as could be, when once they had taken the
work off her hands, and she had nothing to do at all, she collapsed,
and was thoroughly ill. She kept about for a week in spite of it, Axel
looking furiously at her; but she stayed on from sheer malice, and at
last she had to take to her bed.

And now she lay there, not in the least awaiting her blessed end, but
counting the hours till she should be up and about again. She asked
for a doctor, a piece of extravagance unheard of in the wilds.

"Doctor?" said Axel. "Are you out of your senses?"

"How d'you mean, then?" said Oline quite gently, as to something she
could not understand. Ay, so gentle and smooth-tongued was she, so
glad to think she need not be a burden to others; she could pay for
the doctor herself.

"Ho, can you?" said Axel.

"Why, and couldn't I, then?" says Oline. "And, anyway, you'd not have
me lie here and die like a dumb beast in the face of the Lord?"

Here Barbro put in a word, and was unwise enough to say:

"Well, what you've got to complain of, I'd like to know, when I bring
you in your meals and all myself? As for coffee, I've said you're
better without it, and meaning well."

"Is that Barbro?" says Oline, turning just her eyes and no more to
look for her; ay, she is poorly is Oline, and a pitiful sight with her
eyes screwed round cornerways. "Ay, maybe 'tis as you say, Barbro, if
a tiny drop of coffee'd do me any harm, a spoonful and no more."

"If 'twas me in your stead, I'd be thinking of other things than
coffee at this hour," says Barbro.

"Ay, 'tis as I say," answers Oline. "'Twas never your way to wish and
desire a fellow-creature's end, but rather they should be converted
and live. What ... ay, I'm lying here and seeing things.... Is it with
child you are now, Barbro?"

"What's that you say?" cries Barbro furiously; and goes on again: "Oh,
'twould serve you right if I took and heaved you out on the muck-heap
for your wicked tongue."

And at that the invalid was silent for one thoughtful moment, her
mouth trembling as if trying so hard to smile, but dare not.

"I heard a some one calling last night," says she.

"She's out of her senses," says Axel, whispering.

"Nay, out of my senses that I'm not. Like some one calling it was.
From the woods, or maybe from the stream up yonder. Strange to
hear--as it might be a bit of a child crying out. Was that Barbro went
out?"

"Ay," says Axel. "Sick of your nonsense, and no wonder."

"Non