ain----

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 th