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 liv