He was so angry and indignant he started shaking. More than anything he would have liked to cry, and now he probably would have been able to since he felt so humiliated. But that was exactly what Hilde wanted, to see her older brother cry! After all, he was her big brother, because she was only five. So the only thing he could do was sneer at her.

“You stupid cow,” he said, taking a superior tone, and kicked the silly tower she had built.

Now Hilde started to cry. “I’m telling Papa,” she threatened, but stayed where she was. Perhaps she wasn’t fully confident of what a second complaint might bring. That’s why she was crying, and now he even felt a tiny bit sorry for her—after all, she was his little sister.

He let her cry a little longer and then suggested: let’s build a Tower of Babel together. His tone was sullen and grumpy, but she accepted the offer of peace.

Ten minutes later, after they had constructed bridges, houses, and entire cities and then, like moody gods, destroyed them, she said with a snippy voice, “I’m still going to tell Papa! You called me a stupid cow and you’re not supposed to!”

“You knocked down my Tower of Babel,” he said, outraged. “You played with my blocks, you blabbed to Papa, and yesterday you stole raisins from the pantry!”

“So did you!”

“I was allowed to. Senta said I could.”

“She said I could, too.”

“No she didn’t.”

“Yes she did.”

They both went silent as they each searched for words that would seal a victory.

“I’m going to Papa,” Hilde threatened, after a while. But it sounded a bit weak.

“Go ahead!”

“I will,” she said, but even she didn’t seem to fully believe she would. Perhaps his accounting had made her a little more reflective.

“Stupid cow,” he said once more, decisively, to prove to himself that he had won.

Then they played some more. The door opened, and their mother came in.

“You’re being so loud,” she said, without reproach. “Please talk a little more quietly. I’d like to lie down.”

She walked past them, and they both cringed a bit out of guilt. When she was almost out of the room, Hilde said quietly, as though just to herself, “I’m not a stupid cow!” She tossed her head back and looked at their mother as if expecting her to ask who had claimed she was.

“Don’t quarrel” was all she said.

He couldn’t simply let Hilde get away with such a sneaky betrayal. “She stole raisins!” he called out, full of genuine indignation. “She stole…”

But their mother had already left the room. He couldn’t count on her to help him much, either.

Hilde once again stuck out her little pink tongue.

He stood up and left her and the blocks and went to the kitchen to talk everything over with Senta once and for all.