"Don't stand there playing the fool!" said the bailiff sharply. "Be
off down to the others and get something to eat! You'll have plenty
of time to show off your monkey-tricks to them afterwards."

At these encouraging words, the old man took the boy's hand and
went across to the basement steps with despair in his heart,
mourning inwardly for Tommelilla and Kungstorp. Pelle clung close
to him in fear. The unknown had suddenly become an evil monster
in the imagination of both of them.

Down in the basement passage the strange, persistent sound was
louder, and they both knew that it was that of a woman weeping.




II

Stone Farm, which for the future was to be Lasse and Pelle's home,
was one of the largest farms on the island. But old people knew
that when their grandparents were children, it had been a crofter's
cottage where only two horses were kept, and belonged to a certain
Vevest Koller, a grandson of Jens Kofod, the liberator of Bornholm.
During his time, the cottage became a farm. He worked himself to
death on it, and grudged food both for himself and the others. And
these two things--poor living and land-grabbing--became hereditary
in that family.

The fields in this part of the island had been rock and heather