nothing for the journey because I didn't take leave of her, and she
didn't even see me when I grabbed my bag. And now, even the weaver's
wife had not given me anything. It made me sad. I got angry, threw the
apple away, and would rather have cried. Here was evidence, I thought,
that what the great-aunt said was true. Nobody cared for me, at home,
nor anywhere else. Everybody liked Stephen, and it always would be so.

"I used to hear some people say that the Devil is walking on the
earth, though we do not see him, and whispers to us what we should
think and do. If it is true, I don't know, but that he was with me
that time and gave me bad, gruesome advice, is sure. Only he could
have told me that. When we left the weavers, I said to Stephen,
'Going over the mountain is too far. Let us go by the lower and more
convenient path; it is nearer.'

"'But mother said we must go only over the hill,' objected Stephen,
'and father called also from the yard, 'Do not go by the lower way.'"

"Well, however it was, when we came where the paths divided we went on
the lower path anyway. I claimed that my feet hurt, I had stubbed my
big toe, and had a thorn in my heel. Stephen was sorry for me, and
thought that when we explained it to mother she would see the reason,
and father also, why we took the lower path after all.

"Truly it was fine to run there, like on carpets, till we came to the
swamp. 'You must now jump from rock to rock,' said I, and I ran ahead.
We came near the opposite side. There was only one more jump. Because
I was larger, and my feet longer I managed to jump over, but I knew
that Stephen could not jump over. There were bunches of grass and I
advised him to run over them. He listened to me, came over two or