I followed her.

The forester's cottage consisted of one room, smoke-begrimed, low-ceiled and bare, without any sleeping-shelf over the oven, and without any partitions; a tattered sheepskin coat hung against the wall.

On the wall-bench hung a single-barreled gun; in the corner lay scattered a heap of rags; two large pots stood beside the oven.

A pine-knot was burning on the table, sputtering mournfully, and on the point of dying out.

Exactly in the middle of the room hung a cradle, suspended from the end of a long pole.