What Sami Sings with the Birds | Page 8

take the woman's clothes for herself, since he could surely make no use of them. The clothes which his grandmother had always worn were so dear to Sami, that he looked on with sad eyes, as they were carried away, but he thought it had to be so.
He had already made the acquaintance of the three boys. They had shown him below in front of the house how one of them could best throw down the others, and had demonstrated all sorts of useful tricks. But as each tried to outdo the others in showing off his knowledge, a struggle ensued and the tricks were immediately applied; one threw another over the third, Sami was knocked and thrown around by all three.
When he now came down from his room a voice from the barn called out: "Come here and help pull."
Sami ran along. There stood the two younger boys, Michael and Uli, with great hoes on their shoulders, and St?ffi beside a cart which had to be taken along. They waited for their father, and then all went out to the field. Here St?ffi and Sami had to rake together the grass, which the father cut, and load it on the cart, and bring home to the cows. Michael and Uli had to hoe the weeds in the next field near by. Now it appeared that Sami did not know at all how to use the rake, for he had never done such work.
"He shall weed with Uli, and Michael can do this work," said the farmer.
But when Sami tried to do this, the hoe was too heavy for him, and he could do nothing.
"Then kneel on the ground and pull them up with your hands," said the farmer.
Sami squatted down and pulled at the weeds with all his might. The ground was hard and the work very tiresome. But Sami did not forget how his grandmother had impressed it upon him to do all his work well and willingly.
At noon the two weeders took their hoes on their shoulders and Sami had to pull the cart, which was now much heavier than on the way there. The boy had to use all his strength, for St?ffi showed him plainly that he would not take upon himself the larger part of the work.
Then when they passed by the field the father indicated to each one the piece he would have to weed that afternoon; for he himself would be obliged to go to the cattle market. They would find a smaller hoe at home for Sami to take with him in the afternoon, for pulling up the weeds was too slow work.
After the boys had worked several hours in the afternoon, they sat down in the shade of an old apple-tree to eat their luncheon, and the piece of black bread with pear juice tasted very good after the hot work.
"Have you ever seen a bear?" asked St?ffi of Sami.
He said he had not.
"Then you would be fearfully frightened if you should suddenly see one," continued St?ffi; "only those who know them are not afraid of them. This evening there is to be one in the village, and, as I am almost through with my piece in the field, you can finish it, so I can go early to see the bear."
Sami agreed. When all four had begun to hoe again, St?ffi soon exclaimed:
"Well, you won't have much more to do now, Sami, but keep your promise, or--"
St?ffi doubled up his fist, and Sami understood what that meant.
He had hardly gone when Michael said:
"See, Sami, there isn't much left of mine, you can do that too; I am 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 St?ffi made behind his father's back, that he was to keep silent about the bear, and he was too much afraid