AT HOME WITH GRANDFATHER
go up to bed. Cousin Dete left another little bundle for you with a nightgown and other small things in it, which you will find at the bottom of the cupboard if you want them. I must go and shut up the goats, so be off and sleep well.”
“Good-night, grandfather! good-night. What are their names, grandfather, what are their names?” she called out as she ran after his retreating figure and the goats.
“The white one is named Little Swan, and the brown one Little Bear,” he answered.
“Good-night, Little Swan, good-night, Little Bear!” she called again at the top of her voice, for they were already inside the shed. Then she sat down on the seat and began to eat and drink, but the wind was so strong that it almost blew her away; so she made haste and finished her supper and then went indoors and climbed up to her bed, where she was soon lying as sweetly and soundly asleep as any young princess on her couch of silk.
Not long after, and while it was still twilight, the grandfather also went to bed, for he was up every morning at sunrise, and the sun came climbing up over the mountains at a very early hour during these summer months. The wind grew so tempestuous during the night, and blew in such gusts against the walls, that the hut trembled and the old beams groaned and creaked. It came howling and wailing down the chimney like voices of those in pain, and it raged with such fury among the old fir trees that here and there a branch was snapped and fell. In the middle of the night the old man got up. “The child will be frightened,” he murmured half aloud. He mounted the ladder and went and stood by the child’s bed.
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