him to speak to Börje, who was threshing in the barn close by,
instead of sending him after the hired boy, who was at work out in
the birch-grove, a good way from the farmyard.

And while Jan ran these needless errands, the faint voice under the
spruce branches rang in his ears. The voice was not so imperative
now, but it begged and implored him to hasten. "I'm coming, I'm
coming!" Jan whispered back. He had the sensation of one in a
nightmare who tries to run but who cannot take a step.

Lars had at last managed to get a horse into the shafts. Then the
womenfolk came and told him to be sure to take along straw and
blankets. This was all very well, but it meant still further delay.

Finally Lars and Jan and the hired boy drove away from the farm.
But they had got no farther than to the edge of the forest, when
Lars stopped the horse.

"One gets sort of rattled when one receives news of this kind,"
said he. "I never thought of it till just now--but Börje is back at
the barn."

"It would have been well to have taken him along," said Jan, "for
he's twice as strong as any of us."

Then Lars sent the hired boy back to the farm to get Börje; which
meant a long wait.

While Jan sat in the sledge, powerless to act, he felt as though
within him opened a big, empty ice-cold void. It was the awful