five youngsters, and each youngster wore a ragged leathern suit and birch-bark shoes and bore a sack on his back as long as himself.  When Robber Mother stepped inside the door of a cabin, no one dared refuse to give her whatever she demanded; for she was not above coming back the following night and setting fire to the house if she had not been well received.  Robber Mother and her brood were worse than a pack of wolves, and many a man felt like running a spear through them; but it was never done, because they all knew that the man stayed up in the forest, and he would have known how to wreak vengeance if anything had happened to the children or the old woman.

Now that Robber Mother went from house to house and begged, she came one day to Oevid, which at that time was a cloister.  She rang the bell of the cloister gate and asked for food.  The watchman let down a small wicket in the gate and handed her six round bread cakes—­one for herself and one for each of the five children.

While the mother was standing quietly at the gate, her youngsters were running about.  And now one of them came and pulled at her skirt, as a signal that he had discovered something which she ought to come and see, and Robber Mother followed him promptly.

The entire cloister was surrounded by a high and strong wall, but the youngster had managed to find a little back gate which stood ajar.  When Robber Mother got there, she pushed the gate open and walked inside without asking leave, as it was her custom to do.

Oevid Cloister was managed at that time by Abbot Hans, who knew all about herbs.  Just within the cloister wall he had planted a little herb garden, and it was into this that the old woman had forced her way.

At first glance Robber Mother was so astonished that she paused at the gate.  It was high summertide, and Abbot Hans’ garden was so full of flowers that the eyes were fairly dazzled by the blues, reds, and yellows, as one looked into it.  But presently an indulgent smile spread over her features, and she started to walk up a narrow path that lay between many flower-beds.

In the garden a lay brother walked about, pulling up weeds.  It was he who had left the door in the wall open, that he might throw the weeds and tares on the rubbish heap outside.

When he saw Robber Mother coming in, with all five youngsters in tow, he ran toward her at once and ordered them away.  But the beggar woman walked right on as before.  She cast her eyes up and down, looking now at the stiff white lilies which spread near the ground, then on the ivy climbing high upon the cloister wall, and took no notice whatever of the lay brother.

He thought she had not understood him, and wanted to take her by the arm and turn her toward the gate.  But when the robber woman saw his purpose, she gave him a look that sent him reeling backward.  She had been walking with back bent under her beggar’s pack, but now she straightened herself to her full height.  “I am Robber Mother from Goeinge forest; so touch me if you dare!” And it was obvious that she was as certain she would be left in peace as if she had announced that she was the Queen of Denmark.