All
around and high up thick ivy covered the old walls, and above them
multitudes of merry birds were chirping. Sami had to stop and listen to
their happy singing for a while, then he went along by the high old wall
around the courtyard, for he wanted to see if it was still the same as
before down below in the lonely place where the water kept falling on the
old stones and singing a gentle song. He had once stood there a long time
with his grandmother. There lay the place before him, but it was not
lonely. A big wagon was standing there, with a grey cover stretched over
it. No horse stood in front of it, but a thin nag was nibbling the hedge,
and this evidently belonged to the wagon. Near the old castle tower a
fire was blazing merrily; a man was sitting by it, hammering with all his
might. Close by him four little children were crawling around on the
ground. Sami stood still at this unexpected sight, then came slowly a
little nearer. Then he heard the man warning the children not to come so
near the fire. This he was doing in Sami's own language, exactly as all
the people in Zweisimmen had spoken. This gave courage to Sami; he came
along quite near, and watched the man mend a hole in an old pan.
"Does it please you?" asked the man, after Sami had looked on attentively
for some time.
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