ko-lai.

He would ruin his health out there!

With sudden energy he sat up in bed. Where else would Nikolai be than
under the old carriage hood that stood in the loft over the coach-house,
mouldy and dropping to pieces with its opening towards the wall?

It was in the light of this idea that he rushed out.

Nikolai never felt the blockmaker's hand; he still slept on happily, as
it lifted him up by the coat collar.

It was only when he stood erect on both feet that he grasped the
situation, and threw himself down again, kicking and screaming. He would
not go home, they might kill him first, or take off his head!

The heels of his boots made it evident both to sight and feeling that he
meant it: he was utterly beside himself.

Only let Holman get him inside the door, and the strap should dance!
Holman had worked himself up into a state of excitement.

Mrs. Holman was waiting in the doorway with a candle. By its light she
saw an ashy pale face, with eyes staring at her, and at the same time
heard the words: "You won't get me in! If I was born in the street, I
can live in the street!" She caught a glance from the sharp, defiant
grey eyes--then out of the blockmaker's hands, out of the gate, and he
was gone!

The blows on Ludvig's nose had gone to Barbara's heart. But when she
heard that Nikolai had run away from the Holmans' and that there was
some talk of getting him into an institute for morally depraved
children, there was crying and weeping. She had had shame enough with
the boy, and this she could not survive! Her mistress must prevent it.
She was conscious of having done her duty and more than her duty all
these years that she had been Ludvig and Lizzie's nurse, but she could
not put up with this! Her mistress must prevent it, or she did not know
what she might do, or what might happen: she felt quite capable of
leaving them.

Barbara sat sighing and weeping in the nursery, until the children were
almost afraid to go in.

Such attacks generally lasted, at the most, one day; but this one had
now been going on for three, and was disturbing the comfort of the
house. Then Mrs. Veyergang got one of her headaches, and was going to
have an afternoon nap, her accustomed cure, during which everything must
be kept perfectly quiet around her.

It was Barbara who generally guarded her slumbers by going hushing and
quieting right out into the kitchen, and keeping watch at the door into
the passage. But now she only