The aunt called to Chappi, but the boys were still struggling on the floor and he did not hear. She went into the room and gruffly ordered quiet. Wiseli stood crouching against the wall, scarcely daring to move.
"I wonder that you stand by and watch such a scene without trying to stop it," scolded the aunt. "Can you knit?"
Wiseli trembled as she answered, "Yes, I can knit stockings."
The aunt handed Wiseli a large brown stocking, at the same time sending Chappi to the barn. The two brothers followed him out. "Remember that it is the foot you are knitting on, and don't make it too short," cautioned the aunt, and then she returned to the kitchen.
Wiseli was glad to be alone. She sat down on the bench behind the stove so that she might hold her work in her lap, for the stocking was so heavy that she could not otherwise manage the needles.
She had just begun her knitting when the aunt returned to say, "You had better come to the kitchen now, so that you can learn how I do the work, for I want you to do it next time."
Wiseli followed to the kitchen, where she tried to help, but there seemed to be little that she dared to do. She kept thinking how gladly she would have done any number of tasks for her mother, because she would have been kind. The comparison brought the tears, so she desperately fought against thinking about herself.
"Now pay attention!" cautioned the aunt, as she walked about doing the work while Wiseli stood by the stove; "I want you to know how to do it the next time."
They were still there when the father and sons came up the walk from the barn, stamping the snow from their heavy boots.