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886 SKETCHES.
New Year’s Day; but if any body had seen him where he
stood, with gloomy looks and his hair hanging down over
his forehead, he would have seen that Anders did not
think that Christmas was a merry time, and that he was
not much satisfied with the world.
The mother was busy at the hearth. But why does she
always stand thus turned towards the fire, as if anxious ‘to
keep her face away from the merry children? The flames
might tell us, if they could speak, for they see that her
face is sorrowful, and that now and then tears roll down
her cheeks. And she does not wish the children to see
this; she will not spoil their pleasure. But she cannot
help it; she must this evening again and again think of
her husband, who died only three months ago, and how
happy she was with him last Christmas ; how good he was,
how honest, how industrious, how kind and loving to her and
the children ; how they two together had labored to over-
come many cares, and how their circumstances had im-
proved year after year, so that they began to look forward
to the future with pleasure. She thought of how faithfully
he had assisted her in every thing, and how he sometimes
said: “We must work hard for some time yet, my little
Margret, but then you will see that all will be well for us
and the children!” And she remembered how, when he
felt that he was dying, he had comforted her, and had told
her that “it was to be so: that if one of them was to be
taken away, it was better that this lot fell upon the husband
than upon the wife, because she was able to take better
care of the children than he could!” But the wife
thought this a heavy burden to bear, and she had much
anxiety for the future. For she felt now so lonely both in
her heart and in her cottage ; and the eldest son, her step-
son Anders, who had hitherto been out at service in
another parish, but had now come home to assist his
mother in her little farm after the father’s death, was of a
sullen temper, and was evidently unfriendly and bitterly
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