"  They  have  a  nice  stoiy  to  tell  up  there  now.  Oh,
how  I  suffer  !  "

She  listened,  and  heard  them  telling  her  history  as  a


204  THE    SAND-HILLS    OF   JUTLAND.
warning  to  children,  and  the  little  ones  called  her  "  un-
godly Inger."  "  She  was  so  naughty,"  they  said,  "  so
very  wicked,  that  she  deserved  to  suffer."

The  children  always  spoke  harshly  of  her.  One  day,
however,  that  hunger  and  misery  were  gnawing  her  most
dreadfully,  and  she  heard  her  name  mentioned,  and  her
story  told  to  an  innocent  child  —  a  little  girl  —  she  ob-
served that  the  child  burst  into  tears  in  her  distress  for
the  proud,  finely-dressed  Inger.
"  But  will  she  never  come  up  again  ?  "  asked  the  child.
The  answer  was,  —

"  She  will  never  come  up  again."

"  But  if  she  will  beg  pardon,  and  promise  never  to  be
naughty  again  ?  "

"  But  she  will  not  beg  pardon,"  they  said.
"  Oh,  how  I  wish  she  would  do  it !  "  sobbed  the  little
girl  in  great  distress.  "I  will  give  my  doll,  and  my
doll's  house  too,  if  she  may  come  up !  It  is  so  shocking
for  poor  little  Inger  to  be  down  there  ! "

These  words  touched  Inger's  heart ;  they  seemed  al-
most to  make  her  good.  It  was  the  first  time  any  one
had  said  "  poor  Inger,"  and  had  not  dwelt  upon  her
faults.  An  innocent  child  cried  and  prayed  for  her.  She
was  so  much  affected  by  this  that  she  felt  inclined  to
weep  herself;  but  she  could  not,  and  this  was  an  addi-
tional pain.
