As soon as she had calmed down a little she had ventured out by herself
to inspect the place. She had looked about her on the lawn in front of
the door. Then she suddenly began to whirl about; she hung her hat on
her arm and threw her shawl away. She drew the air into her lungs so
that her nostrils were drawn together and whistled.
Oh, how brave she felt!
She made a few attempts to go quietly and sedately down to the garden,
but that was not what attracted her. Turning off to one side, she
started towards the big groups of barns and out-houses. She met a
farm-girl and said a few words to her. She was surprised to hear how
brisk her own voice sounded; it was like an officer at the front. And
she felt how smart she looked when, with head proudly raised and a
little on one side, moving with a quick, free motion and with a little
switch in her hand, she entered the barn.
It was not, however, what she had expected. No long rows of horned
creatures were there to impress her, for they were all out at pasture.
A single calf stood in its pen and seemed to expect her to do something
for him. She went up to him, raised herself on tiptoe, held her dress
together with one hand and touched the calf’s forehead with the
finger-tips of the other.
As the calf still did not seem to think that she had done enough and
stretched out his long tongue, she graciously let him lick her little
finger. She could not resist looking about her, as if to find some one
to admire her bravery. And she discovered that Uncle Theodore stood at
the barn-door and laughed at her.
Then he had gone with her on her walk. But “it” did not come then, not
then at all. It had only wonderfully come to pass that she was no
longer afraid of Uncle Theodore. He was like her mother; he seemed to
know all her faults and weaknesses, and it was so comfortable. She did
not need to show herself better than she was.
Uncle Theodore wished to take her to the garden and to the terraces by
the pond, but that was not to her mind. She wished to know what there
could be in all those big buildings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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