. The way the head was poised on the shoulders,
its inclination to one side, the profile of the face, and beyond all
else the eyes and the eyebrows, indeed, the bluish green head kerchief,
which was drawn far forward, imparting to the pale face something of its
own hue--altogether a genuine Carlo Dolci!

She walked noiselessly away, and left me alone with the boys, whom I at
once attacked. The elder one was named Anton, and he could walk on his
hands, at least, almost; and the younger one informed me that his name
was Storm, and told me a great deal more about his brother, whom he
regarded with unqualified admiration. The elder, on the other hand,
assured me that his brother Storm was a very bad boy sometimes; he had
recently been caught at some of his naughty tricks, and so papa had
given him a flogging that same day; Stina had told papa about it. Stina
was the name of her who had just left us.

After this not very diplomatic introduction to an acquaintance, they
stood one on each side of me and prattled away about what at present was
working in their minds, with most extraordinary force. They both now
told me, the elder one taking the lead and the younger following with
supplementary details, that yonder at one of the houseman's places, past
which I had driven, lived Hans, little Hans; that is he _had_ lived
there, for the real, true little Hans was with God. He had come to the
gard to play with the boys almost every day; though sometimes they too
had been over at the housemen's places, which I soon perceived were to
the boys the promised land of this earth. Then one evening, about a
fortnight since, Hans had started to go home at dusk; it was before the
snow came, and in the park, through which he had to pass, the fish pond
lay spread before him so smooth and black. Hans thought he would like to
slide on it and he climbed up from the path on to the pond, for the path
ran right along it. But that same day there had been a hole cut in the
ice for the people to fish, and they had forgotten to put a signal
there, and so little Hans slid right into the hole. A child's cry of
distress had reached the gard; the milkmaid had heard it, but only once,
and she had not thought very much about it, for all the boys were in the
habit of playing in the park. So little Hans had disappeared and no one
could say where he was. Then the ice was cut away from the pond and they
found him; but the boys were not allowed to see him. They had,