Read "The Little Barefoot" by Berthold Auerbach online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
In the morning when Barefoot awoke, she saw the necklace which had been given to her by the wife of Farmer Landfried, John's mother, lying upon her bed. After some moments she recollected that she had taken it out last evening, and looked at it for a long time. When she attempted to rise, she found that she could scarcely move. She felt as though all her limbs were broken. She clasped her hands together, "Oh, not now! " she cried. "Oh, God forbid that I should be ill to-day! I have no time! I cannot be ill to-day! "
As in scorn of her body, and exerting a powerful will she arose -- but when she looked in her little glass she started back, shocked at looking so ill. Her whole cheek was swollen. "This is thy punishment," she cried, "for running about the fields all night, and for wishing to take bad men into thy council. " She struck as for punishment her painful cheek, and then she bound it up and went about her work.