for Nelle with the mill on her lap was crushing the black berries, which
snapped cheerily.

Madame Puzzel had unfastened the metal clasp of her big black-hooded
cloak and taken her spectacle case and knitting from her basket. She put
on her spectacles, took up her knitting, sat down by the fire and began
to knit. She wore a woollen flowered jacket under a black shawl, and a
skirt of linsey-woolsey. From time to time she looked over her
spectacles without raising her head and glanced at Riekje walking up and
down the room groaning. When the pain became worse, Madame Puzzel tapped
her on the cheek, and said:

"Be brave, Riekje. You cannot think what a joy it is to hear the little
one cry for the first time. It is like eating vanilla cream in Paradise
listening to beautiful violin music."

Tobias, having put back the big chest which served as a bed against the
wall, went to fetch two sea-weed mattresses from his own bed, and, as he
laid them on the chest, there was a healthy salt smell in the room. Then
Nelle covered the mattresses with spotless coarse linen sheets, and
smoothed them with the palm of her hand to take out the creases and make
it as soft as a feather-bed. Towards midnight, Madame Puzzel folded up
her knitting, placed her spectacles on the table, crossed her arms and
looked into the fire; then she began to prepare the linen, made a hole
in the pillows and looked at the time by the big silver watch which she
wore under her jacket. Finally, she yawned six consecutive times and
went to sleep with one eye open.

Riekje wrung her hands and cried out: