The scene is laid in a peasant's hut on the edge of a forest near a
cathedral town. It is a dark low-raftered room lit only by the glowing
wood fire in the great fireplace in the wall to the right, and by a
faint moonlight that steals in through the little window high in the
left wall. This window commands a view of the cathedral and of the road
leading down into the town. The only entrance into the hut is the front
door near the window.

The furnishings are few: two substantial stools, one near the window,
the other before the fire, logs piled up near the hearth, and on the
chimney shelf above a few dishes, three little bowls, three spoons and a
great iron porridge pot. A wooden peg to the right of the chimney holds
Steen's cap and cape, one to the left an old shawl. Near the door
Holger's cap and cape hang from a third peg.

Despite its poverty the room is full of beautiful coloring as it lies
half hidden in deep shadow save where the light of the fire falls on the
brown of the wood and the warmer shades of the children's garments,
illuminates their faces and gleams on their bright hair.

When the curtain is raised Steen is sitting disconsolately on the stool
near the fire. He is a handsome sturdy little lad of nine or ten,
dressed in rough but warm garments of a dark red. Holger a slender boy
some four years older, bends over Steen patting him comfortingly on the
shoulder.

There is petulance and revolt in the expression of the younger boy but
Holger's face is full of a blended character and spirituality that makes
him beautiful. He is clad like his brother in comfortable but worn
jerkin and hose of a dark leaf green. His manner to the little boy is