Nils got
hold of a temperance badge and wore it in the front of his blouse.
One day the Captain came out to me in the fields and ordered me to get out
the carriage and fetch two new visitors from the station. It was in the
middle of the afternoon; apparently he had just got up. But he put me in
an awkward position here--why had he not gone to Nils? It struck me that
he was perhaps, after all, a little shy of Nils with his temperance badge.
The Captain must have guessed my difficulty, for he smiled and said:
"Thinking what Nils might say? Well, perhaps I'd better talk to him
first."
But I wouldn't for worlds have sent the Captain over to Nils just then,
for Nils was still ploughing with visitors' horses, and had asked me to
give him warning if I saw danger ahead. I took out my handkerchief to wipe
my face, and waved a little; Nils saw it, and slipped his team at once.
What would he do now, I wondered? But Nils was not easily dismayed; he
came straight in with his horses, though it was in the middle of a working
spell.
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