"I sat eating it when you came, and then I put it out of sight for,
I know you don't like butter."

The old man got down on his hands and knees and began to search,
but to no purpose, of course.

"You must have left them where you were last," said Glory Goldie.

He had wondered about that himself, though he thought it unlikely.
At all events he could do nothing to the clock without his glasses.
He had no choice but to gather up his tools and replace the works
in the clock-case.

While his back was turned the little girl slipped the spectacles
into his bundle, where he found them when he got to Lövdala Manor--
the last place he had been to before coming to Ruffluck Croft. On
opening the bundle to show they were not there, the first object
that caught his eye was the spectacle-case.

Next time he saw Jan and Katrina in the pine grove outside the
church, he went up to them.

"That girl of yours, that handy little girl of yours is going to be
a comfort to you," he told them.


FORBIDDEN FRUIT

There were many who said to Jan of Ruffluck that his little girl
would be a comfort to him when she was grown. Folks did not seem to