nd down the pavement
outside the cellar, the people of the house might often in passing give
the little girl a friendly nod. To give Nikolai any encouragement in
that way would have been a mistake.

Maren, the cook, who had come to the floor above last hiring-day[1], had
naturally no conception of Mrs. Holman's strict, conscientious
character, and was therefore to be excused in what now took place.

[Footnote 1: The days for changing servants in Norway are in the spring
and autumn. In Christiania they are the second Friday after Easter, and
the second Friday after Michaelmas.]

She went down into the cellar with the lantern one evening to fetch coal
and wood, panting and puffing down the stairs as she used to do; she had
a bend in both hips from rheumatism, and rocked from one side to the
other like a boat's mast in rough weather.

From the wood-cellar she all at once heard a sound as of wailing in the
darkness within. It was as though some one were crying, and now and
again sobbing convulsively for some time without being able to produce a
distinct sound.

The voice sounded so utterly broken-hearted that Maren stopped putting
the wood into her apron and stood by the chopping-block listening. It
seemed to come from one of the coal cellars up the dark passage. At last
she seized the lantern and groped her way in; she must come to the
bottom of this.

"Is any one here?" she cried at the door whence the sobbing came.

There was a sudden complete silence.

She knocked hard with a bit of wood, but then from within there came a
terrified scream, which made Maren drop the wood from her apron and pull
open the hasp of the door which was fastened with a piece of wood.

"But who has put the poor little boy in here--in the pitch black
darkness?"

By the light of the lantern she saw Nikolai staring at her in wild
terror.

"I thought it was the devil, I did. Yes, for he does knock on the wall."

"Oh, you'd frighten any one out of their senses, boy, with those ugly
words!"

"Mrs. Holman says so;" and with a quick, inquiring glance up at Maren he
added, "but do you think she only says it so that I shan't touch her
sugar?"

"Is that what you are here for?"

"I haven't taken anything from her, but I will, if she says it whether I
do or not! It was only that Monday when I put my tongue down into the
bag and licked when I'd gone for half a pound. But now I'll crunch it so
that she'll only have the empty bag left! I'll