FLIGHT
Just as they ran breathlessly down the yard, they met a crowd that
nearly frightened them out of their senses. Magnus screamed shrilly.
It was a troop of men and boys who, with shirts spotted with red paint
on top of their clothes, came stealthily up to the ‘wedding-farm.’ They
had scarecrow faces of birch-bark, with big round holes for eyes, and
long beards of lichen from an old fir in the woods. They swung burning
torches.
With great fear the children recognized the voice of the leader. It was
the man from the neighboring farm.
He recognized them too, and with a wild cry started after them.
‘Run, children, run! I’ll trip him. Run quick!’
And how they ran, Magnus and Maglena! They flew faster than they ever
did as goatherds in the summer when they ran after runaway goats.
Andy stopped short when the man was just upon him. He tripped him
nimbly with his foot. With a furious curse, the big coarse fellow fell
to the ground.
‘Well, just wait, I’ll get you to-morrow; then I’ll beat the boldness
out of you!’ bawled the man, who stood up clumsily, but ran on when he
saw the rest nearing the scene of the festivities.
Andy had heard and seen enough to realize that a few of the village
boys wanted to fight the out-of-the-parish bridegroom who had taken
the pretty wealthy bride from their village. They had drunk gin to get
up their courage. On the wedding-farm, where it had been so bright and
happy, where they had sung psalms and read a prayer after the meal,
and then danced to the joyous songs, there would now be uproar and
confusion.
Andy ran with all his might--flew--when he heard a wailing shriek from
the children.
The din came from the woodshed where they had left Golden Horn. The
goat was bleating dully. Something had happened to her.
Yes, something had happened to her! Something that had nearly made an
end of the good, fine old animal’s life, if Maglena, in the midst of
the wedding joy, had not seemed to hear Golden Horn bleat.
Golden Horn, their little maid, big doll, golden pearl, lay on the
chips, panting, bleeding at the neck and body. The children could
see it clearly, for it was late at night and the moon shone right in
through the little window in the shed.
Andy was as pale as a ghost. The little ones wept. They knelt beside
Golden Horn.
‘Take off your apron, Maglena. I’ll put snow on the wounds and tie
them up with my comforter. Golden Horn has been bitten,’ he continued
harshly. ‘The one who could let grandfather creep after his crutch
could do this too! And some one has sicked a mean dog to do it.’
‘Yes, they’ve held her, ’cause Golden Horn could always save herself
from dogs--and look here,’ continued Maglena, sobbing. ‘Not a single
hair on her horns. She didn’t have a _chance_ to save herself. It was
all the boys here that were here and held her; it smells of that horrid
tobacco that awful Grels chews,’ sniffed Maglena.
‘That man will think up something awful for me to-morrow,’ said Andy
with a moody, reflective air. ‘Mad as he was when I tripped him up.’
‘It isn’t any fun in this place at all,’ whined Magnus. ‘You feel so
sort of uncertain.’
‘We’ll go away, and go this minute,’ whispered Andy.
‘The boys can’t be far away. I saw how they ran away and walked crooked
down in the ditch by the fence. I suppose they got scared when we came
back so soon, ’cause they maybe thought we’d stay there all night.’
‘Just as we came we heard Golden Horn bleating so queer. The boys
yelled “sick ’em, sick ’em”; it was that mean gray dog that ran in and
bit Golden Horn,’ related Maglena pantingly.
‘But they got scared when I came.’ Magnus entered into the conversation.
‘They’ll be at the “wedding-farm” for a while,’ interrupted Andy with a
compassionate glance at Magnus. ‘Right in the middle of the fight, and
the farmhand is there too, so we can’t go there, and we can’t stay here
either.’
‘Golden Horn, please--nice girl, get up now, and come out on the sled,’
continued Andy.
Golden Horn, who apparently understood the children’s anxiety and
shared their fears, rose painfully.
Supported by Andy and Maglena, she stumbled out. The sheepskin was
carefully spread out on the sled and Golden Horn understood why. She
climbed up and sank down with a groaning sigh into the box-like sled.
‘What wrong have I done here, to be treated like this?’ thought Golden
Horn.
The children fussed swiftly and silently over Golden Horn.
‘We’ll go up the mountain here,’ whispered Andy. ‘They have the dog
with them on the “wedding-farm.” He’ll see us if we go by and that will
be the end of Golden Horn, and very likely of us too.’
‘It is a good thing that the sled tracks won’t show,’ went on Maglena.
‘There is an ice street up the path to the mountain.’
The children started. Andy pulled, Maglena pushed, and Magnus walked
alongside to see that the goat was all right.
‘I don’t like to go away without saying a word of thanks to the old
folks here,’ said Andy, and stopped when they had passed the barns.
‘But, my goodness! We’ve got to hurry,’ objected Maglena.
‘Yes, they can take us, and I can’t fight them alone,’ muttered Magnus.
‘Stand here just a minute, anyway,’ said Andy in a trembling voice.
In a second he was gone.
Into the cottage to grandfather he ran. The old man was sitting upright
staring straight before him, listening. He knew by experience what was
going on at the wedding-farm. He used to think that such things were
‘boys’ play,’ and only a fool would not take part. But now he saw it
differently. He worried also about the strange children who were so
completely in his grandchildren’s power. They would be frightened,
tortured, tormented. He knew well how these children treated every one
they thought they could overpower, like old, weak, and sick people,
poor, unprotected children, and defenseless animals.
The old man started when Andy came to him with a cup of warm coffee.
‘Look here, it is cold to-night, and the coffee was warm in the pot.
I’ll put more wood on the fire. And then I want to thank you so much,
grandfather.’
‘Y-you were g-g-going to s-s-sleep here?’
‘I don’t dare. They tried to kill the goat. And they want to hurt us
too.’
‘That’s the w-way.’ The old man nodded in agreement. ‘I am glad that
y-you c-c-came because I w-wanted to g-g-give you this w-watch.’
Grandfather took down the silver watch he had hanging on the wall.
‘It’s s-soon over w-with m-me. I d-don’t s-s-see anything either.
T-take the w-w-atch. My g-grandchildren c-c-can’t have it! T-take it!
And may God f-follow y-y-you.’
Andy stood with the watch in his hand--stiff with surprise and anxiety,
as if he had been threatened with angry words by the old man instead of
having received such a gift.
‘T-take the s-skin h-here in the other b-b-bed t-too. It is c-c-cold.
We d-don’t n-need it. The old w-w-woman w-will s-soon d-die too. Hurry,
boy!’ said he suddenly, without stuttering. ‘They can be back any time.
_Hurry! Do you hear----!_’
‘I must thank you first, grandfather--because you’ve been so good to
us. I don’t know whether I can take the watch--and not the sheepskin
either.’
‘Y-you m-m-must t-take what I g-g-give you, b-boy! It isn’t too s-soon
for m-me to b-be d-doing a little g-g-good here. It’s been s-so light
for m-me s-s-since I thought of d-d-oing this. R-run! Now, right away.’
‘Well, thank you, grandfather--Oh, and remember me to mother there!’
Andy straightened the pillow under the man’s stiff neck, tucked in the
sheepskin around him, and arranged the wood on the fire so it would
burn a long time.
With the watch in his pocket and the skin over his arm, he stopped
inside the door which he had already opened.
He took off the worn fur cap and bowed.
‘Many, many thanks, grandfather.’
But grandfather did not seem to hear him. He lay with the unaccustomed
laboriously folded hands on the cover, mumbling to himself.