Sami had replied that he had never complained and didn't want to do so,
but when his father questioned him he could only tell him the truth.
Stoeffi tried to explain to him that it didn't matter whether he told the
truth or not, but here he found Sami more obstinate than he had expected,
and no matter what fearful threats he hurled at him, he always said the
same thing in the end:

"But I shall do it."

This firmness was the result of Sami's sure conviction that the dear Lord
heard and knew everything and that lying was something wicked, which did
not please Him.

So Stoeffi had to find some other way to get off from his work early and
make Sami finish what he left. He found that all three could never dare
abandon their work and leave it for Sami, but one of them might do so
each evening, and he threatened to punish his brothers severely if they
would not agree to this. Then there would always be three or four
evenings in succession when Stoeffi wanted to go away early; then the
brothers had to stay and work, and this led to many a quarrel, with heavy
blows which regularly fell upon Sami.

So he never had any happy days. But every evening he could be alone with
his thoughts of his grandmother, of all the beautiful bygone days and all
the good words she had spoken to him. Nobody troubled him, or called to
him, or pulled him then, as usually happened all day long.

Thus the Summer and Autumn passed away, and a cold Winter had come. There
was no more work to be done in the fields and meadows, but there were all
sorts of things to be done to help the farmer in the barn and his wife in