“There’s no getting rid of you!” exclaimed the woman, and with a swing of her arm struck her on the head. The girl burst into a howl.

Having finished my business there, I left the hut and went back to the widow.

She was outside her house, waiting for me, and again asked me to come and look at her calf. I went in, and in the passage there really was a calf. The widow asked me to look at it. I did so, feeling that she was so engrossed in her calf that she could not imagine that anyone could help being interested in seeing it.

Having looked at the calf, I stepped inside, and asked:

“Where is the old woman?”

“The old woman?” the widow repeated, evidently surprised that after having seen the calf, I could still be interested in the old woman. “Why, on the top of the oven! Where else should she be?”

I went up to the oven, and greeted the old woman.