Little Tora, The Swedish Schoolmistress and Other Stories | Page 8

in
advance of the other. He neared the bank, plunged in and drew the
uncertain little craft to the shore, and then as a sledge up the long slope.
Nils had before decided that he would deposit his passengers in a
sheepfold high on the bank, where he had seen in the morning a
window left open under the projecting roof to give the poor creatures a
little air. He knew that in the corner by the window there was a great
bin that had been freshly filled with dried birch branches as food for the

sheep. He left the children looking down at the pretty lambs and their
mothers, and ran back himself to see what he could do for the rest of
the party.
The little mistress was only half-way over, and evidently managing
with difficulty her awkward oars in the thick, snow-encumbered water
through which she was making her way.
Nils plunged in, swam to her boat, tied the loose rope round his body,
and then struck out for the shore, while the oars were plied as well as
they could be by the weary hands that held them. His feet had just
touched bottom when there was a loud cheer from the top of the hill
that sloped down to the meadow. Two great wagons, with a pair of
strong horses attached to each, were coming to the rescue of the
children.
As horses that were good forders and wagons suited to the purpose
were to be selected, some time had been lost in the preparations after
the first news of the condition of the meadow had been spread abroad.
The question now was how to get the whole party under roof as soon as
possible.
The drivers were for putting the children half in one wagon and half in
the other; but Nils said in a tone most unusual for him, "All the children
must go in one wagon, and you will see them safe home, Petter. We go
the other way where the road forks. Of course, I take the mistress home
with me. Mother wouldn't forgive me if I let her go anywhere else; and
I think I have a kind of right to her too!"
"That you have," said the rough man, with a kind of little quiver round
his lips. "You've earned that right, anyhow."
And away Nils and the teacher were borne, while from the other wagon
there was a merry "Good-bye! good-bye! good-bye, teacher! good-bye,
Nils!" and a hearty shout of "Hurrah for Nils!" from the driver, which
came from the very depths of Petter's honest heart.
CHAPTER IV.

A HAPPY MORNING.
The home to which the little schoolmistress and Nils were bound had
formerly been a wayside inn of most modest pretensions. It was but a
one-story red building, with a row of white-framed windows looking
out on the road close at hand. There was a storm-house, for stamping
off the snow and depositing extra articles of carriage, and for dogs, who,
like the Peri, must stand outside the paradise within. Next came one
large, cheerful room, which served as kitchen, as well as general place
of refreshment and assembly. On one side of this apartment of manifold
uses were four small rooms for lodgers, furnished with almost as much
simplicity as the prophet's chamber of the Scriptures, save that a plain
sofa-bed was added in each, as a possible accommodation for an extra
sleeper when there was a throng of guests.
On the death of Nils's father, the widow had resolved to retire into
private life, as she was comfortably provided for. Not but that she was
willing at times to give a meal or a bed to an old acquaintance; but such
inmates must conform to the temperance arrangements of the
establishment, for total abstinence was now the rule of the house. The
widow had declared that her son should not be brought up with the
fumes of spirituous liquors as his natural atmosphere. Perhaps this
resolution had been prompted by the suspicion that her husband's life
had been shortened by too frequent good meals and too frequent strong
potations. Be that as it may, the determined woman had made it known
that, now that she was mistress in her own house, she would manage it
as she thought best. The tables for guests had been swept away (or
rather sold discreetly at private sale) to make room for a
spinning-wheel, a loom, and a sewing-machine, by which the prudent
woman said she was sure she could add to her substance in a quiet way.
"The clicking, the buzzing, and the slamming," she said, were nothing
to her, and now she could choose what noises she would have in her
ears.
It was not yet time for the