"Ho, indeed!" said Falkenberg; "I like that. _He's_ given up eating
altogether."

Now and again when she asked us to do her a favour, some little service or
other, we would both hurry to do it; at last we got to bringing in water
and firewood of our own accord. But one day Falkenberg played me a mean
trick: he came home with a bunch of hazel twigs for a carpet-beater, that
Fruen had asked me expressly to cut for her.

And he sang every evening now.

Then it was I resolved to make Fruen jealous--ey, ey, my good man, are you
mad now, or merely foolish? As if Fruen would ever give it as much as a
thought, whatever you did.

But so it was. I would try to make her jealous.

Of the three girls on the place, there was only one that could possibly be
used for the experiment, and that was Emma. So I started talking nonsense
to Emma.

"Emma, I know of some one that is sighing for you."

"And where did you get to know of that, pray?"

"From the stars above."

"I'd rather hear of it from some one here on earth."

"I can tell you that, too. At first hand."