ighed
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 t