our hair twined round my throat, and die.... Well for me
if I could, perhaps--and for others...."

SISTER MAYA

Sadness pervaded his soul, and he spoke to the evening gloom that
stole in through the window and hovered about his pale face like a
watcher.

"I too should have had a sister--sister Maya," he said dreamily.

"You had one--and the best that one could wish for," said the evening
gloom.

"I don't remember--I was too young to know.... But mother always spoke
so nicely of her ... the time I was ill, for instance."

"So your mother spoke of that. Yes, yes, she would...."

"It was when I was a child. I was very ill--on the point of death,
she said. And mother and all the others were crying, and comforting
themselves with the thought that little Olof would be an angel soon,
and wear a crown. And sister Maya said then I should sit by her
bedside with wings outspread, warding off evil dreams."

"Well if it had been so," said the evening gloom.

"But the girl, my sister, burst into tears, and cried that I should
not be an angel, but a big man, bigger than father--ever so big and
strong. And she threw her arms round my neck and said no one should
ever come and take away Olof--no!"

"Ay," nodded the gloom, "so it was--yes."

"And my sister tried her own way to make me well again--fondling me
and blinking her eyes and stroking me under the chin. And I began
laughing, for all that I was ill. And she was all overjoyed at that,
and more certain than ever that I was to get well again and grow a
big strong man. And I laughed again, and life began laughing too--and
after that, I gradually got well."

"Ay, 'twas so. And your sister, she looked after you and nursed you
all by herself--no one else was allowed to touch you; yes, that was
your sister Maya!"

"Then Maya was taken ill herself. And weak as she was, she would have
me near her all the time, and made me sit by her bedside. And I only
laughed at it all--I did not understand that my only sister was at
death's door. Ay, sometimes I pinched her thin cheek, or pulled her
hair, or flicked her ear in play...."

"So you have done since with many other girls--ay, and laughed at
them."

"And then the others came and wanted to take me away, out of her
sight, because I was so cruel."

"Ay, just so. If only someone had done the same thing afterwards, with
the rest...."

"But Maya held my hand and would not let them. And even when she was
dying I had to s