So now give me
a kreutzer."
"My Damie will give you three."
"Oh, no!" said the boy, "he's been whimpering to my grandfather because
he hadn't a kreutzer left."
"I haven't one now either," said Barefoot, "but I'll promise you one."
She went quickly into the house and begged the second maid to milk the
cows for her that evening, in case she should not get back, for she had
an errand to do immediately. Then, with a heart now full of anger at
Damie, now full of sorrow for him and his awkwardness, again full of
vexation on account of his coming back, and then again full of
self-reproach that she should be going to meet her only brother in such
a way, Barefoot wended her way out into the fields and down the valley
to Mossbrook Wood.
There was no mistaking the way to Coaly Mathew's, even if one were to
wander off from the foot-path. The smell of burning charcoal led one to
him infallibly.
How the birds are rejoicing in the trees! And beneath them a sad maiden
is passing, thinking how unhappy it must make her brother to see all
these things again, and how badly things must have gone with him, if he
had no other resource but to come home and live upon her earnings.
"Other sisters are helped by their brothers," she thought to herself,
"and I--but I shall show you this time, Damie, that you must stay where
I put you, and that you dare not stir!"
Such were Barefoot's thoughts as she hurried along; and at last she
arrived at Coaly Mathew's.
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