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 we