I shall take her cheaper than any one else would
do, and she will be more comfortable here too."
With this the cousin went out into the shed, and called out for Cheppi
to come with him. It was hard for the cousin's wife to make herself
heard in the room when she wished to give this message. They were all
fighting away, and shouting angrily and loudly.
"I am surprised that you sit there looking on, and do not try to quiet
them in the least," said their mother to Wiseli, who sat cowering
against the wall, and did not dare even to move. Cheppi, however, was
dispatched to the barn, and the two others ran after him.
"Do you know how to knit?" the cousin's wife asked Wiseli, who replied,
timidly, "Yes, I can knit stockings."
"Well, then, take this," she said; and took from the cupboard a big
brown stocking, with yarn almost as stout as Wiseli's little fingers.
"Go on with the foot," she said, "and take care to make it big
enough: it is for your cousin Gotti." Then she went back into the
kitchen, and the little girl took her seat on the bench by the stove,
with the long stocking coiled up in her lap,--for it was so heavy
that she could scarcely knit if it hung down: it pulled the needles
out of her hand. She had scarcely begun to work, however, before her
cousin's wife came in again.
"I think you had better come out into the kitchen with me," she said.
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