Little Tora, The Swedish Schoolmistress and Other Stories

of white-framed windows looking out on the road close at hand. There was a storm-house, for stamping off the snow and depositing extra articles of carriage, and for dogs, w

lmost as much simplicity as the prophet's chamber of the Scriptures, save that a plain sofa-bed wa

be brought up with the fumes of spirituous liquors as his natural atmosphere. Perhaps this resolution had been prompted by the suspicion that her husband's life had been shortened by too frequent good meals and too frequent strong potations. Be that as it may, the determined woman had made it known that, now that she was mistress in her own house, she would manage it as she thought bes

t of looking out occasionally up and down the road, to reconnoitre as to what customers might be expected, had lingered to keep the former hostess now constantly, as it

nces, and to hand over his charge, with as many orders that they should be

d rubbed down, and put into bed at once; and then the little schoolmistress was looked after. She had obeyed orders, and her pale face lay on the pillow when she was visited. The quondam hostess left her suddenly, and soon retu

sky?" exclaimed

dding, "I would give it clear to anybody dyin

hould not like to leave you and the schoolmistress; but for anything

oing to hurt you. That stuff has gone to your head and made you melancholy-like and weepish. It does sometimes; it

woman sat down to meditate and be thankful. The meditation proved to be of the perambulatory sort, for she peeped into one room and then into the other, noiselessly appearing and retiring. She listened to see if her patients were alive. The schoolmistress lay pale and still; her hands, loosely spread out, dropped on the sheet almost as colourless as itself. But she breathed regularly; that was an ascertai

uiries she was subjected to as to her symptoms and sensations as would have done credit to a young medical practitioner examining his first pa

t last allowed. As for Nils, it was plain that he considered that small apartme

evoutly in the Bible: that had been an accessory in the arrangement of her room, as

door. The permission to enter was hardly given w

've tried to learn so many times, and couldn't make out. The first line came into my head yes

"I thought of that line too myself when I first suspected

e had been such a sinner to make prayers and never believe they could come true; and that she hadn't taken any comfort, either, in what the doctor had always been telling her, and that she had thought was awful. He had said that if anything remarkable could happen to me, or any great shock, or even if I had a hard blow on the head, I might come round like other boys. She had felt sure that nothing

ls by the hand and said, "You are all right, I really belie

giving from the depths of her heart now for the first time in her life, understanding that she had

morning at th