"Take me on your arm, Grandfather. I am tired."
"First you jump about like a hare; then you want to be carried. No, stay
down there."
"Yes, yes, you will take me," she coaxed him. "When I ask, you never say
no."
"Look at the little rogue! Shall I break off a switch and whip you?
Well, come along then!"
He lifted her up and walked with her deeper into the solemn stillness of
the forest. The old man felt his heart grow warmer as the tired child's
eyelids gradually drooped, and she began to breathe regularly in his
arms. With a kind of pity he looked at the little open mouth and the
helpless dusty little legs as they hung down.
"And that, too, is one of God's creatures! Why does such a useless thing
come into the world?" he philosophized to himself and took the greatest
pains to tread gently and not to move his outstretched arm in order not
to wake the child.