But the child did not live to grow up with them.  Before the year was out it was dead.  It was said by many that it was the fault of the foster-parents, for the child had been unusually strong before it came to them.  By that no one meant, however, that they had killed it intentionally, but rather that they had undertaken something beyond their powers.  They had not had sense or love enough to give it the care it needed.  They were accustomed only to think of themselves and to look out for themselves.  They had no time to care for a child.  They wished to go together to their work every day and to sleep a quiet sleep at night.  They thought that the child drank too much of their good milk and did not allow him as much as themselves.  They had no idea that they were treating the boy badly.  They thought that they were just as tender to him as parents generally are.  It seemed more to them as if their foster-son had been a punishment and a torment.  They did not mourn him when he died.

Women usually enjoy nothing better than to take care of a child; but Jofrid had a husband, whom she often had to care for like a mother, so that she desired no one else.  They also love to see their children’s quick growth; but Jofrid had pleasure enough in watching Toenne develop sense and manliness, in adorning and taking care of her house, in the increase of their flocks, and in the crops which they were raising below on the moor.

Jofrid went to the peasant’s farm and told him that the child was dead.  Then the man said:  “I am like the man who puts cushions in his bed so soft that he sinks down to the hard bottom.  I wished to care too well for my son, and look, now he is dead!” And he was heart-broken.

At his words Jofrid began to weep bitterly.  “Would to God that you had not left your son with us!” she said.  “We were too poor.  He could not get what he needed with us.”

“That is not what I meant,” answered the peasant.  “I believe that you have over-indulged the child.  But I will not accuse any one, for over life and death God alone rules.  Now I mean to celebrate the funeral of my only son with the same expense as if he had been full grown, and to the feast I invite both Toenne and you.  By that you may know that I bear you no grudge.”

So Toenne and Jofrid went to the funeral banquet.  They were well treated, and no one said anything unfriendly to them.  The women who had dressed the child’s body had related that it had been miserably thin and had borne marks of great neglect.  But that could easily come from sickness.  No one wished to believe anything bad about the foster-parents, for it was known that they were good people.

Jofrid wept a great deal during those days, especially when she heard the women tell how they had to wake and toil for their little children.  She noticed, too, that the women at the funeral were continually talking of their children.  Some rejoiced so in them that they never could stop telling of their questions and games.  Jofrid would have liked to have talked about Toenne, but most of them never spoke of their husbands.