command: "Run!" Pelle, wild with terror and confusion, dashed into
the yard, but there stood the maids, and at sight of him they
screamed with laughter, and he turned to fly back into the
coach-house. But he was met by the whip, and forced to return into
the daylight, leaping like a kangaroo and calling forth renewed
shouts of laughter. Then he stood still, crying helplessly, under
a shower of coarse remarks, especially from the maids. He no longer
noticed the whip, but only crouched down, trying to hide himself,
until at last he sank in a heap upon the stone paving, sobbing
convulsively.

Karna, large of limb, came rushing up from the basement and forced
her way through the crowd, crimson with rage and scolding as she
went. On her freckled neck and arms were brown marks left by the
cows' tails at the last milking, looking like a sort of clumsy
tattooing. She flung her slipper in the pupil's face, and going up
to Pelle, wrapped him in her coarse apron and carried him down to
the basement.

When Lasse heard what had happened to the boy, he took a hammer and
went round to kill the farm pupil; and the look in the old man's
eyes was such that no one desired to get in his way. The pupil had
thought his wisest course was to disappear; and when Lasse found no
vent for his wrath, he fell into a fit of trembling and weeping, and
became so really ill that the men had to administer a good mouthful
of spirits to revive him. This took instant effect, and Lasse was
himself again and able to nod consolingly to the frightened, sobbing
Pelle.

"Never mind, laddie!" he said comfortingly. "Never mind! No one has