He had seen it many a time down in the yard, and now he had to squeeze himself together to get hold of it, it had crept so far under the bed.
There! He had knocked down the tin kettle with his back! He fled in terror to the door.

But Maren picked it up quite quietly; there was not a word of scolding, a thing he wondered more at than either the tin things or the cat.
Maren had at last fallen asleep after all the aching and pain of the rheumatism in her weary joints, with which she always had to contend at the beginning of the night.

She was awakened by a wild shriek.
"What is it--what is it, Nikolai?
Nikolai!" She lighted the bit of candle.

He was sitting up, fencing with his arms.
"I thought they were going to take my head off," he explained, when he at length collected himself.
When she lay down again, Maren could not help thinking how glad she was that she had no child to be responsible for.

Every one has his trouble, and now she had this rheumatism.
But it was a shock to her, when, on the kitchen stairs next morning, in the presence of the servants both from the other side of the passage and from the first floor, Mrs.Holman called her to account for having interfered in what was none of her business.