going to see the bear."

Whereupon Michael ran off.

"Me, too," cried Uli, throwing down his hoe. "You can finish that
also, Sami."

When the twilight came on and the family put the sour milk and the
steaming potatoes on the table, Sami was missing.

"I suppose he will keep us waiting," remarked the farmer's wife
sharply. When all had finished and the milk mugs were empty, the woman
cleared them away and placed the few potatoes left over on the kitchen
table and growled:

"He can eat here, if he wants anything."

It was quite dark, and Sami still had not come. Just as the other three
were being sent to bed, he came in, so tired he could hardly stand. The
woman asked him harshly, if he couldn't come home with the others. The
farmer assumed that the piece he had told Sami to weed had been too much
for him to do, and he said consolingly:

"It is right that you wanted to finish your work, but you must
work faster."

Sami understood the signs which Stoeffi made behind his father's back,
that he was to keep silent about the bear, and he was too much afraid of
the three boys' fists to say anything about it.