Page:Karl Gjellerup - Minna, A novel - 1913.djvu/151

 At the same instant something living moved with big bounds within the bushes. The smallest girl began to shriek, and the good-natured head of a pointer appeared, his long tongue hanging out on one side of his dry mouth. The next moment a bearded forester with a gun over his shoulder stood on the path a few yards from us, and scrutinised us with a most sullen look. Surely this man could have no human feeling in that broad breast of his since he could scowl at Minna in such a way, as she sat there with her bodice tightened by the uplifted half-bare arms, which she had raised to put straight her hair and hat. A veritable forest ogre!

"What are you doing here?" he asked sternly. "This is not a road for tourists."

"Well, you must excuse us, but there was no notice-board with 'Trespassers will be prosecuted' at the entrance."

"As if you couldn't see that it was only a wood-road!… Hang it all, there are pathways enough made for the public."

"So one is not allowed to take a step beyond the laid-out pathways? Upon my word, it is too bad!" I shouted, and began to lose my temper.

"No, damn it, you are not allowed!" he yelled, his face extremely red and angry.

"We really did not know, otherwise we should not have come here," Minna said politely but firmly. "But I do not think we have done any harm."

"Then it's not your fault," he mumbled, a little less irritably. "A few yards farther on there are plenty of fir trees about the size of a nail, and anyhow the kids don't think where they are stepping. You too, I suppose, have also something else to think of." And annoyed at having allowed himself to be smoothed down so far as to give an