Saying this, Erick quickly jumped into the carriage, and he wore the same velvet suit in which he had come.  For a long, long time he saw the white handkerchiefs wave, and he waved his in answer, until the carriage, down below at the foot of the hill, turned around the corner and disappeared into the woods.  But when the fleet horses, soon after, reached the first houses of the Middle Lot, there was another halt.

From the moment that Erick had disappeared, Churi had looked like a picture of horror.  He had grown white and grayish looking, and at every sound that he heard, he trembled, for he thought:  “Now they are coming to fetch you, to put you into prison.”  Churi had heard that someone who had thrown another boy into the water had been fetched by two gendarmes and had been put into prison, where he had been kept for twenty years in chains.  Churi saw this picture always before him and for fear, he could no longer eat nor sleep; and he dared look at no one.  And when the report came that Erick had turned up again, then his fear increased.  For now, so he thought, it would surely come out that he had done the deed; and now he was sure that the police would come to get him.  But when on Sunday, the story went round like lightning that Erick, in looking for berries, had fallen into the water, then it all at once was clear to Churi, that Erick had not told about him and that he again could go about quite free and without fear.  A great, oppressive weight fell from Churi’s heart, and he was so touched by Erick’s kindness and generosity that he did not sleep from thinking what he could possibly do for Erick to show him his gratitude.

It had really been so.  Erick had thought that Churi had not meant to push him into the water, so he had felt sorry for him, if he should be punished for what he did not mean to do, and so Erick had only said that he had received a push when looking for berries, and had fallen into the water.  And they had assumed that the boys had knocked each other about as usual, and Erick had been pushed accidentally.

Churi had thought out his reward, and had arranged the following program.  All the scholars of Middle Lot had to place themselves in a long line along the street, and when now the carriage with Erick came driving along, they, the scholars, all together must shout, “Hurrah for Erick.”

As they one and all now shouted with all their might, there was a terrible noise, so that the horses jumped and shied.  But the coachman had them well in hand and brought them in a short time to stand quietly.  At this moment one of the boys shot out of the line and onto the carriage step.  It was Churi.  He bent to Erick’s ear and whispered:  “I will never again hurt you as long as I live, Erick, and when you come back again, you just reckon on me; no one shall ever touch you, and you shall have all the crabs and strawberries and hazel nuts which I can find.”