t wishing to see you drown in so much water--

HOLGER. (_Patting his arm_) Dear Uncle Bertel!

STEEN. (_Rising on his knees_) Come, let's go quick!

BERTEL. Patience, patience, young colt, plenty of time, mother said
something else.

STEEN. What?

BERTEL. (_His eye on the shelf above the fire_) That I should find some
warm porridge for my pains.

HOLGER. (_Springing to his feet_) Why, of course, there _is_
porridge! (_He goes to the shelf_) Nice and warm it is! All ready
for supper. (_He hands the first bowl to_ BERTEL, STEEN _capers
nimbly across the intervening space and seats himself on the side of the
hearth, facing_ BERTEL, _his back to the audience_)

STEEN. Supper! How could we forget supper?--Give me a _big_ bowlful,
Holger.

HOLGER. (_Handing_ STEEN _his porridge_) There isn't a _big_
bowlful here.

STEEN. (_Taking the bowl and hugging it_) Nice kind good supper, umh!
(_Begins to eat eagerly_)

HOLGER. (_Suddenly looking toward the door_) Listen!

BERTEL. To what?

HOLGER. (_Awed, hesitant_) Someone--sobbing--at the door! (_He goes
to it, the others watching him startled, he opens the door, finds nothing,
closes it and comes back_) Nothing there!

BERTEL. The wind!--Thy old tricks, Holger,--always dreaming some strange
thing.

HOLGER. (_Recalled by_ BERTEL'S _words to something else_) Didst
thou pass an old woman on the road--near here?

BERTEL. Not a soul nearer than the town gate. (HOLGER _stands thinking,
absorbed_) Come, boy, eat,--_eat_! See how Steen eats!

HOLGER. (_Breaks through his abstraction and reverts to his bright
self_) Oh, Uncle Bertel,--I'm too glad to eat!

BERTEL. (_More seriously_) Thou art right, lad,--fasting were better
than feasting this day in Tralsund!--they say,--do you know what they
say in the town?

HOLGER. What?

BERTEL. They say--that to-night in the great church--when the offerings
are laid upon the altar for the Christ child,--_something will happen_!

(STEEN _has finished his porridge, puts the bowl on the shelf near
him, seizes his cloak and cap from the peg near the hearth and
stands eager to be gone._)

HOLGER. What?

BERTEL. Who can say? All day the folk have been pouring into the town as
never before. The market place is crowded, every inn is full. No church
but the cathedral could hold such a multitude. Never have I seen such
excitement, such fervor!

HOLGER. There will be many gifts!

BERTEL. --the rich are bringing their t