"But how can he who takes her take the gard? That is what I want to know before I die. You have no time to lose, Baard, either for me or for the gard."
They were both silent; at last the school-master says,—
"Shall we walk out and take a look at the gard in this fine weather?"
"Yes; let us do so. I have work-people on the slope; they are gathering leaves, but they do not work except when I am watching them."
He totters off after his large cap and staff, and says, meanwhile,—
"They do not seem to like to work for me; I cannot understand it."
When they were once out and turning the corner of the house, he paused.
"Just look here. No order: the wood flung about, the axe not even stuck in the block."
He stooped with difficulty, picked up the axe, and drove it in fast.
"Here you see a skin that has fallen down; but has any one hung it up again?"