“I should like to give you something to scream for!” cried the maid, suiting a significant gesture to her words with the open palm of her hand, as she turned away into the house again.  Elsli snatched up the child hastily, and tried to quiet him.

“Mamma, do tell that big cry-baby to stand on his own legs.  He’ll kill Elsli at this rate; he is far too much for her to lift.”  Fred spoke in great excitement.

This made the child cry louder than ever, and he clung to his slender sister with such increased force, that she staggered a little and seemed about to fall.

“You really ought to put him down, my child,” said the mother; “he would soon get used to it.  Come here!” and she tried to take the child from Elsli’s arms.  It was harder than she expected; for the little fellow clung tight with arms and legs, and kicked with his feet and pounded with his fists, and when at last Mrs. Stein succeeded in detaching him and placing him on the ground, he flung himself upon his sister’s skirts, and screamed so lustily that she took him up again, saying resignedly:—­

“It’s of no use; he’s a very naughty little boy; and begins to call to me to carry him as soon as I get home from school.”

“Such a big boy as Hans ought to be able to go alone by this time, and then there is the baby besides; how do you manage to do it all, Elsli?”

“Oh, Hans is in a dreadful way if I take the baby; he screams and kicks as hard as he can, and then his mother hears him, and she comes running in, and says that she can’t have such a noise, and I mustn’t let the children scream so.  So I have to put the baby into the cradle to quiet Hans, and then I rock the cradle with my foot to quiet the baby.”

“Come into the house, Elsli,” said the doctor’s wife; “you look very tired.  Hans, if you will get down and come into the house yourself, you shall have a piece of bread and an apple.  Come.”

“If you won’t come,” said her sister, “you can stay here, while Rudi and Heili come with me and get bread and apples.  They can walk, without hanging on to Elsli’s skirts and tearing her to pieces.  Come, boys!”

The two boys did not need urging, but followed their kind friend into the house.  And even obstinate little Hans understood what bread and apple meant; when his sister put him down on his feet, he made no resistance, but, taking her hand, stumped along into the house without a word.  Fred followed them, switching a willow wand, as if to suggest the most efficient method of teaching Hans to walk by himself.  When they reached the dining-room, the boys opened their eyes wide to see the big loaf from which Mrs. Stein cut each a slice, and they were not slow in setting their teeth into the rosy apples, of which each had one for his own.  Elsli too had an apple and a slice of bread.

Elsli explained that she had come to get the clothes which Mrs. Stein had told her father to send for.