for school; but she would be late in arriving home.

"You're taking a quarter of an hour longer on the road now," scolded
her mother.

"We got out late today," lied Ditte, trying to copy her mother's
unconcerned face, as she had seen it when _she_ lied. Her heart was
in her mouth, but all went well--wonderful to relate! How much wiser
she was now! During the day she quietly put the clock back again.

One day, in the dusk, as she stood on the chair putting the clock
back, her mother came behind her. Ditte threw herself down from the
chair, quickly picking up little Povl from the floor, where he was
crawling; in her fear, she tried to hide behind the little one. But
her mother tore him from her, and began thrashing her.

Ditte had had a rap now and then, when she was naughty, but this was
the first time she had been really whipped. She was like an animal,
kicking and biting, and shrieking, so that it was all her mother
could do to manage her. The three little ones' howls equaled hers.

When Soerine thought she had had enough, she dragged her to the
woodshed and locked her in. "Lie there and howl, maybe it'll teach
you not to try those tricks again!" she shouted, and went in. She
was so out of breath that she had to sit down; that wicked child had
almost got the better of her.

Ditte, quite beyond herself, went on screaming and kicking for some
time. Her cries gradually quietened down to a despairing wail of:
"Granny, Granny!" It was quite dark in the woodshed, and whenever
she called for Granny, she heard a comforting rustling sound from
the darkness at the back of the shed. She gazed confidently towards
it, and saw two green fire-balls shining in the darkness, which came
and went by turns. Ditte was not afraid of the dark. "Puss, puss,"
she whispered. The fire-balls disappeared, and the next moment she
felt something soft touching her. And now she broke down again, this
caress was too much for her, and she pitied herself intensely. Puss,
little puss! There was after all one who cared for her! Now she
would go home to Granny.

She got up, dazed and bruised, and felt her way to the shutter. When
Soerine thought that she had been locked in long enough, and came to
release her, she had vanished.

* * * * *

Ditte ran into the darkness, sobbing; it was cold and windy, and the
rain was beating on her face. She wore no knickers under her
dress--these her mother had taken for the little