dener's
"helping hand" he had long gotten on comfortably; but illness and old
age had come upon him, and there had seemed no prospect for him but the
poorhouse, when Karin's hospitable door opened for him.

The lawsuit was not settled, but it was well known in the neighbourhood
that Jan Persson had said Uncle Pelle should not go to the poorhouse
while he had a home.

Pelle felt quite independent now, and he held his head straight as he
walked by Nono and talked about the good princess. Had not the young
lady at Ekero said she should need him straight on in the garden? for
she saw he knew all about flowers, and could be of real use to her.
Alma wanted to be a friend to Nono too, but she did not yet exactly see
how. There was something about the boy she did not quite understand.

CHAPTER IX.

KARIN'S FETE.

Nono was in disgrace. The twins had twice brought him before Karin,
his clothes all smeared with mud, as if he had purposely made his whole
person the colour of his brown face, and had given his hands rough
gloves of a still darker hue. Of course he had at first been sternly
reprimanded, for Karin suffered no such proceedings in her neat
household. The second reproof was more severe, and accompanied by the
promise of a thorough whipping if the offence were repeated.

The long summer evenings gave a fine play-time for the boys, and then
Nono generally amused himself out of the way of the twins, who were
very despotic in their style of government. Again they had detected
him brushing himself behind the bushes, and dolorously looking at the
obstinate stains upon his cotton clothes. With a wild hollo they
seized the culprit between them, and hurried him along towards Karin,
who was cheerily examining her flower-beds under the southern windows,
and chatting meanwhile with Jan, who sat on the doorstep.

Karin was both grieved and angry, and unusually excited. "Nono must be
whipped, and that soundly," she said emphatically to Jan. "This is the
third time he has come to the house in that condition. I won't have
him learn to disobey me that way."

Jan got up slowly, and took from its hiding-place inside the cottage
something that looked like a broom-brush made of young twigs. It was
the family emblem and instrument of punishment, much dreaded among the
children; and with reason, for Jan had a strong hand and a sure one.
He had been accustomed to giving his own boys a thrashing now and then,
but on Non