"You are well disguised," the latter said as she entered. "I no longer
wonder that you are able to go about as a boy without suspicion; you look
one to the life, while Agnes is so awkward that she would be detected in a
moment."
"She has not had the practice that I have had," Katarina said with a
laugh; "the awkwardness will soon wear off if she has to dress like this
for a short time. As for me, I have learnt all a boy's tricks and ways. I
can whistle and shout with any of them, can quarrel, and bluster, be saucy
on occasion, and have only once been in trouble."
"How was that, Katarina?"
"A boy who was a bit taller than I ran against me and declared that it was
my fault, and gave me a cuff on the head. I might have run away, and of
course I ought to have done so, but I was angry, for he really hurt me; so
I had to do what any boy would have done, and I flew at him so fiercely,
and cuffed and scratched and kicked so savagely that at last he turned and
ran. He had hit me too, but I did not feel it at the time, and next
morning I was all sorts of colours round the eyes. Father was very angry,
but when I asked what else he would have done if he had been cuffed, he
could not tell me. I had a very important message to carry that morning
for him. At first he said I could not go out in that state; but, as I told
him, I had never looked so much like a boy before."
All were glad when it became dark enough for them to make a start.
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