They were two poor beggar girls, ragged, dirty, and starving—­two little tots bent under the burden of their beggar’s packs, which were as large as themselves.

“Who are you that go prowling about at this hour of the night?” said the master gruffly.

The two children did not answer immediately, but first removed their packs.  Then they walked up to the man and stretched forth their tiny hands in greeting.

“We are Anna and Britta Maja from the Engaerd,” said the elder, “and we were going to ask for a night’s lodging.”

He did not take the outstretched hands and was just about to drive out the beggar children, when a fresh recollection faced him.  Engaerd—­was not that a little cabin where a poor widow with five children had lived?  The widow had owed his father a few hundred kroner and in order to get back his money he had sold her cabin.  After that the widow, with her three eldest children, went to Norrland to seek employment, and the two youngest became a charge on the parish.

As he called this to mind he grew bitter.  He knew that his father had been severely censured for squeezing out that money, which by right belonged to him.

“What are you doing nowadays?” he asked in a cross tone.  “Didn’t the board of charities take charge of you?  Why do you roam around and beg?”

“It’s not our fault,” replied the larger girl.  “The people with whom we are living have sent us out to beg.”

“Well, your packs are filled,” the farmer observed, “so you can’t complain.  Now you’d better take out some of the food you have with you and eat your fill, for here you’ll get no food, as all the women folk are in bed.  Later you may lie down in the corner by the hearth, so you won’t have to freeze.”

He waved his hand, as if to ward them off, and his eyes took on a hard look.  He was thankful that he had had a father who had been careful of his property.  Otherwise, he might perhaps have been forced in childhood to run about and beg, as these children now did.

No sooner had he thought this out to the end than the shrill, mocking voice he had heard once before that evening repeated it, word for word.

He listened, and at once understood that it was nothing—­only the wind roaring in the chimney.  But the queer thing about it was, when the wind repeated his thoughts, they seemed so strangely stupid and hard and false!

The children meanwhile had stretched themselves, side by side, on the floor.  They were not quiet, but lay there muttering.

“Do be still, won’t you?” he growled, for he was in such an irritable mood that he could have beaten them.

But the mumbling continued, and again he called for silence.

“When mother went away,” piped a clear little voice, “she made me promise that every night I would say my evening prayer.  I must do this, and Britta Maja too.  As soon as we have said ’God who cares for little children—­’ we’ll be quiet.”