all the snares you laid for her, when she came carrying the milk pails;
and for all the tears when she has stood here and wept over you!"

The boy wanted to tell them how he regretted that he had been unkind to
them; and that never, never--from now on--should he be anything but
good, if they would only tell him where the elf was. But the cows didn't
listen to him. They made such a racket that he began to fear one of them
would succeed in breaking loose; and he thought that the best thing for
him to do was to go quietly away from the cowhouse.

When he came out, he was thoroughly disheartened. He could understand
that no one on the place wanted to help him find the elf. And little
good would it do him, probably, if the elf were found.

He crawled up on the broad hedge which fenced in the farm, and which was
overgrown with briers and lichen. There he sat down to think about how
it would go with him, if he never became a human being again. When
father and mother came home from church, there would be a surprise for
them. Yes, a surprise--it would be all over the land; and people would
come flocking from East Vemminghög, and from Torp, and from Skerup. The
whole Vemminghög township would come to stare at him. Perhaps father and
mother would take him with them, and show him at the market place in
Kivik.

No, that was too horrible to think about. He would rather that no human
being should ever see him again.

His unhappiness was simply frightful! No one in all the world was so
unhappy as he. He was no longer a human being--but a freak.