"Oh, it’s so pretty," said Holly again, "but, but, did you say the dark forest?"

      "Yes," answered Karl, "and it’s dark alright. The sun hardly ever gets through those trees and if you get lost in there I guess you’d stay lost for ever."

      "Yes added another boy. "I wouldn’t go in there alone I can tell you," and off they went waving some of their prize and leaving Holly picturing the bright red berries and shiny green leaves in her mind. How Nicholas would love some of that cheery little bush. But the dark forest! She shuddered.

      "There must be all kinds of terrible things in there," she thought. "Wild animals and strange noises and maybe, behind the trees - goblins!"

      Holly shook a little and then suddenly she had a mental picture of herself when she was in Nicholas’ cottage saying, "I’ll just look at him and say, Goblin, Nicholas says you just aren’t."

      Holly buried her little face in her hands. "Oh, if only I dared to do it," she almost sobbed. "Nicholas says to do anything when you are really afraid is braver than if you felt no fear at all. But that’s a horrible place. Even the boys are afraid to go there alone. But I haven’t any flowers for him and he’s always so kind to us and spring is so far away!"

      So she sat there for a long time, her mind turning from one decision to another. "Maybe there would be some sun in the forest and if I hurried and found the berries quickly, perhaps I could be back again before dark. I’m going to do it!"

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7a

      On entering the cottage, Nicholas stepped immediately into the main workroom of the wood carver. Here was found his bench, work table, tools and an assortment of wood.

      Marsden pointed to a door in the corner and said, "You can store your belongings in there.

      Nicholas stood in the middle of the untidy room, looking around in dismay.

      "There’s a bed you can sleep on and you might as well put that pretty sled away for good. We have no time here to go romping in the snow. Come now Nicholas, don’t stand there gawking. Put away your belongings; you have much to learn here. "I’m going to make a good wood carver of you. There’ll be no time for silly little dolls and wooden toys. You’ll have to earn your keep here. Oh, by the way you can keep that tribe of young children that always follow you about away from here, do you understand me boy?"

      Nicholas bowed his head and went silently to work putting away his small bundle of belongings.

      So Nicholas started to work for the mad old wood carver and learned that his father’s old pocket knife was a clumsy tool compared with the beautifully sharp knives and chisels that Marsden used. He learned to work for hours on end, bent over the bench beside his master, patiently going over a piece of wood until it was smooth as a piece of glass. Sadly Nicholas could not learn to get used to the dreadful loneliness of the cottage, and longed for the days when he had been in friendlier ones surrounded by laughing children. Over the months, so as

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