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880 SKETCHES.
husband than of herself, for she was, after all, a good soul.
While she was crying and staring up at the sky and pray-
ing to God for help, she thought she heard a bird in the
tree sing : —
“* Industry wins bread,
Stands us in good stead;
If the handsome hand is busy,
Sure the ugly one’s away.’
‘¢ And when she heard this, the scales fell from her eyes
and her heart became light. She dried her tears, took her
spinning-wheel out of the corner, where it had stood forgot-
ten with the flax upon it for many weeks, and she began
spinning: whirr, whirr, whirr-irr-rr. She thought it sounded
so nice — she had almost forgotten the sound. ‘ What is
that strange music?’ asked her husband, when he awoke.
And the wife told him how she had felt, and what the bird
had been singing in the tree, and how she had thought
that if they were to begin to work, things might perhaps
turn out better for them. And he scratched his ear and
said that ‘There might be something in that.’ And then
they kissed each other, and promised one another to begin
living in a different way. And all day long they worked
away, and that day the ugly hand was not seen to take any
thing away from them. But it is true there was not much
to take now, for the ugly hand had already carried off so
much. ‘They had only one kettle left, and a few potatoes
in a basket, but no bread. When therefore the young wife
was boiling the potatoes in the kettle at night, she said:
‘Think if the ugly hand should come now and take away
the kettle also!’ And she was ina great fright. But no,
no ugly hand did she see ; and when the potatoes were ready
and she was going to put them on the table, she saw a
pretty little white hand, placing a loaf of bread upon her
plate and one upon Sven’s plate. And the bird in the tree
sang :—
“¢ Industry wins bread,
Stands us in good stead;
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