Part 18 (1/2)

Through the keyhole she caught a glimpse of her mother's big body standing beside the alcove. She was bent over it, and from the movement of her back, it could be seen that she had got hold of the old woman. Granny was defending herself.

”Come out with it at once,” Sorine shouted hoa.r.s.ely. ”Or I'll pull you out of bed.”

”I'll call for some one,” groaned Granny, hammering on the wall.

”Call for help if you like,” ridiculed Sorine, ”there's no-one to hear you. Maybe you've got it in the eiderdown, since you hold it so tightly.”

”Oh, hold your mouth, you thief,” moaned Granny. Suddenly there was a scream, Sorine must have got hold of the packet on the old woman's breast.

Ditte jumped in and lifted the latch. ”Granny,” she shrieked, but she was not heard in the fearful noise. They fought, Granny's screams were like those of a dying animal. ”I'll make you shut up, you witch!” shouted Sorine, and the old woman's scream died away to an uncanny rattle; Ditte wanted to a.s.sist her grandmother, but could not move, and suddenly fell unconscious to the ground. When she came to herself again, she was lying face downwards on the floor; her forehead hurt. She stumbled to her feet. The door stood open, and her mother had gone. Large white flakes of snow came floating in, showing white in the darkness.

Ditte's first thought was that it would be cold for Granny. She closed the door and went towards the bed. Old Maren lay crouched together among the untidy bedclothes. ”Granny,” called Ditte and crying groped for the sunken face. ”It's only me, dear little Granny.”

She took the old woman's face entreatingly between her thin toil-worn hands, crying over it for a while; then undressed herself and crept into bed beside her. She had once heard Granny say about some one she had been called to: ”There is nothing to be done for him, he's quite cold!” And she was obsessed with that thought, Granny must not be allowed to get cold, or she would have no Granny left. She crept close to the body, and worn out by tears and exhaustion soon fell asleep.

Towards morning she woke feeling cold; Granny was dead and cold.

Suddenly she understood the awfulness of it all, and hurrying into her clothes, she fled.

She ran across the fields in the direction of home, but when she reached the road leading to the sea, she went along it to Per Nielsen's farm. There they picked her up, benumbed with misery.

”Granny's dead!” she broke out over and over again, looking from one to the other with terror in her eyes. That was all they could get out of her. When they proposed taking her home to the Crow's Nest, she began to scream, so they put her to bed, to rest.

When she woke later in the day, Per Nielsen came in to her. ”Well, I suppose you'd better be thinking of getting home,” said he. ”I'll go with you.”

Ditte gazed at him with fear in her eyes.

”Are you afraid of your stepfather?” asked he. She did not answer.

The wife came in.

”I don't know what we're to do,” said he, ”she's afraid to go home.

The stepfather can't be very good to her.”

Ditte turned sharply towards him. ”I want to go home to Lars Peter,”

she said, sobbing.

CHAPTER XIX

ILL LUCK FOLLOWS THE RAVEN'S CALL

On receiving information of old Maren's death, four of her children a.s.sembled at the hut on the Naze, to look after their own interests, and watch that no-one ran off with anything. The other four on the other side of the globe, could of course not be there.

There was no money--not as much as a farthing was to be found, in spite of their searching, and the splitting up of the eiderdown--and the house was mortgaged up to the hilt. They then agreed to give Sorine and her husband what little there was, on condition that they provided the funeral. On this occasion, Sorine did not spare money, she wanted the funeral to be talked about. Old Maren was put into the ground with more grandeur than she had lived.

Ditte was at the funeral--naturally, as she was the only one who had ever cared for the dead woman. But in the churchyard she so lost control over herself, that Lars Peter had to take her aside, to prevent her disturbing the parson. She had such strong feelings, every one thought.

But in this respect Ditte changed entirely. After Granny's death, she seemed to quieten. She went about doing her work, was not particularly lively, but not depressed either. Lars Peter observed that she and her mother quarreled no longer. This was a pleasant step in the right direction!

Ditte resigned herself to her lot. It cost her an effort to remain under the same roof as her mother; she would rather have left home.

But this would have reflected on her stepfather, and her sense of justice rebelled against this. Then too the thought of her little brothers and sisters kept her back; what would become of them if she left?