite people always get on in +the world; and as I want dreadfully to do that, I will be polite and +tell you who I am.</p> + +<p>Everybody in our town knows me; and they call me "the Judge's Inger +Johanne," because my father is the town judge, you see; and I am +thirteen years old. So now you know me.</p> + +<p>And just think! I am going to write a book! If you ask, "What about?" I +shall have to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> say, "Nothing in particular," for I haven't a speck more +to tell of than other girls thirteen years old have, except that queer +things are always happening to me, somehow.</p> + +<p>Probably it isn't easy to write a book when you have never done it +before, especially when thoughts come galloping through your head as +fast as they do through mine. Why, I think of a hundred things, while +Peter, the dean's son, is thinking of one and a half! But, easy or not, +since I, Inger Johanne, have set my heart on writing a book, write it I +will, you may be sure; and now I begin in earnest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>OURSELVES, OUR TOWN, AND OTHER THINGS</h3> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Ourselves</span></h4> + +<p>There are four brothers and sisters of us at home, and as I am the +eldest, it is natural that I should describe myself first. I am very +tall and slim (Mother calls it "long and lanky"); and, sad to say, I +have very large hands and very large feet. "My, what big feet!" our +horrid old shoemaker always says when he measures me for a pair of new +shoes. I feel like punching his tousled head for him as he kneels there +taking my measure; for he has said that so often now that I am sick and +tired of it.</p> + +<p>My hair is in two long brown braids down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> my back. That is well enough, +but my nose is too broad, I think; so sometimes when I sit and study I +put a doll's clothespin on it to make it smaller; but when I take the +clothespin off, my nose springs right out again; so there is no help for +it, probably.</p> + +<p>Why people say such a thing is a puzzle; but they all, especially the +boys, do say that I am so self-important. I say I am not—not in the +least—and I must surely know best about myself, now that I am as old as +I am. But I ask you girls whether it is pleasant to have boys pull your +braids, or call you "Ginger," or to have them stand and whistle and give +cat-calls down by the garden wall, when they want you to come out. I +have said that they must once for all understand that my braids must be +let alone, that I will not be whistled for in that manner, and that I +will come out when I am ready and not before. And then they call me +self-important!</p> + +<p>After me comes Karsten. He has a large, fair face, light hair, and big +sticking-out ears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> It is a shame to tease any one, but I do love to +tease Karsten, for he gets so excited that he flushes scarlet out to the +tips of his ears and looks awfully funny! Then he runs after me—which +is, of course, just what I want—and if he catches me, gives me one or +two good whacks; but usually we are the best of friends. Karsten likes +to talk about wonderfully strong men and how much they can lift on their +little finger with their arm stretched out; and he is great at +exaggeration. People say I exaggerate and add a sauce to everything, but +they ought to hear Karsten! Anyway, I don't exaggerate,—I only have a +lively imagination.</p> + +<p>After Karsten there is a skip of five years; then comes Olaug, who is +still so little that she goes to a "baby school" to learn her letters, +and the Catechism. I often go to fetch Olaug home, for it is awfully +funny there. When Miss Einarsen, the teacher, and her sister say +anything they do not wish the children to understand, they use P-speech: +Can-pan you-pou talk-palk it-pit? I went there often on purpose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> to +learn it, for it is so ignorant to know only one language. But now I +know both Norwegian and P-speech. Olaug always remembers exactly the +days when the school money is to be paid, for on those days each child +who brings the money gets a lump of brown sugar. Once a year the +minister comes to Miss Einarsen's to catechize the children; but Miss +Einarsen always stands behind the one who is being questioned and +whispers the right answer. "Oh, Teacher is telling, Teacher is telling!" +the children say to each other. "Yes, I am telling," says Miss Einarsen. +"How do you think you would get along if I didn't?" On examination days +Miss Einarsen always treats to thin chocolate in tiny cups, and the +children drink about six cups apiece! Well, that's how it is at Olaug's +school.</p> + +<p>After Olaug comes Karl, but he is only a little midget. He thinks he can +reach the moon if he stands on a chair by the window and stretches his +arms away up high. He is perfectly wild to get hold of the moon because +he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> thinks it would roll about so beautifully on the floor.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Our Town</span></h4> + +<p>We live in a little town on the sea-coast. It is much more fun to live +in a little town than a big one, for then you know every one of the boys +and girls, and there are many more good places to play in; and all the +sea besides. Oh, yes! I know very well that there are lots of small +towns that do not lie by the sea. They must be horrid!</p> + +<p>Think how we have the great ocean thundering in against the shore, wave +after wave. Oh, it is delightful! Any one who has not seen that has +missed a really beautiful sight. It is beautiful both in summer and +winter; but I do believe it is most beautiful and wonderful in the time +of the autumn storms. Go up on the hilltop some day in autumn, where the +big beacon is, and look out over the sea! You have to hold on to your +hat, hold on to your clothes, hold on to your body itself, almost. +Whew-ew! the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> wind! How it blows! How it blows! And the whole ocean +looks as if it were astir from the very bottom. Big black billows with +broad white crests of foam come rolling, rolling, rolling in—one wave +does not wait for the other. And how they break over the islands out +where the lighthouse is! The lighthouse stands like a tall white ghost +against the dark sea and the dark sky;—sinks behind an enormous wave, +rises again, sinks and rises again. How swiftly the clouds fly! How the +ocean seethes and roars! We hear it all over town, sobbing, roaring, +thundering! Away in by the wharves of the market square the waters are +all in a turmoil. The little boats rock and rock, and the big ships dip +up and down. The wet rigging sparkles, the mooring chains strain and +creak, and there is <i>such</i> a smell of salt in the air! You can almost +taste the salt with your tongue.</p> + +<p>In such weather the damaged ships come in. One autumn there came a +Spanish steamship, with a green funnel and a white hull. It lay with +almost its whole stern under water when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> the pilot from Krabbesund +brought it in. That was jolly; not for the people on board,—it was +anything but jolly for them,—but for us children.</p> + +<p>When we choose, we go out into the harbor in boats and row round and +round among the strange ships. At last, very likely, the sailors call +out to us and ask us to come on board, and then it doesn't take us long +to scramble up the ladder, you may be sure! On board, it is awfully +jolly. Once a French skipper gave us some pineapple preserves; but +generally we only get crackers. When the Spanish ship was in, the +streets swarmed with foreign sailors, with long brown necks and burning +black eyes. Then the old policeman, Mr. Weiby, strutted about, and sent +Father long written reports about street rows and disturbances. The +Spaniards didn't bother themselves a mite about old Weiby, puffing +around with his chin high in the air!</p> + +<p>Sometimes on summer afternoons when the water lies calm and shining, we +slip off and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> borrow a boat (Mr. Terkelsen's, quite often) and go rowing +around the island. Then, afterwards, we float about,—dabbling and +splashing in the darkened water until evening comes on. Ah! that is +pleasure!</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">An Adventure</span></h4> + +<p>One summer evening Massa Peckell, Mina Trap and I saved two people from +drowning; and we were praised for it in the newspapers. Really it is +most delightful to see your name in print! I should like ever so much to +do something else that the papers would praise me for, but I don't know +what it could be!</p> + +<p>This is how it happened that time. We had borrowed old Terkelsen's boat +and rowed quite a way out. From a wharf on one of the islands another +boat laden with wood came towards us. The wood was in slabs and chips +and was piled high fore and aft. Down between the piles sat two children +rowing. As they came nearer we saw that it was Lisa and George, the +lighthouse-keeper's children. Mina and I were rowing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> but I was so much +stronger that I kept rowing her round and round, so that we were +laughing and having a jolly time. Probably George and Lisa were watching +us and forgetting all about their top-heavy boat; for, the next thing we +knew, both piles of wood, George and Lisa, and the boat were all upset +in the water. It was a dreadful thing to see!</p> + +<p>"We—we'll go ashore and get help!" shrieked Massa. Humph! A pretty time +they would have if we did that! Mina and I had more sense, so we turned +our boat quickly and were over to the spot in two or three strokes of +the oars. The boat was completely capsized and the chips floated over +the water as thick as a floor. But George and Lisa were nowhere to be +seen!</p> + +<p>Then you may believe that Mina and I yelled with all our might! You know +how it sounds over the water. My! how we did shriek! It must have been +heard all over town. I saw people away back on the wharves running to +the water to see what was the matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then, there bobbed Lisa's head up among the chips, and Mina and I hauled +her up by the arms into the boat. Massa had to hang away over on the +starboard so that <i>our</i> boat shouldn't upset, too. Old Terkelsen is +always so mad when we take his boat without leave. I can't imagine, for +the life of me, why he should get so provoked over it. We always bring +it back just as good as ever! Massa and Mina and I have no desire, +forsooth, to set out to sea through the Skagerak and sail away with it! +But on that day it was fortunate that we had taken his boat, and not +some miserable little thing belonging to anybody else.</p> + +<p>As soon as Lisa got her breath, she cried out: "Oh! the chips! the +chips!" But just then George's head appeared, and Mina and I made a grab +for him; but he was so stupidly heavy that we couldn't pull him in; so +we only held him fast and screamed and screamed. Out from the wharves +and from the islands came ever so many boats and lots of people. Those +minutes that we hung over the edge of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> boat and held on with all +our might to the half-drowned George, who was as heavy as lead—shall I +ever forget? George was drawn up into another boat and they took us in +tow. Lisa sat like a drowned rat and cried till she choked. Then Massa +began to cry, too;—and so we came to the wharf.</p> + +<p>For several days after the rescue I couldn't go into the street without +people's stopping me and wanting a full account of how it all happened. +Really, it is quite troublesome to be famous; but I like it pretty well, +nevertheless.</p> + +<p>When Mina and I met that stout, lighthouse-Lisa on the street next time, +we couldn't imagine how we had ever been able to drag her into the boat! +But you mustn't expect <i>gratitude</i> in this world. Many a time since then +has Lisa come tiptoeing along after us on the street, tossing her head +this way and that, mimicking us, to show how self-important we are! And +<i>that</i> after we saved the stupid creature from drowning!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Our Home</span></h4> + +<p>We live up on a hill in a lovely old house. People call it an old +rattletrap of a house, but that is nothing but envy because they don't +live there themselves. There are big old elm-trees around the house +which shade it and make the back part of the deep rooms quite dark. The +rafters show overhead, and the floors rock up and down when you walk +hard on them, just because they are so old. There is one place in the +parlor floor where it rocks especially. When no one is in there except +Karsten and myself, we often tramp with all our might where the floor +rocks most, for we want dreadfully to see whether we can't break through +into the cellar.</p> + +<p>There are several gardens belonging to our house. One big garden has +only plum-trees with slender trunks and a little cluster of branches and +leaves high, high up. When I walk down there under the plum-trees, I +often imagine that I am down in the tropics, wandering under palm-trees. +I have a garden of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> own, too. I wouldn't have mentioned it +particularly if there weren't one remarkable fact about it. Really and +truly, nothing will grow in it but that dark blue toad-flax—you know +what that is. Every single spring I buy seeds with my pocket money, and +plant and water and take care of them, but when summer comes there is +nothing in the garden but great big toad-flax stalks all gone to seed. +It is awfully tiresome, especially when they have such a horrid name.</p> + + +<h4><span class="smcap">Playmates</span></h4> + +<p>Now I think it is time to describe all of us boys and girls who play +together, and whom I am going to tell about in my book.</p> + +<p>There is Peter, the dean's son, with his sleepy brown eyes and freckles +as big as barleycorns. Peter is a cowardly chap. He never has any +opinion of his own. And if he had one he would never dare to stand by it +if you contradicted him. He's terribly afraid of the cold, too, and goes +about with a scarf wound around his neck, and mittens if a single +snowflake falls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> Still, Peter is very nice indeed; he does everything +that I want him to.</p> + +<p>Then there is my brother Karsten, but I've told you about him. He is a +little younger than the rest of us.</p> + +<p>Another boy is Ezekiel Weiby. He is fourteen years old and has an +awfully narrow face—not much broader than a ruler. He is very clever +and reads every sort of book. But when he is out with the rest of us, he +wants us all to sit still and hear him tell about everything he has been +reading. For a while that is very pleasant, but I get tired of it pretty +soon, for I hate to sit still long at a time. That is a very funny +thing. Other people get tired of walking or running about, but I can't +stand it to sit still.</p> + +<p>Nils Trap is the bravest of all the boys. He never wears an overcoat, +but goes around with his hands in his pockets whistling a funny tune:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho, hei for Laaringa!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>which you probably don't know. Nils Trap clambers like a cat up in the +rigging of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> vessels. Some people say that they have seen him lie out +straight on the ball at the top of the big mast of the <i>Palmerston</i> and +spin himself round. But others say that is a whopper, for the +<i>Palmerston</i> is the biggest ship in town with the very highest masts. +Perhaps he could lie and balance himself on top of it, but spin himself +round! That he couldn't do if he tried till he was blue in the face.</p> + +<p>Then there are Massa, and Mina, and I. Mina is Nils's sister and my best +friend. She has a gold filling in one of her front teeth. Oh, if I could +only have such a shining little spot as that in my teeth! Mine are only +plain straight white ones and they look really dull beside hers.</p> + +<p>Massa Peckell is plump and easy-going. She thinks the most beautiful +thing is to be pale and thin. She heard that it would give you a +delicate pale skin if you drank vinegar and ate rice soup, so she tried +it as hard as she could. But her beauty-cure only gave her the +stomach-ache. Her fat, red cheeks are just like Baldwin apples still.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>Every day, summer and winter, we are together, all of us that I have +written about here. In summer there is a lot of fun to be had +everywhere, but especially on the delightful hill back of our house—(I +will tell you all about that hill some other time),—but in winter, +humph! What can girls and boys do in such horrid mild winters as we are +now having, I should really like to know! Last year we had no snow to +speak of, and here it is now after New Year's and I haven't yet, to my +recollection, seen a single snowflake which didn't melt in five minutes, +or any ice that didn't break through as soon as you stamped your heel on +it. If I could only make a journey to the North Pole and do what I +wanted to there, I should send down some lovely soft snow-drifts and +some smooth blue glistening ice in a jiffy, to all the boys and girls +who are wishing for them day after day.</p> + +<p>In the meantime I am glad that I have begun to write this book in +winter, otherwise I should be bored to death.</p> + +<p>Of course we go out-of-doors now too, even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> though the mild weather is +disgusting; but when it storms as hard as it did in the autumn, making +the old elm-trees crash and swish so that we can scarcely hear ourselves +talk, then it is not comfortable to play out-of-doors, I assure you. At +such times we often shut ourselves up in the little room over the +wood-shed. There is nothing up there but a keg of red ochre which we +paint ourselves with, but really we have lots of fun there, +nevertheless.</p> + +<p>Ezekiel always seizes the chance to give a lecture in the wood-shed, and +his words gush out like water from a fountain. When I get tired of it, I +sneak around behind him and give him a little English punch in the back, +for I am very clever at boxing, you must know. "Come on! Can you use +your fists like an Englishman?" And then I roll my hands round very +fast, just as I have seen the English sailors do, and give him a quick +punch in the stomach with my fist.</p> + +<p>Ezekiel squirms about like a worm, and defends himself with his small +weak fingers. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> others laugh, and Ezekiel and I laugh with them, and +so we all laugh together.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Well, now you know us all, and you know what it is like around here.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>AN INTERRUPTED CELEBRATION</h3> + + +<p>My, how well I remember the day that we almost killed the dean's wife! +That sounds queer; but it really was a live dean's wife that we really +came within a hair's breadth of killing. And that, while we were just +playing and celebrating the Seventeenth of May—the day when Norway +adopted her own constitution, you know.</p> + +<p>Now you shall hear how it happened.</p> + +<p>Right behind our old house we have a whole big breezy hill. If any of +you live down on the coast, you will know how beautiful it is and what +fun one can have up on such a hill. If you have only seen it as you went +by on the steamer, you would never imagine how lovely it is up on bare +gray hills that look out towards the sea. Little soil, but lots of +sunshine; wherever there is a tiny crevice, fine long blades of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> grass, +buttercups, and yellow broom will immediately start up. Wild rose bushes +and juniper cling to the hillside here and there, and then the heather +away up on the top;—all over the whole flat top nothing but purple +heather. Above is the clear blue sky; and out there the sea in a great +wide circle—nothing to shut off the view; oh, it is glorious!</p> + +<p>This has really nothing to do with the dean's wife, but I only wanted to +explain what it was like up there on the hill. For it was up there that +Nils Trap, Ezekiel, Peter, Karsten, Mina, Massa, and I played, many a +pleasant day.</p> + +<p>Right at our yard the hill begins to be steeper; first comes a little +walled-in garden, then terraces and cliffs, big rocks and little rocks, +then down a steep precipice, and then up a few steps again where you +have to use hands and feet both, and grab hold of the heather and +juniper if you want to go farther up.</p> + +<p>About half-way up the hill there is a great big rock jutting out, which +you can only climb on one side, and that with the greatest difficulty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +This is our fort. Here we have both batteries and bastions, a room for +bullets and cannon-balls, a room for powder, and a dungeon. From up +there we have the most splendid view down over the town with its low +gaily painted wooden houses, and the small leafy linden-trees that creep +up through the streets. From our fort people down there look just like +darning-needles; from the very top of the hill they look like a swarming +mass of little pins.</p> + +<p>I remember distinctly that particular Seventeenth of May; the spring had +come so early that we already had fine young birch leaves and clear mild +air. For several days we had been talking about a feast that we wanted +to have in the dungeon, for there we should be wholly out of sight. +There was to be a salute, speeches and songs. Peter and Karsten were +always the gunners. With much trouble we had carried big stones up to +the fort; these we threw with all our might down again over the +precipice. This was our way of giving a salute; it made no little +racket, you may be sure! The boys were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> to provide something to drink, +and we the cake and glasses. We were never allowed to take any glasses +up on the hill, except old goblets with the feet broken off. I thought +then it was terribly stingy of Mother not to let us have proper glasses.</p> + +<p>Ezekiel made the speech in honor of the day. I can still see his thin +white fingers round the broken glass while he spouted and speechified +about "our young freedom crowns this day of liberty with flowers." I had +lately read the whole speech in an old children's paper, and of course +had to confide this fact to Mina; the others wanted to know what we were +laughing about, and at last all the listeners were laughing and +whispering to each other; but Ezekiel stuck to it. After the speech four +stones were thrown down. Karsten was beaming. "Oh, oh, what a crash!" he +kept saying.</p> + +<p>After that Ezekiel made a speech in honor of Sweden; at the end of the +speech he suggested that we should sing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"See yonder by the Baltic's salt waves,"<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>but as none of us knew the tune, and Ezekiel himself hadn't a speck of +music in him, the song wouldn't go. For it didn't help us at all for him +to insist that he heard the tune plainly in his head. Then Nils Trap +made a speech in honor of the ladies; I remember how I admired the few +telling words: "A cheer and four shots for the ladies!" Not a bit more! +I thought that sounded so awfully manlike.</p> + +<p>Peter rushed off to the top of the fort to fire off the shots, Karsten +after him, his hair standing on end. The stones went crashing over—the +next moment we heard a doleful shriek from below. Peter came rushing +down to the dungeon, ashy-gray under his freckles, crying:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mother—Mother——"</p> + +<p>We all dashed up instantly. Down below the fort, just at the foot of the +precipice, stood the dean's little crooked wife, with a purple kerchief +over her head and one slender hand held up in the air. The stone, which +had been fired off in honor of the ladies, lay less than two feet from +her!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>Even to this day I am sorry that I didn't run to her at once and go back +with her down the hill. That didn't occur to any of us, I think. When we +found that she hadn't been hit, but was only terribly frightened at +seeing the great stone in the air right over her, we almost thought, up +there in the fort, that it was rather unseemly of the dean's wife to +scream out so.</p> + +<p>She crept down the hill alone; she had just gone up to see to a white +bed-spread that was hanging on a bush to dry.</p> + +<p>Our festive mood was gone, however,—shocked out of us, as it were.</p> + +<p>Karsten struck into the air with clenched fists, as he always does when +he is excited. It wasn't so very dangerous, he protested; for if <i>he</i> +had been the dean's wife, of course he would have seen what direction +the stone was taking in the air, and if it went that way, why then he +would have jumped to one side—like this—and if the stone went the +other way, why then you could just jump to the other side. Besides, if +the dean's wife had been, as she ought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> to have been, as strong as Nils +Heia, for instance, then she might have stood perfectly still, fixed her +eyes on the stone, held her hands to catch it, and tossed it away. Yes, +wouldn't Nils Heia have done it that way? Wouldn't he be strong enough +for that?</p> + +<p>But very soon the horror of it came over me; just think, if Peter had +killed his own mother! I remember clearly that I wouldn't have anything +more either to eat or drink, and Nils Trap teased me, and said I had +grown quite white around the nose with fright.</p> + +<p>As we sat there looking at each other and not able to get started on +anything again, suddenly we heard a voice:</p> + +<p>"Peter."</p> + +<p>"That's Father," said Peter, and crouched away down so that he couldn't +possibly be seen from below.</p> + +<p>"Hush—sh—keep still—hush!" We lay in a heap, frightened and silent.</p> + +<p>"Peter," came again from below. "Come down this instant. I know you are +up there."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hush—just keep still, not a sound."</p> + +<p>Dead silence.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you don't come at once——" The dean was furious; we could +hear that in his voice.</p> + +<p>"I've got to go," said Peter, standing up. "I've got to—I've got +to——" He scrambled out; the rest of us just stuck our heads up to see +what would happen.</p> + +<p>There stood the dean with no hat, just in his wig, and furiously angry. +It was no fun to be Peter now. He was everlastingly slow about +clambering down. The dean scolded up towards our six heads, sticking out +of the dungeon:</p> + +<p>"Yes, just try such a thing again—just try it—your backs shall suffer +for it—big boys and girls as you are—killing people with stones!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but we didn't kill anybody," called Karsten.</p> + +<p>I was perfectly appalled at Karsten's daring to call out such a thing to +the dean, who, however, paid not the least attention; Peter had at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> last +come within his reach, so he had something else to do.</p> + +<p>First a box on one ear: "I'll teach you,"—then a box on the other ear: +"almost killing your own mother"—and he kept on hitting. But only +think; although I felt so terribly sorry for Peter, so sorry that I +believe I should have been glad to take the blows in his place—I was as +much to blame as he—yet there was something so fearfully exciting in +watching Peter and the dean down there, that I almost felt disappointed +when the dean took Peter by his left ear and dragged him away. The boys +had lately made a little path down the hill and to the back gate of the +dean's garden. It was lucky for Peter that there was some sort of a +beaten track, now that he was being led along it by the ear.</p> + +<p>"You can depend upon it that Peter will get a thrashing," said Karsten, +who also felt the excitement of the moment. "But if it were I"—he grew +very earnest—"I'd throw myself on my back and stretch my legs up in +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> air and kick so that nobody could come near me. He shouldn't beat +me, no indeed, he'd soon find that out."</p> + +<p>It was all over with the celebration. Ezekiel proposed that we should +finish up the refreshments—we divided the cake equally—and then we +clambered down; but we took the path to our garden, not to the dean's. +We only whispered, we didn't speak a single loud word, till we got down. +We got a scolding, a thorough scolding, from the dean, but Mother cried +when she heard what a calamity we had nearly brought about. And I minded +Mother's tears much more than I did the dean's scolding.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, when we asked Peter what had happened to him, he didn't +answer, but just smiled feebly.</p> + +<p>Yes, that is the way our Seventeenth of May celebration was +interrupted!</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 472px;"> +<img src="images/image42.jpg" width="472" height="650" alt="The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him +away.—Page 39." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him +away.—<i>Page 39.</i></span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>MY FIRST JOURNEY ALONE</h3> + + +<p>Well! I didn't travel entirely alone, either, you must know; for, you +see, I had Karsten with me. But he was only nine years old that summer, +so that it was about the same or even worse than traveling alone. To +make a journey with small children by steamer isn't altogether +comfortable, as any grown person will tell you.</p> + +<p>It is curious how tedious everything gets at home in your own town when +you have decided to make a journey. Whatever it might be that the boys +and girls wanted to play—whether it was playing ball in the town +square, or hide-and-go-seek in our cellar, or caravans in the desert up +on the hilltop, or frightening old Miss Einarsen by knocking on her +window<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> (which is generally great fun)—it all seemed stupid and +tiresome beyond description now.</p> + +<p>For I was going to travel, going on a journey, and that is the jolliest, +jolliest fun! Alas! for the poor stay-at-homes who couldn't go away but +had to walk about the same old town streets, and smell street dust, and +gutters, and stale sea-water in by the wharves.</p> + +<p>But I have clean forgotten to tell you where I was going. Mother has a +sister who is married to a minister. They live fifteen or twenty miles +from our town and we go there every summer. But this summer, it had been +decided that Karsten and I should go there alone for the first time.</p> + +<p>The afternoon before we were to set out I went down back of our +wood-shed, where all the boys and girls that I go with generally come +every afternoon. It was hot enough to roast you and awfully dry and +dusty; but I took my new umbrella down with me all the same. It wasn't +really silk, but I had wound it and fastened it so tightly together that +it looked just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> as slender and delicate as a real silk one. I wouldn't +play ball with the rest of them. I just stood and swung my umbrella +about.</p> + +<p>"Have you got a new umbrella?" said Karen. "Is it a silk one?" asked +Netta. "You've got eyes in your head," I answered. And so they all +thought it was a silk one. I couldn't play ball with them, I said, +because I had to go in and pack. Now that wasn't true at all, for I knew +well enough that Mother had done all the packing; but it sounded so +off-hand and important. They all teased me to stay down with them for a +while, but no indeed, far from it. "I have too much to do. I start +to-morrow morning early. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye and a happy journey," shouted the company.</p> + +<p>When I got in the house I was a little sorry that I hadn't stayed out +with the others; for I hadn't a thing to do but go from one room to +another and tighten the shawl-straps for the twentieth time at least. I +thought the afternoon would never come to an end.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>Early in the morning, before it was really light, the maid came into the +room and shook me and whispered, "Now you must get up. It's half-past +four o'clock. Get up! The steamer goes at half-past five, you know." Oh, +how dreadfully sleepy I was, but it was great fun all the same. The sun +was not shining into my room yet, but on the church tower it glowed like +a fire. The weather was going to be good. Hurrah! All the doors and +windows of the sleeping-rooms stood wide open. It was so sweet and fresh +and quiet everywhere, fragrant with the smell of the trees and fresh +garden earth outside. We went in to say good-bye to Father and Mother at +their bedside.</p> + +<p>"Remember us to everybody and be nice, good children," said Mother.</p> + +<p>"Don't lose everything you have with you," said Father. Humph! +<i>Lose</i>—Father seemed to forget that I was nearly grown up now.</p> + +<p>As we went down the hill, the stones under the elm-trees were still all +moist with dew. Oh! how quiet it was out-of-doors! Suddenly away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> down +in the town a cock crew. Everything seemed very strange.</p> + +<p>Karsten and I ran ahead and Ingeborg, the maid, came struggling after us +with our big green <i>tine</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Suddenly a desperate anxiety came over me. +Suppose the steamboat should go off and leave us! Then how we ran! We +left Ingeborg and the <i>tine</i> and everything else behind. When we turned +round the corner into the market square, the sun streamed straight into +our eyes and there by the custom-house wharf lay the steamboat, with +steam up and sacks of meal being put on board. Karsten and I dashed +across the square. Pshaw! we were in plenty of time. There wasn't a +single passenger aboard yet. It is a little steamboat, you know, that +only goes from our town over to Arendal. I got Karsten settled on a +seat, kneeling and facing the water, and then established myself in a +jaunty, free and easy manner by the railing as if I were accustomed to +travel. Ole Bugta and Kristen Snau and all the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> clodhoppers on the +wharf should never imagine that this was the first time I had been +aboard a steamboat.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Tine (pronounced tee´ne) a covered wooden box with handle +on top.</p></div> + +<p>Soon that skin-and-bone Andersen, the storekeeper, got on the boat, and +then came little Magnus, the telegraph messenger, jogging along. Magnus +is really a dwarf. He is forty years old and doesn't reach any higher +than my shoulder; but he has an exceedingly large old face. He clambered +up on a bench. He has such short legs that when he sits down his legs +stick straight out into the air, just as tiny little children's do when +they sit down. Then came Mrs. Tellefsen, in a French shawl, and +dreadfully warm and worried. "When the whistle blew the first time, I +was still in my night-clothes," she confided to me.</p> + +<p>The whistle blew the third time. I smiled condescendingly down to +Ingeborg, our maid, who stood upon the wharf. I wouldn't for a good deal +be in her shoes and have to turn back and go home again now. Far up the +street appeared a man and woman shouting and calling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> for us to wait for +them. "Hurry up! Hurry up!" shouted the captain. That was easier said +than done; for when they came nearer I saw that it was that queer Mr. +Singdahlsen and his mother. Mr. Singdahlsen is not right in his mind and +he thinks that his legs are grown together as far down as his knees. So +he doesn't move any part of his legs in walking except the part below +his knees. Of course he couldn't go very fast. His mother pushed and +pulled him along, the captain shouted, and at last they came over the +gangway and the steamboat started.</p> + +<p>The water was as smooth and shining as a mirror, and it seemed almost a +sin to have the steamboat go through it and break the mirror. Over at +the Point the tiny red and yellow houses shone brightly in the morning +light and the smoke from their chimneys rose high in the quiet air.</p> + +<p>Then my troubles with Karsten began. Yes, I entirely agree that children +are a nuisance to travel with. In the first place, Karsten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> wanted to +stand forever and look down into the machinery room. I held on to him by +the jacket, and threatened him and told him to come away. Far from it! +He was as stubborn as a mule. Humph! a great thing it would have been if +he had fallen down between the shining steel arms of the machinery and +been crushed! O dear me! At last he had had enough of that. Then he +began to open and shut the door which led into the deck cabin; back and +forth, back and forth, bang it went!</p> + +<p>"Let that be, little boy," said Mr. Singdahlsen. Karsten flushed very +red and sat still for five whole minutes. Then it came into his head +that he absolutely must see the propeller under the back of the boat. +That was worse than ever, for he hung the whole upper part of his body +over the railing. I held fast to him till my fingers ached. For a minute +I was so provoked with him that I had a good mind to let go of him and +let him take care of himself;—but I thought of Mother, and so kept +tight hold of him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>We went past the lighthouse out on Green Island. The watchman came out +on his tiny yellow balcony and hailed us. I swung my umbrella. "Hurrah, +my boys," shouted Mr. Singdahlsen in English. "Hurrah, my boys," +imitated Karsten after him. Little Magnus dumped himself down from the +seat and waved his hat; but he stood behind me and nobody saw him. It +was really a pretty queer lot of travelers.</p> + +<p>Just then the mate came around to sell the tickets. Father had given me +a five-crown note for our traveling expenses. As Karsten and I were +children and went for half-price, I didn't need any more, he said. So +there I stood ready to pay.</p> + +<p>"How old are you?" asked the mate.</p> + +<p>Now I have always heard that it is impolite to question a lady about her +age; I must say I hadn't a speck of a notion of telling that sharp-nosed +mate that I lacked seven months of being twelve years old.</p> + +<p>"How old are you?" he asked again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Twelve years," said I hastily.</p> + +<p>"Well, then you must pay full fare."</p> + +<p>I don't know how I looked outside at that minute. I know that inside of +me I was utterly aghast. Suppose I didn't have money enough! And I had +told a lie!</p> + +<p>Now my purse is a little bit of a thing, hardly big enough for you to +get three fingers in. I took it out rather hurriedly—everything that I +undertake always goes with a rush, Mother says. How it happened I don't +know, but my five-crown note whisked out of my hand, over the railing +and out to sea.</p> + +<p>"Catch it! Catch it!" I shouted.</p> + +<p>"That is impossible," said the mate.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes! Put out a boat!" I cried. All the passengers crowded together +around us.</p> + +<p>"Did the five crowns blow away?" piped Karsten.</p> + +<p>"Was it, perhaps, the only one you had?" asked the mate. Ugh! how horrid +he was. Storekeeper Andersen and Mrs. Tellefsen and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the mate laughed as +hard as they could. Karsten pulled at my waterproof.</p> + +<p>"You're a good one! Now they will put us ashore because we haven't any +money. You always do something like that!"</p> + +<p>"Are you going to put us ashore?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said the mate. "I will go up to your father's office and get +the money some time. That's all right."</p> + +<p>Pshaw! that would be worse than anything else. Father would be raving. +He always says I lose everything.</p> + +<p>"You'll catch it from Father," whispered Karsten.</p> + +<p>Oh, what should I do! What should I do! Karsten and Mr. Singdahlsen +clambered up on some rigging away aft to get sight of the five-crown +note. Mr. Singdahlsen peered through the hollow of his hand and both he +and Karsten insisted that they saw it. But that couldn't help us any.</p> + +<p>Oh! how disgusting everything had become all at once. The visit at +Uncle's and Aunt's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> would be horrid, too. To go there alone in this way, +and have to talk alone with Uncle, a minister, and all the other +grown-up people at the rectory—it would be disgustingly tiresome. There +was nothing that was any fun in the whole world. It would be disgusting +to go home again; for Father would be so dreadfully angry—and it was +most disgusting of all to be here on the steamboat where everybody +laughed at me.</p> + +<p>And all on account of an old rag of a five-crown bill which had blown +away. Besides, I had told a lie and said I was twelve years old. +Oh-oh-oh! how sad everything was!</p> + +<p>I sat with my hand under my cheek, leaning against the railing and +staring into the sea. All at once a plan occurred to me which I thought +a remarkably good one then. Now I think it was frightfully stupid. I +would ask the mate if he wouldn't take something of mine as payment for +our passage.</p> + +<p>I had a little silver ring—one of those with a tiny heart hanging to +it;—I thought of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> first. I took it off of my finger and looked at +it. It was really a tiny little bit of a thing—it couldn't be worth so +very much. At home I had a pair of skates, sure enough. I would +willingly sell them. But I couldn't possibly ask the mate to go up into +our attic and get them and sell them for me. What in the world should I +give him? Suddenly a brilliant idea struck me. My new umbrella—he +should have my new umbrella. And I would tell the mate at the same time +that I had made a mistake, that I wasn't twelve years old, only eleven +years and five months. I took the umbrella and went quickly across the +deck to find the mate. To be on the safe side I took the ring off of my +finger and held it in my hand. It might be he would want both ring and +umbrella. But it was impossible to find him. I wandered fore and aft and +peeked into all the hatchways—but I couldn't get a glimpse of that +sharp nose of his anywhere. Finally I discovered him sitting in a little +cabin, writing.</p> + +<p>I established myself in the doorway and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> swung my umbrella. To save my +life I couldn't get out a single word of what I had planned to say. +Think of having to say "I told you a lie!"</p> + +<p>"Do you want anything?" asked the mate at last.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" I said hastily. "Well, yes. How far is it to Sand Island now?"</p> + +<p>"An hour's sail, about;"—at the very minute that he was speaking these +words a terrible shriek was heard from aft, a loud shriek from several +people all screaming as hard as they could. I never was so scared in my +whole life. The mate almost pushed me over, he sprang so quickly out of +the door. All the people aft were crowded at one side. In the midst of +the shrieks and cries I heard some one say, "Man overboard!"</p> + +<p>O horrors! It must be Karsten! I was sure of it. I hadn't thought of him +or taken any care of him for the last ten minutes. I hardly know how I +got aft, my knees were shaking so. The steamboat stopped and two sailors +were already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> up on the railing loosing the life-boat.</p> + +<p>"Karsten! Karsten! Karsten!" I cried. All at once I saw Karsten's light +hair and big ears over on a bench. He was throwing his arms about in the +air and was frightfully excited. "This is the way he did," shouted he; +"he hung over the railing this way, looking for the five crowns."—It +was Mr. Singdahlsen who had fallen overboard. Oh, poor Mrs. Singdahlsen! +She cried and called out unceasingly.</p> + +<p>"He is weak in the understanding!" she cried, "and therefore the Lord +gave me sense enough for two—so that I could look after him;—catch +him—catch him. He will drown before my very eyes."</p> + +<p>I held Karsten by the jacket as in a vise. I was going to look after him +now. The boat was by this time close to Mr. Singdahlsen. They drew his +long figure out of the water and laid him in the bottom of the boat. The +next minute they had reached the side of the steamer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> again, clambered +up with Singdahlsen, and laid him on the deck. He looked exactly as if +he were dead. They stripped him to his waist, and then they began to +work over him according to the directions in the almanac for restoring +drowned people. If I live to be a million years old I shall never forget +that scene.</p> + +<p>There lay the long, thin, half-naked Singdahlsen on the deck, with two +sailors lifting his arms up and down, Mrs. Singdahlsen on her knees by +his side drying his face with a red pocket-handkerchief, the sun shining +baking hot on the deck, and the smoke of the steamer floating out far +behind us in a big thick streak. At length he showed signs of life and +they carried him into the cabin. Then, what do you suppose happened? +Mrs. Singdahlsen was angry at <i>me</i>! Wasn't that outrageous? The whole +thing was my fault, she said, for if I hadn't lost the five crowns, her +son wouldn't have fallen overboard.</p> + +<p>"Now you can pay for the doctor and the apothecary, and for my anxiety +and fright besides,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> said Mrs. Singdahlsen. But everybody laughed and +said I needn't worry myself about that.</p> + +<p>"You said yourself that you had sense enough for two, Mrs. Singdahlsen," +said Storekeeper Andersen.</p> + +<p>"I haven't met any one here who has any more sense," said Mrs. +Singdahlsen stuffily.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" thought I to myself, "if I had to pay for Mrs. Singdahlsen's +fright the damages would be pretty heavy."</p> + +<p>Just then we swung round the point by the rectory, where Karsten and I +were going to land. Uncle's hired boy was waiting for us with a boat. I +recognized him from the year before. He is a regular landlubber, brought +up away back in a mountain valley, and is mortally afraid when he has to +row out to the steamboat. His face was deep red, and he made such hard +work of rowing and backing water, and came up to the steamboat so +awkwardly, that the captain scolded and blustered from the bridge. At +last we got down into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> the rowboat and were left rocking and rocking in +the steamer's wake.</p> + +<p>John, the farm boy, mopped his face and neck. He was all used up just +from getting a rowboat alongside the steamer!</p> + +<p>"Whew, whew! but it's dreadful work," said he.</p> + +<p>The rectory harbor lay like a mirror. The island and trees and the +bath-house stood on their heads in the clear, glassy water; and between +the thick foliage of the trees there was a wide space through which we +could see the upper story of the rectory and the top of the flagstaff. +It is worth while to go traveling after all. I won't give another +thought to that old rag of a five-crown bill.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>WHAT HAPPENED ONE ST. JOHN'S DAY</h3> + + +<p>Well; what I am going to tell about now hasn't the least thing to do +with St. John's Day itself,—you mustn't think it has; not the least +connection with fresh young birch leaves and strong sunshine and +Whitsuntide lilies and all that. Far from it. It is only that a certain +St. John's Day stands out in my memory because of what happened to me +then.</p> + +<p>Yes, now you shall hear about it. First I must tell you of the weather. +It was just exactly what it should be on St. John's Day. The sky looked +high and deep, with tiniest white clouds sprinkled over the whole circle +of the heavens, and the sunshine was glorious on the hills and mountains +and on the blue, blue sea.</p> + +<p>Since it was Sunday as well as St. John's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> Day, I was all dressed up. To +be sure my dress was an old one of Mother's made over, but the insertion +was spandy new and there was a lot of it. I'd love to draw a picture of +that dress for you, if you wanted to have one made like it.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I had best begin at the very beginning, which was really +Karsten's stamp collection. He does nothing but collect stamps, and talk +and jabber about stamps the whole day long. He swaps and bargains, and +has a whole heap of "dubelkits," as he calls them. These duplicates he +keeps in a tiny little box. He means to be very orderly, you see.</p> + +<p>To tell the truth, Karsten is perfectly stupid about swapping. The other +boys can fool him like everything. He doesn't understand a bit how to do +business, and so I always feel like taking charge of these stamp +bargainings myself. If I see a boy I don't know very well, peeping +around the corner or sneaking up the hill, I am right on hand, for boys +that want to trade never come running; they act as if they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> were spying +round and lying in wait for some one.</p> + +<p>The instant Karsten sees them he comes out with his stamp album. He +stands there and expounds and explains about his stamps, with such a +trustful look on his round pink face, while the other boys watch their +chance to fool him; and before he knows it, some of his very best +specimens are gone. That's the reason why I have taken hold.</p> + +<p>As soon as I see a suspicious-looking boy on the horizon—that is to say +on the hill—I go out and stand at the corner in all my dignity and +won't budge, and I always put in my word you may be sure. Karsten +doesn't like it, but anyway, he had me to thank for a rare Chili stamp.</p> + +<p>But it was that very same rare stamp that brought about all my trouble +on St. John's Day, because Nils Peter cheated that stupid donkey of a +Karsten out of it the next time he saw him. And that was on St. John's +Day, the very day after I had got it for him.</p> + +<p>"I believe you would give them your nose, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> they asked for it," I said +to Karsten. "You'd stand perfectly still and let them cut your nose +nicely off, if they wished."</p> + +<p>"You think you are smart, don't you?" said Karsten fiercely.</p> + +<p>As Olaug came out just then (she is my little sister, you remember), I +shouted to her:</p> + +<p>"Run as fast as you can to Nils Peter and tell him Inger Johanne says +for him to give up that Chili stamp instantly. I'll hold Karsten while +you run."</p> + +<p>He would have run after Olaug to catch her before she should have time +to ask Nils Peter for the stamp, for he thought that would be too +embarrassing.</p> + +<p>Just as I got a good grip on Karsten, Olaug started. Oh, how she +ran!—just like a race-horse, with her head high. Her hat fell off and +hung by its elastic round her neck. She ran down the hill and up over +Kranheia at top speed.</p> + +<p>But you may believe I had a job of it standing there and holding fast to +Karsten. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> pushed and he struck and he scolded. My! how he did behave!</p> + +<p>But I held on and watched Olaug to see how far she had got. I was high +on the hill, you know, and could see a long way.</p> + +<p>"O dear! Olaug will burst a blood-vessel running like that," I thought. +My! now she is there—now away off there. Karsten squirmed and +struggled; now Olaug is on the path up Kranheia,—she's slowing down a +little.</p> + +<p>Impossible for me to hold Karsten any longer. I had to let go. He was +off like an arrow, his hair standing up straight and his feet pounding +the ground like a young elephant's.</p> + +<p>O pshaw! Running like that he would soon catch Olaug. It was frightfully +exciting, like a horse-race or a hunt after wild animals.</p> + +<p>Well, that isn't a very good comparison, for nothing could be less like +a wild animal than Olaug; but it was awfully exciting to see whether she +would keep ahead and get the Chili stamp from Nils Peter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>So that I might see better how the race ended I sprang up to our +chicken-yard, or rather beyond it, on our own hill. You could see the +whole path up over Kranheia better from there than from any other place. +But just where I must be to see best was that awfully high board fence, +too high for me to see over, that went from the chicken-yard quite a +long way beyond on the hill.</p> + +<p>Pooh! What of it? I just wiggled a board that was already loose, pulled +it away and stuck my head in the opening. It was a little narrow but I +got my head through. Oh—oh! Karsten had caught up to Olaug and run past +her like an ostrich at full speed—I've always heard that an ostrich +runs faster than anything else in the world—yes, there he was swinging +in towards Nils Peter's house.</p> + +<p>O pshaw! Now that Chili stamp was lost for ever and ever.</p> + +<p>Olaug had plumped herself right down; she had to sit still and get her +breath, poor thing!</p> + +<p>Now that there was nothing more for me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> watch, I started to draw my +head back out of the narrow opening between the thick boards. But, O +horrors! It stuck fast! I couldn't possibly get it back. I turned and +twisted my head this way and that, and up and down; I tried to pull and +squeeze it back, but no, that was utterly impossible. How in the world I +had ever got my head through the opening in the first place I can't +understand to this day, but that I had got it through was only too sure.</p> + +<p>New struggles to get loose—I thought I should tear my ears +off—Goodness gracious, what should I do!</p> + +<p>At first I wasn't a speck afraid. I just wriggled and pulled as hard as +I could. But when I realized that I simply could not free myself, a sort +of terror came over me.</p> + +<p>Just think—if I never got my head out? Or suppose there came a cross +dog and bit me while my head was as if nailed fast in the fence! And +suppose nobody found me—(for of course nobody would know that I had run +up here beyond the chicken-yard)—and per<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>haps I should have to stay +caught in the fence the whole night, when it was dark.</p> + +<p>I cried and sobbed, then I called; at last I screamed and roared. I +heard the hens in the yard flap their wings and run about wildly, +evidently frightened by the noise I made.</p> + +<p>Down on the road, people stood still and gazed upward; then of course I +shrieked the louder. But no one looked up to the chicken-yard; and even +if they had, they couldn't very well see, from so far down, a round +brown head sticking through a brown fence. I roared incessantly, and at +last I saw a woman start to run up the hill—and then a man started—but +they did not see me and soon disappeared among the trees, although I +kept on bawling, "Help! I am right here! I am caught in the fence!"</p> + +<p>Just then I saw Karsten and Nils Peter come out of Nils Peter's house. +They stood a moment as if listening, and naturally they recognized my +voice.</p> + +<p>Then they started running. If Karsten had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> raced over there, he +certainly raced back again, too.</p> + +<p>I kept bawling the whole time: "Here! here! in the fence! I am stuck +fast in the fence!" It wasn't many minutes before both Karsten and Nils +Peter stood behind me.</p> + +<p>"Have you gone altogether crazy?" said Karsten in the greatest +astonishment.</p> + +<p>I felt a little offended, but there's no use in being offended when you +haven't command over your own head, so I said very meekly:</p> + +<p>"Ugh! such a nuisance! My head is stuck fast in here. Can't you help +me?"</p> + +<p>Would you believe it? They didn't laugh a bit—awfully kind, I call +that—they just hauled and pulled me as hard as they could; it fairly +scraped the skin off behind my ears and I thought I should be scalped if +they kept on.</p> + +<p>"No, it's no use," I said, crying again. "Run after Father, run after +Mother, get everybody to come—uh, hu, hu!"</p> + +<p>Well, they came. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the whole lot of +them behind me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now there <i>was</i> a scene! The same story began again; they pulled and +twisted my head, Father gave directions, I cried and Olaug cried and +everybody talked at once.</p> + +<p>"No," said Father at last, "it can't be done. Hurry down to Carpenter +Wenzel and ask him to come and to bring his saw with him."</p> + +<p>"Uh, huh! He'll saw my head off!" I wailed.</p> + +<p>But Mother patted me on the back and comforted me, and all the others +standing behind kept saying it would be all right soon, while I stood +there like a mouse in a trap and cried and cried.</p> + +<p>But it was Sunday and the carpenter was not at home.</p> + +<p>"Run after my little kitchen saw then," said Mother. "Bring the +meat-axe, too," called Father.</p> + +<p>Oh, how would they manage? It seemed to me my head would surely be sawed +or chopped to pieces.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 465px;"> +<img src="images/image72.jpg" width="465" height="650" alt="They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they +could.—Page 67." title="" /> +<span class="caption">They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they +could.—<i>Page 67.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, now began a sawing and hammering around me. When Mother sawed I +was not afraid, but when Father began I was in terror, for Father, who +is so awfully clever with his head, is so unpractical with his hands +that he can't even drive a nail straight. So you can imagine how clumsy +he would be about getting a head out of a board fence.</p> + +<p>The others all had to laugh finally, but I truly had no desire to laugh +until my head was well out. In fact, I didn't feel much like laughing +then either, for really it had been horrid.</p> + +<p>Ever since that time Karsten and Nils Peter have teased me about that +Chili stamp. They say that getting my head stuck fast was a punishment +for putting my oar in everywhere. Think of it—as if I <i>did</i> try to +manage other people's affairs so very much!</p> + +<p>But it certainly is horrid when you can't control your own head. You +just try it and see.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>LEFT BEHIND</h3> + + +<p>Never in my life have I traveled so far as when Mother, Karsten and I +visited Aunt Ottilia and Uncle Karl. And so unexpected as that journey +was! I hardly had time to rejoice over it, even. It was all I could do +to get time to write a post-card to Mina, who was visiting her +grandmother at Horten, to ask her to come down on the wharf and see me, +when the steamer stopped there on its way.</p> + +<p>When we are to start on a journey, Father is always terribly afraid that +we shall be too late for the steamboat.</p> + +<p>"Hurry—hurry," he keeps saying, as he goes in and out. Mother gets +tired of it, but that makes no difference. Besides, all husbands are +like that, Mother says; unreasonable when other people go away, and +still worse to travel with.</p> + +<p>An hour and a half before the steamboat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> could be expected, we had to +trudge down to the wharf; for Father wouldn't give in. Mother had to sit +on a bench down there, with meal-sacks all around her; but Karsten and I +and Ola Bugta and the other longshoremen on the wharf went up on Little +Beacon to look for the steamboat.</p> + +<p>People usually wish for good weather when they are going to travel; but +I wish for a storm; for to plunge through the waves, up and down, must +be awfully jolly. And besides, it is so stupid that I have never been +seasick, and don't know what it's like.</p> + +<p>"What kind of weather do you think we'll have, Ola Bugta?" I asked him, +up on Little Beacon.</p> + +<p>Ola Bugta took the quid out of his mouth. "Oh, it is fine weather +outside there." O dear, then we should have good weather to-day, too!</p> + +<p>Well, at last we saw a faint streak of smoke far off in the mist. +Karsten and I almost tumbled head over heels down the hill to tell +Mother that now we saw the smoke. Karsten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> had a new light spring coat +for the journey. He looked queer in it, for it was altogether too long +for him. I took the liberty of saying that he looked like a lay preacher +in it; not that I ever saw a lay preacher in a light spring coat; but +Karsten looked so tall and proper all at once.</p> + +<p>Hurrah! now the steamer was in Quit-island Gap. How much more +interesting a steamer looks when you are going to travel on it yourself! +It made a wide sweep when it came from behind the island, and glided in +a big graceful curve up to the wharf. There were a great many passengers +on the boat. As soon as the gangway touched the wharf, I wanted to go on +board, but the mail-agent pushed me aside. "The mail first," said he. +But I ran on right after the mail.</p> + +<p>Oh, how awfully jolly it was! The deck crowded with passengers, and +trunks, and <i>tines</i>, and traveling-bags; the delightful steamboat smell; +all my friends standing on the wharf; and I tremendously busy carrying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +Mother's portmanteau and hold-all on board. I certainly went six times +back and forth across the gangway. O dear! so many boxes had to be put +on board, I thought we should never get off. I nodded and nodded to +every one on the wharf. At last I nodded to Ola Bugta; but he didn't nod +back; he just turned his quid in his mouth.</p> + +<p>Finally we started.</p> + +<p>Whenever I go down on the wharf to watch the steamboat, it seems to me +almost as if it were always the same people traveling. But to-day there +were a whole lot of different kinds of people.</p> + +<p>The first person I noticed was a tall old lady who had a footstool with +her. Think of traveling with a yellow wooden footstool! If she had only +sat still,—but she and the footstool were constantly on the go. At last +she must have thought that I looked exactly cut out to carry the stool +for her.</p> + +<p>"Little girl," she said, "you're a good girl, aren't you, and will help +me a little?" After<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> that I couldn't go anywhere near her without there +being something I must do for her. The worst was hunting for a parasol +that she couldn't find.</p> + +<p>"There is lace over the weak place in it, my dear," said she. After this +instruction I did find it. Then she offered me some candy, but it looked +so gummy that I gave it to Karsten. I saw that he had to chew it well.</p> + +<p>Mother had met a childhood friend and they sat talking together +incessantly. Just think, it was twenty-two years since they had seen +each other. How queer it would be to see my best friend Mina again in +twenty-two years, with some of her teeth gone and a double-chin.</p> + +<p>For a wonder Karsten sat perfectly still by Mother's side with his hands +deep in the pockets of his new coat; and he didn't open his mouth; but I +ran about the whole time. I wasn't still an instant.</p> + +<p>Off by herself on a bench sat a fat woman wrapped in a shawl, with a big +covered basket which she dipped down into every other minute.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Both +sausage and fancy cakes came up out of the basket. She looked at me as +if she would like to offer me something, and munched and munched.</p> + +<p>Before long I went down below. When you were in the saloon the boat +shook delightfully; the big white lamps that hung from the ceiling +rattled and jingled, and there was such a charming steamboat smell. +Everywhere on the reddish-brown plush sofas, ladies and gentlemen with +steamer-rugs over them lay drowsing. I took a newspaper, for it looked +grown-up to sit reading; but I didn't want to read the paper, after all, +so I went straight up on deck again.</p> + +<p>But the weather had changed! It was not anything like so bright as when +we started. There were already little white-capped waves, and the wind +whistled across the deck; and now the ship began to plunge enough to +suit me.</p> + +<p>Oh—up—and—down—up—and—down!</p> + +<p>I crept to the very stern and sat down beside the flag; for I thought it +looked as if the boat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> rocked most there. You know, I wanted to rock as +much as possible.</p> + +<p>The steamer laid its course more out to sea. Each time we went down into +the waves the water stood foaming white around the bow. The wind took a +fierce grip on the awning as if it would tear it to pieces, and my hair +blew about my face; this was just what I liked! Hurrah!</p> + +<p>But little by little all the other passengers disappeared from the deck. +Mother and her friend were the first; Karsten tagged after them. Mother +called out something to me at the moment she was disappearing down the +cabin stairs, but I didn't know what it was.</p> + +<p>Oh, everything was so glorious! This was fun; if only they would go +farther out to sea, farther yet—farther yet.</p> + +<p>The lady with the footstool had disappeared long ago. The yellow +footstool was taking care of itself and tumbled from one side to the +other. Then a stewardess came up with a message from Mother that I +should come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> down-stairs at once. That must have been what she said when +she was disappearing down the cabin stairs.</p> + +<p>In the cabin Mother and Karsten lay pale as death, each on a sofa. I +must lie down, too, Mother said. Really, I hadn't any wish to lie down +on a sofa now that the fun on deck was just beginning; but as long as +Mother said so——</p> + +<p>Hurrah! Cups and plates and trays crashed over each other in the +serving-room, people fell over each other on the stairs. The +traveling-wraps hanging out in the corridor, and the green curtains +before the staterooms swung violently back and forth, the ship tossed +so.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there any one that will help me?" begged a complaining but +familiar voice behind one of the curtains. That was certainly the lady +with the footstool. I jumped behind the curtain; yes, so it was. She was +sitting on the edge of her berth; she said she didn't believe she could +get out again if she squeezed herself in, she was so fat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>You may be sure she set me to work. She had lost all her things, one +wrister here and one wrister there; I had to find everything, a bouquet +in the saloon, and overshoes under the sofa. Finally it was the +footstool up on deck.</p> + +<p>It was only fun to run up on deck again. Of course I tumbled from one +side to the other and laughed and laughed, enjoying it hugely.</p> + +<p>When I was down-stairs again, the stewardess must have thought that I +flew around too much and was in the way, for she pushed me suddenly into +a stateroom. There sat the woman with the covered basket.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there any one that will help me?" the complaining voice kept on +in the stateroom opposite us.</p> + +<p>"Can you imagine why such folks travel?" said the woman, jerking her +head in the direction the voice came from, "when they have their good +home, and their good bed and everything to suit them—why should they +rove around from pillar to post?"</p> + +<p>"What are you traveling for?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, I have been on a little trip off to Grimstad, to my sister's, for +three weeks; I didn't think I should stay longer than a week at the +most, so I didn't take more than one change with me, and you must excuse +me if I look rather untidy."</p> + +<p>No, I assured her, she didn't look in the least untidy. But she was +awfully funny, I can tell you. She told me the whole story of her life. +Her husband was a skipper; twice she had been with him to the Black Sea, +"and once across the equator as far as a place they call Buenos Ayres, +and it was so elegant, my dear, with riding policemen in the streets."</p> + +<p>And the whole time we were talking she chewed and munched. For there had +been some one in Grimstad named Gonnersen, who was so polite that he had +bought a whole basket of cakes for her on the journey. "Will you +condescend to help yourself to a cake?" she said suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Gonnersen was so polite"—was the last I heard as she crossed the +gangway at Fredriksvern.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> That was where she lived. Then she stood on +the wharf and waved to me, still eating.</p> + +<p>Now there was only Larvik and Vallö before we got to Horten; there I was +to meet Mina;—hurrah, hurrah, how glad I was!</p> + +<p>But it is certainly a good thing that you don't know what is going to +happen; for it was at Horten I got left behind, all because the steamer +rang only once at the Horten wharf; and that, I must say, is a shame, +when people have bought their tickets to go on farther.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was disgusting;—but now you shall hear exactly how it happened. +When we got to Horten, Mina stood on the wharf with a new red parasol. +Mother and Karsten were still in the cabin lying down. I ran ashore at +once, you may be sure. Mina and I thought it was great fun to talk +together; for we had not seen each other for more than two weeks.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 467px;"> +<img src="images/image86.jpg" width="467" height="650" alt="She told me the whole story of her life." title="" /> +<span class="caption">She told me the whole story of her life.—<i>Page 79</i>.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Grandmother lives up there," said Mina, "up there, see—come here, only +two or three steps farther, and you'll see better; see, there is the +garden, and the doll-house with red curtains. Do you see the +doll-house?—only a few steps more,—and there is the bowling-alley in +Grandmother's garden——"</p> + +<p>We ran up and up; then the steamer bell rang. "It will be sure to ring +three times," I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely," said Mina, and went on explaining: "Do you see that white +boat with a flag——"</p> + +<p>I heard a suspicious sound from the steamer, and turned round as quick +as lightning. Yes, really, it was putting off from the wharf; first it +backed a little, and then started forward full speed. I dashed with +great leaps down the road and across the wharf.</p> + +<p>"Stop—stop—stop, I am going with you——"</p> + +<p>But if you think there was any one who cared whether I called or not, +you are mistaken. Not a person on board even turned his head, and the +longshoremen on the wharf laughed as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> hard as they could. There went the +steamer with Mother and Karsten!</p> + +<p>I wonder if you can imagine my feelings; I was in such despair that I +plumped myself down on the wharf and cried. What would Mother think? She +would certainly be afraid that I had fallen overboard when I disappeared +all at once without leaving a trace;—and what would Father say?—and +how in the world could I get to Uncle Karl's now?</p> + +<p>Oh, how I cried that time on the wharf at Horten! At last I had to go +home with Mina. And Mina's grandmother was very sweet, she really was; +and Horten was really a pretty town, and I can well believe there were +many nice people in it; but as for me, I thought it was horrid to be +there. I didn't care about the doll-house with red curtains, or +anything, though it was the prettiest doll-house I ever saw in my life, +with two little rocking-chairs with little embroidered cushions, in the +parlor, and little pudding-forms and colanders on the kitchen walls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Mina's grandmother telegraphed to Mother at Dröbak that I was safe +and sound at Horten; and late in the evening a telegram came from Mother +at Uncle Karl's, saying that I was to borrow some money from Mina's +grandmother and that I was to take a little steamer up the fjord early +the next morning.</p> + +<p>Such queer things are always happening to me! I never heard of any girl +who was left behind as I was on the wharf at Horten. Mina's grandmother +wanted me to stay there a few days, and would have telegraphed to Mother +to ask if I might; but I didn't want to stay, for I longed so +unspeakably for Mother. That night I lay awake for hours and hours, and +began to feel that I should never see Mother again.</p> + +<p>Well, in the gray light of the next morning I sat on the damp deck of a +little steamer, with two big bags of cakes. Mina stood on the wharf +waving and yawning too, for she wasn't used to getting up at five +o'clock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>I was very cold, and ate one cake after another, and dreaded what Mother +would say when I got to my journey's end. It would be a very different +arrival from what I had expected.</p> + +<p>There were no other passengers on board, but a big dog who stood tied, +with his address on his back. And I didn't have much pleasure with him +either, for he growled at me when I patted him.</p> + +<p>Later the captain came and talked with me. When I told him that I had +been left behind on the Horten wharf the afternoon before, he laughed so +that he got purple in the face. Now can you see anything to laugh at? +For all that, the captain was very kind, for he let me go up on the +bridge with him, and there I stayed all the time until we arrived.</p> + +<p>On the wharf stood Uncle Karl, Mother, and Karsten waiting. Mother shook +her head and looked much displeased; but Uncle Karl, with his big white +mustache, laughed and nodded.</p> + +<p>"I'm thankful to see you again," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Mother. "You must know I was +worried about you."</p> + +<p>"Beautiful eyes, the puss has," said Uncle Karl suddenly.</p> + +<p>I looked around astonished, for there didn't seem to be any puss +anywhere. But only think! he meant me. I have looked carefully at my +eyes since, but I don't think they are beautiful at all, for they are +too round and look so surprised.</p> + +<p>Oh, what fun we had at Uncle Karl's! I do not know that I should ever +come to an end if I tried to tell about it, so I won't begin, for I have +a tremendous gift of gab when I once get started;—at least that is what +everybody says.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>IN THE MEAL CHEST</h3> + + +<p>We have an awfully cosy cellar, you must know. Of course the whole house +is old and rather tumbledown, so the cellar is nothing very fine; but it +is awfully cosy and exactly right for playing in, in bad weather. I +don't know a cellar in the whole town that is cosier; and I am fairly +well acquainted with all of them, you may be sure.</p> + +<p>Our cellar isn't underground. It is a high basement and in it is a big +brewery and laundry, a big servant's room, and a big wine cellar where +there is never any wine; on the other side of the basement is the +storeroom for food and the potato cellar. The walls are brown and dark +just from age; and the floor rocks so that I often wonder that the big +casks and barrels, and fat Christine and Maren the washerwomen, who are +forever washing there, do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> not fall through, perhaps into some deep +abyss underground. But it must be tough, that floor, for it still holds.</p> + +<p>One day there was disgusting weather. Withered leaves flew around your +ears and the streets were soaking wet and muddy. Nils, Peter, Karen and +Antoinette had come up to our hill in order to have fun of some kind in +the drizzling weather; and we hit upon playing hide-and-seek in our +cellar. We divided into sides; Peter, Karsten and I on one side and the +other three on the other. Nils, Antoinette and Karen hid themselves +first; but they just ran up into the kitchen and Ingeborg, the cook, +drove them down again; so nobody had a chance to search for them. Then +Peter, Karsten and I were to hide. Peter and Karsten placed themselves +in the big box-part of the mangle, and I put some sacks over them and +there they were, beautifully hidden.</p> + +<p>For myself, I thought of creeping into a cupboard in the brewery. But +when it came to the point, I found that my legs had grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> so long since +I last hid there that there wasn't room enough for them. I was at my +wits' end. Any instant I expected Nils to whirl like a tempest into that +room. I sprang into the wine cellar and looked about with a frantic +glance. Only bare shelves, not a thing to hide one's self in. Oh, yes! +There stood a meal chest. I lifted the lid—the chest was empty. Quick +as a flash I jumped in and slammed the lid down.</p> + +<p>There I lay. It was pretty close quarters but not so bad after all. +Hurrah! What a first-rate hiding place! No one had ever before thought +of hiding here.</p> + +<p>I lay still, rejoicing over being so wonderfully well hidden. The +minutes began to drag. At last I heard Karen and Antoinette running +about and searching. Twice they were in the wine cellar.</p> + +<p>"No—there is nobody here," they said. I kept still as a mouse, of +course. Now they had found Peter and Karsten in the mangle box, for +there was a great uproar out there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But Inger Johanne! Where is Inger Johanne?"</p> + +<p>"You'll be pretty smart if you find me!" I thought.</p> + +<p>They ran about a while and rummaged in the brewery and then I heard them +go out into the court. I lay still as a stone a little longer but it +began to be somewhat warm in the meal chest, so I thought I would lift +the lid a little. I pushed my back against it—but what in the world! It +would not go up!</p> + +<p>Once more I tried—and once more——Exactly what had happened I don't +know, but there was a hook on the lid and when I hastily slammed the lid +down, the hook probably dropped and caught on a nail in the meal chest +itself.</p> + +<p>In the first instant I can't say that I was terribly afraid. I kept on +trying to get the lid up and all the time I thought, "They will soon +come in here again to look for me and then I'll shout!"</p> + +<p>But far from it. No one came. It was perfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> silent. I heard nobody +either in the brewery or out in the court or up in the kitchen. And all +at once terror overwhelmed me,—terror at being shut up in that small +place. It was as if I were in a grave. So I screamed, and banged on the +lid, and kicked. Then I listened again. Not a sound was to be heard.</p> + +<p>It was hot as fire in the meal chest. My face burned. How I screamed!</p> + +<p>"Help me! I'm in the meal chest! help! oh, help!"</p> + +<p>No, not a sound. What in the world would happen to me? I could scarcely +get my breath—no—I knew I couldn't breathe any more. Yet again I +shrieked. I cannot understand why nobody heard me. My breathing was +short and difficult. No, I could not hold out—I surely could not +breathe any more.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mother! Mother! Help me!"</p> + +<p>Then I heard some one in the court and then footsteps in the brewery. I +screamed again. Some one opened the door to the wine cellar and I heard +Maren's voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's that? What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Maren, oh, Maren!" I called from the meal chest. Like a flash the door +was shut again and I heard Maren running as fast as her legs could carry +her up the kitchen stairs.</p> + +<p>To think that she should run away without helping me! That seemed too +sad and dreadful, when I was in such distress, and I cried and sobbed as +hard as I could. And now I could scarcely get my breath again.</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh! help, help!"</p> + +<p>I could not scream any more, I was so strangely weak. Then I heard many +feet in the kitchen above my head. They came nearer, and down the +stairs, and then the door was opened. All I could do now was to call +very faintly.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Mother, Mother!"</p> + +<p>At the same instant the lid of the meal chest was quickly thrown open. +There stood Mother and Maren and Ingeborg, the cook. Mother lifted me +out; I was crying so hard I could not say a word, nor explain at all +how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> it happened. However, a little while after I was as lively as ever.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you ugly Maren—who wouldn't help me!"</p> + +<p>"I thought it was a shriek from the underworld!" said Maren. "And I was +so frightened! It clutched my heart. Oh! I shall never get over it." +Maren sat on the corner of the potato bin and wept aloud.</p> + +<p>Mother didn't know whether to scold Maren or to laugh at her. She +behaved exactly as if it were she and not I who had been shut up in the +meal chest.</p> + +<p>Maren took surely a hundred Hofmann's drops and still she was poorly, +and for many days she whimpered and whined about her fright at the meal +chest. And even yet she cannot hear any mention of meal, or of a chest +or of screaming, without her invariably saying:</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a wonder that I didn't get my death that time you were shut +up in the meal chest—but I've had a swollen heart ever since then—and +that I can thank you for."</p> + +<p>But Mother says that's all nonsense.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>PETS: PARTICULARLY CAROLA-CAROLUS</h3> + + +<p>One day a man from Vegassheien came into our kitchen with four live +chickens that he wanted to sell. All hens, he said. We had never had any +pets at our house except Bouncer, our big black cat; and Karsten and I +were seized at once with an overwhelming desire to own these four +half-grown, golden-brown chickens, who lay so patiently in the bottom of +the peasant's basket, put their heads on one side and looked up at us +with their little round black eyes. Oh, if Mother only would buy these +darling chickens for us! It is such fun to have pets.</p> + +<p>Speaking of pets makes me think of Uncle Ferdinand, and the pet monkey +he had.</p> + +<p>You know Uncle Ferdinand? The elegant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> old gentleman dressed in gray, +who bows so politely, and has such a friendly smile for everybody. Yes, +all the world knows him. He is not really my uncle—or any one's uncle, +that I know of; every one just calls him Uncle, because it seems as if +it exactly suited him. He is certainly the kindest person in the world. +All poor people love him; and he likes all people and all animals.</p> + +<p>His wife is Aunt Octavia, and they are very rich and live in a charming +house, with lots of rooms, where there are a great many beautiful +things, works of art and such things. Off in her little boudoir, Aunt +Octavia lies on a sofa all day. She is not really ill, Mother says; she +just lies there because she is so rich. My! if I had as much money as +Aunt Octavia, I should do something besides lie on a sofa with my eyes +shut!</p> + +<p>Uncle Ferdinand and Aunt Octavia have no children. That is why they are +both so terribly fond of pets. Aunt Octavia likes best little white +silky poodles that are bathed in luke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> warm soap-suds, wrapped in a +bathing sheet and combed with a fine comb, and that roll across the +floor like little white balls. I really believe she likes such silky +poodles better than anything else in the world.</p> + +<p>But Uncle Ferdinand likes monkeys best. The pet monkey he had was +brought home on one of his ships. The sailors on board had named it +"Stomach," because it was such a great eater, and it was called that all +the rest of its life.</p> + +<p>Uncle Ferdinand certainly was in a scrape that time. At first he didn't +dare to tell Aunt Octavia that he thought of bringing a monkey into the +house; but the ship that Stomach had come on was to leave, you see, and +then Uncle Ferdinand had to tell. I can imagine just how it went for I +know how they talk together.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Wouldn't you like to have a nice new plaything, Octavia? really a +charming plaything, my dear?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A plaything? What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"A very amusing plaything that jumps about and plays tricks, and could +climb up the curtains, for instance, or sit on your shoulder and eat +cakes."</p> + +<p>"Sit on my shoulder! The man has gone crazy! Don't come any nearer, +Ferdinand, I beg of you. You are ill!"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, Octavia my dear, my mind is all right. I mean—I mean—just a +monkey, my darling."</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! Is he calling me a monkey? What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"My love, I only mean that there is a monkey on board the ship, that I +would so much like to have here at home."</p> + +<p>"And that is what you were beating about the bush so for! Well, well, +that is just like you. However, I agree to anything you like, of course; +let the creature come—let it come. It will strangle me some fine day, +but I am used to that—I mean, I am used to saying yes and yielding to +others."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>And that is how Stomach came into the house.</p> + +<p>It was the liveliest, most mischievous monkey you can imagine. It stayed +most of the time in Uncle Ferdinand's office. Up and down the +book-shelves it climbed, just like a squirrel; now and then it threw +itself across the room from one bookcase to another. One time it sprang +straight onto the big lamp that hung from the ceiling, and made the +chimney and shade come down in jingling fragments. Stomach hung from one +of the chains, miserable and screaming with fright. This performance it +never repeated.</p> + +<p>Stomach loved nothing in the world so much as matches. Whenever it got +hold of a box of matches it was overjoyed, and immediately climbed up on +the highest bookcase. Here it sat and tossed the matches one by one down +on the carpet. When it grew tired of this it flung the whole box, aiming +with amazing success right at the top of Uncle Ferdinand's head. Uncle +Ferdinand always sat patiently waiting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> for this last shot; then he got +down on his knees, and picked up every single match!</p> + +<p>But what caused Uncle Ferdinand the most trouble and care was that Aunt +Octavia had strictly forbidden that the monkey should ever come anywhere +near her. Uncle Ferdinand was on pins and needles for fear this should +happen, and scarcely did anything all day but go around shutting doors +to keep Stomach away from her.</p> + +<p>All the servants had been instructed to do the same. Sometimes they were +furious with Stomach, but when it had the toothache and sat with its +hand under its little swollen cheek, and rocked sorrowfully back and +forth like a little sick child, their hearts softened towards it and +they forgave all its pranks. But to keep Stomach within bounds grew more +and more difficult. It unfastened the window-catches, promenaded along +the house walls and on the window-sills. Now and then it whisked through +an open window of another house, returning with the most unbelievable +things,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> water-jugs and pillows, and cologne-bottles which it emptied +out very thoughtfully and slowly over the dahlia bed.</p> + +<p>No one must even mention Stomach's name before Aunt Octavia. "The mere +name of that disgusting creature nauseates me," she said. Uncle went +about as if on eggs and grew even more careful about shutting the doors. +But one day, in spite of all the caution, the terrible thing happened; +the monkey got into Aunt Octavia's room. Some one had forgotten to shut +a door; like a flash Stomach darted through, ran noiselessly over the +soft carpet even into the sacred boudoir, gave a spring up onto Aunt +Octavia, who lay with closed eyes on her sofa, and burrowed its whole +little body in under her arm.</p> + +<p>Then there was a hullabaloo! Aunt Octavia shrieked at the top of her +lungs, and people rushed in.</p> + +<p>"I lie here helpless," said Aunt Octavia; "it could have strangled me. +Ferdinand, what was its object? I ask you, Ferdinand, what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> was it +thinking of, when it burrowed in under my arm?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it wanted to warm itself," said Uncle Ferdinand meekly.</p> + +<p>"Warm itself!" said Aunt Octavia scornfully. "To bite me in the heart +was what it wanted."</p> + +<p>Nothing would satisfy her but that Uncle must take Stomach to the doctor +to be chloroformed, though he would rather have done anything else in +the world!</p> + +<p>But Uncle Ferdinand's monkey really hasn't the least thing to do with +the chickens from Vegassheien that Karsten and I wanted, and that I +began to tell about.</p> + +<p>Hurrah! Mother would buy the four chickens, but only on condition that +Karsten and I should take care of them. Would we do this?</p> + +<p>Why, of course; it would be only fun. I never imagined then all the +bother and rumpus that would come of it.</p> + +<p>Up in our old barn, that has stood for many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> years unused, there is a +room partitioned off that we call the salt stall, I don't know why. Here +we established our four chickens. I immediately gave them names: Lova, +Diksy, Valpurga, and Carola. Karsten and I stuffed them with food, and +all day they went about scratching in our kitchen garden, where, +however, nothing ever grows. With shallow, sandy soil, and a frightful +lot of sun, you might know it couldn't amount to anything.</p> + +<p>The first thing I did in the morning was to let out the chickens. They +flapped and fluttered around me in the fresh, cool morning stillness +under the maples. It always takes some time for the sunshine to get down +to our place, because of the hill.</p> + +<p>Lova, Diksy, and Valpurga were quite ordinary long-legged chickens that +scratched and picked all day long, but Carola began little by little to +behave with more dignity. She stepped out vigorously, and scratched +sideways, stood still for minutes at a time, just as if she were +listening for something, and always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> let the others help themselves +first. And one fine day she stood on the barn steps, flapped her wings, +and crowed—a regular hoarse, cracked chicken's crow—but crow she did. +Of course she had to be christened over again, and so I called her +Carolus.</p> + +<p>And it is Carolus' doings that I want to tell about. Not the first year +he lived; he was well enough behaved then. All summer the chickens were +up in the salt stall, but when winter came they were moved down into our +cellar because of the cold. Br-r-r-r! Hens have a wretched time in +winter. The snow lay thick against the cellar window and shut out what +little gray daylight there was, and down there on the stone floor in the +dampness sat all four chickens and moped, their heads drawn down into +their feathers. At such times one can be very glad not to have been born +a hen. However, I went down there every day and comforted them.</p> + +<p>"Think of the summer," I said, "think of the rich ground under the +dewberry hedges,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> and of the whole kitchen garden in the long sunny +days."</p> + +<p>Carolus flapped his wings a little, but the others didn't even do +that—they were utterly discouraged.</p> + +<p>But at last came the summer.</p> + +<p>Lova, Diksy, and Valpurga each laid a pretty little egg every day up in +the salt stall. What fun it is to go and hunt for eggs! You go and poke +around and hunt and hunt, but they are clever and sly, these hens, and +hide themselves well under pieces of board and rubbish. By and by, off +in some corner you see a gleam of white and there are the eggs, round +and smooth and warm.</p> + +<p>Carolus had become a fine noble-looking cock with long curved +tail-feathers which shone with metallic colors in the sun; but oh, the +trouble he gave me!</p> + +<p>Right at the foot of our hill lives Madam Land in a little old gray +house. Madam Land keeps hens, too. Well! nothing would do but that +Carolus must go down to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> chicken-yard. It wasn't half as nice as our +kitchen-garden but he couldn't keep away from it a single day.</p> + +<p>The instant the hens were let out in the morning Carolus made a dash +down the hill, flying and running straight to Madam Land's gate. If the +gate were not open, Carolus flew over the board fence and down into the +midst of Madam Land's flock of hens. I called and I coaxed; I scolded +him and chased him. No, thank you! Carolus crowed and squawked, and flew +up on the board fence; he put his head on one side and looked down at +me, and no sooner was I well out of the way than he was in the yard +again and there he stayed all day.</p> + +<p>Every single night I had to go down to get him after he had gone to +roost with Madam Land's hens. Then there was a racket, I can tell you! +The hens cackled and squawked and flew down from the roost, even hitting +against my face as they flew. You couldn't hear yourself think in Madam +Land's hen-house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>But I took firm hold of my good Carolus. He kicked and struggled, but I +held his shining warm body close to me and could feel his heart beating +and hammering as I ran home with him.</p> + +<p>Every single night this performance had to be gone through, and every +single night Madam Land stood in her kitchen door and scolded when I +went past with Carolus in my arms.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! he's the pampered one—oh, yes, he's the one that's getting +fat—he eats enough for four hens—there's surely law and justice to be +had in such cases—yes, indeed, he's the pampered one." I could hear +Madam Land's voice following me all the way up our hill.</p> + +<p>Madam Land herself doesn't look as if she were pampered. Her husband is +a boatman. She is frightfully saving. They say in the town that Madam +Land boils only three potatoes for dinner every day, "two potatoes for +Land, one for the maid, and I don't need any," says Madam Land. And only +think,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> day after day she had to see that big Carolus of ours eating out +of the dish she had filled for her own hens. Any one could understand +Madam Land's being angry.</p> + +<p>One day Madam Land came up to our house to complain to Mother about +Carolus.</p> + +<p>Now I hadn't said a word to Mother about the way Carolus had been +behaving lately. I had a dark misgiving that it would work against my +gallant Carolus in some way. Mother was very much annoyed, and said that +I was to be so good as to keep Carolus shut up hereafter. For two days I +kept him in the salt stall. He hopped up on the window-sill and pecked +at the small green panes. But the third day I was so terribly sorry for +him that I let him out.</p> + +<p>"You'll see he has forgotten all about it," said Karsten. +Forgotten!—no, thank you! Carolus was already off. He screeched for joy +and flew straight into Madam Land's yard.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, we'll tie him," said Karsten suddenly. That was an +excellent idea, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> thought. First we found a long string, and then we +went down after the sinner. Naturally he didn't want to come home again; +Madam Land's whole yard was just one uproar of frightened hens, we ran +about so, driving them here and there, before we got hold of Carolus. We +tied the string around his leg and tethered him beside the barn steps.</p> + +<p>After we had done this, I went in to study my lessons, but I hadn't been +studying five minutes before I had a queer feeling of uneasiness, and +had to go out to see how Carolus was getting on. There he lay on the +ground; he had twisted and wound the string around himself countless +times,—he just lay on his side and gasped. I freed him in no time; for +a moment he lay still, then he got up suddenly, flapped his wings hard +and—away he went, with outspread wings that fairly swept the ground, +and disappeared in Madam Land's yard. That night I didn't go to get him. +The fact is I didn't dare to, because of Madam Land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>As I came home from school the next day I went round by Madam Land's. +Carolus stood in the yard eating Madam Land's chicken-feed and sour milk +with excellent appetite. His big red comb hung down over one eye. The +other eye, that was free, he turned towards me as if he would say, "I +know you well enough, Mistress Inger Johanne, but go your way—I intend +to stay here for good and all."</p> + +<p>"Well," I thought, "let them scold as they please about you, Carolus; +you are surely the most beautiful cock in all the world—but you are +mine, you must remember."</p> + +<p>When evening came I had studied out a plan for catching Carolus without +Madam Land's seeing me. She kept her hens in a part of the wood-shed +that was boarded off. Behind this was an open field, and high up in the +back wall, right under the roof, there was a little window that always +stood open. Through that window I meant to go to get Carolus. There was +an old ladder in our barn; I got Peter and Karsten to carry it down the +hill and set it up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> under the window. Both Peter and Karsten wanted to +climb up, but I said no; such a difficult undertaking no one but myself +could manage.</p> + +<p>It was about nine o'clock in the evening and growing dark. I climbed the +ladder and got to the top round all right. But whether it was that the +ladder was rotten or that Peter and Karsten let go of it,—I had no +sooner got hold of the window-sill and dragged myself in than down fell +the ladder, breaking all to pieces as it fell.</p> + +<p>So there I was in a pretty fix! And how Karsten and Peter laughed down +below! I was furiously angry with them, especially at the way Peter +laughed. When Peter laughs it is just as if some one had suddenly +tickled him in the stomach; he doubles himself together, twists like a +worm, and laughs without making a sound. But Karsten roared at the top +of his voice.</p> + +<p>"Will you stop your laughing, Karsten? You will betray me making such a +noise."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How will you get down again?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll jump down." It was certainly ten or twelve feet to the ground. +"Now I am going in after Carolus; I'll drop him down from here, and you +must be sure to catch him."</p> + +<p>I groped my way down the half-dark stairway from the loft, stumbled +along, in the pitch-black darkness of the shed, over a chopping-block +and a heap of shavings, and at last got to the part of the wood-shed +where the hens were. I opened the door softly and fumbled with my hand +along the roost they were sitting on. But, O dear! O dear! such a +squawking and screeching! You haven't the least idea how Madam Land's +hens could squawk. It was exactly as if I were murdering them all at +once. Outside of the wall I could hear Karsten fairly howling with +laughter. I kept fumbling around in the dark, for I wanted to find +Carolus. I think I got hold of every single hen; all their beaks were +stretched wide, letting out one and the same piercing squawk.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 468px;"> +<img src="images/image118.jpg" width="468" height="650" alt="And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below!—Page +109." title="" /> +<span class="caption">And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below!—<i>Page +109.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then I heard the door of Madam Land's kitchen thrown open, and footsteps +across the yard—then Madam Land's voice, "Come with your stick, Land, +there are thieves in the hen-house." The door of the wood-shed was +opened and Madam Land's maid burst in and saw me. "It is the judge's +Inger Johanne, madam," she called.</p> + +<p>"Is it that spindleshanks again?" I heard Madam Land say—yes, she +really said "spindleshanks"; but to me she only said, "Your cock is not +here, girl; he has not been here all day—not for two or three days, I +believe."</p> + +<p>"But he was here this morning."</p> + +<p>"Not at all. You didn't see straight. He is not here, I tell you."</p> + +<p>I ran home completely at a loss. What in the world had become of +Carolus? The next day I searched everywhere. I went around to all the +houses in the neighborhood and asked after my cock. No, no one had seen +him anywhere.</p> + +<p>Then all at once a frightful suspicion arose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> in my mind: Madam Land had +cut off Carolus' head!</p> + +<p>Oh, what a shame, what a shame!—what a shame for her to do that! How I +cried that day! It did no good for them to say at home that perhaps +Carolus would come back, and that even if he didn't, it wasn't at all +sure that Madam Land had made an end of him; he might easily have just +gone astray himself.</p> + +<p>No, I didn't believe that for a moment. It was Madam Land who had +murdered him, and I thought it was mighty queer of Father that he +wouldn't put her on bread and water for twenty days, for she deserved +it.</p> + +<p>The only thing that consoled me was that I myself never had to see +Carolus served up in white sauce in a covered dish on the dinner table. +Never—never in the world—would I have tasted a bit of Carolus!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Well, something always does happen to pets—think of Uncle Ferdinand's +monkey.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>CHRISTMAS MUMMING</h3> + + +<p>It was Christmas Eve when we went mumming, and oh! how glorious the +moonlight was! Down in our streets and up over our hills the moon shines +clearer than it does anywhere else on the face of the globe, I'll wager.</p> + +<p>Massa, Mina and I had dressed ourselves up in fancy costumes. "If any +one asks where you are from," said Mother, when we were ready to start, +"you can safely say, 'From the Land of Fantasy.' You certainly look as +if you came from there."</p> + +<p>Massa had on a light blue dress trimmed with gold-colored cord. It was +one of Mother's heirlooms from Great-grandmother Krag, and had a tiny +short waist and big puffed sleeves. Massa wore also a green velvet hat,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +and her thick long flaxen hair hung loose down her back.</p> + +<p>Mina was dressed in silk from top to toe; an old-time dress of flowered +brown silk with a train, a green silk shawl and a big white silk bonnet +that came away out beyond her face.</p> + +<p>When the others were ready, there was nothing fine left for me, so I had +to take a white petticoat, and a dressing sacque, and a big +old-fashioned Leghorn hat that Mother had worn when she was young. To +decorate myself a little, I carried a beautifully carved <i>tine</i> in one +hand and a red parasol in the other. We all wore masks, of course,—big +pasteboard masks, which came away down over our chins, with enormous +noses and highly colored red cheeks.</p> + +<p>Well, off we went and soon stood at the foot of our hill in a most +daring mood, ready for all sorts of pranks.</p> + +<p>I don't know who proposed that we should go first to Mrs. Berg's, but we +all chimed in at once. We crept softly up to her door-step.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>Unluckily for us, as it happened, Mrs. Berg has a great iron weight on +her street door,—so that it will shut of itself, you know. What the +matter was, I can't imagine, but as soon as we had given one knock at +the door, down fell that iron weight to the floor with a thundering +crash. We were so frightened that we were on the point of running away +when Mrs. Berg and her husband came bustling out to the door with a +lighted lamp.</p> + +<p>"No, thanks," said Mrs. Berg, as soon as she caught sight of us. "I +don't want anything to do with such jugglery as this! Out with you, and +that quickly!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, little Marie," said her husband. "You ought to ask the little +young ladies in. They are not street children, don't you see?" Mina's +magnificent clothes evidently made an impression on him.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Berg mumbled something about its being all the same to her what +sort of people we were, but Mr. Berg had already opened the door and +respectfully asked us to walk in.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was as hot as a bake-oven in the sitting-room, and so stuffy and +thick with tobacco smoke that I thought I should smother behind my mask. +Mr. Berg bowed and bowed and set out three chairs for us in the middle +of the room. Now we had planned at home that we would use only P-speech +while mumming, for then no one would know us.</p> + +<p>"May I ask where these three elegant ladies come from?" asked Mr. Berg.</p> + +<p>Massa undertook to answer, but she was never very clever at P-speech and +she got all mixed up:</p> + +<p>"From-prom. Fan-tan-<i>pan</i>—pi-ta—sa-si p-p-p——" she stammered, in a +hopeless tangle, while Mina and I were ready to burst with laughter.</p> + +<p>"Bless us! These must be foreigners from some very distant land,—they +speak such a curious language. You must treat them with something, +Marie."</p> + +<p>Marie didn't appear very willing to treat us to anything, but she went +over to a corner cupboard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> and brought out a few cookies,—pale, +baked-to-death "poor man's cookies." They looked poor, indeed! I +shuddered before I stuck a piece into my mouth.</p> + +<p>To eat with a mask on, when the mouth is no wider than the slit in a +savings-bank, has its difficulties, I can tell you. The little I did get +in tasted of camphor. Mrs. Berg must have kept her medicines in the same +closet with the cakes.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the little ladies would like something more," said Mr. Berg.</p> + +<p>"No, thanks—No-po, thanks-panks." And we all three rose to go. We +curtsied and curtsied. Mr. Berg bowed and bowed. Mrs. Berg turned the +key in the street door after us with a snap, and I heard her say +something about "that long-legged young one of the judge's!"</p> + +<p>Oh! how we laughed! "Now we will go to Mrs. Pirk's," said I.</p> + +<p>"Inger Johanne! Are you crazy? She is worse than Mrs. Berg!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That makes it all the more wildly exciting! Come on!"</p> + +<p>We crept stealthily into Mrs. Pirk's kitchen. It was pitch dark in there +except for a little light through the keyhole of the sitting-room.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Keep still!" Mrs. Pirk coughed suddenly and we all quaked.</p> + +<p>"Now she will surely come!" Silence again. We were half-choked with +laughter.</p> + +<p>"I am going to clear my throat," said I. "Ahem!"</p> + +<p>"Ahem!" I gave a very loud, strong one the second time.</p> + +<p>A chair was hastily shoved aside in the sitting-room, the door opened, a +sharp light fell on our three fantastic figures, and Mrs. Pirk stood in +the doorway with her spectacles on her nose. I stepped forward.</p> + +<p>"Good-pood day-pay!" Mrs. Pirk went like a flash to the fireplace and +grabbed a broom-stick.</p> + +<p>"Get out!" she cried. "Out with you!"</p> + +<p>So out of the door we ran, stumbling and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> tumbling over each other, Mrs. +Pirk after us with her uplifted broom, out into the moonlit street. Oh! +it was unspeakable fun to be chased out-of-doors that way by Mrs. Pirk!</p> + +<p>Well—then we went on to the Macks'.</p> + +<p>They were sitting alone in their big light sitting-room, as we went in. +Mrs. Mack was playing "patience" and Mr. Mack sat by her side smoking +his long pipe and pointing out with the end of it which card he thought +she ought to take next.</p> + +<p>We pressed close together around the door and curtsied.</p> + +<p>"Why, see! Welcome to youth and joy!" said Mrs. Mack, rising. "What nice +young people these are to come to visit a pair of old folks like us!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Mack came forward and pointed with the end of his pipe over our +heads, saying:</p> + +<p>"Up on the sofa with you! Up on the sofa with you, all three!"</p> + +<p>So there we sat, as if we were distinguished guests, with the lamp +shining full upon us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I see you have a <i>tine</i> with you," said Mr. Mack, looking at the <i>tine</i> +I carried. "Have you something to sell, perhaps? And where may these +pretty little ladies be from?"</p> + +<p>"I-pi sell-pell butter-putter," said I.</p> + +<p>"We are from the Land of Fantasy," said Massa, without attempting +P-speech again.</p> + +<p>"Why! They don't make butter in the Land of Fantasy, do they?" asked +Mrs. Mack.</p> + +<p>Just then the servant came in with an immense tray, and on it was +something very different from Mrs. Berg's camphorated cookies, I assure +you! I thought with grief of my mask mouth no bigger than a savings-bank +slit.</p> + +<p>"And now what about unmasking?" said Mr. Mack. "That is, if these ladies +from the Land of Fantasy are willing to liven up an evening for a couple +of old people."</p> + +<p>Were <i>willing</i>! We took our masks off in a jiffy. But, would you believe +it? Mr. Mack said he knew me the very minute we came in!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Mack took a glass of Christmas mead and recited:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh! I remember the happy ways<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of my gay and innocent childhood days.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I love to feel that my old heart swells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the same pure joy that in childhood dwells."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Mamma composed that herself," said Mr. Mack, gazing admiringly at his +wife.</p> + +<p>Later in the evening, Mrs. Mack danced the minuet for us, holding up her +skirt and singing in a delicate old-lady voice. Then she said:</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, Mack? Do you remember that they were playing that air +the evening you asked me to marry you?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Do</i> I <i>remember</i>?" And Mr. Mack and his wife beamed tenderly at each +other.</p> + +<p>"Think! That such a homely woman as I should get married!" said Mrs. +Mack to us on the sofa.</p> + +<p>"You homely!" and Mr. Mack gave the dear old lady a kiss right on the +mouth.</p> + +<p>"Now we shall see, children, whether, when you get old, you have done +like Mack and me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> We have danced a minuet our whole life through, and +the memories of youth have been our music."</p> + +<p>When we went home at the end of the evening, we had our pockets crammed +full of apples and nuts and cakes.</p> + +<p>It is jolly fun to go out mumming at Christmas! Just try it!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>MOTHER BRITA'S GRANDCHILD</h3> + + +<p>It was an afternoon in the spring. There had been a heavy fall of snow +the day before and then suddenly a thaw set in. So very warm was the air +and the sun so burning hot that the water from the roof gutters came +rushing and tumbling out in regular waterfalls; and big snowslides from +the housetops thumped down everywhere, making a rumbling noise all along +the streets.</p> + +<p>The walking I won't try to describe. There were no paths made, just the +frightfully soft melting snow, so deep that it came exactly half-way to +your knees. So there wasn't much pleasure in walking, I assure you; and +we hadn't a thing to do.</p> + +<p>The steamships from both east and west<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> were delayed by the snow-storm, +so there was no fun in going to the wharf and hanging around there. +Usually it is amusing enough,—always something new to see and something +happening; and now and then we have fun seeing the queer seasick people +on board the ships. Just outside of our town there is a horribly rough +place in the sea where cross currents meet, and the passengers look +forlorn enough when the ship gets to the wharf.</p> + +<p>But all this isn't really what I meant to tell about now; I started to +tell about the afternoon when we played a lot of pranks simply because +there wasn't a thing else to do. Truly, that was the reason. Now you +shall hear.</p> + +<p>Karen, Mina, Munda, and I were together that afternoon. Not a person was +to be seen on the street and it was disgustingly quiet and dull +everywhere. The only pleasant thing was that there came a tremendously +big heavy snowslide right down on the little shoemaker, Jorgen.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 467px;"> +<img src="images/image134.jpg" width="467" height="650" alt="The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big, heavy snowslide right down on the little +shoemaker.—Page 123." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big, heavy snowslide right down on the little +shoemaker.—<i>Page 123.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, I don't mean that that was a pleasure exactly, you understand, but +it made a little variety.</p> + +<p>Just as he came around the corner, by Madam Lindeland's, b-r-r-r! there +was a rumbling above, and down upon him slid a whole mass of snow from +Madam Lindeland's steep sloping roof. He was knocked completely over, +and all we could see of him was a bit of his old brown blouse sticking +up through the snow.</p> + +<p>In a flash Mina, Munda, Karen, and I were on the spot, digging him out +with our hands. Before you could count ten, he was up, but you had +better believe he was angry! Not at us exactly, but at the snow, and the +thaw, and the town itself that was so badly arranged that people walking +in the streets might be killed before they knew it.</p> + +<p>"Preposterous, the whole business," grumbled the shoemaker. "Who would +dream that there would be such a thaw right on top of such an +unreasonable snow-storm—and in March, too!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then he noticed that he had lost his cap, so we dug in the snow again, +searching for it, and had lots of fun before we finally found it.</p> + +<p>All this excitement over the snowslide made us crazy for more fun, and +we decided that we would go to Madam Graaberg and ask her if she had +white velvet to sell. Madam Graaberg has a little shop in a basement and +sells almost nothing but <i>lu-de-fisk</i> (fish soaked in lye, with a rank +odor).</p> + +<p>First we peeped in the window between the glasses of groats. Yes, there +were many people in the shop and Madam Graaberg stood behind the counter +as usual. She is as big as three ordinary women and her eyes are as +black as two bits of coal; and my! how they can flash!</p> + +<p>We plumped ourselves down into the shop, all four of us. It smelled +frightfully of <i>lu-de-fisk</i> and the whole floor was like a puddle from +all the wet feet. A fine place to go to ask for white velvet! And Madam +Graaberg has an awful temper, let me tell you!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were many customers to be waited on before us, so we stood +together in a bunch at the farthest end of the counter. The time dragged +on and on before they had all got their <i>lu-de-fisk</i>, for that was what +they wanted, the whole swarm of them.</p> + +<p>On the counter beside me, there was a big new ball of string in an iron +frame, the kind that whirls around when you pull the string. The end of +the string dangled so invitingly close to me, and waiting for Madam +Graaberg to be ready to attend to us was so tedious, that I busied +myself with taking the end of the string and slyly tying it fast to one +of the buttons on the back of Munda's coat. Of course I meant to untie +the string before we went out, but Madam Graaberg turned suddenly to us.</p> + +<p>"What do you want, children?" asked she, portly and dignified, towering +over the counter.</p> + +<p>We were all a little bewildered because she had come to us so abruptly, +but we pushed Munda forward. My, how uncomfortable she looked!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Have you any white velvet for sale?" asked Munda feebly.</p> + +<p>I gave a spring towards the door, for it seemed best to get away at +once. Two maids stood there, who roared with laughter. "Ha ha! Ha ha! +Madam Graaberg, that's pretty good. Ha ha!"</p> + +<p>"White velvet," hissed Madam Graaberg. "White velvet! Make a fool of me +in my own lawful business, will you? Out of my shop this instant!"</p> + +<p>She didn't need to tell us twice. We dashed helter-skelter out of the +door, all four of us, splashing the mud and slush recklessly.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Munda cried out, "Oh, I'm fast to something! I'm fast to +something behind!"</p> + +<p>Just think! I had forgotten to untie the string from the button! I +thought I heard a buzzing noise when we flew out of the door, but it +never occurred to me that it could be the string-ball whirling around in +its frame.</p> + +<p>There was no time now to untie the knot, for Madam Graaberg was right +out in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> street and calling after us. They were not exactly gentle +words she was using, either, you may well believe!</p> + +<p>"Oh, but I'm fast—I'm fast!" shrieked Munda again.</p> + +<p>"Tear off the button!" I shouted. Munda made some desperate efforts to +get hold of her own back. No use; so I took hold of the string and gave +a great jerk and off came the button. Munda was free and we dashed round +the street corner.</p> + +<p>"Uh, uh huh!" sobbed Munda. "Mother'll be so angry about that button!"</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said I. "Just sew the hole up, and you can always find a button +to put over it. But oh, girls! How jolly angry Madam Graaberg was!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and wasn't she funny when she said, 'Out of my shop this +instant'?"</p> + +<p>We were tremendously pleased with our joke. We talked and +laughed—enjoying ourselves immensely; but we hadn't had enough +tomfoolery yet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Girls," I said, "now let's go to Nibb's shop and ask whether he has +white velvet."</p> + +<p>All were willing. To think of asking that queer Mr. Nibb for white +velvet, when he kept only shoe-strings and paraffin for sale! My! but +that would be fun! Mr. Nibb always has the window shades tight down over +his shop windows, so that not the least thing can be seen from the +street. He isn't exactly right in his mind—and do you know what he did +once?</p> + +<p>It was in church and I sat just in front of him and had on my flat fur +cap. He is a great one to sing in church and he stands bolt upright and +sings at the top of his voice. And just think! He laid his hymn-book on +top of my cap just as if it were a reading desk, and I didn't dare to +move my head because he might get in a rage if I did. So he sang and +sang and sang, and I sat and sat there with the hymn-book on the top of +my head.</p> + +<p>Well—that was that time—but now we stood there in the street +considering as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> whether we should go in and ask him if he had white +velvet.</p> + +<p>"No, we surely don't dare to," said Karen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes we do," said I. "He can't kill us."</p> + +<p>"Who knows?" said Karen. "He isn't just like other people."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! When there are four of us together——" No, they didn't want +to—so I suddenly threw the shop door wide open and then we had to go +in. Mr. Nibb came towards us bowing and bowing. We pushed Munda forward +again.</p> + +<p>"Have you any white——" began Munda in a shaking voice. And then our +courage suddenly gave way and Karen, Mina, and I sprang to the door as +quick as lightning, slamming the door after us, and not stopping until +we were at the farther corner of the street. And then we saw that Munda +wasn't with us! Why in the world hadn't she come out? What was happening +to her? We rushed back and listened outside the shop door. Not a sound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +was to be heard. Karen and Mina were both as white as chalk.</p> + +<p>"It's all your fault," they whispered to me. "Who knows what danger +Munda is in?"</p> + +<p>At that I was so frightened that I didn't know what I was doing, and I +threw the door open at once.</p> + +<p>There sat Munda on a chair in the middle of the shop, holding a big +apple, and Mr. Nibb stood with his legs crossed, leaning against the +counter in a jaunty attitude and talking to her.</p> + +<p>"Are there many dances in the town nowadays—young ladies?" asked Mr. +Nibb, turning to us, as we, pale as death, entered the shop.</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Or engagements among the young people perhaps," he continued—polite to +the last degree.</p> + +<p>"People live so quietly in this town;—one might call himself buried +alive here, so that a visit from four promising young beauties +is—ahem—an adventure!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dear me! how comical he was! None of us said a word. Suddenly Munda got +up.</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks," she said and curtsied—the apple in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," we echoed, all curtseying; though really I haven't the +least idea what we were thanking him for!</p> + +<p>"Ah—bah!" said Mr. Nibb waving his hand. "It is I who must thank you. I +am much indebted to the young ladies for this delightful call."</p> + +<p>With this he opened the door, and came away out on the steps and bowed.</p> + +<p>Oh, how we laughed when he had gone in and the door was shut again. We +laughed so we could scarcely stand.</p> + +<p>"What did he do when you were alone, Munda?"</p> + +<p>"He sprang after a chair," said Munda. "And then he sprang after an +apple—and then he stood himself there by the counter just as you saw +him and began to talk—oh! how frightened I was!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What did he say?"</p> + +<p>"Ha ha! he—ha ha!—he asked me if I were engaged!"</p> + +<p>"Ha ha ha! that was splendid."</p> + +<p>"And just then you all came in."</p> + +<p>"Ha ha! Ha ha ha!"</p> + +<p>By this time it was so late that we must start for home and we took the +quickest way, over High Street. It was almost dark and there was +scarcely a person in sight, as we ran up the street through the March +slush and mud.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let's knock on Mother Brita's windows!" said I, and we knocked +gaily on the little panes as we ran past the house.</p> + +<p>At that moment Mother Brita called from her doorway.</p> + +<p>"Halloa!" she called. "Come here a minute. God be praised that any one +should come! Let me speak to you."</p> + +<p>We went slowly back. Perhaps she was angry with us for knocking on her +windows.</p> + +<p>"Here I am as if I were in prison," said Mother Brita. "My little +grandchild is sick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> with bronchitis and I can't leave him a single +minute; and my son John, you know him, is out there at Stony Point with +his ship, and is going to sail away this very evening, and he sails to +China to be gone two years,—and I want so much to say good-bye to +him—two whole years—to China—but I can't leave that poor sick baby in +there, for he chokes if some one doesn't lift him up when the coughing +spells come on—oh, there he's coughing again!"</p> + +<p>Mother Brita hurried in, and all four of us after her. A tiny baby lay +there in a cradle, and Mother Brita lifted him and held him up while the +coughing spell lasted. He coughed so hard that he got quite blue in the +face.</p> + +<p>"O dear! You see how it is! Now he'll go away—my son John—this very +evening, and I may never see him again in this world, uh-huh-huh!"</p> + +<p>Poor Mother Brita! It seemed a sin and a shame that she should not at +least see her son to bid him good-bye.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll sit here with the baby until you come back, Mother Brita," said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will too."</p> + +<p>"So will I, and I." All four of us wanted to stay.</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh! What kind little girls!" said Mother Brita. "I will fly like +the wind. Just raise him up when the spells come on. I won't be long on +the way either going or coming. Well, good-bye, and I'm much obliged to +you." With that Mother Brita was out of the house, having barely taken +time to throw a handkerchief over her head.</p> + +<p>There we sat. It was a strange ending to an afternoon of fun and +mischief. The room was very stuffy; a small candle stood on the table +and burned with a long, smoky flame, and back in a corner an old clock +ticked very slowly, tick—tock!—tick—tock!</p> + +<p>We talked only in whispers. Very soon the baby had another coughing fit. +We raised him up and he choked and strangled as before, and after the +coughing, cried as if in pain, without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> opening his eyes. Poor little +thing! Poor baby!</p> + +<p>Again we sat still for a while without speaking; then—"I'm so +frightened—everything is so dismal," whispered Karen.</p> + +<p>Deep silence broken only by the clock's ticking and the baby's +breathing.</p> + +<p>"I think I must go," she added after a minute.</p> + +<p>"That is mean of you," whispered I.</p> + +<p>"I must go, too," whispered Munda. "They are always so anxious at home +when I don't come."</p> + +<p>"I must go too," whispered Mina.</p> + +<p>Then I got a little angry. "Oh well, all right, go, every one of you! +All right, go on, if you want to be so mean."</p> + +<p>And only think, they did go! They ran out of the door, all three, +without a word more. Just then the baby had another attack and I had to +hold him up quite a long time before he could get his breath again.</p> + +<p>And now I was all alone in Mother Brita's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> little house. Never in my +life had I been in there before, and it was anything but pleasant, you +may well believe. It was very dark in all the corners, and the poor baby +coughed and coughed; the candle burned lower and lower and the clock +ticked on slowly and solemnly. No sign of Mother Brita.</p> + +<p>Well, I would sit here. I wouldn't stir from here even if Mother Brita +didn't come back before it was pitch-dark night—no, indeed, I would +not. I would not. Not for anything would I leave this pitiful little +suffering baby alone.</p> + +<p>He was certainly very sick, very, very sick; perhaps God would come to +take him to-night. Just think, if He should come while I sat there!——</p> + +<p>At first this made me feel afraid, but then I thought that I need not be +afraid of God—of Him who is kinder than any one in the world! The baby +coughed painfully and I lifted him up again.</p> + +<p>Everything was so queer, so wonderfully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> queer! First had we four been +racing about, playing pranks and thinking only of fun all the +afternoon—perhaps it was wrong to play such mischievous pranks—and now +here was I alone taking care of a little baby I had never known anything +about;—a little baby that God or His angels might soon come for and +take away. I had not the least bit of fear now. I only felt as if I were +in church,—it was so solemn and so still. In a little while, this poor +baby might be in Heaven,—in that beautiful place flooded with glorious +light,—with God. And I, just a little girl down here on earth, was I to +be allowed to sit beside the baby until the angels came for him?</p> + +<p>I looked around the bare, gloomy room. It might be that the angels who +were to take away Mother Brita's grandchild were already here. Oh, how +good it would be for the poor little baby who coughed so dreadfully!</p> + +<p>The clock had struck for half-past seven, for eight o'clock, and +half-past eight, and there was just a small bit left of the candle. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +sick baby had quieted down at last, and now lay very still.</p> + +<p>There came a rattling at the door; some one fumbled at the latch and I +stared through the gloom with straining eyes, making up my mind not to +be afraid. The door opened slowly a little way, and Ingeborg, our cook, +put her round face into the opening.</p> + +<p>"Well, have I found you at last? And is it here you are? I was to tell +you to betake yourself home. Your mother and father have been worrying +themselves to pieces about you, and——"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Ingeborg! Be still. He is so sick, so very sick."</p> + +<p>Ingeborg came over to the cradle and bent down. Then she hurriedly +brought the bit of candle to the cradle.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is dead," she said slowly. "Poor little thing! He is dead,—poor +little chap!"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, Ingeborg, no!" I sobbed. "Is he dead? For I lifted him up every +single time he coughed. Oh, it is beautiful that he is dead,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> he +suffered so, and yet,—oh, it seems sad, too!"</p> + +<p>"I will stay here with him now until Mother Brita comes home," said +Ingeborg. "For you——"</p> + +<p>"How did you know I was here?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Karen and Munda came into the kitchen just a few minutes ago, and +told me."</p> + +<p>She said again that she would stay in my place, but I couldn't bear to +go before Mother Brita came back.</p> + +<p>Shortly after, Mother Brita hurried in, warm, and out of breath. "Oh, +oh! how long you have had to wait," she said in distress. "I couldn't +find John at Stony Point, I had to go away into town. I suppose you are +angry that I stayed so long."</p> + +<p>"The baby had to give up the fight, Mother Brita," said Ingeborg.</p> + +<p>"Give up? What? What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"I lifted him up, Mother Brita, every time he coughed, I did truly," +said I, and then I burst out crying again. I couldn't help it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, I am sure you did, my jewel," said Mother Brita, "and God be +praised that He has taken the baby out of his poor little body. Never +can pain or sin touch him now."</p> + +<p>Mother and Father said that I had done just right to stay, and when +Mother kissed me good-night she said she was sure that the dear God +Himself had been with me and the poor little baby. And that seemed so +wonderful and beautiful and solemn that I could never tell any one, even +Mother, how beautiful it was.</p> + +<p>Up in the churchyard there is a tiny grave, the grave of Mother Brita's +grandchild. I know very well just where it is and I often put flowers +upon it in the summer. What I like best to put there are rosebuds, +fresh, lovely, pink rosebuds.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE MASON'S LITTLE PIGS</h3> + + +<p>Ugh! I can't stand rainy weather! Especially in summer! Perhaps some +people may like a nasty drizzling rain that keeps on day after day right +in the middle of summer, so that the gooseberries drop from the bushes, +and there is only a soft wet plot of ground where one expected big, +magnificent strawberries and had joyfully kept watch for them day after +day. As for the rose-bushes, only the yellow hips are left on them. Half +decayed rose petals lie sprinkled on the wet earth, and the mignonette +and daisies lie flat on the ground all mouldy and limp.</p> + +<p>Our old house on the hill is the most delightful house in town,—that is +really true—but in rainy weather it is perhaps a little wet up there.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +All the water which gathers on the hilltop back of the house runs down +towards us, you see. It trickles and streams in brooks and tiny +waterfalls over the stones, through moss and heather, takes with it a +lot of earth from the kitchen garden (where, truth to tell, there wasn't +much beforehand), and washes out deep gullies in our hillside, leaving +only the clean stones. Every time that it rains really in earnest for +several days, Father has to put wagon-loads of new earth on the hill to +make it look a little respectable again.</p> + +<p>Detestable as these long rainy spells are, Karsten and I have lots of +fun afterwards, when it has poured down by tubfuls for several days and +the hilltop is really soaking and running over with water.</p> + +<p>Karsten and I build waterworks, you see; we build dams and make sluices +and waterfalls. That's fun, I can tell you!</p> + +<p>Massa and Mina can't imagine how I can enjoy myself with anything like +that now that I am so old—thirteen. They make fun of me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> and tattle +about it at school and to the boys; but I don't bother myself the least +grain about that. I get my feet sopping wet, sure enough, and the bottom +of my dress, and way up my sleeves; and then I have to creep up the back +stairs to change my clothes so that Mother won't see how wet they are. +But oh! the fun Karsten and I have!</p> + +<p>Sometimes we begin away back on the hilltop and make sluices, and wall +them up with heather and moss, so as to make the water run where we want +it to. Karsten carries the stones and gets fiery red in the face, even +with his hat off. I do the walling up and give the orders, for I am the +engineer, you see.</p> + +<p>It must be awfully nice to be an engineer when you are grown up, but sad +to say, I never can be, since I am a girl. However, Karsten can be the +engineer and I can sit in his office and be the one to manage the whole +concern, just as I do on the hilltop here; for Karsten can never think +of anything new to do, but I can.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>A little way down the hill we have our reservoir which all the streams +run into. It is in a particularly good place, a deep hollow close to the +top of the steepest precipice on the whole hill. All it needs is a +little walling up on one side, but that has to be very strong and solid; +for sometimes we have more than two feet of water in the reservoir, and +then it will easily overflow.</p> + +<p>After we have it all built, comes the great moment of letting the +waterfall loose. Karsten and I each have a stout stake,—quick as +lightning we punch a hole through the dam, and down rushes the waterfall +over the precipice. The yellowish marsh water which we have led to the +pool from way back on the hilltop is one mass of white foam. It thunders +and crashes and spatters just like a real waterfall.</p> + +<p>The only nuisance about it is that it lasts so short a time. Even if the +pond is full up to the brim the water can all run out in five minutes. +On that account we always try to let off the waterfall when there is +some one besides our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>selves to see it. It doesn't matter who it is, even +if it is only the stone-breaker's child, but we must have at least one +spectator, or we shouldn't care to let off the waterfall.</p> + +<p>Right on the slope below the precipice is the cottage of Soren, the +mason. Our land joins on to his farm. When we let out the waterfall the +water streams down over our land right behind the big walnut tree. It +had always taken the very same course and it never entered my head that +it <i>could</i> take any other.</p> + +<p>But now you shall hear. It had rained twelve days on a stretch, and that +just as the summer vacation had begun. In fact, it seems to me it always +does—every year. Well, never mind that. At any rate Karsten and I were +almost bored to death. It was all right for Karsten to stand out in the +rain and sail birch bark boats in the brewing vat which stood full of +water out in the farmyard, but I outgrew such play years ago, of course. +As for sitting and reading books in the very middle of the summer, there +is no sort of sense in that. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> least <i>I</i> don't think there is any fun +in it; so I will say outright that I was dreadfully bored.</p> + +<p>Finally, one day, out came the sun. It shone and it glittered. The +grass, the fences, and the washed-out stones all dripped and sparkled as +the sun sent its blazing light upon them. And there wasn't a crack or a +crevice on the whole hilltop that wasn't brimming over with water.</p> + +<p>Oh! what a waterfall we could make to-day!</p> + +<p>"Karsten! Karsten! Will you come with me and make a waterfall?"</p> + +<p>Karsten had been so desperately bored the afternoon before that he had +put up a swing in the loft. As I called him I saw his face up there in +the dusty green window. The second after, he was down in the yard, and +we were both off for the hilltop. The one single tool that we have to +work with is a little old trough which we use for dipping up water when +we need to.</p> + +<p>Oh! such a summer day as it was up on that hilltop! with the sun +sparkling on the wet purple heather, on the blueberries and red +whortleberries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> and great wavy ferns covered with pearly water-drops! +But Karsten and I had something else to do, I can assure you, than to +look at all this beauty. For to-day we were going to make Niagara Falls! +We had water enough.</p> + +<p>O my! how Karsten and I slaved that morning! We made an entirely new +watercourse so that we had ever so much more water for the pond. And +then the pond itself had to be made better and bigger. It was ready to +overflow any minute,—it was so full. Karsten slipped in twice and got +wet way above his knees. My! how we laughed!</p> + +<p>It seemed as if there was always a little tuft of moss to stuff in or a +stone to lay in better position, in order to make the pond really tight +and firm; but at last we had it finished.</p> + +<p>But now there was no one at hand, not a single person, to admire the +glorious sight of the waterfall, and I didn't want to have all our hard +work go for nothing. Karsten wanted to let the waterfall loose anyway, +but I wouldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> do it, and we had almost got into a quarrel when, as +good luck would have it, Thora Heja came trudging along across the +hilltop. Thora Heja is an old peasant woman who used to work in the +fields but now goes round getting her living by drowning cats and +cutting hens' heads off for people.</p> + +<p>"Thora Heja, where are you going?" I called out.</p> + +<p>"Oh! I am going down to attend to two hens at the sexton's," shouted +Thora across to us.</p> + +<p>"Wait a little and you shall see Niagara Falls!"</p> + +<p>"See what?"</p> + +<p>"Wait a little and you shall see something wonderful!"</p> + +<p>Karsten and I grabbed our big stakes and quick as lightning tore away +the dam. However it happened, I really don't know, but it must be that +we tore away some big stones we had never disturbed before, and that our +doing this made the whole waterfall take an entirely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> different +direction. It foamed and crashed—you couldn't hear yourself think!—It +was really magnificent.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" shouted Karsten and I.</p> + +<p>But right through the tremendous roar of the waterfall, there came +cleaving the air the wildest pig squeal you ever heard, from the ground +down below us. The waterfall kept on roaring, and the pig squeals grew +worse and worse.</p> + +<p>It never occurred to me for a moment that the pig squeals had anything +to do with our waterfall. We couldn't see what was going on below from +where we stood. I thought Thora Heja was behaving in the queerest way, +however, for instead of standing quietly and admiring the waterfall as +we had expected, she began to shriek and point and throw up her arms +beseechingly and try to tell us something; finally she took to her heels +and vanished through the wet grass down the steep hillside, shouting and +screaming as she went.</p> + +<p>Soon after we heard many voices down below<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> all talking at once, but the +waterfall kept on with its rush and noise, for, as I have said, there +was a tremendous lot of water in the pond that day. All this happened in +a much shorter time than it takes me to write it, you know.</p> + +<p>I heard Soren, the mason's, angry voice.</p> + +<p>"Such a thing as this sha'n't be permitted! I won't have it—not if I +swing for it! Even if it is the judge's children themselves——"</p> + +<p>A sudden suspicion popped into my head.</p> + +<p>"Karsten! Something must have gone wrong with our waterfall!"</p> + +<p>"I'll run down and see!"</p> + +<p>"No! Are you crazy? Don't go! Can't you hear how angry Soren, the mason, +is?"</p> + +<p>By this time the whole pond had emptied itself out. The waterfall had +subsided into little trickling rills, coursing in straggling lines down +the precipice. Then Soren, the mason, appeared in the distance, having +reached a piece of ground where he could look across to where we were.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 467px;"> +<img src="images/image164.jpg" width="467" height="650" alt="She began to shriek and point and throw up her +arms.—Page 151." title="" /> +<span class="caption">She began to shriek and point and throw up her +arms.—<i>Page 151.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>He is a thin old man, and dresses in white mason's clothes, and has a +frightfully sharp chin. He was as red in the face as a boiled lobster, +shook his fists at us and shouted:</p> + +<p>"Aha! it's a good thing I have witnesses here against you—you two +rapscallions! setting waterspouts running all over people. You shall +hang for it! you shall hang for it! Two little pigs are dead and the +others nigh unto it. If there never has been a lawsuit before, there +shall be one now for such imposition and abuse. I am going to your +father this very minute to complain of you."</p> + +<p>And Soren, the mason, started up the hill in a terrible hurry, straight +to Father's office.</p> + +<p>Karsten and I looked for an instant at each other. I had a cowardly wish +to run away at once.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" asked Karsten. "Shall we hide up on the top of the +hill here all day?"</p> + +<p>"No—we had better go down right away. We shall have to defend ourselves +from Soren, the mason."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, perhaps he will say that we set the waterfall on his pigs on +purpose."</p> + +<p>When we got home, there stood Father on the door-steps and Soren, the +mason, down in the yard.</p> + +<p>Oh! how Soren looked! He was wringing his hands and crying and +threatening. Father had a deep wrinkle between his eyes. That's always a +sign that he is angry.</p> + +<p>"What is this I hear? Have you drowned two young pigs of Soren's?"</p> + +<p>"The waterfall went into his pig-pen instead of over our ground," +whimpered Karsten.</p> + +<p>"Explain how it happened," said Father to me; and I explained the whole +of it exactly as it was. I tell you it was lucky for us that we <i>had</i> +come down from the hilltop!</p> + +<p>"Here are ten crowns to pay for your little pigs, Soren," said Father, +"and I hope that will make it all right between us."</p> + +<p>But for Karsten and me it wasn't all right by any means—for I had to +break open my savings-bank and pay Father back for the pigs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> And I had +been saving ever since Christmas and had over seven crowns in it. Ugh! +it is horrid that young pigs are such tender little creatures! And all +that afternoon I was kept under arrest up in the trunk-room on account +of the waterfall disaster.</p> + +<p>Karsten got a whipping. He had to give up his savings, too, but there +were only fifteen öre in his bank, for Karsten shakes the money out of +the slit of his savings-bank almost as soon as he has put it in.</p> + +<p>That was the last time in my whole life that I made a waterfall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>LOCKED IN</h3> + + +<p>Right below our old house on the hillside stands the church. It is a +little wooden church, white-painted and low, with irregular windows, one +low and another high, over the whole church. The doors are low and even +the tower is low; the spire scarcely reaches up over the big +maple-trees, as we can see from our windows. But then the maple-trees +are tremendously big.</p> + +<p>Every one in town says that the bells in our church tower are +remarkable. They are considered unusually musical, and I think they are, +too; and nothing could be more fun than to stand up in the tower when +those great bells are being rung!</p> + +<p>It is awfully thrilling—exactly as if your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> ear-drums would be split. +When you put your fingers in your ears, draw them quickly out, stuff +them in again—it is like a roaring ocean of sound. You should just hear +it!</p> + +<p>It is great fun to slip in after old Peter, the bellows-blower, when he +is going up to ring the bells; to grope your way up the steep worm-eaten +stairs with cobwebs in every corner,—and the higher you go the narrower +and steeper are the stairs; to hide yourself back of the timbers and in +the corners so that Peter sha'n't see you; to stand there in that +tremendous bell-clanging and then to rush down over the old stairs as if +you were crazy, before Peter has shut the tower windows again and +shuffled his way down.</p> + +<p>Peter would be furious if he saw us, you know. However, he has seen us +sometimes, for all our painstaking, though he can't hear us—he is deaf +as a post—and he certainly can scold; and when he scolds he threatens +us with all the worst things he knows of—telling the minister and the +dean and everybody.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>But his scolding doesn't make much difference. Our clambering up into +the tower certainly can't do the least harm to any one; so, even after +he has scolded us, the next time we see him slinking along and squeezing +himself in through the church door (he never opens it wider than just +enough to push himself through exactly like a little black mouse +creeping through a crack), we are right after him, you may be sure. +Sometimes there will be ten or twelve of us, without his knowing a thing +about it.</p> + +<p>But once I got rather the worst of it when I stole up to the church +tower after Peter. It was grewsome, I can tell you, for only think, I +got locked in the church! I have been up in the tower since, just the +same, only I don't dare to go alone any more, though I wasn't exactly +alone that time I'm telling you about, either; I had my little brother, +Karl, with me. But as he was only a little bit of a fellow, he wasn't +any help.</p> + +<p>It was one Saturday afternoon. Every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> Saturday at five o'clock the +church bells are rung to ring the Sabbath in. Karl and I were just +passing the church when Peter came slinking along with his trousers +turned up as usual. It was an afternoon towards autumn, not dark +yet—far from it—but not so very light either. And how the wind blew +that day! almost a gale. The big maple-trees creaked and groaned. All at +once I had an overwhelming desire to run up into the tower and hear how +the bells sounded when the wind blustered and howled so around the +church.</p> + +<p>"You go home now, Karl," said I, "run as fast as you can. Just let me +see how fast you can run." Oh no! indeed, he wouldn't. He just clung +fast to me and wanted to go with me. Oh well—pooh!—I could just as +well take him along. It would be fun for him, too, to hear the bells.</p> + +<p>When I thought Peter was well up the first flight of stairs I pushed +open the heavy church door with its lead weight, and Karl and I squeezed +into the church. He was heavy to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> drag up the stairs and I hauled and +dragged as hard as I could, and he never whimpered once,—just thought +it was great fun.</p> + +<p>Peter had already begun to ring. The gale raged up here as if we were +out on a wild sea, and sent mournful wails through all the cracks and +openings. The church tower itself seemed to sway!</p> + +<p>I had got Karl up the last flight of stairs. Back of the great +cross-beam we were splendidly hidden. I peeped out once or twice. Peter +stood with his eyes shut and pulled and pulled on the great rope. The +big bells swung back and forth over our heads.</p> + +<p>Oh! how the bells clanged and how the wind howled and roared! I had to +force myself to stand still and not jump over to the window to look down +upon the trees as they swayed and bowed in the strong blast. But I must +not do it, of course, for then Peter would see me and I should only get +another long scolding preachment. Besides, I had all I could do to keep +fast hold of Karl. He was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> determined to go out from behind the beam, +and every time the bells rang louder than usual he screamed with +delight. He was welcome to scream as loud as he liked, Peter could hear +nothing of it anyway.</p> + +<p>But all of a sudden, and very much sooner than I had expected, Peter +stopped ringing. One, two, three—he slammed the tower windows shut. As +quickly as possible I hurried Karl down the first two flights, but by +that time Peter was almost upon us. Without thinking of anything except +that Peter mustn't see us, I dragged Karl back into a dark corner, +though it was dusky everywhere. At that moment Peter passed us. He +shuffled along close to us and I could hear how carefully he groped his +way down the stairs.</p> + +<p>All at once it flashed over me that he would get down from the tower +before we did, lock the door and go away. I clutched Karl and dragged +him along over the nearly dark stairs, he stumbling, falling and crying +a little. Peter was already in the weapon-room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Peter, Peter!" I shouted anxiously. "Don't lock it! Don't lock it! I am +up here."</p> + +<p>But do you suppose that Peter heard? Not a bit!</p> + +<p>He opened the heavy church door and slammed it shut again. By that time +I was right there, shouting and hammering at the door; but the key +turned in the lock and Peter went his way round the corner.</p> + +<p>Yes, he had gone, and there were we!</p> + +<p>I was so afraid,—I don't believe I was ever so afraid in my whole long +life! I hammered on the door with my fists, I shouted and screamed. +Nobody heard me. Outside, the storm howled and roared.</p> + +<p>No, I knew well enough that in such weather no one would think of coming +to the churchyard, not even a child or a maid with a baby-carriage. And +the church door opened on the churchyard, not on the street. It was +impossible for any one to hear us all the way from the street in such a +storm.</p> + +<p>I turned around almost wild with fright.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> What could I do? +Perhaps—perhaps we could get out through a window.</p> + +<p>But if we tried that, we must go into the church itself. And just think! +I got more afraid than ever when I thought of that, for all the ghost +stories I had ever heard came to my mind. Suppose that Mina's +great-grandfather, for instance, whose tomb was in there, should come +walking down the church aisle, stiff and white!</p> + +<p>I clutched Karl's hand so tightly that he screamed.</p> + +<p>"Karl dear—little man—we must go into the church. You won't be afraid, +will you?"</p> + +<p>Karl looked uncertain as he gazed at me and asked:</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid?"</p> + +<p>Then I realized that I must be brave; and when there is a "must" you +can, you know; and there is no use in whimpering, anyway.</p> + +<p>"Are you afraid?" asked little Karl again.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no—no, indeed."</p> + +<p>So I opened the door of the church and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> peeped in. Rows upon rows of +empty seats showed dimly through the half darkness, but there wasn't the +least sign of Mina's great-grandfather.</p> + +<p>I pulled Karl along, and we almost ran up the church aisle. The whole +time I felt as if something was behind me that I must be on the watch +against.</p> + +<p>O dear, O dear, how frightened I was!</p> + +<p>No, the windows were altogether too high up in the wall even to think of +reaching. For an instant I had a desperate idea of piling seats up on +top of the pulpit and trying to reach a window in that way, but all the +seats were fastened to the floor, and, of course, to move the pulpit was +impossible for me.</p> + +<p>All at once the thought of the bells struck me—I could ring the bells! +I need only climb up to the tower, shove the shutters aside as I had +seen Peter do many a time, and then just ring and ring till people came +and unlocked the church.</p> + +<p>But, O dear!—then the whole town would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> know of it and talk of it +forever. How frightfully embarrassing that would be!</p> + +<p>No, no, I wouldn't ring the bells. I'd rather shout myself hoarse. So +Karl and I screamed: "Open the door for us! Open the door, open the +door!" But the storm outside roared and howled louder than we could and +no one heard us. We didn't keep quiet an instant. We ran back and forth +screaming, and banging and kicking on all the doors.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I thought of the vestry. Like a flash I darted in there. Oh! +what a relief—what a relief! The windows here were low—only a few feet +above the ground; here it would be easy enough to get out. I rushed to a +window—but would you believe it! there wasn't a sign of a hook or a +hinge! These windows hadn't been opened in all the hundreds of years the +church had stood. That's the way people built in old times.</p> + +<p>Here I was right near the ground and yet couldn't get out. In my +desperation I seized an old book with a clasp that lay there, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +smashed a window-pane with it, and then I stuck my face through the +broken pane and shouted out into the storm, "Open the door!"</p> + +<p>Not a person was to be seen; but merely to feel the fresh air blowing on +my face gave me more courage.</p> + +<p>"Has God a knife?" suddenly asked Karl.</p> + +<p>Yes, I thought He had.</p> + +<p>"Well, if He has a knife, He could just cut the door to pieces, and then +we could go out."</p> + +<p>At that moment I saw old Jens pass the window as he came shambling +through the churchyard. He is a dull-witted fellow who lives at the +poorhouse.</p> + +<p>I wasn't slow in getting my face to the window again, you may be sure!</p> + +<p>"Jens, Jens-s-s! Come and open the door. I'm locked in the church."</p> + +<p>Never in my life shall I forget how Jens looked when he heard me call. +He sank almost to his knees; his lips moved quickly but without a sound +coming forth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 471px;"> +<img src="images/image180.jpg" width="471" height="650" alt="And smashed a window-pane with it.—Page 165." title="" /> +<span class="caption">And smashed a window-pane with it.—<i>Page 165.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>At last, when he had quite got it into his head that it was my familiar +face he saw at the vestry's broken window, he drew near very cautiously.</p> + +<p>"Is she in the church?" was what came from him finally in the utmost +amazement.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, you can see that I am," said I. "Run as fast as you can and +get some one to open the door. Get the minister or the deacon or Peter, +the bellows-blower."</p> + +<p>Jens set down a tin pail he carried and seemed to be thinking deeply.</p> + +<p>"But how came she in church?"</p> + +<p>I had no wish to explain to him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind that! Just run and get the key, do please, Jens." Then +Jens trudged away.</p> + +<p>Oh, how long he was gone! I stared and stared at the lilac bushes +swaying back and forth before the window, twisting and bending low in +the storm, and I waited and waited, but no Jens appeared. It grew darker +and darker and Karl cried in earnest now, and wanted to smash all the +windows with the clasped book.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> The only thing that gave me comfort was +Jens' tin pail. It lay on the ground shining through the dark. I +reasoned that Jens was sure to come back to get his pail. Finally I +heard footsteps and voices, a key was put in the lock, and there at the +open door stood the deacon, Jens, and the deacon's eight children.</p> + +<p>"Who is this disturbing the peace of the church?" asked the deacon with +the corners of his mouth drawn down.</p> + +<p>"I haven't disturbed anything," said I. "I only want to get out."</p> + +<p>"There must be an explanation of this," said the deacon. "I have no +orders to open the church at this time of the day."</p> + +<p>I began to be afraid that the door would be shut again!</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you will let me out!" said I pleadingly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, in consideration of the circumstances," said the deacon. I did not +wait to hear more, but squeezed myself and Karl out and through the +deacon's flock of children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>Since that day when I meet old Jens, he bows to me in a very knowing +way; and if I want to tease him I say, "Weren't you the 'fraid-cat that +time I called to you from the church?"</p> + +<p>I myself was more afraid than he was, but old Jens couldn't know that.</p> + +<p>And what do you think of my having to pay for the pane of glass I broke +in the vestry? Well—that was exactly what I had to do, if you please.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>AT GOODFIELDS</h3> + + +<p>Now you shall hear about my summer vacation and all sorts of things.</p> + +<p>We stayed at a farm in the country in a high valley. The farm was called +Goodfields, and they certainly were good fields, for such fat horses, +and such round cows, and such rich milk I never saw before in all my +life. For the horses could hardly get between the shafts of the +wagons—that is really true—and the cows were like trolls' cows; the +trolls' cows (in the fairy stories) are so well taken care of that they +shine so you can almost see your face in them, you know. The Goodfields +cows could thank old Kari, the milkmaid, for their plumpness.</p> + +<p>Kari is seventy and looks very, very old.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<p>All through the week she never sat down, but went puttering about the +whole day long; on Sunday evenings she sat out on the hill and smoked +her clay pipe. I used to lie beside her on the grass.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The horse and the man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have to bear all they can.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the cow and the wife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fare the hardest in life,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>said old Kari. And therefore she always raked away the best hay from the +horses and stuffed the cows with it.</p> + +<p>It was out on the hill that Kari told about the Goodfields brownie in +the old days. Old Kari's mother had often driven in a sledge over +Goodfields hill while the brownie stood behind on the runner chuckling +and laughing. But the queer thing was that when they stopped at the top +of the hill or down in the valley, they didn't see him, but no sooner +had they started off than there was the brownie on the runner again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is really horrid that there are no brownies in the world any more!</p> + +<p>Goodfields lay high up among the mountains. There were great green hills +and meadows stretching down towards the fjord, and dark spruce forests +above on the mountain, and far below, the still, shining fjord. And +behind each other as far as we could see there were just mountains, +exquisite blue mountains, rising into the bright sunny air.</p> + +<p>The buildings were very big; there was nothing small at Goodfields, two +big main houses with big drawing-rooms and big canopied beds and big +down puffs, and big goats' milk cheeses like mountains, and big +milk-pans.</p> + +<p>That's the way it was at Goodfields, beauty and plenty everywhere. And +it all belonged to Mother Goodfields. And she was the nicest person in +the world, for she was so kind. She wasn't the least bit cross when we +tagged after her in the dairy and the grain-house, and we might eat all +the green gooseberries in the garden, if we wanted to. And everybody who +was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> poor and sick went to Mother Goodfields, as all the people in the +neighborhood called her. She was big and strong and earnest and helped +them all. She was a widow and had no children, and it seemed to her so +lonely on the big farm that she took summer boarders.</p> + +<p>On the fjord the little steamboat went up one day and down the next, +with foreigners who sat stretching their legs out on the deck and stared +sleepily at the mountains.</p> + +<p>I am not fond of mountains, to tell the truth. Ugh! when you stay among +them it seems so cramped and horrid. You feel just like a little ant at +last. No, give me the sea, with its seaweed tossing on the waves, and +its rocking boats and vessels, and the reefs and the fresh wind.</p> + +<p>There were many times at Goodfields when it was so downright hot in the +valley that I felt like crying when I thought of the sea. My brother +Karsten felt exactly the same.</p> + +<p>There were eight mothers and eleven children and five teachers at +Goodfields that summer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> I can't describe them, it would take too long; +besides all grown up women are alike, it seems to me. There were only +two big children of my age at Goodfields, Petter Kloed and Andrine Voss. +Petter Kloed was very elegant; only think, he wore yellow gloves way off +there in the country. And what he liked best in the world was ice-cream +and champagne. Never in my life had I tasted either ice-cream or +champagne, but I didn't say so, for that would be awkward. And then +Petter Kloed was not really nice to his mother, I think, and that was a +great shame, for Mrs. Kloed doted on him, and would give him anything if +he only looked at it.</p> + +<p>Andrine Voss was hardly pretty at all, but she had awfully long +eyelashes and when she half shut her eyes she looked very mysterious. +But she only looked so, she wasn't the least bit mysterious, for she was +my best friend and did everything I wanted her to the whole summer.</p> + +<p>We have decided that she shall marry a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> county judge, and I a doctor, +but we will live in the same house and have just the same number of +children. And we are going to be friends all our lives.</p> + +<p>The other children who were at Goodfields that summer were just little +ones, some roly-polys and some thin, pale, little things who were +dressed in laces and took malt extract, and had legs no bigger than +drumsticks.</p> + +<p>One Sunday we went to church. Four fat horses and four wagons started +from Goodfields with the churchgoers.</p> + +<p>It was so peaceful and so beautiful; down on the fjord one boat after +another set out from the opposite side bringing people to church; the +boats left a broad streak behind them in the calm, smooth water.</p> + +<p>We drove past little groups of peasants—women and girls with white +linen head-dresses, and men in shirt-sleeves with their jackets over +their arms, for the sun was roasting hot on the open roads. "Good +cheer," they all greeted us with, and when we had passed I heard them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +whisper to each other: "They are the summer folk from Goodfields."</p> + +<p>More and more people gathered along the quiet roads; and there on a +height stood the church,—a white wooden church with a low tower, and a +church-bell which rang with a cracked sound out over the leafy forest +and the fields and the still water.</p> + +<p>The horses were tied in a long row on the other side of the road, and +the boys and men stood leaning against the stone wall around the +churchyard, but the women were farther in among the graves. They all +exchanged greetings, shaking hands loosely, standing well away from each +other. "Thanks for our last meeting," they said, looking quickly away. +It was so queer. People don't do like that in town.</p> + +<p>They sang without an organ, and it sounded so innocent, somehow, and the +church door stood wide open to the sunshine. But what do you think +happened? In came a goat right in the midst of the hymn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>The church clerk stood in the choir door and led the singing; one of his +arms was of no use; I had heard of that. All at once there in the open +church door stood a goat. I wonder what's going to happen now, thought +I.</p> + +<p>The goat turned his head first one way, then the other,—then as true as +you live he came pattering in. Patter, patter, sounded short and sharp +over the church floor. Every one turned to look, and the singing died +away, little by little, but no one got up to put the goat out.</p> + +<p>Farther and farther up towards the choir pattered the goat. Suddenly the +clerk saw him. For a moment he looked terribly bewildered, then very +thoughtfully he laid his psalm-book aside and walked down the aisle.</p> + +<p>Then you should have seen the clerk engineer the goat out with his one +arm. He had hold of one horn, and the goat resisted, and the clerk +shoved, and so, little by little, they worked themselves down the +church. Oh, I shall never forget it!</p> + +<p>The singing stopped altogether, except that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> one and another old woman +off in the corners held the tune with shaky voices. I was awfully +interested in seeing how the goat and the clerk got on. If it had been +I, I should have hurried that goat out faster than the clerk did, I'll +wager.</p> + +<p>Down by the door the goat got all ready to jump, wanting to start up the +aisle again. If the tussle had lasted a moment longer I should have had +to laugh—but then the clerk made a mighty effort, turned the goat +entirely around, and there it was—out!</p> + +<p>The clerk in the meantime had risen to the occasion, for at the very +instant that the goat went head over heels down the steps, he took up +the tune just where he had left off, and sang all the way up the aisle. +Awfully well done of him, I think.</p> + +<p>There! Now you understand what it was like at Goodfields, and now you +shall hear about all the different things that happened in our summer +vacation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>OLEANA'S CLOCK</h3> + + +<p>At Goodfields, the houses for the farm laborers are up in the forest. +Towards Goodfields itself, the forest is thick and dark, but up where it +has been cleared, willows and alders grow in clumps, and there are tiny +little fields and still smaller potato patches, belonging to each +sun-scorched hut with its turf roof and windows of greenish glass. From +the clearing you can look upward to the mountains, or downward, over the +thick pines and through the leafy trees, to the smooth, shining fjord.</p> + +<p>All the huts for the farm-hands were full to running over with children. +In Henrik-hut there were nine, in Steen-hut eight, and in North-hut +eleven; and they were all tow-headed and bare-footed and all had mouths +stained with blueberries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>Henrik-hut was the place we summer-boarder-children liked best because +there was a dear old grandmother there with such soft, kind eyes. She +could not go out any more, but sat always in an armchair beside the +window; on the window-sill lay her much-worn brown prayer-book.</p> + +<p>Oleana was Grandmother Henrik-hut's daughter. She was big, very much +freckled, always good-natured, and talked a steady stream, often about +her husband. She didn't seem highly delighted with him.</p> + +<p>"Poor Kaspar!" said Oleana. "He hasn't brains enough for anything. No, I +can truly say he hasn't much sense under his hat. Things would be pretty +bad at Henrik-hut if there were no Oleana here." And Kaspar agreed with +her perfectly.</p> + +<p>"I haven't much sense, or learning either," said Kaspar. "But that's the +way it goes in the world,—one clever one and one stupid one come +together; and so Oleana manages everything, you see."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<p>Even with Oleana to manage, however, things had often been bad enough at +Henrik-hut. They had almost starved at times, Grandmother, Kaspar, +Oleana and all the nine children.</p> + +<p>"It isn't worth speaking of now," said Oleana, "the hard scratching we +have had many a time. But when the summer boarders,—fine city +folk,—came to Goodfields, luck came to Henrik-hut."</p> + +<p>Oleana did the washing for these summer guests and earned money that +way, you see.</p> + +<p>"It's just as if all this money were given to me!" said Oleana. "For our +Lord fills the brooks with water and the work I put on the clothes is +nothing to count."</p> + +<p>There were beds everywhere in the one room of the hut, and what with +shelves and clothes, wooden bowls and buckets and even shiny +scrap-pictures on the walls, there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere. The +floor was shiningly clean, however, and strewn with juniper boughs, and +the sun shone cheerily through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> greenish window-panes, on +Grandmother and the nine tow-headed children, and all.</p> + +<p>Oleana had been married twenty-one years and in all that time had never +owned a clock. Through the long darkness of the winter afternoons and +evenings, when the snow lay thick and heavy on the pine-trees round +about, and the roads were blocked in every direction with high drifts, +there they would be in the hut;—Oleana and Grandmother and the nine +tow-heads and the husband without much sense under his hat,—and not +even the clever Oleana would have the remotest idea what o'clock it was. +In summer she looked at the sun to tell the time, and on clear winter +nights at the stars; though to see these, she had to get up in the cold +and breathe on the thickly frosted window-pane to make a space to peep +through.</p> + +<p>One day while I was at Henrik-hut talking with Oleana, it occurred to me +that we summer-boarder-children might put our money together and buy a +clock for Oleana. The grown-up people wanted to help, and so we got<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> a +lot of money; and a big clock with a white dial and red roses was bought +in the city.</p> + +<p>Then it was such fun surprising Oleana with it! We had an awfully jolly +time. A message was sent to her asking her to come to Goodfields; and +down she came with her hair wet and smooth, and a clean stiff +working-dress on, but having no notion what we wanted of her.</p> + +<p>The clock had been hung up in the hall at Goodfields and its shining +brass pendulum was swinging with a slow and sure tick-tock. All the +ladies stood around and I was to present the clock.</p> + +<p>"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock;—and that's it."</p> + +<p>Oleana looked as if the sky had fallen.</p> + +<p>"Oh no, no, no!" she cried. "It isn't possible—of course not! Why +should I have that clock?"</p> + +<p>"Because you have so many children," said I.</p> + +<p>Just then the clock struck six clear strokes, and Oleana began to cry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I never knew there were such kind people in the world," said Oleana, as +she stood with folded hands, looking up at the clock through her tears. +"Never, never!"</p> + +<p>She didn't know how she got home, she told us later, only she had felt +as if she were walking on air, she was so happy.</p> + +<p>"And I didn't know enough to thank any one either. I was as if I had +clean gone out of my wits!"</p> + +<p>The first few nights that the clock hung on the wall at Henrik-hut, +Oleana did not have much sleep, for every time the clock struck, she +awoke and called down blessings on all the guests at Goodfields.</p> + +<p>"Everything goes by the clock with us now," said Oleana. "It's nothing +at all to do the work at Henrik-hut when you have a clock."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;"> +<img src="images/image200.jpg" width="466" height="650" alt=""Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock."—Page +183." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock."—<i>Page 183.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the dark winter comes, when it snows and blows and the roads are +blocked, how pleasant it will be to think that Oleana Henrik-hut, away +up in the forest above Goodfields, has a clock ticking and ticking, and +striking the hours; and that she does not need now to get up in the +cold, dark nights, breathe upon the frosted panes and peep up at the +stars to find out the time!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>A TRIP TO GOODFIELDS SAETER</h3> + + +<p>Mother Goodfields had made us a regular promise,—and shaken hands on +it,—that we should go to the saeter some time during the summer. +Goodfields saeter lay about fourteen miles west in the mountains. Every +day I reminded Mother Goodfields of her promise so that she should not +forget it, you see. For it often seems to me that grown-up people forget +very easily.</p> + +<p>We had decided beforehand that it was to be Petter Kloed, Karsten, +Andrine, and I who should go.</p> + +<p>None of the grown-ups would join us. Mrs. Proet said she should have to +be well paid to go, and really, such fine, fashionable ladies as she +aren't fit for a saeter anyway. Miss Mangelsen was afraid there would be +fleas, and Miss Melby was afraid that she being so stout,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> the boat we +had to cross the mountain lake in would not be strong enough to bear +her. Miss Jordan had been at a hundred saeters, she said, and the only +difference among them was that one was a little dirtier than another; +and that degree of difference she wouldn't bother herself to see, she +said. Mrs. Kloed is so nervous she never dares do anything. So at last +there were none to go but Petter, Karsten, Andrine, and myself, as I +have said.</p> + +<p>Karsten had taken it into his head that at saeters there were always +bears, and that cream at saeters was always exactly an inch thick; and +bears and inch-thick cream were what he wanted to see. Petter Kloed +wished to get hold of certain mountain flowers that he could classify. +Such botany I will have nothing to do with. I smell the flowers and +think they are charming, but I don't care a button which class they +belong to, not I! As for going to the saeter, Andrine and I wanted to go +just for the fun of going.</p> + +<p>Well, one day in August, Olsen, the farm-boy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> and Trond Oppistuen were +going to the saeter to cut hay. If we wished, we were welcome to go +along with them.</p> + +<p>If we wished! Hurrah!</p> + +<p>The next morning off we went. The lunch, and Andrine, and I, and +Karsten, and Petter Kloed were in a wagon, and Trond and Olsen walked +alongside with their scythes and rakes on their shoulders.</p> + +<p>Far, far up the mountain we were to go—away up where the trees looked +no taller than half a pin's length, and the thin light air was white and +shining; up there and then far along to the west.</p> + +<p>Olsen was red-haired and freckled, small and wiry. He kept step with the +horse the whole way, but Trond lagged behind us down the slope.</p> + +<p>We all sang, each our own tune, as we climbed. The air was clear, oh! so +clear! The farms in the valley grew smaller and smaller, and the birch +trees we passed were little and stunted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whenever Petter Kloed jumped out of the wagon after a flower or +anything, we whipped the horse so as to get as far ahead of him as +possible; Petter is as lazy as a log and hates to walk a step, so it was +good enough for him.</p> + +<p>Any boy with more grown-up, mannish airs than Petter Kloed puts on could +not be found the world over. He wears long trousers and has been in the +theatre a thousand times, he says; he smokes cigarettes too; and, +always, about everything, no matter what it is, he says, pooh! he has +seen that before; so it seems as if there were nothing left that could +amuse him. Andrine admires him sometimes, I know that very well, but +such silly puppies can go or stay for all I care. However, it was jolly +to have him with us on the saeter trip,—just for the fun of teasing +him, you know.</p> + +<p>Karsten and Petter disputed the whole time as to how high we were in the +air and how high up it was possible to breathe. At last they got all the +way to the moon and Jupiter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll bet you anything you choose that Jupiter has air that people could +breathe," said Karsten.</p> + +<p>"That's just the kind of thing such a cabbage-head as you would bet on," +said Petter Kloed.</p> + +<p>At that—only think! Karsten pitched into Petter and then they began to +fight in the back of the wagon.</p> + +<p>"Are you Tartars both of you?" said I, and took a tight grip in the back +of Karsten's jacket. "Don't you jump out of your skin now! If you fly at +people this way as you are always doing, you shall trot back to +Goodfields alone!"</p> + +<p>"He—he is just as much of a cabbage-head as I am," mumbled Karsten, but +he didn't dare to say another word, for after all, he has to respect me, +you see.</p> + +<p>Then I suggested that we should eat some of our luncheon. It's so +pleasant to eat out-of-doors!</p> + +<p>We were high, high up on the mountain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> where we could see nothing but +forests and mountains, a whole sea of dark, thick pine forests, and just +mountains and mountains and mountains. There we drank toasts to Norway, +to the summer, and to each other, and sang: "<i>Ja, vi elsker dette +landet</i>," our national song, you know, and had an awfully jolly time.</p> + +<p>But up there it was so still, so still! Nothing but gray-brown moor and +dwarf birches, and willows and ice-cold mountain brooks. Far over across +the moor we could see the road like a narrow gray ribbon in the +monotonous brown. Far west were the snow-capped peaks, sharp, jagged and +blue, and with great snow-drifts. It was very beautiful, unspeakably +strange and still. We all grew silent.</p> + +<p>"Ugh! I wouldn't be alone here for a good deal," said Andrine.</p> + +<p>"I would just as soon be here in pitch darkness—if I only had my knife +with me," said Karsten.</p> + +<p>At that instant a ptarmigan flew up right at the side of the road, and +Karsten came near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> falling backwards out of the cart and measuring his +length on the ground.</p> + +<p>You may be sure we all made fun of him then.</p> + +<p>"He would like to be alone on the mountain, he would! And yet he tumbles +over in fright at a ptarmigan!"</p> + +<p>"If you can stand like a lamp-post in a cart that wobbles the way this +rickety old cart does, I'll cover you with gold," said Karsten, +offended.</p> + +<p>That's the way we kept on. We quarreled and had a jolly time.</p> + +<p>All at once a flock of goats came scrambling down the road as scared as +if their lives were in danger. And we all wished that we might see a +bear. Can you think of anything more exciting than to meet a bear on the +road?</p> + +<p>Petter Kloed would just go very quietly to him and scratch his back. He +had done that a hundred times in the menagerie, he said. For if you just +approached a bear in the right way it was a very good-natured beast, +said Petter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> Kloed, as he lit a cigarette back there in the cart.</p> + +<p>Karsten would rather wrestle with the bear and strangle him; for if any +one wanted to see a muscle that was a stunner, they could just look +here; and Karsten turned up his jacket sleeves while we all examined his +muscle.</p> + +<p>The road was unspeakably long, however. The horse jogged on and on but +we didn't seem to get a bit farther. After we had eaten all the +luncheon, I thought that never in the world would this road come to an +end. When we asked Olsen how much farther we had to go, he would only +say, "Far away there—and far away there." All I could think of was the +fairy tale about the prince who had to go beyond the mountain into the +blue. Andrine got drowsy and wanted to sleep, and I had to take Karsten +in front with us; for, strangely enough, the longer we rode the less +room there was for Karsten's and Petter's legs in the back of the wagon. +At last they did nothing but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> kick each other, so Karsten had to come in +front and Petter could sit in lonely grandeur on the wooden lunch-box.</p> + +<p>Finally we came in sight of the water that we had to cross. It was a +large lake, black and still.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah! You must wake up now, Andrine!"</p> + +<p>There lay the boat we were to row over in, and there was the enclosure +where the horse was to be left. Oh, how good it was to stretch one's +legs after sitting so long!</p> + +<p>But now Karsten began to put on airs. He wanted to show how clever he +was in a boat, so he took command, gave orders, and thrashed the air +with his arms,—you never saw such behavior.</p> + +<p>"He's a great fellow in a boat," said Trond.</p> + +<p>The stones at the edge of the lake were wet and slimy. Petter Kloed +clambered into the boat with great care.</p> + +<p>"Look out for yourself, you landlubber!" said Karsten. Then he pressed +an oar hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> against a stone to shove the boat out from shore. +Everything was to go at full speed, you see, but the oar slipped and +Karsten went head over heels into the water. It was only by a hair's +breadth that we escaped having that flat, rickety boat turn upside down +with us all. I can tell you I was thoroughly frightened then. I have +always heard that there is no bottom to these mountain lakes, but that +the water goes straight through the earth! Although we were scarcely +more than a fathom's length from shore, the water was deep black, and +you couldn't see any bottom.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Karsten! Karsten!"</p> + +<p>His head bobbed up between the water-lilies and broad green leaves, and +Olsen hauled him up into the boat.</p> + +<p>"Ah-chew! Pshaw! Ah-chew! that horrid oar!" sneezed and scolded Karsten, +as soon as he got his breath. "Horrid old boat! Horrid old water! +Ah-chew!"</p> + +<p>"Now we must row fast," said Trond—"so that this body doesn't get sick, +he is so wet."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> And Trond and Olsen began rowing briskly over the water. +But Karsten lay in the bottom of the boat with Andrine's and my +raincoats over him, looking awfully fierce and gloomy. I can't tell you +how tempted we were to tease him, but we were so high-minded and +considerate that we didn't do it. Of course, I might have teased him +myself, but if Petter Kloed had tried it, he would have had me to reckon +with. Karsten was furious if we even spoke to him.</p> + +<p>"Are you cold?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue," said Karsten.</p> + +<p>Trond and Olsen rowed so that the sweat ran down their faces, and soon +there we were, across. We saw Goodfields saeter above the hill and began +running, all four of us. Nobody was to be seen outside the hut, and we +nearly frightened the life out of Augusta, the milkmaid, when we stormed +in upon her. But when she had gathered herself together, she laughed and +her white teeth fairly glistened.</p> + +<p>"Now this is grand! I never could have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> thought of anything like this!" +said Augusta, the milkmaid.</p> + +<p>Then Karsten had to be undressed and put into Augusta's bed, and all his +clothes were hung by the hearth and Augusta built up such a hot fire to +dry them that they made everything steamy. Suddenly she remembered that +the son from Broker farm was staying at a near-by saeter just now. +Perhaps he had some clothes that Karsten might borrow. Olsen was sent +over there and came home with some things. It was mighty good that +Karsten could get up, for he wasn't very agreeable while he lay in bed, +you may be sure.</p> + +<p>What a sight he was when he was dressed! I shall never forget it. With a +jacket that reached below his knees and Augusta's kerchief on his +head—oh, he did look so funny! But not the least shadow of a smile did +we dare allow ourselves, for he would at once have flown under the +sheepskin bedclothes again, crosser than ever. That's the way Karsten +is, you see.</p> + +<p>Oh, pshaw! A fine rain had begun, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> mountains were perfectly black, +and patches of fog lay all around.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you'd like to fish," said Augusta; "they usually bite in such +weather."</p> + +<p>Trond and Olsen had begun to cut the grass around the hut, and Petter +Kloed and Karsten started off with fishing-rods over their shoulders. +You should have seen Karsten with the fishing-rod and with the kerchief +on his head.</p> + +<p>Andrine and I wanted to help Augusta get dinner, for it was exactly like +playing in a doll-house, only much more fun! Augusta made some +cream-porridge and her face shone like a polished sun—with the heat and +the anxiety that the porridge should be good. We had salt in a paper +cornucopia, milk in wooden bowls, and shining yellow wooden spoons to +eat with.</p> + +<p>What fun! Even if the rain were trickling down the window, we were +enjoying ourselves tremendously.</p> + +<p>Well, now you shall hear what a hullabaloo there was at the saeter that +afternoon.</p> + +<p>It had begun to grow dark, for it was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> last of August. Trond and +Olsen had gone to another saeter to see some friends of theirs. +Immediately after dinner Petter and Karsten had gone out to fish again, +because before dinner they had caught only a baby trout about as long as +your finger. However, Karsten broiled that, insides and all.</p> + +<p>Just as Augusta, Andrine and I were milking out in the barn, we heard a +scream that I shall never forget. I thought it was Karsten's voice, and +I was so frightened I didn't know what to do with myself. The whole moor +was so dark that nothing was to be seen. There came another scream, and +without a word Augusta ran out on the moor. But an instant after Karsten +came rushing around the corner of the barn, with face pale as death and +his hair standing straight up.</p> + +<p>"A bear! A bear! He is after me! Oh, help! Oh, oh!"</p> + +<p>Into the barn he dashed, Andrine and I at his heels, hastily shutting +the door. It was pitch-dark in the barn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Was he after you? Where is Petter?"</p> + +<p>My heart was pounding. Bears usually knocked a barn-door in with one +whack, and here we stood in pitch-black darkness.</p> + +<p>Karsten was so out of breath he could scarcely speak.</p> + +<p>"Oh! the way he ran! I never would have believed a bear could run so!" +panted Karsten.</p> + +<p>"Oh!—oh!—oh!" shrieked some one outside the barn. "Help! oh, help!"</p> + +<p>It was Petter's voice, and we heard also an animal breathing quickly and +then something like a growl.</p> + +<p>As with one impulse Andrine, Karsten, and I sprang into a stall behind a +cow. The bear would surely take the cow first before it took us. How +unspeakably frightened I was! Karsten wanted to get behind Andrine and +me too, and puffed and pushed himself in, and we got to fighting there +in the stall just from sheer fright.</p> + +<p>There came a horrible thump against the barn-door, it burst open and +Petter Kloed tumbled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> into the barn on all fours; and leaping on his +back was a big black beast.</p> + +<p>How Petter howled I could never give you any idea, for such a howl must +be heard if you are to know what it was like. Karsten and I shrieked +with him; and all the cows got up, rattled their chains, and bellowed.</p> + +<p>"Ha ha! Ha ha!" laughed Augusta from the barn-door. "Did any one ever +see such doings! Oh, I really must laugh! I was pretty sure it was the +dog, old Burmann. There hasn't been a bear on this mountain the whole +year. Shame on you, Burmann, to frighten folk this way!"</p> + +<p>"How you did howl, Petter!" said Karsten, coming out of the stall.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you didn't scream," said Petter Kloed.</p> + +<p>They quarreled and disputed till the sparks flew, as to which had been +the most scared. But my knees trembled so I had to sit down on a +milking-stool, and Andrine cried and sobbed, she had been so +frightened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>Karsten got braver and braver.</p> + +<p>"I was no more scared out of my wits than I ever am," said he. "I +screamed only because—because—well, just so that Petter could hear +where I was!"</p> + +<p>"Such a horrid dog!" said Petter, reaching after Burmann.</p> + +<p>"You could just have scratched his back as you do to bears in +menageries," said I. Augusta laughed so that her laughter echoed through +the whole place, and I teased them as much as I could. When I really +make a point of it, I'm awful at teasing—it is such fun.</p> + +<p>"Ugh! Girls are nothing but rubbish," said Karsten.</p> + +<p>"To think that you didn't strangle the bear with such muscles as you +have," I said.</p> + +<p>"If you don't keep still!" said Karsten threateningly.</p> + +<p>It was such fun! I laughed till my cheeks ached.</p> + +<p>My! but that was an awfully jolly and delightful visit to the saeter. +But at night Andrine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> and I slept in a bed that was as hard as a stone, +and Andrine lay the whole night right across the bed and squeezed me +almost to death.</p> + +<p>In the morning the air and everything was oh, so fresh! Our hair blew +all over our faces; we washed in the brook and the water was so cold +that our finger-nails ached.</p> + +<p>After breakfast we started home again. We stood up in the wagon and +shouted hurrah as long as we could see Augusta in the saeter hut door, +and after that we sang all the way down the mountain.</p> + +<p>But that story of the bear at the saeter Petter and Karsten had to hear +all summer long, for they were just as puffed up as ever.</p> + +<p>Nothing impresses such conceited boys, you know.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>LOST IN THE FOREST</h3> + + +<p>Oh, that awful, awful time! Even now I can wake in the middle of the +night, start up in bed and stare around frightened and trembling, for I +dream that I am in the dark forest alone, as I was that time at +Goodfields. Well, I wasn't absolutely alone, but I was the oldest, you +see, and so I had all the responsibility for both of us, and that is +almost worse than to be alone.</p> + +<p>It was little brother Karl who was with me. We children were going to +have a blueberry party—that was the beginning of the whole thing. We +wanted to treat all the grown-up boarders, and Mother Goodfields, and +the maids too. They should all have blueberries with powdered sugar, +nothing else; anyway that was enough. But we should need a lot of +blueberries, oh, a frightful lot of them!</p> + +<p>So we went off, each choosing his own clump<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> of bushes, and picked and +picked; and then Karlie-boy and I got lost. Now, you shall hear.</p> + +<p>It was in the morning, a very hot morning. The air in the valley had +been perfectly still all night. We had slept beside open windows with +only a sheet over us.</p> + +<p>Immediately after breakfast I flew to the forest, for I knew a place +where I wanted to pick berries all by myself. Just as I was climbing +over the fence of the home hill-pasture, Karl saw me and called out, "I +want to go with you—it's mean of you—oh! oh! to run away from me—I +want to go too."</p> + +<p>He made such a hullabaloo with his screaming that I had to stop and wait +for him. But one ought never in the world to humor screeching children, +for no good comes of it. How much better it would have been for Karl if +he had not been with me that long frightful day in the forest, and that +queer evening in crazy Helen's hut,—for that is where we finally found +ourselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, when I have children, I shall be awfully strict and decided with +them.</p> + +<p>It was cool there in the forest. The sunshine came in only in golden +stripes and spots. Never in my life have I seen so many blueberries and +such high blueberry bushes as we found that day. I picked and picked. +Meanwhile Karl ate and ate, till he was nothing but one big blueberry +stain,—he smeared himself so with the juice.</p> + +<p>"Did Noah have berries with him in the ark?" asked Karl.</p> + +<p>"No, indeed."</p> + +<p>"Then all the blueberries must have been drowned in the flood."</p> + +<p>"Ugh, what a silly you are!"</p> + +<p>"Well, anyway, Noah had cannon with him in the ark."</p> + +<p>Oh, I get so sick of cannons with Karl! Whatever he talks about, he +always mixes up something about cannons in it.</p> + +<p>It was unspeakably fresh and still in the forest. I ran from one +blueberry patch to another,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> but you may chop my head off if I +understand in the least how it happened that we got lost; for I usually +keep my eyes open and have my wits about me too.</p> + +<p>All at once Karl sat himself down in a blueberry patch.</p> + +<p>"Ugh—blueberries are disgusting," said he.</p> + +<p>"That's because you have stuffed yourself with them," I replied.</p> + +<p>"I want some bread and butter," said Karl. "And I'm tired—so tired."</p> + +<p>"Oh, keep still."</p> + +<p>A minute after, it was exactly the same.</p> + +<p>"I'm so tired, so tired."</p> + +<p>O dear! I should certainly have to take him home. We were in a little +open space. Pine-trees stood close together around it, whispering +softly. To save my life, I could not remember which direction we had +come from; there were little mounds and moss and blueberry patches and +pine-trees everywhere.</p> + +<p>Whoever knew such a pickle as this? How in the world had we come here? I +couldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> tell—no matter which way I looked. I sprang here and I ran +there to find something I recognized, but I got more and more bewildered +and Karl grew crosser and crosser. He kicked at his basket of +blueberries.</p> + +<p>"Horrid old berries! I want to go home—I'm just mad at everything here. +I'm mad as can be."</p> + +<p>If you have never been in a great forest, you cannot possibly imagine +anything so bewildering. Trees and trees and trees in every direction +and nothing else; no clear space, no opening anywhere. But even yet I +wasn't a bit afraid. The sunshine was bright, the forest air fragrant +and I had three quarts of blueberries in my basket—three quarts at the +very least. But Karl was heavy to drag along and my berry basket weighed +down my other arm, and there was no end to the trees.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 472px;"> +<img src="images/image226.jpg" width="472" height="650" alt="How we wandered,—round and round, up and down, hither +and thither.—Page 208." title="" /> +<span class="caption">How we wandered,—round and round, up and down, hither +and thither.—<i>Page 208.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>O me! How we wandered,—round and round, up and down, hither and +thither! We would go ten steps in one direction, then five steps in +another—I didn't know where we had been or where we hadn't. All at once +everything seemed to be rough and horrid; great trees, uprooted, lay +topsy-turvy in our way, rotten branches were under foot everywhere, and +the ground was boggy and swampy. The whole place was dreadful.</p> + +<p>I remember perfectly that it was right there that I began to be +afraid—so terrified that I felt as if down inside of me I was shivering +with fear, for I happened to think that we might meet a bull in the +forest,—Kaspar's bull that is horribly fierce; and of all things in the +world I am most afraid of a bull.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Karlie boy, Karlie boy! We are lost!"</p> + +<p>He gave one glance at me and burst out crying. Louder and louder he +cried, and heavier and heavier he was to drag along, as if he were a big +log that would not budge from its place. It was weird and uncanny +somehow,—that he should scream so loud in the silent forest. And if +there were a bull anywhere in the forest, even far away, it could hear +his crying; and then it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> would come leaping—it would come leaping——</p> + +<p>I listened and listened, I seemed to hear with a thousand ears—and I +looked and searched to see if I could not recognize even one tree or one +blueberry clump. But no; never in the world had I been in this place +before. Then we turned and went in exactly the opposite direction. Ugh! +No, no—the forest was just as thick and dark there. Hark! Did something +crash then?</p> + +<p>"Oh, do be still, Karlie boy!" I listened, holding my breath; perhaps it +was only a bird flying.</p> + +<p>Well, now we would go straight on this way. And there was nothing to be +afraid of; the bright sun was shining, and I had lots and lots of +blueberries, and going this way we would surely get out of the forest. +Thus I comforted myself.</p> + +<p>"Pooh! We'll soon find the way out, you and I."</p> + +<p>"If we had a cannon, we could fire it off,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> and then they would hear it +at Goodfields," said Karl.</p> + +<p>For once I was glad of Karl's cannon. I talked and talked about cannon +simply to fix my thoughts on something else than the forest, and Karl +dried his tears and asked whether there were any great big cannon, as +big as—as the whole earth, and didn't I think that the Pope had more +cannon than any one else in the world?</p> + +<p>"Hush, Karlie boy! keep still. Do you hear something?"</p> + +<p>Yes, it was cow-bells. Oh, perhaps Kaspar's bull was coming, that awful +bull. "Oh, hurry, hurry, Karlie boy!" We dashed ahead, over branches and +mounds; we ran and ran; I stopped and listened, scarcely breathing.</p> + +<p>"Do you hear it, Karlie boy?"</p> + +<p>Yes, the cow-bells sounded loud and clear through the silence. Well, +anyway, we should soon be out of the forest—I thought I knew where we +were now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Run, Karlie boy! Run, run." There now! There was an opening in the +forest! We rushed forward; but just imagine! We were in that little open +place again,—there where everything was so horrid, where the great +split tree-trunks lay in the swampy moss,—just where I had begun to +have that shivery fear deep down inside of me. We had walked round and +round in a circle.</p> + +<p>And there were the cows! Beyond where the trees were close together, I +saw a black cow that lifted its head and sniffed at us; and other cows, +many cows,—and oh! there was Kaspar's bull!</p> + +<p>I was wild with fright; probably it was then that I threw away my +basket, for I saw it no more. Over hillocks and moss, through bushes and +thickets, I dragged Karl—who was now pale as death, with big wide open +staring eyes, and utterly silent.</p> + +<p>The whole herd was after us, now at a slow trot, now leaping; the bull +was ahead and gave a short, low roar from time to time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> Oh! oh! What +should we do! Oh! Karl, Karl!——</p> + +<p>We had nowhere to turn and no one to help us. What should we do? Then I +prayed—not aloud, but oh, how earnestly! And suddenly I saw that there +was a rock just beyond us—an enormous moss-grown rock. Thither we +rushed. I tore myself on the bushes till I bled. I fell, but rushed on +again till we reached the rock; then I climbed up, gripped tight with +hand and feet, hauled Karl up after me, higher and higher up, as far as +we could get. The rock was perhaps two or three yards high. We were +saved from the bull. And it was God who had saved us, I was sure of +that. I had never seen that rock before anywhere in the forest.</p> + +<p>The bull had made a great leap and stood just below us pawing the +ground, tail in the air. Oh, how he bellowed!</p> + +<p>I held Karl in my arms. The bull could not reach us. He pawed the earth +so that moss and dirt rose in a whirl; he ran around the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> rock and +bellowed horribly, making as much noise as ten ordinary bulls would +make. And all the cows followed him round and round the rock, lowing and +acting crazy like him.</p> + +<p>Never, never in my life have I been so frightened. Karl grew paler and +paler. Oh, what if he should die of terror?</p> + +<p>"There's nothing to be afraid of now, Karlie boy," I said in a shaky +voice. "The bull could never get up here. No indeed—he can be mighty +sure of that, horrid old beast!"</p> + +<p>"He can be mighty sure of that, horrid old beast!" repeated Karlie boy +with white lips.</p> + +<p>How long did we sit there? I'm sure I don't know. It must have been a +long time, for the sunshine disappeared from among the trees, the cows +laid themselves down in a circle around the rock, the bull went to and +fro. If he went a little way off, he would come rushing back again and +begin to behave worse than ever. The ground about the rock was torn up +as if there had been a great battle there.</p> + +<p>I have often tried to remember what I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> thought of, all those long hours +on the rock, with that fierce bull below us. I really believe I didn't +think of anything but keeping tight hold of Karl; nor did we talk very +much either. Karl didn't even mention cannon a single time.</p> + +<p>A gentle breeze stirred the tree-tops and the shadows had grown darker +under the close branches when the cows finally began to stir themselves. +Slowly, very slowly, they trailed off between the trees, the bull being +the last to go. As if for a farewell, he dug his horns into the earth +and sent bits of moss flying up to us. At last, at last, he, too, had +gone.</p> + +<p>When the cows started homeward it must have been five or six o'clock, +and we had been in the forest the whole day long. Oh, how hungry, how +awfully hungry I was! And Karl was as pale as a little white flower. +Never—even if I live to be ninety years old—never shall I forget that +summer day on the big moss-grown rock with Kaspar's bull down below.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, then I did something unspeakably stupid. Instead of going the way +the cows had taken (which of course led right to Kaspar's farm), Karl +and I went exactly the opposite way, farther into the forest. Ugh! how +could any one be such a stupid donkey! I'm disgusted whenever I think of +it.</p> + +<p>Karl and I walked on and on for an eternity it seemed. It grew darker +and darker and the air was full of mysterious sounds, low murmurs and +rustlings; my heart thumped frightfully. Just think, if we had to stay +in the forest all night when it was pitch dark! Suppose we never found +our way out to people again——</p> + +<p>Oh, that big, big forest!</p> + +<p>I did not cry once, I didn't dare to, you see, for Karl's sake. I just +stared and listened, and the forest murmured softly—softly, the whole +time.</p> + +<p>Once in a while we sat down and then Karl would weep bitterly with his +head in my lap, poor little fellow!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now we'll soon get to Goodfields, Karlie boy, and Mother will be so +glad to see us—oh, so glad! Won't it be jolly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and then I'm going to have a hundred pieces of bread and butter."</p> + +<p>Suddenly we stumbled against a fence! And as suddenly my weariness +vanished. Where there was a fence, there must be people. We jumped over +the fence. Beyond it was a little cleared space where +stood—yes—really—a tiny hut. Then—wasn't it queer? I was so glad +that I began to cry violently as I dashed towards the house.</p> + +<p>It was so very dark that I could not distinguish anything clearly, but I +could see that there was some one sitting on the door-stone. And just +imagine! When we drew nearer, I saw that it was Crazy Helen, an old +half-witted woman who went about among the farms begging. Many a time +through the summer had she been at Goodfields, and she had told us that +she lived all alone in the forest, high, high up on the mountain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>I can't possibly tell how I felt when I saw her; not that I was really +afraid of poor Helen, but it was all so strange—so queer.</p> + +<p>"Are you coming here?" asked she, looking up at us and laughing. She had +on the same old brown coat, a man's coat, that she always wore, and was +smoking a clay pipe.</p> + +<p>"Can you tell us the way to Goodfields?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Goodfields—nice folks at Goodfields; nice mistress there. I know her +very well," said Crazy Helen.</p> + +<p>"Yes—but how shall we go to get there?" I asked again as I sat down +beside her on the door-step.</p> + +<p>"Why, just over that way," said Crazy Helen, pointing back where we had +come from. "Just go that way and you'll get to Goodfields."</p> + +<p>What in the world should I do? How frightened Mother must be about us! +And there was Karl asleep at my side on the bare ground. All kinds of +thoughts were whirling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> round in my head. Perhaps it was best to let +Karl sleep here in Crazy Helen's hut, and in the morning people might +find us; or Helen could go with us and show us the way to Goodfields.</p> + +<p>"May I lay him on your bed?" I asked, pointing to Karl.</p> + +<p>"Nice little boy is asleep," said Helen. So I put Karl on Crazy Helen's +bed. The floor of the hut was just bare earth, and there was no +furniture but one old stool, I think; but Karl was in a sound sleep and +safe, perfectly safe.</p> + +<p>Then I seated myself again on the door-step beside poor Helen. They had +always said at Goodfields that she had never in the world been known to +do any harm, so I was not really afraid of her. The twinkling stars +shone down upon us, and the forest trees waved noisily.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Crazy Helen, slapping her knees.</p> + +<p>Ugh! it wasn't exactly pleasant here; but sleep I would not; no, no, I +would not. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> would just sit up and take care of Karl, but oh, how +unspeakably tired I was!</p> + +<p>"Shall I dance a little for you?" asked Crazy Helen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" I answered.</p> + +<p>Ugh! That would be horrible. On the lawn at Goodfields where, laughing +and joking, we all sat around together and watched Helen dance, it was +very jolly, but it wouldn't be so in the least here in the dark forest, +and alone with her. But if you'll believe it, she began to dance, +notwithstanding—such a queer dance!</p> + +<p>She whirled herself about, hopped off slant-wise, then whirled again +like a spinning top, while the trees sighed in the wind, and the bright, +clear stars looked down on the little space before the hut and on Crazy +Helen dancing.</p> + +<p>Never in my life had I seen anything so queer, so weird.</p> + +<p>"Ho! Heigho!" she sang, as she spun round and round.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hi! Halloa!" some one answered from the forest.</p> + +<p>I sprang up. "Halloa!" I shouted. It must be some one from Goodfields, +some one who was trying to find us, oh, thank God!</p> + +<p>"Halloa!" "Hey there!"</p> + +<p>The shouting was nearer; there were lights among the trees and now the +people came nearer still—now over the fence—oh! oh—it was Trond and +Lisbeth from Goodfields. Oh, oh! how glad I was! I flew in and began to +shake Karl.</p> + +<p>"Karlie boy, wake up—get up—we're going to Mother." But Karl's eyes +would not open, he was so sound asleep. Trond, the farm man, came in and +took him in his arms. Oh, oh! it is impossible to say how glad I was!</p> + +<p>They had been searching for us since four o'clock and now it was ten. +They had called and shouted, and not a sound had we heard.</p> + +<p>Mother had been unspeakably anxious and terrified and wanted to go to +the forest herself, to search, but Mother Goodfields had said no to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +that, "because Trond and Lisbeth know the forest better," she had told +Mother.</p> + +<p>Crazy Helen sat herself down on the door-step again, and slapped her +knees and laughed, as before, out into the night.</p> + +<p>Just think of all I lived through in that one day! And still I haven't +told half how strange and uncanny it all was,—the long, long day in the +forest and Crazy Helen dancing under the stars.</p> + +<p>When I got to Goodfields, I ate three eggs and eight slices of bread and +butter, and drank four cups of chocolate. I truly did.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>TRAVELLING WITH A BILLY-GOAT</h3> + + +<p>Would you believe it? Karsten got a live billy-goat as a present from +Mother Goodfields, and I got a live wild forest-cat from Jens Kverum's +mother. Of course I wanted something alive since Karsten had the goat, +so I begged and teased Agnete Kverum until she finally said I might have +the yellow-brown cat I wanted. Not that I would not rather have had the +goat, you may be sure, though naturally I wouldn't let Karsten know +that. He was puffed up enough over it, as it was.</p> + +<p>Well, anyway, we took both the goat and the cat with us when we went +home; but anything so difficult to travel with you can't possibly +imagine. Now you shall hear the whole story from first to last; for if +anybody else has a desire to take a real live goat or cat with them on +the train or into the ladies' cabin of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> steamboat, they had better +know all the bother and row-de-dow it will make. I advise every one +against doing it. All the people who are traveling with you get angry, +although it is scarcely to be expected that a billy-goat or a wild cat +will behave nicely in a ladies' cabin. At any rate, ours didn't. Listen +now.</p> + +<p>Mother Goodfields had any number of goats. They were all up at the +saeter except two, and these roamed in the forest with the cows, because +each of them had an injured leg. But one day one goat was missing and +nobody in the world could find it.</p> + +<p>Old Kari mourned for it constantly and talked of nothing else. Every day +she pictured to herself a new horrible way it had met its death. Either +it had got caught in a mountain crevice and starved to death, or a wolf +had taken it, or Beata Oppistuen had butchered it without any right to. +"That Beata! You could expect any kind of doings from her." Old Kari +went to and fro in the forest seeking the goat till far into the night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> + +<p>But one fine day there on the forest side of the farm fence stood the +lost goat with a tiny little baby-goat at her side. And that kid was the +prettiest and cunningest you ever set eyes on. It had a soft silky +little beard, and it stood on its hind legs and hopped and skipped as if +it would jump over into the field.</p> + +<p>The cows came and sniffed at it; the other goat, that had stayed at home +with them, examined it very particularly; and the little kid danced, +zigzag and every which way; and so it was introduced to society, you +might say.</p> + +<p>How we children ran after that little billy-goat! But Karsten was the +worst, for he went to the forest every single day to tend it and brought +it home every single night.</p> + +<p>"I rather think I shall have to give you that kid," said Mother +Goodfields to Karsten one night as he came along carrying it.</p> + +<p>From that time Karsten was a changed boy altogether, for he didn't give +a thought to the big lake that he had cared so much about all summer. In +his brain there was absolutely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> nothing but that billy-goat. It ate +bread and butter and drank out of a teacup; and one night when Mother +went up to bed she caught a glimpse of Billy-goat's beard above the +blanket beside Karsten's head. Just imagine! Karsten was going to let +the kid sleep with him. But Mother put a stop to that and Karsten had to +hurry down-stairs and out to the barn with the goat.</p> + +<p>Karsten never allowed me to touch Billy-goat and so I wanted to have a +pet animal of my own. I considered seriously for a day or two as to +whether I should not ask Mother Goodfields for a brown calf that was +kept out in the pasture; but one fine morning it was slaughtered, so +there was an end to that plan. Then I brought my desire down to Agnete +Kverum's cat. It was golden-brown and had long hair and was exactly like +a big cosy muff; and in the muff were two great yellow eyes. Whenever I +went up to the Kverum place it sat curled together on the door-sill and +purred and was perfectly charming. I didn't give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Agnete a minute's rest +or peace, and so, as you know, I got the cat.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, Mother was not in the least overjoyed when I came back +carrying the forest-cat.</p> + +<p>"I don't like these presents," said Mother. "There will only be tears +and heartbreak when you have to leave them."</p> + +<p>"Leave them!" exclaimed Karsten and I in one breath. "Oh, but you know +they must go back home with us!"</p> + +<p>"The goat is so smart about going up and down stairs," said Karsten. +"And it likes to drink out of a teacup and it can perfectly well stay in +the hotel garden over night in the city."</p> + +<p>"Are you crazy, you two?" said Mother. "It would never do in the world."</p> + +<p>But we teased and begged so, that Mother finally said yes—we might take +them. For the potato-cellar was full of rats, she said, that the cat +might take care of; and you could always get rid of a goat in our town. +And I promised that I would hold on to the cat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> through the whole +journey, and Karsten would hold on to the kid, and Mother needn't think +they would be any worry or nuisance to her at all. No indeed—far from +it.</p> + +<p>Well, off we went. When Mother talks of our journey home from the +country that time, she both laughs and cries. First we had to drive +nearly twenty-five miles. Mother and Karl and Olaug, and the kid and +Karsten, and the forest-cat and I, and the hold-all and lunch-basket and +bundle of shawls—all were in one carriage. Nobody kept quiet an +instant, for Karlie boy wanted to know who lived in every single house +along the road, and Olaug whimpered and wanted to eat all the time, and +the forest-cat could not by hook or crook be made to stay in any basket, +but would sit on the driver's seat and look around; so you see, I had to +stand and hold it so it should not fall out of the carriage. And the +goat kicked into the air with all its four legs and would not lie in +Karsten's lap a minute. You had better believe there was a rumpus!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mother said afterwards that she just sat and wished that both the cat +and the goat would fall out of the carriage; she would then whip up the +horse and drive away from them, she was so sick of the whole business.</p> + +<p>At last we came to the first place where we were to stay over night. +Karsten and I took our pets with us to our rooms. They should not be put +into a strange barn and be frightened, poor things! But oh, how those +rooms looked in the morning! I can't possibly describe it.</p> + +<p>Mother was desperate.</p> + +<p>"Do let us get away from this place," she said. "There's no knowing how +much I shall have to pay; it will be a costly reckoning, I'll warrant +you."</p> + +<p>It was.</p> + +<p>Well, we all hurried, and flew down to the little steamer. It was +cram-jam full of passengers,—ladies who sat with their opera-glasses +and were very elegant and looked sideways at you; and sun-burnt +gentlemen with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> tiny little traveling caps. They all looked hard at +Karsten and me with our animals in our arms.</p> + +<p>The billy-goat bleated and was determined to get down on to the deck, +and the cat miaowed and the ladies drew their skirts close and looked +indignant.</p> + +<p>"Go into the cabin!" said Mother.</p> + +<p>Karsten and I scrambled down below with the goat and the cat. There +wasn't a living soul there, nothing but bad air and red velvet sofas. We +let go of both the goat and the cat. It would be good for them to stir +their legs a little, poor creatures!</p> + +<p>Pit-pat! pit-pat! Away went the goat to a sofa, and snatched a big bite +out of a bouquet of stock that lay there. One long lavender spray hung +dangling from Billy-goat's mouth.</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you crazy? Catch your goat! Catch your goat!"</p> + +<p>But the flowers were gone and the goat was dancing sideways over the +cabin floor.</p> + +<p>From the sideboard sounded a thud and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> horrible rattle te-bang of +glass and silver. The cat had sprung right up into a big bowl of cream +and all the cream was running down on the sofa.</p> + +<p>It is a horrible sight to see two quarts of cream flowing over a red +velvet sofa! Oh, how frightened I was!</p> + +<p>"Hold the door shut, Karsten!" I said. "I'll try to dry it up."</p> + +<p>With shaking hands I tried to mop up the cream with my +pocket-handkerchief, while the cat and the kid lapped and drank the +cream that trickled down to the floor; and Karsten held the door shut +with all his might.</p> + +<p>But it was like an ocean of cream. It was impossible—impossible for me +to dry it up.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Karsten! what shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"It was your cat that did it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but your goat ate the stock."</p> + +<p>"Let's run away," said Karsten; and carrying the goat and the cat we +rushed up the narrow cabin stairs. But, O horrors! There wasn't any sort +of a place where we could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> hide.—And how it did look down in the cabin! +And Mother didn't know the least thing about it. O dear! O dear!</p> + +<p>"If they only don't throw Billy-goat and the cat overboard!" said +Karsten thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Are you up here again?" called Mother.</p> + +<p>"Ye-es."</p> + +<p>We ran away out forward, away to the bow of the boat. Usually I think +there is nothing so jolly as to sit far, far out in the bow, seeing +nothing of the boat back of me, just as if I were gliding forward high +up in the air. But to-day it wasn't the least bit jolly, for all that +cream down on the sofa was frightful to think of. Karsten and I couldn't +talk of anything else. He was angry, however, because I hadn't mopped it +up.</p> + +<p>"Well, but I couldn't wipe it up with nothing."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you could have taken your waterproof or something out of our +trunk."</p> + +<p>I was really struck by that thought. Perhaps—perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> I could get hold +of something to wipe up all that disgusting cream with. We both got up +from the box where we had been sitting. O horrors! There stood the +dining-room stewardess facing us. No sight could have been more terrible +to me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, here you are, are you? Of course it was you who have got things in +such a condition in the dining-saloon."</p> + +<p>I looked at Karsten and Karsten looked at me.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the cat upset the bowl," I said faintly.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a pretty business," said the stewardess. "And we are in a +fine fix and no mistake. Dinner spoiled, no more cream for the +multerberries, and they're nothing without it, the whole cabin running +over with cream, the sofa absolutely ruined, glasses broken,—oh, you'll +have a handsome sum to pay! Well, you've got to go to the Captain," and +she swaggered across the deck.</p> + +<p>But now Mother had heard about it, and she came towards us with a face I +can't describe,—and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> the Captain came; and there Karsten and I stood +holding the goat and the cat in our arms.</p> + +<p>Oh, it was an awful interview! The Captain wasn't gentle, not he, and +Mother had to pay heaps of money.</p> + +<p>"There is no sense in traveling with such a menagerie," said the +Captain.</p> + +<p>The passengers who had nothing but dry multerberries for dessert were +certainly angry with us, and Mother was most unhappy. But the cat lay in +my lap and blinked with its yellow eyes and purred like far-away +thunder,—it was so happy; and Billy-goat rubbed its head with that +silky beard against Karsten's jacket and looked up at him with its +trustful black eyes; so neither Karsten nor I had the heart to scold. +And it wouldn't have done any good, anyway.</p> + +<p>At the train, trouble began again, for just imagine! No one knew what +the freight charges should be for a kid. The ticket-agent stuck his head +out of his window to stare at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> the innocent little creature, and the +station-master pulled at his mustache and stared too; and they turned +over page after page in their books and whispered together. At last they +made out that the cost would be the same as for a cow. Mother shook her +head but paid. (I was glad I had my cat in a basket where no one noticed +it, and it slept like a log.)</p> + +<p>Since the kid was so very tiny, Karsten was allowed to take it into the +compartment with us, for it was absolutely impossible to let that baby +go alone into the cattle-car.</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness!" said Mother when she finally got us all settled. "Now +there are only five hours more of this part of the journey."</p> + +<p>Two ladies were in the compartment—one very severe-looking who had a +lorgnette, the other fat and jolly, with awfully pretty red cherries on +her hat. Little Billy-goat stood on the seat and ate crackers, making a +great crunching. The fat lady laughed at it till she shook all over, but +the severe lady drew the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> corners of her mouth down, looking crosser +than ever.</p> + +<p>Karsten was so glad to have some one admire the kid that he made it do +all the tricks it could. However, that was soon over, for it could not +do anything except stand on two legs.</p> + +<p>Just as it stood there on two legs, with the most innocent face you can +imagine, it gave a little leap—oh, oh! up towards the hat of the fat +lady; and that very instant the beautiful red cherries crackled in +Billy-goat's mouth.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my new hat!" screamed the fat lady.</p> + +<p>"It is outrageous that one should be liable to such treatment," said the +cross lady.</p> + +<p>"That's the time you got fooled, Billy-goat!" said Karl, "for you got +glass cherries instead of real cherries."</p> + +<p>Mother had lost all patience now and no mistake; and the kid had to go +under the seat and lie there the whole time. And Mother offered the fat +lady some chocolates and some of Mother Goodfields' home-made cakes that +we had brought for luncheon, and begged her pardon again and again for +Billy-goat's behavior; so that finally the fat lady was a little +appeased. The goat had eaten four of the glass cherries and there were +eight still left on the hat, so it wasn't wholly spoiled.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 465px;"> +<img src="images/image256.jpg" width="465" height="650" alt="The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's +mouth.—Page 236." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's +mouth.—<i>Page 236.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, all I know is I would never have stood it," said the lady with +the lorgnette.</p> + +<p>The forest-cat behaved beautifully, sleeping the whole time on the +train; and we all grew tired, oh! so tired. I couldn't look out of the +window at last, I was so utterly tired out. And I did not bother myself +about either the cat or the billy-goat.</p> + +<p>Finally we rumbled into the city and to the station platform.</p> + +<p>But Mother was altogether right in saying that it would never do in the +world to have a billy-goat in the city. When we got to the hotel where +we were to spend that night, there stood the host at the door. He is a +very cross man. When he saw Billy-goat in Karsten's arms he was furious +at once. He had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> fitted up his rooms for animals, he said, and the +goat would please be so good as to keep itself entirely outside of them. +So Billy-goat was put into the pitch-dark coal-cellar—and had to stay +there the whole night.</p> + +<p>When we went down the next morning it stood on two legs and danced +sideways from pure joy. But when Karsten took it out into the court, +pop! away went the goat over the low fence into the hotel-keeper's +garden, then out by an unlatched gate into the wide, wide world.</p> + +<p>"No," said Mother firmly, "you may not go to look for it, nor will I ask +the police to find it. If I haven't suffered and paid enough for that +creature——"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Poor little Billy-goat! It was a sin and a shame that we ever took you +away from the forest at Goodfields!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>IN SCHOOL</h3> + + +<p>Oh, such fun as we had in school that time when Mr. Gorrisen was our +teacher! It was a regular comedy. He was a tiny little man. Antoinette +and I were taller than he, so you can judge for yourself. And I never in +my life saw any one with such round eyes as he had.</p> + +<p>You should just have seen those eyes when we were having a little fun at +our desks. With a hard, fixed stare, not letting his gaze wander for an +instant, his eyes bored themselves right into the culprit.</p> + +<p>Down from the platform he came, with slow, measured step across the +floor,—his eyes not moving for a second,—came nearer and nearer and +nearer; ugh! then his finger tips grabbed the very tip-end of your ear +and there they held tight like a vise. No one can have the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> faintest +idea how painful it was. And all without one word; not a syllable came +over Mr. Gorrisen's lips.</p> + +<p>I wonder, I really do, that there is anything left of the tips of my +ears since then, considering the many times Mr. Gorrisen took hold of +them!</p> + +<p>And he was mighty quick about giving us poor marks! If I didn't know +every single thing in the lesson by heart, so that I could rattle it +off, I got a "4" immediately.</p> + +<p>It was at that time, however, that I hit upon the plan of cutting out +the bad marks from my report book, for a "4" or "5" looks perfectly +disgusting in a report. But an innocent little square hole,—that's no +harm, as it were.</p> + +<p>"But, Inger Johanne," said Father, "what is that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, Father, there was a bad mark there," I answered. "And I +didn't dare come home with such a mark, so I just cut it out."</p> + +<p>The first time I did it, Father wasn't so very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> angry; but when I did it +again and again, he was furious. So I had to give it up. Then when I +really came to think about it, I saw it was wrong, so I would not do it +any more, anyway.</p> + +<p>Once we had Mr. Gorrisen on Examination Day. Mrs. White, with her light +kid gloves on, sat in a chair on the platform and listened, holding +Karen's dirty German reading-book by the tip edge. She looked +continually at the book but she didn't understand a word,—I'll wager +anything you like she didn't,—for she never turned over the page when +she should have. I saw that plainly. On a seat near the door sat Madam +Tellefsen, who had come to listen to Mina; she did not put on any airs, +though. She never once pretended to understand German, but laid the book +down beside her on the seat and sat there sweltering in her French shawl +and looking rather helpless.</p> + +<p>Enough of that. I was just carving my name on my desk-lid—very deep and +nice it was to be—when all at once I noticed that Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> Gorrisen was +looking at me. He stared as if he were staring right through me, stared +steadily as he came across the room.</p> + +<p>Oh, my unlucky ear-tip! His fingers held it as tight as a vise. Up I +must get from my seat and across the floor was I led by the ear to the +corner of the room. There he let go of me.</p> + +<p>Well! Imagine that! A pretty sight I made standing in the corner on +Examination Day! If only Mrs. White and Madam Tellefsen had not been +sitting there! They would surely go and tattle about it all over town.</p> + +<p>Truly I would not stand there any longer. Mr. Gorrisen was reading a +piece aloud just then, so all at once I lay flat down on the floor and +crept over to the desks. Once I had got under the desks, it was easy +enough. Kima Pirk gave me a horrid kick in the back, and Karen whacked +my head when I was directly under her desk, but that was only because I +pinched them as I passed. I could hear them all whispering and +whispering above me—it was great fun—and I crept farther and farther.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +I thought I would go to the last desk, you see. There, now I had reached +it. I got up and settled myself in the seat, wearing a most innocent +expression.</p> + +<p>I looked at Mrs. White. Her face seemed to get sharper and narrower just +from severity; but Madam Tellefsen laughed so that she had to hold the +end of her French shawl over her face. I had got very warm and my hair +was very dusty from that expedition under the desks, but I didn't mind +that.</p> + +<p>Fully five minutes passed before Mr. Gorrisen saw me. But all at once +when I had begun to feel pretty safe, came:</p> + +<p>"Why, Inger Johanne! Have you walked out of the corner without +permission?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have not walked, Mr. Gorrisen," said I.</p> + +<p>"She crept," the others murmured faintly.</p> + +<p>"She crept," said Kima aloud from her desk in the front row.</p> + +<p>"What is this, Inger Johanne?" asked Mr. Gorrisen severely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It was so tedious to stand there, Mr. Gorrisen," I said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was exactly why you were put there."</p> + +<p>"And so I crept over here when you didn't see me."</p> + +<p>Without another word, down across the floor he came. I turned my right +ear towards him, for the left ear burned horribly even yet from the +other time. But he evidently thought that an ear-pinch was too gentle a +punishment for creeping through the whole class-room. I was taken by the +arm and led along out of the door. Outside in the hall he shook me by +the arm. Oh, well! it was just a little shake anyway,—but then I had to +hang around in that hall until the lesson was all over.</p> + +<p>I can't understand now how I ever dared to creep that way in Mr. +Gorrisen's class. O dear! I have been awfully foolish many +times—unbelievably foolish!</p> + +<p>Then there was that day Mr. Gorrisen fell off his chair. I was put out +in the hall that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> day, too. But all the others ought to have been sent +out as well, for we all laughed together. It was just because I couldn't +stop laughing that I had to go. I surely have spasms in my cheeks, for +long after all the others have stopped I keep on—I can't help it.</p> + +<p>We were having our geography lesson. Mr. Gorrisen sat in an armchair by +the table and stared at us, for he was not the kind of teacher that +sharpens pencils or polishes his finger nails or does anything like +that. He just sits and sways back and forth in his chair and stares +incessantly. Well, never mind that. The lesson was on the peninsula of +Korea. I remember distinctly.</p> + +<p>"Now, Minka, Korea lies——" He swayed and swayed in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Korea lies—ahem! Ko-re-a lies——"</p> + +<p>Minka glanced anxiously around to see whether any one would whisper to +her—"Korea lies between——"</p> + +<p>There came a frightful explosive bang; the chair had gone over backward, +making a horrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> noise, and Mr. Gorrisen's small legs were up in the +air above the corner of the table.</p> + +<p>Oh, what shrieks of laughter pealed out through the class-room! But +quick as a flash Mr. Gorrisen was up again. He sat himself in the +armchair as if nothing had happened, only his face was flaming red up to +his hair. It was exactly as if there had been no interruption whatever, +to say nothing of such a noisy comical topsy-turvy.</p> + +<p>"Korea lies where, Minka?"</p> + +<p>But that was more than I could bear. I burst out laughing again—he, he! +ha, ha!—and all the others joined in. If he had only laughed himself, I +don't believe it would have seemed so funny—but he was as solemn as an +owl.</p> + +<p>"Stop laughing instantly." He struck the table with his ruler so that +the room rang. We quieted down at once except for a hiccough here and +there, but the worst of it was that Mr. Gorrisen stared only at me. I +fixed my eyes on an old map on the wall and thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> of all the saddest +things I could, but it was of no use. My laughter burst out again; I was +so full of it that it just bubbled over.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gorrisen swayed back and forth in his chair as usual as if to show +how perfectly unembarrassed he was. But suddenly—true as Gospel—if he +didn't almost tip over again! He clutched frantically at the table, gave +a guilty glance at me. "Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" I could hear my own laughter +above all the rest.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gorrisen was up in a trice, and I was hurried out of the door so +quickly that, almost before I knew it, I stood out in the cold hall. I +nearly froze, it was so bitterly cold there; for it was nearly Christmas +time, you see.</p> + +<p>I opened the door a tiny bit just far enough to put my nose through the +crack.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Gorrisen."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"It's so cold out here. I won't laugh any more."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Come in."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + +<p>And so I went in again. At recess they all said they wondered how I ever +dared ask Mr. Gorrisen to let me come in from the hall.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" said I. "I dare do anything with Mr. Gorrisen."</p> + +<p>"Oh-h! you don't either! Far from it!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd really dare pretty nearly anything. I'm not afraid of him."</p> + +<p>"Would you dare sing right out loud in his class?" asked Karen.</p> + +<p>"Pooh! that wouldn't be anything much to do," said Minka. Then they all +began to tease me.</p> + +<p>"Fie, for shame! She is so brave and yet she does not dare to do such a +little thing as that!"</p> + +<p>"You shall see whether I dare or not," I said. And, would you believe +it? I did sing aloud one time in Mr. Gorrisen's geography class.</p> + +<p>It was several days after he had tipped over. I had been watching my +chance in all his classes, but somehow it didn't seem to come.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> One day, +however, I was just in the humor, and in the midst of the silence, while +Mr. Gorrisen sat and wrote down marks in the record book, I sang out at +the top of my voice:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Sons of Norway, that ancient kingdom'"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I did not once glance at Mr. Gorrisen but looked around at all the +others who lay over their desks and laughed till they choked. And I sang +on:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Manly and solemn, let the sound rise!'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Not a sound had come from the platform till that instant. Then I heard +behind me the click, click, click of Mr. Gorrisen's heels across the +floor and out of the door.</p> + +<p>"You'll catch it! oh, you'll catch it, Inger Johanne."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wouldn't be in your shoes for a good deal!"</p> + +<p>"Well, it was you who teased me to do it," I said.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but to think that you should be so stupid as to do such a thing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<p>I did really get a little scared, especially because it was so long +before Mr. Gorrisen came back.</p> + +<p>"Run away!" said one.</p> + +<p>"Hide under your desk," said another.</p> + +<p>But there he was in the doorway and the Principal with him.</p> + +<p>"What is all this, Inger Johanne?" said the Principal. "You are too big +to be so wild now. You are not such a bad girl, but you are altogether +too thoughtless and use no judgment."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said. I was so glad the Principal didn't scold any harder.</p> + +<p>"Of course you will be marked for this in your report-book; and remember +this," the Principal shook his finger at me threateningly, "it won't do +for you to behave like this many times, Inger Johanne. You won't get off +so easily again." But as he went out of the door I saw that he smiled. +Yes, he did, really.</p> + +<p>But Mother didn't smile when she saw the marks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Are you going to bring sorrow to your father and mother?" she said. And +those beautiful brown eyes of hers looked sad and troubled.</p> + +<p>Just think! It had never occurred to me that it would be a sorrow to +Father and Mother for me to sing out loud in class. Oh, I was awfully, +awfully disgusted with myself. I hung around Mother all the afternoon.</p> + +<p>First and foremost I must beg Mr. Gorrisen's pardon, Mother said. It +seemed to me I could ask the whole world's pardon if only Mother's eyes +wouldn't look so sorrowful. I wanted very much to go right down to Mr. +Gorrisen's lodgings; but Mother said she thought it was only right that +I should beg his pardon at school, so that all the class should hear. It +was embarrassing, frightfully embarrassing, to ask Mr. Gorrisen's +pardon—but I did it notwithstanding. I said, "Please excuse me for +singing out in class."</p> + +<p>"H'm, h'm," said Mr. Gorrisen. "Well, go back now and take your seat."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + +<p>Since then I have sat like a lamp-post in his classes—yes, I really +have. Many a time I should have liked to have some fun—but then I would +think of Mother's sorrowful eyes and so I have held myself in and kept +from any more skylarking.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME</h3> + + +<p>I was going to school one day, but was pretty late in getting started. +The trouble was that our yellow hen, Valpurga, had been sick, and since, +of course, I couldn't trust any one else to attend to her, I had made +myself late.</p> + +<p>When hens begin to mope, keeping still under a bush, drawing their heads +way down into their feathers, and just rolling their eyes about, that's +enough;—it is anything but pleasant when it is a hen you are fond of. +That's the way Valpurga was behaving. I gave her butter and pepper, for +that is good for hens.</p> + +<p>But it wasn't about Valpurga I wanted to tell. It was about the +circus-riders being here.</p> + +<p>The clock in the dining-room said five minutes of nine, and I hadn't +eaten my breakfast,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> hadn't studied any of my German grammar lesson, and +had to get to school besides. Things went with a rush, I can tell you; +with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, the German grammar open in +the other, I dashed down the hill.</p> + +<p>"Prepositions which govern the dative: <i>aus</i>, <i>ausser</i>, <i>bei</i>, +<i>binnen</i>—<i>aus</i>, <i>ausser</i>, <i>bei</i>,"—pshaw, the ragged old book! There +went a leaf over the fence, down into Madam Land's yard. It was best to +be careful in going after it, for Madam Land's windows looked out to +this side, and she was furious when any one trod down her grass. I +expected every moment to hear her knock sharply on the window-pane with +her thimble. She didn't see me though, and I climbed back over the fence +with the missing leaf.</p> + +<p>—"<i>aus</i>, <i>ausser</i>——"</p> + +<p>Round the corner swung Policeman Weiby with a stranger, a queer-looking +man. The stranger was absolutely deep yellow in the face, with +black-as-midnight hair, and black piercing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> eyes. On his head he wore a +little green cap, very foreign-looking, and on his feet patent leather +riding-boots that reached above his knees.</p> + +<p>Weiby puffed, threw his chest out even more than usual and looked very +much worried. It must be something really important, for day in and day +out Weiby has seldom anything else to do than to poke his stick among +the children who are playing hop-scotch in the street.</p> + +<p>Though I was so terribly late, of course I had to stand still and look +after Weiby and the strange man until they disappeared around the corner +up by the office. Something interesting had come to town, that was +plain. Either a panorama, or a man who swallowed swords, or one who had +no arms and sewed with his toes. Hurrah, there was surely to be some +entertainment!</p> + +<p>I got to school eleven minutes late. A normal-school pupil, Mr. +Holmesland, had the arithmetic class that morning. He sat on the +platform with his hand under his cheek supporting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> his big heavy head, +and looked at me reproachfully as I came in. I slipped in behind the +rack where all the outside things hung, to take off my things, and to +finish the last mouthful of my bread and butter.</p> + +<p>Pooh, I never bother myself a bit about Mr. Holmesland. I walked boldly +out and took my seat. Another long reproachful look from the platform.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what time it is, Inger Johanne?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I couldn't possibly come before, Mr. Holmesland, because I had +to attend to some one who was sick."</p> + +<p>"Indeed,—is your mother sick?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no"—he didn't ask anything more, and I was glad of it.</p> + +<p>"What example are you doing?" I asked Netta, who sat beside me.</p> + +<p>"This," she showed me her slate, but above the example was written in +big letters: "<i>The circus has come!</i>"</p> + +<p>The arithmetic hour was frightfully long.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> At recess we talked of +nothing but the circus. Netta had seen an awfully fat, black-haired +lady, in a fiery red dress, and a fat pug dog on her arm; they certainly +belonged to the circus troupe, for there was no such dark lady and no +such dog in the whole town. Mina had seen a little slender boy, with +rough black hair and gold earrings—and hadn't I myself seen the +director of the whole concern? It was queer that I was the one who had +most to tell, though, as you know, all I had seen of the circus troupe +was the strange man with Policeman Weiby as I passed them on the hill.</p> + +<p>We had sat down to dinner at home; Karsten hadn't come; we didn't know +whether it was the circus or our having "<i>lu-de-fisk</i>" for dinner that +kept him away.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the dining-room door was thrown open, and there he stood in the +doorway, very red in the face and so excited he could hardly speak.</p> + +<p>"Can the circus-riders keep their horses in our barn?" he asked, all out +of breath. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> know we had a big, old barn that was never used. Karsten +had to repeat what he had said; we always have to speak awfully clearly +to Father; he won't stand any slovenly talk.</p> + +<p>Father and Mother looked at each other across the table.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't see any objection," said Father.</p> + +<p>"But is it worth while to have all that hub-bub in our barn?" said +Mother. I was burning with eagerness as I listened.</p> + +<p>"It is probably not very easy for them to find a place for all their +horses here in town," said Father, "and I shall make the condition that +they behave themselves there."</p> + +<p>"Well, as you like," said Mother.</p> + +<p>Outside in the hall stood the same man I had seen in the morning, and +another fellow of just the same sort, but smaller and rougher-looking. +Father went out and talked with them; the one in the green cap mixed in +a lot of German. "<i>Danke schön—danke schön</i>," they said as they went +away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hurrah!—the circus-riders were to keep their horses in our barn, right +here on our place—hurrah!—hurrah! what fun!</p> + +<p>The horses were to come by land from the nearest town, nobody knew just +when. I took my geography up on the barn steps that afternoon to study +my lesson. I didn't want to miss seeing them come, you may be sure.</p> + +<p>Little by little, a whole lot of children collected up there. Away out +on the Point they had heard that the circus-riders were to have our +barn. Some of the boys began to try to run things, and to push us girls +away, but they learned better soon enough.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," I gave one a thump—"be off with you; get away, and be quick +about it, or you'll catch it."</p> + +<p>Most of the boys in the town are afraid of me, I can tell you, because I +have strong hands and a quick tongue, and behind me, like an invisible +support, is always Father, and all the police, who are under him—so +it's not often any one makes a fuss. Besides, I should like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> to know +when you should have the say about things if not on your own barn steps.</p> + +<p>More and more children gathered; they swarmed up the hill. I stood on +the barn steps with a long whip. If any one came too near—swish!</p> + +<p>At last—here came the horses! First a big white horse that a groom was +leading by the bridle, then two small shaggy ponies, then a big red +horse that carried his head high, and then the whole troop following. +Some were loose and jumped in among us children; the grooms scolded and +shouted both in German and in Polish; a few small, rough-coated dogs +rushed around catching hold of the skirts of some of the girls, who ran +and screamed.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a little swarthy groom got furious at all of us children who +were standing around and drove us down the hill. It made me angry to +have him chase me away too, especially because all the others saw it. At +first I thought of making a speech to him in German and telling him who +I was and that the barn was mine; but I didn't know at all what barn was +in German, so I had to give it up.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;"> +<img src="images/image282.jpg" width="466" height="650" alt="I stood on the barn steps with a long whip.—Page +260." title="" /> +<span class="caption">I stood on the barn steps with a long whip.—<i>Page 260.</i></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the moonlight that evening the fat lady in the red dress, and two +little girls came to see to the horses. Afterwards they sat for a long +time out on the barn steps watching the moon. The two little girls had +long light hair down their backs and short dresses above their knees.</p> + +<p>I leaned against the dining-room window with my nose pressed flat, and +stared at them. Oh, what a delightful time those little girls had! +Think! to travel that way—just travel—travel—travel, to ride on those +lovely horses, and wear such short fancy skirts, and have your hair +flowing loose over your back.</p> + +<p>I never was allowed to go with my hair loose,—and I suppose I shall +have to stay in this poky town all my days; and never in the world shall +I get a chance to ride on a horse, I thought.</p> + +<p>At night I lay awake and heard the horses stamping and thumping up in +the barn. After<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> all, even this was good fun, almost like being in the +midst of a fairy tale.</p> + +<p>The next day I was again late to school. There was not a single one of +the swarthy fellows to be seen around the barn, so I climbed up on the +wall and stuck grass through a broken window-pane to the big white +horse. I patted him on his smooth pinky nose: "Oh, you sweet, lovely +horse!"—I must go down for more grass, the very best grass to be found +he should have.</p> + +<p>"Inger Johanne, will you be so good as to go to school? It's very +late"—it was Father calling from the office window; so there was an end +to that pleasure.</p> + +<p>Down by the steamboat-landing, in the big open square, the circus tent +had been set up. Karsten and I were down there two hours before the +performance was to begin. I was the first of all the spectators to go +inside. It was a tremendously big, high tent, three rows of seats around +it, and a staging of rough boards for the orchestra. Anything so +magnificent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> you never saw. At last the performance began.</p> + +<p>But to describe what goes on at a circus, that I won't do. About +ordinary things, such as are happening every day at home, I can write +very well, as you know, but anything so magnificent as that circus I +can't describe.</p> + +<p>I was nearly out of my wits, people said afterwards. I stood up on the +seat—those behind me were angry, but that didn't bother me at +all—clapped my hands and shouted "Bravo!" and "Hurrah!" Towards the +last the riders, when they came in, gave me a special salute in that +elegant way, you know, holding up their whips before one eye. I liked +that awfully well. I was fairly beside myself with joy.</p> + +<p>Well, now I knew what I wanted to be: I wanted to be a circus-rider! For +that was the grandest and jolliest thing in the whole world. Did you +ever feel about yourself that you were going to be something great, +something more than every one else, as if you stood on a high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> mountain +with all the other people far below you? Well, I had felt like that, and +now I knew what it was that I should be.</p> + +<p>I lay awake far into the night and thought and thought. Yes, it was +plain, I should have to run away with the circus-riders. I could not +have a better opportunity. Certainly Father and Mother would never let +me go. It would be horrid to run away, but that was nothing; a +circus-rider I must be, I saw that plainly. The worst was, all the oil I +had heard that circus-riders must drink to keep themselves limber and +light. Ugh! no, I would not drink oil; I would be light all the same, +and awfully quick about hopping and dancing on the horses.</p> + +<p>And after many years I would come back to the town. No one would know me +at first, and every one would be so terribly surprised to learn that the +graceful rider in blue velvet was the judge's Inger Johanne.</p> + +<p>I forgot to say that we were to have two free tickets every evening +because Father was town<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> judge. The first evening Karsten and I went, +but the second evening Mother said that the maids should go.</p> + +<p>"You were there last night," said Mother. "We can't spend money on such +foolishness; to-morrow evening you may go again."</p> + +<p>Oh, how broken-hearted I was because I couldn't go to the circus that +evening! and Mother called it foolishness! If she only knew I was going +to be a circus-rider! I wouldn't dare tell her for all the world.</p> + +<p>In the evening, when it was time for the performance to begin, I went +down to the steamboat-landing just the same. The fat lady with the +shining black eyes sat there selling tickets; the people crowded about +the entrance, some had already begun to stream in; the big flag which +served as a door was constantly being drawn aside to let people in, and +at every chance I peeked behind the flag. To think that I wasn't going +to get in to-night! Suppose I ran home and asked Father very nicely for +a ticket; perhaps there was still time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Won't you have a ticket?" asked the black-eyed lady. She said she +remembered me from the evening before when I had been so delighted.</p> + +<p>"No, I have no money," said I, and my whole face grew red. It really was +embarrassing, but since she asked me I had to tell the truth.</p> + +<p>"If you will stand there by the door and take the tickets, you may come +in and look on," she said.</p> + +<p>Wouldn't I! Just the thing for me! Not even a cat should slip in without +a ticket. I was very strict at the door and pushed away the sailors who +wanted to force themselves in. I was terribly clever, the lady said.</p> + +<p>And so I went in again, and enjoyed it just as much as I had the evening +before. I was tremendously proud of having earned my ticket, for in that +way it was as if I were taken at once right into the circus troupe. +Every single night they performed I would take the tickets—yet no one +in the whole town would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> know that Inger Johanne meant to go away with +the circus. I would wait till the very last day it was in town before I +asked the fat dark lady, who was the director's wife, if I might go. Of +course I knew her now.</p> + +<p>And I must say good-bye to Father and Mother and my brothers and sister, +or I couldn't bear it. I wouldn't stay away forever, no, far from it, +only a little while, until I was a perfectly splendid performer.</p> + +<p>All at once it occurred to me that I ought to practise a little on +horseback before I offered myself to the circus troupe. I ought at least +to know what it was like to sit on a horse.</p> + +<p>There certainly couldn't be any better opportunity than there was now, +when our whole barn was full of horses. But I must take Karsten into my +confidence; he would have to help me to climb through a hole in the back +of the barn, for the grooms always fastened the barn door when they went +away. At noon there was never any one up there, so I planned to crawl in +then and practice getting on and off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> of a horse. Yes, I would stand up +on him too,—on one leg—stretch out my arms, and throw kisses as they +do at the circus.</p> + +<p>"Karsten," said I the next day, "what should you say if I became a +circus-rider?"</p> + +<p>"You—when you're knock-kneed!—you would look nice, Inger Johanne, you +would."</p> + +<p>"You look after your own knees, Karsten, I'm going to be a circus-rider, +all the same, I really am."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what bosh!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll see; when the circus-riders go I'm going with them. You +mustn't tell a soul, Karsten, but a circus-rider is what I'm going to +be."</p> + +<p>Karsten looked at me rather doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"But you must help me to get into the barn through that hole at the +back, for I shall have to practice, you understand."</p> + +<p>"Well, will you give me that red-and-blue pencil of yours then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, only come along."</p> + +<p>We stole behind the barn. Karsten kept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> hold of me while I climbed +up—there, now I was in the barn. How it looked! When twelve horses must +stand in five stalls, there isn't much room left, you know, and they had +been put every which way,—one pony stood in the calf-pen.</p> + +<p>All the horses except two were lying down resting. The white horse over +by the window was standing up; he turned around and looked at me with +big sorrowful eyes. It had really been my plan to get on him, for he was +the handsomest of them all, but I didn't dare to venture among the big +shining bodies of the horses lying all over the floor. No, I should have +to be satisfied with the little black one that stood in the calf-pen. +Karsten had thrust the upper part of his body in through the hole. I +went up to the black horse.</p> + +<p>"He is angry; he is putting his ears back; look out, Inger Johanne!" +called Karsten.</p> + +<p>"Pooh—do you think I mind that?" I climbed up on the calf-pen. For a +moment I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> wondered whether I should try to stand on the horse at once. I +put out my foot and touched him—no, he was so smooth and slippery, it +would certainly be best to sit the first time I got on a horse. I gave a +little jump, and there I sat.</p> + +<p>O dear! What in the world was happening? I didn't know, but I thought +the horse had gone crazy. First he stood on his fore legs with his hind +legs in the air, and then on his hind legs, and threw me off as if I +were nothing at all. I fell across the edge of the calf-pen—oh, what a +whack my arm got! I literally couldn't move it for a whole minute; and +there was a grand rumpus in the barn; some of the horses got up and +whinnied, and the black one that I had sat on kicked and kicked with his +hind legs every instant.</p> + +<p>I could just see the top of Karsten's head at the hole now.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Karsten—Karsten."</p> + +<p>"Are you dead, Inger Johanne?"</p> + +<p>I don't really know how I got out through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> the hole with my injured arm. +But outside of the barn I sat down right among all the nettles and +cried.</p> + +<p>When I went into the house there was a great commotion. Everybody was +scared and the doctor was sent for. My sleeve was cut up to the +shoulder, and the doctor said I had broken a small bone in my wrist, and +besides had sprained and bruised my arm about as much as I could.</p> + +<p>"You do everything so thoroughly, Inger Johanne," said the doctor.</p> + +<p>When I was in bed with my arm in splints and bandages, I began to cry +violently. Not so much because of my arm—though I cried a little about +that, too—but most that I should have thought I could run away from +Father and Mother, who were so good. I told Mother the whole thing.</p> + +<p>"But now I'll never—never—never think of running away again, Mother."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The day the circus-riders left with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> horses, I stood at the window +with my arm in a sling and watched them.</p> + +<p>But only think! Karsten wouldn't give up, and I had to hand over my +red-and-blue pencil to him even though I didn't run away with the +circus-riders!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>MOVING</h3> + + +<p>Twice, that I can remember, Father had tried to get a position off in +the country, and each time I had been so sure we were going to move that +I had imagined exactly how everything would be in our new home. A big +old farmhouse, yes, for I like old, old houses; an immense garden, with +empress pears and every possible kind of berry; big red barns and +out-houses; big pastures all around; cows and calves, and horses to go +driving with wherever I wished. I should like best a red horse with a +white mane, a horse that looked wild; and a little light basket-phaeton. +And I would drive, and crack my whip—oh, how I would snap it! And there +would be a lot of hens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> that I would take care of myself, for I am +dreadfully interested in hens.</p> + +<p>Once, I told all around town that we were to move to Telemarken. I +really believed it myself. Everybody in town heard of it and at last it +got into the paper, and, O dear! it wasn't true at all, and it was I who +had told it. That time Father was furious with me.</p> + +<p>After that I never heard a word about Father's looking for a position; I +suppose they were afraid I should tell of it again. And so it was like +lightning from a clear sky and I was completely astounded when Mother +told me one morning at breakfast that Father had got a position in +Christiania, and that we were to move away.</p> + +<p>"Well, may I tell about it now?" I asked. "Yes, now you may say all you +like," said Mother.</p> + +<p>I couldn't get another mouthful down after hearing the news, but hurried +off to school. Not a soul had come when I got there, so I had to wait, +alone with my great news, for five long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> minutes. The first to come was +Antoinette Wium; she had hardly opened the door when I called out:</p> + +<p>"I am going to move away from town."</p> + +<p>Then I planted myself firmly at the door, and told every single one that +came in. Before the first recess was over, the whole school and all the +teachers knew that we were to move to Christiania.</p> + +<p>I was so glad, I didn't know what to do. The first few days I just went +around telling it down on the wharves and everywhere.</p> + +<p>All at once everything seemed so tedious in town. I didn't care any +longer about what my friends were talking of; all I wanted was to talk +about Christiania. When I was alone I sang to myself: "We shall travel, +travel, travel," mostly to the tune of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Ja, vi elsker dette landet,</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>for that has such a swing to it.</p> + +<p>I must say that now, for the first time, I understood how Lawyer Cold +felt. He is a fat young man from Christiania who has settled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> in our +town, but is in despair because he has to live here. He comes up to +Father's office and sits and talks by the hour, complaining, until he +puts Father in a bad humor, too. It is Karl Johan Street that he misses +so frightfully, he says. And to think that now I was going to Karl Johan +Street and should see all the cadets and all the fun! I could understand +Lawyer Cold's feelings perfectly now. Oh, oh, how delightful it will be!</p> + +<p>I began at once to go around to say good-bye, although we were not to +leave for three or four months. I went to all the cottages and huts +round about. One day I went by Ellef Kulaas' house up on the hill. He +was standing outside of his door. He is tall, and his whole body seems +to be warped, and he never looks at people, but off anywhere else.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Ellef, I am going away," said I.</p> + +<p>Ellef didn't answer; he only turned his quid in his mouth.</p> + +<p>"We are going to Christiania," I went on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, I was there once," said Ellef. "It's a dangerous Sodom."</p> + +<p>"But aren't there plenty of splendid things to see, Ellef?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—I wanted most to see that big mountain Gausta. They told me +I'd have to take a horse and wagon to get there; but I went to see the +old dean that used to be here,—he lived high up—and when I looked out +of his skylight I saw everything, Gausta and the churches and the whole +kit and boodle. I saved a lot of money that way. I went up there twice +and looked through the skylight, and so I saw the whole show,—for +nothing too. I suppose hardly anybody sees it any better."</p> + +<p>Humph! As if I'd be satisfied like Ellef Kulaas with seeing things +through the dean's skylight!</p> + +<p>There were many places where I said good-bye several times. At last they +laughed at me, and I had to laugh too. One day I went by Madam Guldahl's +house. Madam Guldahl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> always stands at her garden gate and talks with +people who are passing.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Madam Guldahl, we are going to Christiania," said I.</p> + +<p>"You may if you want to. I am thankful to live here rather than there."</p> + +<p>"Why is that?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I was there six weeks on account of my bad leg—such hurrying and +running in the streets you never saw. I didn't know a soul in the +streets; what pleasure could there be in that, I'd like to know! One day +I saw Ellef Kulaas on the street there, and I was so glad I wanted to +throw my arms around his neck. People went by each other without once +looking at each other—not at all as though it was immortal souls they +were passing."</p> + +<p>I wondered a little whether I should want to throw my arms round Ellef +Kulaas' neck if I met him on Karl Johan Street; but I hardly thought I +should.</p> + +<p>There were three farewell parties for me in the town, with tables loaded +with good things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> at all the places, and at table they always "toasted" +me, singing:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Og dette skal vaere Inger Johanne's skaal!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Hurrah!</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I sang with them myself, and it was quite ceremonious. It's awfully good +fun to be made so much of. The girls all wanted to walk arm in arm with +me and be awfully good friends, and I promised to write to them all.</p> + +<p>At home all the floors were covered with straw and big packing-cases; +chairs and sofas were wrapped in matting; a policeman went around +sorting and packing for several days, and Mother wore her morning dress +all day long. It was all horribly uncomfortable and awfully pleasant at +the same time.</p> + +<p>I packed a box of crockery, and it was really very well done, but the +policeman packed it all over again. After that I wasn't allowed to do +anything except run errands.</p> + +<p>At school I gave away my scholar's-companion and my eraser and my +pencils and pen-holders, and an old torn map, as keepsakes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> + +<p>On Saturday, after prayers, the Principal said:</p> + +<p>"There is a little girl here who is soon to leave us. It is Inger +Johanne, as we all know. We shall miss you, Inger Johanne. You are a +good girl in spite of all your pranks. May everything go well with you. +God bless you."</p> + +<p>This was terribly unexpected. Oh, what a beautiful speech—I began to +cry—oh, how I cried! The very moment the Principal said: "There is a +little girl here who is soon to leave us," everything seemed perfectly +horrid all at once.</p> + +<p>Just think, to leave the school and my friends, and the town, and +everything, and never, never come back!</p> + +<p>I laid my head down on the desk and cried, and cried, and couldn't stop. +I had thought only of all the new things I was going to, and not that I +should never in the world live here again,—here where I had been so +happy.</p> + +<p>O dear! if we were only not going, if we were just to stay here all our +lives. At last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> the Principal came down and patted me on the head, and +then I cried all the more.</p> + +<p>When I got home they could hardly see my eyes, I had cried so.</p> + +<p>"Now you see, Inger Johanne, it's not all pleasure, either," said +Mother.</p> + +<p>The last day, I ran up on the hill, and said good-bye to all the places +where we used to play, to Rome and Japan, to Kongsberg and the North +Cape,—for we had given names to some of them.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye!" I shouted across the rocks and the heather and the juniper, +"Good-bye!" I ran and ran, for I wanted to see all the places where we +had played, before I went away forever. At home, on the outside wall of +our old house, I wrote in pencil, "Good-bye, my beloved home!"</p> + +<p>But I didn't cry, except that time at school.</p> + +<p>At the steamboat-wharf, when we were leaving, it was only fun. The wharf +was packed full of people, and they all wanted to talk to us and shake +hands, and they gave Mother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> bouquets and gave me bouquets; and there +was such a crowd and bustle and talk and noise before all our things +were finally on board! Only one thing was horrid, and that was that +Ingeborg the maid cried so sorrowfully. She was not going with us; she +stood on the wharf by herself and cried and cried.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, Ingeborg; you must come and visit us—yes, you must, you +must; don't cry!"</p> + +<p>"I can't do anything else," said Ingeborg, sobbing aloud.</p> + +<p>Now I had to go on board and the steamboat started.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, good-bye"—I ran to the very stern right by the flag, and +waved and waved. I could see Massa and Mina on the wharf all the way to +where we swung around the islands.</p> + +<p>I stood staring back at the town.</p> + +<p>Now Peckell's big yellow house vanished, and now the custom-house; now I +could see nothing but the little red house high up on the hill; and at +last that vanished too.</p> + +<p>But I still stood there, looking back and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> looking back at the gray +hills. Among them I had lived my whole life long!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Other hills and islands came into view, and the sea splashed up over +them, but not one of them did I know.</p> + +<p>How strange that was!</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I suddenly felt awfully glad, and I began to sing at the +top of my voice to the old tune (no one heard me, the sea roared so +mightily):</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh! I love to travel, travel!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>THE END</h4> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h2>TOP-OF-THE-WORLD STORIES</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Translated from the Scandinavian Languages<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By EMILIE POULSSON and LAURA POULSSON<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Illustrated in two colors by Florence Liley Young<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 153px;"> +<img src="images/image308.jpg" width="153" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>These stories of magic and adventure come from the countries at the "top +of the world," and will transport thither in fancy the children who read +this unusual book. They tell of Lapps and reindeer (even a golden-horned +reindeer!), of prince and herd-boy, of knights and wolves and trolls, of +a boy who could be hungry and merry at the same time—of all these and +more besides! Miss Poulsson's numerous and long visits to Norway, her +father's land, and the fact that she is an experienced writer for +children are doubtless the reasons why her translations are sympathetic +and skilful, and yet entirely adapted to give wholesome pleasure to the +young public that she knows so well.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"In these stories are the elements of wonder and magic and +adventure that furnish the thrill so much appreciated by +boys and girls ten or twelve years of age. An aristocratic +book—one that every young person will be perpetually proud +of."—<i>Lookout, Cincinnati, O.</i></p> + +<p>"In this book the children are transported to the land they +love best, the land of magic, of the fairies and all kinds +of wonderful happenings. It is one of the best fairy story +books ever published."—<i>Argus-Leader, Sioux Falls, S. D.</i></p></div> + + +<h3>YULE-TIDE IN MANY LANDS</h3> + +<h4>By MARY P. PRINGLE and CLARA A. URANN</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fully illustrated and decorated<br /></span> +<span class="i0">12mo Cloth Price, $1.50<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 146px;"> +<img src="images/image309.jpg" width="146" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>The varying forms of Christmas observance at different times and in +different lands are entertainingly shown by one trained in choosing and +presenting the best to younger readers. The symbolism, good cheer, and +sentiment of the grandest of holidays are shown as they appeal in +similar fashion to those whose lives seem so widely diverse. The first +chapter tells of the Yule-Tide of the Ancients, and the eight succeeding +chapters deal respectively with the observance of Christmas and New +Year's, making up the time of "Yule," or the turning of the sun, in +England, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, and +America. The space devoted to each country has at least one good +illustration.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The descriptions as presented in this well-prepared volume +make interesting reading for all who love to come in loving +contact with others in their high and pure +enjoyments."—<i>Herald-Presbyter, Cincinnati.</i></p> + +<p>"The way Yule-Tide was and is celebrated is told in a simple +and instructive way, and the narrative is enriched by +appropriate poems and excellent illustrations."—<i>Cleveland +Plain Dealer.</i></p> + +<p>"It is written for young people and is bound to interest +them for the subject is a universal one."—<i>American Church +Sunday School Magazine.</i></p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h3>Famous Children</h3> + +<h4>By <span class="smcap">H. Twitchell</span> Illustrated</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 133px;"> +<img src="images/image310a.jpg" width="133" height="175" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>We have here a most valuable book, telling not of the childhood of those +who have afterwards become famous, but those who as children are famous +in history, song, and story. For convenience the subjects are grouped as +"Royal Children," "Child Artists," "Learned Children," "Devoted +Children," "Child Martyrs," and "Heroic Children," and the names of the +"two little princes," Louis XVII., Mozart, St. Genevieve, David, and +Joan of Arc are here, as well as those of many more.</p> + + +<h3>The Story of the Cid For Young People</h3> + +<h4>By <span class="smcap">Calvin Dill Wilson</span> Illustrated by <span class="smcap">J. W. Kennedy</span></h4> + +<p>Mr. Wilson, a well-known writer and reviewer, has prepared from +Southey's translation, which was far too cumbrous to entertain the +young, a book that will kindle the imagination of youth and entertain +and inform those of advanced years.</p> + + +<h3>Jason's Quest</h3> + +<h4>By <span class="smcap">D. O. S. Lowell</span>, A. M., M. D. Illustrated</h4> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 129px;"> +<img src="images/image310b.jpg" width="129" height="175" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Nothing can be better to arouse the imagination of boys and girls, and +at the same time store in their minds knowledge indispensable to any one +who would be known as cultured, or happier than Professor Lowell's way +of telling a story, and the many excellent drawings have lent great +spirit to the narrative.</p> + + +<h3>Heroes of the Crusades</h3> + +<h4>By <span class="smcap">Amanda M. Douglas</span> Cloth Fifty illustrations</h4> + +<p>The romantic interest in the days of chivalry, so fully exemplified by +the "Heroes of the Crusades," is permanent and properly so. This book is +fitted to keep it alive without descending to improbability or cheap +sensationalism.</p> + + +<p>For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers.</p> + +<p>LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>CHRISTMAS IN LEGEND AND STORY</h3> + +<h4>A Book for Boys and Girls</h4> + +<p class="center">Compiled by ELVA S. SMITH<br /> + +Cataloguer of Children's Books, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh,<br /> + +and ALICE I. HAZELTINE<br /> + +Supervisor of Children's Work, St. Louis Public Library<br /> + +Illustrated from Famous Paintings</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 144px;"> +<img src="images/image311.jpg" width="144" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>In their experience in providing reading for children, these trained and +efficient librarians saw the need of a book that should group the <i>best</i> +of real literature regarding Christmas. With wide research and great +pains they have gathered the noblest, grandest, sweetest, and most +reverent of all that eminent writers in varying lands and in different +times have told us in prose and verse of the origin and sentiment of +this "gracious time." The style and decoration of the book are in +keeping with its contents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Clad in green, red and gold, the Christmas colors, comes +this collection of all the sweetest and noblest stories and +legends that have gathered round the birthday of the Son of +Man. This is an interesting volume, full of the spirit of +Christmas."—<i>The Churchman.</i></p> + +<p>"It is a superb book, beautifully printed, illustrated from +famous paintings and splendidly bound. It is as well adapted +to the adult as to the children, and will be read with +interest, enjoyment and delight by many an older one."—<i>The +Brooklyn Citizen.</i></p> + +<p>"The literary standard of all these tales is exceptionally +high, and the two editors of the volume are to be +congratulated on their choice of selections for it."—<i>The +Christian Register.</i></p> + +<p>"It is redolent of Christmas cheer and reverence. The +Yuletide spirit breathes from every page. The illustrations, +taken for the most part from old paintings, are an +invaluable embellishment of the attractive text."—<i>Columbus +Dispatch.</i></p> + +<p>"Perhaps the best and most comprehensive collection of good +literature published regarding the birth of Christ and the +celebration of His birthday is this well illustrated, +clearly-written and plainly-printed book by two experts in +children's reading. It will help to keep the spirit of +Christmas alive throughout the year."—<i>The Continent.</i></p></div> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers</p> + +<p>Lothrop, Lee & Sherpard Co. Boston</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h4>New Editions of Two Favorite Books</h4> + + +<h3>THE LANCE OF KANANA</h3> + +<h3>A STORY OF ARABIA</h3> + +<h3>By HARRY W. FRENCH ("Abd el Ardavan")</h3> + +<h4>Two-color illustrations by Garrett Net, $1.25</h4> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 139px;"> +<img src="images/image312a.jpg" width="139" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Kanana, a Bedouin youth, though excelling in athletic prowess, is +branded, even by his father, as a coward because he prefers the humble +lot of a shepherd to the warrior's career that he, the son of a sheik +known as the "Terror of the Desert," was expected to follow. "Only for +Allah and Arabia will I lift a lance and take a life," he maintained. +Opportunity to prove his worth soon comes, and the supposed coward, +understood too late, becomes in memory a national hero.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The stirring story of the loyalty and self-sacrifice of a +Bedouin boy is well worth the attractive new edition in +which it now presents its rare picture of fervid +patriotism."—<i>Continent, Chicago.</i></p></div> + + +<h3>THE ADVENTURES OF MILTIADES PETERKIN PAUL</h3> + +<h3>By JOHN BROWNJOHN</h3> + +<h4>Frontispiece by John Goss Illustrated by "Boz"</h4> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 149px;"> +<img src="images/image312b.jpg" width="149" height="175" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Here is a child classic reissued in a finer and handsomer form, in +response to the persistent demand of those who know the mirth-provoking +quality of the exploits of the ingenious small boy named Miltiades +Peterkin Paul and spoken of as "a great traveler, although he was +small." Whoever has once enjoyed the story of the restless little lad +who imitated Don Quixote, and did many other things, is permanently +charmed by it.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"This youthful Don Quixote, with his travels and exploits, +drives 'dull care' away from the elders and delights the +juniors."—<i>Watchman, N.Y.</i></p></div> + + +<p>For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers.</p> + +<p>Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Boston</p> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>The Young Folks' Book of Ideals</h3> + +<h3>By DR. WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH</h3> + +<h4>Fully illustrated 8vo Cloth 500 pages</h4> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 144px;"> +<img src="images/image313.jpg" width="144" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>This is intended to be the fundamental book in the library of boys and +girls between twelve and eighteen, and it deserves its place in +interest, fullness, and worth. The great educator, G. Stanley Hall, has +demanded "a secular Bible," and it is not too much to say that this +meets the demand. One may go farther, and say that no other modern +writer has so wisely, so safely, and at the same time so entertainingly +provided what young people long to be told if only it be done capably +and pleasingly. Dr. Forbush is a sincere man, and in both writing and +speaking combines keen wit and great learning with a rich store of +personal experience in a way that entitles him to rank as the leading +authority on making the best of youthful life. The book is produced in a +style worthy of its really great contents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A book of general culture for young people which deserves a +fundamental place in the library of boys and girls between +twelve and eighteen, because of its interest, fullness and +worth. The invaluable knowledge for young people imparted, +is presented in a style so pleasing and entertaining that +young readers will find it not only convincing, but +intensely interesting. It is an ideal book to place in the +hands of young people."—<i>Zion's Herald.</i></p> + +<p>"It is a book of unusual inspiration. It will help teachers +and parents and will prove a stable balance for the young +mind in forming its habits of thought and living."—<i>Buffalo +News.</i></p> + +<p>"There is a combination of keen wit and great learning with +a rich store of personal experience that entitles the author +to rank among the leading writers of youthful +life."—<i>Atlanta Constitution.</i></p></div> + + +<p>For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers</p> + +<p>Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Boston</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of What Happened to Inger Johanne, by +Dikken Zwilgmeyer + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE *** + +***** This file should be named 32502-h.htm or 32502-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/5/0/32502/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: What Happened to Inger Johanne + As Told by Herself + +Author: Dikken Zwilgmeyer + +Illustrator: Florence Liley Young + +Translator: Emilie Poulsson + +Release Date: May 23, 2010 [EBook #32502] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +WHAT HAPPENED + +TO + +INGER JOHANNE + +[Illustration: Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into the +boat.--_Page 22._] + +WHAT HAPPENED + +TO + +INGER JOHANNE + +AS TOLD BY HERSELF + +Translated from the Norwegian of + +DIKKEN ZWILGMEYER + +_by_ EMILIE POULSSON + +[Illustration] + +ILLUSTRATED _by_ + +FLORENCE LILEY YOUNG + +BOSTON + +LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + + +Published, October, 1919 + +COPYRIGHT, 1919, +BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. + +_All Rights Reserved_ + +What Happened to Inger Johanne + +_Norwood Press_ + +BERWICK & SMITH CO. + +NORWOOD, MASS. +U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + +I, INGER JOHANNE 11 + +I. OURSELVES, OUR TOWN, AND OTHER THINGS 13 + +II. AN INTERRUPTED CELEBRATION 31 + +III. MY FIRST JOURNEY ALONE 41 + +IV. WHAT HAPPENED ONE ST. JOHN'S DAY 59 + +V. LEFT BEHIND 70 + +VI. IN THE MEAL CHEST 86 + +VII. PETS: PARTICULARLY CAROLA-CAROLUS 93 + +VIII. CHRISTMAS MUMMING 113 + +IX. MOTHER BRITA'S GRANDCHILD 123 + +X. THE MASON'S LITTLE PIGS 143 + +XI. LOCKED IN 156 + +XII. AT GOODFIELDS 170 + +XIII. OLEANA'S CLOCK 179 + +XIV. A TRIP TO GOODFIELDS SAETER 186 + +XV. LOST IN THE FOREST 204 + +XVI. TRAVELING WITH A BILLY-GOAT 223 + +XVII. IN SCHOOL 239 + +XVIII. WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME 253 + +XIX. MOVING 273 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Mina and I hauled her up by the arms into +the boat (page 22) _Frontispiece_ + +FACING PAGE + +The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him away 40 + +They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they could 68 + +She told me the whole story of her life 80 + +And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below! 110 + +The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big heavy snowslide right +down on the little shoemaker 124 + +She began to shriek and point and throw up her arms 152 + +And smashed a window-pane with it 166 + +"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock" 184 + +How we wandered,--round and round, up and + down, hither and thither! 208 + +The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's mouth 236 + +I stood on the barn steps with a long whip 260 + + + + +WHAT HAPPENED TO INGER JOHANNE + + + + +I, INGER JOHANNE + + +I have always heard grown people say that when you meet strangers and +there is no one else to introduce you, it is highly proper and polite to +introduce yourself. Uncle Karl says that polite people always get on in +the world; and as I want dreadfully to do that, I will be polite and +tell you who I am. + +Everybody in our town knows me; and they call me "the Judge's Inger +Johanne," because my father is the town judge, you see; and I am +thirteen years old. So now you know me. + +And just think! I am going to write a book! If you ask, "What about?" I +shall have to say, "Nothing in particular," for I haven't a speck more +to tell of than other girls thirteen years old have, except that queer +things are always happening to me, somehow. + +Probably it isn't easy to write a book when you have never done it +before, especially when thoughts come galloping through your head as +fast as they do through mine. Why, I think of a hundred things, while +Peter, the dean's son, is thinking of one and a half! But, easy or not, +since I, Inger Johanne, have set my heart on writing a book, write it I +will, you may be sure; and now I begin in earnest. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +OURSELVES, OUR TOWN, AND OTHER THINGS + + +OURSELVES + +There are four brothers and sisters of us at home, and as I am the +eldest, it is natural that I should describe myself first. I am very +tall and slim (Mother calls it "long and lanky"); and, sad to say, I +have very large hands and very large feet. "My, what big feet!" our +horrid old shoemaker always says when he measures me for a pair of new +shoes. I feel like punching his tousled head for him as he kneels there +taking my measure; for he has said that so often now that I am sick and +tired of it. + +My hair is in two long brown braids down my back. That is well enough, +but my nose is too broad, I think; so sometimes when I sit and study I +put a doll's clothespin on it to make it smaller; but when I take the +clothespin off, my nose springs right out again; so there is no help for +it, probably. + +Why people say such a thing is a puzzle; but they all, especially the +boys, do say that I am so self-important. I say I am not--not in the +least--and I must surely know best about myself, now that I am as old as +I am. But I ask you girls whether it is pleasant to have boys pull your +braids, or call you "Ginger," or to have them stand and whistle and give +cat-calls down by the garden wall, when they want you to come out. I +have said that they must once for all understand that my braids must be +let alone, that I will not be whistled for in that manner, and that I +will come out when I am ready and not before. And then they call me +self-important! + +After me comes Karsten. He has a large, fair face, light hair, and big +sticking-out ears. It is a shame to tease any one, but I do love to +tease Karsten, for he gets so excited that he flushes scarlet out to the +tips of his ears and looks awfully funny! Then he runs after me--which +is, of course, just what I want--and if he catches me, gives me one or +two good whacks; but usually we are the best of friends. Karsten likes +to talk about wonderfully strong men and how much they can lift on their +little finger with their arm stretched out; and he is great at +exaggeration. People say I exaggerate and add a sauce to everything, but +they ought to hear Karsten! Anyway, I don't exaggerate,--I only have a +lively imagination. + +After Karsten there is a skip of five years; then comes Olaug, who is +still so little that she goes to a "baby school" to learn her letters, +and the Catechism. I often go to fetch Olaug home, for it is awfully +funny there. When Miss Einarsen, the teacher, and her sister say +anything they do not wish the children to understand, they use P-speech: +Can-pan you-pou talk-palk it-pit? I went there often on purpose to +learn it, for it is so ignorant to know only one language. But now I +know both Norwegian and P-speech. Olaug always remembers exactly the +days when the school money is to be paid, for on those days each child +who brings the money gets a lump of brown sugar. Once a year the +minister comes to Miss Einarsen's to catechize the children; but Miss +Einarsen always stands behind the one who is being questioned and +whispers the right answer. "Oh, Teacher is telling, Teacher is telling!" +the children say to each other. "Yes, I am telling," says Miss Einarsen. +"How do you think you would get along if I didn't?" On examination days +Miss Einarsen always treats to thin chocolate in tiny cups, and the +children drink about six cups apiece! Well, that's how it is at Olaug's +school. + +After Olaug comes Karl, but he is only a little midget. He thinks he can +reach the moon if he stands on a chair by the window and stretches his +arms away up high. He is perfectly wild to get hold of the moon because +he thinks it would roll about so beautifully on the floor. + + +OUR TOWN + +We live in a little town on the sea-coast. It is much more fun to live +in a little town than a big one, for then you know every one of the boys +and girls, and there are many more good places to play in; and all the +sea besides. Oh, yes! I know very well that there are lots of small +towns that do not lie by the sea. They must be horrid! + +Think how we have the great ocean thundering in against the shore, wave +after wave. Oh, it is delightful! Any one who has not seen that has +missed a really beautiful sight. It is beautiful both in summer and +winter; but I do believe it is most beautiful and wonderful in the time +of the autumn storms. Go up on the hilltop some day in autumn, where the +big beacon is, and look out over the sea! You have to hold on to your +hat, hold on to your clothes, hold on to your body itself, almost. +Whew-ew! the wind! How it blows! How it blows! And the whole ocean +looks as if it were astir from the very bottom. Big black billows with +broad white crests of foam come rolling, rolling, rolling in--one wave +does not wait for the other. And how they break over the islands out +where the lighthouse is! The lighthouse stands like a tall white ghost +against the dark sea and the dark sky;--sinks behind an enormous wave, +rises again, sinks and rises again. How swiftly the clouds fly! How the +ocean seethes and roars! We hear it all over town, sobbing, roaring, +thundering! Away in by the wharves of the market square the waters are +all in a turmoil. The little boats rock and rock, and the big ships dip +up and down. The wet rigging sparkles, the mooring chains strain and +creak, and there is _such_ a smell of salt in the air! You can almost +taste the salt with your tongue. + +In such weather the damaged ships come in. One autumn there came a +Spanish steamship, with a green funnel and a white hull. It lay with +almost its whole stern under water when the pilot from Krabbesund +brought it in. That was jolly; not for the people on board,--it was +anything but jolly for them,--but for us children. + +When we choose, we go out into the harbor in boats and row round and +round among the strange ships. At last, very likely, the sailors call +out to us and ask us to come on board, and then it doesn't take us long +to scramble up the ladder, you may be sure! On board, it is awfully +jolly. Once a French skipper gave us some pineapple preserves; but +generally we only get crackers. When the Spanish ship was in, the +streets swarmed with foreign sailors, with long brown necks and burning +black eyes. Then the old policeman, Mr. Weiby, strutted about, and sent +Father long written reports about street rows and disturbances. The +Spaniards didn't bother themselves a mite about old Weiby, puffing +around with his chin high in the air! + +Sometimes on summer afternoons when the water lies calm and shining, we +slip off and borrow a boat (Mr. Terkelsen's, quite often) and go rowing +around the island. Then, afterwards, we float about,--dabbling and +splashing in the darkened water until evening comes on. Ah! that is +pleasure! + + +AN ADVENTURE + +One summer evening Massa Peckell, Mina Trap and I saved two people from +drowning; and we were praised for it in the newspapers. Really it is +most delightful to see your name in print! I should like ever so much to +do something else that the papers would praise me for, but I don't know +what it could be! + +This is how it happened that time. We had borrowed old Terkelsen's boat +and rowed quite a way out. From a wharf on one of the islands another +boat laden with wood came towards us. The wood was in slabs and chips +and was piled high fore and aft. Down between the piles sat two children +rowing. As they came nearer we saw that it was Lisa and George, the +lighthouse-keeper's children. Mina and I were rowing, but I was so much +stronger that I kept rowing her round and round, so that we were +laughing and having a jolly time. Probably George and Lisa were watching +us and forgetting all about their top-heavy boat; for, the next thing we +knew, both piles of wood, George and Lisa, and the boat were all upset +in the water. It was a dreadful thing to see! + +"We--we'll go ashore and get help!" shrieked Massa. Humph! A pretty time +they would have if we did that! Mina and I had more sense, so we turned +our boat quickly and were over to the spot in two or three strokes of +the oars. The boat was completely capsized and the chips floated over +the water as thick as a floor. But George and Lisa were nowhere to be +seen! + +Then you may believe that Mina and I yelled with all our might! You know +how it sounds over the water. My! how we did shriek! It must have been +heard all over town. I saw people away back on the wharves running to +the water to see what was the matter. + +Then, there bobbed Lisa's head up among the chips, and Mina and I hauled +her up by the arms into the boat. Massa had to hang away over on the +starboard so that _our_ boat shouldn't upset, too. Old Terkelsen is +always so mad when we take his boat without leave. I can't imagine, for +the life of me, why he should get so provoked over it. We always bring +it back just as good as ever! Massa and Mina and I have no desire, +forsooth, to set out to sea through the Skagerak and sail away with it! +But on that day it was fortunate that we had taken his boat, and not +some miserable little thing belonging to anybody else. + +As soon as Lisa got her breath, she cried out: "Oh! the chips! the +chips!" But just then George's head appeared, and Mina and I made a grab +for him; but he was so stupidly heavy that we couldn't pull him in; so +we only held him fast and screamed and screamed. Out from the wharves +and from the islands came ever so many boats and lots of people. Those +minutes that we hung over the edge of that boat and held on with all +our might to the half-drowned George, who was as heavy as lead--shall I +ever forget? George was drawn up into another boat and they took us in +tow. Lisa sat like a drowned rat and cried till she choked. Then Massa +began to cry, too;--and so we came to the wharf. + +For several days after the rescue I couldn't go into the street without +people's stopping me and wanting a full account of how it all happened. +Really, it is quite troublesome to be famous; but I like it pretty well, +nevertheless. + +When Mina and I met that stout, lighthouse-Lisa on the street next time, +we couldn't imagine how we had ever been able to drag her into the boat! +But you mustn't expect _gratitude_ in this world. Many a time since then +has Lisa come tiptoeing along after us on the street, tossing her head +this way and that, mimicking us, to show how self-important we are! And +_that_ after we saved the stupid creature from drowning! + + +OUR HOME + +We live up on a hill in a lovely old house. People call it an old +rattletrap of a house, but that is nothing but envy because they don't +live there themselves. There are big old elm-trees around the house +which shade it and make the back part of the deep rooms quite dark. The +rafters show overhead, and the floors rock up and down when you walk +hard on them, just because they are so old. There is one place in the +parlor floor where it rocks especially. When no one is in there except +Karsten and myself, we often tramp with all our might where the floor +rocks most, for we want dreadfully to see whether we can't break through +into the cellar. + +There are several gardens belonging to our house. One big garden has +only plum-trees with slender trunks and a little cluster of branches and +leaves high, high up. When I walk down there under the plum-trees, I +often imagine that I am down in the tropics, wandering under palm-trees. +I have a garden of my own, too. I wouldn't have mentioned it +particularly if there weren't one remarkable fact about it. Really and +truly, nothing will grow in it but that dark blue toad-flax--you know +what that is. Every single spring I buy seeds with my pocket money, and +plant and water and take care of them, but when summer comes there is +nothing in the garden but great big toad-flax stalks all gone to seed. +It is awfully tiresome, especially when they have such a horrid name. + + +PLAYMATES + +Now I think it is time to describe all of us boys and girls who play +together, and whom I am going to tell about in my book. + +There is Peter, the dean's son, with his sleepy brown eyes and freckles +as big as barleycorns. Peter is a cowardly chap. He never has any +opinion of his own. And if he had one he would never dare to stand by it +if you contradicted him. He's terribly afraid of the cold, too, and goes +about with a scarf wound around his neck, and mittens if a single +snowflake falls. Still, Peter is very nice indeed; he does everything +that I want him to. + +Then there is my brother Karsten, but I've told you about him. He is a +little younger than the rest of us. + +Another boy is Ezekiel Weiby. He is fourteen years old and has an +awfully narrow face--not much broader than a ruler. He is very clever +and reads every sort of book. But when he is out with the rest of us, he +wants us all to sit still and hear him tell about everything he has been +reading. For a while that is very pleasant, but I get tired of it pretty +soon, for I hate to sit still long at a time. That is a very funny +thing. Other people get tired of walking or running about, but I can't +stand it to sit still. + +Nils Trap is the bravest of all the boys. He never wears an overcoat, +but goes around with his hands in his pockets whistling a funny tune: + + "Ho, hei for Laaringa!" + +which you probably don't know. Nils Trap clambers like a cat up in the +rigging of the vessels. Some people say that they have seen him lie out +straight on the ball at the top of the big mast of the _Palmerston_ and +spin himself round. But others say that is a whopper, for the +_Palmerston_ is the biggest ship in town with the very highest masts. +Perhaps he could lie and balance himself on top of it, but spin himself +round! That he couldn't do if he tried till he was blue in the face. + +Then there are Massa, and Mina, and I. Mina is Nils's sister and my best +friend. She has a gold filling in one of her front teeth. Oh, if I could +only have such a shining little spot as that in my teeth! Mine are only +plain straight white ones and they look really dull beside hers. + +Massa Peckell is plump and easy-going. She thinks the most beautiful +thing is to be pale and thin. She heard that it would give you a +delicate pale skin if you drank vinegar and ate rice soup, so she tried +it as hard as she could. But her beauty-cure only gave her the +stomach-ache. Her fat, red cheeks are just like Baldwin apples still. + +Every day, summer and winter, we are together, all of us that I have +written about here. In summer there is a lot of fun to be had +everywhere, but especially on the delightful hill back of our house--(I +will tell you all about that hill some other time),--but in winter, +humph! What can girls and boys do in such horrid mild winters as we are +now having, I should really like to know! Last year we had no snow to +speak of, and here it is now after New Year's and I haven't yet, to my +recollection, seen a single snowflake which didn't melt in five minutes, +or any ice that didn't break through as soon as you stamped your heel on +it. If I could only make a journey to the North Pole and do what I +wanted to there, I should send down some lovely soft snow-drifts and +some smooth blue glistening ice in a jiffy, to all the boys and girls +who are wishing for them day after day. + +In the meantime I am glad that I have begun to write this book in +winter, otherwise I should be bored to death. + +Of course we go out-of-doors now too, even though the mild weather is +disgusting; but when it storms as hard as it did in the autumn, making +the old elm-trees crash and swish so that we can scarcely hear ourselves +talk, then it is not comfortable to play out-of-doors, I assure you. At +such times we often shut ourselves up in the little room over the +wood-shed. There is nothing up there but a keg of red ochre which we +paint ourselves with, but really we have lots of fun there, +nevertheless. + +Ezekiel always seizes the chance to give a lecture in the wood-shed, and +his words gush out like water from a fountain. When I get tired of it, I +sneak around behind him and give him a little English punch in the back, +for I am very clever at boxing, you must know. "Come on! Can you use +your fists like an Englishman?" And then I roll my hands round very +fast, just as I have seen the English sailors do, and give him a quick +punch in the stomach with my fist. + +Ezekiel squirms about like a worm, and defends himself with his small +weak fingers. The others laugh, and Ezekiel and I laugh with them, and +so we all laugh together. + + * * * * * + +Well, now you know us all, and you know what it is like around here. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AN INTERRUPTED CELEBRATION + + +My, how well I remember the day that we almost killed the dean's wife! +That sounds queer; but it really was a live dean's wife that we really +came within a hair's breadth of killing. And that, while we were just +playing and celebrating the Seventeenth of May--the day when Norway +adopted her own constitution, you know. + +Now you shall hear how it happened. + +Right behind our old house we have a whole big breezy hill. If any of +you live down on the coast, you will know how beautiful it is and what +fun one can have up on such a hill. If you have only seen it as you went +by on the steamer, you would never imagine how lovely it is up on bare +gray hills that look out towards the sea. Little soil, but lots of +sunshine; wherever there is a tiny crevice, fine long blades of grass, +buttercups, and yellow broom will immediately start up. Wild rose bushes +and juniper cling to the hillside here and there, and then the heather +away up on the top;--all over the whole flat top nothing but purple +heather. Above is the clear blue sky; and out there the sea in a great +wide circle--nothing to shut off the view; oh, it is glorious! + +This has really nothing to do with the dean's wife, but I only wanted to +explain what it was like up there on the hill. For it was up there that +Nils Trap, Ezekiel, Peter, Karsten, Mina, Massa, and I played, many a +pleasant day. + +Right at our yard the hill begins to be steeper; first comes a little +walled-in garden, then terraces and cliffs, big rocks and little rocks, +then down a steep precipice, and then up a few steps again where you +have to use hands and feet both, and grab hold of the heather and +juniper if you want to go farther up. + +About half-way up the hill there is a great big rock jutting out, which +you can only climb on one side, and that with the greatest difficulty. +This is our fort. Here we have both batteries and bastions, a room for +bullets and cannon-balls, a room for powder, and a dungeon. From up +there we have the most splendid view down over the town with its low +gaily painted wooden houses, and the small leafy linden-trees that creep +up through the streets. From our fort people down there look just like +darning-needles; from the very top of the hill they look like a swarming +mass of little pins. + +I remember distinctly that particular Seventeenth of May; the spring had +come so early that we already had fine young birch leaves and clear mild +air. For several days we had been talking about a feast that we wanted +to have in the dungeon, for there we should be wholly out of sight. +There was to be a salute, speeches and songs. Peter and Karsten were +always the gunners. With much trouble we had carried big stones up to +the fort; these we threw with all our might down again over the +precipice. This was our way of giving a salute; it made no little +racket, you may be sure! The boys were to provide something to drink, +and we the cake and glasses. We were never allowed to take any glasses +up on the hill, except old goblets with the feet broken off. I thought +then it was terribly stingy of Mother not to let us have proper glasses. + +Ezekiel made the speech in honor of the day. I can still see his thin +white fingers round the broken glass while he spouted and speechified +about "our young freedom crowns this day of liberty with flowers." I had +lately read the whole speech in an old children's paper, and of course +had to confide this fact to Mina; the others wanted to know what we were +laughing about, and at last all the listeners were laughing and +whispering to each other; but Ezekiel stuck to it. After the speech four +stones were thrown down. Karsten was beaming. "Oh, oh, what a crash!" he +kept saying. + +After that Ezekiel made a speech in honor of Sweden; at the end of the +speech he suggested that we should sing: + + "See yonder by the Baltic's salt waves," + +but as none of us knew the tune, and Ezekiel himself hadn't a speck of +music in him, the song wouldn't go. For it didn't help us at all for him +to insist that he heard the tune plainly in his head. Then Nils Trap +made a speech in honor of the ladies; I remember how I admired the few +telling words: "A cheer and four shots for the ladies!" Not a bit more! +I thought that sounded so awfully manlike. + +Peter rushed off to the top of the fort to fire off the shots, Karsten +after him, his hair standing on end. The stones went crashing over--the +next moment we heard a doleful shriek from below. Peter came rushing +down to the dungeon, ashy-gray under his freckles, crying: + +"Oh, Mother--Mother----" + +We all dashed up instantly. Down below the fort, just at the foot of the +precipice, stood the dean's little crooked wife, with a purple kerchief +over her head and one slender hand held up in the air. The stone, which +had been fired off in honor of the ladies, lay less than two feet from +her! + +Even to this day I am sorry that I didn't run to her at once and go back +with her down the hill. That didn't occur to any of us, I think. When we +found that she hadn't been hit, but was only terribly frightened at +seeing the great stone in the air right over her, we almost thought, up +there in the fort, that it was rather unseemly of the dean's wife to +scream out so. + +She crept down the hill alone; she had just gone up to see to a white +bed-spread that was hanging on a bush to dry. + +Our festive mood was gone, however,--shocked out of us, as it were. + +Karsten struck into the air with clenched fists, as he always does when +he is excited. It wasn't so very dangerous, he protested; for if _he_ +had been the dean's wife, of course he would have seen what direction +the stone was taking in the air, and if it went that way, why then he +would have jumped to one side--like this--and if the stone went the +other way, why then you could just jump to the other side. Besides, if +the dean's wife had been, as she ought to have been, as strong as Nils +Heia, for instance, then she might have stood perfectly still, fixed her +eyes on the stone, held her hands to catch it, and tossed it away. Yes, +wouldn't Nils Heia have done it that way? Wouldn't he be strong enough +for that? + +But very soon the horror of it came over me; just think, if Peter had +killed his own mother! I remember clearly that I wouldn't have anything +more either to eat or drink, and Nils Trap teased me, and said I had +grown quite white around the nose with fright. + +As we sat there looking at each other and not able to get started on +anything again, suddenly we heard a voice: + +"Peter." + +"That's Father," said Peter, and crouched away down so that he couldn't +possibly be seen from below. + +"Hush--sh--keep still--hush!" We lay in a heap, frightened and silent. + +"Peter," came again from below. "Come down this instant. I know you are +up there." + +"Hush--just keep still, not a sound." + +Dead silence. + +"Well, if you don't come at once----" The dean was furious; we could +hear that in his voice. + +"I've got to go," said Peter, standing up. "I've got to--I've got +to----" He scrambled out; the rest of us just stuck our heads up to see +what would happen. + +There stood the dean with no hat, just in his wig, and furiously angry. +It was no fun to be Peter now. He was everlastingly slow about +clambering down. The dean scolded up towards our six heads, sticking out +of the dungeon: + +"Yes, just try such a thing again--just try it--your backs shall suffer +for it--big boys and girls as you are--killing people with stones!" + +"Yes, but we didn't kill anybody," called Karsten. + +I was perfectly appalled at Karsten's daring to call out such a thing to +the dean, who, however, paid not the least attention; Peter had at last +come within his reach, so he had something else to do. + +First a box on one ear: "I'll teach you,"--then a box on the other ear: +"almost killing your own mother"--and he kept on hitting. But only +think; although I felt so terribly sorry for Peter, so sorry that I +believe I should have been glad to take the blows in his place--I was as +much to blame as he--yet there was something so fearfully exciting in +watching Peter and the dean down there, that I almost felt disappointed +when the dean took Peter by his left ear and dragged him away. The boys +had lately made a little path down the hill and to the back gate of the +dean's garden. It was lucky for Peter that there was some sort of a +beaten track, now that he was being led along it by the ear. + +"You can depend upon it that Peter will get a thrashing," said Karsten, +who also felt the excitement of the moment. "But if it were I"--he grew +very earnest--"I'd throw myself on my back and stretch my legs up in +the air and kick so that nobody could come near me. He shouldn't beat +me, no indeed, he'd soon find that out." + +It was all over with the celebration. Ezekiel proposed that we should +finish up the refreshments--we divided the cake equally--and then we +clambered down; but we took the path to our garden, not to the dean's. +We only whispered, we didn't speak a single loud word, till we got down. +We got a scolding, a thorough scolding, from the dean, but Mother cried +when she heard what a calamity we had nearly brought about. And I minded +Mother's tears much more than I did the dean's scolding. + +Afterwards, when we asked Peter what had happened to him, he didn't +answer, but just smiled feebly. + +Yes, that is the way our Seventeenth of May celebration was +interrupted! + +[Illustration: The dean took Peter by the left ear and dragged him +away.--_Page 39._] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MY FIRST JOURNEY ALONE + + +Well! I didn't travel entirely alone, either, you must know; for, you +see, I had Karsten with me. But he was only nine years old that summer, +so that it was about the same or even worse than traveling alone. To +make a journey with small children by steamer isn't altogether +comfortable, as any grown person will tell you. + +It is curious how tedious everything gets at home in your own town when +you have decided to make a journey. Whatever it might be that the boys +and girls wanted to play--whether it was playing ball in the town +square, or hide-and-go-seek in our cellar, or caravans in the desert up +on the hilltop, or frightening old Miss Einarsen by knocking on her +window (which is generally great fun)--it all seemed stupid and +tiresome beyond description now. + +For I was going to travel, going on a journey, and that is the jolliest, +jolliest fun! Alas! for the poor stay-at-homes who couldn't go away but +had to walk about the same old town streets, and smell street dust, and +gutters, and stale sea-water in by the wharves. + +But I have clean forgotten to tell you where I was going. Mother has a +sister who is married to a minister. They live fifteen or twenty miles +from our town and we go there every summer. But this summer, it had been +decided that Karsten and I should go there alone for the first time. + +The afternoon before we were to set out I went down back of our +wood-shed, where all the boys and girls that I go with generally come +every afternoon. It was hot enough to roast you and awfully dry and +dusty; but I took my new umbrella down with me all the same. It wasn't +really silk, but I had wound it and fastened it so tightly together that +it looked just as slender and delicate as a real silk one. I wouldn't +play ball with the rest of them. I just stood and swung my umbrella +about. + +"Have you got a new umbrella?" said Karen. "Is it a silk one?" asked +Netta. "You've got eyes in your head," I answered. And so they all +thought it was a silk one. I couldn't play ball with them, I said, +because I had to go in and pack. Now that wasn't true at all, for I knew +well enough that Mother had done all the packing; but it sounded so +off-hand and important. They all teased me to stay down with them for a +while, but no indeed, far from it. "I have too much to do. I start +to-morrow morning early. Good-bye." + +"Good-bye and a happy journey," shouted the company. + +When I got in the house I was a little sorry that I hadn't stayed out +with the others; for I hadn't a thing to do but go from one room to +another and tighten the shawl-straps for the twentieth time at least. I +thought the afternoon would never come to an end. + +Early in the morning, before it was really light, the maid came into the +room and shook me and whispered, "Now you must get up. It's half-past +four o'clock. Get up! The steamer goes at half-past five, you know." Oh, +how dreadfully sleepy I was, but it was great fun all the same. The sun +was not shining into my room yet, but on the church tower it glowed like +a fire. The weather was going to be good. Hurrah! All the doors and +windows of the sleeping-rooms stood wide open. It was so sweet and fresh +and quiet everywhere, fragrant with the smell of the trees and fresh +garden earth outside. We went in to say good-bye to Father and Mother at +their bedside. + +"Remember us to everybody and be nice, good children," said Mother. + +"Don't lose everything you have with you," said Father. Humph! +_Lose_--Father seemed to forget that I was nearly grown up now. + +As we went down the hill, the stones under the elm-trees were still all +moist with dew. Oh! how quiet it was out-of-doors! Suddenly away down +in the town a cock crew. Everything seemed very strange. + +Karsten and I ran ahead and Ingeborg, the maid, came struggling after us +with our big green _tine_.[1] Suddenly a desperate anxiety came over me. +Suppose the steamboat should go off and leave us! Then how we ran! We +left Ingeborg and the _tine_ and everything else behind. When we turned +round the corner into the market square, the sun streamed straight into +our eyes and there by the custom-house wharf lay the steamboat, with +steam up and sacks of meal being put on board. Karsten and I dashed +across the square. Pshaw! we were in plenty of time. There wasn't a +single passenger aboard yet. It is a little steamboat, you know, that +only goes from our town over to Arendal. I got Karsten settled on a +seat, kneeling and facing the water, and then established myself in a +jaunty, free and easy manner by the railing as if I were accustomed to +travel. Ole Bugta and Kristen Snau and all the other clodhoppers on the +wharf should never imagine that this was the first time I had been +aboard a steamboat. + +[Footnote 1: Tine (pronounced tee'ne) a covered wooden box with handle +on top.] + +Soon that skin-and-bone Andersen, the storekeeper, got on the boat, and +then came little Magnus, the telegraph messenger, jogging along. Magnus +is really a dwarf. He is forty years old and doesn't reach any higher +than my shoulder; but he has an exceedingly large old face. He clambered +up on a bench. He has such short legs that when he sits down his legs +stick straight out into the air, just as tiny little children's do when +they sit down. Then came Mrs. Tellefsen, in a French shawl, and +dreadfully warm and worried. "When the whistle blew the first time, I +was still in my night-clothes," she confided to me. + +The whistle blew the third time. I smiled condescendingly down to +Ingeborg, our maid, who stood upon the wharf. I wouldn't for a good deal +be in her shoes and have to turn back and go home again now. Far up the +street appeared a man and woman shouting and calling for us to wait for +them. "Hurry up! Hurry up!" shouted the captain. That was easier said +than done; for when they came nearer I saw that it was that queer Mr. +Singdahlsen and his mother. Mr. Singdahlsen is not right in his mind and +he thinks that his legs are grown together as far down as his knees. So +he doesn't move any part of his legs in walking except the part below +his knees. Of course he couldn't go very fast. His mother pushed and +pulled him along, the captain shouted, and at last they came over the +gangway and the steamboat started. + +The water was as smooth and shining as a mirror, and it seemed almost a +sin to have the steamboat go through it and break the mirror. Over at +the Point the tiny red and yellow houses shone brightly in the morning +light and the smoke from their chimneys rose high in the quiet air. + +Then my troubles with Karsten began. Yes, I entirely agree that children +are a nuisance to travel with. In the first place, Karsten wanted to +stand forever and look down into the machinery room. I held on to him by +the jacket, and threatened him and told him to come away. Far from it! +He was as stubborn as a mule. Humph! a great thing it would have been if +he had fallen down between the shining steel arms of the machinery and +been crushed! O dear me! At last he had had enough of that. Then he +began to open and shut the door which led into the deck cabin; back and +forth, back and forth, bang it went! + +"Let that be, little boy," said Mr. Singdahlsen. Karsten flushed very +red and sat still for five whole minutes. Then it came into his head +that he absolutely must see the propeller under the back of the boat. +That was worse than ever, for he hung the whole upper part of his body +over the railing. I held fast to him till my fingers ached. For a minute +I was so provoked with him that I had a good mind to let go of him and +let him take care of himself;--but I thought of Mother, and so kept +tight hold of him. + +We went past the lighthouse out on Green Island. The watchman came out +on his tiny yellow balcony and hailed us. I swung my umbrella. "Hurrah, +my boys," shouted Mr. Singdahlsen in English. "Hurrah, my boys," +imitated Karsten after him. Little Magnus dumped himself down from the +seat and waved his hat; but he stood behind me and nobody saw him. It +was really a pretty queer lot of travelers. + +Just then the mate came around to sell the tickets. Father had given me +a five-crown note for our traveling expenses. As Karsten and I were +children and went for half-price, I didn't need any more, he said. So +there I stood ready to pay. + +"How old are you?" asked the mate. + +Now I have always heard that it is impolite to question a lady about her +age; I must say I hadn't a speck of a notion of telling that sharp-nosed +mate that I lacked seven months of being twelve years old. + +"How old are you?" he asked again. + +"Twelve years," said I hastily. + +"Well, then you must pay full fare." + +I don't know how I looked outside at that minute. I know that inside of +me I was utterly aghast. Suppose I didn't have money enough! And I had +told a lie! + +Now my purse is a little bit of a thing, hardly big enough for you to +get three fingers in. I took it out rather hurriedly--everything that I +undertake always goes with a rush, Mother says. How it happened I don't +know, but my five-crown note whisked out of my hand, over the railing +and out to sea. + +"Catch it! Catch it!" I shouted. + +"That is impossible," said the mate. + +"Yes, yes! Put out a boat!" I cried. All the passengers crowded together +around us. + +"Did the five crowns blow away?" piped Karsten. + +"Was it, perhaps, the only one you had?" asked the mate. Ugh! how horrid +he was. Storekeeper Andersen and Mrs. Tellefsen and the mate laughed as +hard as they could. Karsten pulled at my waterproof. + +"You're a good one! Now they will put us ashore because we haven't any +money. You always do something like that!" + +"Are you going to put us ashore?" I asked. + +"Oh, no," said the mate. "I will go up to your father's office and get +the money some time. That's all right." + +Pshaw! that would be worse than anything else. Father would be raving. +He always says I lose everything. + +"You'll catch it from Father," whispered Karsten. + +Oh, what should I do! What should I do! Karsten and Mr. Singdahlsen +clambered up on some rigging away aft to get sight of the five-crown +note. Mr. Singdahlsen peered through the hollow of his hand and both he +and Karsten insisted that they saw it. But that couldn't help us any. + +Oh! how disgusting everything had become all at once. The visit at +Uncle's and Aunt's would be horrid, too. To go there alone in this way, +and have to talk alone with Uncle, a minister, and all the other +grown-up people at the rectory--it would be disgustingly tiresome. There +was nothing that was any fun in the whole world. It would be disgusting +to go home again; for Father would be so dreadfully angry--and it was +most disgusting of all to be here on the steamboat where everybody +laughed at me. + +And all on account of an old rag of a five-crown bill which had blown +away. Besides, I had told a lie and said I was twelve years old. +Oh-oh-oh! how sad everything was! + +I sat with my hand under my cheek, leaning against the railing and +staring into the sea. All at once a plan occurred to me which I thought +a remarkably good one then. Now I think it was frightfully stupid. I +would ask the mate if he wouldn't take something of mine as payment for +our passage. + +I had a little silver ring--one of those with a tiny heart hanging to +it;--I thought of that first. I took it off of my finger and looked at +it. It was really a tiny little bit of a thing--it couldn't be worth so +very much. At home I had a pair of skates, sure enough. I would +willingly sell them. But I couldn't possibly ask the mate to go up into +our attic and get them and sell them for me. What in the world should I +give him? Suddenly a brilliant idea struck me. My new umbrella--he +should have my new umbrella. And I would tell the mate at the same time +that I had made a mistake, that I wasn't twelve years old, only eleven +years and five months. I took the umbrella and went quickly across the +deck to find the mate. To be on the safe side I took the ring off of my +finger and held it in my hand. It might be he would want both ring and +umbrella. But it was impossible to find him. I wandered fore and aft and +peeked into all the hatchways--but I couldn't get a glimpse of that +sharp nose of his anywhere. Finally I discovered him sitting in a little +cabin, writing. + +I established myself in the doorway and swung my umbrella. To save my +life I couldn't get out a single word of what I had planned to say. +Think of having to say "I told you a lie!" + +"Do you want anything?" asked the mate at last. + +"Oh, no!" I said hastily. "Well, yes. How far is it to Sand Island now?" + +"An hour's sail, about;"--at the very minute that he was speaking these +words a terrible shriek was heard from aft, a loud shriek from several +people all screaming as hard as they could. I never was so scared in my +whole life. The mate almost pushed me over, he sprang so quickly out of +the door. All the people aft were crowded at one side. In the midst of +the shrieks and cries I heard some one say, "Man overboard!" + +O horrors! It must be Karsten! I was sure of it. I hadn't thought of him +or taken any care of him for the last ten minutes. I hardly know how I +got aft, my knees were shaking so. The steamboat stopped and two sailors +were already up on the railing loosing the life-boat. + +"Karsten! Karsten! Karsten!" I cried. All at once I saw Karsten's light +hair and big ears over on a bench. He was throwing his arms about in the +air and was frightfully excited. "This is the way he did," shouted he; +"he hung over the railing this way, looking for the five crowns."--It +was Mr. Singdahlsen who had fallen overboard. Oh, poor Mrs. Singdahlsen! +She cried and called out unceasingly. + +"He is weak in the understanding!" she cried, "and therefore the Lord +gave me sense enough for two--so that I could look after him;--catch +him--catch him. He will drown before my very eyes." + +I held Karsten by the jacket as in a vise. I was going to look after him +now. The boat was by this time close to Mr. Singdahlsen. They drew his +long figure out of the water and laid him in the bottom of the boat. The +next minute they had reached the side of the steamer again, clambered +up with Singdahlsen, and laid him on the deck. He looked exactly as if +he were dead. They stripped him to his waist, and then they began to +work over him according to the directions in the almanac for restoring +drowned people. If I live to be a million years old I shall never forget +that scene. + +There lay the long, thin, half-naked Singdahlsen on the deck, with two +sailors lifting his arms up and down, Mrs. Singdahlsen on her knees by +his side drying his face with a red pocket-handkerchief, the sun shining +baking hot on the deck, and the smoke of the steamer floating out far +behind us in a big thick streak. At length he showed signs of life and +they carried him into the cabin. Then, what do you suppose happened? +Mrs. Singdahlsen was angry at _me_! Wasn't that outrageous? The whole +thing was my fault, she said, for if I hadn't lost the five crowns, her +son wouldn't have fallen overboard. + +"Now you can pay for the doctor and the apothecary, and for my anxiety +and fright besides," said Mrs. Singdahlsen. But everybody laughed and +said I needn't worry myself about that. + +"You said yourself that you had sense enough for two, Mrs. Singdahlsen," +said Storekeeper Andersen. + +"I haven't met any one here who has any more sense," said Mrs. +Singdahlsen stuffily. + +"Humph!" thought I to myself, "if I had to pay for Mrs. Singdahlsen's +fright the damages would be pretty heavy." + +Just then we swung round the point by the rectory, where Karsten and I +were going to land. Uncle's hired boy was waiting for us with a boat. I +recognized him from the year before. He is a regular landlubber, brought +up away back in a mountain valley, and is mortally afraid when he has to +row out to the steamboat. His face was deep red, and he made such hard +work of rowing and backing water, and came up to the steamboat so +awkwardly, that the captain scolded and blustered from the bridge. At +last we got down into the rowboat and were left rocking and rocking in +the steamer's wake. + +John, the farm boy, mopped his face and neck. He was all used up just +from getting a rowboat alongside the steamer! + +"Whew, whew! but it's dreadful work," said he. + +The rectory harbor lay like a mirror. The island and trees and the +bath-house stood on their heads in the clear, glassy water; and between +the thick foliage of the trees there was a wide space through which we +could see the upper story of the rectory and the top of the flagstaff. +It is worth while to go traveling after all. I won't give another +thought to that old rag of a five-crown bill. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WHAT HAPPENED ONE ST. JOHN'S DAY + + +Well; what I am going to tell about now hasn't the least thing to do +with St. John's Day itself,--you mustn't think it has; not the least +connection with fresh young birch leaves and strong sunshine and +Whitsuntide lilies and all that. Far from it. It is only that a certain +St. John's Day stands out in my memory because of what happened to me +then. + +Yes, now you shall hear about it. First I must tell you of the weather. +It was just exactly what it should be on St. John's Day. The sky looked +high and deep, with tiniest white clouds sprinkled over the whole circle +of the heavens, and the sunshine was glorious on the hills and mountains +and on the blue, blue sea. + +Since it was Sunday as well as St. John's Day, I was all dressed up. To +be sure my dress was an old one of Mother's made over, but the insertion +was spandy new and there was a lot of it. I'd love to draw a picture of +that dress for you, if you wanted to have one made like it. + +Perhaps I had best begin at the very beginning, which was really +Karsten's stamp collection. He does nothing but collect stamps, and talk +and jabber about stamps the whole day long. He swaps and bargains, and +has a whole heap of "dubelkits," as he calls them. These duplicates he +keeps in a tiny little box. He means to be very orderly, you see. + +To tell the truth, Karsten is perfectly stupid about swapping. The other +boys can fool him like everything. He doesn't understand a bit how to do +business, and so I always feel like taking charge of these stamp +bargainings myself. If I see a boy I don't know very well, peeping +around the corner or sneaking up the hill, I am right on hand, for boys +that want to trade never come running; they act as if they were spying +round and lying in wait for some one. + +The instant Karsten sees them he comes out with his stamp album. He +stands there and expounds and explains about his stamps, with such a +trustful look on his round pink face, while the other boys watch their +chance to fool him; and before he knows it, some of his very best +specimens are gone. That's the reason why I have taken hold. + +As soon as I see a suspicious-looking boy on the horizon--that is to say +on the hill--I go out and stand at the corner in all my dignity and +won't budge, and I always put in my word you may be sure. Karsten +doesn't like it, but anyway, he had me to thank for a rare Chili stamp. + +But it was that very same rare stamp that brought about all my trouble +on St. John's Day, because Nils Peter cheated that stupid donkey of a +Karsten out of it the next time he saw him. And that was on St. John's +Day, the very day after I had got it for him. + +"I believe you would give them your nose, if they asked for it," I said +to Karsten. "You'd stand perfectly still and let them cut your nose +nicely off, if they wished." + +"You think you are smart, don't you?" said Karsten fiercely. + +As Olaug came out just then (she is my little sister, you remember), I +shouted to her: + +"Run as fast as you can to Nils Peter and tell him Inger Johanne says +for him to give up that Chili stamp instantly. I'll hold Karsten while +you run." + +He would have run after Olaug to catch her before she should have time +to ask Nils Peter for the stamp, for he thought that would be too +embarrassing. + +Just as I got a good grip on Karsten, Olaug started. Oh, how she +ran!--just like a race-horse, with her head high. Her hat fell off and +hung by its elastic round her neck. She ran down the hill and up over +Kranheia at top speed. + +But you may believe I had a job of it standing there and holding fast to +Karsten. He pushed and he struck and he scolded. My! how he did behave! + +But I held on and watched Olaug to see how far she had got. I was high +on the hill, you know, and could see a long way. + +"O dear! Olaug will burst a blood-vessel running like that," I thought. +My! now she is there--now away off there. Karsten squirmed and +struggled; now Olaug is on the path up Kranheia,--she's slowing down a +little. + +Impossible for me to hold Karsten any longer. I had to let go. He was +off like an arrow, his hair standing up straight and his feet pounding +the ground like a young elephant's. + +O pshaw! Running like that he would soon catch Olaug. It was frightfully +exciting, like a horse-race or a hunt after wild animals. + +Well, that isn't a very good comparison, for nothing could be less like +a wild animal than Olaug; but it was awfully exciting to see whether she +would keep ahead and get the Chili stamp from Nils Peter. + +So that I might see better how the race ended I sprang up to our +chicken-yard, or rather beyond it, on our own hill. You could see the +whole path up over Kranheia better from there than from any other place. +But just where I must be to see best was that awfully high board fence, +too high for me to see over, that went from the chicken-yard quite a +long way beyond on the hill. + +Pooh! What of it? I just wiggled a board that was already loose, pulled +it away and stuck my head in the opening. It was a little narrow but I +got my head through. Oh--oh! Karsten had caught up to Olaug and run past +her like an ostrich at full speed--I've always heard that an ostrich +runs faster than anything else in the world--yes, there he was swinging +in towards Nils Peter's house. + +O pshaw! Now that Chili stamp was lost for ever and ever. + +Olaug had plumped herself right down; she had to sit still and get her +breath, poor thing! + +Now that there was nothing more for me to watch, I started to draw my +head back out of the narrow opening between the thick boards. But, O +horrors! It stuck fast! I couldn't possibly get it back. I turned and +twisted my head this way and that, and up and down; I tried to pull and +squeeze it back, but no, that was utterly impossible. How in the world I +had ever got my head through the opening in the first place I can't +understand to this day, but that I had got it through was only too sure. + +New struggles to get loose--I thought I should tear my ears +off--Goodness gracious, what should I do! + +At first I wasn't a speck afraid. I just wriggled and pulled as hard as +I could. But when I realized that I simply could not free myself, a sort +of terror came over me. + +Just think--if I never got my head out? Or suppose there came a cross +dog and bit me while my head was as if nailed fast in the fence! And +suppose nobody found me--(for of course nobody would know that I had run +up here beyond the chicken-yard)--and perhaps I should have to stay +caught in the fence the whole night, when it was dark. + +I cried and sobbed, then I called; at last I screamed and roared. I +heard the hens in the yard flap their wings and run about wildly, +evidently frightened by the noise I made. + +Down on the road, people stood still and gazed upward; then of course I +shrieked the louder. But no one looked up to the chicken-yard; and even +if they had, they couldn't very well see, from so far down, a round +brown head sticking through a brown fence. I roared incessantly, and at +last I saw a woman start to run up the hill--and then a man started--but +they did not see me and soon disappeared among the trees, although I +kept on bawling, "Help! I am right here! I am caught in the fence!" + +Just then I saw Karsten and Nils Peter come out of Nils Peter's house. +They stood a moment as if listening, and naturally they recognized my +voice. + +Then they started running. If Karsten had raced over there, he +certainly raced back again, too. + +I kept bawling the whole time: "Here! here! in the fence! I am stuck +fast in the fence!" It wasn't many minutes before both Karsten and Nils +Peter stood behind me. + +"Have you gone altogether crazy?" said Karsten in the greatest +astonishment. + +I felt a little offended, but there's no use in being offended when you +haven't command over your own head, so I said very meekly: + +"Ugh! such a nuisance! My head is stuck fast in here. Can't you help +me?" + +Would you believe it? They didn't laugh a bit--awfully kind, I call +that--they just hauled and pulled me as hard as they could; it fairly +scraped the skin off behind my ears and I thought I should be scalped if +they kept on. + +"No, it's no use," I said, crying again. "Run after Father, run after +Mother, get everybody to come--uh, hu, hu!" + +Well, they came. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the whole lot of +them behind me. + +Now there _was_ a scene! The same story began again; they pulled and +twisted my head, Father gave directions, I cried and Olaug cried and +everybody talked at once. + +"No," said Father at last, "it can't be done. Hurry down to Carpenter +Wenzel and ask him to come and to bring his saw with him." + +"Uh, huh! He'll saw my head off!" I wailed. + +But Mother patted me on the back and comforted me, and all the others +standing behind kept saying it would be all right soon, while I stood +there like a mouse in a trap and cried and cried. + +But it was Sunday and the carpenter was not at home. + +"Run after my little kitchen saw then," said Mother. "Bring the +meat-axe, too," called Father. + +Oh, how would they manage? It seemed to me my head would surely be sawed +or chopped to pieces. + +[Illustration: They just hauled and pulled me as hard as they +could.--_Page 67._] + +Well, now began a sawing and hammering around me. When Mother sawed I +was not afraid, but when Father began I was in terror, for Father, who +is so awfully clever with his head, is so unpractical with his hands +that he can't even drive a nail straight. So you can imagine how clumsy +he would be about getting a head out of a board fence. + +The others all had to laugh finally, but I truly had no desire to laugh +until my head was well out. In fact, I didn't feel much like laughing +then either, for really it had been horrid. + +Ever since that time Karsten and Nils Peter have teased me about that +Chili stamp. They say that getting my head stuck fast was a punishment +for putting my oar in everywhere. Think of it--as if I _did_ try to +manage other people's affairs so very much! + +But it certainly is horrid when you can't control your own head. You +just try it and see. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LEFT BEHIND + + +Never in my life have I traveled so far as when Mother, Karsten and I +visited Aunt Ottilia and Uncle Karl. And so unexpected as that journey +was! I hardly had time to rejoice over it, even. It was all I could do +to get time to write a post-card to Mina, who was visiting her +grandmother at Horten, to ask her to come down on the wharf and see me, +when the steamer stopped there on its way. + +When we are to start on a journey, Father is always terribly afraid that +we shall be too late for the steamboat. + +"Hurry--hurry," he keeps saying, as he goes in and out. Mother gets +tired of it, but that makes no difference. Besides, all husbands are +like that, Mother says; unreasonable when other people go away, and +still worse to travel with. + +An hour and a half before the steamboat could be expected, we had to +trudge down to the wharf; for Father wouldn't give in. Mother had to sit +on a bench down there, with meal-sacks all around her; but Karsten and I +and Ola Bugta and the other longshoremen on the wharf went up on Little +Beacon to look for the steamboat. + +People usually wish for good weather when they are going to travel; but +I wish for a storm; for to plunge through the waves, up and down, must +be awfully jolly. And besides, it is so stupid that I have never been +seasick, and don't know what it's like. + +"What kind of weather do you think we'll have, Ola Bugta?" I asked him, +up on Little Beacon. + +Ola Bugta took the quid out of his mouth. "Oh, it is fine weather +outside there." O dear, then we should have good weather to-day, too! + +Well, at last we saw a faint streak of smoke far off in the mist. +Karsten and I almost tumbled head over heels down the hill to tell +Mother that now we saw the smoke. Karsten had a new light spring coat +for the journey. He looked queer in it, for it was altogether too long +for him. I took the liberty of saying that he looked like a lay preacher +in it; not that I ever saw a lay preacher in a light spring coat; but +Karsten looked so tall and proper all at once. + +Hurrah! now the steamer was in Quit-island Gap. How much more +interesting a steamer looks when you are going to travel on it yourself! +It made a wide sweep when it came from behind the island, and glided in +a big graceful curve up to the wharf. There were a great many passengers +on the boat. As soon as the gangway touched the wharf, I wanted to go on +board, but the mail-agent pushed me aside. "The mail first," said he. +But I ran on right after the mail. + +Oh, how awfully jolly it was! The deck crowded with passengers, and +trunks, and _tines_, and traveling-bags; the delightful steamboat smell; +all my friends standing on the wharf; and I tremendously busy carrying +Mother's portmanteau and hold-all on board. I certainly went six times +back and forth across the gangway. O dear! so many boxes had to be put +on board, I thought we should never get off. I nodded and nodded to +every one on the wharf. At last I nodded to Ola Bugta; but he didn't nod +back; he just turned his quid in his mouth. + +Finally we started. + +Whenever I go down on the wharf to watch the steamboat, it seems to me +almost as if it were always the same people traveling. But to-day there +were a whole lot of different kinds of people. + +The first person I noticed was a tall old lady who had a footstool with +her. Think of traveling with a yellow wooden footstool! If she had only +sat still,--but she and the footstool were constantly on the go. At last +she must have thought that I looked exactly cut out to carry the stool +for her. + +"Little girl," she said, "you're a good girl, aren't you, and will help +me a little?" After that I couldn't go anywhere near her without there +being something I must do for her. The worst was hunting for a parasol +that she couldn't find. + +"There is lace over the weak place in it, my dear," said she. After this +instruction I did find it. Then she offered me some candy, but it looked +so gummy that I gave it to Karsten. I saw that he had to chew it well. + +Mother had met a childhood friend and they sat talking together +incessantly. Just think, it was twenty-two years since they had seen +each other. How queer it would be to see my best friend Mina again in +twenty-two years, with some of her teeth gone and a double-chin. + +For a wonder Karsten sat perfectly still by Mother's side with his hands +deep in the pockets of his new coat; and he didn't open his mouth; but I +ran about the whole time. I wasn't still an instant. + +Off by herself on a bench sat a fat woman wrapped in a shawl, with a big +covered basket which she dipped down into every other minute. Both +sausage and fancy cakes came up out of the basket. She looked at me as +if she would like to offer me something, and munched and munched. + +Before long I went down below. When you were in the saloon the boat +shook delightfully; the big white lamps that hung from the ceiling +rattled and jingled, and there was such a charming steamboat smell. +Everywhere on the reddish-brown plush sofas, ladies and gentlemen with +steamer-rugs over them lay drowsing. I took a newspaper, for it looked +grown-up to sit reading; but I didn't want to read the paper, after all, +so I went straight up on deck again. + +But the weather had changed! It was not anything like so bright as when +we started. There were already little white-capped waves, and the wind +whistled across the deck; and now the ship began to plunge enough to +suit me. + +Oh--up--and--down--up--and--down! + +I crept to the very stern and sat down beside the flag; for I thought it +looked as if the boat rocked most there. You know, I wanted to rock as +much as possible. + +The steamer laid its course more out to sea. Each time we went down into +the waves the water stood foaming white around the bow. The wind took a +fierce grip on the awning as if it would tear it to pieces, and my hair +blew about my face; this was just what I liked! Hurrah! + +But little by little all the other passengers disappeared from the deck. +Mother and her friend were the first; Karsten tagged after them. Mother +called out something to me at the moment she was disappearing down the +cabin stairs, but I didn't know what it was. + +Oh, everything was so glorious! This was fun; if only they would go +farther out to sea, farther yet--farther yet. + +The lady with the footstool had disappeared long ago. The yellow +footstool was taking care of itself and tumbled from one side to the +other. Then a stewardess came up with a message from Mother that I +should come down-stairs at once. That must have been what she said when +she was disappearing down the cabin stairs. + +In the cabin Mother and Karsten lay pale as death, each on a sofa. I +must lie down, too, Mother said. Really, I hadn't any wish to lie down +on a sofa now that the fun on deck was just beginning; but as long as +Mother said so---- + +Hurrah! Cups and plates and trays crashed over each other in the +serving-room, people fell over each other on the stairs. The +traveling-wraps hanging out in the corridor, and the green curtains +before the staterooms swung violently back and forth, the ship tossed +so. + +"Isn't there any one that will help me?" begged a complaining but +familiar voice behind one of the curtains. That was certainly the lady +with the footstool. I jumped behind the curtain; yes, so it was. She was +sitting on the edge of her berth; she said she didn't believe she could +get out again if she squeezed herself in, she was so fat. + +You may be sure she set me to work. She had lost all her things, one +wrister here and one wrister there; I had to find everything, a bouquet +in the saloon, and overshoes under the sofa. Finally it was the +footstool up on deck. + +It was only fun to run up on deck again. Of course I tumbled from one +side to the other and laughed and laughed, enjoying it hugely. + +When I was down-stairs again, the stewardess must have thought that I +flew around too much and was in the way, for she pushed me suddenly into +a stateroom. There sat the woman with the covered basket. + +"Isn't there any one that will help me?" the complaining voice kept on +in the stateroom opposite us. + +"Can you imagine why such folks travel?" said the woman, jerking her +head in the direction the voice came from, "when they have their good +home, and their good bed and everything to suit them--why should they +rove around from pillar to post?" + +"What are you traveling for?" + +"Oh, I have been on a little trip off to Grimstad, to my sister's, for +three weeks; I didn't think I should stay longer than a week at the +most, so I didn't take more than one change with me, and you must excuse +me if I look rather untidy." + +No, I assured her, she didn't look in the least untidy. But she was +awfully funny, I can tell you. She told me the whole story of her life. +Her husband was a skipper; twice she had been with him to the Black Sea, +"and once across the equator as far as a place they call Buenos Ayres, +and it was so elegant, my dear, with riding policemen in the streets." + +And the whole time we were talking she chewed and munched. For there had +been some one in Grimstad named Gonnersen, who was so polite that he had +bought a whole basket of cakes for her on the journey. "Will you +condescend to help yourself to a cake?" she said suddenly. + +"Gonnersen was so polite"--was the last I heard as she crossed the +gangway at Fredriksvern. That was where she lived. Then she stood on +the wharf and waved to me, still eating. + +Now there was only Larvik and Valloe before we got to Horten; there I was +to meet Mina;--hurrah, hurrah, how glad I was! + +But it is certainly a good thing that you don't know what is going to +happen; for it was at Horten I got left behind, all because the steamer +rang only once at the Horten wharf; and that, I must say, is a shame, +when people have bought their tickets to go on farther. + +Yes, it was disgusting;--but now you shall hear exactly how it happened. +When we got to Horten, Mina stood on the wharf with a new red parasol. +Mother and Karsten were still in the cabin lying down. I ran ashore at +once, you may be sure. Mina and I thought it was great fun to talk +together; for we had not seen each other for more than two weeks. + +[Illustration: She told me the whole story of her life.--_Page 79._] + +"Grandmother lives up there," said Mina, "up there, see--come here, only +two or three steps farther, and you'll see better; see, there is the +garden, and the doll-house with red curtains. Do you see the +doll-house?--only a few steps more,--and there is the bowling-alley in +Grandmother's garden----" + +We ran up and up; then the steamer bell rang. "It will be sure to ring +three times," I said. + +"Oh, surely," said Mina, and went on explaining: "Do you see that white +boat with a flag----" + +I heard a suspicious sound from the steamer, and turned round as quick +as lightning. Yes, really, it was putting off from the wharf; first it +backed a little, and then started forward full speed. I dashed with +great leaps down the road and across the wharf. + +"Stop--stop--stop, I am going with you----" + +But if you think there was any one who cared whether I called or not, +you are mistaken. Not a person on board even turned his head, and the +longshoremen on the wharf laughed as hard as they could. There went the +steamer with Mother and Karsten! + +I wonder if you can imagine my feelings; I was in such despair that I +plumped myself down on the wharf and cried. What would Mother think? She +would certainly be afraid that I had fallen overboard when I disappeared +all at once without leaving a trace;--and what would Father say?--and +how in the world could I get to Uncle Karl's now? + +Oh, how I cried that time on the wharf at Horten! At last I had to go +home with Mina. And Mina's grandmother was very sweet, she really was; +and Horten was really a pretty town, and I can well believe there were +many nice people in it; but as for me, I thought it was horrid to be +there. I didn't care about the doll-house with red curtains, or +anything, though it was the prettiest doll-house I ever saw in my life, +with two little rocking-chairs with little embroidered cushions, in the +parlor, and little pudding-forms and colanders on the kitchen walls. + +But Mina's grandmother telegraphed to Mother at Droebak that I was safe +and sound at Horten; and late in the evening a telegram came from Mother +at Uncle Karl's, saying that I was to borrow some money from Mina's +grandmother and that I was to take a little steamer up the fjord early +the next morning. + +Such queer things are always happening to me! I never heard of any girl +who was left behind as I was on the wharf at Horten. Mina's grandmother +wanted me to stay there a few days, and would have telegraphed to Mother +to ask if I might; but I didn't want to stay, for I longed so +unspeakably for Mother. That night I lay awake for hours and hours, and +began to feel that I should never see Mother again. + +Well, in the gray light of the next morning I sat on the damp deck of a +little steamer, with two big bags of cakes. Mina stood on the wharf +waving and yawning too, for she wasn't used to getting up at five +o'clock. + +I was very cold, and ate one cake after another, and dreaded what Mother +would say when I got to my journey's end. It would be a very different +arrival from what I had expected. + +There were no other passengers on board, but a big dog who stood tied, +with his address on his back. And I didn't have much pleasure with him +either, for he growled at me when I patted him. + +Later the captain came and talked with me. When I told him that I had +been left behind on the Horten wharf the afternoon before, he laughed so +that he got purple in the face. Now can you see anything to laugh at? +For all that, the captain was very kind, for he let me go up on the +bridge with him, and there I stayed all the time until we arrived. + +On the wharf stood Uncle Karl, Mother, and Karsten waiting. Mother shook +her head and looked much displeased; but Uncle Karl, with his big white +mustache, laughed and nodded. + +"I'm thankful to see you again," said Mother. "You must know I was +worried about you." + +"Beautiful eyes, the puss has," said Uncle Karl suddenly. + +I looked around astonished, for there didn't seem to be any puss +anywhere. But only think! he meant me. I have looked carefully at my +eyes since, but I don't think they are beautiful at all, for they are +too round and look so surprised. + +Oh, what fun we had at Uncle Karl's! I do not know that I should ever +come to an end if I tried to tell about it, so I won't begin, for I have +a tremendous gift of gab when I once get started;--at least that is what +everybody says. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN THE MEAL CHEST + + +We have an awfully cosy cellar, you must know. Of course the whole house +is old and rather tumbledown, so the cellar is nothing very fine; but it +is awfully cosy and exactly right for playing in, in bad weather. I +don't know a cellar in the whole town that is cosier; and I am fairly +well acquainted with all of them, you may be sure. + +Our cellar isn't underground. It is a high basement and in it is a big +brewery and laundry, a big servant's room, and a big wine cellar where +there is never any wine; on the other side of the basement is the +storeroom for food and the potato cellar. The walls are brown and dark +just from age; and the floor rocks so that I often wonder that the big +casks and barrels, and fat Christine and Maren the washerwomen, who are +forever washing there, do not fall through, perhaps into some deep +abyss underground. But it must be tough, that floor, for it still holds. + +One day there was disgusting weather. Withered leaves flew around your +ears and the streets were soaking wet and muddy. Nils, Peter, Karen and +Antoinette had come up to our hill in order to have fun of some kind in +the drizzling weather; and we hit upon playing hide-and-seek in our +cellar. We divided into sides; Peter, Karsten and I on one side and the +other three on the other. Nils, Antoinette and Karen hid themselves +first; but they just ran up into the kitchen and Ingeborg, the cook, +drove them down again; so nobody had a chance to search for them. Then +Peter, Karsten and I were to hide. Peter and Karsten placed themselves +in the big box-part of the mangle, and I put some sacks over them and +there they were, beautifully hidden. + +For myself, I thought of creeping into a cupboard in the brewery. But +when it came to the point, I found that my legs had grown so long since +I last hid there that there wasn't room enough for them. I was at my +wits' end. Any instant I expected Nils to whirl like a tempest into that +room. I sprang into the wine cellar and looked about with a frantic +glance. Only bare shelves, not a thing to hide one's self in. Oh, yes! +There stood a meal chest. I lifted the lid--the chest was empty. Quick +as a flash I jumped in and slammed the lid down. + +There I lay. It was pretty close quarters but not so bad after all. +Hurrah! What a first-rate hiding place! No one had ever before thought +of hiding here. + +I lay still, rejoicing over being so wonderfully well hidden. The +minutes began to drag. At last I heard Karen and Antoinette running +about and searching. Twice they were in the wine cellar. + +"No--there is nobody here," they said. I kept still as a mouse, of +course. Now they had found Peter and Karsten in the mangle box, for +there was a great uproar out there. + +"But Inger Johanne! Where is Inger Johanne?" + +"You'll be pretty smart if you find me!" I thought. + +They ran about a while and rummaged in the brewery and then I heard them +go out into the court. I lay still as a stone a little longer but it +began to be somewhat warm in the meal chest, so I thought I would lift +the lid a little. I pushed my back against it--but what in the world! It +would not go up! + +Once more I tried--and once more----Exactly what had happened I don't +know, but there was a hook on the lid and when I hastily slammed the lid +down, the hook probably dropped and caught on a nail in the meal chest +itself. + +In the first instant I can't say that I was terribly afraid. I kept on +trying to get the lid up and all the time I thought, "They will soon +come in here again to look for me and then I'll shout!" + +But far from it. No one came. It was perfectly silent. I heard nobody +either in the brewery or out in the court or up in the kitchen. And all +at once terror overwhelmed me,--terror at being shut up in that small +place. It was as if I were in a grave. So I screamed, and banged on the +lid, and kicked. Then I listened again. Not a sound was to be heard. + +It was hot as fire in the meal chest. My face burned. How I screamed! + +"Help me! I'm in the meal chest! help! oh, help!" + +No, not a sound. What in the world would happen to me? I could scarcely +get my breath--no--I knew I couldn't breathe any more. Yet again I +shrieked. I cannot understand why nobody heard me. My breathing was +short and difficult. No, I could not hold out--I surely could not +breathe any more. + +"Oh, Mother! Mother! Help me!" + +Then I heard some one in the court and then footsteps in the brewery. I +screamed again. Some one opened the door to the wine cellar and I heard +Maren's voice. + +"What's that? What's that?" + +"Maren, oh, Maren!" I called from the meal chest. Like a flash the door +was shut again and I heard Maren running as fast as her legs could carry +her up the kitchen stairs. + +To think that she should run away without helping me! That seemed too +sad and dreadful, when I was in such distress, and I cried and sobbed as +hard as I could. And now I could scarcely get my breath again. + +"Oh! oh! help, help!" + +I could not scream any more, I was so strangely weak. Then I heard many +feet in the kitchen above my head. They came nearer, and down the +stairs, and then the door was opened. All I could do now was to call +very faintly. + +"Oh! Mother, Mother!" + +At the same instant the lid of the meal chest was quickly thrown open. +There stood Mother and Maren and Ingeborg, the cook. Mother lifted me +out; I was crying so hard I could not say a word, nor explain at all +how it happened. However, a little while after I was as lively as ever. + +"Oh, you ugly Maren--who wouldn't help me!" + +"I thought it was a shriek from the underworld!" said Maren. "And I was +so frightened! It clutched my heart. Oh! I shall never get over it." +Maren sat on the corner of the potato bin and wept aloud. + +Mother didn't know whether to scold Maren or to laugh at her. She +behaved exactly as if it were she and not I who had been shut up in the +meal chest. + +Maren took surely a hundred Hofmann's drops and still she was poorly, +and for many days she whimpered and whined about her fright at the meal +chest. And even yet she cannot hear any mention of meal, or of a chest +or of screaming, without her invariably saying: + +"Yes, it's a wonder that I didn't get my death that time you were shut +up in the meal chest--but I've had a swollen heart ever since then--and +that I can thank you for." + +But Mother says that's all nonsense. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PETS: PARTICULARLY CAROLA-CAROLUS + + +One day a man from Vegassheien came into our kitchen with four live +chickens that he wanted to sell. All hens, he said. We had never had any +pets at our house except Bouncer, our big black cat; and Karsten and I +were seized at once with an overwhelming desire to own these four +half-grown, golden-brown chickens, who lay so patiently in the bottom of +the peasant's basket, put their heads on one side and looked up at us +with their little round black eyes. Oh, if Mother only would buy these +darling chickens for us! It is such fun to have pets. + +Speaking of pets makes me think of Uncle Ferdinand, and the pet monkey +he had. + +You know Uncle Ferdinand? The elegant old gentleman dressed in gray, +who bows so politely, and has such a friendly smile for everybody. Yes, +all the world knows him. He is not really my uncle--or any one's uncle, +that I know of; every one just calls him Uncle, because it seems as if +it exactly suited him. He is certainly the kindest person in the world. +All poor people love him; and he likes all people and all animals. + +His wife is Aunt Octavia, and they are very rich and live in a charming +house, with lots of rooms, where there are a great many beautiful +things, works of art and such things. Off in her little boudoir, Aunt +Octavia lies on a sofa all day. She is not really ill, Mother says; she +just lies there because she is so rich. My! if I had as much money as +Aunt Octavia, I should do something besides lie on a sofa with my eyes +shut! + +Uncle Ferdinand and Aunt Octavia have no children. That is why they are +both so terribly fond of pets. Aunt Octavia likes best little white +silky poodles that are bathed in luke warm soap-suds, wrapped in a +bathing sheet and combed with a fine comb, and that roll across the +floor like little white balls. I really believe she likes such silky +poodles better than anything else in the world. + +But Uncle Ferdinand likes monkeys best. The pet monkey he had was +brought home on one of his ships. The sailors on board had named it +"Stomach," because it was such a great eater, and it was called that all +the rest of its life. + +Uncle Ferdinand certainly was in a scrape that time. At first he didn't +dare to tell Aunt Octavia that he thought of bringing a monkey into the +house; but the ship that Stomach had come on was to leave, you see, and +then Uncle Ferdinand had to tell. I can imagine just how it went for I +know how they talk together. + + * * * * * + +"Wouldn't you like to have a nice new plaything, Octavia? really a +charming plaything, my dear?" + +"A plaything? What do you mean?" + +"A very amusing plaything that jumps about and plays tricks, and could +climb up the curtains, for instance, or sit on your shoulder and eat +cakes." + +"Sit on my shoulder! The man has gone crazy! Don't come any nearer, +Ferdinand, I beg of you. You are ill!" + +"Oh no, Octavia my dear, my mind is all right. I mean--I mean--just a +monkey, my darling." + +"Good heavens! Is he calling me a monkey? What do you mean?" + +"My love, I only mean that there is a monkey on board the ship, that I +would so much like to have here at home." + +"And that is what you were beating about the bush so for! Well, well, +that is just like you. However, I agree to anything you like, of course; +let the creature come--let it come. It will strangle me some fine day, +but I am used to that--I mean, I am used to saying yes and yielding to +others." + +And that is how Stomach came into the house. + +It was the liveliest, most mischievous monkey you can imagine. It stayed +most of the time in Uncle Ferdinand's office. Up and down the +book-shelves it climbed, just like a squirrel; now and then it threw +itself across the room from one bookcase to another. One time it sprang +straight onto the big lamp that hung from the ceiling, and made the +chimney and shade come down in jingling fragments. Stomach hung from one +of the chains, miserable and screaming with fright. This performance it +never repeated. + +Stomach loved nothing in the world so much as matches. Whenever it got +hold of a box of matches it was overjoyed, and immediately climbed up on +the highest bookcase. Here it sat and tossed the matches one by one down +on the carpet. When it grew tired of this it flung the whole box, aiming +with amazing success right at the top of Uncle Ferdinand's head. Uncle +Ferdinand always sat patiently waiting for this last shot; then he got +down on his knees, and picked up every single match! + +But what caused Uncle Ferdinand the most trouble and care was that Aunt +Octavia had strictly forbidden that the monkey should ever come anywhere +near her. Uncle Ferdinand was on pins and needles for fear this should +happen, and scarcely did anything all day but go around shutting doors +to keep Stomach away from her. + +All the servants had been instructed to do the same. Sometimes they were +furious with Stomach, but when it had the toothache and sat with its +hand under its little swollen cheek, and rocked sorrowfully back and +forth like a little sick child, their hearts softened towards it and +they forgave all its pranks. But to keep Stomach within bounds grew more +and more difficult. It unfastened the window-catches, promenaded along +the house walls and on the window-sills. Now and then it whisked through +an open window of another house, returning with the most unbelievable +things, water-jugs and pillows, and cologne-bottles which it emptied +out very thoughtfully and slowly over the dahlia bed. + +No one must even mention Stomach's name before Aunt Octavia. "The mere +name of that disgusting creature nauseates me," she said. Uncle went +about as if on eggs and grew even more careful about shutting the doors. +But one day, in spite of all the caution, the terrible thing happened; +the monkey got into Aunt Octavia's room. Some one had forgotten to shut +a door; like a flash Stomach darted through, ran noiselessly over the +soft carpet even into the sacred boudoir, gave a spring up onto Aunt +Octavia, who lay with closed eyes on her sofa, and burrowed its whole +little body in under her arm. + +Then there was a hullabaloo! Aunt Octavia shrieked at the top of her +lungs, and people rushed in. + +"I lie here helpless," said Aunt Octavia; "it could have strangled me. +Ferdinand, what was its object? I ask you, Ferdinand, what was it +thinking of, when it burrowed in under my arm?" + +"Perhaps it wanted to warm itself," said Uncle Ferdinand meekly. + +"Warm itself!" said Aunt Octavia scornfully. "To bite me in the heart +was what it wanted." + +Nothing would satisfy her but that Uncle must take Stomach to the doctor +to be chloroformed, though he would rather have done anything else in +the world! + +But Uncle Ferdinand's monkey really hasn't the least thing to do with +the chickens from Vegassheien that Karsten and I wanted, and that I +began to tell about. + +Hurrah! Mother would buy the four chickens, but only on condition that +Karsten and I should take care of them. Would we do this? + +Why, of course; it would be only fun. I never imagined then all the +bother and rumpus that would come of it. + +Up in our old barn, that has stood for many years unused, there is a +room partitioned off that we call the salt stall, I don't know why. Here +we established our four chickens. I immediately gave them names: Lova, +Diksy, Valpurga, and Carola. Karsten and I stuffed them with food, and +all day they went about scratching in our kitchen garden, where, +however, nothing ever grows. With shallow, sandy soil, and a frightful +lot of sun, you might know it couldn't amount to anything. + +The first thing I did in the morning was to let out the chickens. They +flapped and fluttered around me in the fresh, cool morning stillness +under the maples. It always takes some time for the sunshine to get down +to our place, because of the hill. + +Lova, Diksy, and Valpurga were quite ordinary long-legged chickens that +scratched and picked all day long, but Carola began little by little to +behave with more dignity. She stepped out vigorously, and scratched +sideways, stood still for minutes at a time, just as if she were +listening for something, and always let the others help themselves +first. And one fine day she stood on the barn steps, flapped her wings, +and crowed--a regular hoarse, cracked chicken's crow--but crow she did. +Of course she had to be christened over again, and so I called her +Carolus. + +And it is Carolus' doings that I want to tell about. Not the first year +he lived; he was well enough behaved then. All summer the chickens were +up in the salt stall, but when winter came they were moved down into our +cellar because of the cold. Br-r-r-r! Hens have a wretched time in +winter. The snow lay thick against the cellar window and shut out what +little gray daylight there was, and down there on the stone floor in the +dampness sat all four chickens and moped, their heads drawn down into +their feathers. At such times one can be very glad not to have been born +a hen. However, I went down there every day and comforted them. + +"Think of the summer," I said, "think of the rich ground under the +dewberry hedges, and of the whole kitchen garden in the long sunny +days." + +Carolus flapped his wings a little, but the others didn't even do +that--they were utterly discouraged. + +But at last came the summer. + +Lova, Diksy, and Valpurga each laid a pretty little egg every day up in +the salt stall. What fun it is to go and hunt for eggs! You go and poke +around and hunt and hunt, but they are clever and sly, these hens, and +hide themselves well under pieces of board and rubbish. By and by, off +in some corner you see a gleam of white and there are the eggs, round +and smooth and warm. + +Carolus had become a fine noble-looking cock with long curved +tail-feathers which shone with metallic colors in the sun; but oh, the +trouble he gave me! + +Right at the foot of our hill lives Madam Land in a little old gray +house. Madam Land keeps hens, too. Well! nothing would do but that +Carolus must go down to her chicken-yard. It wasn't half as nice as our +kitchen-garden but he couldn't keep away from it a single day. + +The instant the hens were let out in the morning Carolus made a dash +down the hill, flying and running straight to Madam Land's gate. If the +gate were not open, Carolus flew over the board fence and down into the +midst of Madam Land's flock of hens. I called and I coaxed; I scolded +him and chased him. No, thank you! Carolus crowed and squawked, and flew +up on the board fence; he put his head on one side and looked down at +me, and no sooner was I well out of the way than he was in the yard +again and there he stayed all day. + +Every single night I had to go down to get him after he had gone to +roost with Madam Land's hens. Then there was a racket, I can tell you! +The hens cackled and squawked and flew down from the roost, even hitting +against my face as they flew. You couldn't hear yourself think in Madam +Land's hen-house. + +But I took firm hold of my good Carolus. He kicked and struggled, but I +held his shining warm body close to me and could feel his heart beating +and hammering as I ran home with him. + +Every single night this performance had to be gone through, and every +single night Madam Land stood in her kitchen door and scolded when I +went past with Carolus in my arms. + +"Oh, yes! he's the pampered one--oh, yes, he's the one that's getting +fat--he eats enough for four hens--there's surely law and justice to be +had in such cases--yes, indeed, he's the pampered one." I could hear +Madam Land's voice following me all the way up our hill. + +Madam Land herself doesn't look as if she were pampered. Her husband is +a boatman. She is frightfully saving. They say in the town that Madam +Land boils only three potatoes for dinner every day, "two potatoes for +Land, one for the maid, and I don't need any," says Madam Land. And only +think, day after day she had to see that big Carolus of ours eating out +of the dish she had filled for her own hens. Any one could understand +Madam Land's being angry. + +One day Madam Land came up to our house to complain to Mother about +Carolus. + +Now I hadn't said a word to Mother about the way Carolus had been +behaving lately. I had a dark misgiving that it would work against my +gallant Carolus in some way. Mother was very much annoyed, and said that +I was to be so good as to keep Carolus shut up hereafter. For two days I +kept him in the salt stall. He hopped up on the window-sill and pecked +at the small green panes. But the third day I was so terribly sorry for +him that I let him out. + +"You'll see he has forgotten all about it," said Karsten. +Forgotten!--no, thank you! Carolus was already off. He screeched for joy +and flew straight into Madam Land's yard. + +"Well, then, we'll tie him," said Karsten suddenly. That was an +excellent idea, I thought. First we found a long string, and then we +went down after the sinner. Naturally he didn't want to come home again; +Madam Land's whole yard was just one uproar of frightened hens, we ran +about so, driving them here and there, before we got hold of Carolus. We +tied the string around his leg and tethered him beside the barn steps. + +After we had done this, I went in to study my lessons, but I hadn't been +studying five minutes before I had a queer feeling of uneasiness, and +had to go out to see how Carolus was getting on. There he lay on the +ground; he had twisted and wound the string around himself countless +times,--he just lay on his side and gasped. I freed him in no time; for +a moment he lay still, then he got up suddenly, flapped his wings hard +and--away he went, with outspread wings that fairly swept the ground, +and disappeared in Madam Land's yard. That night I didn't go to get him. +The fact is I didn't dare to, because of Madam Land. + +As I came home from school the next day I went round by Madam Land's. +Carolus stood in the yard eating Madam Land's chicken-feed and sour milk +with excellent appetite. His big red comb hung down over one eye. The +other eye, that was free, he turned towards me as if he would say, "I +know you well enough, Mistress Inger Johanne, but go your way--I intend +to stay here for good and all." + +"Well," I thought, "let them scold as they please about you, Carolus; +you are surely the most beautiful cock in all the world--but you are +mine, you must remember." + +When evening came I had studied out a plan for catching Carolus without +Madam Land's seeing me. She kept her hens in a part of the wood-shed +that was boarded off. Behind this was an open field, and high up in the +back wall, right under the roof, there was a little window that always +stood open. Through that window I meant to go to get Carolus. There was +an old ladder in our barn; I got Peter and Karsten to carry it down the +hill and set it up under the window. Both Peter and Karsten wanted to +climb up, but I said no; such a difficult undertaking no one but myself +could manage. + +It was about nine o'clock in the evening and growing dark. I climbed the +ladder and got to the top round all right. But whether it was that the +ladder was rotten or that Peter and Karsten let go of it,--I had no +sooner got hold of the window-sill and dragged myself in than down fell +the ladder, breaking all to pieces as it fell. + +So there I was in a pretty fix! And how Karsten and Peter laughed down +below! I was furiously angry with them, especially at the way Peter +laughed. When Peter laughs it is just as if some one had suddenly +tickled him in the stomach; he doubles himself together, twists like a +worm, and laughs without making a sound. But Karsten roared at the top +of his voice. + +"Will you stop your laughing, Karsten? You will betray me making such a +noise." + +"How will you get down again?" + +"Oh, I'll jump down." It was certainly ten or twelve feet to the ground. +"Now I am going in after Carolus; I'll drop him down from here, and you +must be sure to catch him." + +I groped my way down the half-dark stairway from the loft, stumbled +along, in the pitch-black darkness of the shed, over a chopping-block +and a heap of shavings, and at last got to the part of the wood-shed +where the hens were. I opened the door softly and fumbled with my hand +along the roost they were sitting on. But, O dear! O dear! such a +squawking and screeching! You haven't the least idea how Madam Land's +hens could squawk. It was exactly as if I were murdering them all at +once. Outside of the wall I could hear Karsten fairly howling with +laughter. I kept fumbling around in the dark, for I wanted to find +Carolus. I think I got hold of every single hen; all their beaks were +stretched wide, letting out one and the same piercing squawk. + +[Illustration: And how Karsten and Peter laughed down below!--_Page +109._] + +Then I heard the door of Madam Land's kitchen thrown open, and footsteps +across the yard--then Madam Land's voice, "Come with your stick, Land, +there are thieves in the hen-house." The door of the wood-shed was +opened and Madam Land's maid burst in and saw me. "It is the judge's +Inger Johanne, madam," she called. + +"Is it that spindleshanks again?" I heard Madam Land say--yes, she +really said "spindleshanks"; but to me she only said, "Your cock is not +here, girl; he has not been here all day--not for two or three days, I +believe." + +"But he was here this morning." + +"Not at all. You didn't see straight. He is not here, I tell you." + +I ran home completely at a loss. What in the world had become of +Carolus? The next day I searched everywhere. I went around to all the +houses in the neighborhood and asked after my cock. No, no one had seen +him anywhere. + +Then all at once a frightful suspicion arose in my mind: Madam Land had +cut off Carolus' head! + +Oh, what a shame, what a shame!--what a shame for her to do that! How I +cried that day! It did no good for them to say at home that perhaps +Carolus would come back, and that even if he didn't, it wasn't at all +sure that Madam Land had made an end of him; he might easily have just +gone astray himself. + +No, I didn't believe that for a moment. It was Madam Land who had +murdered him, and I thought it was mighty queer of Father that he +wouldn't put her on bread and water for twenty days, for she deserved +it. + +The only thing that consoled me was that I myself never had to see +Carolus served up in white sauce in a covered dish on the dinner table. +Never--never in the world--would I have tasted a bit of Carolus! + + * * * * * + +Well, something always does happen to pets--think of Uncle Ferdinand's +monkey. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CHRISTMAS MUMMING + + +It was Christmas Eve when we went mumming, and oh! how glorious the +moonlight was! Down in our streets and up over our hills the moon shines +clearer than it does anywhere else on the face of the globe, I'll wager. + +Massa, Mina and I had dressed ourselves up in fancy costumes. "If any +one asks where you are from," said Mother, when we were ready to start, +"you can safely say, 'From the Land of Fantasy.' You certainly look as +if you came from there." + +Massa had on a light blue dress trimmed with gold-colored cord. It was +one of Mother's heirlooms from Great-grandmother Krag, and had a tiny +short waist and big puffed sleeves. Massa wore also a green velvet hat, +and her thick long flaxen hair hung loose down her back. + +Mina was dressed in silk from top to toe; an old-time dress of flowered +brown silk with a train, a green silk shawl and a big white silk bonnet +that came away out beyond her face. + +When the others were ready, there was nothing fine left for me, so I had +to take a white petticoat, and a dressing sacque, and a big +old-fashioned Leghorn hat that Mother had worn when she was young. To +decorate myself a little, I carried a beautifully carved _tine_ in one +hand and a red parasol in the other. We all wore masks, of course,--big +pasteboard masks, which came away down over our chins, with enormous +noses and highly colored red cheeks. + +Well, off we went and soon stood at the foot of our hill in a most +daring mood, ready for all sorts of pranks. + +I don't know who proposed that we should go first to Mrs. Berg's, but we +all chimed in at once. We crept softly up to her door-step. + +Unluckily for us, as it happened, Mrs. Berg has a great iron weight on +her street door,--so that it will shut of itself, you know. What the +matter was, I can't imagine, but as soon as we had given one knock at +the door, down fell that iron weight to the floor with a thundering +crash. We were so frightened that we were on the point of running away +when Mrs. Berg and her husband came bustling out to the door with a +lighted lamp. + +"No, thanks," said Mrs. Berg, as soon as she caught sight of us. "I +don't want anything to do with such jugglery as this! Out with you, and +that quickly!" + +"Oh, no, little Marie," said her husband. "You ought to ask the little +young ladies in. They are not street children, don't you see?" Mina's +magnificent clothes evidently made an impression on him. + +Mrs. Berg mumbled something about its being all the same to her what +sort of people we were, but Mr. Berg had already opened the door and +respectfully asked us to walk in. + +It was as hot as a bake-oven in the sitting-room, and so stuffy and +thick with tobacco smoke that I thought I should smother behind my mask. +Mr. Berg bowed and bowed and set out three chairs for us in the middle +of the room. Now we had planned at home that we would use only P-speech +while mumming, for then no one would know us. + +"May I ask where these three elegant ladies come from?" asked Mr. Berg. + +Massa undertook to answer, but she was never very clever at P-speech and +she got all mixed up: + +"From-prom. Fan-tan-_pan_--pi-ta--sa-si p-p-p----" she stammered, in a +hopeless tangle, while Mina and I were ready to burst with laughter. + +"Bless us! These must be foreigners from some very distant land,--they +speak such a curious language. You must treat them with something, +Marie." + +Marie didn't appear very willing to treat us to anything, but she went +over to a corner cupboard and brought out a few cookies,--pale, +baked-to-death "poor man's cookies." They looked poor, indeed! I +shuddered before I stuck a piece into my mouth. + +To eat with a mask on, when the mouth is no wider than the slit in a +savings-bank, has its difficulties, I can tell you. The little I did get +in tasted of camphor. Mrs. Berg must have kept her medicines in the same +closet with the cakes. + +"Perhaps the little ladies would like something more," said Mr. Berg. + +"No, thanks--No-po, thanks-panks." And we all three rose to go. We +curtsied and curtsied. Mr. Berg bowed and bowed. Mrs. Berg turned the +key in the street door after us with a snap, and I heard her say +something about "that long-legged young one of the judge's!" + +Oh! how we laughed! "Now we will go to Mrs. Pirk's," said I. + +"Inger Johanne! Are you crazy? She is worse than Mrs. Berg!" + +"That makes it all the more wildly exciting! Come on!" + +We crept stealthily into Mrs. Pirk's kitchen. It was pitch dark in there +except for a little light through the keyhole of the sitting-room. + +"Hush! Keep still!" Mrs. Pirk coughed suddenly and we all quaked. + +"Now she will surely come!" Silence again. We were half-choked with +laughter. + +"I am going to clear my throat," said I. "Ahem!" + +"Ahem!" I gave a very loud, strong one the second time. + +A chair was hastily shoved aside in the sitting-room, the door opened, a +sharp light fell on our three fantastic figures, and Mrs. Pirk stood in +the doorway with her spectacles on her nose. I stepped forward. + +"Good-pood day-pay!" Mrs. Pirk went like a flash to the fireplace and +grabbed a broom-stick. + +"Get out!" she cried. "Out with you!" + +So out of the door we ran, stumbling and tumbling over each other, Mrs. +Pirk after us with her uplifted broom, out into the moonlit street. Oh! +it was unspeakable fun to be chased out-of-doors that way by Mrs. Pirk! + +Well--then we went on to the Macks'. + +They were sitting alone in their big light sitting-room, as we went in. +Mrs. Mack was playing "patience" and Mr. Mack sat by her side smoking +his long pipe and pointing out with the end of it which card he thought +she ought to take next. + +We pressed close together around the door and curtsied. + +"Why, see! Welcome to youth and joy!" said Mrs. Mack, rising. "What nice +young people these are to come to visit a pair of old folks like us!" + +Mr. Mack came forward and pointed with the end of his pipe over our +heads, saying: + +"Up on the sofa with you! Up on the sofa with you, all three!" + +So there we sat, as if we were distinguished guests, with the lamp +shining full upon us. + +"I see you have a _tine_ with you," said Mr. Mack, looking at the _tine_ +I carried. "Have you something to sell, perhaps? And where may these +pretty little ladies be from?" + +"I-pi sell-pell butter-putter," said I. + +"We are from the Land of Fantasy," said Massa, without attempting +P-speech again. + +"Why! They don't make butter in the Land of Fantasy, do they?" asked +Mrs. Mack. + +Just then the servant came in with an immense tray, and on it was +something very different from Mrs. Berg's camphorated cookies, I assure +you! I thought with grief of my mask mouth no bigger than a savings-bank +slit. + +"And now what about unmasking?" said Mr. Mack. "That is, if these ladies +from the Land of Fantasy are willing to liven up an evening for a couple +of old people." + +Were _willing_! We took our masks off in a jiffy. But, would you believe +it? Mr. Mack said he knew me the very minute we came in! + +Mrs. Mack took a glass of Christmas mead and recited: + + "Oh! I remember the happy ways + Of my gay and innocent childhood days. + And I love to feel that my old heart swells, + With the same pure joy that in childhood dwells." + +"Mamma composed that herself," said Mr. Mack, gazing admiringly at his +wife. + +Later in the evening, Mrs. Mack danced the minuet for us, holding up her +skirt and singing in a delicate old-lady voice. Then she said: + +"Do you remember, Mack? Do you remember that they were playing that air +the evening you asked me to marry you?" + +"_Do_ I _remember_?" And Mr. Mack and his wife beamed tenderly at each +other. + +"Think! That such a homely woman as I should get married!" said Mrs. +Mack to us on the sofa. + +"You homely!" and Mr. Mack gave the dear old lady a kiss right on the +mouth. + +"Now we shall see, children, whether, when you get old, you have done +like Mack and me. We have danced a minuet our whole life through, and +the memories of youth have been our music." + +When we went home at the end of the evening, we had our pockets crammed +full of apples and nuts and cakes. + +It is jolly fun to go out mumming at Christmas! Just try it! + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MOTHER BRITA'S GRANDCHILD + + +It was an afternoon in the spring. There had been a heavy fall of snow +the day before and then suddenly a thaw set in. So very warm was the air +and the sun so burning hot that the water from the roof gutters came +rushing and tumbling out in regular waterfalls; and big snowslides from +the housetops thumped down everywhere, making a rumbling noise all along +the streets. + +The walking I won't try to describe. There were no paths made, just the +frightfully soft melting snow, so deep that it came exactly half-way to +your knees. So there wasn't much pleasure in walking, I assure you; and +we hadn't a thing to do. + +The steamships from both east and west were delayed by the snow-storm, +so there was no fun in going to the wharf and hanging around there. +Usually it is amusing enough,--always something new to see and something +happening; and now and then we have fun seeing the queer seasick people +on board the ships. Just outside of our town there is a horribly rough +place in the sea where cross currents meet, and the passengers look +forlorn enough when the ship gets to the wharf. + +But all this isn't really what I meant to tell about now; I started to +tell about the afternoon when we played a lot of pranks simply because +there wasn't a thing else to do. Truly, that was the reason. Now you +shall hear. + +Karen, Mina, Munda, and I were together that afternoon. Not a person was +to be seen on the street and it was disgustingly quiet and dull +everywhere. The only pleasant thing was that there came a tremendously +big heavy snowslide right down on the little shoemaker, Jorgen. + +[Illustration: The only pleasant thing was that there came a +tremendously big, heavy snowslide right down on the little +shoemaker.--_Page 123._] + +Well, I don't mean that that was a pleasure exactly, you understand, but +it made a little variety. + +Just as he came around the corner, by Madam Lindeland's, b-r-r-r! there +was a rumbling above, and down upon him slid a whole mass of snow from +Madam Lindeland's steep sloping roof. He was knocked completely over, +and all we could see of him was a bit of his old brown blouse sticking +up through the snow. + +In a flash Mina, Munda, Karen, and I were on the spot, digging him out +with our hands. Before you could count ten, he was up, but you had +better believe he was angry! Not at us exactly, but at the snow, and the +thaw, and the town itself that was so badly arranged that people walking +in the streets might be killed before they knew it. + +"Preposterous, the whole business," grumbled the shoemaker. "Who would +dream that there would be such a thaw right on top of such an +unreasonable snow-storm--and in March, too!" + +Then he noticed that he had lost his cap, so we dug in the snow again, +searching for it, and had lots of fun before we finally found it. + +All this excitement over the snowslide made us crazy for more fun, and +we decided that we would go to Madam Graaberg and ask her if she had +white velvet to sell. Madam Graaberg has a little shop in a basement and +sells almost nothing but _lu-de-fisk_ (fish soaked in lye, with a rank +odor). + +First we peeped in the window between the glasses of groats. Yes, there +were many people in the shop and Madam Graaberg stood behind the counter +as usual. She is as big as three ordinary women and her eyes are as +black as two bits of coal; and my! how they can flash! + +We plumped ourselves down into the shop, all four of us. It smelled +frightfully of _lu-de-fisk_ and the whole floor was like a puddle from +all the wet feet. A fine place to go to ask for white velvet! And Madam +Graaberg has an awful temper, let me tell you! + +There were many customers to be waited on before us, so we stood +together in a bunch at the farthest end of the counter. The time dragged +on and on before they had all got their _lu-de-fisk_, for that was what +they wanted, the whole swarm of them. + +On the counter beside me, there was a big new ball of string in an iron +frame, the kind that whirls around when you pull the string. The end of +the string dangled so invitingly close to me, and waiting for Madam +Graaberg to be ready to attend to us was so tedious, that I busied +myself with taking the end of the string and slyly tying it fast to one +of the buttons on the back of Munda's coat. Of course I meant to untie +the string before we went out, but Madam Graaberg turned suddenly to us. + +"What do you want, children?" asked she, portly and dignified, towering +over the counter. + +We were all a little bewildered because she had come to us so abruptly, +but we pushed Munda forward. My, how uncomfortable she looked! + +"Have you any white velvet for sale?" asked Munda feebly. + +I gave a spring towards the door, for it seemed best to get away at +once. Two maids stood there, who roared with laughter. "Ha ha! Ha ha! +Madam Graaberg, that's pretty good. Ha ha!" + +"White velvet," hissed Madam Graaberg. "White velvet! Make a fool of me +in my own lawful business, will you? Out of my shop this instant!" + +She didn't need to tell us twice. We dashed helter-skelter out of the +door, all four of us, splashing the mud and slush recklessly. + +Suddenly Munda cried out, "Oh, I'm fast to something! I'm fast to +something behind!" + +Just think! I had forgotten to untie the string from the button! I +thought I heard a buzzing noise when we flew out of the door, but it +never occurred to me that it could be the string-ball whirling around in +its frame. + +There was no time now to untie the knot, for Madam Graaberg was right +out in the street and calling after us. They were not exactly gentle +words she was using, either, you may well believe! + +"Oh, but I'm fast--I'm fast!" shrieked Munda again. + +"Tear off the button!" I shouted. Munda made some desperate efforts to +get hold of her own back. No use; so I took hold of the string and gave +a great jerk and off came the button. Munda was free and we dashed round +the street corner. + +"Uh, uh huh!" sobbed Munda. "Mother'll be so angry about that button!" + +"Pooh!" said I. "Just sew the hole up, and you can always find a button +to put over it. But oh, girls! How jolly angry Madam Graaberg was!" + +"Yes, and wasn't she funny when she said, 'Out of my shop this +instant'?" + +We were tremendously pleased with our joke. We talked and +laughed--enjoying ourselves immensely; but we hadn't had enough +tomfoolery yet. + +"Girls," I said, "now let's go to Nibb's shop and ask whether he has +white velvet." + +All were willing. To think of asking that queer Mr. Nibb for white +velvet, when he kept only shoe-strings and paraffin for sale! My! but +that would be fun! Mr. Nibb always has the window shades tight down over +his shop windows, so that not the least thing can be seen from the +street. He isn't exactly right in his mind--and do you know what he did +once? + +It was in church and I sat just in front of him and had on my flat fur +cap. He is a great one to sing in church and he stands bolt upright and +sings at the top of his voice. And just think! He laid his hymn-book on +top of my cap just as if it were a reading desk, and I didn't dare to +move my head because he might get in a rage if I did. So he sang and +sang and sang, and I sat and sat there with the hymn-book on the top of +my head. + +Well--that was that time--but now we stood there in the street +considering as to whether we should go in and ask him if he had white +velvet. + +"No, we surely don't dare to," said Karen. + +"Oh, yes we do," said I. "He can't kill us." + +"Who knows?" said Karen. "He isn't just like other people." + +"Pooh! When there are four of us together----" No, they didn't want +to--so I suddenly threw the shop door wide open and then we had to go +in. Mr. Nibb came towards us bowing and bowing. We pushed Munda forward +again. + +"Have you any white----" began Munda in a shaking voice. And then our +courage suddenly gave way and Karen, Mina, and I sprang to the door as +quick as lightning, slamming the door after us, and not stopping until +we were at the farther corner of the street. And then we saw that Munda +wasn't with us! Why in the world hadn't she come out? What was happening +to her? We rushed back and listened outside the shop door. Not a sound +was to be heard. Karen and Mina were both as white as chalk. + +"It's all your fault," they whispered to me. "Who knows what danger +Munda is in?" + +At that I was so frightened that I didn't know what I was doing, and I +threw the door open at once. + +There sat Munda on a chair in the middle of the shop, holding a big +apple, and Mr. Nibb stood with his legs crossed, leaning against the +counter in a jaunty attitude and talking to her. + +"Are there many dances in the town nowadays--young ladies?" asked Mr. +Nibb, turning to us, as we, pale as death, entered the shop. + +No answer. + +"Or engagements among the young people perhaps," he continued--polite to +the last degree. + +"People live so quietly in this town;--one might call himself buried +alive here, so that a visit from four promising young beauties +is--ahem--an adventure!" + +Dear me! how comical he was! None of us said a word. Suddenly Munda got +up. + +"A thousand thanks," she said and curtsied--the apple in her hand. + +"Thank you," we echoed, all curtseying; though really I haven't the +least idea what we were thanking him for! + +"Ah--bah!" said Mr. Nibb waving his hand. "It is I who must thank you. I +am much indebted to the young ladies for this delightful call." + +With this he opened the door, and came away out on the steps and bowed. + +Oh, how we laughed when he had gone in and the door was shut again. We +laughed so we could scarcely stand. + +"What did he do when you were alone, Munda?" + +"He sprang after a chair," said Munda. "And then he sprang after an +apple--and then he stood himself there by the counter just as you saw +him and began to talk--oh! how frightened I was!" + +"What did he say?" + +"Ha ha! he--ha ha!--he asked me if I were engaged!" + +"Ha ha ha! that was splendid." + +"And just then you all came in." + +"Ha ha! Ha ha ha!" + +By this time it was so late that we must start for home and we took the +quickest way, over High Street. It was almost dark and there was +scarcely a person in sight, as we ran up the street through the March +slush and mud. + +"Oh, let's knock on Mother Brita's windows!" said I, and we knocked +gaily on the little panes as we ran past the house. + +At that moment Mother Brita called from her doorway. + +"Halloa!" she called. "Come here a minute. God be praised that any one +should come! Let me speak to you." + +We went slowly back. Perhaps she was angry with us for knocking on her +windows. + +"Here I am as if I were in prison," said Mother Brita. "My little +grandchild is sick with bronchitis and I can't leave him a single +minute; and my son John, you know him, is out there at Stony Point with +his ship, and is going to sail away this very evening, and he sails to +China to be gone two years,--and I want so much to say good-bye to +him--two whole years--to China--but I can't leave that poor sick baby in +there, for he chokes if some one doesn't lift him up when the coughing +spells come on--oh, there he's coughing again!" + +Mother Brita hurried in, and all four of us after her. A tiny baby lay +there in a cradle, and Mother Brita lifted him and held him up while the +coughing spell lasted. He coughed so hard that he got quite blue in the +face. + +"O dear! You see how it is! Now he'll go away--my son John--this very +evening, and I may never see him again in this world, uh-huh-huh!" + +Poor Mother Brita! It seemed a sin and a shame that she should not at +least see her son to bid him good-bye. + +"I'll sit here with the baby until you come back, Mother Brita," said I. + +"Yes, I will too." + +"So will I, and I." All four of us wanted to stay. + +"Oh, oh! What kind little girls!" said Mother Brita. "I will fly like +the wind. Just raise him up when the spells come on. I won't be long on +the way either going or coming. Well, good-bye, and I'm much obliged to +you." With that Mother Brita was out of the house, having barely taken +time to throw a handkerchief over her head. + +There we sat. It was a strange ending to an afternoon of fun and +mischief. The room was very stuffy; a small candle stood on the table +and burned with a long, smoky flame, and back in a corner an old clock +ticked very slowly, tick--tock!--tick--tock! + +We talked only in whispers. Very soon the baby had another coughing fit. +We raised him up and he choked and strangled as before, and after the +coughing, cried as if in pain, without opening his eyes. Poor little +thing! Poor baby! + +Again we sat still for a while without speaking; then--"I'm so +frightened--everything is so dismal," whispered Karen. + +Deep silence broken only by the clock's ticking and the baby's +breathing. + +"I think I must go," she added after a minute. + +"That is mean of you," whispered I. + +"I must go, too," whispered Munda. "They are always so anxious at home +when I don't come." + +"I must go too," whispered Mina. + +Then I got a little angry. "Oh well, all right, go, every one of you! +All right, go on, if you want to be so mean." + +And only think, they did go! They ran out of the door, all three, +without a word more. Just then the baby had another attack and I had to +hold him up quite a long time before he could get his breath again. + +And now I was all alone in Mother Brita's little house. Never in my +life had I been in there before, and it was anything but pleasant, you +may well believe. It was very dark in all the corners, and the poor baby +coughed and coughed; the candle burned lower and lower and the clock +ticked on slowly and solemnly. No sign of Mother Brita. + +Well, I would sit here. I wouldn't stir from here even if Mother Brita +didn't come back before it was pitch-dark night--no, indeed, I would +not. I would not. Not for anything would I leave this pitiful little +suffering baby alone. + +He was certainly very sick, very, very sick; perhaps God would come to +take him to-night. Just think, if He should come while I sat there!---- + +At first this made me feel afraid, but then I thought that I need not be +afraid of God--of Him who is kinder than any one in the world! The baby +coughed painfully and I lifted him up again. + +Everything was so queer, so wonderfully queer! First had we four been +racing about, playing pranks and thinking only of fun all the +afternoon--perhaps it was wrong to play such mischievous pranks--and now +here was I alone taking care of a little baby I had never known anything +about;--a little baby that God or His angels might soon come for and +take away. I had not the least bit of fear now. I only felt as if I were +in church,--it was so solemn and so still. In a little while, this poor +baby might be in Heaven,--in that beautiful place flooded with glorious +light,--with God. And I, just a little girl down here on earth, was I to +be allowed to sit beside the baby until the angels came for him? + +I looked around the bare, gloomy room. It might be that the angels who +were to take away Mother Brita's grandchild were already here. Oh, how +good it would be for the poor little baby who coughed so dreadfully! + +The clock had struck for half-past seven, for eight o'clock, and +half-past eight, and there was just a small bit left of the candle. The +sick baby had quieted down at last, and now lay very still. + +There came a rattling at the door; some one fumbled at the latch and I +stared through the gloom with straining eyes, making up my mind not to +be afraid. The door opened slowly a little way, and Ingeborg, our cook, +put her round face into the opening. + +"Well, have I found you at last? And is it here you are? I was to tell +you to betake yourself home. Your mother and father have been worrying +themselves to pieces about you, and----" + +"Hush, Ingeborg! Be still. He is so sick, so very sick." + +Ingeborg came over to the cradle and bent down. Then she hurriedly +brought the bit of candle to the cradle. + +"Oh, he is dead," she said slowly. "Poor little thing! He is dead,--poor +little chap!" + +"Oh no, Ingeborg, no!" I sobbed. "Is he dead? For I lifted him up every +single time he coughed. Oh, it is beautiful that he is dead, he +suffered so, and yet,--oh, it seems sad, too!" + +"I will stay here with him now until Mother Brita comes home," said +Ingeborg. "For you----" + +"How did you know I was here?" + +"Why, Karen and Munda came into the kitchen just a few minutes ago, and +told me." + +She said again that she would stay in my place, but I couldn't bear to +go before Mother Brita came back. + +Shortly after, Mother Brita hurried in, warm, and out of breath. "Oh, +oh! how long you have had to wait," she said in distress. "I couldn't +find John at Stony Point, I had to go away into town. I suppose you are +angry that I stayed so long." + +"The baby had to give up the fight, Mother Brita," said Ingeborg. + +"Give up? What? What do you say?" + +"I lifted him up, Mother Brita, every time he coughed, I did truly," +said I, and then I burst out crying again. I couldn't help it. + +"Yes, I am sure you did, my jewel," said Mother Brita, "and God be +praised that He has taken the baby out of his poor little body. Never +can pain or sin touch him now." + +Mother and Father said that I had done just right to stay, and when +Mother kissed me good-night she said she was sure that the dear God +Himself had been with me and the poor little baby. And that seemed so +wonderful and beautiful and solemn that I could never tell any one, even +Mother, how beautiful it was. + +Up in the churchyard there is a tiny grave, the grave of Mother Brita's +grandchild. I know very well just where it is and I often put flowers +upon it in the summer. What I like best to put there are rosebuds, +fresh, lovely, pink rosebuds. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MASON'S LITTLE PIGS + + +Ugh! I can't stand rainy weather! Especially in summer! Perhaps some +people may like a nasty drizzling rain that keeps on day after day right +in the middle of summer, so that the gooseberries drop from the bushes, +and there is only a soft wet plot of ground where one expected big, +magnificent strawberries and had joyfully kept watch for them day after +day. As for the rose-bushes, only the yellow hips are left on them. Half +decayed rose petals lie sprinkled on the wet earth, and the mignonette +and daisies lie flat on the ground all mouldy and limp. + +Our old house on the hill is the most delightful house in town,--that is +really true--but in rainy weather it is perhaps a little wet up there. +All the water which gathers on the hilltop back of the house runs down +towards us, you see. It trickles and streams in brooks and tiny +waterfalls over the stones, through moss and heather, takes with it a +lot of earth from the kitchen garden (where, truth to tell, there wasn't +much beforehand), and washes out deep gullies in our hillside, leaving +only the clean stones. Every time that it rains really in earnest for +several days, Father has to put wagon-loads of new earth on the hill to +make it look a little respectable again. + +Detestable as these long rainy spells are, Karsten and I have lots of +fun afterwards, when it has poured down by tubfuls for several days and +the hilltop is really soaking and running over with water. + +Karsten and I build waterworks, you see; we build dams and make sluices +and waterfalls. That's fun, I can tell you! + +Massa and Mina can't imagine how I can enjoy myself with anything like +that now that I am so old--thirteen. They make fun of me and tattle +about it at school and to the boys; but I don't bother myself the least +grain about that. I get my feet sopping wet, sure enough, and the bottom +of my dress, and way up my sleeves; and then I have to creep up the back +stairs to change my clothes so that Mother won't see how wet they are. +But oh! the fun Karsten and I have! + +Sometimes we begin away back on the hilltop and make sluices, and wall +them up with heather and moss, so as to make the water run where we want +it to. Karsten carries the stones and gets fiery red in the face, even +with his hat off. I do the walling up and give the orders, for I am the +engineer, you see. + +It must be awfully nice to be an engineer when you are grown up, but sad +to say, I never can be, since I am a girl. However, Karsten can be the +engineer and I can sit in his office and be the one to manage the whole +concern, just as I do on the hilltop here; for Karsten can never think +of anything new to do, but I can. + +A little way down the hill we have our reservoir which all the streams +run into. It is in a particularly good place, a deep hollow close to the +top of the steepest precipice on the whole hill. All it needs is a +little walling up on one side, but that has to be very strong and solid; +for sometimes we have more than two feet of water in the reservoir, and +then it will easily overflow. + +After we have it all built, comes the great moment of letting the +waterfall loose. Karsten and I each have a stout stake,--quick as +lightning we punch a hole through the dam, and down rushes the waterfall +over the precipice. The yellowish marsh water which we have led to the +pool from way back on the hilltop is one mass of white foam. It thunders +and crashes and spatters just like a real waterfall. + +The only nuisance about it is that it lasts so short a time. Even if the +pond is full up to the brim the water can all run out in five minutes. +On that account we always try to let off the waterfall when there is +some one besides ourselves to see it. It doesn't matter who it is, even +if it is only the stone-breaker's child, but we must have at least one +spectator, or we shouldn't care to let off the waterfall. + +Right on the slope below the precipice is the cottage of Soren, the +mason. Our land joins on to his farm. When we let out the waterfall the +water streams down over our land right behind the big walnut tree. It +had always taken the very same course and it never entered my head that +it _could_ take any other. + +But now you shall hear. It had rained twelve days on a stretch, and that +just as the summer vacation had begun. In fact, it seems to me it always +does--every year. Well, never mind that. At any rate Karsten and I were +almost bored to death. It was all right for Karsten to stand out in the +rain and sail birch bark boats in the brewing vat which stood full of +water out in the farmyard, but I outgrew such play years ago, of course. +As for sitting and reading books in the very middle of the summer, there +is no sort of sense in that. At least _I_ don't think there is any fun +in it; so I will say outright that I was dreadfully bored. + +Finally, one day, out came the sun. It shone and it glittered. The +grass, the fences, and the washed-out stones all dripped and sparkled as +the sun sent its blazing light upon them. And there wasn't a crack or a +crevice on the whole hilltop that wasn't brimming over with water. + +Oh! what a waterfall we could make to-day! + +"Karsten! Karsten! Will you come with me and make a waterfall?" + +Karsten had been so desperately bored the afternoon before that he had +put up a swing in the loft. As I called him I saw his face up there in +the dusty green window. The second after, he was down in the yard, and +we were both off for the hilltop. The one single tool that we have to +work with is a little old trough which we use for dipping up water when +we need to. + +Oh! such a summer day as it was up on that hilltop! with the sun +sparkling on the wet purple heather, on the blueberries and red +whortleberries and great wavy ferns covered with pearly water-drops! +But Karsten and I had something else to do, I can assure you, than to +look at all this beauty. For to-day we were going to make Niagara Falls! +We had water enough. + +O my! how Karsten and I slaved that morning! We made an entirely new +watercourse so that we had ever so much more water for the pond. And +then the pond itself had to be made better and bigger. It was ready to +overflow any minute,--it was so full. Karsten slipped in twice and got +wet way above his knees. My! how we laughed! + +It seemed as if there was always a little tuft of moss to stuff in or a +stone to lay in better position, in order to make the pond really tight +and firm; but at last we had it finished. + +But now there was no one at hand, not a single person, to admire the +glorious sight of the waterfall, and I didn't want to have all our hard +work go for nothing. Karsten wanted to let the waterfall loose anyway, +but I wouldn't do it, and we had almost got into a quarrel when, as +good luck would have it, Thora Heja came trudging along across the +hilltop. Thora Heja is an old peasant woman who used to work in the +fields but now goes round getting her living by drowning cats and +cutting hens' heads off for people. + +"Thora Heja, where are you going?" I called out. + +"Oh! I am going down to attend to two hens at the sexton's," shouted +Thora across to us. + +"Wait a little and you shall see Niagara Falls!" + +"See what?" + +"Wait a little and you shall see something wonderful!" + +Karsten and I grabbed our big stakes and quick as lightning tore away +the dam. However it happened, I really don't know, but it must be that +we tore away some big stones we had never disturbed before, and that our +doing this made the whole waterfall take an entirely different +direction. It foamed and crashed--you couldn't hear yourself think!--It +was really magnificent. + +"Hurrah!" shouted Karsten and I. + +But right through the tremendous roar of the waterfall, there came +cleaving the air the wildest pig squeal you ever heard, from the ground +down below us. The waterfall kept on roaring, and the pig squeals grew +worse and worse. + +It never occurred to me for a moment that the pig squeals had anything +to do with our waterfall. We couldn't see what was going on below from +where we stood. I thought Thora Heja was behaving in the queerest way, +however, for instead of standing quietly and admiring the waterfall as +we had expected, she began to shriek and point and throw up her arms +beseechingly and try to tell us something; finally she took to her heels +and vanished through the wet grass down the steep hillside, shouting and +screaming as she went. + +Soon after we heard many voices down below all talking at once, but the +waterfall kept on with its rush and noise, for, as I have said, there +was a tremendous lot of water in the pond that day. All this happened in +a much shorter time than it takes me to write it, you know. + +I heard Soren, the mason's, angry voice. + +"Such a thing as this sha'n't be permitted! I won't have it--not if I +swing for it! Even if it is the judge's children themselves----" + +A sudden suspicion popped into my head. + +"Karsten! Something must have gone wrong with our waterfall!" + +"I'll run down and see!" + +"No! Are you crazy? Don't go! Can't you hear how angry Soren, the mason, +is?" + +By this time the whole pond had emptied itself out. The waterfall had +subsided into little trickling rills, coursing in straggling lines down +the precipice. Then Soren, the mason, appeared in the distance, having +reached a piece of ground where he could look across to where we were. + +[Illustration: She began to shriek and point and throw up her +arms.--_Page 151._] + +He is a thin old man, and dresses in white mason's clothes, and has a +frightfully sharp chin. He was as red in the face as a boiled lobster, +shook his fists at us and shouted: + +"Aha! it's a good thing I have witnesses here against you--you two +rapscallions! setting waterspouts running all over people. You shall +hang for it! you shall hang for it! Two little pigs are dead and the +others nigh unto it. If there never has been a lawsuit before, there +shall be one now for such imposition and abuse. I am going to your +father this very minute to complain of you." + +And Soren, the mason, started up the hill in a terrible hurry, straight +to Father's office. + +Karsten and I looked for an instant at each other. I had a cowardly wish +to run away at once. + +"What shall we do?" asked Karsten. "Shall we hide up on the top of the +hill here all day?" + +"No--we had better go down right away. We shall have to defend ourselves +from Soren, the mason." + +"Yes, perhaps he will say that we set the waterfall on his pigs on +purpose." + +When we got home, there stood Father on the door-steps and Soren, the +mason, down in the yard. + +Oh! how Soren looked! He was wringing his hands and crying and +threatening. Father had a deep wrinkle between his eyes. That's always a +sign that he is angry. + +"What is this I hear? Have you drowned two young pigs of Soren's?" + +"The waterfall went into his pig-pen instead of over our ground," +whimpered Karsten. + +"Explain how it happened," said Father to me; and I explained the whole +of it exactly as it was. I tell you it was lucky for us that we _had_ +come down from the hilltop! + +"Here are ten crowns to pay for your little pigs, Soren," said Father, +"and I hope that will make it all right between us." + +But for Karsten and me it wasn't all right by any means--for I had to +break open my savings-bank and pay Father back for the pigs. And I had +been saving ever since Christmas and had over seven crowns in it. Ugh! +it is horrid that young pigs are such tender little creatures! And all +that afternoon I was kept under arrest up in the trunk-room on account +of the waterfall disaster. + +Karsten got a whipping. He had to give up his savings, too, but there +were only fifteen oere in his bank, for Karsten shakes the money out of +the slit of his savings-bank almost as soon as he has put it in. + +That was the last time in my whole life that I made a waterfall. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +LOCKED IN + + +Right below our old house on the hillside stands the church. It is a +little wooden church, white-painted and low, with irregular windows, one +low and another high, over the whole church. The doors are low and even +the tower is low; the spire scarcely reaches up over the big +maple-trees, as we can see from our windows. But then the maple-trees +are tremendously big. + +Every one in town says that the bells in our church tower are +remarkable. They are considered unusually musical, and I think they are, +too; and nothing could be more fun than to stand up in the tower when +those great bells are being rung! + +It is awfully thrilling--exactly as if your ear-drums would be split. +When you put your fingers in your ears, draw them quickly out, stuff +them in again--it is like a roaring ocean of sound. You should just hear +it! + +It is great fun to slip in after old Peter, the bellows-blower, when he +is going up to ring the bells; to grope your way up the steep worm-eaten +stairs with cobwebs in every corner,--and the higher you go the narrower +and steeper are the stairs; to hide yourself back of the timbers and in +the corners so that Peter sha'n't see you; to stand there in that +tremendous bell-clanging and then to rush down over the old stairs as if +you were crazy, before Peter has shut the tower windows again and +shuffled his way down. + +Peter would be furious if he saw us, you know. However, he has seen us +sometimes, for all our painstaking, though he can't hear us--he is deaf +as a post--and he certainly can scold; and when he scolds he threatens +us with all the worst things he knows of--telling the minister and the +dean and everybody. + +But his scolding doesn't make much difference. Our clambering up into +the tower certainly can't do the least harm to any one; so, even after +he has scolded us, the next time we see him slinking along and squeezing +himself in through the church door (he never opens it wider than just +enough to push himself through exactly like a little black mouse +creeping through a crack), we are right after him, you may be sure. +Sometimes there will be ten or twelve of us, without his knowing a thing +about it. + +But once I got rather the worst of it when I stole up to the church +tower after Peter. It was grewsome, I can tell you, for only think, I +got locked in the church! I have been up in the tower since, just the +same, only I don't dare to go alone any more, though I wasn't exactly +alone that time I'm telling you about, either; I had my little brother, +Karl, with me. But as he was only a little bit of a fellow, he wasn't +any help. + +It was one Saturday afternoon. Every Saturday at five o'clock the +church bells are rung to ring the Sabbath in. Karl and I were just +passing the church when Peter came slinking along with his trousers +turned up as usual. It was an afternoon towards autumn, not dark +yet--far from it--but not so very light either. And how the wind blew +that day! almost a gale. The big maple-trees creaked and groaned. All at +once I had an overwhelming desire to run up into the tower and hear how +the bells sounded when the wind blustered and howled so around the +church. + +"You go home now, Karl," said I, "run as fast as you can. Just let me +see how fast you can run." Oh no! indeed, he wouldn't. He just clung +fast to me and wanted to go with me. Oh well--pooh!--I could just as +well take him along. It would be fun for him, too, to hear the bells. + +When I thought Peter was well up the first flight of stairs I pushed +open the heavy church door with its lead weight, and Karl and I squeezed +into the church. He was heavy to drag up the stairs and I hauled and +dragged as hard as I could, and he never whimpered once,--just thought +it was great fun. + +Peter had already begun to ring. The gale raged up here as if we were +out on a wild sea, and sent mournful wails through all the cracks and +openings. The church tower itself seemed to sway! + +I had got Karl up the last flight of stairs. Back of the great +cross-beam we were splendidly hidden. I peeped out once or twice. Peter +stood with his eyes shut and pulled and pulled on the great rope. The +big bells swung back and forth over our heads. + +Oh! how the bells clanged and how the wind howled and roared! I had to +force myself to stand still and not jump over to the window to look down +upon the trees as they swayed and bowed in the strong blast. But I must +not do it, of course, for then Peter would see me and I should only get +another long scolding preachment. Besides, I had all I could do to keep +fast hold of Karl. He was determined to go out from behind the beam, +and every time the bells rang louder than usual he screamed with +delight. He was welcome to scream as loud as he liked, Peter could hear +nothing of it anyway. + +But all of a sudden, and very much sooner than I had expected, Peter +stopped ringing. One, two, three--he slammed the tower windows shut. As +quickly as possible I hurried Karl down the first two flights, but by +that time Peter was almost upon us. Without thinking of anything except +that Peter mustn't see us, I dragged Karl back into a dark corner, +though it was dusky everywhere. At that moment Peter passed us. He +shuffled along close to us and I could hear how carefully he groped his +way down the stairs. + +All at once it flashed over me that he would get down from the tower +before we did, lock the door and go away. I clutched Karl and dragged +him along over the nearly dark stairs, he stumbling, falling and crying +a little. Peter was already in the weapon-room. + +"Peter, Peter!" I shouted anxiously. "Don't lock it! Don't lock it! I am +up here." + +But do you suppose that Peter heard? Not a bit! + +He opened the heavy church door and slammed it shut again. By that time +I was right there, shouting and hammering at the door; but the key +turned in the lock and Peter went his way round the corner. + +Yes, he had gone, and there were we! + +I was so afraid,--I don't believe I was ever so afraid in my whole long +life! I hammered on the door with my fists, I shouted and screamed. +Nobody heard me. Outside, the storm howled and roared. + +No, I knew well enough that in such weather no one would think of coming +to the churchyard, not even a child or a maid with a baby-carriage. And +the church door opened on the churchyard, not on the street. It was +impossible for any one to hear us all the way from the street in such a +storm. + +I turned around almost wild with fright. What could I do? +Perhaps--perhaps we could get out through a window. + +But if we tried that, we must go into the church itself. And just think! +I got more afraid than ever when I thought of that, for all the ghost +stories I had ever heard came to my mind. Suppose that Mina's +great-grandfather, for instance, whose tomb was in there, should come +walking down the church aisle, stiff and white! + +I clutched Karl's hand so tightly that he screamed. + +"Karl dear--little man--we must go into the church. You won't be afraid, +will you?" + +Karl looked uncertain as he gazed at me and asked: + +"Are you afraid?" + +Then I realized that I must be brave; and when there is a "must" you +can, you know; and there is no use in whimpering, anyway. + +"Are you afraid?" asked little Karl again. + +"Oh, no--no, indeed." + +So I opened the door of the church and peeped in. Rows upon rows of +empty seats showed dimly through the half darkness, but there wasn't the +least sign of Mina's great-grandfather. + +I pulled Karl along, and we almost ran up the church aisle. The whole +time I felt as if something was behind me that I must be on the watch +against. + +O dear, O dear, how frightened I was! + +No, the windows were altogether too high up in the wall even to think of +reaching. For an instant I had a desperate idea of piling seats up on +top of the pulpit and trying to reach a window in that way, but all the +seats were fastened to the floor, and, of course, to move the pulpit was +impossible for me. + +All at once the thought of the bells struck me--I could ring the bells! +I need only climb up to the tower, shove the shutters aside as I had +seen Peter do many a time, and then just ring and ring till people came +and unlocked the church. + +But, O dear!--then the whole town would know of it and talk of it +forever. How frightfully embarrassing that would be! + +No, no, I wouldn't ring the bells. I'd rather shout myself hoarse. So +Karl and I screamed: "Open the door for us! Open the door, open the +door!" But the storm outside roared and howled louder than we could and +no one heard us. We didn't keep quiet an instant. We ran back and forth +screaming, and banging and kicking on all the doors. + +Suddenly I thought of the vestry. Like a flash I darted in there. Oh! +what a relief--what a relief! The windows here were low--only a few feet +above the ground; here it would be easy enough to get out. I rushed to a +window--but would you believe it! there wasn't a sign of a hook or a +hinge! These windows hadn't been opened in all the hundreds of years the +church had stood. That's the way people built in old times. + +Here I was right near the ground and yet couldn't get out. In my +desperation I seized an old book with a clasp that lay there, and +smashed a window-pane with it, and then I stuck my face through the +broken pane and shouted out into the storm, "Open the door!" + +Not a person was to be seen; but merely to feel the fresh air blowing on +my face gave me more courage. + +"Has God a knife?" suddenly asked Karl. + +Yes, I thought He had. + +"Well, if He has a knife, He could just cut the door to pieces, and then +we could go out." + +At that moment I saw old Jens pass the window as he came shambling +through the churchyard. He is a dull-witted fellow who lives at the +poorhouse. + +I wasn't slow in getting my face to the window again, you may be sure! + +"Jens, Jens-s-s! Come and open the door. I'm locked in the church." + +Never in my life shall I forget how Jens looked when he heard me call. +He sank almost to his knees; his lips moved quickly but without a sound +coming forth. + +[Illustration: And smashed a window-pane with it.--_Page 165._] + +At last, when he had quite got it into his head that it was my familiar +face he saw at the vestry's broken window, he drew near very cautiously. + +"Is she in the church?" was what came from him finally in the utmost +amazement. + +"Why, yes, you can see that I am," said I. "Run as fast as you can and +get some one to open the door. Get the minister or the deacon or Peter, +the bellows-blower." + +Jens set down a tin pail he carried and seemed to be thinking deeply. + +"But how came she in church?" + +I had no wish to explain to him. + +"Oh, never mind that! Just run and get the key, do please, Jens." Then +Jens trudged away. + +Oh, how long he was gone! I stared and stared at the lilac bushes +swaying back and forth before the window, twisting and bending low in +the storm, and I waited and waited, but no Jens appeared. It grew darker +and darker and Karl cried in earnest now, and wanted to smash all the +windows with the clasped book. The only thing that gave me comfort was +Jens' tin pail. It lay on the ground shining through the dark. I +reasoned that Jens was sure to come back to get his pail. Finally I +heard footsteps and voices, a key was put in the lock, and there at the +open door stood the deacon, Jens, and the deacon's eight children. + +"Who is this disturbing the peace of the church?" asked the deacon with +the corners of his mouth drawn down. + +"I haven't disturbed anything," said I. "I only want to get out." + +"There must be an explanation of this," said the deacon. "I have no +orders to open the church at this time of the day." + +I began to be afraid that the door would be shut again! + +"Oh, but you will let me out!" said I pleadingly. + +"Ah, in consideration of the circumstances," said the deacon. I did not +wait to hear more, but squeezed myself and Karl out and through the +deacon's flock of children. + +Since that day when I meet old Jens, he bows to me in a very knowing +way; and if I want to tease him I say, "Weren't you the 'fraid-cat that +time I called to you from the church?" + +I myself was more afraid than he was, but old Jens couldn't know that. + +And what do you think of my having to pay for the pane of glass I broke +in the vestry? Well--that was exactly what I had to do, if you please. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +AT GOODFIELDS + + +Now you shall hear about my summer vacation and all sorts of things. + +We stayed at a farm in the country in a high valley. The farm was called +Goodfields, and they certainly were good fields, for such fat horses, +and such round cows, and such rich milk I never saw before in all my +life. For the horses could hardly get between the shafts of the +wagons--that is really true--and the cows were like trolls' cows; the +trolls' cows (in the fairy stories) are so well taken care of that they +shine so you can almost see your face in them, you know. The Goodfields +cows could thank old Kari, the milkmaid, for their plumpness. + +Kari is seventy and looks very, very old. + +All through the week she never sat down, but went puttering about the +whole day long; on Sunday evenings she sat out on the hill and smoked +her clay pipe. I used to lie beside her on the grass. + + "The horse and the man + Have to bear all they can. + But the cow and the wife + Fare the hardest in life," + +said old Kari. And therefore she always raked away the best hay from the +horses and stuffed the cows with it. + +It was out on the hill that Kari told about the Goodfields brownie in +the old days. Old Kari's mother had often driven in a sledge over +Goodfields hill while the brownie stood behind on the runner chuckling +and laughing. But the queer thing was that when they stopped at the top +of the hill or down in the valley, they didn't see him, but no sooner +had they started off than there was the brownie on the runner again. + +It is really horrid that there are no brownies in the world any more! + +Goodfields lay high up among the mountains. There were great green hills +and meadows stretching down towards the fjord, and dark spruce forests +above on the mountain, and far below, the still, shining fjord. And +behind each other as far as we could see there were just mountains, +exquisite blue mountains, rising into the bright sunny air. + +The buildings were very big; there was nothing small at Goodfields, two +big main houses with big drawing-rooms and big canopied beds and big +down puffs, and big goats' milk cheeses like mountains, and big +milk-pans. + +That's the way it was at Goodfields, beauty and plenty everywhere. And +it all belonged to Mother Goodfields. And she was the nicest person in +the world, for she was so kind. She wasn't the least bit cross when we +tagged after her in the dairy and the grain-house, and we might eat all +the green gooseberries in the garden, if we wanted to. And everybody who +was poor and sick went to Mother Goodfields, as all the people in the +neighborhood called her. She was big and strong and earnest and helped +them all. She was a widow and had no children, and it seemed to her so +lonely on the big farm that she took summer boarders. + +On the fjord the little steamboat went up one day and down the next, +with foreigners who sat stretching their legs out on the deck and stared +sleepily at the mountains. + +I am not fond of mountains, to tell the truth. Ugh! when you stay among +them it seems so cramped and horrid. You feel just like a little ant at +last. No, give me the sea, with its seaweed tossing on the waves, and +its rocking boats and vessels, and the reefs and the fresh wind. + +There were many times at Goodfields when it was so downright hot in the +valley that I felt like crying when I thought of the sea. My brother +Karsten felt exactly the same. + +There were eight mothers and eleven children and five teachers at +Goodfields that summer. I can't describe them, it would take too long; +besides all grown up women are alike, it seems to me. There were only +two big children of my age at Goodfields, Petter Kloed and Andrine Voss. +Petter Kloed was very elegant; only think, he wore yellow gloves way off +there in the country. And what he liked best in the world was ice-cream +and champagne. Never in my life had I tasted either ice-cream or +champagne, but I didn't say so, for that would be awkward. And then +Petter Kloed was not really nice to his mother, I think, and that was a +great shame, for Mrs. Kloed doted on him, and would give him anything if +he only looked at it. + +Andrine Voss was hardly pretty at all, but she had awfully long +eyelashes and when she half shut her eyes she looked very mysterious. +But she only looked so, she wasn't the least bit mysterious, for she was +my best friend and did everything I wanted her to the whole summer. + +We have decided that she shall marry a county judge, and I a doctor, +but we will live in the same house and have just the same number of +children. And we are going to be friends all our lives. + +The other children who were at Goodfields that summer were just little +ones, some roly-polys and some thin, pale, little things who were +dressed in laces and took malt extract, and had legs no bigger than +drumsticks. + +One Sunday we went to church. Four fat horses and four wagons started +from Goodfields with the churchgoers. + +It was so peaceful and so beautiful; down on the fjord one boat after +another set out from the opposite side bringing people to church; the +boats left a broad streak behind them in the calm, smooth water. + +We drove past little groups of peasants--women and girls with white +linen head-dresses, and men in shirt-sleeves with their jackets over +their arms, for the sun was roasting hot on the open roads. "Good +cheer," they all greeted us with, and when we had passed I heard them +whisper to each other: "They are the summer folk from Goodfields." + +More and more people gathered along the quiet roads; and there on a +height stood the church,--a white wooden church with a low tower, and a +church-bell which rang with a cracked sound out over the leafy forest +and the fields and the still water. + +The horses were tied in a long row on the other side of the road, and +the boys and men stood leaning against the stone wall around the +churchyard, but the women were farther in among the graves. They all +exchanged greetings, shaking hands loosely, standing well away from each +other. "Thanks for our last meeting," they said, looking quickly away. +It was so queer. People don't do like that in town. + +They sang without an organ, and it sounded so innocent, somehow, and the +church door stood wide open to the sunshine. But what do you think +happened? In came a goat right in the midst of the hymn. + +The church clerk stood in the choir door and led the singing; one of his +arms was of no use; I had heard of that. All at once there in the open +church door stood a goat. I wonder what's going to happen now, thought +I. + +The goat turned his head first one way, then the other,--then as true as +you live he came pattering in. Patter, patter, sounded short and sharp +over the church floor. Every one turned to look, and the singing died +away, little by little, but no one got up to put the goat out. + +Farther and farther up towards the choir pattered the goat. Suddenly the +clerk saw him. For a moment he looked terribly bewildered, then very +thoughtfully he laid his psalm-book aside and walked down the aisle. + +Then you should have seen the clerk engineer the goat out with his one +arm. He had hold of one horn, and the goat resisted, and the clerk +shoved, and so, little by little, they worked themselves down the +church. Oh, I shall never forget it! + +The singing stopped altogether, except that one and another old woman +off in the corners held the tune with shaky voices. I was awfully +interested in seeing how the goat and the clerk got on. If it had been +I, I should have hurried that goat out faster than the clerk did, I'll +wager. + +Down by the door the goat got all ready to jump, wanting to start up the +aisle again. If the tussle had lasted a moment longer I should have had +to laugh--but then the clerk made a mighty effort, turned the goat +entirely around, and there it was--out! + +The clerk in the meantime had risen to the occasion, for at the very +instant that the goat went head over heels down the steps, he took up +the tune just where he had left off, and sang all the way up the aisle. +Awfully well done of him, I think. + +There! Now you understand what it was like at Goodfields, and now you +shall hear about all the different things that happened in our summer +vacation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +OLEANA'S CLOCK + + +At Goodfields, the houses for the farm laborers are up in the forest. +Towards Goodfields itself, the forest is thick and dark, but up where it +has been cleared, willows and alders grow in clumps, and there are tiny +little fields and still smaller potato patches, belonging to each +sun-scorched hut with its turf roof and windows of greenish glass. From +the clearing you can look upward to the mountains, or downward, over the +thick pines and through the leafy trees, to the smooth, shining fjord. + +All the huts for the farm-hands were full to running over with children. +In Henrik-hut there were nine, in Steen-hut eight, and in North-hut +eleven; and they were all tow-headed and bare-footed and all had mouths +stained with blueberries. + +Henrik-hut was the place we summer-boarder-children liked best because +there was a dear old grandmother there with such soft, kind eyes. She +could not go out any more, but sat always in an armchair beside the +window; on the window-sill lay her much-worn brown prayer-book. + +Oleana was Grandmother Henrik-hut's daughter. She was big, very much +freckled, always good-natured, and talked a steady stream, often about +her husband. She didn't seem highly delighted with him. + +"Poor Kaspar!" said Oleana. "He hasn't brains enough for anything. No, I +can truly say he hasn't much sense under his hat. Things would be pretty +bad at Henrik-hut if there were no Oleana here." And Kaspar agreed with +her perfectly. + +"I haven't much sense, or learning either," said Kaspar. "But that's the +way it goes in the world,--one clever one and one stupid one come +together; and so Oleana manages everything, you see." + +Even with Oleana to manage, however, things had often been bad enough at +Henrik-hut. They had almost starved at times, Grandmother, Kaspar, +Oleana and all the nine children. + +"It isn't worth speaking of now," said Oleana, "the hard scratching we +have had many a time. But when the summer boarders,--fine city +folk,--came to Goodfields, luck came to Henrik-hut." + +Oleana did the washing for these summer guests and earned money that +way, you see. + +"It's just as if all this money were given to me!" said Oleana. "For our +Lord fills the brooks with water and the work I put on the clothes is +nothing to count." + +There were beds everywhere in the one room of the hut, and what with +shelves and clothes, wooden bowls and buckets and even shiny +scrap-pictures on the walls, there wasn't a vacant spot anywhere. The +floor was shiningly clean, however, and strewn with juniper boughs, and +the sun shone cheerily through the greenish window-panes, on +Grandmother and the nine tow-headed children, and all. + +Oleana had been married twenty-one years and in all that time had never +owned a clock. Through the long darkness of the winter afternoons and +evenings, when the snow lay thick and heavy on the pine-trees round +about, and the roads were blocked in every direction with high drifts, +there they would be in the hut;--Oleana and Grandmother and the nine +tow-heads and the husband without much sense under his hat,--and not +even the clever Oleana would have the remotest idea what o'clock it was. +In summer she looked at the sun to tell the time, and on clear winter +nights at the stars; though to see these, she had to get up in the cold +and breathe on the thickly frosted window-pane to make a space to peep +through. + +One day while I was at Henrik-hut talking with Oleana, it occurred to me +that we summer-boarder-children might put our money together and buy a +clock for Oleana. The grown-up people wanted to help, and so we got a +lot of money; and a big clock with a white dial and red roses was bought +in the city. + +Then it was such fun surprising Oleana with it! We had an awfully jolly +time. A message was sent to her asking her to come to Goodfields; and +down she came with her hair wet and smooth, and a clean stiff +working-dress on, but having no notion what we wanted of her. + +The clock had been hung up in the hall at Goodfields and its shining +brass pendulum was swinging with a slow and sure tick-tock. All the +ladies stood around and I was to present the clock. + +"Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock;--and that's it." + +Oleana looked as if the sky had fallen. + +"Oh no, no, no!" she cried. "It isn't possible--of course not! Why +should I have that clock?" + +"Because you have so many children," said I. + +Just then the clock struck six clear strokes, and Oleana began to cry. + +"I never knew there were such kind people in the world," said Oleana, as +she stood with folded hands, looking up at the clock through her tears. +"Never, never!" + +She didn't know how she got home, she told us later, only she had felt +as if she were walking on air, she was so happy. + +"And I didn't know enough to thank any one either. I was as if I had +clean gone out of my wits!" + +The first few nights that the clock hung on the wall at Henrik-hut, +Oleana did not have much sleep, for every time the clock struck, she +awoke and called down blessings on all the guests at Goodfields. + +"Everything goes by the clock with us now," said Oleana. "It's nothing +at all to do the work at Henrik-hut when you have a clock." + +[Illustration: "Oleana," said I, "we wanted to give you a clock."--_Page +183._] + +When the dark winter comes, when it snows and blows and the roads are +blocked, how pleasant it will be to think that Oleana Henrik-hut, away +up in the forest above Goodfields, has a clock ticking and ticking, and +striking the hours; and that she does not need now to get up in the +cold, dark nights, breathe upon the frosted panes and peep up at the +stars to find out the time! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A TRIP TO GOODFIELDS SAETER + + +Mother Goodfields had made us a regular promise,--and shaken hands on +it,--that we should go to the saeter some time during the summer. +Goodfields saeter lay about fourteen miles west in the mountains. Every +day I reminded Mother Goodfields of her promise so that she should not +forget it, you see. For it often seems to me that grown-up people forget +very easily. + +We had decided beforehand that it was to be Petter Kloed, Karsten, +Andrine, and I who should go. + +None of the grown-ups would join us. Mrs. Proet said she should have to +be well paid to go, and really, such fine, fashionable ladies as she +aren't fit for a saeter anyway. Miss Mangelsen was afraid there would be +fleas, and Miss Melby was afraid that she being so stout, the boat we +had to cross the mountain lake in would not be strong enough to bear +her. Miss Jordan had been at a hundred saeters, she said, and the only +difference among them was that one was a little dirtier than another; +and that degree of difference she wouldn't bother herself to see, she +said. Mrs. Kloed is so nervous she never dares do anything. So at last +there were none to go but Petter, Karsten, Andrine, and myself, as I +have said. + +Karsten had taken it into his head that at saeters there were always +bears, and that cream at saeters was always exactly an inch thick; and +bears and inch-thick cream were what he wanted to see. Petter Kloed +wished to get hold of certain mountain flowers that he could classify. +Such botany I will have nothing to do with. I smell the flowers and +think they are charming, but I don't care a button which class they +belong to, not I! As for going to the saeter, Andrine and I wanted to go +just for the fun of going. + +Well, one day in August, Olsen, the farm-boy, and Trond Oppistuen were +going to the saeter to cut hay. If we wished, we were welcome to go +along with them. + +If we wished! Hurrah! + +The next morning off we went. The lunch, and Andrine, and I, and +Karsten, and Petter Kloed were in a wagon, and Trond and Olsen walked +alongside with their scythes and rakes on their shoulders. + +Far, far up the mountain we were to go--away up where the trees looked +no taller than half a pin's length, and the thin light air was white and +shining; up there and then far along to the west. + +Olsen was red-haired and freckled, small and wiry. He kept step with the +horse the whole way, but Trond lagged behind us down the slope. + +We all sang, each our own tune, as we climbed. The air was clear, oh! so +clear! The farms in the valley grew smaller and smaller, and the birch +trees we passed were little and stunted. + +Whenever Petter Kloed jumped out of the wagon after a flower or +anything, we whipped the horse so as to get as far ahead of him as +possible; Petter is as lazy as a log and hates to walk a step, so it was +good enough for him. + +Any boy with more grown-up, mannish airs than Petter Kloed puts on could +not be found the world over. He wears long trousers and has been in the +theatre a thousand times, he says; he smokes cigarettes too; and, +always, about everything, no matter what it is, he says, pooh! he has +seen that before; so it seems as if there were nothing left that could +amuse him. Andrine admires him sometimes, I know that very well, but +such silly puppies can go or stay for all I care. However, it was jolly +to have him with us on the saeter trip,--just for the fun of teasing +him, you know. + +Karsten and Petter disputed the whole time as to how high we were in the +air and how high up it was possible to breathe. At last they got all the +way to the moon and Jupiter. + +"I'll bet you anything you choose that Jupiter has air that people could +breathe," said Karsten. + +"That's just the kind of thing such a cabbage-head as you would bet on," +said Petter Kloed. + +At that--only think! Karsten pitched into Petter and then they began to +fight in the back of the wagon. + +"Are you Tartars both of you?" said I, and took a tight grip in the back +of Karsten's jacket. "Don't you jump out of your skin now! If you fly at +people this way as you are always doing, you shall trot back to +Goodfields alone!" + +"He--he is just as much of a cabbage-head as I am," mumbled Karsten, but +he didn't dare to say another word, for after all, he has to respect me, +you see. + +Then I suggested that we should eat some of our luncheon. It's so +pleasant to eat out-of-doors! + +We were high, high up on the mountain, where we could see nothing but +forests and mountains, a whole sea of dark, thick pine forests, and just +mountains and mountains and mountains. There we drank toasts to Norway, +to the summer, and to each other, and sang: "_Ja, vi elsker dette +landet_," our national song, you know, and had an awfully jolly time. + +But up there it was so still, so still! Nothing but gray-brown moor and +dwarf birches, and willows and ice-cold mountain brooks. Far over across +the moor we could see the road like a narrow gray ribbon in the +monotonous brown. Far west were the snow-capped peaks, sharp, jagged and +blue, and with great snow-drifts. It was very beautiful, unspeakably +strange and still. We all grew silent. + +"Ugh! I wouldn't be alone here for a good deal," said Andrine. + +"I would just as soon be here in pitch darkness--if I only had my knife +with me," said Karsten. + +At that instant a ptarmigan flew up right at the side of the road, and +Karsten came near falling backwards out of the cart and measuring his +length on the ground. + +You may be sure we all made fun of him then. + +"He would like to be alone on the mountain, he would! And yet he tumbles +over in fright at a ptarmigan!" + +"If you can stand like a lamp-post in a cart that wobbles the way this +rickety old cart does, I'll cover you with gold," said Karsten, +offended. + +That's the way we kept on. We quarreled and had a jolly time. + +All at once a flock of goats came scrambling down the road as scared as +if their lives were in danger. And we all wished that we might see a +bear. Can you think of anything more exciting than to meet a bear on the +road? + +Petter Kloed would just go very quietly to him and scratch his back. He +had done that a hundred times in the menagerie, he said. For if you just +approached a bear in the right way it was a very good-natured beast, +said Petter Kloed, as he lit a cigarette back there in the cart. + +Karsten would rather wrestle with the bear and strangle him; for if any +one wanted to see a muscle that was a stunner, they could just look +here; and Karsten turned up his jacket sleeves while we all examined his +muscle. + +The road was unspeakably long, however. The horse jogged on and on but +we didn't seem to get a bit farther. After we had eaten all the +luncheon, I thought that never in the world would this road come to an +end. When we asked Olsen how much farther we had to go, he would only +say, "Far away there--and far away there." All I could think of was the +fairy tale about the prince who had to go beyond the mountain into the +blue. Andrine got drowsy and wanted to sleep, and I had to take Karsten +in front with us; for, strangely enough, the longer we rode the less +room there was for Karsten's and Petter's legs in the back of the wagon. +At last they did nothing but kick each other, so Karsten had to come in +front and Petter could sit in lonely grandeur on the wooden lunch-box. + +Finally we came in sight of the water that we had to cross. It was a +large lake, black and still. + +"Hurrah! You must wake up now, Andrine!" + +There lay the boat we were to row over in, and there was the enclosure +where the horse was to be left. Oh, how good it was to stretch one's +legs after sitting so long! + +But now Karsten began to put on airs. He wanted to show how clever he +was in a boat, so he took command, gave orders, and thrashed the air +with his arms,--you never saw such behavior. + +"He's a great fellow in a boat," said Trond. + +The stones at the edge of the lake were wet and slimy. Petter Kloed +clambered into the boat with great care. + +"Look out for yourself, you landlubber!" said Karsten. Then he pressed +an oar hard against a stone to shove the boat out from shore. +Everything was to go at full speed, you see, but the oar slipped and +Karsten went head over heels into the water. It was only by a hair's +breadth that we escaped having that flat, rickety boat turn upside down +with us all. I can tell you I was thoroughly frightened then. I have +always heard that there is no bottom to these mountain lakes, but that +the water goes straight through the earth! Although we were scarcely +more than a fathom's length from shore, the water was deep black, and +you couldn't see any bottom. + +"Oh! Karsten! Karsten!" + +His head bobbed up between the water-lilies and broad green leaves, and +Olsen hauled him up into the boat. + +"Ah-chew! Pshaw! Ah-chew! that horrid oar!" sneezed and scolded Karsten, +as soon as he got his breath. "Horrid old boat! Horrid old water! +Ah-chew!" + +"Now we must row fast," said Trond--"so that this body doesn't get sick, +he is so wet." And Trond and Olsen began rowing briskly over the water. +But Karsten lay in the bottom of the boat with Andrine's and my +raincoats over him, looking awfully fierce and gloomy. I can't tell you +how tempted we were to tease him, but we were so high-minded and +considerate that we didn't do it. Of course, I might have teased him +myself, but if Petter Kloed had tried it, he would have had me to reckon +with. Karsten was furious if we even spoke to him. + +"Are you cold?" I asked. + +"Hold your tongue," said Karsten. + +Trond and Olsen rowed so that the sweat ran down their faces, and soon +there we were, across. We saw Goodfields saeter above the hill and began +running, all four of us. Nobody was to be seen outside the hut, and we +nearly frightened the life out of Augusta, the milkmaid, when we stormed +in upon her. But when she had gathered herself together, she laughed and +her white teeth fairly glistened. + +"Now this is grand! I never could have thought of anything like this!" +said Augusta, the milkmaid. + +Then Karsten had to be undressed and put into Augusta's bed, and all his +clothes were hung by the hearth and Augusta built up such a hot fire to +dry them that they made everything steamy. Suddenly she remembered that +the son from Broker farm was staying at a near-by saeter just now. +Perhaps he had some clothes that Karsten might borrow. Olsen was sent +over there and came home with some things. It was mighty good that +Karsten could get up, for he wasn't very agreeable while he lay in bed, +you may be sure. + +What a sight he was when he was dressed! I shall never forget it. With a +jacket that reached below his knees and Augusta's kerchief on his +head--oh, he did look so funny! But not the least shadow of a smile did +we dare allow ourselves, for he would at once have flown under the +sheepskin bedclothes again, crosser than ever. That's the way Karsten +is, you see. + +Oh, pshaw! A fine rain had begun, the mountains were perfectly black, +and patches of fog lay all around. + +"Perhaps you'd like to fish," said Augusta; "they usually bite in such +weather." + +Trond and Olsen had begun to cut the grass around the hut, and Petter +Kloed and Karsten started off with fishing-rods over their shoulders. +You should have seen Karsten with the fishing-rod and with the kerchief +on his head. + +Andrine and I wanted to help Augusta get dinner, for it was exactly like +playing in a doll-house, only much more fun! Augusta made some +cream-porridge and her face shone like a polished sun--with the heat and +the anxiety that the porridge should be good. We had salt in a paper +cornucopia, milk in wooden bowls, and shining yellow wooden spoons to +eat with. + +What fun! Even if the rain were trickling down the window, we were +enjoying ourselves tremendously. + +Well, now you shall hear what a hullabaloo there was at the saeter that +afternoon. + +It had begun to grow dark, for it was the last of August. Trond and +Olsen had gone to another saeter to see some friends of theirs. +Immediately after dinner Petter and Karsten had gone out to fish again, +because before dinner they had caught only a baby trout about as long as +your finger. However, Karsten broiled that, insides and all. + +Just as Augusta, Andrine and I were milking out in the barn, we heard a +scream that I shall never forget. I thought it was Karsten's voice, and +I was so frightened I didn't know what to do with myself. The whole moor +was so dark that nothing was to be seen. There came another scream, and +without a word Augusta ran out on the moor. But an instant after Karsten +came rushing around the corner of the barn, with face pale as death and +his hair standing straight up. + +"A bear! A bear! He is after me! Oh, help! Oh, oh!" + +Into the barn he dashed, Andrine and I at his heels, hastily shutting +the door. It was pitch-dark in the barn. + +"Was he after you? Where is Petter?" + +My heart was pounding. Bears usually knocked a barn-door in with one +whack, and here we stood in pitch-black darkness. + +Karsten was so out of breath he could scarcely speak. + +"Oh! the way he ran! I never would have believed a bear could run so!" +panted Karsten. + +"Oh!--oh!--oh!" shrieked some one outside the barn. "Help! oh, help!" + +It was Petter's voice, and we heard also an animal breathing quickly and +then something like a growl. + +As with one impulse Andrine, Karsten, and I sprang into a stall behind a +cow. The bear would surely take the cow first before it took us. How +unspeakably frightened I was! Karsten wanted to get behind Andrine and +me too, and puffed and pushed himself in, and we got to fighting there +in the stall just from sheer fright. + +There came a horrible thump against the barn-door, it burst open and +Petter Kloed tumbled into the barn on all fours; and leaping on his +back was a big black beast. + +How Petter howled I could never give you any idea, for such a howl must +be heard if you are to know what it was like. Karsten and I shrieked +with him; and all the cows got up, rattled their chains, and bellowed. + +"Ha ha! Ha ha!" laughed Augusta from the barn-door. "Did any one ever +see such doings! Oh, I really must laugh! I was pretty sure it was the +dog, old Burmann. There hasn't been a bear on this mountain the whole +year. Shame on you, Burmann, to frighten folk this way!" + +"How you did howl, Petter!" said Karsten, coming out of the stall. + +"Perhaps you didn't scream," said Petter Kloed. + +They quarreled and disputed till the sparks flew, as to which had been +the most scared. But my knees trembled so I had to sit down on a +milking-stool, and Andrine cried and sobbed, she had been so +frightened. + +Karsten got braver and braver. + +"I was no more scared out of my wits than I ever am," said he. "I +screamed only because--because--well, just so that Petter could hear +where I was!" + +"Such a horrid dog!" said Petter, reaching after Burmann. + +"You could just have scratched his back as you do to bears in +menageries," said I. Augusta laughed so that her laughter echoed through +the whole place, and I teased them as much as I could. When I really +make a point of it, I'm awful at teasing--it is such fun. + +"Ugh! Girls are nothing but rubbish," said Karsten. + +"To think that you didn't strangle the bear with such muscles as you +have," I said. + +"If you don't keep still!" said Karsten threateningly. + +It was such fun! I laughed till my cheeks ached. + +My! but that was an awfully jolly and delightful visit to the saeter. +But at night Andrine and I slept in a bed that was as hard as a stone, +and Andrine lay the whole night right across the bed and squeezed me +almost to death. + +In the morning the air and everything was oh, so fresh! Our hair blew +all over our faces; we washed in the brook and the water was so cold +that our finger-nails ached. + +After breakfast we started home again. We stood up in the wagon and +shouted hurrah as long as we could see Augusta in the saeter hut door, +and after that we sang all the way down the mountain. + +But that story of the bear at the saeter Petter and Karsten had to hear +all summer long, for they were just as puffed up as ever. + +Nothing impresses such conceited boys, you know. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LOST IN THE FOREST + + +Oh, that awful, awful time! Even now I can wake in the middle of the +night, start up in bed and stare around frightened and trembling, for I +dream that I am in the dark forest alone, as I was that time at +Goodfields. Well, I wasn't absolutely alone, but I was the oldest, you +see, and so I had all the responsibility for both of us, and that is +almost worse than to be alone. + +It was little brother Karl who was with me. We children were going to +have a blueberry party--that was the beginning of the whole thing. We +wanted to treat all the grown-up boarders, and Mother Goodfields, and +the maids too. They should all have blueberries with powdered sugar, +nothing else; anyway that was enough. But we should need a lot of +blueberries, oh, a frightful lot of them! + +So we went off, each choosing his own clump of bushes, and picked and +picked; and then Karlie-boy and I got lost. Now, you shall hear. + +It was in the morning, a very hot morning. The air in the valley had +been perfectly still all night. We had slept beside open windows with +only a sheet over us. + +Immediately after breakfast I flew to the forest, for I knew a place +where I wanted to pick berries all by myself. Just as I was climbing +over the fence of the home hill-pasture, Karl saw me and called out, "I +want to go with you--it's mean of you--oh! oh! to run away from me--I +want to go too." + +He made such a hullabaloo with his screaming that I had to stop and wait +for him. But one ought never in the world to humor screeching children, +for no good comes of it. How much better it would have been for Karl if +he had not been with me that long frightful day in the forest, and that +queer evening in crazy Helen's hut,--for that is where we finally found +ourselves. + +Yes, when I have children, I shall be awfully strict and decided with +them. + +It was cool there in the forest. The sunshine came in only in golden +stripes and spots. Never in my life have I seen so many blueberries and +such high blueberry bushes as we found that day. I picked and picked. +Meanwhile Karl ate and ate, till he was nothing but one big blueberry +stain,--he smeared himself so with the juice. + +"Did Noah have berries with him in the ark?" asked Karl. + +"No, indeed." + +"Then all the blueberries must have been drowned in the flood." + +"Ugh, what a silly you are!" + +"Well, anyway, Noah had cannon with him in the ark." + +Oh, I get so sick of cannons with Karl! Whatever he talks about, he +always mixes up something about cannons in it. + +It was unspeakably fresh and still in the forest. I ran from one +blueberry patch to another, but you may chop my head off if I +understand in the least how it happened that we got lost; for I usually +keep my eyes open and have my wits about me too. + +All at once Karl sat himself down in a blueberry patch. + +"Ugh--blueberries are disgusting," said he. + +"That's because you have stuffed yourself with them," I replied. + +"I want some bread and butter," said Karl. "And I'm tired--so tired." + +"Oh, keep still." + +A minute after, it was exactly the same. + +"I'm so tired, so tired." + +O dear! I should certainly have to take him home. We were in a little +open space. Pine-trees stood close together around it, whispering +softly. To save my life, I could not remember which direction we had +come from; there were little mounds and moss and blueberry patches and +pine-trees everywhere. + +Whoever knew such a pickle as this? How in the world had we come here? I +couldn't tell--no matter which way I looked. I sprang here and I ran +there to find something I recognized, but I got more and more bewildered +and Karl grew crosser and crosser. He kicked at his basket of +blueberries. + +"Horrid old berries! I want to go home--I'm just mad at everything here. +I'm mad as can be." + +If you have never been in a great forest, you cannot possibly imagine +anything so bewildering. Trees and trees and trees in every direction +and nothing else; no clear space, no opening anywhere. But even yet I +wasn't a bit afraid. The sunshine was bright, the forest air fragrant +and I had three quarts of blueberries in my basket--three quarts at the +very least. But Karl was heavy to drag along and my berry basket weighed +down my other arm, and there was no end to the trees. + +[Illustration: How we wandered,--round and round, up and down, hither +and thither.--_Page 208._] + +O me! How we wandered,--round and round, up and down, hither and +thither! We would go ten steps in one direction, then five steps in +another--I didn't know where we had been or where we hadn't. All at once +everything seemed to be rough and horrid; great trees, uprooted, lay +topsy-turvy in our way, rotten branches were under foot everywhere, and +the ground was boggy and swampy. The whole place was dreadful. + +I remember perfectly that it was right there that I began to be +afraid--so terrified that I felt as if down inside of me I was shivering +with fear, for I happened to think that we might meet a bull in the +forest,--Kaspar's bull that is horribly fierce; and of all things in the +world I am most afraid of a bull. + +"Oh, Karlie boy, Karlie boy! We are lost!" + +He gave one glance at me and burst out crying. Louder and louder he +cried, and heavier and heavier he was to drag along, as if he were a big +log that would not budge from its place. It was weird and uncanny +somehow,--that he should scream so loud in the silent forest. And if +there were a bull anywhere in the forest, even far away, it could hear +his crying; and then it would come leaping--it would come leaping---- + +I listened and listened, I seemed to hear with a thousand ears--and I +looked and searched to see if I could not recognize even one tree or one +blueberry clump. But no; never in the world had I been in this place +before. Then we turned and went in exactly the opposite direction. Ugh! +No, no--the forest was just as thick and dark there. Hark! Did something +crash then? + +"Oh, do be still, Karlie boy!" I listened, holding my breath; perhaps it +was only a bird flying. + +Well, now we would go straight on this way. And there was nothing to be +afraid of; the bright sun was shining, and I had lots and lots of +blueberries, and going this way we would surely get out of the forest. +Thus I comforted myself. + +"Pooh! We'll soon find the way out, you and I." + +"If we had a cannon, we could fire it off, and then they would hear it +at Goodfields," said Karl. + +For once I was glad of Karl's cannon. I talked and talked about cannon +simply to fix my thoughts on something else than the forest, and Karl +dried his tears and asked whether there were any great big cannon, as +big as--as the whole earth, and didn't I think that the Pope had more +cannon than any one else in the world? + +"Hush, Karlie boy! keep still. Do you hear something?" + +Yes, it was cow-bells. Oh, perhaps Kaspar's bull was coming, that awful +bull. "Oh, hurry, hurry, Karlie boy!" We dashed ahead, over branches and +mounds; we ran and ran; I stopped and listened, scarcely breathing. + +"Do you hear it, Karlie boy?" + +Yes, the cow-bells sounded loud and clear through the silence. Well, +anyway, we should soon be out of the forest--I thought I knew where we +were now. + +"Run, Karlie boy! Run, run." There now! There was an opening in the +forest! We rushed forward; but just imagine! We were in that little open +place again,--there where everything was so horrid, where the great +split tree-trunks lay in the swampy moss,--just where I had begun to +have that shivery fear deep down inside of me. We had walked round and +round in a circle. + +And there were the cows! Beyond where the trees were close together, I +saw a black cow that lifted its head and sniffed at us; and other cows, +many cows,--and oh! there was Kaspar's bull! + +I was wild with fright; probably it was then that I threw away my +basket, for I saw it no more. Over hillocks and moss, through bushes and +thickets, I dragged Karl--who was now pale as death, with big wide open +staring eyes, and utterly silent. + +The whole herd was after us, now at a slow trot, now leaping; the bull +was ahead and gave a short, low roar from time to time. Oh! oh! What +should we do! Oh! Karl, Karl!---- + +We had nowhere to turn and no one to help us. What should we do? Then I +prayed--not aloud, but oh, how earnestly! And suddenly I saw that there +was a rock just beyond us--an enormous moss-grown rock. Thither we +rushed. I tore myself on the bushes till I bled. I fell, but rushed on +again till we reached the rock; then I climbed up, gripped tight with +hand and feet, hauled Karl up after me, higher and higher up, as far as +we could get. The rock was perhaps two or three yards high. We were +saved from the bull. And it was God who had saved us, I was sure of +that. I had never seen that rock before anywhere in the forest. + +The bull had made a great leap and stood just below us pawing the +ground, tail in the air. Oh, how he bellowed! + +I held Karl in my arms. The bull could not reach us. He pawed the earth +so that moss and dirt rose in a whirl; he ran around the rock and +bellowed horribly, making as much noise as ten ordinary bulls would +make. And all the cows followed him round and round the rock, lowing and +acting crazy like him. + +Never, never in my life have I been so frightened. Karl grew paler and +paler. Oh, what if he should die of terror? + +"There's nothing to be afraid of now, Karlie boy," I said in a shaky +voice. "The bull could never get up here. No indeed--he can be mighty +sure of that, horrid old beast!" + +"He can be mighty sure of that, horrid old beast!" repeated Karlie boy +with white lips. + +How long did we sit there? I'm sure I don't know. It must have been a +long time, for the sunshine disappeared from among the trees, the cows +laid themselves down in a circle around the rock, the bull went to and +fro. If he went a little way off, he would come rushing back again and +begin to behave worse than ever. The ground about the rock was torn up +as if there had been a great battle there. + +I have often tried to remember what I thought of, all those long hours +on the rock, with that fierce bull below us. I really believe I didn't +think of anything but keeping tight hold of Karl; nor did we talk very +much either. Karl didn't even mention cannon a single time. + +A gentle breeze stirred the tree-tops and the shadows had grown darker +under the close branches when the cows finally began to stir themselves. +Slowly, very slowly, they trailed off between the trees, the bull being +the last to go. As if for a farewell, he dug his horns into the earth +and sent bits of moss flying up to us. At last, at last, he, too, had +gone. + +When the cows started homeward it must have been five or six o'clock, +and we had been in the forest the whole day long. Oh, how hungry, how +awfully hungry I was! And Karl was as pale as a little white flower. +Never--even if I live to be ninety years old--never shall I forget that +summer day on the big moss-grown rock with Kaspar's bull down below. + +Well, then I did something unspeakably stupid. Instead of going the way +the cows had taken (which of course led right to Kaspar's farm), Karl +and I went exactly the opposite way, farther into the forest. Ugh! how +could any one be such a stupid donkey! I'm disgusted whenever I think of +it. + +Karl and I walked on and on for an eternity it seemed. It grew darker +and darker and the air was full of mysterious sounds, low murmurs and +rustlings; my heart thumped frightfully. Just think, if we had to stay +in the forest all night when it was pitch dark! Suppose we never found +our way out to people again---- + +Oh, that big, big forest! + +I did not cry once, I didn't dare to, you see, for Karl's sake. I just +stared and listened, and the forest murmured softly--softly, the whole +time. + +Once in a while we sat down and then Karl would weep bitterly with his +head in my lap, poor little fellow! + +"Now we'll soon get to Goodfields, Karlie boy, and Mother will be so +glad to see us--oh, so glad! Won't it be jolly?" + +"Yes--and then I'm going to have a hundred pieces of bread and butter." + +Suddenly we stumbled against a fence! And as suddenly my weariness +vanished. Where there was a fence, there must be people. We jumped +over the fence. Beyond it was a little cleared space where +stood--yes--really--a tiny hut. Then--wasn't it queer? I was so glad +that I began to cry violently as I dashed towards the house. + +It was so very dark that I could not distinguish anything clearly, but I +could see that there was some one sitting on the door-stone. And just +imagine! When we drew nearer, I saw that it was Crazy Helen, an old +half-witted woman who went about among the farms begging. Many a time +through the summer had she been at Goodfields, and she had told us that +she lived all alone in the forest, high, high up on the mountain. + +I can't possibly tell how I felt when I saw her; not that I was really +afraid of poor Helen, but it was all so strange--so queer. + +"Are you coming here?" asked she, looking up at us and laughing. She had +on the same old brown coat, a man's coat, that she always wore, and was +smoking a clay pipe. + +"Can you tell us the way to Goodfields?" I asked. + +"Goodfields--nice folks at Goodfields; nice mistress there. I know her +very well," said Crazy Helen. + +"Yes--but how shall we go to get there?" I asked again as I sat down +beside her on the door-step. + +"Why, just over that way," said Crazy Helen, pointing back where we had +come from. "Just go that way and you'll get to Goodfields." + +What in the world should I do? How frightened Mother must be about us! +And there was Karl asleep at my side on the bare ground. All kinds of +thoughts were whirling round in my head. Perhaps it was best to let +Karl sleep here in Crazy Helen's hut, and in the morning people might +find us; or Helen could go with us and show us the way to Goodfields. + +"May I lay him on your bed?" I asked, pointing to Karl. + +"Nice little boy is asleep," said Helen. So I put Karl on Crazy Helen's +bed. The floor of the hut was just bare earth, and there was no +furniture but one old stool, I think; but Karl was in a sound sleep and +safe, perfectly safe. + +Then I seated myself again on the door-step beside poor Helen. They had +always said at Goodfields that she had never in the world been known to +do any harm, so I was not really afraid of her. The twinkling stars +shone down upon us, and the forest trees waved noisily. + +"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Crazy Helen, slapping her knees. + +Ugh! it wasn't exactly pleasant here; but sleep I would not; no, no, I +would not. I would just sit up and take care of Karl, but oh, how +unspeakably tired I was! + +"Shall I dance a little for you?" asked Crazy Helen. + +"Oh, no!" I answered. + +Ugh! That would be horrible. On the lawn at Goodfields where, laughing +and joking, we all sat around together and watched Helen dance, it was +very jolly, but it wouldn't be so in the least here in the dark forest, +and alone with her. But if you'll believe it, she began to dance, +notwithstanding--such a queer dance! + +She whirled herself about, hopped off slant-wise, then whirled again +like a spinning top, while the trees sighed in the wind, and the bright, +clear stars looked down on the little space before the hut and on Crazy +Helen dancing. + +Never in my life had I seen anything so queer, so weird. + +"Ho! Heigho!" she sang, as she spun round and round. + +"Hi! Halloa!" some one answered from the forest. + +I sprang up. "Halloa!" I shouted. It must be some one from Goodfields, +some one who was trying to find us, oh, thank God! + +"Halloa!" "Hey there!" + +The shouting was nearer; there were lights among the trees and now the +people came nearer still--now over the fence--oh! oh--it was Trond and +Lisbeth from Goodfields. Oh, oh! how glad I was! I flew in and began to +shake Karl. + +"Karlie boy, wake up--get up--we're going to Mother." But Karl's eyes +would not open, he was so sound asleep. Trond, the farm man, came in and +took him in his arms. Oh, oh! it is impossible to say how glad I was! + +They had been searching for us since four o'clock and now it was ten. +They had called and shouted, and not a sound had we heard. + +Mother had been unspeakably anxious and terrified and wanted to go to +the forest herself, to search, but Mother Goodfields had said no to +that, "because Trond and Lisbeth know the forest better," she had told +Mother. + +Crazy Helen sat herself down on the door-step again, and slapped her +knees and laughed, as before, out into the night. + +Just think of all I lived through in that one day! And still I haven't +told half how strange and uncanny it all was,--the long, long day in the +forest and Crazy Helen dancing under the stars. + +When I got to Goodfields, I ate three eggs and eight slices of bread and +butter, and drank four cups of chocolate. I truly did. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +TRAVELLING WITH A BILLY-GOAT + + +Would you believe it? Karsten got a live billy-goat as a present from +Mother Goodfields, and I got a live wild forest-cat from Jens Kverum's +mother. Of course I wanted something alive since Karsten had the goat, +so I begged and teased Agnete Kverum until she finally said I might have +the yellow-brown cat I wanted. Not that I would not rather have had the +goat, you may be sure, though naturally I wouldn't let Karsten know +that. He was puffed up enough over it, as it was. + +Well, anyway, we took both the goat and the cat with us when we went +home; but anything so difficult to travel with you can't possibly +imagine. Now you shall hear the whole story from first to last; for if +anybody else has a desire to take a real live goat or cat with them on +the train or into the ladies' cabin of the steamboat, they had better +know all the bother and row-de-dow it will make. I advise every one +against doing it. All the people who are traveling with you get angry, +although it is scarcely to be expected that a billy-goat or a wild cat +will behave nicely in a ladies' cabin. At any rate, ours didn't. Listen +now. + +Mother Goodfields had any number of goats. They were all up at the +saeter except two, and these roamed in the forest with the cows, because +each of them had an injured leg. But one day one goat was missing and +nobody in the world could find it. + +Old Kari mourned for it constantly and talked of nothing else. Every day +she pictured to herself a new horrible way it had met its death. Either +it had got caught in a mountain crevice and starved to death, or a wolf +had taken it, or Beata Oppistuen had butchered it without any right to. +"That Beata! You could expect any kind of doings from her." Old Kari +went to and fro in the forest seeking the goat till far into the night. + +But one fine day there on the forest side of the farm fence stood the +lost goat with a tiny little baby-goat at her side. And that kid was the +prettiest and cunningest you ever set eyes on. It had a soft silky +little beard, and it stood on its hind legs and hopped and skipped as if +it would jump over into the field. + +The cows came and sniffed at it; the other goat, that had stayed at home +with them, examined it very particularly; and the little kid danced, +zigzag and every which way; and so it was introduced to society, you +might say. + +How we children ran after that little billy-goat! But Karsten was the +worst, for he went to the forest every single day to tend it and brought +it home every single night. + +"I rather think I shall have to give you that kid," said Mother +Goodfields to Karsten one night as he came along carrying it. + +From that time Karsten was a changed boy altogether, for he didn't give +a thought to the big lake that he had cared so much about all summer. In +his brain there was absolutely nothing but that billy-goat. It ate +bread and butter and drank out of a teacup; and one night when Mother +went up to bed she caught a glimpse of Billy-goat's beard above the +blanket beside Karsten's head. Just imagine! Karsten was going to let +the kid sleep with him. But Mother put a stop to that and Karsten had to +hurry down-stairs and out to the barn with the goat. + +Karsten never allowed me to touch Billy-goat and so I wanted to have a +pet animal of my own. I considered seriously for a day or two as to +whether I should not ask Mother Goodfields for a brown calf that was +kept out in the pasture; but one fine morning it was slaughtered, so +there was an end to that plan. Then I brought my desire down to Agnete +Kverum's cat. It was golden-brown and had long hair and was exactly like +a big cosy muff; and in the muff were two great yellow eyes. Whenever I +went up to the Kverum place it sat curled together on the door-sill and +purred and was perfectly charming. I didn't give Agnete a minute's rest +or peace, and so, as you know, I got the cat. + +Strangely enough, Mother was not in the least overjoyed when I came back +carrying the forest-cat. + +"I don't like these presents," said Mother. "There will only be tears +and heartbreak when you have to leave them." + +"Leave them!" exclaimed Karsten and I in one breath. "Oh, but you know +they must go back home with us!" + +"The goat is so smart about going up and down stairs," said Karsten. +"And it likes to drink out of a teacup and it can perfectly well stay in +the hotel garden over night in the city." + +"Are you crazy, you two?" said Mother. "It would never do in the world." + +But we teased and begged so, that Mother finally said yes--we might take +them. For the potato-cellar was full of rats, she said, that the cat +might take care of; and you could always get rid of a goat in our town. +And I promised that I would hold on to the cat through the whole +journey, and Karsten would hold on to the kid, and Mother needn't think +they would be any worry or nuisance to her at all. No indeed--far from +it. + +Well, off we went. When Mother talks of our journey home from the +country that time, she both laughs and cries. First we had to drive +nearly twenty-five miles. Mother and Karl and Olaug, and the kid and +Karsten, and the forest-cat and I, and the hold-all and lunch-basket and +bundle of shawls--all were in one carriage. Nobody kept quiet an +instant, for Karlie boy wanted to know who lived in every single house +along the road, and Olaug whimpered and wanted to eat all the time, and +the forest-cat could not by hook or crook be made to stay in any basket, +but would sit on the driver's seat and look around; so you see, I had to +stand and hold it so it should not fall out of the carriage. And the +goat kicked into the air with all its four legs and would not lie in +Karsten's lap a minute. You had better believe there was a rumpus! + +Mother said afterwards that she just sat and wished that both the cat +and the goat would fall out of the carriage; she would then whip up the +horse and drive away from them, she was so sick of the whole business. + +At last we came to the first place where we were to stay over night. +Karsten and I took our pets with us to our rooms. They should not be put +into a strange barn and be frightened, poor things! But oh, how those +rooms looked in the morning! I can't possibly describe it. + +Mother was desperate. + +"Do let us get away from this place," she said. "There's no knowing how +much I shall have to pay; it will be a costly reckoning, I'll warrant +you." + +It was. + +Well, we all hurried, and flew down to the little steamer. It was +cram-jam full of passengers,--ladies who sat with their opera-glasses +and were very elegant and looked sideways at you; and sun-burnt +gentlemen with tiny little traveling caps. They all looked hard at +Karsten and me with our animals in our arms. + +The billy-goat bleated and was determined to get down on to the deck, +and the cat miaowed and the ladies drew their skirts close and looked +indignant. + +"Go into the cabin!" said Mother. + +Karsten and I scrambled down below with the goat and the cat. There +wasn't a living soul there, nothing but bad air and red velvet sofas. We +let go of both the goat and the cat. It would be good for them to stir +their legs a little, poor creatures! + +Pit-pat! pit-pat! Away went the goat to a sofa, and snatched a big bite +out of a bouquet of stock that lay there. One long lavender spray hung +dangling from Billy-goat's mouth. + +"Oh, are you crazy? Catch your goat! Catch your goat!" + +But the flowers were gone and the goat was dancing sideways over the +cabin floor. + +From the sideboard sounded a thud and a horrible rattle te-bang of +glass and silver. The cat had sprung right up into a big bowl of cream +and all the cream was running down on the sofa. + +It is a horrible sight to see two quarts of cream flowing over a red +velvet sofa! Oh, how frightened I was! + +"Hold the door shut, Karsten!" I said. "I'll try to dry it up." + +With shaking hands I tried to mop up the cream with my +pocket-handkerchief, while the cat and the kid lapped and drank the +cream that trickled down to the floor; and Karsten held the door shut +with all his might. + +But it was like an ocean of cream. It was impossible--impossible for me +to dry it up. + +"Oh, Karsten! what shall we do?" + +"It was your cat that did it." + +"Yes, but your goat ate the stock." + +"Let's run away," said Karsten; and carrying the goat and the cat we +rushed up the narrow cabin stairs. But, O horrors! There wasn't any sort +of a place where we could hide.--And how it did look down in the cabin! +And Mother didn't know the least thing about it. O dear! O dear! + +"If they only don't throw Billy-goat and the cat overboard!" said +Karsten thoughtfully. + +"Are you up here again?" called Mother. + +"Ye-es." + +We ran away out forward, away to the bow of the boat. Usually I think +there is nothing so jolly as to sit far, far out in the bow, seeing +nothing of the boat back of me, just as if I were gliding forward high +up in the air. But to-day it wasn't the least bit jolly, for all that +cream down on the sofa was frightful to think of. Karsten and I couldn't +talk of anything else. He was angry, however, because I hadn't mopped it +up. + +"Well, but I couldn't wipe it up with nothing." + +"Oh, you could have taken your waterproof or something out of our +trunk." + +I was really struck by that thought. Perhaps--perhaps I could get hold +of something to wipe up all that disgusting cream with. We both got up +from the box where we had been sitting. O horrors! There stood the +dining-room stewardess facing us. No sight could have been more terrible +to me. + +"Oh, here you are, are you? Of course it was you who have got things in +such a condition in the dining-saloon." + +I looked at Karsten and Karsten looked at me. + +"Yes, the cat upset the bowl," I said faintly. + +"Well, it's a pretty business," said the stewardess. "And we are in a +fine fix and no mistake. Dinner spoiled, no more cream for the +multerberries, and they're nothing without it, the whole cabin running +over with cream, the sofa absolutely ruined, glasses broken,--oh, you'll +have a handsome sum to pay! Well, you've got to go to the Captain," and +she swaggered across the deck. + +But now Mother had heard about it, and she came towards us with a face I +can't describe,--and the Captain came; and there Karsten and I stood +holding the goat and the cat in our arms. + +Oh, it was an awful interview! The Captain wasn't gentle, not he, and +Mother had to pay heaps of money. + +"There is no sense in traveling with such a menagerie," said the +Captain. + +The passengers who had nothing but dry multerberries for dessert were +certainly angry with us, and Mother was most unhappy. But the cat lay in +my lap and blinked with its yellow eyes and purred like far-away +thunder,--it was so happy; and Billy-goat rubbed its head with that +silky beard against Karsten's jacket and looked up at him with its +trustful black eyes; so neither Karsten nor I had the heart to scold. +And it wouldn't have done any good, anyway. + +At the train, trouble began again, for just imagine! No one knew what +the freight charges should be for a kid. The ticket-agent stuck his head +out of his window to stare at the innocent little creature, and the +station-master pulled at his mustache and stared too; and they turned +over page after page in their books and whispered together. At last they +made out that the cost would be the same as for a cow. Mother shook her +head but paid. (I was glad I had my cat in a basket where no one noticed +it, and it slept like a log.) + +Since the kid was so very tiny, Karsten was allowed to take it into the +compartment with us, for it was absolutely impossible to let that baby +go alone into the cattle-car. + +"Thank goodness!" said Mother when she finally got us all settled. "Now +there are only five hours more of this part of the journey." + +Two ladies were in the compartment--one very severe-looking who had a +lorgnette, the other fat and jolly, with awfully pretty red cherries on +her hat. Little Billy-goat stood on the seat and ate crackers, making a +great crunching. The fat lady laughed at it till she shook all over, but +the severe lady drew the corners of her mouth down, looking crosser +than ever. + +Karsten was so glad to have some one admire the kid that he made it do +all the tricks it could. However, that was soon over, for it could not +do anything except stand on two legs. + +Just as it stood there on two legs, with the most innocent face you can +imagine, it gave a little leap--oh, oh! up towards the hat of the fat +lady; and that very instant the beautiful red cherries crackled in +Billy-goat's mouth. + +"Oh, my new hat!" screamed the fat lady. + +"It is outrageous that one should be liable to such treatment," said the +cross lady. + +"That's the time you got fooled, Billy-goat!" said Karl, "for you got +glass cherries instead of real cherries." + +Mother had lost all patience now and no mistake; and the kid had to go +under the seat and lie there the whole time. And Mother offered the fat +lady some chocolates and some of Mother Goodfields' home-made cakes that +we had brought for luncheon, and begged her pardon again and again for +Billy-goat's behavior; so that finally the fat lady was a little +appeased. The goat had eaten four of the glass cherries and there were +eight still left on the hat, so it wasn't wholly spoiled. + +[Illustration: The beautiful red cherries crackled in Billy-goat's +mouth.--_Page 236._] + +"Well, all I know is I would never have stood it," said the lady with +the lorgnette. + +The forest-cat behaved beautifully, sleeping the whole time on the +train; and we all grew tired, oh! so tired. I couldn't look out of the +window at last, I was so utterly tired out. And I did not bother myself +about either the cat or the billy-goat. + +Finally we rumbled into the city and to the station platform. + +But Mother was altogether right in saying that it would never do in the +world to have a billy-goat in the city. When we got to the hotel where +we were to spend that night, there stood the host at the door. He is a +very cross man. When he saw Billy-goat in Karsten's arms he was furious +at once. He had not fitted up his rooms for animals, he said, and the +goat would please be so good as to keep itself entirely outside of them. +So Billy-goat was put into the pitch-dark coal-cellar--and had to stay +there the whole night. + +When we went down the next morning it stood on two legs and danced +sideways from pure joy. But when Karsten took it out into the court, +pop! away went the goat over the low fence into the hotel-keeper's +garden, then out by an unlatched gate into the wide, wide world. + +"No," said Mother firmly, "you may not go to look for it, nor will I ask +the police to find it. If I haven't suffered and paid enough for that +creature----" + + * * * * * + +Poor little Billy-goat! It was a sin and a shame that we ever took you +away from the forest at Goodfields! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +IN SCHOOL + + +Oh, such fun as we had in school that time when Mr. Gorrisen was our +teacher! It was a regular comedy. He was a tiny little man. Antoinette +and I were taller than he, so you can judge for yourself. And I never in +my life saw any one with such round eyes as he had. + +You should just have seen those eyes when we were having a little fun at +our desks. With a hard, fixed stare, not letting his gaze wander for an +instant, his eyes bored themselves right into the culprit. + +Down from the platform he came, with slow, measured step across the +floor,--his eyes not moving for a second,--came nearer and nearer and +nearer; ugh! then his finger tips grabbed the very tip-end of your ear +and there they held tight like a vise. No one can have the faintest +idea how painful it was. And all without one word; not a syllable came +over Mr. Gorrisen's lips. + +I wonder, I really do, that there is anything left of the tips of my +ears since then, considering the many times Mr. Gorrisen took hold of +them! + +And he was mighty quick about giving us poor marks! If I didn't know +every single thing in the lesson by heart, so that I could rattle it +off, I got a "4" immediately. + +It was at that time, however, that I hit upon the plan of cutting out +the bad marks from my report book, for a "4" or "5" looks perfectly +disgusting in a report. But an innocent little square hole,--that's no +harm, as it were. + +"But, Inger Johanne," said Father, "what is that?" + +"Oh, well, Father, there was a bad mark there," I answered. "And I +didn't dare come home with such a mark, so I just cut it out." + +The first time I did it, Father wasn't so very angry; but when I did it +again and again, he was furious. So I had to give it up. Then when I +really came to think about it, I saw it was wrong, so I would not do it +any more, anyway. + +Once we had Mr. Gorrisen on Examination Day. Mrs. White, with her light +kid gloves on, sat in a chair on the platform and listened, holding +Karen's dirty German reading-book by the tip edge. She looked +continually at the book but she didn't understand a word,--I'll wager +anything you like she didn't,--for she never turned over the page when +she should have. I saw that plainly. On a seat near the door sat Madam +Tellefsen, who had come to listen to Mina; she did not put on any airs, +though. She never once pretended to understand German, but laid the book +down beside her on the seat and sat there sweltering in her French shawl +and looking rather helpless. + +Enough of that. I was just carving my name on my desk-lid--very deep and +nice it was to be--when all at once I noticed that Mr. Gorrisen was +looking at me. He stared as if he were staring right through me, stared +steadily as he came across the room. + +Oh, my unlucky ear-tip! His fingers held it as tight as a vise. Up I +must get from my seat and across the floor was I led by the ear to the +corner of the room. There he let go of me. + +Well! Imagine that! A pretty sight I made standing in the corner on +Examination Day! If only Mrs. White and Madam Tellefsen had not been +sitting there! They would surely go and tattle about it all over town. + +Truly I would not stand there any longer. Mr. Gorrisen was reading a +piece aloud just then, so all at once I lay flat down on the floor and +crept over to the desks. Once I had got under the desks, it was easy +enough. Kima Pirk gave me a horrid kick in the back, and Karen whacked +my head when I was directly under her desk, but that was only because I +pinched them as I passed. I could hear them all whispering and +whispering above me--it was great fun--and I crept farther and farther. +I thought I would go to the last desk, you see. There, now I had reached +it. I got up and settled myself in the seat, wearing a most innocent +expression. + +I looked at Mrs. White. Her face seemed to get sharper and narrower just +from severity; but Madam Tellefsen laughed so that she had to hold the +end of her French shawl over her face. I had got very warm and my hair +was very dusty from that expedition under the desks, but I didn't mind +that. + +Fully five minutes passed before Mr. Gorrisen saw me. But all at once +when I had begun to feel pretty safe, came: + +"Why, Inger Johanne! Have you walked out of the corner without +permission?" + +"No, I have not walked, Mr. Gorrisen," said I. + +"She crept," the others murmured faintly. + +"She crept," said Kima aloud from her desk in the front row. + +"What is this, Inger Johanne?" asked Mr. Gorrisen severely. + +"It was so tedious to stand there, Mr. Gorrisen," I said. + +"Yes, that was exactly why you were put there." + +"And so I crept over here when you didn't see me." + +Without another word, down across the floor he came. I turned my right +ear towards him, for the left ear burned horribly even yet from the +other time. But he evidently thought that an ear-pinch was too gentle a +punishment for creeping through the whole class-room. I was taken by the +arm and led along out of the door. Outside in the hall he shook me by +the arm. Oh, well! it was just a little shake anyway,--but then I had to +hang around in that hall until the lesson was all over. + +I can't understand now how I ever dared to creep that way in Mr. +Gorrisen's class. O dear! I have been awfully foolish many +times--unbelievably foolish! + +Then there was that day Mr. Gorrisen fell off his chair. I was put out +in the hall that day, too. But all the others ought to have been sent +out as well, for we all laughed together. It was just because I couldn't +stop laughing that I had to go. I surely have spasms in my cheeks, for +long after all the others have stopped I keep on--I can't help it. + +We were having our geography lesson. Mr. Gorrisen sat in an armchair by +the table and stared at us, for he was not the kind of teacher that +sharpens pencils or polishes his finger nails or does anything like +that. He just sits and sways back and forth in his chair and stares +incessantly. Well, never mind that. The lesson was on the peninsula of +Korea. I remember distinctly. + +"Now, Minka, Korea lies----" He swayed and swayed in his chair. + +"Korea lies--ahem! Ko-re-a lies----" + +Minka glanced anxiously around to see whether any one would whisper to +her--"Korea lies between----" + +There came a frightful explosive bang; the chair had gone over backward, +making a horrible noise, and Mr. Gorrisen's small legs were up in the +air above the corner of the table. + +Oh, what shrieks of laughter pealed out through the class-room! But +quick as a flash Mr. Gorrisen was up again. He sat himself in the +armchair as if nothing had happened, only his face was flaming red up to +his hair. It was exactly as if there had been no interruption whatever, +to say nothing of such a noisy comical topsy-turvy. + +"Korea lies where, Minka?" + +But that was more than I could bear. I burst out laughing again--he, he! +ha, ha!--and all the others joined in. If he had only laughed himself, I +don't believe it would have seemed so funny--but he was as solemn as an +owl. + +"Stop laughing instantly." He struck the table with his ruler so that +the room rang. We quieted down at once except for a hiccough here and +there, but the worst of it was that Mr. Gorrisen stared only at me. I +fixed my eyes on an old map on the wall and thought of all the saddest +things I could, but it was of no use. My laughter burst out again; I was +so full of it that it just bubbled over. + +Mr. Gorrisen swayed back and forth in his chair as usual as if to show +how perfectly unembarrassed he was. But suddenly--true as Gospel--if he +didn't almost tip over again! He clutched frantically at the table, gave +a guilty glance at me. "Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" I could hear my own laughter +above all the rest. + +Mr. Gorrisen was up in a trice, and I was hurried out of the door so +quickly that, almost before I knew it, I stood out in the cold hall. I +nearly froze, it was so bitterly cold there; for it was nearly Christmas +time, you see. + +I opened the door a tiny bit just far enough to put my nose through the +crack. + +"Mr. Gorrisen." + +"Well?" + +"It's so cold out here. I won't laugh any more." + +"Very well. Come in." + +And so I went in again. At recess they all said they wondered how I ever +dared ask Mr. Gorrisen to let me come in from the hall. + +"Pooh!" said I. "I dare do anything with Mr. Gorrisen." + +"Oh-h! you don't either! Far from it!" + +"Well, I'd really dare pretty nearly anything. I'm not afraid of him." + +"Would you dare sing right out loud in his class?" asked Karen. + +"Pooh! that wouldn't be anything much to do," said Minka. Then they all +began to tease me. + +"Fie, for shame! She is so brave and yet she does not dare to do such a +little thing as that!" + +"You shall see whether I dare or not," I said. And, would you believe +it? I did sing aloud one time in Mr. Gorrisen's geography class. + +It was several days after he had tipped over. I had been watching my +chance in all his classes, but somehow it didn't seem to come. One day, +however, I was just in the humor, and in the midst of the silence, while +Mr. Gorrisen sat and wrote down marks in the record book, I sang out at +the top of my voice: + + "'Sons of Norway, that ancient kingdom'"-- + +I did not once glance at Mr. Gorrisen but looked around at all the +others who lay over their desks and laughed till they choked. And I sang +on: + + "'Manly and solemn, let the sound rise!'" + +Not a sound had come from the platform till that instant. Then I heard +behind me the click, click, click of Mr. Gorrisen's heels across the +floor and out of the door. + +"You'll catch it! oh, you'll catch it, Inger Johanne." + +"Oh, I wouldn't be in your shoes for a good deal!" + +"Well, it was you who teased me to do it," I said. + +"Yes, but to think that you should be so stupid as to do such a thing." + +I did really get a little scared, especially because it was so long +before Mr. Gorrisen came back. + +"Run away!" said one. + +"Hide under your desk," said another. + +But there he was in the doorway and the Principal with him. + +"What is all this, Inger Johanne?" said the Principal. "You are too big +to be so wild now. You are not such a bad girl, but you are altogether +too thoughtless and use no judgment." + +"Yes," I said. I was so glad the Principal didn't scold any harder. + +"Of course you will be marked for this in your report-book; and remember +this," the Principal shook his finger at me threateningly, "it won't do +for you to behave like this many times, Inger Johanne. You won't get off +so easily again." But as he went out of the door I saw that he smiled. +Yes, he did, really. + +But Mother didn't smile when she saw the marks. + +"Are you going to bring sorrow to your father and mother?" she said. And +those beautiful brown eyes of hers looked sad and troubled. + +Just think! It had never occurred to me that it would be a sorrow to +Father and Mother for me to sing out loud in class. Oh, I was awfully, +awfully disgusted with myself. I hung around Mother all the afternoon. + +First and foremost I must beg Mr. Gorrisen's pardon, Mother said. It +seemed to me I could ask the whole world's pardon if only Mother's eyes +wouldn't look so sorrowful. I wanted very much to go right down to Mr. +Gorrisen's lodgings; but Mother said she thought it was only right that +I should beg his pardon at school, so that all the class should hear. It +was embarrassing, frightfully embarrassing, to ask Mr. Gorrisen's +pardon--but I did it notwithstanding. I said, "Please excuse me for +singing out in class." + +"H'm, h'm," said Mr. Gorrisen. "Well, go back now and take your seat." + +Since then I have sat like a lamp-post in his classes--yes, I really +have. Many a time I should have liked to have some fun--but then I would +think of Mother's sorrowful eyes and so I have held myself in and kept +from any more skylarking. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +WHEN THE CIRCUS CAME + + +I was going to school one day, but was pretty late in getting started. +The trouble was that our yellow hen, Valpurga, had been sick, and since, +of course, I couldn't trust any one else to attend to her, I had made +myself late. + +When hens begin to mope, keeping still under a bush, drawing their heads +way down into their feathers, and just rolling their eyes about, that's +enough;--it is anything but pleasant when it is a hen you are fond of. +That's the way Valpurga was behaving. I gave her butter and pepper, for +that is good for hens. + +But it wasn't about Valpurga I wanted to tell. It was about the +circus-riders being here. + +The clock in the dining-room said five minutes of nine, and I hadn't +eaten my breakfast, hadn't studied any of my German grammar lesson, and +had to get to school besides. Things went with a rush, I can tell you; +with a piece of bread and butter in one hand, the German grammar open in +the other, I dashed down the hill. + +"Prepositions which govern the dative: _aus_, _ausser_, _bei_, +_binnen_--_aus_, _ausser_, _bei_,"--pshaw, the ragged old book! There +went a leaf over the fence, down into Madam Land's yard. It was best to +be careful in going after it, for Madam Land's windows looked out to +this side, and she was furious when any one trod down her grass. I +expected every moment to hear her knock sharply on the window-pane with +her thimble. She didn't see me though, and I climbed back over the fence +with the missing leaf. + +--"_aus_, _ausser_----" + +Round the corner swung Policeman Weiby with a stranger, a queer-looking +man. The stranger was absolutely deep yellow in the face, with +black-as-midnight hair, and black piercing eyes. On his head he wore a +little green cap, very foreign-looking, and on his feet patent leather +riding-boots that reached above his knees. + +Weiby puffed, threw his chest out even more than usual and looked very +much worried. It must be something really important, for day in and day +out Weiby has seldom anything else to do than to poke his stick among +the children who are playing hop-scotch in the street. + +Though I was so terribly late, of course I had to stand still and look +after Weiby and the strange man until they disappeared around the corner +up by the office. Something interesting had come to town, that was +plain. Either a panorama, or a man who swallowed swords, or one who had +no arms and sewed with his toes. Hurrah, there was surely to be some +entertainment! + +I got to school eleven minutes late. A normal-school pupil, Mr. +Holmesland, had the arithmetic class that morning. He sat on the +platform with his hand under his cheek supporting his big heavy head, +and looked at me reproachfully as I came in. I slipped in behind the +rack where all the outside things hung, to take off my things, and to +finish the last mouthful of my bread and butter. + +Pooh, I never bother myself a bit about Mr. Holmesland. I walked boldly +out and took my seat. Another long reproachful look from the platform. + +"Do you know what time it is, Inger Johanne?" + +"Yes, but I couldn't possibly come before, Mr. Holmesland, because I had +to attend to some one who was sick." + +"Indeed,--is your mother sick?" + +"Oh, no"--he didn't ask anything more, and I was glad of it. + +"What example are you doing?" I asked Netta, who sat beside me. + +"This," she showed me her slate, but above the example was written in +big letters: "_The circus has come!_" + +The arithmetic hour was frightfully long. At recess we talked of +nothing but the circus. Netta had seen an awfully fat, black-haired +lady, in a fiery red dress, and a fat pug dog on her arm; they certainly +belonged to the circus troupe, for there was no such dark lady and no +such dog in the whole town. Mina had seen a little slender boy, with +rough black hair and gold earrings--and hadn't I myself seen the +director of the whole concern? It was queer that I was the one who had +most to tell, though, as you know, all I had seen of the circus troupe +was the strange man with Policeman Weiby as I passed them on the hill. + +We had sat down to dinner at home; Karsten hadn't come; we didn't know +whether it was the circus or our having "_lu-de-fisk_" for dinner that +kept him away. + +Suddenly the dining-room door was thrown open, and there he stood in the +doorway, very red in the face and so excited he could hardly speak. + +"Can the circus-riders keep their horses in our barn?" he asked, all out +of breath. You know we had a big, old barn that was never used. Karsten +had to repeat what he had said; we always have to speak awfully clearly +to Father; he won't stand any slovenly talk. + +Father and Mother looked at each other across the table. + +"Well, I don't see any objection," said Father. + +"But is it worth while to have all that hub-bub in our barn?" said +Mother. I was burning with eagerness as I listened. + +"It is probably not very easy for them to find a place for all their +horses here in town," said Father, "and I shall make the condition that +they behave themselves there." + +"Well, as you like," said Mother. + +Outside in the hall stood the same man I had seen in the morning, and +another fellow of just the same sort, but smaller and rougher-looking. +Father went out and talked with them; the one in the green cap mixed in +a lot of German. "_Danke schoen--danke schoen_," they said as they went +away. + +Hurrah!--the circus-riders were to keep their horses in our barn, right +here on our place--hurrah!--hurrah! what fun! + +The horses were to come by land from the nearest town, nobody knew just +when. I took my geography up on the barn steps that afternoon to study +my lesson. I didn't want to miss seeing them come, you may be sure. + +Little by little, a whole lot of children collected up there. Away out +on the Point they had heard that the circus-riders were to have our +barn. Some of the boys began to try to run things, and to push us girls +away, but they learned better soon enough. + +"No, sir," I gave one a thump--"be off with you; get away, and be quick +about it, or you'll catch it." + +Most of the boys in the town are afraid of me, I can tell you, because I +have strong hands and a quick tongue, and behind me, like an invisible +support, is always Father, and all the police, who are under him--so +it's not often any one makes a fuss. Besides, I should like to know +when you should have the say about things if not on your own barn steps. + +More and more children gathered; they swarmed up the hill. I stood on +the barn steps with a long whip. If any one came too near--swish! + +At last--here came the horses! First a big white horse that a groom was +leading by the bridle, then two small shaggy ponies, then a big red +horse that carried his head high, and then the whole troop following. +Some were loose and jumped in among us children; the grooms scolded and +shouted both in German and in Polish; a few small, rough-coated dogs +rushed around catching hold of the skirts of some of the girls, who ran +and screamed. + +Suddenly a little swarthy groom got furious at all of us children who +were standing around and drove us down the hill. It made me angry to +have him chase me away too, especially because all the others saw it. At +first I thought of making a speech to him in German and telling him who +I was and that the barn was mine; but I didn't know at all what barn was +in German, so I had to give it up. + +[Illustration: I stood on the barn steps with a long whip.--_Page +260._] + +In the moonlight that evening the fat lady in the red dress, and two +little girls came to see to the horses. Afterwards they sat for a long +time out on the barn steps watching the moon. The two little girls had +long light hair down their backs and short dresses above their knees. + +I leaned against the dining-room window with my nose pressed flat, and +stared at them. Oh, what a delightful time those little girls had! +Think! to travel that way--just travel--travel--travel, to ride on those +lovely horses, and wear such short fancy skirts, and have your hair +flowing loose over your back. + +I never was allowed to go with my hair loose,--and I suppose I shall +have to stay in this poky town all my days; and never in the world shall +I get a chance to ride on a horse, I thought. + +At night I lay awake and heard the horses stamping and thumping up in +the barn. After all, even this was good fun, almost like being in the +midst of a fairy tale. + +The next day I was again late to school. There was not a single one of +the swarthy fellows to be seen around the barn, so I climbed up on the +wall and stuck grass through a broken window-pane to the big white +horse. I patted him on his smooth pinky nose: "Oh, you sweet, lovely +horse!"--I must go down for more grass, the very best grass to be found +he should have. + +"Inger Johanne, will you be so good as to go to school? It's very +late"--it was Father calling from the office window; so there was an end +to that pleasure. + +Down by the steamboat-landing, in the big open square, the circus tent +had been set up. Karsten and I were down there two hours before the +performance was to begin. I was the first of all the spectators to go +inside. It was a tremendously big, high tent, three rows of seats around +it, and a staging of rough boards for the orchestra. Anything so +magnificent you never saw. At last the performance began. + +But to describe what goes on at a circus, that I won't do. About +ordinary things, such as are happening every day at home, I can write +very well, as you know, but anything so magnificent as that circus I +can't describe. + +I was nearly out of my wits, people said afterwards. I stood up on the +seat--those behind me were angry, but that didn't bother me at +all--clapped my hands and shouted "Bravo!" and "Hurrah!" Towards the +last the riders, when they came in, gave me a special salute in that +elegant way, you know, holding up their whips before one eye. I liked +that awfully well. I was fairly beside myself with joy. + +Well, now I knew what I wanted to be: I wanted to be a circus-rider! For +that was the grandest and jolliest thing in the whole world. Did you +ever feel about yourself that you were going to be something great, +something more than every one else, as if you stood on a high mountain +with all the other people far below you? Well, I had felt like that, and +now I knew what it was that I should be. + +I lay awake far into the night and thought and thought. Yes, it was +plain, I should have to run away with the circus-riders. I could not +have a better opportunity. Certainly Father and Mother would never let +me go. It would be horrid to run away, but that was nothing; a +circus-rider I must be, I saw that plainly. The worst was, all the oil I +had heard that circus-riders must drink to keep themselves limber and +light. Ugh! no, I would not drink oil; I would be light all the same, +and awfully quick about hopping and dancing on the horses. + +And after many years I would come back to the town. No one would know me +at first, and every one would be so terribly surprised to learn that the +graceful rider in blue velvet was the judge's Inger Johanne. + +I forgot to say that we were to have two free tickets every evening +because Father was town judge. The first evening Karsten and I went, +but the second evening Mother said that the maids should go. + +"You were there last night," said Mother. "We can't spend money on such +foolishness; to-morrow evening you may go again." + +Oh, how broken-hearted I was because I couldn't go to the circus that +evening! and Mother called it foolishness! If she only knew I was going +to be a circus-rider! I wouldn't dare tell her for all the world. + +In the evening, when it was time for the performance to begin, I went +down to the steamboat-landing just the same. The fat lady with the +shining black eyes sat there selling tickets; the people crowded about +the entrance, some had already begun to stream in; the big flag which +served as a door was constantly being drawn aside to let people in, and +at every chance I peeked behind the flag. To think that I wasn't going +to get in to-night! Suppose I ran home and asked Father very nicely for +a ticket; perhaps there was still time. + +"Won't you have a ticket?" asked the black-eyed lady. She said she +remembered me from the evening before when I had been so delighted. + +"No, I have no money," said I, and my whole face grew red. It really was +embarrassing, but since she asked me I had to tell the truth. + +"If you will stand there by the door and take the tickets, you may come +in and look on," she said. + +Wouldn't I! Just the thing for me! Not even a cat should slip in without +a ticket. I was very strict at the door and pushed away the sailors who +wanted to force themselves in. I was terribly clever, the lady said. + +And so I went in again, and enjoyed it just as much as I had the evening +before. I was tremendously proud of having earned my ticket, for in that +way it was as if I were taken at once right into the circus troupe. +Every single night they performed I would take the tickets--yet no one +in the whole town would know that Inger Johanne meant to go away with +the circus. I would wait till the very last day it was in town before I +asked the fat dark lady, who was the director's wife, if I might go. Of +course I knew her now. + +And I must say good-bye to Father and Mother and my brothers and sister, +or I couldn't bear it. I wouldn't stay away forever, no, far from it, +only a little while, until I was a perfectly splendid performer. + +All at once it occurred to me that I ought to practise a little on +horseback before I offered myself to the circus troupe. I ought at least +to know what it was like to sit on a horse. + +There certainly couldn't be any better opportunity than there was now, +when our whole barn was full of horses. But I must take Karsten into my +confidence; he would have to help me to climb through a hole in the back +of the barn, for the grooms always fastened the barn door when they went +away. At noon there was never any one up there, so I planned to crawl in +then and practice getting on and off of a horse. Yes, I would stand up +on him too,--on one leg--stretch out my arms, and throw kisses as they +do at the circus. + +"Karsten," said I the next day, "what should you say if I became a +circus-rider?" + +"You--when you're knock-kneed!--you would look nice, Inger Johanne, you +would." + +"You look after your own knees, Karsten, I'm going to be a circus-rider, +all the same, I really am." + +"Oh, what bosh!" + +"Well, you'll see; when the circus-riders go I'm going with them. You +mustn't tell a soul, Karsten, but a circus-rider is what I'm going to +be." + +Karsten looked at me rather doubtfully. + +"But you must help me to get into the barn through that hole at the +back, for I shall have to practice, you understand." + +"Well, will you give me that red-and-blue pencil of yours then?" + +"Oh, yes, only come along." + +We stole behind the barn. Karsten kept hold of me while I climbed +up--there, now I was in the barn. How it looked! When twelve horses must +stand in five stalls, there isn't much room left, you know, and they had +been put every which way,--one pony stood in the calf-pen. + +All the horses except two were lying down resting. The white horse over +by the window was standing up; he turned around and looked at me with +big sorrowful eyes. It had really been my plan to get on him, for he was +the handsomest of them all, but I didn't dare to venture among the big +shining bodies of the horses lying all over the floor. No, I should have +to be satisfied with the little black one that stood in the calf-pen. +Karsten had thrust the upper part of his body in through the hole. I +went up to the black horse. + +"He is angry; he is putting his ears back; look out, Inger Johanne!" +called Karsten. + +"Pooh--do you think I mind that?" I climbed up on the calf-pen. For a +moment I wondered whether I should try to stand on the horse at once. I +put out my foot and touched him--no, he was so smooth and slippery, it +would certainly be best to sit the first time I got on a horse. I gave a +little jump, and there I sat. + +O dear! What in the world was happening? I didn't know, but I thought +the horse had gone crazy. First he stood on his fore legs with his hind +legs in the air, and then on his hind legs, and threw me off as if I +were nothing at all. I fell across the edge of the calf-pen--oh, what a +whack my arm got! I literally couldn't move it for a whole minute; and +there was a grand rumpus in the barn; some of the horses got up and +whinnied, and the black one that I had sat on kicked and kicked with his +hind legs every instant. + +I could just see the top of Karsten's head at the hole now. + +"Oh, Karsten--Karsten." + +"Are you dead, Inger Johanne?" + +I don't really know how I got out through the hole with my injured arm. +But outside of the barn I sat down right among all the nettles and +cried. + +When I went into the house there was a great commotion. Everybody was +scared and the doctor was sent for. My sleeve was cut up to the +shoulder, and the doctor said I had broken a small bone in my wrist, and +besides had sprained and bruised my arm about as much as I could. + +"You do everything so thoroughly, Inger Johanne," said the doctor. + +When I was in bed with my arm in splints and bandages, I began to cry +violently. Not so much because of my arm--though I cried a little about +that, too--but most that I should have thought I could run away from +Father and Mother, who were so good. I told Mother the whole thing. + +"But now I'll never--never--never think of running away again, Mother." + + * * * * * + +The day the circus-riders left with the horses, I stood at the window +with my arm in a sling and watched them. + +But only think! Karsten wouldn't give up, and I had to hand over my +red-and-blue pencil to him even though I didn't run away with the +circus-riders! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MOVING + + +Twice, that I can remember, Father had tried to get a position off in +the country, and each time I had been so sure we were going to move that +I had imagined exactly how everything would be in our new home. A big +old farmhouse, yes, for I like old, old houses; an immense garden, with +empress pears and every possible kind of berry; big red barns and +out-houses; big pastures all around; cows and calves, and horses to go +driving with wherever I wished. I should like best a red horse with a +white mane, a horse that looked wild; and a little light basket-phaeton. +And I would drive, and crack my whip--oh, how I would snap it! And there +would be a lot of hens that I would take care of myself, for I am +dreadfully interested in hens. + +Once, I told all around town that we were to move to Telemarken. I +really believed it myself. Everybody in town heard of it and at last it +got into the paper, and, O dear! it wasn't true at all, and it was I who +had told it. That time Father was furious with me. + +After that I never heard a word about Father's looking for a position; I +suppose they were afraid I should tell of it again. And so it was like +lightning from a clear sky and I was completely astounded when Mother +told me one morning at breakfast that Father had got a position in +Christiania, and that we were to move away. + +"Well, may I tell about it now?" I asked. "Yes, now you may say all you +like," said Mother. + +I couldn't get another mouthful down after hearing the news, but hurried +off to school. Not a soul had come when I got there, so I had to wait, +alone with my great news, for five long minutes. The first to come was +Antoinette Wium; she had hardly opened the door when I called out: + +"I am going to move away from town." + +Then I planted myself firmly at the door, and told every single one that +came in. Before the first recess was over, the whole school and all the +teachers knew that we were to move to Christiania. + +I was so glad, I didn't know what to do. The first few days I just went +around telling it down on the wharves and everywhere. + +All at once everything seemed so tedious in town. I didn't care any +longer about what my friends were talking of; all I wanted was to talk +about Christiania. When I was alone I sang to myself: "We shall travel, +travel, travel," mostly to the tune of + + "_Ja, vi elsker dette landet,_" + +for that has such a swing to it. + +I must say that now, for the first time, I understood how Lawyer Cold +felt. He is a fat young man from Christiania who has settled in our +town, but is in despair because he has to live here. He comes up to +Father's office and sits and talks by the hour, complaining, until he +puts Father in a bad humor, too. It is Karl Johan Street that he misses +so frightfully, he says. And to think that now I was going to Karl Johan +Street and should see all the cadets and all the fun! I could understand +Lawyer Cold's feelings perfectly now. Oh, oh, how delightful it will be! + +I began at once to go around to say good-bye, although we were not to +leave for three or four months. I went to all the cottages and huts +round about. One day I went by Ellef Kulaas' house up on the hill. He +was standing outside of his door. He is tall, and his whole body seems +to be warped, and he never looks at people, but off anywhere else. + +"Good-bye, Ellef, I am going away," said I. + +Ellef didn't answer; he only turned his quid in his mouth. + +"We are going to Christiania," I went on. + +"Yes, I was there once," said Ellef. "It's a dangerous Sodom." + +"But aren't there plenty of splendid things to see, Ellef?" + +"Oh, yes--I wanted most to see that big mountain Gausta. They told me +I'd have to take a horse and wagon to get there; but I went to see the +old dean that used to be here,--he lived high up--and when I looked out +of his skylight I saw everything, Gausta and the churches and the whole +kit and boodle. I saved a lot of money that way. I went up there twice +and looked through the skylight, and so I saw the whole show,--for +nothing too. I suppose hardly anybody sees it any better." + +Humph! As if I'd be satisfied like Ellef Kulaas with seeing things +through the dean's skylight! + +There were many places where I said good-bye several times. At last they +laughed at me, and I had to laugh too. One day I went by Madam Guldahl's +house. Madam Guldahl always stands at her garden gate and talks with +people who are passing. + +"Good-bye, Madam Guldahl, we are going to Christiania," said I. + +"You may if you want to. I am thankful to live here rather than there." + +"Why is that?" + +"Oh, I was there six weeks on account of my bad leg--such hurrying and +running in the streets you never saw. I didn't know a soul in the +streets; what pleasure could there be in that, I'd like to know! One day +I saw Ellef Kulaas on the street there, and I was so glad I wanted to +throw my arms around his neck. People went by each other without once +looking at each other--not at all as though it was immortal souls they +were passing." + +I wondered a little whether I should want to throw my arms round Ellef +Kulaas' neck if I met him on Karl Johan Street; but I hardly thought I +should. + +There were three farewell parties for me in the town, with tables loaded +with good things at all the places, and at table they always "toasted" +me, singing: + + "_Og dette skal vaere Inger Johanne's skaal!_ + _Hurrah!_" + +I sang with them myself, and it was quite ceremonious. It's awfully good +fun to be made so much of. The girls all wanted to walk arm in arm with +me and be awfully good friends, and I promised to write to them all. + +At home all the floors were covered with straw and big packing-cases; +chairs and sofas were wrapped in matting; a policeman went around +sorting and packing for several days, and Mother wore her morning dress +all day long. It was all horribly uncomfortable and awfully pleasant at +the same time. + +I packed a box of crockery, and it was really very well done, but the +policeman packed it all over again. After that I wasn't allowed to do +anything except run errands. + +At school I gave away my scholar's-companion and my eraser and my +pencils and pen-holders, and an old torn map, as keepsakes. + +On Saturday, after prayers, the Principal said: + +"There is a little girl here who is soon to leave us. It is Inger +Johanne, as we all know. We shall miss you, Inger Johanne. You are a +good girl in spite of all your pranks. May everything go well with you. +God bless you." + +This was terribly unexpected. Oh, what a beautiful speech--I began to +cry--oh, how I cried! The very moment the Principal said: "There is a +little girl here who is soon to leave us," everything seemed perfectly +horrid all at once. + +Just think, to leave the school and my friends, and the town, and +everything, and never, never come back! + +I laid my head down on the desk and cried, and cried, and couldn't stop. +I had thought only of all the new things I was going to, and not that I +should never in the world live here again,--here where I had been so +happy. + +O dear! if we were only not going, if we were just to stay here all our +lives. At last the Principal came down and patted me on the head, and +then I cried all the more. + +When I got home they could hardly see my eyes, I had cried so. + +"Now you see, Inger Johanne, it's not all pleasure, either," said +Mother. + +The last day, I ran up on the hill, and said good-bye to all the places +where we used to play, to Rome and Japan, to Kongsberg and the North +Cape,--for we had given names to some of them. + +"Good-bye!" I shouted across the rocks and the heather and the juniper, +"Good-bye!" I ran and ran, for I wanted to see all the places where we +had played, before I went away forever. At home, on the outside wall of +our old house, I wrote in pencil, "Good-bye, my beloved home!" + +But I didn't cry, except that time at school. + +At the steamboat-wharf, when we were leaving, it was only fun. The wharf +was packed full of people, and they all wanted to talk to us and shake +hands, and they gave Mother bouquets and gave me bouquets; and there +was such a crowd and bustle and talk and noise before all our things +were finally on board! Only one thing was horrid, and that was that +Ingeborg the maid cried so sorrowfully. She was not going with us; she +stood on the wharf by herself and cried and cried. + +"Don't cry, Ingeborg; you must come and visit us--yes, you must, you +must; don't cry!" + +"I can't do anything else," said Ingeborg, sobbing aloud. + +Now I had to go on board and the steamboat started. + +"Good-bye, good-bye"--I ran to the very stern right by the flag, and +waved and waved. I could see Massa and Mina on the wharf all the way to +where we swung around the islands. + +I stood staring back at the town. + +Now Peckell's big yellow house vanished, and now the custom-house; now I +could see nothing but the little red house high up on the hill; and at +last that vanished too. + +But I still stood there, looking back and looking back at the gray +hills. Among them I had lived my whole life long! + + * * * * * + +Other hills and islands came into view, and the sea splashed up over +them, but not one of them did I know. + +How strange that was! + +Nevertheless, I suddenly felt awfully glad, and I began to sing at the +top of my voice to the old tune (no one heard me, the sea roared so +mightily): + + "Oh! I love to travel, travel!" + + +THE END + + +TOP-OF-THE-WORLD STORIES + + Translated from the Scandinavian Languages + By EMILIE POULSSON and LAURA POULSSON + Illustrated in two colors by Florence Liley Young + +[Illustration] + +These stories of magic and adventure come from the countries at the "top +of the world," and will transport thither in fancy the children who read +this unusual book. They tell of Lapps and reindeer (even a golden-horned +reindeer!), of prince and herd-boy, of knights and wolves and trolls, of +a boy who could be hungry and merry at the same time--of all these and +more besides! Miss Poulsson's numerous and long visits to Norway, her +father's land, and the fact that she is an experienced writer for +children are doubtless the reasons why her translations are sympathetic +and skilful, and yet entirely adapted to give wholesome pleasure to the +young public that she knows so well. + + "In these stories are the elements of wonder and magic and + adventure that furnish the thrill so much appreciated by + boys and girls ten or twelve years of age. An aristocratic + book--one that every young person will be perpetually proud + of."--_Lookout, Cincinnati, O._ + + "In this book the children are transported to the land they + love best, the land of magic, of the fairies and all kinds + of wonderful happenings. It is one of the best fairy story + books ever published."--_Argus-Leader, Sioux Falls, S. D._ + + +YULE-TIDE IN MANY LANDS + +By MARY P. PRINGLE and CLARA A. URANN + + Fully illustrated and decorated + 12mo Cloth Price, $1.50 + +[Illustration] + +The varying forms of Christmas observance at different times and in +different lands are entertainingly shown by one trained in choosing and +presenting the best to younger readers. The symbolism, good cheer, and +sentiment of the grandest of holidays are shown as they appeal in +similar fashion to those whose lives seem so widely diverse. The first +chapter tells of the Yule-Tide of the Ancients, and the eight succeeding +chapters deal respectively with the observance of Christmas and New +Year's, making up the time of "Yule," or the turning of the sun, in +England, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, and +America. The space devoted to each country has at least one good +illustration. + + "The descriptions as presented in this well-prepared volume + make interesting reading for all who love to come in loving + contact with others in their high and pure + enjoyments."--_Herald-Presbyter, Cincinnati._ + + "The way Yule-Tide was and is celebrated is told in a simple + and instructive way, and the narrative is enriched by + appropriate poems and excellent illustrations."--_Cleveland + Plain Dealer._ + + "It is written for young people and is bound to interest + them for the subject is a universal one."--_American Church + Sunday School Magazine._ + + +Famous Children + +By H. TWITCHELL Illustrated + +[Illustration] + +We have here a most valuable book, telling not of the childhood of those +who have afterwards become famous, but those who as children are famous +in history, song, and story. For convenience the subjects are grouped as +"Royal Children," "Child Artists," "Learned Children," "Devoted +Children," "Child Martyrs," and "Heroic Children," and the names of the +"two little princes," Louis XVII., Mozart, St. Genevieve, David, and +Joan of Arc are here, as well as those of many more. + + +The Story of the Cid For Young People + +By CALVIN DILL WILSON Illustrated by J. W. KENNEDY + +Mr. Wilson, a well-known writer and reviewer, has prepared from +Southey's translation, which was far too cumbrous to entertain the +young, a book that will kindle the imagination of youth and entertain +and inform those of advanced years. + + +Jason's Quest + +By D. O. S. LOWELL, A. M., M. D. Illustrated + +[Illustration] + +Nothing can be better to arouse the imagination of boys and girls, and +at the same time store in their minds knowledge indispensable to any one +who would be known as cultured, or happier than Professor Lowell's way +of telling a story, and the many excellent drawings have lent great +spirit to the narrative. + + +Heroes of the Crusades + +By AMANDA M. DOUGLAS Cloth Fifty illustrations + +The romantic interest in the days of chivalry, so fully exemplified by +the "Heroes of the Crusades," is permanent and properly so. This book is +fitted to keep it alive without descending to improbability or cheap +sensationalism. + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON + + +CHRISTMAS IN LEGEND AND STORY + +A Book for Boys and Girls + +Compiled by ELVA S. SMITH + +Cataloguer of Children's Books, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, + +and ALICE I. HAZELTINE + +Supervisor of Children's Work, St. Louis Public Library + +Illustrated from Famous Paintings + +[Illustration] + +In their experience in providing reading for children, these trained and +efficient librarians saw the need of a book that should group the _best_ +of real literature regarding Christmas. With wide research and great +pains they have gathered the noblest, grandest, sweetest, and most +reverent of all that eminent writers in varying lands and in different +times have told us in prose and verse of the origin and sentiment of +this "gracious time." The style and decoration of the book are in +keeping with its contents. + + "Clad in green, red and gold, the Christmas colors, comes + this collection of all the sweetest and noblest stories and + legends that have gathered round the birthday of the Son of + Man. This is an interesting volume, full of the spirit of + Christmas."--_The Churchman._ + + "It is a superb book, beautifully printed, illustrated from + famous paintings and splendidly bound. It is as well adapted + to the adult as to the children, and will be read with + interest, enjoyment and delight by many an older one."--_The + Brooklyn Citizen._ + + "The literary standard of all these tales is exceptionally + high, and the two editors of the volume are to be + congratulated on their choice of selections for it."--_The + Christian Register._ + + "It is redolent of Christmas cheer and reverence. The + Yuletide spirit breathes from every page. The illustrations, + taken for the most part from old paintings, are an + invaluable embellishment of the attractive text."--_Columbus + Dispatch._ + + "Perhaps the best and most comprehensive collection of good + literature published regarding the birth of Christ and the + celebration of His birthday is this well illustrated, + clearly-written and plainly-printed book by two experts in + children's reading. It will help to keep the spirit of + Christmas alive throughout the year."--_The Continent._ + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +Lothrop, Lee & Sherpard Co. Boston + + +New Editions of Two Favorite Books + + +THE LANCE OF KANANA + +A STORY OF ARABIA + +By HARRY W. FRENCH ("Abd el Ardavan") + +Two-color illustrations by Garrett Net, $1.25 + +[Illustration] + +Kanana, a Bedouin youth, though excelling in athletic prowess, is +branded, even by his father, as a coward because he prefers the humble +lot of a shepherd to the warrior's career that he, the son of a sheik +known as the "Terror of the Desert," was expected to follow. "Only for +Allah and Arabia will I lift a lance and take a life," he maintained. +Opportunity to prove his worth soon comes, and the supposed coward, +understood too late, becomes in memory a national hero. + + "The stirring story of the loyalty and self-sacrifice of a + Bedouin boy is well worth the attractive new edition in + which it now presents its rare picture of fervid + patriotism."--_Continent, Chicago._ + + +THE ADVENTURES OF MILTIADES PETERKIN PAUL + +By JOHN BROWNJOHN + +Frontispiece by John Goss Illustrated by "Boz" + +[Illustration] + +Here is a child classic reissued in a finer and handsomer form, in +response to the persistent demand of those who know the mirth-provoking +quality of the exploits of the ingenious small boy named Miltiades +Peterkin Paul and spoken of as "a great traveler, although he was +small." Whoever has once enjoyed the story of the restless little lad +who imitated Don Quixote, and did many other things, is permanently +charmed by it. + + "This youthful Don Quixote, with his travels and exploits, + drives 'dull care' away from the elders and delights the + juniors."--_Watchman, N.Y._ + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Boston + + +The Young Folks' Book of Ideals + +By DR. WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH + +Fully illustrated 8vo Cloth 500 pages + +[Illustration] + +This is intended to be the fundamental book in the library of boys and +girls between twelve and eighteen, and it deserves its place in +interest, fullness, and worth. The great educator, G. Stanley Hall, has +demanded "a secular Bible," and it is not too much to say that this +meets the demand. One may go farther, and say that no other modern +writer has so wisely, so safely, and at the same time so entertainingly +provided what young people long to be told if only it be done capably +and pleasingly. Dr. Forbush is a sincere man, and in both writing and +speaking combines keen wit and great learning with a rich store of +personal experience in a way that entitles him to rank as the leading +authority on making the best of youthful life. The book is produced in a +style worthy of its really great contents. + + "A book of general culture for young people which deserves a + fundamental place in the library of boys and girls between + twelve and eighteen, because of its interest, fullness and + worth. The invaluable knowledge for young people imparted, + is presented in a style so pleasing and entertaining that + young readers will find it not only convincing, but + intensely interesting. It is an ideal book to place in the + hands of young people."--_Zion's Herald._ + + "It is a book of unusual inspiration. It will help teachers + and parents and will prove a stable balance for the young + mind in forming its habits of thought and living."--_Buffalo + News._ + + "There is a combination of keen wit and great learning with + a rich store of personal experience that entitles the author + to rank among the leading writers of youthful + life."--_Atlanta Constitution._ + + * * * * * + +For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 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