bull calf. Lisbeth saw
plainly that Kjersti wondered why she had not called any of the calves
after Bliros (Gentle Cow), but she gave no sign of having noticed
Kjersti's thought.

This is the way the calves were induced to leave their pen and to cross
the cow-house floor. To begin with, a good-sized pail with a little
milk in it was held out to each calf. In their eagerness to get the
milk the calves thrust their heads clear into the pails; and when the
persons holding these began to run, the calves ran too, with the pails
over their heads like hats. Outside the cow-house door the pails were
snatched off and there stood the calves, who had never before been
beyond their pen, in the very midst of the great, wonderful new world.

The startled creatures gave an amazed look and then began to back, just
as if they felt themselves suddenly standing at the head of a steep
stairway; but soon they ventured to put one foot carefully forward,
then another, and another. It was slow work, one step at a time; but at
length they found that there was firm ground in this new region. They
concluded that the world was only a larger calf pen, after all; but it
was a wonderfully light calf pen, and its walls were certainly a long
way off. Swish! up went their tails into the air and away they
scampered like the wildest of forest animals.

Then began a great race in the big field,--from fence to fence, this
way and that, crosswise, and round and round. Every time the calves
jumped over a hillock Kjersti and Lisbeth saw their tails stand
straight up against the sky like tillers. Lisbeth thought she had never
seen anything so funny. But they could not keep together long. They
soon ran off in various directions, and in the evening Lisbeth had to
go to the farthest corners of the field with a pail and coax them home
one by one; for of course they did not have sense enough to know when
to go home,--they who were out in the world for the first time!

* * * * *

Lisbeth was lying again in her little room. It was the evening of her
first working day. She had said her simple evening prayer, as usual,
and then stretched herself out on the bed, feeling how good it was to
rest, for her body was tired through and through.

What a day it had been! A long day, too, she knew; nevertheless, she
could not imagine where it had gone. She felt that she must think over
all that had happened. But drowsiness came steali