Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/223

 previous day of rest on hand. There was the cream ready for churning, a pan of whey to curdle for cheese, and half a pig to salt down. Besides that, there were the clothes to put out to bleach, and a sick cow in the byre to be milked every alternate hour.

Else, who knew she could not expect much help from Hansine to-day, and could not find it in her heart to make any demands on her thoughts, sent a message to a farm labourer's wife to come and help her. She soon obeyed the summons, but when it came to the point, Else could not bring herself to impart the news to her, although the woman several times tried to ferret it out, and at last asked openly if they expected company at the house.

"Yes, perhaps some one's coming," said Else evasively, and went down to the salting cellar.

In the meantime Hansine had hunted up her brother Ole from the stable and asked him, as soon as he had a chance, to run to the wood to Ane and tell her that she must come over at once; Hansine wanted to talk to her that very morning. Ole, who was quite in the dark as to the morning's hurry scurry, promised none the less to carry his sister's message to the right quarter, and a minute later she saw him speeding over the hills.

While she waited restlessly for her friend, she sat down by her chamber window to be undisturbed. She gazed out with her tear-stained eyes