CHAPTER XVIII

FLIGHT

Just as they ran breathlessly down the yard, they met a crowd that nearly frightened them out of their senses. Magnus screamed shrilly.

It was a troop of men and boys who, with shirts spotted with red paint on top of their clothes, came stealthily up to the ‘wedding-farm.’ They had scarecrow faces of birch-bark, with big round holes for eyes, and long beards of lichen from an old fir in the woods. They swung burning torches.

With great fear the children recognized the voice of the leader. It was the man from the neighboring farm.

He recognized them too, and with a wild cry started after them.

‘Run, children, run! I’ll trip him. Run quick!’

And how they ran, Magnus and Maglena! They flew faster than they ever did as goatherds in the summer when they ran after runaway goats.

Andy stopped short when the man was just upon him. He tripped him nimbly with his foot. With a furious curse, the big coarse fellow fell to the ground.

‘Well, just wait, I’ll get you to-morrow; then I’ll beat the boldness out of you!’ bawled the man, who stood up clumsily, but ran on when he saw the rest nearing the scene of the festivities.

Andy had heard and seen enough to realize that a few of the village boys wanted to fight the out-of-the-parish bridegroom who had taken the pretty wealthy bride from their village. They had drunk gin to get up their courage. On the wedding-farm, where it had been so bright and happy, where they had sung psalms and read a prayer after the meal, and then danced to the joyous songs, there would now be uproar and confusion.

Andy ran with all his might--flew--when he heard a wailing shriek from the children.

The din came from the woodshed where they had left Golden Horn. The goat was bleating dully. Something had happened to her.

Yes, something had happened to her! Something that had nearly made an end of the good, fine old animal’s life, if Maglena, in the midst of the wedding joy, had not seemed to hear Golden Horn bleat.

Golden Horn, their little maid, big doll, golden pearl, lay on the chips, panting, bleeding at the neck and body. The children could see it clearly, for it was late at night and the moon shone right in through the little window in the shed.

Andy was as pale as a ghost. The little ones wept. They knelt beside Golden Horn.

‘Take off your apron, Maglena. I’ll put snow on the wounds and tie them up with my comforter. Golden Horn has been bitten,’ he continued harshly. ‘The one who could let grandfather creep after his crutch could do this too! And some one has sicked a mean dog to do it.’

‘Yes, they’ve held her, ’cause Golden Horn could always save herself from dogs--and look here,’ continued Maglena, sobbing. ‘Not a single hair on her horns. She didn’t have a _chance_ to save herself. It was all the boys here that were here and held her; it smells of that horrid tobacco that awful Grels chews,’ sniffed Maglena.

‘That man will think up something awful for me to-morrow,’ said Andy with a moody, reflective air. ‘Mad as he was when I tripped him up.’

‘It isn’t any fun in this place at all,’ whined Magnus. ‘You feel so sort of uncertain.’

‘We’ll go away, and go this minute,’ whispered Andy.

‘The boys can’t be far away. I saw how they ran away and walked crooked down in the ditch by the fence. I suppose they got scared when we came back so soon, ’cause they maybe thought we’d stay there all night.’

‘Just as we came we heard Golden Horn bleating so queer. The boys yelled “sick ’em, sick ’em”; it was that mean gray dog that ran in and bit Golden Horn,’ related Maglena pantingly.

‘But they got scared when I came.’ Magnus entered into the conversation.

‘They’ll be at the “wedding-farm” for a while,’ interrupted Andy with a compassionate glance at Magnus. ‘Right in the middle of the fight, and the farmhand is there too, so we can’t go there, and we can’t stay here either.’

‘Golden Horn, please--nice girl, get up now, and come out on the sled,’ continued Andy.

Golden Horn, who apparently understood the children’s anxiety and shared their fears, rose painfully.

Supported by Andy and Maglena, she stumbled out. The sheepskin was carefully spread out on the sled and Golden Horn understood why. She climbed up and sank down with a groaning sigh into the box-like sled. ‘What wrong have I done here, to be treated like this?’ thought Golden Horn.

The children fussed swiftly and silently over Golden Horn.

‘We’ll go up the mountain here,’ whispered Andy. ‘They have the dog with them on the “wedding-farm.” He’ll see us if we go by and that will be the end of Golden Horn, and very likely of us too.’

‘It is a good thing that the sled tracks won’t show,’ went on Maglena. ‘There is an ice street up the path to the mountain.’

The children started. Andy pulled, Maglena pushed, and Magnus walked alongside to see that the goat was all right.

‘I don’t like to go away without saying a word of thanks to the old folks here,’ said Andy, and stopped when they had passed the barns.

‘But, my goodness! We’ve got to hurry,’ objected Maglena.

‘Yes, they can take us, and I can’t fight them alone,’ muttered Magnus.

‘Stand here just a minute, anyway,’ said Andy in a trembling voice.

In a second he was gone.

Into the cottage to grandfather he ran. The old man was sitting upright staring straight before him, listening. He knew by experience what was going on at the wedding-farm. He used to think that such things were ‘boys’ play,’ and only a fool would not take part. But now he saw it differently. He worried also about the strange children who were so completely in his grandchildren’s power. They would be frightened, tortured, tormented. He knew well how these children treated every one they thought they could overpower, like old, weak, and sick people, poor, unprotected children, and defenseless animals.

The old man started when Andy came to him with a cup of warm coffee. ‘Look here, it is cold to-night, and the coffee was warm in the pot. I’ll put more wood on the fire. And then I want to thank you so much, grandfather.’

‘Y-you were g-g-going to s-s-sleep here?’

‘I don’t dare. They tried to kill the goat. And they want to hurt us too.’

‘That’s the w-way.’ The old man nodded in agreement. ‘I am glad that y-you c-c-came because I w-wanted to g-g-give you this w-watch.’

Grandfather took down the silver watch he had hanging on the wall.

‘It’s s-soon over w-with m-me. I d-don’t s-s-see anything either. T-take the w-w-atch. My g-grandchildren c-c-can’t have it! T-take it! And may God f-follow y-y-you.’

Andy stood with the watch in his hand--stiff with surprise and anxiety, as if he had been threatened with angry words by the old man instead of having received such a gift.

‘T-take the s-skin h-here in the other b-b-bed t-too. It is c-c-cold. We d-don’t n-need it. The old w-w-woman w-will s-soon d-die too. Hurry, boy!’ said he suddenly, without stuttering. ‘They can be back any time. _Hurry! Do you hear----!_’

‘I must thank you first, grandfather--because you’ve been so good to us. I don’t know whether I can take the watch--and not the sheepskin either.’

‘Y-you m-m-must t-take what I g-g-give you, b-boy! It isn’t too s-soon for m-me to b-be d-doing a little g-g-good here. It’s been s-so light for m-me s-s-since I thought of d-d-oing this. R-run! Now, right away.’

‘Well, thank you, grandfather--Oh, and remember me to mother there!’

Andy straightened the pillow under the man’s stiff neck, tucked in the sheepskin around him, and arranged the wood on the fire so it would burn a long time.

With the watch in his pocket and the skin over his arm, he stopped inside the door which he had already opened.

He took off the worn fur cap and bowed.

‘Many, many thanks, grandfather.’

But grandfather did not seem to hear him. He lay with the unaccustomed laboriously folded hands on the cover, mumbling to himself.