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390 SKETCHES.
dreadful noise ; the cock crowed as if it had been morning,
and his wife, the white hen, laid an egg.
Anders was also in the cottage when the mother came
in with her children. He was a tall lad of about seventeen,
and had a sullen and gloomy appearance. The mother
gave him an anxious look. Ever since his father had
married a second time he had borne his step-mother a
grudge, and would not remain in the house after she came
into it. He had, therefore, gone into the service of a peas-
ant in a neighboring parish, who certainly was a well-to-do,
but not a good man.
Anders now sat with his elbow resting upon the table ;
he was gazing silently at the fire, and seemed neither to
notice that the housewife put the eatables on the table and
made every thing so comfortable, nor little Maja’s prattle,
who wanted to tell hini about all the animals, and how they
had got their Christmas supper.
For Maja was a nice, friendly little girl who loved
every body, and seemed particularly to, like brother Anders,
although he rarely was friendly to her.
When they now were all seated round the table, and the
mother had poured out the Yule ale, the little ones peered
at each other, at their mother, and at Anders, winking at
one another, and looking so sly, as if they would have said:
“ Now it comes!”
And now the mother raised her glass, and the children
took up their little pewter mugs, and all three said, “ Here
is to you, Anders!”
Anders looked up, as much astonished almost as May-
rose, when they shouted to her that it was Christmas. But
when the mother added, “ And much happiness to you, niy
son, for on this night you were born,” Anders said in a
sulky tone, “ Well, what is that to drink to, and what sort
of happiness is that? .It would be much better not to
have been born.”
The mother answered gravely : “ Those are sinful words,
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