to stay in the
same room with her mother, and then she would go back to her old way
and hide herself.

One evening she lay crouching in the willows. Soerine came time after
time to the door, calling her in a friendly voice, and at each call
a feeling of disgust went through the girl. "Ugh!" said she; it made
her almost sick. After having searched for her round the house,
Soerine went slowly up to the road and back again, peering about all
the time: passing so close to Ditte that her dress brushed her face:
then she went in.

Ditte was cold, and tired of hiding, but in she would not go--not
till her father came home. He might not return until late, or not at
all. Ditte had experienced this before, but then there had been a
reason for it. It was no whipping she expected now!

No, but how lovely it had been to walk in holding her father's hand.
He asked no question now, but only looked at the mother accusingly,
and could not do enough for one. Perhaps he would make an excuse for
a trip over to ... no ... this ... Ditte began to cry. It was
terrible that however much she mourned for Granny--suddenly she
would find she had forgotten Granny was dead. "Granny's dead, dear
little Granny's dead," she would repeat to herself, so that it
should not happen again, but the next minute it was just the same.
It was so disloyal!

Now that it was too late, she was sorry she had not gone in when her
mother called. She drew her feet up under her dress and began
pulling up the grass to keep herself awake. Hearing a sound from the
distance she jumped up--wheels approaching! but alas, it was not the
well-known rumbling of her father's cart.

The cart turned from the road down in the direction of the Crow's
Nest. Two men got out and went into the house; both wore caps with
gold braid on. Ditte crept down to the house, behind the willows;
her heart was beating loudly. The next moment they reappeared with
her mother between them; she was struggling and shrieking wildly.
"Lars Peter!" she cried heartrendingly in the darkness; they had to
use force to get her into the cart. Inside the house the children
could be heard crying in fear.

This sound made Ditte forget everything else, and she rushed
forward. One of the men caught her by the arm, but let her go at a
sign from the other man. "D'you belong to the house?" asked he.

Ditte nodded.

"Then go in to the little ones and tell them not to be afraid....
Drive on!"

Quick as lightnin