A free woman thinks of the past

"Ben?!" Astrid runs into the house followed closely by her little brother. She ruined his stone castle, trying to play with it and now the boy is after her for revenge. "Help! Mars will kill me!"

Ben doesn't ask any questions. Her big brother, who is always on her side, never does. He just drops the fire logs he was holding and picks her up, lifting her up on his shoulders. He is very tall and for little Astrid she feels like being at the top of the world, where no one can hurt her.

"Astrid! I will cut your hair for this! You will look like a boy! You are flat like one anyway!" Their little brother, Mars, comes running in with a pair of rusty scissors in his hands. They are the scissors their mother uses to trim the bushes in the garden.

"Mars! Didn't mother forbid you from playing with those? You up for a beating, idiot?" Ben kicks him in the stomach, throwing him on the floor like a sack of potatoes. "Are you a baby? If you have the energy to play with rocks, go to the mill and help