Yes, a surprise--it would be all over the land; and people would
come flocking from East Vemminghoeg, and from Torp, and from Skerup. The
whole Vemminghoeg township would come to stare at him. Perhaps father and
mother would take him with them, and show him at the market place in
Kivik.
No, that was too horrible to think about. He would rather that no human
being should ever see him again.
His unhappiness was simply frightful! No one in all the world was so
unhappy as he. He was no longer a human being--but a freak.
Little by little he began to comprehend what it meant--to be no longer
human. He was separated from everything now; he could no longer play
with other boys, he could not take charge of the farm after his parents
were gone; and certainly no girl would think of marrying _him_.
He sat and looked at his home. It was a little log house, which lay as
if it had been crushed down to earth, under the high, sloping roof. The
outhouses were also small; and the patches of ground were so narrow that
a horse could barely turn around on them. But little and poor though the
place was, it was much too good for him _now_. He couldn't ask for any
better place than a hole under the stable floor.
It was wondrously beautiful weather! It budded, and it rippled, and it
murmured, and it twittered--all around him.
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