teeth after her. She was really too old for his seventeen years;
she must be at least forty; and casting another long look at Bodil,
he went across to the coachhouse with oil-can and keys.

The high white house that closed the yard at its upper end, had
not been built right among the other buildings, but stood proudly
aloof, unconnected with them except by two strips of wooden paling.
It had gables on both sides, and a high basement, in which were
the servants' hall, the maids' bedrooms, the wash-house, the
mangling-room, and the large storerooms. On the gable looking on
to the yard was a clock that did not go. Pelle called the building
the Palace, and was not a little proud of being allowed to enter
the basement. The other people on the farm did not give it such
a nice name.

He was the only one whose awe of the House had nothing sinister
about it; others regarded it in the light of a hostile fortress.
Every one who crossed the paved upper yard, glanced involuntarily
up at the high veiled windows, behind which an eye might secretly
be kept upon all that went on below. It was, a little like passing
a row of cannons' mouths--it made one a little unsteady on one's
feet; and no one crossed the clean pavement unless he was obliged.
On the other hand they went freely about the other half of the yard,
which was just as much overlooked by the House.

Down there two of the lads were playing. One of them had seized
the other's cap and run off with it, and a wild chase ensued, in
at one barn-door and out at another all round the yard, to the
accompaniment of mischievous laughter and breathless exclamations.
The yard-dog barked with delight and tumbled madly about on its