Erick and Sally | Page 6

arrow into the midst of a crowd
of boys, and they all acted so strangely and they shouted so strangely
that Sally thought that something particular must be in preparation
there, and no doubt concerned the new-comers. Then she could hear
something from Edi. She went slowly on and kept on turning round, but
Edi did not come, and only after Sally had long since greeted the
mother and was about to call her father out of his study for dinner, did
the two brothers come running along, their faces red as fire, and
breathless, for they had lingered to the last moment. The father was just
leaving his study when both rushed toward him and now it began: "We
have--the Middle Lotters--with the Lower Wooders--"
"Hush, hush," said the father. "First get your breath, then relate, one
after the other; but before anything, first the soup." With these words
the father took Ritz's hand, and Sally and Edi followed them into the
dining-room. Sally pulled Edi a little back and whispered:
"Tell me quickly, what did they tell about the strange boy?"
"About him?" returned Edi in a somewhat scornful tone. "I had
forgotten all about him! We have something else to do than to talk
about a strange boy, of whom one does not even know whether he will
come to Upper Wood to school."
This answer was somewhat unexpected to Sally and had a saddening
effect; but she always could find a way out of an unpleasant situation.
So she sat as still as a mouse during the whole time the soup was eaten,
and her thoughts were hard at work.
Now the father turned to Edi and said: "Now you can relate your
adventure, while Ritz remains quiet, and afterwards his turn will
come." Ritz looked quite obedient for he had two large noodles on his
plate to work with.
But Edi, in a moment, put down knife and fork and quickly began:

"Just think, Papa, we have made three songs, one for each parish. First,
the Lower Wooders began. The sixth class were angry because we
laughed at them, that they only now have to make sentences, and we in
the fourth class have begun to write them already. They made a song
about us which runs:
"'Of Upper Wood the boys They in their minds rejoice Because they
think that they the cleverest are, But if ever they must fight They are in
sorry plight And they turn round and run for ever so far.'
"How do you like that song, Papa?"
"Well, that is such as Lower Wooders would make," said the father.
"And then," Edi continued, "we have made a song for an answer, that
goes thus:
"'And of Lower Wood the crowd They always yell so loud That they
never, never stay within their den, For all dispute and strife They are
much alive For they use their fists when they ought to use their pen.'
"How do you like this one, Papa?"
"Just about the same. And who has sung about the Middle Lot?" asked
the father.
"The Lower Wooders and we together; they too had to have a song, but
the shortest, as it ought to be. It runs so:
"'And they of Middle Lot They all together plot That they are striving
zealously for peace, But with quarrelling they never cease.'
"And how do you like that, Papa?"
"They are, all three of them, kind of fighting songs, Edi," answered the
father, "and I should prefer that you keep busy with your history studies,
instead of taking sides in these party-fights. One never knows where
one comes out, and such poetry usually ends with lumps on the heads."

Edi seemed much disappointed as he attacked his noodles with a
visibly spoiled appetite.
"And what has been your experience, Sally? Why are you so pensive?"
the father continued.
"Kaetheli was not at school," reported Sally, "and I had so much to talk
over with her. Perhaps she is sick; may I go to see her this afternoon?
We have no school, you know."
"Aha, Sally wants to see the strange boy," the sharp-witted Edi
remarked.
"You may go, Sally," the mother said, answering a questioning look
from the father. "But you will not go into any house where you have no
business, just to look at strangers. I know you are capable of doing such
things. You can start soon after dinner."
Sally was very happy. She quickly fetched her straw hat and took leave.
But outside she did not run straight through the passage-way as she
usually did in similar cases, but went to the kitchen door and peeped in,
and when she saw 'Lizebeth at the sink, where the latter was scraping
her pans, she went in very close