They related what
had happened in their home, and asked the lecturer if he thought their
mother and their sisters and brothers had died of the sickness he had
described.
"Very likely," he answered. "It could hardly have been any other
disease."
If only the mother and father had known what the children learned that
evening, they might have protected themselves. If they had burned the
clothing of the vagabond woman; if they had scoured and aired the cabin
and had not used the old bedding, all whom the children mourned might
have been living yet. The lecturer said he could not say positively, but
he believed that none of their dear ones would have been sick had they
understood how to guard against the infection.
Osa and Mats waited awhile before putting the next question, for that
was the most important of all. It was not true then that the gipsy woman
had sent the sickness because they had befriended the one with whom she
was angry. It was not something special that had stricken only them. The
lecturer assured them that no person had the power to bring sickness
upon another in that way.
Thereupon the children thanked him and went to their room. They talked
until late that night.
The next day they gave notice that they could not tend geese another
year, but must go elsewhere. Where were they going? Why, to try to find
their father.
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