the passage he shook out the fodder again, and made the fodder piles so fine and even along the walls, sweeping up with the broom the path between the horse-fodder and the cow-fodder, that it was a pleasure to see him.  The milker said that if they did it that way every day, they couldn’t prepare in two days what the stock would eat in one.  That depended, said Uli, how one was accustomed to prepare, and according to how the stock treated the fodder.

When they went at the manure he had his troubles with the milker, who wanted to take only the coarsest stuff off the top, as it were the cream from the milk.  It was nice and warm outside, said Uli, and the stock wouldn’t get cold; they would work thoroughly this time.  And indeed it was necessary, for there was old stuff left that almost required the mattock before they could get to the stone floor of the stable.  But there was no time left to dig out between the stones.  They had to dip out the manure-pit, for the liquid was rising and almost reached the back of the stable; and only with difficulty could he get them to carry what they clipped out into the courtyard and not pour it into the road.  When the manure was outside no one wanted to spread it, and the answer he got to his question was that they had no time today; they must soon fodder; it would be time enough in the morning.—­It could easily be done during the foddering, said Uli, and the dung must be spread while still warm, especially in winter.  Once frozen, it wouldn’t settle any more and one would get no manure from it.  With that he went at it himself, and the two men calmly let him work and made fun of him behind the stable-doors and in the fodder-passage.

In the house they had long since begun to wonder that the new overseer did not come home, and to fear that he might have driven off and away.  Joggeli had sat down at the window from which he could see the road, almost looked his eyes out, and began to scold:  he hadn’t thought Johannes was as bad as that, and here he was his cousin, too, and such a trick he wouldn’t play on the merest stranger; but nowadays one couldn’t place reliance upon anybody, not even one’s own children.

While he was in his best vein, Freneli came in and said, “You can look a long time; the new man’s out there spreading the manure they’ve taken out; he probably thinks it’s better not to let it pile up.  If nobody else will do it he probably thinks he must do it himself.”

“Why doesn’t he show himself when he comes home?” said Joggeli; and “Good gracious, why doesn’t he come to supper?” said the mother.  “Go and tell him to come in at once, we’re keeping something warm for him.”

“Wait,” said Joggeli, “I’ll go out myself and see how he’s doing it and what’s been done.”

“But make him come,” said the mother; “I think he must have got good and hungry.”