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The Child gathered the baby into her lap and sat rocking him.
"Ts--ts--ts," she said. "He's cutting his eye teeth, that's what makes him

cry so. AND dribble--I never seen a baby dribble like this one." She
wiped his mouth and nose with a corner of her skirt. "Some babies get

their teeth without you knowing it," she went on, "and some take on this
way all the time. I once heard of a baby that died, and they found all

it's teeth in its stomach."
The Man got up, unhooked his cloak from the back of the door, and flung it

round him.
"There's another coming," said he.

"What--a tooth!" exclaimed the Child, startled for the first time that
morning out of her dreadfulheaviness, and thrusting her finger into the

baby's mouth.
"No," he said grimly, "another baby. Now, get on with your work; it's time

the others got up for school." She stood a moment quite silently, hearing
his heavy steps on the stone passage, then the gravel walk, and finally the

slam of the front gate.
"Another baby! Hasn't she finished having them YET?" thought the Child.

"Two babies getting eye teeth--two babies to get up for in the night--two
babies to carry about and wash their little piggy clothes!" She looked

with horror at the one in her arms, who, seeming to understand the
contemptuous loathing of her tired glance, doubled his fists, stiffened his

body, and began violently screaming.
"Ts--ts--ts." She laid him on the settle and went back to her floor-

washing. He never ceased crying for a moment, but she got quite used to it
and kept time with her broom. Oh, how tired she was! Oh, the heavy broom

handle and the burning spot just at the back of her neck that ached so, and
a funny little fluttering feeling just at the back of her waistband, as

though something were going to break.
The clock struck six. She set the pan of milk in the oven, and went into

the next room to wake and dress the three children. Anton and Hans lay
together in attitudes of mutual amity which certainly never existed out of

their sleeping hours. Lena was curled up, her knees under her chin, only a
straight, standing-up pigtail of hair showing above the bolster.

"Get up," cried the Child, speaking in a voice of immense authority,
pulling off the bedclothes and giving the boys sundry pokes and digs.

"I've been calling you this last half-hour. It's late, and I'll tell on
you if you don't get dressed this minute."

Anton awoke sufficiently to turn over and kick Hans on a tender part,
whereupon Hans pulled Lena's pigtail until she shrieked for her mother.

"Oh, do be quiet," whispered the Child. "Oh, do get up and dress. You
know what will happen. There--I'll help you."

But the warning came too late. The Frau got out of bed, walked in a
determined fashion into the kitchen, returning with a bundle of twigs in

her hand fastened together with a strong cord. One by one she laid the
children across her knee and severely beat them, expending a final burst of

energy on the Child-Who-Was-Tired, then returned to bed, with a comfortable
sense of her maternal duties in good working order for the day. Very

subdued, the three allowed themselves to be dressed and washed by the
Child, who even laced the boys' boots, having found through experience that

if left to themselves they hopped about for at least five minutes to find a
comfortable ledge for their foot, and then spat on their hands and broke

the bootlaces.
While she gave them their breakfast they became uproarious, and the baby

would not cease crying. When she filled the tin kettle with milk, tied on
the rubber teat, and, first moistening it herself, tried with little

coaxing words to make him drink, he threw the bottle on to the floor and
trembled all over.

"Eye teeth!" shouted Hans, hitting Anton over the head with his empty cup;
"he's getting the evil-eye teeth, I should say."

"Smarty!" retorted Lena, poking out her tongue at him, and then, when he
promptly did the same, crying at the top of her voice, "Mother, Hans is

making faces at me!"
"That's right," said Hans; "go on howling, and when you're in bed to-night

I'll wait till you're asleep, and then I'll creep over and take a little
tiny piece of your arm and twist and twist it until--" He leant over the

table making the most horrible faces at Lena, not noticing that Anton was
standing behind his chair until the little boy bent over and spat on his

brother's shaven head.
"Oh, weh! oh, weh!"

The Child-Who-Was-Tired pushed and pulled them apart, muffled them into
their coats, and drove them out of the house.

"Hurry, hurry! the second bell's rung," she urged, knowingperfectly well
she was telling a story, and rather exulting in the fact. She washed up

the breakfast things, then went down to the cellar to look out the potatoes
and beetroot.

Such a funny, cold place the coal cellar! With potatoes banked on one
corner, beetroot in an old candle box, two tubs of sauerkraut, and a

twisted mass of dahlia roots--that looked as real as though they were
fighting one another, thought the Child.

She gathered the potatoes into her skirt, choosing big ones with few eyes
because they were easier to peel, and bending over the dull heap in the

silent cellar, she began to nod.
"Here, you, what are you doing down there?" cried the Frau, from the top of

the stairs. "The baby's fallen off the settle, and got a bump as big as an
egg over his eye. Come up here, and I'll teach you!"

"It wasn't me--it wasn't me!" screamed the Child, beaten from one side of
the hall to the other, so that the potatoes and beetroot rolled out of her

skirt.
The Frau seemed to be as big as a giant, and there was a certain heaviness

in all her movements that was terrifying to anyone so small.
"Sit in the corner, and peel and wash the vegetables, and keep the baby

quiet while I do the washing."
Whimpering she obeyed, but as to keeping the baby quiet, that was

impossible. His face was hot, little beads of sweat stood all over his
head, and he stiffened his body and cried. She held him on her knees, with

a pan of cold water beside her for the cleaned vegetables and the "ducks'
bucket" for the peelings.

"Ts--ts--ts!" she crooned, scraping and boring; "there's going to be
another soon, and you can't both keep on crying. Why don't you go to

sleep, baby? I would, if I were you. I'll tell you a dream. Once upon a
time there was a little white road--"

She shook back her head, a great lump ached in her throat and then the
tears ran down her face on to the vegetables.

"That's no good," said the Child, shaking them away. "Just stop crying
until I've finished this, baby, and I'll walk you up and down."

But by that time she had to peg out the washing for the Frau. A wind had
sprung up. Standing on tiptoe in the yard, she almost felt she would be

blown away. There was a bad smell coming from the ducks' coop, which was
half full of manure water, but away in the meadow she saw the grass blowing

like little green hairs. And she remembered having heard of a child who
had once played for a whole day in just such a meadow with real sausages

and beer for her dinner--and not a little bit of tiredness. Who had told
her that story? She could not remember, and yet it was so plain.

The wet clothes flapped in her face as she pegged them; danced and jigged
on the line, bulged out and twisted. She walked back to the house with

lagging steps, looking longingly at the grass in the meadow.
"What must I do now, please?" she said.

"Make the beds and hang the baby's mattress out of the window, then get the
wagon and take him for a little walk along the road. In front of the

house, mind--where I can see you. Don't stand there, gaping! Then come in
when I call you and help me cut up the salad."

When she had made the beds the Child stood and looked at them. Gently she
stroked the pillow with her hand, and then, just for one moment, let her

head rest there. Again the smarting lump in her throat, the stupid tears
that fell and kept on falling as she dressed the baby and dragged the

little wagon up and down the road.
A man passed, driving a bullock wagon. He wore a long, queer feather in

his hat, and whistled as he passed. Two girls with bundles on their
shoulders came walking out of the village--one wore a red handkerchief

about her head and one a blue. They were laughing and holding each other
by the hand. Then the sun pushed by a heavy fold of grey cloud and spread

a warm yellow light over everything.
"Perhaps," thought the Child-Who-Was-Tired, "if I walked far enough up this

road I might come to a little white one, with tall black trees on either
side--a little road--"

"Salad, salad!" cried the Frau's voice from the house.
Soon the children came home from school, dinner was eaten, the Man took the

Frau's share of pudding as well as his own, and the three children seemed
to smear themselves all over with whatever they ate. Then more

dish-washing and more cleaning and baby-minding. So the afternoon dragged
coldly through.

Old Frau Grathwohl came in with a fresh piece of pig's flesh for the Frau,
and the Child listened to them gossiping together.

"Frau Manda went on her 'journey to Rome' last night, and brought back a
daughter. How are you feeling?"

"I was sick twice this morning," said the Frau. "My insides are all
twisted up with having children too quickly."

"I see you've got a new help," commented old Mother Grathwohl.
"Oh, dear Lord"--the Frau lowered her voice--"don't you know her? She's

the free-born one--daughter of the waitress at the railway station. They
found her mother trying to squeeze her head in the wash-hand jug, and the

child's half silly."
"Ts--ts--ts!" whispered the "free-born" one to the baby.

As the day drew in the Child-Who-Was-Tired did not know how to fight her
sleepiness any longer. She was afraid to sit down or stand still. As she

sat at supper the Man and the Frau seemed to swell to an immense size as
she watched them, and then become smaller than dolls, with little voices

that seemed to come from outside the window. Looking at the baby, it
suddenly had two heads, and then no head. Even his crying made her feel

worse. When she thought of the nearness of bedtime she shook all over with
excited joy. But as eight o'clock approached there was the sound of wheels

on the road, and presently in came a party of friends to spend the evening.
Then it was:

"Put on the coffee."
"Bring me the sugar tin."

"Carry the chairs out of the bedroom."
"Set the table."

And, finally, the Frau sent her into the next room to keep the baby quiet.
There was a little piece of candle burning in the enamelbracket. As she

walked up and down she saw her great big shadow on the wall like a grown-up
person with a grown-up baby. Whatever would it look like when she carried

two babies so!
"Ts--ts--ts!" Once upon a time she was walking along a little white road,

with oh! such great big black trees on either side."
"Here you!" called the Frau's voice, "bring me my new jacket from behind

the door." And as she took it into the warm room one of the women said,
"She looks like an owl. Such children are seldom right in their heads."

"Why don't you keep that baby quiet?" said the Man, who had just drunk
enough beer to make him feel very brave and master of his house.

"If you don't keep that baby quiet you'll know why later on."
They burst out laughing as she stumbled back into the bedroom.

"I don't believe Holy Mary could keep him quiet," she murmured. "Did Jesus
cry like this when He was little? If I was not so tired perhaps I could do

it; but the baby just knows that I want to go to sleep. And there is going
to be another one."

She flung the baby on the bed, and stood looking at him with terror.
From the next room there came the jingle of glasses and the warm sound of

laughter.
And she suddenly had a beautiful marvellous idea.

She laughed for the first time that day, and clapped her hands.
"Ts--ts--ts!" she said, "lie there, silly one; you WILL go to sleep.

You'll not cry any more or wake up in the night. Funny, little, ugly
baby."

He opened his eyes, and shrieked loudly at the sight of the
Child-Who-Was-Tired. From the next room she heard the Frau call out to

her.
"One moment--he is almost asleep," she cried.

And then gently, smiling, on tiptoe, she brought the pink bolster from the
Frau's bed and covered the baby's face with it, pressed with all her might

as he struggled, "like a duck with its head off, wriggling", she thought.


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