moment or two will make no difference. You can run fast," came the
whisper again.

[Illustration: SOMETHING SEEMED TO WHISPER TO HIM: "STOP, KARL, AND
EAT."]

"Oh, yes, I can run fast," said Karl; and he put the plate down under
the bushes and began to pick the berries. They were as ripe and
sweet as they had looked and every one that the little boy put into
his mouth made him wish for another; and if he turned away from the
bushes the whisper was sure to come: "One more and then go."

The pancakes grew cold in the plate, and the sun which had been high
in the sky when Karl started from home slipped farther and farther
into the west; but still he lingered, till suddenly the evening
whistle of the mill sounded sharp and shrill in his ears.

"Why, it is time for my father to come home," he cried. "Dear me, dear
me, what shall I do?"

There was nothing for him to do but to go home, so home he went with
the plate of cold pancakes in his hand and the tears rolling down his
cheeks.

When he told his mother and grandmother what had happened they looked
at each other wisely as if they thought more about it than they would
say; but they bade him dry his tears.

"You will be more careful another time," they said; and so the matter
ended.

But Karl did not forget it. It was many a month before his mother
fried pancakes again, but no sooner did he see her turning the cakes
in the pan than he said:

"I wish my father had some of these fine cakes for his dinner, don't
you, mother?"

"Indeed I do," said she, smiling at his grandmother as she spoke; and
as soon as the cakes were done she selected the brownest and crispest,
and putting them in a plate with a white napkin over them, she bade
him take them.

"I'll get there in time for my father's dinner to-day," he said as he
started out; but in a very short while he was back with an empty plate
in his hand, and the tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I only put the plate down for a minute while I chased a rabbit that
said, 'If you catch me you may have me;' and when I came back every
pancake was gone," he sobbed.

His mother and grandmother looked at each other wisely when they heard
this.

"It is just as I thought the first time," said his mother. "The
goblins are at work in the wood. He must never go there again."

But to this the grandmother would not agree.

"Leave it to me," she said, and the very next day she fried pancakes,
and selecting the brownest and cris