Toni, the Little Woodcarver | Page 4

boys since he had been
constantly alone with his quietly working mother and used to
performing definite tasks continually without any noise.
So it was altogether strange to him and he took no pleasure in it, when
the boys coming out of the school-house, set up a great screaming, one
running after another, trying to see which was the stronger, and
throwing one another on the ground, or wrestling so that their caps
were thrown far away and their jackets half torn off.
The wrestlers would often call to him:
"Come and play!" and when he ran away from them they would call
after him: "You are a coward." But this made little difference to him;
he didn't hear it long, for he ran with all his might in order to be at
home again with his mother.
Now a new interest for him arose in the school: he had seen beautiful
animals drawn on white sheets, which the children of the upper classes
copied. He quickly tried to draw them, too, with his pencil and at home
continued drawing the animals again and again as long as he had a bit
of paper. Then he cut out the animals and tried to make them stand on
the table, but this he could not do. Then suddenly the thought came to
him that if they were of wood they could stand. He began quickly with
his knife to cut around on a little piece of wood until there was a body
and four legs; but the wood was not large enough for the neck and the
head; so he had to take another piece and calculate from the beginning
how high it must be and where the head must be placed. So Toni cut
away with much perseverance until he succeeded in making something
like a goat and could show it with great satisfaction to his mother. She
was much delighted at his skill and said:

"You are surely going to be a wood-carver, and a very good one."
From that time on Toni looked at every little piece of wood which
came in his way, to see if it would be good for carving, and if so he
would quickly put it away, so that he often brought home all his
pockets full of these pieces, which he then collected like treasures into
a pile and spent every free moment carving them.
Thus the years passed by. Although Elsbeth always had many cares,
she experienced only joy in her Toni. He still clung to her with the
same love, helped her in every way as well as he could and spent his
life beside her, entirely at his quiet occupation, in which he gradually
acquired a quite gratifying skill. Toni was never so content as when he
was sitting in the little stone hut with his carving and his mother came
in and out happily employed, always saying a kindly word to him and
finally sat down beside him at her spinning-wheel.
CHAPTER SECOND
A HARD SENTENCE
Toni was twelve years old in the winter, and now his school days were
over, and the time had come to look about for some kind of work which
would bring him in some money and by which he could learn
something necessary for future years.
Spring had come and work had begun in the fields. His mother thought
it would be best to ask the proprietor of the Matten farm, if he had
some light work for Toni; but every time she spoke about it he would
say beseechingly:
"Oh, Mother, don't do that; let me be a wood-carver!"
She would have had no objection to this, but knew no way to bring it
about, and she had known the farmer up on the Matten farm ever since
her husband had worked there, and ever since his death, from time to
time he had sent her a little wood or meal.

She hoped that he would employ Toni at first for light tasks in the field,
so that he would gradually learn to do the heavier work.
So on Saturday night after the day's work was ended and she sat down
with Toni to their scanty supper, she said once more:
"Toni, now we must take a decided step; I think it is best for me to go
up to the Matten farm to-morrow."
"Oh, Mother, don't do that!" said Toni quite beseechingly. "Don't go to
the farmer! If you will only let me be a wood-carver, I will work so
hard, that I will earn enough, and you will not have to do so much, and
then I can stay at home with you. Besides you would be all alone, and I
can't bear it, if I have to be always away