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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
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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 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
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