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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15853-8.txt b/15853-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccec309 --- /dev/null +++ b/15853-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5388 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, One of Life's Slaves, by Jonas Lauritz Idemil +Lie, Translated by Jessie Muir + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: One of Life's Slaves + + +Author: Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie + +Translator: Jessie Muir + +Release Date: May 18, 2005 [eBook #15853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES*** + + +E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Jim Wiborg, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES + +by + +JONAS LIE + +Author of "The Visionary," etc. etc. + +Translated from the Norwegian by Jessie Muir + +London Hodder Brothers 13 New Bridge Street, D.C. +Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., London & Edinburgh + +1895 + + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In a review which appeared in the _Athenæum_, of a translation of one +of Jonas Lie's earlier works--"Den Fremsynte" ("The Visionary")--the +reviewer expressed a hope that I would follow up that translation with +"an English version of Lie's 'Livsslaven,' that intensely tragic and +pathetic story of suffering and wrong." It is in accordance with this +suggestion that the present volume makes its appearance. + +In taking Christiania life for the subject of "Livsslaven," Jonas Lie +attempted for the second time to break down the preconceived opinion of +critics, that such a subject did not come within his province. They were +accustomed to have tales of sea-life from his pen, and could not readily +be persuaded that another sphere of life might afford equal scope for +his talent. "Thomas Ross," published in 1878, had treated of Christiania +life, and had attracted but little attention; and now, in the spring of +1883, appeared this "story of a smith's apprentice, with his struggles +for existence and his ultimate final failure owing to the irresistible +indulgence of a passionate physical instinct." At first this too seemed +to be a failure. To use the words of Arne Garborg, a Norwegian author +and critic, Lie "had spoken--cried out in the passion or agony of his +soul, and people stood there quite calm and as if they had heard +nothing;" there seemed to be a total lack of sympathetic comprehension +on the part of the public. In the end, however, the book found its way +to the hearts of its readers, and, to quote Mr. Gosse's words on the +subject, "achieved a very great success; it was realistic and modern in +a certain sense and to a discreet degree, and it appealed, as scarcely +any Norwegian novel had done before, to all classes of Scandinavian +society." + +Lie himself, in speaking of this work, says that a writer should "aim +at presenting his subject in such a way that the reader may see, hear, +feel, and comprehend it with the utmost possible intensity." This +precept he has certainly put into practice in the present instance, for +the subject is treated with such power and so full a grasp, that in +reading the book one feels an actual anxiety, an oppression as of +approaching disaster. This, at any rate, is the case with the original, +and I trust that its power has not been altogether lost in the process +of rendering into another language, but that the stamp of genuineness, +the author's leading characteristic, may to some extent be found also +in this translation. + +J. MUIR. + +CHRISTIANA, + +November 10, 1894. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. NEGLECTED RESPONSIBILITIES + + II. A STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN + + III. A FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + IV. A STOLEN INTERVIEW + + V. AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED + + VI. THE FACTORY GIRLS + + VII. "THE WORLD IS RIGHT ENOUGH AFTER ALL" + +VIII. AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL + + IX. AN IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN + + X. A RISE IN LIFE + + XI. THE WEDDING POSTPONED AGAIN + + XII. THE FAIR AND THE CONVICT + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +NEGLECTED RESPONSIBILITIES + + +"Like a prince in his cradle," you say, "with invisible fairies and the +innocent peace of childhood over him!" + +What fairy stood by the cradle of Barbara's Nikolai it would be +difficult to say. Out at the tinsmith's, in the little house with the +cracked and broken window-panes in the outskirts of the town, there was +often a run of visitors, generally late at night, when wanderers on the +high road were at a loss for a night's lodging. Many a revel had been +held there, and it was not once only that the cradle had been overturned +in a fight, or that a drunken man had fallen full length across it. + +Nikolai's mother was called Barbara, and came from Heimdalhögden, +somewhere far up in the country--a genuine mountain lass, shining with +health, red and white, strong and broad-shouldered, and with teeth like +the foam in the milk pail. She had heard so much about the town from +cattle-dealers that came over the mountain, that a longing and +restlessness had taken possession of her. + +And then she had gone out to service in the town. + +She was about as suitable there as a tumble-down haystack in a handsome +town street, or as a cow on a flight of stairs--that is to say, not at +all. + +She used to waste her time on the market-place by all the hay loads. She +must see and feel the hay--_that_ was not at all like mountain grass. +"No indeed! Mountain grass was so soft, and then, how it smelt! Oh dear +no!" + +But her mistress had other uses for her servant than letting her spend +the morning talking to hay-cart drivers. So she went from place to +place, each time descending both as regarded wages and mistress. Barbara +was good-natured and honest; but she had one fault--the great one of +being totally unfit for all possible town situations. + +Yet Society has, as we know, a wonderful faculty for making use of, +assimilating and reconstructing everything, even the apparently most +meaningless and useless, for its own purpose. And the way it took, +quickly enough, with poor Barbara was that she became the only thing in +which she could be of any service in the town--namely, a nurse. + +It was a sad time and a hard struggle while the shame lasted, almost +enough to kill her; and after that, she never thought of returning to +the Heimdal mountains again. + +But things were to be still harder. + +The various social claims, which an age of progress increasingly lays +upon the lady of the house in the upper classes of society, asserted +themselves here in the town by an ever increasing demand for nurses. + +"The reason," as Dr. Schneibel explained, "was simply a law of +Nature--you can't be a milch-cow and an intelligent human being at the +same time. The renovation of blood and nerves must be artificially +conveyed from that class of society which stands nearer to Nature." + +And now the thing was to find an extra-healthy, thoroughly strong nurse +for Consul-General Veyergang's two delicate, newly-arrived, little ones. + +Dr. Schneibel had very thoughtfully kept a nurse in reserve for Mrs. +Veyergang--"a really remarkable specimen of the original healthiness in +the common stock. One might say--h'm, h'm--that if Mrs. Veyergang could +not get to the mountains, the mountains were so courteous as to come to +her. The girl still had an odour of the cowshed about her perhaps; but +when all's said and done, that was only a stronger assurance of +originality. And _that_ is an important factor in our day, madam, when +milk is adulterated even from the very cows themselves.--Quite young, +scarcely twenty!" + +Barbara Högden had not the faintest suspicion, as she carried water and +wood, or stood at the edge of the ice beating linen, or did any drudgery +she could find to do, in order to earn a little money to pay for herself +and her baby at the tinsmith's, that, from her deepest degradation, she +had risen at one step to the rank of an exceptionally sought-after and +esteemed person in the town. + +For a nurse _is_ an esteemed person. Indeed, she is on the expectancy +list to become respected. + +After having nursed her mistress's child, and been a correspondingly +unnatural mother to her own, she ends by sleeping on down, and being +considered in every way, until a new nurse for a new heir deposes her +from her dynasty. + +Should she prefer to give her own little baby the only treasure she +possesses, her healthy breast, should she really be so blind to her own +interests, why then the case is different, and (to use Dr. Schneibel's +words) not altogether unmerited, only a result of the social economy to +which she does not know how to be intelligently subordinate, and which +will reduce her, with the inexorable logic of the laws of civilisation, +to a useless superfluity, which Society's organism rejects. Or, vulgarly +speaking, she is left with shame, contempt and poverty resting upon both +her and her illegitimate offspring. As a private individual, she is in a +sense right; but socially, as a member of society----! + +At first poor Barbara was quite blind on this point, utterly obstinate, +rigid as a mountain pony that could not be got to stir. + +Dr. Schneibel was standing for the third time at the tinsmith's, with +his stick under his nose, while his gig waited down in the road. Each +time he had added to both wages and arguments, and had again and again +pointed out how bad it would be both for her and her boy if she +continued so obstinate. He appealed to her own good sense. How could she +expect to bring him up in such poor, narrow circumstances, and with all +this toiling and moiling? She would only need to give up a part of her +large wages to the tinsmith, and they would look well after the boy. +Besides she could often come out and see him, at least once a month!--he +could promise her that on the Veyergangs' behalf, and it was very kind +of them now they lived such a long way out of town. + +Dr. Schneibel talked both kindly and severely, both good-naturedly and +sharply: he was almost like a father. + +Barbara felt a pang of fear every time she saw him come down the street, +and turn in by the rotten, mouldy wooden fence. She watched him like a +bird that is afraid for her nest, and was sitting close to the wall in +the darkest corner with the cradle behind her, when he opened the door. +It was impossible for her to answer except by a sob. The tinsmith's wife +did all the talking with: "Why, bless me, yes!" and "Bless me, no!" and +"Just so, doctor!" in garrulous superabundance, while Barbara only sat +and meditated on taking her baby on her back and departing. + +But to-day the doctor had talked so very kindly to her and offered her +so much money. He had appealed so directly to her conscience, patted the +child, and said that when it came to the point, he was sure she was not +the mother who could be so cruel as to bring misery upon such a pretty +little fellow, let him suffer want, let his pretty little feet be cold, +when he might lie both comfortable and warm and like a little prince in +his cradle! + +It was not possible to resist, and in her emotion something like a half +promise escaped her. + +Afterwards a neighbour came in and was of exactly the same opinion, and +told of all the little children whom she had known that had died of want +and neglect, only in the houses round about, during the last two years, +because their mothers had had to go out and work all day and could not +pay any one to look after them. And she and the tinsmith's wife both +spoke at once about the same thing--only the same thing. + +Barbara sat listening and tending her child. Her heart felt like +breaking. For a moment she thought of going, not to Högden, but in +another way, home with him at once. + +It was a temptation. + +That night she broke into sobs so ungovernable, that, in order not to +disturb the household in their slumbers, she went out into the soft, +drizzling rain: it quieted and cooled her. + +As she was standing the next morning, helping a neighbour's wife to +rinse and wring the clothes by the brook, a pony-carriage stopped in the +road. The coachman--he had gold lace on his hat and coat--got down and +went in to the tinsmith's. + +"You must wring that sheet right out, Barbara," said the neighbour's +wife; "it'll be the last you'll wring here, for that's the Consul's +carriage." + +And Barbara wrung the sheet until there was not a drop of water in it. +It had come now! + +She went in and dressed the child; she hardly knew what she was doing, +and hardly felt it under her hands. + +She saw the man give six dollars to the tinsmith's wife. He was so stiff +and tall and distinguished-looking, with such a big, aristocratic nose, +and he made a kind of bend every time she happened to look at him, and +assured her that there was no hurry--not the least! They never woke +before nine at the Consul's, so there was still plenty of time. And then +he looked at his watch. + +And every time he looked at his watch, she looked at her boy: there were +now orders and a time fixed for her to leave him. + +He had fallen asleep again. If he were to wake, she did not know what +would happen--she was sure she could not leave him then. + +"No hurry, no hurry!" and he took the thick silver watch out of his +pocket once more. + +But now it was she who was in a hurry, and so eager that she gave +herself no time to look round before she was seated in the carriage, and +the long, stiff-necked, braided coachman was driving her away along the +road of her appointed destiny. + +In the summer she accompanied the Consul-General's family to a +bathing-place. There Barbara wheeled the perambulator with the two +children in it along the shore, and more than once the Veyergangs were +flattered by the exclamations of passers-by: "What a fine-looking +nurse!" + +But there were difficulties with her, too--fits of melancholy to which +she completely gave way. She would sit by the cradle, her eyes red with +weeping, longing for her child, and would neither eat nor drink. + +This was a matter of no little importance. A nurse must be kept in good +spirits; her frame of mind has such an immense influence on her health, +and that again on the health of the child. + +Mrs. Veyergang had all sorts of good things brought in from the +pastry-cook's to enliven her; silk handkerchiefs and aprons abounded, +and the servants at home received injunctions to inquire after Barbara's +boy at the tinsmith's. + +There was praise and nothing but praise to be given every time the +Consul-General's Lars stopped there in driving past, and when Barbara +only received a message of that kind, she could be happy and contented +the whole month. + +She was made much of, as she very soon felt. If she said or wanted +anything, she was obeyed as if she were the mistress herself. And +handsome clothes with constant change of fine underclothing, not to +mention meat and drink--hardly anything of what she was accustomed to +call work, her hands had already become quite soft and supple. And she +felt that she was beginning to be attached to the two little ones whom +she tended day and night. + + * * * * * + +One day, after the Consul's family had returned from the bathing-place, +Barbara set out for the tinsmith's. It was late in the autumn. She could +hardly ever remember the road out there so bad and muddy as it was now. +Both her boots and the bottom of her dress would need cleaning and +washing when she got back again. + +The thought that she would soon see her boy put her in a cold +perspiration; but of course things were best as they were, now that she +could pay so well for him. + +When she turned in by the wooden fence and saw the cottage with its +familiar cracked windows in front of her, she slackened her pace a +little. A feeling of apprehension suddenly came over her. + +And then the neighbour's wife, whom she had so often helped, came out +and began to talk and give her information, rattling on like a +steam-engine. There had been war among the neighbours in the tinsmith's +alley, and now that she saw Barbara herself, the truth should out, the +real, actual truth. + +The tinsmith's people need not imagine that other people hadn't got eyes +in their head! Everything they possessed had gone to the pawnbroker's; +there was barely enough of the tin-ware left to put in his cracked +windows. And what they lived on, nobody round there could imagine, +unless it was the payment they got for that poor little ill-used boy, +that they gave lager-beer to, to keep him quiet. For no one would put up +there now that the police had begun to keep an eye on the company, not +even certain people who were not generally so particular about their +quarters. + +"But if you take my advice, Barbara, you'll take the boy to blockmaker +Holman's down at the wharf. They are such nice, respectable people, and +have pitied the boy so when I told them how they were treating him out +here." + +Blockmaker Holman, blockmaker Holman! The name rang in her ears as, +heavy-hearted, she entered the tinsmith's. + +There he lay among the ragged, dirty clothes, pale, thin and neglected, +with frightened eyes. He began to cry when she took him up; he did not +know her, and she scarcely knew him. + +The disappointment--all that she felt--found vent in a rising torrent of +angry words against the tinsmith and his wife. + +But at the same time, while she was washing the boy, she felt how big, +coarse and clumsy his face and body were, compared to the two delicate +ones she was accustomed to. She saw now for the first time how +impossible it would be to keep him herself. + +But he should go to the blockmaker's, poor boy! Her name wasn't Barbara +if she didn't get her mistress to see to that at once--as early as +to-morrow. + +She returned home with a face red and swollen with crying, and was +inconsolable the whole evening until her mistress came down from the +office with the promise that the matter should be arranged. + +And thus it was that Nikolai came to blockmaker Holman's. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN + + +It is in some ways a blessing that those who have suffered hardship and +been neglected in their babyhood, do not remember anything about it--and +yet perhaps something clings to them. + +So, at any rate, Mrs. Holman declared. From the very first day the boy +came into the house, she could see he had been brought up in a thieves' +nest. His eyes were so wise and watchful, and he could be so craftily +cunning and refractory, long before he could speak. She declared that he +was positively malicious, so drowsy and quiet as he would be until she +had just fallen asleep, when he would begin to shout as loud as a +watchman. + +But every one who knew anything about the Holmans, said that if they had +not been fortunate in getting the boy, he had at any rate been fortunate +in having found his way to them. There were not two opinions as to what +an orderly woman Mrs. Holman was, and how strict in the fulfilment of +her duty. Tall, thin and neat in her person, even her small, +liver-coloured face, with the pale blue expressionless eyes, told you at +once that she was not the woman to allow herself to be carried away by +rash impetuosity. + +And on the few occasions in the year that Barbara visited the boy--it +was not so easy for her to come now that the Veyergangs lived in their +country house all the year round--she could see for herself how +well-cared-for and clean he was, and how strictly he was kept. From the +time she got there to the time she left, she heard nothing except how +difficult it was to straighten out all the tinsmith's dents, all that +had been wrongly and improperly dealt with from the very first, +especially his obstinate temper! Now he really could walk quite a good +way, but he would do nothing but crawl, and so quickly, that no sooner +had she, Mrs. Holman, taken her eyes off him than he might be anywhere, +either at the saucepans and pots, or in the water-bucket, or else at the +plummets on the bell. And he upset things, and got himself in a mess, +wherever he went; yesterday the cat's food lay all over the floor! So +now she had hung the birch-rod low down on the wall, so that it might be +before his eyes; for it was necessary to frighten him, and vigilance and +punishment must positively be used. And Barbara must know herself, that +it wasn't so easy to manage other people's children, and especially such +a stray creature, come into the world in such a manner! + +It was all just, as Barbara was obliged to acknowledge to herself, from +beginning to end, however much it might sting her, and therefore she was +always in a hurry to get away again. + +It cannot be denied that she learnt something from it too, namely, what +she, on her side, might have reason and right to say to Mrs. Veyergang +about all the toil she had had with her two, if they ever had a +difference. + +But the same spirit of disobedience remained in the boy as he grew +older. It was impossible to cure him of it, for all that Mrs. Holman +could do, and Holman had to help too sometimes. This did not happen, +however, until his wife had duly impressed on him the moral necessity of +taking upon himself his share of the duties of the house. + +Holman was a silent man with a pair of quiet, shining eyes. He went and +came, morning and evening, rubbed and dried his shoes, and stood +hesitating at the door with some tool or other, or the tail of a block +in his hand, before he went in. What he might think of his married life +there was little opportunity of seeing in his face. One thing was +certain--a wife like Mrs. Holman was a treasure, which could not be +sufficiently prized; and if there was not quite so much left of Holman, +if, in fact, he had become--with all reverence be it said--something of +a fool, yet every one was sensible that in that union it must be so, if +the balance was to be kept. Any one who had only seen or spoken to Mrs. +Holman once, understood it immediately, but what was not so easy to +understand was that, after all, it was Holman who made the blocks down +in the workshop, by which the household lived. + +It was still more remarkable that he had sometimes been met in the +gateway in an irresponsible condition, such as no one would have +expected in a man so happily married as he was. + +After the miracle of Mrs. Holman's having a little girl herself had +happened--after that great and important change in the household, it was +deliberated whether it would not be better to rid the room of other +people's progeny. But then it was good regular money to have, and in +time the boy could be made use of at the cradle. + +It was the lightest work in the world--just made for a little boy, +sitting and rocking the cradle with his foot--nothing but a little +practice for him. + +But here, too, she was to have sad experience. She left him by the +cradle went she went out, but when she came home, he would be standing +gazing out of the window or from the top of the cellar stairs at the +children playing in the square. She had even caught him right outside +with the door open behind him--it was all the same to him, as long as he +could get out of the cellar and away from his duty. + +Well, the young rogue would have to pay for it, as much as his mortal +back could bear! + +And she assured the servant upstairs, who put in her head to hear what +the little imp had done now, as he was screaming so--that all the +punishment she gave him, and all her attempts, both by letting him have +no supper and by locking him in, were equally useless: he was just as +defiant and unreliable as ever! + +She had frightened him now by saying that the devil sat in the corner +behind the bed and watched to see if he left the cradle! + +He was almost beside himself with terror, and fancied all the time that +he could see the aforesaid sinister personage putting up his head over +Mrs. Holman's pillow. He could not help looking now and again towards +the window--there was some one playing outside in the square. And, +somehow or other, he came to be standing there, and stood until he once +more remembered what was behind him. Then he darted back like an arrow, +and sat staring in mortal fear into the corner. + +From being made useful beside the cradle, Nikolai was advanced in course +of time to mind the Holman's daughter Ursula, outside the cellar steps. +To move farther, only as far as the trees over on the other side of the +street, was a capital offence. The idea of what overstepping the bounds +meant, was impressed upon him with full force. How could Mrs. Holman be +sure otherwise that he did not take Silla right up to the basin round +the fountain, where all the naughty boys played with their ships, and +shouted and made a noise? His poor little body had received so many +black and blue marks every time he had fallen into temptation that at +last the limits stood instinctively before his frightened perception +like an invisible iron grating. A foot's breadth beyond was, in his +imagination, the blackest crime, an enormity which would draw down the +fiercest retribution upon him. + +That Silla was an uncommon and remarkable being of a higher order, so to +speak, than himself, had been driven into him in so many ways ever since +she came into the world, that he looked upon the assertion as raised +above all doubt. + +Notwithstanding everything that he had endured for her sake, or perhaps, +by a strange contradiction, just because of these sufferings, the +feeling that she was under his care was most highly developed. His +admiration of her was unqualified; he thought her more than remarkable +in her blue bow and an old red stuff rose in her hat, and he submitted +to a wilfulness which was quite as despotic as even Mrs. Holman's. When +he had sat long enough and let her fill his hair with dust, she would +order him to pull off her shoes and stockings. If he did it, he got a +beating; if he did not do it, she screamed, and then he got a beating +too. + +Insecurity was, so to speak, the soil on which he lived, and the +hurried, shrinking glances he continually cast, as if from habit, +towards the cellar door--even when his often guilt-laden conscience felt +itself most guiltless--were only the fruit of daily experience. + +"You could see the bad conscience in his face, a long way off," said +Mrs. Holman; and it was true--the quick, watchful look up with the grey +eyes was to see what sins he was guilty of now. + +"Good neighbours and other good things," the catechism says. But in our +times we have no neighbours; you do not know who lives on the floor +above you or on the floor below, or even on the other side of the +passage. And so it was that no one in the house had any ear to speak of +for Nikolai's various untoward fortunes below in the cellar, although +their character often asserted itself with no uncertain sound during +their execution. + +The neighbours had become accustomed to the continual screaming and +howling of that naughty boy, just as one accustoms one's self to piano +practising or the din of a factory; perhaps too, they comforted +themselves with the thought that it was most fortunate that such a +morally depraved child had come under discipline and correction. + +When Nikolai and Silla wandered as usual up and down the pavement +outside the cellar, the people of the house might often in passing give +the little girl a friendly nod. To give Nikolai any encouragement in +that way would have been a mistake. + +Maren, the cook, who had come to the floor above last hiring-day[1], had +naturally no conception of Mrs. Holman's strict, conscientious +character, and was therefore to be excused in what now took place. + +[Footnote 1: The days for changing servants in Norway are in the spring +and autumn. In Christiania they are the second Friday after Easter, and +the second Friday after Michaelmas.] + +She went down into the cellar with the lantern one evening to fetch coal +and wood, panting and puffing down the stairs as she used to do; she had +a bend in both hips from rheumatism, and rocked from one side to the +other like a boat's mast in rough weather. + +From the wood-cellar she all at once heard a sound as of wailing in the +darkness within. It was as though some one were crying, and now and +again sobbing convulsively for some time without being able to produce a +distinct sound. + +The voice sounded so utterly broken-hearted that Maren stopped putting +the wood into her apron and stood by the chopping-block listening. It +seemed to come from one of the coal cellars up the dark passage. At last +she seized the lantern and groped her way in; she must come to the +bottom of this. + +"Is any one here?" she cried at the door whence the sobbing came. + +There was a sudden complete silence. + +She knocked hard with a bit of wood, but then from within there came a +terrified scream, which made Maren drop the wood from her apron and pull +open the hasp of the door which was fastened with a piece of wood. + +"But who has put the poor little boy in here--in the pitch black +darkness?" + +By the light of the lantern she saw Nikolai staring at her in wild +terror. + +"I thought it was the devil, I did. Yes, for he does knock on the wall." + +"Oh, you'd frighten any one out of their senses, boy, with those ugly +words!" + +"Mrs. Holman says so;" and with a quick, inquiring glance up at Maren he +added, "but do you think she only says it so that I shan't touch her +sugar?" + +"Is that what you are here for?" + +"I haven't taken anything from her, but I will, if she says it whether I +do or not! It was only that Monday when I put my tongue down into the +bag and licked when I'd gone for half a pound. But now I'll crunch it so +that she'll only have the empty bag left! I'll take! I'll steal!" he +added and ground his teeth. "Don't--don't go!" he sobbed, catching hold +of her dress, "for when it's dark again, he'll come and take me!" + +What was Maren to do? She stood hesitating and considering; she dare not +let the boy out. + +She might try and beg him off from Mrs. Holman. + +"Only get me another beating for that, too!" was the answer. + +There was nothing else for it; she could not let the poor little +frightened thing stay there in the coal-hole. So, with eyes closed to +the consequences of her own determination, she exclaimed: "Then you must +come up into the kitchen with me, and sleep on the bench there +to-night." + +This time, Nikolai did not weigh the probabilities of what Mrs. Holman +would say or do; he only took hold of her skirt with both hands. And +with the boy close in her wake, Maren sailed up the kitchen stairs +again. + +While she was looking out some of her old shawls and skirts to put under +him, taking some of the clothes from her own bed, and making it as +comfortable and warm as she could for him on the bench, Nikolai seemed +to have forgotten all his troubles. + +There was so much that was new up here. There were such a number of +shining tin things hanging all over the wall, and then the cat was an +old friend. He had seen it many a time down in the yard, and now he had +to squeeze himself together to get hold of it, it had crept so far under +the bed. + +There! He had knocked down the tin kettle with his back! + +He fled in terror to the door. But Maren picked it up quite quietly; +there was not a word of scolding, a thing he wondered more at than +either the tin things or the cat. + +Maren had at last fallen asleep after all the aching and pain of the +rheumatism in her weary joints, with which she always had to contend at +the beginning of the night. She was awakened by a wild shriek. + +"What is it--what is it, Nikolai? Nikolai!" + +She lighted the bit of candle. He was sitting up, fencing with his arms. + +"I thought they were going to take my head off," he explained, when he +at length collected himself. + +When she lay down again, Maren could not help thinking how glad she was +that she had no child to be responsible for. Every one has his trouble, +and now she had this rheumatism. + +But it was a shock to her, when, on the kitchen stairs next morning, in +the presence of the servants both from the other side of the passage and +from the first floor, Mrs. Holman called her to account for having +interfered in what was none of her business. She then received such full +information, once for all, both as to why Mrs. Holman had shut him in, +and what they had to go through daily with that boy, that Maren was +completely nonplussed. For this Mrs. Holman could stake her life upon, +that if there was any one in the house who could not stand disorder or +unseemly behaviour, it was she. She could not imagine a worse punishment +than to have it said of her that she allowed shame and depravity to +flourish in her sight. + +But when Maren sat down there in the evening by the lantern on the +chopping-block, and could hear the boy screaming right from the Holmans' +room, she was not capable of going upstairs until the worst was over. +She thought she had never heard anything so heart-rending, even though +it was in the cause of justice. + +Up with Maren was a kind of harbour of refuge for the boy. He would sit +there as quiet as a mouse in the corner by the wood-box, carving himself +boats, which he put under his blouse when he carried Holman's dinner +down to the workshop near the quay. + +To represent, however, that Nikolai's existence was passed, so to speak, +in the coal-cellar, or under blows on back and ear from Mrs. Holman's +warm hands, would be an exaggeration. He had also his palmy days, when +Mrs. Holman overflowed with words of praise--praise, if not exactly of +him, yet of everything that she had accomplished in her daily toil for +his moral improvement. + +Twice a year she had to call for the payment for him at the +Consul-General's office in the town. Nikolai, too, often had leave to go +out to the country house with the kitchen cart, which had come in to +make the morning purchases. + +And there he would sit, while the cart rumbled and jolted along the +road, smart and clean, head and body respectively combed and scoured +like a copper kettle that has been cleaned with sand and lye. He could +not sit still a minute; he talked and asked questions--always about the +horse, the wonderful brown horse--whether it was the best or the second +best, if it could go faster than the railway train, or who and what it +could beat. + +Then the cart turned--so much too soon--into the yard in front of the +kitchen door, and he was led through the passage by the man-servant to +the nursery. + +"I hope you have rubbed your shoes? You might have had the sense, Lars, +not to bring the boy in that way, with such shoes as those!" His mother +took him and set him on a chair. + +And then he was given bread-and-butter and cracknels and milk. But he +must wait now until she came in again, for she was busy to-day washing +Lizzie's and Ludvig's clothes. + +In rushed the aforesaid children, his equals in point of age; the one +was drawing a large saddled horse after him, the other was carrying two +large, dressed dolls. They had been sent out by their mother to play +with Nikolai. And they were soon in full gallop round the nursery. +Gee-up! gee-up!--Nikolai drew, and Ludvig rode--hi! gee-up! And at last +Nikolai wanted to ride too; he had been drawing for such a long time. +But Ludvig would not get down, so Nikolai dropped the bridle and pulled +him off the horse by one leg. + +"You ragged boy! How dare you?" + +"Ragged boy! Ragged boy yourself!" It ended with a fling up on to the +bed, behind which Ludvig entrenched himself howling, while his sister +took his part and joined in. + +"What is the matter, what is the matter, dears?" cried Barbara, hurrying +in. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Nikolai, behaving like that to the +Consul's children! You'd better try it on! There Ludvig--there, there, +Lizzie--he shan't hurt you! Just do what they want, do you hear, +Nikolai!" + +And then Barbara had to lament over Ludvig's starched collar, which had +got crumpled. + +"Come here, my precious boy. Come now, and then you shall play again +directly." + +She took him up on her knee. "It's my own precious boy, it is, who's so +good! There, hold his blouse, Nikolai, and you shall see such a fine +boy, and so good, so good!" + +"Show him my Sunday clothes, Barbara, and the patent leather shoes!" And +Nikolai was allowed to look into the drawers at all Ludvig's and +Lizzie's dresses and sashes and fine underclothes, and to peep into the +toy-cupboard to be bewildered by all the old drums and trumpets and +headless men and horses, and tin soldiers, and Noah's arks, with their +belongings, all of which, Barbara said, they had been given because they +were so good. + +There was a pile of things in the lower part of the cupboard, so that +Nikolai could understand that they must have been very, very good, and +that his mother, too--and at this he felt a bitter disappointment--must, +in return, be very, very fond of them. They must be very different +children to what he was, if they never deserved a whipping, but always +playthings. He became quite tired and downcast, as he stood there. If he +ever met Ludvig anywhere, he would pay him out about the horse. + +At last the hour of departure arrived, when he was to go with the +pony-carriage that fetched the Consul from town at three o'clock. The +two children both clung to his mother's skirt when she followed him out. + +"Good-bye, Nikolai!" and she patted him in such a way on the cheek and +head that he looked at her half doubtingly, "and give my respects to +Holman and Mrs. Holman. Do you hear? Whatever you do, don't forget Mrs. +Holman. And--I declare you're kicking the varnish now! You must sit +quite still, Nikolai, the whole way. Don't you know that you mustn't +come near those fine carriage-cushions with your boots? You should just +see how nicely Ludvig and Lizzie sit, when they go for a drive--don't +you, dears?" + +And off he set. + +It had indeed been a gala day, and he had been given a large, sugared +twist to take with him, and it tasted delicious; but somehow or other he +began to cry all at once on the way home. + +The next day he had full confirmation of how delightful it had been. + +While he was going up and down the pavement in his daily occupation of +taking care of Silla, he caught fragments of Mrs. Holman's remarks to +the housekeeper up stairs, as they stood under the archway; he never for +a moment lost sight of her tall figure. + +"You may well say so, Miss Damm. Take him into the room with their own +children; there aren't many grand folks that would have done such an +honour to one like him." ... "We must do so many things in this world, +Miss Damm--we must scour the boards over the gutter, so to speak, and +put up with them--and I don't mind saying that he showed that he was +well cared-for from top to toe." ... "Such an honour! It might have been +some respectable child they had asked there. He ought to remember it the +whole of his life!" ... "So grand as she is now, she doesn't much care +about coming out here and acknowledging the boy. It's nothing for those +that can pay to get rid of their shame!" + +Nikolai crushed with all his might an old decapitated cock's head, which +lay in the gutter, with the heel of his boot, until it was as flat as a +penny. + +When the terror of bogies and the devil in the coal-cellar had lost its +power, one of Mrs. Holman's most powerful means of keeping Nikolai in +order was a threat of sending him to the parish school--an institution +which stood before her imagination as a publicly authorised house of +correction for youth, and a daily training-ground in the fulfilment of +one's duty. + +He never obtained any very clear idea of what would happen when he went +to school; but that it was something quite indeterminably dreadful was +evident from the constantly renewed disguised hints, and the repressed, +mystical groans and nods by which they were accompanied. + +One day the threat was really carried out: he was to go next Monday +morning. + +Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he counted on his fingers--he had +all those days left. And how he took care of and played with Silla +during them, and darted on errands like an arrow! + +At last there was only the Sunday afternoon left. + +He sat at tea-time with Silla and tried to take comfort from her +opinions about school, heard that he was to have his Sunday clothes on +to-morrow too, because it was the first time, and fell asleep that night +with drops of perspiration on his forehead. + +In the morning Nikolai was not to be found. + +Mrs. Holman inquired, and sought, and called, promising liberally both +torments and pardon if he would only come at once; but it was all of no +use, he had vanished. + +After dinner Maren upstairs was startled by seeing him emerge from under +her bed. She gave him some food and asked him to promise to go home; and +Nikolai said he would, only not before it was dark. + +In the twilight he made an excursion down to the quay, where he amused +himself for an hour by sitting and rocking in a ship's boat; then in the +wet October darkness he slunk through the narrow, dripping passages +between the warehouses, until he was sure that there was no longer any +light on the square, and spent the rest of the evening lying peeping +over the paling at the light in the two cellar windows at home. He +noticed how Holman came slinking cautiously up and stood a little while +at the door before going in, and how they put Silla to bed. The light +from the windows told him, like two dimly-glaring, merciless eyes, that +if he came home now, the well-merited sentence of justice would most +certainly be carried out. + +Then the light was put out. + +Through the drizzling rain late that night the gleam of a lantern +glanced among the stacks of wet planks, and behind it was a pair of eyes +which were accustomed to look in the dark for all kinds of persons who +might think fit to hide themselves in the yard. The lantern wandered +about among the narrow rows, sometimes standing still, while it threw +its searching, reddish light as far as possible in between the planks. + +No one was discovered that night. Among the many square spaces which +could give shelter, Nikolai, with a certain inborn instinct, had chosen +the foremost and most unsuspicious looking one, which stood half built +with a sloping plank-roof over it. There he lay wedged into the farthest +corner, close wrapped in the happy Nirvana of self-forgetfulness--school +zero, and Mrs. Holman a cipher--his body bent down over his knees, his +coat pulled up about his neck to keep out the drips, and his boots down +in the wet mud. + +But that night under the wet sky, with Trondsen's planks for his +bed-posts, brought something new into his mind, a feeling--showing +certainly the greatest insensibility to all Mrs. Holman's solicitous +care--that the timber-yard was really his home, a certain independent, +free savage's consciousness in relation to everything that they might +afterwards think fit to screw him into, the school no less than Mrs. +Holman's cellar steps; the planks in the timber-yard shone so white in +bright weather, and when it grew dark, they stood there like his +oft-tried, secret friends, who could screen him from the terrors at +home. + +He was taken to school, however, and one of his first timid, inquiring +glances was to discover the thrashing-block with which Mrs. Holman had +threatened him. He had pictured it to himself giving blow after blow +with a rod, and beating incessantly, like the chicory factory at the +bottom of the square. + +Strangely enough there was no such block. But there were other things +into which he was to be squeezed and forced like a last into a boot; and +he was a hard last, which often would not go farther than the leg, and +had to be hammered and knocked the rest of the way, where others more +pliable glided smoothly down like eels. + +There were things he understood, and things he did not understand. The +former did not often happen to be explained to him, the latter he did +not understand however many explanations were given; the result was a +painful consciousness, a continual difference or falling short both in +relation to his lessons and his teachers, which had to be adjusted by +the cane and detention, while the majority of his schoolmates, in this +particular also, more supple, worked themselves out like true virtuosi. + +But what was even a whole day at school, with its full measure of +misfortunes, in comparison to the endlessly long, dull hours of the +evening, when Mrs. Holman, with her own eyes, "watched over him, to see +that he learnt his lessons," and he hardly dared so much as to glance +across at Silla. + +As to Holman, experience had taught them that his fixed and staring eyes +saw nothing: he sat mute and quiet the whole evening. In Mrs. Selvig's +tap-room he found a remedy which made him insensible to moral lectures +even the most reasonable and impressive. There he stood every evening a +quarter of an hour after working-hours, as regular as clockwork, and +when the hands of the clock drew near to eight, he just as regularly set +off homewards, a punctuality which, be it said in passing, had gained +for him in the tap-room the title of _General with order_. + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + +That was a dangerous corner, where the wide street leading to the +grammar school crossed the narrow one that led to the board school; and, +on the days when the afternoon hours for the latter began just when the +grammar school's long morning was over, it might happen that the free, +exuberant spirits of those who were leaving school came into collision +with the heavier and more bitter mood of those who were on their way to +it. + +Ludvig Veyergang, with his sealskin satchel on his back, had already +travelled this road for several years. He had been nicknamed the +Ostrich, because of his little head with the bird-like nose, his long +bare neck, and the way he walked. When he met Nikolai, he pretended not +to know him, and Nikolai whistled and clattered with his shoes on the +pavement. + +The board school's new slide ran along the gutter a good way out into +the grammar school street. It was the product of the joint work of many +for a whole week, and fate willed that Nikolai, at the head of a string +of comrades, should come full speed down it, hallooing and shouting, +just as Ludvig Veyergang and a few others came round the corner. Young +Veyergang received a push that made him drop his pencil-case; and pens, +lead and slate pencils lay strewn over the ground. + +"Pick them up, you beggar!" he cried to Nikolai, for it was he who had +knocked up against him. "I shall tell about you at home, you may be +pretty sure. Pick them up, or--" + +A kick sent a few loose lumps of snow in answer. + +"You shall be made to bend soon enough, if that's what you want. Father +shall be told, this very day, that you are the leader of the street cads +in the town; and if no one else will tell your mother about it, I'll +tell her myself, however much she cries!" + +"Do you want to have your ostrich-beak pulled?" + +"You'd better try it on! Perhaps you don't know that we pay for you at +the blockmaker's. But I'll take care that you get thrashed until you beg +my pardon: a fellow who doesn't even know who his father is, and his +mother only wishes he had never been born!" + +The last words were hardly out of his mouth when Nikolai sprang upon him +with both fists like a pair of sledge-hammers, and for a few blissful +seconds hammered out every trace of difference in birth and position. +Now he should feel "both his father and his mother!" + +It was one of the board school's memorable and famous days, when the +wine was tapped from Ludvig Veyergang's nose in the snow; and even the +next day at dinner-time, two or three school classes of interested +spectators were searching for traces of red spots in the snow by the +lamp-post. + +But, though he enjoyed great honour and admiration during the whole +afternoon at school, Nikolai knew that at home he would meet with an +utterly different interpretation of the event, news of which the Holmans +must already have received, surely and promptly, from the Veyergangs. + +As he neared home, he went slower and slower. The thought of what might +await him, made his feet grow heavier and heavier, and when he had +separated from his last companion, he suddenly stopped and turned down +by the chandler's, where the street led away from, and not towards his +home. + + * * * * * + +It was now the third night Nikolai had been away, explained Mrs. Holman +to the policeman outside; and it was not much wonder if he expected the +reward he deserved, and felt his back smart. Lay hands on better +people's children! And the son of Consul Veyergang, his own benefactor, +too! + +But where could he be? He could not possibly be in the timber-yard now, +at this time of year. + +His stronghold was not easy to hit upon either, for it was something +very like looking in her own pocket. In common with other evil-doers, +Nikolai was driven by an irresistible desire--like moths that flutter +round a candle--to hide himself as near as possible to the place of his +fear and dread, where Mrs. Holman was, and where he could catch a +glimpse of Silla. + +Holman lay at night and felt, through his intoxication, that things were +going wrong with Nikolai. He heard it dripping and dripping in the thaw +outside--splash, splash! The sound came in a monotonous chant: +Ni-ko-lai, Ni-ko-lai. + +He would ruin his health out there! + +With sudden energy he sat up in bed. Where else would Nikolai be than +under the old carriage hood that stood in the loft over the coach-house, +mouldy and dropping to pieces with its opening towards the wall? + +It was in the light of this idea that he rushed out. + +Nikolai never felt the blockmaker's hand; he still slept on happily, as +it lifted him up by the coat collar. + +It was only when he stood erect on both feet that he grasped the +situation, and threw himself down again, kicking and screaming. He would +not go home, they might kill him first, or take off his head! + +The heels of his boots made it evident both to sight and feeling that he +meant it: he was utterly beside himself. + +Only let Holman get him inside the door, and the strap should dance! +Holman had worked himself up into a state of excitement. + +Mrs. Holman was waiting in the doorway with a candle. By its light she +saw an ashy pale face, with eyes staring at her, and at the same time +heard the words: "You won't get me in! If I was born in the street, I +can live in the street!" She caught a glance from the sharp, defiant +grey eyes--then out of the blockmaker's hands, out of the gate, and he +was gone! + +The blows on Ludvig's nose had gone to Barbara's heart. But when she +heard that Nikolai had run away from the Holmans' and that there was +some talk of getting him into an institute for morally depraved +children, there was crying and weeping. She had had shame enough with +the boy, and this she could not survive! Her mistress must prevent it. +She was conscious of having done her duty and more than her duty all +these years that she had been Ludvig and Lizzie's nurse, but she could +not put up with this! Her mistress must prevent it, or she did not know +what she might do, or what might happen: she felt quite capable of +leaving them. + +Barbara sat sighing and weeping in the nursery, until the children were +almost afraid to go in. + +Such attacks generally lasted, at the most, one day; but this one had +now been going on for three, and was disturbing the comfort of the +house. Then Mrs. Veyergang got one of her headaches, and was going to +have an afternoon nap, her accustomed cure, during which everything must +be kept perfectly quiet around her. + +It was Barbara who generally guarded her slumbers by going hushing and +quieting right out into the kitchen, and keeping watch at the door into +the passage. But now she only sat in her room sobbing. + +It did surprise her a little that her mistress lay so quiet all the time +without calling her. On the other hand, she rather enjoyed the sentence +she was carrying out. Her mistress should know what opposing her meant, +even if it were to last the whole week. + +It grew dark, and still her mistress lay there. She lay until the Consul +came driving home towards evening; and she did not even ring for lights +when she got up. + +It was with a shawl about her head and a face red with weeping, that +Mrs. Veyergang received her husband that evening; she was in a violently +excited state of mind, and her voice quite trembled. + +She wanted nothing less than that he should give Barbara warning. + +A tyranny existed in the house that was quite unparalleled--had existed +for several years--and if she had put up with it without +complaining--her husband knew that she had never complained--it was for +the children's sake. But it was really unnecessary now, and "it may be +just as well to seize the opportunity; she has become far, far too +overbearing in the house!" + +It was a matter of course that the warning was given in the most +appreciative and considerate, although firmly decisive manner. The whole +circle of Mrs. Veyergang's acquaintance agreed that they had all +expected that the Veyergangs would really one day part with that +pampered creature! + +The only person who was thoroughly astonished and quite stunned, as if +by a thunder-clap, was Barbara herself; and for a long time she could +not understand that she, the Veyergangs' Barbara, had actually received +warning to leave Ludvig and Lizzie and the house where she had been so +indispensable. + +She went about with a solemn, injured air, and expected that a change of +decision would some day take place. Then she became humble to her +mistress, and wept before the children. + +But there was always only the same kindness, which ever clenched the +dismissal more firmly. + +And now her mistress began to talk about a substantial acknowledgement +of her services with which the Consul would present her on her +departure. + +In indignation Barbara tied the strings of her best bonnet beneath her +chin, and with offended dignity requested permission to go into town. + +Her mistress was to know the meaning of this when she returned later in +the day. It was nothing less than that it was her fixed, resolute +purpose to offer herself to others who would appreciate her better than +the Veyergangs did. + +She directed her wrathful steps straight to Scheele, the magistrate's +house: they had four children, and were looking for a nurse. They were +the Consul's most intimate friends, where she would only need to present +herself, and they would jump at the opportunity. How often the +magistrate's wife had praised her management, and talked condescendingly +to her, when they had dined at the Veyergangs on Sundays! She had more +than once thought Mrs. Veyergang fortunate in having such a treasure in +the house, and sighed over her own inability to find just such another. + +But--how unfortunate it was--Mrs. Scheele was extremely sorry--they had +just engaged another nurse! + +"Fancy!" exclaimed Mrs. Scheele, when her husband came down from his +office, "there is a revolution at the Veyergangs', and that high and +mighty Nurse Barbara has got her dismissal. She has been here and +offered herself to us. I wouldn't have that pampered creature at any +price!" + +Barbara walked a long way that day and to the best houses. On a large +sheet of paper, folded in three, she had the Consul-General's long and +excellent testimonial to exhibit; moreover she was fully conscious of +the extent to which she was known. But though she stood so large and +erect and smart at the door, and comported herself so well, there was no +one who could make any use of her! + +And late in the evening, later than was needful, as she did not wish to +show herself, she came home again, disappointed and weary. + +It really seemed as if all the celebrity she had acquired during all +these years, all her fidelity, all her prestige as nurse at the +Veyergangs, was to vanish at one stroke into thin air! + +Deeply hurt as she was after her unlucky expedition, it was remarkable +that no one in the house asked her how she had got on--though there were +plenty of mischievous glances from her fellow-servants, whose standing +with their mistress had depended for so many years upon her. And +whenever she tried to broach the subject with Mrs. Veyergang, the latter +always turned the conversation--indeed, once she even dismissed the +subject, saying that Barbara must know that she never meddled with such +things. + +But the kindness increased as the day of her departure approached. +Barbara began to perceive how this screw of kindness, that turned so +gently, was screwing her farther and farther out of the house. The +Consul had Nikolai placed on trial as apprentice in a smithy down by the +crane, and from Mrs. Veyergang she received one thing after another, as +remembrances. But when, one day, the Consul--very thoughtfully--made her +a present of one of his old travelling trunks, she let her large, heavy +person sink down upon its lid, completely overwhelmed. She could not +bring herself to think, had never believed, that the day would come when +she must part from her mistress and Ludvig and Lizzie--it would kill +her! + +This was a direct appeal to the Consul himself, but the answer was not +exactly as Barbara wished. He patted her on the shoulder, saying: + +"I'm glad, my dear Barbara, that you feel that you have been well off." + +When she went into the Consul's office for a settlement and to receive +her savings-bank book--the amount it contained was a hundred and +fourteen specie-dollars, a result, the Consul said, with which she ought +to be thoroughly satisfied, when she considered the great expense she +had been put to with Nikolai--she declared her intention of resting for +a time before she went out to service again, and had made arrangements +to lodge with a farmer out in the country: she had now been toiling for +others for fourteen years! + +The last evening, which she had dreaded so, went more easily than she +had expected. The Consul and his wife were invited to the Willocks' +country-house in the afternoon with the children, so the farewell could +only be a short one, before they got into the carriage. + +She was left standing with the feeling of Lizzie's soft fur, which she +had stroked, in her fingers. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A STOLEN INTERVIEW + + +Holman made his usual turn into Selvig's public-house every evening to +brace himself for his return home. When the ale-bottle had been emptied, +and a proper number of drams consumed, his at first hurried, restless +look was stiffened into a dull, staring, fixed mask. It was the crust +about his heart, far within the unconscious, degraded man, who enjoyed +his daily hour of oblivion to that life-struggle which he had taken upon +himself when he chose to unite his lot inseparably with that of his +duty-breathing wife, that life-struggle in which he continually declared +"pass," and turned aside. When he sat there silently staring over his +glass, it was felt that he was brooding over something, possibly only +the number of drams he had drunk, possibly his bill, possibly, too, a +remote world of thought, where, like a philosopher, he gazed silently +down into unfathomable depths. Or possibly he was musing in silent +resignation upon the problem of matrimony, and the strange law of +consequence which had set him down here in the public-house. + +But regularity in all things, said Holman, and when the clock struck +eight, with his tools in his hand and his head bent, he turned his +faltering steps homewards. + +On Saturday evenings, when work was over at the workshop, a tall, active +young girl, with large wrists, thin arms and a stooping figure, would +often come down to fetch him. She had a basket, and a piece of paper on +which was written what she was to buy with the week's wages. + +The two would then go up the street together, walking slower and slower +as they went. Time after time he would stop, and look thoughtfully about +him with one hand in his pocket, and an occasionally ejaculated "H'm, +h'm!"--until they arrived at Mrs. Selvig's steps and green door, when he +would suddenly declare that he had some "things" lying in there: he +would be out again directly. + +Silla knew by experience what "directly" meant, and meanwhile went her +own way over the yards. + +Through the lovely August evening, one troop of workmen after another +came over the bridge near the mouth of the river, several of them with +the same sort of escort as her father, of wife or child. It was so usual +and its meaning so self-evident, that no one ever gave it a thought. + +While the different gates and yards were emitting their streams of +workmen, Silla had approached one of the narrow passages with which the +loading places are furrowed. On each side was a wooden hoarding, and +there were stacks of timber within. The irregularly cut up, black muddy +roadway led into a forge and implement yard. + +Just at the corner lay a heap of rubbish, full of broken bottles and +pottery. She stood there with her basket, every now and then taking a +step backwards, up the heap, to make room for passers-by. In this way +she gained the top of the heap, and could see over the hoarding into the +yard. + +They were still busy receiving wages in there in a crowd round a little +shed which did duty as an office. + +With outstretched neck, and her two shining dark eyes turned almost like +a bird's, she stood and looked eagerly in. There was no mistake about +her object. + +"Well, lass! are you looking for your sweetheart?" said a voice below. + +But, as she at that moment caught sight of Nikolai, and he signalled to +her, she took no notice of the voice, and waved her basket vigorously. + +He came out down the passage, unwashed and sooty, straight from his +work. + +"He's gone now!" + +"Who?" + +"He had red hair, and had on blue braces and a sailmaker's cap. I think +it was the man from Grönlien they call Ottersnake; and he accused me of +standing here and looking for my sweetheart!" + +"I'll sweetheart him! If I only get hold of him, I'll hammer him into +nails! And then I'll pull his red hair to oakum, so that his father will +only need to put it into the pitch-kettle!" + +He looked about; but as the Ottersnake, who was doomed to so cruel and +terrible a fate, was nowhere to be seen, his wrath suddenly subsided, +and with an upward movement of the head, he proposed: + +"Baker Ring's, Silla?" + +He had his week's wages in his pocket, so they made a short cut through +two or three muddy back yards, which had planks laid down across the +worst places, up to the baker's shop. + +Oh, how they bought, and how they did eat! + +There were some specially delicious expensive cakes with jam inside. And +it was the two collars, that he had thought of buying for himself next +week, that they ate up! + +With a great feeling of his own importance Nikolai related how he had +now forged six large iron hooks with links to them; and she must not +imagine that they wanted nothing but hammering--no, they had to be +hammered out and beaten and bent at the right time! Down there they only +made stakes and picks and tires; but he meant to be either a locksmith +or a brazier. + +This did not interest Silla very much; she wanted to hear about the +picnic on Sunday, when he had gone to the woods with the journeymen. It +must have been awfully jolly! And didn't they dance too? + +"I should just think they did. Anders Berg is a capital fellow; he's +going to set up for himself in Svelvig soon, and get married." + +"And were the others engaged, too?" + +"Pshaw!" + +"Well?" + +"Pooh!" + +"What's the matter with you? Can't you tell me?" + +"Why, it's nothing--only nonsense! There's not one of them that'll make +a smith's wife--creatures that have larks now with one fellow and now +with another?" + +"And did you dance?" + +"Oh, the 'prentices have only to run after beer; but when I'm a +journeyman--but, Silla, the time--we must hurry!" he broke off suddenly. + +"Oh, it's not late yet. One more nice one with jam--do go in and buy it! +Oh, do, Nikolai!" she begged, and as he ran in to get what she wanted, +she called after him: + +"And some sweets to eat on the way home--some of those at four for a +halfpenny." + +"Can't you eat it as you go along, Silla?" he urged, when he came out +again; "you must make haste! Just think if she heard at home that you +had been with me." + +"Pooh, there's no hurry," and she leaned against the wall, and regaled +herself--"for you see," she mumbled, "father won't be out of Mrs. +Selvig's yet a-while, and I'll say first of all that _that_ has kept me: +I can reckon at least half an hour for that. And then to mother I have +the excuse that it's Saturday evening, and there were so many people in +the shop that I could hardly get to the counter. And when I won't have +any supper, you know, I'll only say I've got such a headache with +standing and waiting in the shop: it was so stifling in there. I think +mother's nose would be very fine, if she could guess that I had met you. +Well, what are you looking so solemn about?" + +"She at home"--he never named her mother in any other fashion--"forces +you into lies every single day; no one has a right to speak the truth +but her!" + +"Oh!" she tossed her head impatiently; she had heard this so often. + +"She eats up all the honesty in the room by herself, you know, for it's +quite impossible to act honestly by her, for very terror. She keeps +discipline, and much or little, it's all the same. Any one who wants to +speak the truth without using his fists to back it up will get thrashed +as I did! It doesn't matter for me; but when I think of you going home +and making up all those lies again, and that you are so frightened, and +haven't the strength to stand against them, Silla!" + +She tried to laugh and make light of it; but her face fell sadly. She +could not bear this unpleasant subject, for she was obliged to tell +lies, however angry he might be. + +And then she suddenly began to hurry. + +"No, no, we must go home, Nikolai. I daren't stand here any longer." + +Nikolai was starting off, but stopped suddenly at sight of Silla's +dismayed countenance. She had turned her pocket inside out, and stood +holding it while she gazed and searched on the ground round her. Then, +in feverish haste, she unfastened her bodice, and searched there. + +"The money! Oh, the money, Nikolai!" she cried anxiously, and went on +shaking her skirt and looking about her, almost beside herself. "The +silver was wrapped up in the two dollar notes, just as father gave them +to me, and I put them into my pocket at once." + +"What _shall_ I do, Nikolai?" She began to cry, but all at once, with a +sudden thought, she flew to the basket. But it was not there. + +They searched and searched. + +Of course it must be at the corner by the rubbish-heap, for she had +stood there and waved her basket. It would be lying among the broken +bottles. + +The pale, thin rim of the autumn moon had risen over the yards while +they were searching there step by step, Silla every now and then +uttering a despondent, monotonous "Suppose I don't find it!" and Nikolai +plunging his arm up to the elbow into puddles in which the roll of money +might have fallen. + +They had been by the bridge, they had searched the rubbish-heap, they +had looked up and down and everywhere; it was not to be found. + +It was beginning to be late, and Mrs. Holman was waiting at home. She +would be really waiting now. + +Silla began to cry. + +Nikolai had only asked her once or twice to be quiet, and he would find +the money. Now he suddenly said: + +"I should like to give you another good feed of cakes to-day, and then +throw myself into the sea with you, Silla. It would be no lie that we +lay there." + +Whether his proposition was meant seriously or not, it did not gain a +hearing with her. She sat hopeless and despairing on a log while the big +tears ran down her cheeks. + +The seventeen-year-old workshop apprentice stood thoughtfully, with his +flat cap pushed back over his rough hair, blackened by the week's work. +He was gazing intently into an old rotten hole in the log. The hole +became more and more rotten, more and more hollow, more and more empty +while his busy thoughts were trying to find an expedient. But none came. + +Fully aware of her fate, Silla rose, took her basket, and started +homewards with her eyes fixed on the ground. She was going to the +scaffold. Nikolai accompanied her as far as he dared, reiterating in +different ways: "Don't be afraid, Silla, they can't kill you!" + +Something like a low wail said that she heard him. + +When she disappeared round the corner, he made a short cut which only he +and one or two old yard cats knew of; and from the hoarding at the +bottom of the square he saw her go, with bent head and the same quiet +step, without stopping, down the cellar stairs. + +When it was dark, he stood outside the window and listened. He heard her +still sobbing quietly, after the storm that had passed over her. + +Mrs. Holman had examined and cross-examined, and at last extracted from +Silla the confession that she had been with Nikolai. That she, Mrs. +Holman's daughter, in spite of all prohibitions, sought the society of +that misled prodigal, who had rewarded her with such ingratitude, was +enough to bring her to her grave. And no one would persuade her either +that Holman's hardly-earned week's wages could vanish like steam from a +kettle. A half-starved apprentice-boy, walking beside a well-filled +pocket--any one could understand what the result of that would be. +Master Nikolai had only carefully and craftily watched his time, when he +knew that Silla had her father's money in her pocket, to get it shuffled +into his own. + +Matters were not improved by Silla in her obstinacy declaring that he +had not so much as seen the money--as if Nikolai would take a farthing +from _her_! + +This last remark sealed his fate--there should be no concealment of his +conduct on Mrs. Holman's part. + +There was a commotion in the forge-yard, when the nest day a +police-officer came and arrested Nikolai. He was to be taken to the +police-station for having defrauded a young girl on Saturday evening of +the whole of her father's week's wages. + +But when they were gone, Anders Berg swore, as he brought the +sledge-hammer down on the anvil, that that Nikolai had never done. The +others--Jan Peter, and Katrinus, and Bernt Johan Jakobsen and Petter +Evensen--they thought nothing; but to bring the police into a +respectable work-yard! He had better get work in some other place after +this! + +For the first moment Nikolai had only one sensation--the paralysing fear +by which a first acquaintance with the police is always accompanied. The +feeling that he had a good conscience did indeed leap up within him, but +only to die away again immediately. He had so often had that, and it had +always proved to be too thin a sheet of ice to stand upon in the hour of +trial. That kind of self-esteem was a plant which had too often been +trodden under Mrs. Holman's heel to be able to bloom now as a fragrant, +full-blown flower within him. + +The outcome of his reflections was a sudden twist and a violent jerk, by +which he hoped to escape from his inconvenient companion, the sole +result, however, being that he immediately had a constable at each arm. + +When brought up for examination before the police superintendent, a +dark, unwilling defiance glowed in his face, and the sharp glance--too +sharp for a lad of his age--did not prepossess any one in his favour. + +Silla? He had not been with any Silla on Saturday. + +It would never occur to him to betray her, and it was only when he was +confronted with her and her mother, and heard that she had confessed, +that he admitted it. + +Silla continued to maintain, in a voice choked with tears, that he had +not taken the money, but this proved nothing either for or against him. +On the other hand what had more weight were the facts that had been +elucidated on ransacking and examining the room in which he lodged--he +lived in a garret at glazier Olsen's with three other apprentices--for +they all agreed in saying that on the Saturday in question he had come +home late, after they were asleep, and had gone out again very early on +the Sunday morning. + +The assertion of the accused that this was to renew the search for the +lost money down by the yard did not seem very credible. But it was +impossible to get any nearer to him. + +A hardened young rascal. This was his foster-mother's testimony too. + +Nikolai stood with his cap in his hand, looking down at the floor. He +had a habit of drawing the skin of his forehead up and down when he was +meditating. In the broad, young face with the large features, the grey +eyes into which there sometimes came a peculiar look, and the cock's +comb, of a tinge between zinc and copper, the police inspector's +penetrating and--after many year's practice--not easily deceived eye saw +the marks of one who would probably in the future often give occupation +to the police. + +"In order to exclude the possibility of conferences with the other +apprentices in his room," he dictated for the record, "considering that +the accused has manifested _mala fides_ by an attempt to escape, as well +as by his untruthful conduct and denials under examination, he will, for +the present, be placed under arrest." + +As the words of the order were read out, there were a few involuntary +contractions of the muscles in Nikolai's face, which was damp with +perspiration; there quivered in it the poor man's curse, at never having +a way of escape; a false step, and he is caught, a lost dollar, and he +comes before the court. + +After another examination Nikolai was acquitted for want of evidence. + +The morning when the prison door closed behind him, he slunk down the +street with a feeling that all the windows on both sides were looking at +him; it was anything but the gait of one who can let his honesty's sun +shine once more. + +Down at his lodging at Mrs. Olsen's he found his few things put ready in +the cupboard under the stairs to be fetched away, and a message was left +that his place in the garret was occupied by some one else. + +He did not ask why. Mrs. Olsen's silence hurt him more than if she had +cried aloud about people who drew on her "an examination and search of +the house, and other disturbances." + +And then he had to go down and show himself at the forge again--to +Hægberg the master, and Anders Berg, and the journeymen, and all the +apprentices. + +It was with uncertain steps and stopping time after time. What did +Anders Berg think, he wondered. + +In a fit of despondency he half turned. But he must do it. So he held up +his head and began to whistle. But as he neared the coal-begrimed wooden +palings of the work-yard the whistling ceased, and he was in a cold +perspiration when he entered the gate. + +Without saying a word he went to the coal-bin and began to lift some +bars of pig-iron which had to be moved aside. While he did so, no one +either greeted or spoke to him. + +Anders Berg had an iron in the furnace, and it was not until he and +another man had finished hammering it out, that he came up to Nikolai +and said: + +"I was sure you would come back again. Here's some work for you; you can +file these three keys." + +Whereupon Nikolai was placed at one of the vices, and was soon busily at +work with both coarse and fine files. + +Anders Berg's words had done him such good, had placed him at once as it +were on his feet before the whole workshop, and in his heart he made a +vow of friendship and devotion to Anders Berg for ever. + +There were showers of sparks and a ringing from the sledge-hammers in +the large smithy, and sharp blows of hammers, while the files shrieked +and whistled and set one's teeth on edge. The work went on and Nikolai +thought he had never known until to-day how splendid it was to be a +smith. He might as well do the key-bit with the fine file at once, while +the key was on that side of the vice; and he filed the notch as neatly +and smoothly as if it had been intended for a chest of drawers, and not +a great pipeless key for a wooden gate. + +Now came the handle. He worked away with the coarse file, until he could +scarcely hear the sledge-hammer for its shrieking. + +At the anvil stood a man making clincher nails, while one of the +apprentices pulled the bellows and occasionally gathered the nails +together. They were talking and laughing, and now and again some loud +exclamation penetrated to Nikolai. It was only when the boy made a +grimace at him, that it occurred to Nikolai that he was the subject of +the conversation, and instantly the large file became quite light in his +hand, and he had suddenly eyes and ears only for what was going on +around him. + +They were standing talking and nodding over there by the vices; Jan +Peter ran and repeated what this one said and what the other one said. +It was easy to see what the meaning of it all was, and that he now stood +there like any show animal; no, like something much worse--like one who +was capable of going to the pockets of any one of them! + +There was not one of the apprentices who would share his night's lodging +with him now. He could see that. + +He stood straining his ears, with a feeling that they were killing him +in all the work-yards round--they were filing him down at the vices, +hammering him flat with the small hammers, and crushing him with the +sledge-hammers. He guessed and understood glances and looks. + +"Well, you know, Matthias," he heard from away there by the nails which +the man was now gathering into his apron, "there are many easier trades +than standing in a smithy: make a good pick out of your fists, lad!" + +"He-he-he!" laughed the boy addressed. + +"Or make yourself pincers that you can get down into skirt-pockets +with--all the lassies in the town, lad, that have any pence." + +Nikolai heard every word and the hoarse laughter that followed; he was +very pale. + +Coarse merriment shone in the man's sooty face, and, as their eyes met, +he made a contemptuous grimace. + +Soon after he came past with his apron full of nails. Their eyes met +again; the scornful ones grew more scornful; Nikolai seemed to see them +in a haze, and then the journeyman received a blow full in the face +which laid him on his back, scattering the nails as he fell. + +There was a short pause of surprise before they all rushed upon him. + +But Nikolai swung the big file about him like a madman. He felt with +frenzied pleasure, how he would strike--strike down the whole smithy one +by one until justice was done him. Wait a little, he had only begun +yet--a hammer was lying on the block. + +But the men in the smithy did not wait, and the next moment it was he +who lay on his back, his eyes blinded by blue and yellow sparks, and as +many of his adversaries around and upon him as there was room for; he +should be held fast and sent about his business now--he had used a +weapon! + +He felt a powerful grasp on his coat collar, a grasp that included the +skin, felt himself dragged up and, without a pause, half carried, half +flung, out of the smithy door. + +It was Anders Berg, who had exerted his power to rescue him, and +who--still only slightly relaxing his hold--led him out of the gate. + +It was his farewell to the smithy. + +"I'll just tell you something," exclaimed Anders Berg later, when the +commotion had subsided; he was still red in the face and spoke loudly, +while he hammered cold. + +"There's come a wrong bend in Nikolai; but it isn't his fault!" + +The hammer rang on the iron. + +Nikolai did not take a lodging anywhere that evening; he was too bruised +and dirty for that, his clothes too torn and ragged, and, more than +anything else, he felt too sore to meet people now that he had left the +smithy in such a way. + +When night fell, he had once more taken up his familiar quarters in one +of the stacks of planks down at the timber-yard. There, in one of the +deep square spaces he lay and looked up at the stars and thought how +entertaining the world had become! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED + + +Nikolai was out of work, that was very certain. + +It never entered his head to present himself at any other smithy: they +all knew each other too well for that. And even at barge-builder +Hansen's, where he got a lodging up in the tool-loft, and his food on +the days when he got a chance of doing something useful, they wanted to +know now why he had left his trade. As if that were any business of +theirs! + +So Nikolai suddenly disappeared. + +On the quay, the harbour and the steamers, a fellow with his hands could +surely get on just as well as any other. + +It was with fresh and dauntless courage, though with a stomach not +overladen with food during the last few days, that he went down there. + +He was received with a certain appreciative admiration. He found that it +was a well-known fact that he had had an encounter with the police, and +had been sufficiently dexterous to get off without their being able to +fix anything upon him; the news of such an exploit travels like +wild-fire in that world, and spreads a halo around its subject. + +And as long as he was supposed to be only an idler, or an apprentice who +was airing himself and taking a day or two's holiday from the smithy, +the shareholders in the different businesses down there were both +agreeable and talkative. But when--and that not once only--he suddenly +turned to, and darted over the landing-stage from the steamer with a +large trunk on his back and a traveller at his heels, past the cabs up +to the hotel, they quite changed their tone. Had he a badge? Or did he +think perhaps, that it would do to take other people's business? They +knew very well what sort of a fellow he was! + +He was well aware that he could not get a badge, so he must get along as +he best could by working and toiling and fighting for an empty stomach, +and make his way by threats and with his fists, and--when it was a case +of being entrusted with a burden, or getting first hold of a trunk--by +being deaf, stone-deaf, to everything they might think of calling out +about him. + +There were ten men to every job requiring one, and, as it were, a wall +or circle drawn round every road to earning something. Some small jobs +he might now and then chance to be alone in--when the lock of a door had +slipped, or the door came off its hinges, or some kind of smithcraft was +required at a moment's notice. But he gained no more than a bare +subsistence, often only a dram or two by way of thanks. + +And now that it had been such a long winter, he was both hungry and +cold. The nights especially were so long. He often took spirits for his +supper to get them to pass. And then he had to think over what he would +try his hand at the next day--cutting the ice, work on the quay, +clearing away snow or carrying planks in the yard. + +Thinly-clad and with no overcoat, and rather red with the cold, he +clattered down in a coat that was in holes at the elbows, and his old +scarf that had taken its hue from the smithy, pulled high up about his +ears. It was not difficult to see in him the smith's apprentice. +Whenever he met any of Hægberg's men, he burst into a scornful laugh. +Did they think, perhaps, that he was slovenly clad? It was just as he +was now, that he wanted to be. He wanted to be free and have neither +master nor journeyman nor any one over him, and to care for nobody. + +If the forge-yard was one point that he preferred to keep away from, +there were also other places in the town that he made a round to +avoid--namely, that part of the quay where the blockmaker's workshop +lay, and the Holmans' house up in the square. + +Whatever the reason might be, he had no wish to meet Silla. + +The last time he had spoken to her--the day after he had left the +smithy--he noticed that she was looking about in a frightened way the +whole time, and wanted him to stand first in one place and then in +another. It could not be fear of any one at home, and then it suddenly +dawned upon him that she was ashamed that people should see her standing +and talking to him, so with a "Good-bye, Silla!" he darted from her. + +Afterwards he thoroughly enjoyed seeing her look so unhappy and so eager +to show him that she did not care what people thought. What did she care +about him, when he had nothing to treat her with? It was not fit for her +to stand talking to a fellow like him. + +There is a splendid friend and ally for every one who has thin, ragged +clothes, and that is the sun. He distributes overcoats in the shape of +warm, sunny walls, brings life and movement with him, and then there +need no longer be any uncertainty about a midday-meal. + +Nikolai had had work on the quay the whole morning, and was now +standing, in the midday rest, baking himself against the sunny wall, and +yawning. + +He stopped in the middle of a yawn. That slight figure in the faded +cotton dress, that was running with her body bent forwards, and a +handkerchief over the little, dark head, to keep off the sun--it was no +other than Silla! + +She was darting along among the baskets and traffic on the fish-quay; +there was a searching haste in her like that of a frightened corn-crake, +that turns its head now to one side now to the other as it runs. She had +caught sight of him, and now she began calling: + +"Nikolai! Nikolai! + +"Nikolai!"--she almost choked in her hurry to speak--"Nikolai, just +think! Mother, when she was unpicking my old blue dress to-day, she +found the money in the lining, inside the lining, both the notes, and +the silver too. I ran down to tell you directly I had taken father's +dinner to the workshop. And now I'm going to the smithy, and they shall +hear what they have done to you. Could you believe it! Inside the +lining! I am so awfully, awfully glad"--and her eyes did look almost +wild--You can't think what a grave face mother put on!" + +"Just tell them at home that it's all the same to me!" said he bitterly +and unmelted. But she did not notice it; she wanted to go to the smithy, +and away she went. + +He had no objection. But now that Anders Berg had set up for himself in +Svelvig, there was no one there he cared about, to hear it. For he was a +free man now! + +He stood with his hands in his trouser pockets, gazing over the edge of +the quay at a sunken sugar-loaf, which a crowd of small boys, amid noise +and clamour, were labouring to get up. It lay already half melted on the +green bottom, on which the sun drew wavy lines. + +Silla might try all she could to get him into the smithy. Since they had +tacked the word thief on to him, he had got soaked through with salt +water, just like the sugar-loaf. And besides, to stand there and slave, +when he could be his own---- + +"Hi, you boys! I'll show you how to get the sugar-loaf up, but you will +have to eat it yourselves." + + * * * * * + +The public-house--the one at Mrs. Selvig's, with the green door and +white window frames, farthest down the street--had seen Holman's quiet, +subdued, stooping figure come and go for many years. His grasp on the +door-handle was just as precise, his walk up to the brown counter after +having laid down his tools, exactly the same, though his face had a +little more colour in it. He had a certain reputation there, which had +allowed of his "chalking up" for several years past, and there was a +regular proportion of his account, about which his inexorably correct +wife had not the faintest idea--"for Holman had his weekly +pocket-money." + +And as usual on Saturday evenings, Silla was walking about outside with +the basket, waiting for him. + +She was really quite nicely dressed in her cotton gown with a little +white handkerchief tied round her neck; but clothes did not seem to set +her off. The slight, overgrown figure seemed to show through everywhere. + +She made a quick turn, when she thought she caught a glimpse of Nikolai +at the bottom of the street. She had fancied the same thing last +Saturday evening. She had not really spoken to him since early in the +summer, when he got so angry because she wanted him to go into the +smithy again. + +She went quickly down the street--she was quite certain that it was he! + +She hurried on farther, down to the bridge; but it was the same as last +time--he was not to be seen. So she turned back again, disappointed, +keeping constant watch on Mrs. Selvig's green door. She knew her father +would appear as the clock struck eight. + +She went up towards it and down again: she began to grow impatient. It +must be past the time. They were beginning to shut the shops here and +there, and if she was to get anything bought this evening, it would be +impossible to wait any longer. + +She must really go up and see whether her father were sitting there +still--whether he had not perhaps gone when she was down at the bridge: +he never mistook the time. + +She had gone up the street as far as the place where the stone pavement +began, when she saw the green door open and slam quickly to again, as a +bare-headed, half-dressed servant-girl ran out. Immediately after, a man +came out in similar haste, and through the door which he left standing +open behind him, a number of people, with and without hats, streamed out +on to the steps. + +Something was the matter! + +Now a window was also opened, or rather hammered open, so that the pane +clashed down on to the pavement. + +Probably some drunken man or other, who could not stand any longer--it +was Saturday evening, you know--and who was making a row, and must be +taken by the police. + +She had often seen such sights before, and was quite accustomed to them. +She was not anxious about her father either: he never interfered in such +matters. + +But why did he not come out? Every one else had come out. + +A faint, slanting gleam of evening light had fallen in through the empty +square of window. Her father generally sat at the table just inside; he +always kept the same place. And she went up and peered in between the +flower-pots,--some half-stifled, dirty geraniums and hydrangeas, +saturated with public-house effluvia. + +Who was that--that man who was lying on the dirty counter, with his +necktie and shirt unfastened and one arm hanging down--was it her +father? + +"If only some one had a lancet!--he moved just now--a lancet!" + +What more they said on the steps she did not notice, except that some +wanted to deny her entrance, and others again said that she was Holman's +daughter. + +She awoke, as if after a fall from a great height during which she had +lost consciousness, to find herself sitting by the counter supporting +her father's head. She thought she remembered clinging to his neck and +begging him to answer her: but there was no rattling in his throat now. + +They had placed an old, worn sofa-pillow and the seat of a chair under +his head. Behind stood quart and pint measures, dram-glasses, tin +funnels and beer-bottles pushed right up to the wall to make room. His +wide-open eyes stared up at the once white-washed beams of the ceiling, +and one side of his face was drawn up into a grin, which made him look +as if he were unspeakably disgusted with the dirty ceiling. + +A big man sat at the door. Silla knew him: he was the public-house bear, +as he was called; he who turned people out for Mrs. Selvig. He was +sitting silent on the bench. + +There was perfect stillness in the room; she heard only the drip from +the tap of the brandy-cask down into the dish beneath, and saw, through +the half-open door to the inner room, Mrs. Selvig and her two daughters +bustling about on tiptoe. + +A young man in spectacles entered. He asked a few rapid questions, while +he opened a case of instruments on the counter at the feet of the +prostrate figure. He listened at its chest with the stethoscope and +without it, and shook his head, pulled out a lancet, and pushed the +shirt sleeve up the hanging arm. + +"Hold the sleeve, so that it doesn't slip down!" he said with a glance +up at Silla; he took her to be a member of the household. + +The lancet pierced and pierced again. The ashen grey face of the girl +looked into his, as if she would beg him for only one drop of that which +was the life. + +There came out something like a thick, dark syrup. + +He listened again, felt again; one more trial with the lancet, and it +was with an air of superiority, and a mouth drawn up like his +professor's, that the young bachelor of medicine turned to those +assembled and pronounced his concise verdict: + +"Stone dead! The man's stone dead!--from drink!" + +His words were followed by a cry from Silla, who threw herself upon her +father. + +"Is that his daughter?" asked the young doctor. He carefully wiped his +lancet at the light, and put his instruments together preparatory to +going, but gazed at the same time over his spectacles at her. Heedless +of everything, she cried incessantly over the body. + +"You aren't dead, are you, father? Father!" + +It was a wild sorrow, without consideration or bashfulness, and the +young doctor felt that he was witnessing an unpleasant scene from life +in the outskirts of the town. He had done his duty and hastened out. + +A twenty-year-old workshop apprentice, pale and overcome, was standing +behind Silla, trying to recall her to herself. He took her by the +shoulder, and whispered repeatedly, as loudly as respect for the dead +would allow: + +"Silla! Silla! don't you hear? It's me--Nikolai!" + +And he tried in vain two or three times to lift her up from the body. + +Meanwhile a policeman stood and examined Mrs. Selvig and the girls. He +made notes, and took down the particulars of the death. + +Just finished his usual quantity, a bottle of ale and four drams. The +girl at the bar saw him quickly stretch out his hand--had the impression +that he wanted another dram--and when he slowly sank down from his +chair, supposed that he was drunk. Used never to be so drunk that he +could not walk or stand, at any rate by supporting himself or holding on +to convenient, firm things. + +This last piece of evidence was deposed to by several of the regular +customers, or as they were described in the police report--"Several of +the regular visitors to the refreshment-room, whose testimony may be +considered as thoroughly reliable." + +Several of these silent, somewhat tottering, figures who had been thus +aroused from their dull, Saturday evening drowsiness, had already +disappeared from the scene. Bottles and glasses remained standing with +their contents. + +"Might there not possibly be some other direct or indirect cause?" + +It was at first hesitatingly that Mrs. Selvig could think of anything of +the sort. + +Unwilling as she was to go to extremes with an old, regular customer, +she yet had been obliged this evening to give him to understand that +whatever he required in future must be paid for in cash. His bill had +now, after all the years he had enjoyed credit in the tap-room, grown so +enormous, that she, a widow with two daughters, could no longer feel +justified in letting it run on. During all the years he had frequented +her house, she had faithfully kept her word never to send a bill home to +his house. But a bill cannot lie for ever on the threshold, as the +police know. That is the way of the world: it is the same for one as it +is for the other--so it must just be got by a distress warrant. That was +what she had said to him, unwilling though she had been to do so, and so +unpleasant, she could truthfully say, as it was to disturb such a quiet, +decent man. + +It was high time to rid the bar of its encumbrance. The public-house +bear had hunted up a hand-barrow, but had to get a couple more men to +help carry. And they must have a proper contrivance with a cloth over, +so that the whole thing would look like a hospital stretcher--a dead man +with nothing but a tablecloth over him would make too great a commotion +out in the street! + +It was something of this kind that Mrs. Selvig and her daughters were +busy looking out and putting together, out of some green bed-hangings. +One's good name is dear to every one, and Mrs. Selvig felt that what had +just taken place was a blow to the house. + +It was now nearly dark in the tap-room. Holman's dark figure had been +moved on to the stretcher, which stood on the floor ready to be lifted, +and a message had been sent to Mrs. Holman. + +Perhaps they delayed purposely; a little later in the evening when it +was darker, and an undesirable sensation in the street would be avoided. + +Silla's face was stiff with crying. There was no one in the room but her +and Nikolai. + +He stood by the counter, and she was sitting with her back to the +window; there was no sound but the humming of a gnat in the +half-darkness up under the curtain. + +At last he broke the silence. + +"He was kind, both to you and to me, as often as he dared be, you know." + +Silla did not answer. + +"He always dreaded going home at night so, you know. He'll be spared +that now, and setting his foot inside this public-house again, too!" + +"Father! Father!" broke from Silla, followed by a fit of violent +sobbing. + +"Listen, Silla!" he said, interrupted by the repressed weight on his own +breast. "If you have no father, you have some one here who will take +care of you, and knows what it is--I have never had any father either, +nor ever seen any. And I _will_ be a smith, as there won't be any more +block-making for you now. I only wanted to tell you, so that you can +remember it afterwards," he added softly--it did not look as if Silla +were listening to him. + +"And this evening I'll follow you right to the corner, and I'll stand +there until everything is in, and I shall be outside to-night; so you +know it, if anything is wanted." + +"Yes, stay outside, Nikolai!" she whispered. + +The public-house bear and the two bearers came in. They lifted the +stretcher out through the door, and, with a little difficulty at the +turn, down the steps, where a few spectators stood. + +And so they went up the street--the dead with the two bearers and the +public-house bear in front, and Silla and Nikolai behind. + +At the place where they were to part, he pressed the basket, which she +had forgotten, into her hand, and then stood looking after them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FACTORY GIRLS + + +What becomes of all the swarm of orphan children down in the by-streets +and outskirt alleys of the capital--children of whom no one has any +account, and no one takes any account, who swarm down there only one +floor higher, so to speak, than the spawn and small fry which are +floating below in the sea among the quay piles, and which will one day +become large male and female fish? + +Disease wields a broad broom in the earliest age. The harbour takes them +into its embrace; the streets with their stray livelihoods, or a +wandering vagabond life, takes them; refuges, police-stations, prisons +and the house of correction take them. In later years, labour also, on a +great scale, has taken them into its embrace--the factory doors stand +wide open. + +People who now and then have an attack of conscientious scruples about +existences to which they may possibly stand in original relationship, +can draw a sigh of relief. The responsibility is at any rate diminished, +as the chances now are that they will be drawn into Labour's educating +wheel; and then, too, the matter is in certain respects carried over +into moral territory. + +There they sat, the more ripely-developed youth of the town, in rows +up in the rooms of the Veyergang firm's great factory, and minded the +whirring shuttles, balls and rollers--Swedish Lena, and Stina, and +Kristofa, and Kalla, and Josefa and Gunda, and all the rest of them. Had +any one asked them about their parents, they would now and then have +been hard put to it for an answer. + +The conversation went on very busily at the top of the room; it was even +continued with nods and glances whenever one or other of the controlling +authorities turned his steps in that direction. They had to gesticulate, +nod, talk in a loud voice, but they got on best with their faces close +up to one another in all this whizzing, where the band-wheels each +whirred away for their little sub-division of power, the boards of the +floor quivered and shook with the movement of the engines, and the +waterfall outside in the sun, with a thundering and deafening roar, +buried the great water-wheel beneath its creamy, powerful splendour. + +They were for the most part quite young vagabond girls of from barely +sixteen to twenty, who were making the noise up there: new-comers, more +or less, without practice, who were still striving to acquire the knack. +And that was Silla Holman, she with the dark hair, slender and freckled, +with heelless slippers and a large spot of paraffine on the front of her +dress, who coughed and questioned, and questioned and coughed, while her +eyes looked like two little round, black fire-balls, and her weak, flat +chest went up and down with the mere exertion of making herself heard. +She sat there among the youngest; her fingers worked among the spools, +and now and then she looked up like a bird. + +They had got over the angry dispute about Josefa's new braided jacket. +She need not try to persuade any one that she had got the money from her +stepmother; no, let any one who liked believe that, but neither Gunda +nor Jakobina did! Then Kristofa had related her wonderful adventure of +last Sunday--she was always passing through remarkable occurrences, most +wonderfully interesting, if not true to quite a corresponding degree, +in which fine ladies and gentlemen played the principal parts, and she +chanced to be the initiated one. + +And now the conversation had turned upon something so interesting that +Silla listened with both her ears. There was to be dancing on Sunday +evening up at the Letvindt, and the talk was of handkerchiefs, bows, and +finery--which some possessed and others had to borrow--and of who danced +best and treated most liberally. Kristofa was able to inform them that +there was to be a violin and a clarionet, and that both students and +ordinary people and ships' officers were to be there! + +Some strangers who were going over the factory came up the room, and +stopped and questioned and examined. And the young workwomen sat each in +her place, with head bent over her work, as if she had no thought for +anything but her reels. + +The morning light shone with a kind of dizzy stillness in from the great +windows high up in the wall, over human beings, machinery and bales. + +It was nearly twelve. The last hour always dragged so slowly, and the +smell of oil and the heat from the engines seemed to increase and become +almost stupifying. + +Still a few more long stifling minutes. At last the bell rang. + +And dressed, as if by a stroke of magic, the factory girls swarmed down +the steps, with their breakfast-tins in their hands, in their neat +aprons, handkerchiefs nicely tied under their chins, and knitted shawls +crossed over their chests. + +Oh, the bright spring air!--to take a good breath of it! Silla, hot and +thirsty, knocked off a bit of frozen snow from the fence with her tin +and ate it. + +With her head full of all that Kristofa had held out to her about the +dance at the Letvindt, she wandered down arm-in-arm with a long row of +her companions. The road out from the factory was quite crowded; lower +down it widened out, with a street-like pavement. + +"Look, look, Kristofa! Veyergang has come back from England already!" +The young girls nudged each other, highly interested. "New topcoat; +light, light brown!" + +"Pooh! _I_ saw him come by the steamer yesterday, him and a whole heap +of English people. They were all brown together; I counted exactly seven +different kinds of dirt-colour!" It was Josefa who was using her tongue; +she had had practice at a milliner's. + +"He'll have to take care of the oil!" tittered one. + +"He's awfully handsome! Look what a grand forehead! Oh, what a lovely +red silk handkerchief in his breast-pocket!" whispered Kristofa to +Silla. + +The row squeezed themselves up against the fence. The person in question +came by humming carelessly, with his head held high and swinging his +walking-stick. All the young girls stared respectfully and stupidly +straight in front of them, though not without a glance out of the corner +of their eye. He disappeared up the stream, cleaving it like a salmon. + +"He parts his hair at the back of his head!"--"His hat is like a +pudding-basin!"--"Don't breathe upon him, he is so thin!"--"He is his +own father's son!"--"Oh, what a conceited stick!" + +They had turned to look after him. + +"He isn't nearly so stern as he walks there; but in the factory, you +know, he has to be as firm as a rock. Johanna Sjoberg, who does clear +starching, recognised him down at the masked ball at the fair; she told +me so herself." + +"You can just fancy," struck in Jakobina, "what a number of fine people +come to the rooms in that way. You think you are only waltzing with a +common man, and perhaps it is the son of the richest man in the town! +But if you are a little careful you can easily tell by the way they +dance, or by their watch, or their shirt-collar, or because they chew +such fine tobacco." + +"He looked at us, did you notice?" whispered Kristofa eagerly into +Silla's ear. + +"Yes, because he knows me," said Silla, a little confused at his having +fixed his eyes on her. + +There was a burst of laughter. + +"Is that young crow going to caw too?" + +The young crow grew hot beneath her handkerchief, but she did not +answer. She knew quite well, that he did know her; he had been in the +office when she went out with her mother to the Consul-General's to +apply for a place in the factory. + +A stream of girls from another factory fell like a tributary into +theirs, and then through ramifications of streets and lanes, the whole +flowed out into the irregular part of the town that was built of wood, +below--through narrow entrances and up narrow flights of steps, into +brown, red, white or grey houses, houses with slate roofs, with turf +roofs, with tile roofs, and new houses that had barely been roofed. + +Silla slipped into a narrow, damp entry. The sun shone through the +cracks in the rotten woodwork full of bent rusty nails, and from time to +time a dirty stream issued from beneath the gate, and disappeared into +the gutter. + +She stopped a moment as she heard her mother's righteous indignation +venting itself within, in the familiar, dry, measured tones; and it was +hesitatingly and with a depressed look that she opened the gate, behind +which stood Mrs. Andersen's servant-maid, furiously red, and incapable +of defending herself, while Mrs. Holman, her skirts fastened up, and her +feet astride over the gutter-board, was rinsing and wringing out +clothes. She was working calmly and deliberately; nothing in her cold +grey eyes betrayed agitation. + +"Mrs. Andersen ought at least to have the good sense to understand that +clothes that had been used so long couldn't be got ready in one week. +For that matter, you're welcome to tell her so from me. And I haven't +been accustomed either, even in my humble position, to send clothes to +the wash not patched or mended; and I can tell you that both Mother +Nilsen next door and the people in this house have wondered to see the +things that a person, who calls herself a chandler's wife, lets her +husband and children wear! No, you needn't contradict me, my good girl; +when I say a thing, it's the truth. And the stockings--we'll say nothing +about them; for one heel was gathered up with a piece of twine, so that +it was a disgrace to stand and wash them. People may look as high and +mighty as they like--the wash speaks out!" + +With slow, crushing significance she turned to her daughter. + +"If you had come a little sooner, Silla, you might have saved me a great +deal of work. But it's of no consequence; the sooner I'm dead and gone, +the better. I've never wanted to live either, since your father went +away." + +"I'll help you wring, mother." + +"Now it's all done? Many thanks! But it would have shown a little +forethought, if you, who have only been sitting up in the factory, had +hurried yourself a little to help your mother, who's had to stand and +work hard all the morning." + +"Thanks for the information, Mrs. Holman." It was Mrs. Andersen's +servant, who had at last recovered her voice. "But I think you won't +need to trouble yourself any more about our washing. It's much too plain +and humble for such grand sentiments." + +She dropped a curtsey, and then added, as she vanished quickly out of +the gate: + +"If only your soap-lye was half as sharp as your tongue!" + +It was always Mrs. Holman's strong point, and one on which she prided +herself, that she was always hungering and thirsting after righteousness +in this world--in others. Inasmuch as part of this sentence also points +inwards towards one's self, she was fortunate in finding her own +doorstep well swept. She was also in the favourable position of being +able to lay down both the law and the exceptions. + +To every one comes a time when he is surrounded by a lustre, and that +blockmaker Holman had existed was something which was really properly +understood--perhaps by his wife too--only after he had disappeared from +the scene. + +The fact is, that it makes a great difference to a household whether it +has the husband's work and weekly wages to subsist upon or not, and as +a further aggravation of the situation, her dead husband's bill at Mrs. +Selvig's thrust its extremely unexpected, unwelcome face into Mrs. +Holman's room. Mrs. Holman could never get into her head that that bill +was correct--why, Holman had had his fixed, regular pocket-money! + +Mrs. Holman's bitter observations were numerous when she found herself +compelled to choose between want and seeking work. + +She had known to a pin's point how she would employ her husband's +earnings in her own room, and occupied herself also with the way in +which others might have things in theirs. During all these years, she +had, so to speak, sat comfortably on the top of the load and driven; but +now, unfortunately, the day had come when she herself must get down and +draw--and that she felt herself less fitted for. + +It was when brought into this critical situation that Mrs. Holman +thought that if an exertion was ever to be made, it must be made +now--by whom, she left unsaid. To this end she availed herself of her +acquaintance with Consul Veyergang to get her daughter Silla taken into +his factory. Unemployed hands must have something to do, and it would, +at any rate, yield some small compensation for the weekly money lost +with her husband. If she then stayed at home and kept house well, and +in addition mended and took in washing when it came in her way, no one +would venture to charge Mrs. Holman with not knowing how to do her duty +during these hard days. + +And she still discharged this duty of hers by strictly keeping Silla +from passing her leisure time in idleness, which was dangerous for young +people. Sewing and darning and patching all the evening--there could be +no better way of being trained in steadiness. + +But it was just while Silla sat and sewed and darned and patched in the +evening by the low oil-lamp that the dancing and gaiety were best +carried on in her head, and that all Kristofa's and her friends' +word-pictures transformed themselves into actual experiences. Bubble +after bubble, the one more wonderful than the other, floated up or burst +right in front of Mrs. Holman's nose, while she sat knitting. She saw +nothing, only wondered a little sometimes what there could be to smile +and laugh at in the heel of a stocking. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"THE WORLD IS RIGHT ENOUGH AFTER ALL" + + +Down in Hægberg's smithy it looked as if it were going to be not only +blue Monday,[2] but blank Tuesday too. With the exception of one +solitary figure, it was black and empty. Outside the door a row of iron +picks, spades and crowbars, were waiting to be sharpened for the navvies +on the new harbour works. + +[Footnote 2: An extra day's holiday taken by workmen after the lawful +bank holiday is called "blue Monday"; if still another follows, it is +called "blank Tuesday."] + +Hægberg was going about with his leather apron hanging down over one +shoulder, as furious as a Berserk. There were no respectable men and +apprentices to be had nowadays; but he would give them notice man by +man, as sure as his name was Hægberg! + +One was standing there grinding. And he had stood there quite alone, +filing with all his might at his journeyman's probation work, the whole +of St. John's day yesterday. That's how it is: one goes on the spree, +and another pinches and is so stingy about his money, that he would +willingly lay his soul in the fire for it. The fellow was a good enough +workman, to be sure, and if he had not had that affair with the police, +then--yes, no--no, yes, to be sure, he was acquitted of that, so he was! + +The person in question was Nikolai, who had entered Hægberg's smithy +again to complete his years of apprenticeship. + +Ah, at last! There came two men sauntering over the yard to the smithy. + +Hægberg turned round and pretended not to see them; on consideration, it +was not the time to part with one's men. He only went up himself and +took one of the crowbars out of the forge; and when the two culprits +arrived, he stood there, tall, lean, strong, and grey-haired, hammering +so that the sparks flew. + +This piece of work, unworthy of the master, spoke louder than the +angriest reproaches, and when in silence he flung the crowbar down, and +began sharpening a pick, it was sufficiently evident that there was +thunder in the air. + +By degrees during the morning they arrived, with staring eyes, beating +temples, and faces either pale or red from being up all night, one with +a swollen eye, another with a plaster across his nose. Their voices were +hoarse, and they each went silently to work. They must exert themselves +if they were to get through all the tool-work that remained. + +Work went on uninterruptedly almost the whole afternoon, without a word +being spoken over the whole smithy. By that time most of the work had +been got through, and Hægberg himself went out to do business in the +town. + +Those who were left at work shone with perspiration, and either because +work had been the best cure for the excesses of the preceding Midsummer +Day and Midsummer Eve, or it was the general relief at the departure of +the master, one man began suddenly to sing, a couple more to yawn and +stretch themselves lazily in the enjoyment of their pleasant +recollections; and then the talk began about the way they had each spent +their holiday. + +Only Nikolai went on undisturbed; he cared more about a screw-hole in +the hinge on his probation work than all their Midsummer Eve outings, +and if he only worked away now, it would be finished by the end of the +month. + +His small hammer sounded above their talk,--the tar-barrels, wood-stacks +and old house-walls that they had burnt, and their drinking and +merriment until they had not a penny left,--haw-haw! + +The hammer rang above it all. + +Jan Peter had gone in a boat over to the islands, and seen so many +bonfires,[3] both there and on the hills round, that it was impossible +to count them. + +[Footnote 3: It is the custom in Norway on Midsummer Eve to burn large +bonfires, which can be seen for many miles round.] + +Yes, when a fellow's drunk! + +The hammer went on again. + +One man stretched himself and yawned with the whole Midsummer holiday in +his jaws. "Up on Grefsen ridge, cold punch had flowed down the hill as +good as free. Veyergang's son had given the girls at the factory an old +boat from Maridal Lake and half a barrel of pitch; heard the cuckoo and +had larks all night--came down again when it was nearly eight o'clock." + +The hammer rang no longer. + +"Veyergang's son--the girls at Veyergang's factory!" Nikolai stood, +anxious and uncertain, listening, and now and again glancing quickly and +sharply over at the man who was speaking. + +Then he washed off the soot, and disappeared. + + * * * * * + +Silla had been down to the Valsets' cottage to fetch the customary +evening pint of milk, when at the gate she met Nikolai. He said he had +seen her go in, but she knew quite well that he had been watching for +her. + +"You can't think what fun I had on Midsummer Eve, Nikolai!" she said, +holding out the can by the handle towards him. "If you only knew! No, +never in all my life!" + +"Up on Grefsen ridge?" + +"How did you know; tell me, how did you know?" + +"Oh, I--one of the smiths was up there. But I can't understand how you +could get away from her at home." + +"No, it was a near chance, too, I can tell you!" She looked round, and +said in a cautious whisper: "Mother doesn't know but that I lay and +turned over in my bed at home all Midsummer night. She went to eat St. +John's porridge with aunt out at Asker, and I was to stay at home, and +iron; but at nine o'clock, I said good-bye and went my way. Oh +Nikolai!"--she clapped her hands, laughing--"you should have heard how +she scolded yesterday morning when she came back, because I was still in +bed! Did you hear that we were treated to punch, too?" + +"Who gave it you?" + +"Ah, wouldn't you like to know! But, Nikolai, you won't tell. It was a +certain person who treated us." + +"Indeed!" + +"He came up to see that they did not light the bonfire too near the +wood. Yes, you must know, Nikolai, that it was no less a person than +young Veyergang! There was a Midsummer party at his father's, and they +were to see the fire from the stairs at exactly half-past eleven. + +"And then he treated them to punch? You too?" + +"It was just me! 'Her with the black eyes,' he said." + +"Perhaps he has spoken to you before, too?" + +"Yes, indeed; he knows perfectly well that my name is Silla. I meet him +every single day, you must know." + +Nikolai made a movement as if he were bringing down a hammer on the +hillside. "Indeed!" + +"Last Saturday in the office, when he had reckoned a _krone_ too much in +the pass-book, he said I could keep it and spend it on cakes." + +"Ha! ha! Did he say that? Wonderful, how kind he is!" Nikolai said this +with something that was meant for laughter. "The cook is very kind, too, +when she feeds the goose so as to get hold of it!" + +He stood with one arm round the gate-post, looking at her; she had grown +so pretty and elegant, and almost taller since he had seen her last. "A +young girl who doesn't even know that she is pretty." + +Silla pouted; her whole expression was one of supercilious disavowal. + +"If they offer her a cake, or a handkerchief, or a little fun, she +stretches out her neck and runs up. I should think you might understand +that, Silla, from all you see round you! How many of them, I should like +to know, will ever come to be the wife of an honest working-man? They +manage to dance a few times, and then it's all over. And they wanted to +be just as kind to you now, Silla! That Veyergang is on the watch for +you! If I'm not on the watch for him----" He suddenly looked pale and +ugly. + +"What are you thinking of, Nikolai? Don't go on like that!" + +"You may well say what was I thinking of, to stand there grinding +and filing away the whole month at my probation work, and then let you +go up there among that pack of wolves. But I was born like that--that +everything should go wrong with me!" + +Silla stood, as she always did when Nikolai put on this tone, downcast +and dispirited, her slender figure bending forwards, and her eyes on the +ground. + +"We two, Silla," he continued at length, with a shake as if of +resolution, but his voice trembled--"we two have been, as it were, +brought up together. And with things as they were, if they could make me +go wrong, it would have been still easier for you to be twisted by them, +for I was strong, you see; but you were weak, and had always to creep +like a cat among lies and difficulties. And so--so--I thought that we +two--who have always stood by one another--and I haven't had anyone else +I could trust, as you know, Silla, and neither have you--that we should +join hands. And if you're of the same mind, then----" + +He had clasped his broad hands round the gate-post, and was squeezing it +with all the strength of his square-set figure, while he waited for her +answer. He gazed at her bent head, but she did not look up; and he drew +a deep breath, for he felt that he must go on. + +"And now I've got together a little money, and not bought anything, and +have filed and filed away at my probation work; because when I become +journeyman, and another year has passed, and I've laid by a little, +then--then it might be that you could get away from the factory dirt and +the ordering at home both at once, and be a real smith's wife, Silla. +You've never had any one to take care of you as I've done, you know; and +you don't know how good I'll be to you! For a fellow who hasn't had +either father or mother, and since I was up at the police-station I +haven't had many companions either--" But here his emotion overpowered +him. + +"Such an uncommonly pretty smith's wife you would make, Silla! If any +one has eyes for a smith, it's you; they are like sparks in the fire! +And then to come home and see only the top of your pretty little black +head at the room door! In spite of having always been treated like a +dog, and worse than that--like a thief, it would all be nothing at all, +if that was how it could end. One's own room with a lock on the door and +the chest, that would be something better than being dragged round a +dancing-hall, Silla, by fine fellows and sailors." + +The last words, which were uttered in warm excitement, would have been +better left unsaid; for, from standing melted and overcome, with tears +in her eyes, she suddenly fired up against the accusation. + +"Do you want to deny me a little pleasure, too, Nikolai? I'm not to see +any one, not to go anywhere. Oh no! I'm to be a girl who has never +danced, a regular queer bird, that's first been kept in a cage by her +mother, and then by----" her voice quivered, and she began to cry. "Is +that what you call being kind to me, Nikolai? You must be trying to make +me afraid of you, too!" + +"Afraid of me?--of me, Silla?" + +"Don't they all look upon me as a baby that's tied to her mother's +apron-strings? And now you come and want to help her, Nikolai. That's +right! That's right! Only keep me in! Oh yes, you and mother! It's only +a question of who gets the power over me. But you'd better take care, +Nikolai!" + +She began to cry bitterly in impotent rage. + +"Oh, well, cry away! I won't say anything. You've got some one else to +comfort you for a little while," he added moodily. + +She suddenly sprang up, went up to him, and laid her arm confidingly on +his shoulder. + +"Don't you _know_ that I'll be your wife, Nikolai?" she said, looking +full and ardently into his eyes; there were still tears on her dark, +freckled face. + +"Well, if you will, Silla, you shall see who can work." + +"But mother, Nikolai! Oh, I'm so frightened--so frightened only that +she'll get to know that we sometimes meet. She looks at me so hard every +time I've been an errand, and I've always been gone so long. But when +I sit darning and patching of an evening, I sometimes imagine that you +come in so fine and rich, and that you own the whole of Hægberg's +smithy, so that mother has to give in." + +"No, do you think about that, Silla? Then I will come. She'll have to +give in like smoke, if I come only with my credentials, and my honest +trade as well." + +What was it that had happened that light, hazy, summer evening, when the +waterfall thundered out beneath the bridge, when the trees seemed to +swell with new budding leaves, and the sun glittered on the windows here +and there? Was he intoxicated, or was it the evening that had taken an +extra Midsummer carouse? The last he saw of Silla was that she hurried +homewards with her can, and that she had looked round at him, as she +turned into the road among the houses. + +The world was right enough after all. When he reckoned it up properly, +it was not at all so unreasonable, even if the lock did sometimes get +out of order; and then--well, then one had to be both strong and +neat-handed to get it open again. + +No, it was right enough. You only see that when you get inside, and so +there must be police and masters and order in everything, so that it can +lock. + +Nikolai stood riveting and meditating down in the smithy. He had now got +his journeyman's credentials, and everything was rose-colour. The fact +that he and the world were becoming reconciled showed in shining +characters over the whole of his broad face. His short, strong figure +moved with a newly-acquired, quick confidence at his work. + +He worked now for journeyman's wages, and could save up a nice little +sum each week. One fortunate circumstance in the case was that he never +dared make Silla a present of anything, neither handkerchiefs nor +anything else, because of Mrs. Holman. A penny saved is a penny gained, +and she should have it all in good time. + +On Saturday evenings, as soon as he had had a little wash in the +cooling-water, he took his way up towards the manufacturing part of the +town. He carried his hammer and pincers, and an iron plate or a lock in +his hand; he must look as if he were engaged in his lawful work. And +then came the chance whether on his way up or down he caught a glimpse +of Silla. + +It was quite a chance, and it sometimes happened that he just met Mrs. +Holman instead. He must put up with that; at any rate, he looked right +into the street there, in the cluster of houses where Silla walked +several times a day. But what he found more difficult to put up with +was, that on those occasions when he was fortunate, she was walking +arm-in-arm with two or three other factory-girls, so that he scarcely +got more than the one glimpse and short nod from her before they turned +in now here, now there. + +What did she want to go loitering about in the evening with those +dissipated girls for? Was that the sort of thing for Silla? She was +neither old enough nor wise enough to understand what she was getting +mixed up in, and what a fine gentleman meant who nodded to her--for the +sake of her pretty eyes. Amuse themselves? Yes, go round in the mill, +until they come out crushed and ground! + +No! She must come out of this. + +And so he must work away with his file, and add one week's earnings to +another, until he had made the silver hook large enough to draw her to +him. + +Yes, once she was with him!--he forgot himself in thoughts about +house-rent and wedding outlay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL + + +Some time after Nikolai had got his credentials, he was pleasantly +surprised by a visitor--he could hardly believe his own eyes--none other +than his mother, who was watching for him one Saturday afternoon, +outside the basement where he dined. + +She had heard that he had become a journeyman, and could not rest until +she got a lift on one of the plank-loads which was going in to town, and +paid him a visit. She was so glad. If he knew how many sighs she had +heaved for his sake, and how many bitter tears she had shed--the big, +handsome, half peasant-clad woman was red in the face, and wept and +dried her eyes incessantly on her folded pocket-handkerchief, while she +gave expression to her emotion and joy over the way in which everything +had turned out, as if by special guidance. + +She had been so unfortunate for a long time; but now that she had got +her son again, everything looked different for her. Oh, how big and +broad and fine he had grown--a regular smith! He had a frock-coat now +for Sundays, hadn't he? And he must have a hat, too. He must let her +advise him; she knew all about it from what she had seen in the world. + +It was with quite strange, at first almost mixed, feelings that Nikolai +thus suddenly saw a mother fall down to him--some day a father might +come tumbling down too! + +It was so many years since he had thought of her, and the picture he +really had of her was buried in the bitter salt slough of tears in the +depths of his recollections, which he was far from being in the mood to +stir up. There were things within him, which he avoided from an +instinctive feeling of safety in the whole of his new, happy existence; +but such a thing as finding his mother again must surely belong to the +happiness of the new Nikolai, the journeyman smith! Yes, of course, he +was fond of her, and it was immensely affecting. + +And while he walked beside her, and was glad too, and kind and obliging, +and gave up his Saturday afternoon with half a day's pay, he had, +without exactly intending it, spent on a present--an exceedingly large, +gay, flowered silk handkerchief--as much as it had taken him a fortnight +to scrape together; and, besides that, had paid for some fine bread and +a ham, which she had to take back with her, and of which she even tried +a few goodly slices down in the town by way of afternoon refreshment. + +She had an appetite, and she could not be very much accustomed to +economising either;--this was about the sum of the happy, filial +comments that Nikolai made to himself after the meeting. In addition to +this, he felt himself unexpectedly lightened of a good deal of money; +and it was in a rather dispirited mood that he went up in the evening in +the hope of seeing Silla, and telling her of his new happiness. + +The whole of that side of the town up under the hill already lay in +shadow, and in the oppressively warm evening, labourers were walking +with their coats over their shoulders, while sounds of life and noise +rose here and there from the shops in the manufacturing district below. + +Nikolai had traversed in vain the district surrounding the Valsets' +cottage, keeping constant watch at the same time down the broad +high-road, which went past the gate, and the footpath that crept +straight across the field down behind it. Silla was not to be seen. A +girl went with a bucket from the cowshed into the pent-house. She looked +up towards him and laughed, and the consequence was that Nikolai +continued his way towards the factory without once turning round. They +must be able to see through the walls in there! And they had already +begun to wonder at his coming there so often. + +The waterfall was turned off, so that only a white streak ran over the +dam and fell drop by drop upon the wheel. A cart was rattling along the +road in front of him. Now it stopped to unload; the load was tumbled off +with one tilt. It was mould that they were driving to the garden outside +the office building at the factory. + +Within the fence were a number of women and girls busily at work. They +were raking, pulling up and planting, while a man followed with a hose; +and out of the open window, with his straw hat on his head, hung young +Veyergang, and talked. + +There stood Mrs. Holman, with arms akimbo, beside one of the black +flower-beds, inspecting some plant that she had patted down with her +hand; and--Silla! on her knees, pulling up weeds into her apron from a +bed close to the house. It was with her Veyergang was joking from the +window, and she shook her head and laughed, and looked up for a +moment--she dared not answer because of Mrs. Holman. + +It was as if a pair of pincers with many claws had suddenly taken hold +of Nikolai's heart, and he all at once remembered so vividly the day +when he had had Ludvig Veyergang under his fists. + +He went back with a weight like lead upon his breast, and sat down on +the edge of a ditch in the field, whence he could, unseen, keep an eye +upon all who came down the road. + +She had looked so much too pretty when she raised her head with that +suppressed merriment in her glance. This was what his thoughts would +return to, and he only saw before him what he suffered from. + +An hour had passed. Almost stupidly he had watched one after another +come down the road; but all at once his face changed colour. Ludvig +Veyergang was sauntering past, dashing and easy, with his stick held +loosely in his hand. He had red cheeks like a girl, and fine black +whiskers beneath the straw hat, and he half closed his grey eyes to look +about him, while he hummed softly. + +Nikolai gazed despondently after him, as he disappeared down the road. + +Again this same old hopelessness before a superior force, this feeling +for which he could never find words and vent, unless it some day +happened that--he closed his eyes, and there was a compressed, violent +expression about his mouth and chin. + +There came Silla by Mrs. Holman's side, with bent head, like a willow +that is bowed by its growth. Sometimes she stole a glance around, like +a school-girl who avoids her teacher's eye. + +They separated at the Valsets' cottage; Silla went in after the +evening's milk. + +She came out again with the can, and took the path over the meadow. She +went quickly, smiling to herself, and an almost frightened expression +came into her face when Nikolai rose out of the bush by the ditch. + +"Do you start when you see me, Silla?" + +"How fierce you look!" she answered jestingly. + +"You did say you'd be my wife, didn't you, Silla?" + +"What makes you say that now, Nikolai? It's such a long time to then." + +"I may need to hear it once more. When you aren't more sure than I am, +you like to feel twice whether the strap you are holding on to is firmly +fastened, or if it will give way. You have got so much into your head +since you came up here to the factory." + +"Take care! Just you take care, Nikolai. You have become so dreadfully +afraid for me lately," she said, laughing saucily; "but I've become a +little grown-up too. It's only you who don't see it, and stand there +like a post! But you can't think how awfully busy I am now. As soon as +ever I've swallowed my supper, I go up to the factory again. I and +Kristofa and Kalla and Josefa have got the whole of the weeding and +tidying up in the office garden, down all the peas and carrots, and +cabbage-beds as well; and when it grows over in the autumn, we shall +have that too." + +Nikolai only stood reckoning. Twenty-seven dollars, subtracting what he +had spent on his mother to-day--the ham, too, for he would not get that +back--that was what he owned, and he needed at least twice as much again +before he could get the most necessary things for his room. Only to get +her out of this, even if he had to work day and night. + +Aloud he only said cautiously: "If we are only wise, and careful, and +look well ahead, perhaps we may be sitting in our own room by next +spring, Silla. But so many things may happen in between," he added +huskily, with a deep-drawn sigh. + +"I really believe there'll be neither life nor courage in you until +you're married, Nikolai," she said, laughing; "you're so horrid to meet +now, that it's enough to make one quite sad and uncomfortable the whole +evening. A nice sweetheart you are!" She swung roguishly round on her +heel, with the can extended, and ran down the road, nodding a farewell. + +He had not got so far as to tell her what he had originally gone up +there for--the news about his mother, and, to tell the truth, he had +completely forgotten it; but it would be time enough next time he met +her. And it must not be too long to that, things looking as they did +now. + + * * * * * + +A few weeks afterwards some one inquired for him. + +A peasant carter, in a state of great uncertainty about his load, had +stopped outside the eating-house. Part of the load was made up of his +mother's big chest, which the man had undertaken to drive to town, and +leave for the meantime at Nikolai's. Barbara herself was to follow in a +day or two. + +She must have some project in her head! Perhaps she was thinking of +going out to service again. + +And one evening when he came home he found a red wooden box and a pair +of laced boots upon the chest. His mother must have been there! + +Half an hour later she appeared. She had only been out to buy a little +new rye-bread, cheese, and butter to take up to her lodgings this +evening. + +In the meantime she cut some for herself and offered some to him. + +Her ample figure, in addition to her effects, almost filled Nikolai's +narrow little bedroom. She had become rather short of breath, and +acquired a double-chin with so much sitting indoors; the lower part of +her face, which, in the brilliancy of youth, had been covered with pure, +healthy mountain roses, now, as it moved in the process of eating, gave +only the impression of powerful crushing with still solid teeth, in +which, however, toothache, from many scalding cups of coffee, had made +here and there serious inroads. While she sat on the chest and he on the +bed, she gave expression to the following: + +The farmer with whom she had bargained to live--for eighteen dollars +a year and help at the busy seasons, while she found herself in +coffee--was so pinching and mean about the board, that she had been +obliged to buy one thing and another herself; well, he had seen the ham +himself, and knew what she had been accustomed to at the Veyergangs'. +She could truly say that she had swallowed her food with tears many a +time, when she thought of all that she had done for Ludvig and Lizzie, +that she had carried them in her arms and been more to them than their +own mother. And then to think that the reward of all this should be hard +work in the hay and corn harvest! No, she was praised by too many mouths +for that! + +She had waited patiently, too, thinking they would remember old Barbara. +Oh no! one would have to remind them one's self, if that were to be! + +But now that she had Nikolai there, she had thought and meditated and +reflected about setting up a little shop in the town. And she had been +out to the Consul's to-day. + +He was cross when she went into the office, and snappish; but she knew +him, and began talking cleverly: + +"How is mistress and Mr. Ludvig and Miss Lizzie, might I be so bold as +to ask? Bless me, they must have grown so tall and so grand now, that +they couldn't be expected to know a poor servant again!" + +"'Thin--thin as laths,' he laughed. 'You might easily hold them one in +each arm now! But you must have eaten up the whole barn up there; I +didn't remember that you were so big, Barbara. I should think he's had +to give up house and lands, that farmer?' he said, to tease me. + +"'Thank you, I wasn't accustomed to cattle fodder at the Consul's +house,' said I; 'and it's me, rather, that's in such circumstances that +I must leave. That man takes pretty good care that he is not cheated.' + +"And then I talked about Ludvig and Lizzie until I began to cry. + +"'And that harum-scarum boy of yours?' he asked. + +"'Thank you,' said I, 'my son Nikolai is now a finished journeyman smith +in this city.' + +"And then I told him my thoughts of coming to town to go into trade. +'I have always noticed that it has been better to be behind the counter +than in front of it,' I said. + +"Then he laughed. 'You want to make yourself a new storehouse in town, +I see, Barbara.' + +"'Yes, sir, when it can be done honestly, and with a little help; every +one aims at their own maintenance.' + +"And then he promised me right down a free room and kitchen in one of +the houses up in the manufacturing part of the town for a whole year!" + +As mother and son sat opposite to one another, they were not without a +certain similarity; but where the leading of fate had turned the +features of his broad, intelligent face into muscle and energy, it had +in Barbara relaxed all the springs into dull, ponderous fat. + +It was not, however, without a certain amount of enthusiasm that she now +unfolded her plans for the little business, and how she should procure +credit, a little at each place; she still had acquaintances at the +shops in the neighbourhood, from the time she was at the Veyergangs'. +Afterwards it was only to sell out, pay for the old, get new again; it +all went round like a winch! + +But she must have a little more ready money, for hers would not go far +enough. Now, if Nikolai could help her with a little; it would all lie +in the goods, so that, for that matter, it was the same whether he put +his pence there or in his pocket--the same to a T! + +Could he tell her where she could buy a counter cheap! Or rather, get it +on credit; if there was anything she was hard up for now, it was ready +money. Perhaps she might as well try to take out a little more at the +carpenter's at once, only a fair-sized folding-table, two beds, and a +few chairs. She had thought that when once she had got it started and +into order, Nikolai might live with her. If she prepared all his meals +for him besides, the one thing might be set off against the other, and +part of his wages go towards it--he must himself reckon up and say how +much he thought. + +Barbara continued more eagerly to build up in her own mind, and +emphasising now and then with a smack of her hand, how everything was to +be. + +But as she waxed warmer and more elated over her visions of the future, +Nikolai sat doubtful, and softly beating a measure with his foot. All +this about the shop might be right enough. His mother must surely +understand it, she who had been at the Veyergangs', and had now, +moreover, talked to the Consul himself. But the more she initiated him +into her plans, and in them appropriated him entirely to herself, and +talked away as if there could be no obstacle in any corner of the +heavens, the wider did the gulf between their wills and interests open +before him. She came with a mother's long-dispensed-with right, and just +now he knew in his heart that he belonged still more to another, and +must go his own way. + +She could not know that she was coming upon nails the whole time in the +wall, so he would have to speak out. + +"Well, you see, mother"--he looked down at the floor--"you're welcome to +my money, if only it's certain I get it back again by the new year, so +there's nothing to hinder that. But, you know, why I must have it again +is--is because I and Mrs. Holman's Silla have agreed to marry and settle +down. And I'm quite determined about it, for I've worked and toiled for +that, ever since Holman died; and it would be ill for me if I had to be +without her." + +His sharp, grey eyes shot a glance up at her, and the mother +instinctively felt that here was a will that had escaped from her hands. + +This was something that had never entered into her plans. + +In order to remove her dissatisfaction, he let her have his thirty +dollars before she went. + +There is a branch of trade in the narrow streets and outskirts, whose +position is one storey higher than the stall-woman. It sells its wares +from a house, comprises, according to legislation, a great many more +effects, and allows the individual concerned to lead a more comfortable +existence, with a step farther from hand to mouth; that is to say, it +gains, instead of a day's credit or a weekly settlement, a week's credit +or a monthly settlement. + +It was in this small trade that Barbara wanted to start, and if it can +be said of America that whole towns and undertakings arise in a moment +of time, something of the same kind might well be said of Barbara's +shop. + +Barely a week later she was in her house, and had in the window an +exhibition of balls of cotton, bread, twists, sweets, stay-laces, +needle-cases, snuff, clay pipes, steel pens, matches, etc., etc., while +she herself sat behind the counter--which was a packing-case disguised +under some print--and ground coffee, which she roasted in the kitchen +beyond. In a drawer that would lock, which Nikolai had overlooked, stood +the cigar-box that did duty as a cash-box, with a few coppers in it. + +The acquaintance between Mrs. Holman and Barbara, too, was already +renewed, with the secret about Silla preserved on Barbara's side. + +Mrs. Holman--she lived only in the street below--had come up, while +Barbara was standing on her steps in the evening, to look at her new +surroundings by the light of the just completed shop-window. And then +she must not pass an old acquaintance's door. She must come in and have +a cup of coffee--it was standing clearing on the hob, if she would +condescend. + +Mrs. Holman might very well have had her own opinion about a good deal +that she saw in there, but she preferred, while she drank her coffee, +to give Barbara some idea of the series of dispensations which she had +passed through since Holman died. + +"Oh no, don't turn your cup up yet! _One_ more, Mrs. Holman." + +Mrs. Holman drank a third cup too, without becoming at all less +melancholy. Her quiet, cold grey eyes had looked and explored while she +talked, and sucked in observations of Barbara's open-handed, profuse +management, like pipe-clayed fat. But when she left, she had, with many +cautious reservations, and in the hope that Barbara's wares would stand +the test in the long run, expressed her inclination to remove her custom +to Barbara. + +Mrs. Holman's Silla was just standing at the counter--she wanted a pint +of groats to take home with her--when Barbara, who was measuring them +out, suddenly saw Ludvig Veyergang at the door. + +He had seen Barbara before, and as he passed the door twice a day now, +he nodded to her whenever she showed herself on the steps. But so +friendly as he was to-day! Barbara was quite softened, and very nearly +called him Ludvig, he was so lively and playful about her shop. He stood +looking with half-closed eyes, and laughing at Silla, who grew redder +and more bashful, and only tried in her confusion to get the bag of +groats out of Barbara's hand. He had taken his straw hat off his curly +hair for the heat, and looked so nice and handsome. + +Silla hardly dared look up at him, and only heard something about +freckles not being anything to mind when one had such dark eyes, when, +with head in advance, she rushed out of the door. + +Barbara's opinion afterwards about Silla's behaviour--her having all at +once turned crimson, and rushed away at a few innocent words from such a +well-meaning and handsome man as Ludvig Veyergang--her son heard the +same evening. A young girl ought to stand modestly, and not go on like +that: if she did, it was a sure way of getting all that could be called +man-folk at her heels. + +Was she anything for Nikolai--that awkward, dark, long girl, who ran +about in that bodice that was too short for her, looking like a +half-peeled, bent prawn in the back, and went balancing along the edge +of the gutter, as if she were going to be a tightrope dancer--without +any education? Upon her word, if it had been any other than Ludvig +Veyergang, she would have had him peeping after her at every corner. + +"But, do you know, Nikolai, it suddenly came into my head while he stood +there, that here was the person who both could and would help me with +those fifteen dollars I still want so badly. But he was gone before I +could collect myself." + +"Him? N--no, mother! I'll get them for you, if you'll only wait a +little; and I think you can use my money as well as his." + +"Well, if I hadn't got you, Nikolai!" sighed Barbara, moved; "and now +you shall have some coffee that's good, and new cinnamon-sticks with it, +that I didn't get sold to-day." + +"No, thanks all the same, mother," he answered, gloomily: he was already +at the door. + +Later in the evening he succeeded in meeting Silla. She was so merry and +laughing this evening. + +"I ran away; didn't look at him at all. Would you have liked me to stay, +perhaps?" she said, playfully. + +He was disarmed for the moment, she laughed so confidingly. + +But as he went down, he still saw Veyergang's insolent, half-closed +eyes, and the curl coming out beneath his hat, and--he could not help +it--he felt as if it were twined round his finger! + +That she chattered so gaily did not please him, nor yet that whenever he +made time to go up in the evening she came down breathless from the +garden, and was always full of whether young Veyergang had been there or +not, what he had said, and what she had thought, and whether Kristofa +had afterwards agreed or disagreed with her. It was as if she could not +talk of anything else! + +Yet it was not so bad, he supposed, so long as it was she herself who +chattered and talked about it to him. + +But the perspiration would stream from him in the smithy, when he stood +and thought about it all up there. He felt as though he were under a +screw. + +Why should not the poor man's possession be left in peace? Here he was +toiling away, and would give every drop of blood in his body to be able +to marry; and that other one, who had his pockets full, and could have +any fine lady for the asking--they were worse than wild beasts and +murderers! And amidst all this the time was passing. + +He had blessed both the autumn mud and darkness, which put an end to all +the running about in the evening; and now winter days and snow had come. +When he reckoned up--and he was always reckoning--he found that by the +New Year he would be worth seventy-five specie-dollars--what he had +almost starved himself to save--and of these his mother had had +forty-five, and since then thirteen more. He had made a half bargain +about a room with a kitchen at a fair price per month, and what he +wanted for the house, too. The last time he had lent his mother money, +she had said that he need not be afraid, she was selling the goods and +sweeping in the profits. + +Everything was in order, so the battle with Mrs. Holman had better be +fought at once. And when he laid before her his journeyman's +credentials, his seventy-five dollars, and his regular earnings, with +the advance he was to have from the New Year at Hægberg's, she would +have to be so kind as to give in. + +It was on one of the days between Christmas and the New Year that he +went up to his mother to let her know that he must have his money out in +February. Then he would go to Mrs. Holman. + +It struck him that his mother was rather confused and forgetful while +she made the coffee. + +She thought she was half crazy to-day, she said; but he should have his +coffee, and Christmas should not pass without his having something good; +it had not been the custom where she was brought up. + +Oh, dear! So Nikolai wanted his money back already. She had grown so +forgetful, that she had not remembered that it was so soon. And just +before Christmas she had had to settle a bill for coffee and sugar +which, upon her word, she had not thought or known would come in until +after the fair or at Midsummer! But he need not be afraid; she knew well +enough where she could get the money, if she liked to tie on her bonnet +and go out after it. + +"So drink, Nikolai; it's as strong as a rock. It isn't Christmas more +than once a year, as they say in the country. I believe you're afraid. +For your money? Oh, no; never you fear! If your mother, Barbara, has +promised anything, she'll keep it; so you may be easy. So nice as Ludvig +was to me the last time he was in here--it was only the afternoon of +Little Christmas Eve.[4] Barbara needn't be at a loss for a few pence +when I say my son wants them. Oh, dear no! Now, Nikolai, don't look like +that. Don't you hear you shall have it? My goodness, how you do look at +me!" + +[Footnote 4: The day before Christmas Eve proper.] + +He said nothing, only sat still a long time, and Barbara thought it was +getting oppressively quiet. She tried first one thing and then another. + +"I'll try it directly after New Year. I would never have borrowed your +money if I'd known it would be like this." + +"No, mother. You must pay me the money when you can; I won't press you +for it. But if you try to beg it from Ludvig Veyergang, we are parted +for this world, and as far as I get into the next, too! So now you know, +mother. And many thanks for the wedding this time, both from me and +Silla!" and he pulled open the door. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN + + +If Silla had not come like a wedge between the bark and the wood, how +comfortably and free from care Barbara could have lived now. She had no +one but Silla to thank that she was now deprived of all the help she +might and--it was her firm conviction--ought to have had in her son +Nikolai, with the regular earnings he might have put, every single week, +into the till; which, for some reason or other, never would exhibit the +amount it ought to have done. + +It was not improbable that Barbara, after the fashion of country people, +forgot to take into account the articles that went towards the +nourishment of her own weighty person. On the other hand her ever ready +hospitality with the coffee-pot was not without its savour of +trade-policy--what she gave away was only to be looked upon as seed +which would bring forth a hundredfold in the shape of customers. + +Barbara's room was thus becoming the meetingplace for all the gossiping +forces of the neighbourhood. + + * * * * * + +The posts in the fences had snow hats on, and snow-drifts lay by the +roadside and on the fields. + +One afternoon, when the sledges were creaking outside in the cold, and +the door too, whenever anybody came in, Mother Taraldsen, who cupped +people and applied leeches, and tall Mother Bækken were sitting and +enjoying a cup of steaming hot coffee with loaf-sugar. + +Mother Taraldsen was holding forth on the subject of bad liquids and +ruined times, and how every trade was going down-hill, while Mother +Bækken, getting more and more full of objections, put her head on one +side, and stirred up her cup. + +"I can remember a little of the old times too, and I don't know if they +were any better, though every one is welcome to have his opinion, of +course," here the long, yellow face with the eyes blinking with their +own meaning, was laid almost across the cup; "but the day has grown +longer for workmen now. Just think how they sat in the dark in the farms +and cottages with pine-torches in the fireplace to cut and spin by; and +there lay the lads the whole long winter through, and idled and yawned +in their beds from three or four in the afternoon until they had to go +out with a lantern and see to the horses for the night. But paraffine +has got them out of their beds. It's as if we had the sun the whole +winter now, and people can see to earn a few pence." + +"Yes, but everything hasn't got right in that way either, when they sit +and play cards and gamble and drink at the public-houses." + +"That's not oil, that's gas! But that's good for something, too, both in +the street lamps and up in the factory." + +"And for drunkenness and dancing and wickedness." + +Mother Bækken made a bend down to her cup with the side of her cheek and +her chin, and up again in order to contradict in her most ingenious +manner. But just then Anne Graves came in to the counter--it was she who +kept the churchyard in order--and then one must be careful what one +says. + +Thank you kindly! She had no objection to a warm cup of coffee in this +cold. She had had a busy day to-day with the big funeral; they must have +heard all the ringing at dinner-time. He was an excellent man. She +enlarged, by the plundering of diverse fragments of the funeral sermon, +upon his worth and importance as a man and a citizen of the town. There +had been speeches and such countless black hats and flowers, that the +coffin was quite hidden. Yes, that was the third they had taken in since +the New Year, she uttered with a sigh. + +"You never know what sort of people you have among you, until they are +dead," remarked Mother Bækken. "If he had been the poor man's friend, +they could have sung and trumpeted a little about it while he lived. +Perhaps that's turned the wrong way, but--" she slowly, and with +increasing expression, bent her face over her cup. + +Mother Bækken must always have her own interpretations, so Mother +Taraldsen discreetly warded off a disturbance of the peace by striking +into the very middle of the manufacturing part of the town. She had come +up the streets yesterday evening with a covered cup containing leeches, +and you might really think that if, all that long way up from the +chemist's, you had escaped rogues and robbers, you ought to go free up +here. But there came those great, grown-up girls, flying one after +another along a slide down the street, screaming and shouting, so that +it was enough to knock people down. So she had dropped the cup with all +five leeches in it, and if it had not been moonlight so that she could +see to pick them up again on the snow, she would have lost every single +one. It was that Josefa and Gunda and Kalla down the street, and that +long Silla--she came along like a ghost. Ah, Mrs. Holman, who is so +particular, should see what sort of a daughter she has, when it gets +dark. + +Barbara nodded to herself, and thought that Nikolai should just hear +what people said. + +"I must really go out and look at them one evening, yes indeed. Well, +that about the leeches I disapprove of entirely and altogether, I must +confess. But young blood must have movement in some way, and may I +ask,"--here Mother Bækken laid one fore-finger upon the other--"have +they any way of amusing themselves, if they must _not_ dance, and _not_ +slide, and _not_ toboggan?" + +But now Mother Taraldsen grew angry. + +"If it's proper for respectable young girls to tear about and make a +row, it must be the new fashion that Mother Bækken's preaching about. If +you kept a careful watch at the corners, you might perhaps see that +there were those who were out to meet the flock of geese." + +"Then it would be better if you came down on _them_ instead of the poor +girls," replied Mother Bækken obstinately; "a man like that clerk down +at the contractor's, and him at the Stores, and then that fine clerk, +that Veyergang up at the factory and his friends." + +Barbara was standing at the counter with a customer. + +Nobody must say anything against her Ludvig. She knew him; she had been +with him day and night for fourteen years. If she only had a halfpenny +for every time he had cried and screamed for Barbara! + +She would have enlarged upon the subject, if it had not been for the man +at her back who was calling out for his soft soap. + +So cup-and-leech-Mother Taraldsen went on, saying that the girls stood +poking their heads out of every single gate the whole way up the street; +she saw it so well when she came home from applying leeches of an +evening. + +She and Anne Graves then began to review the young people more closely. +There were some they would not even mention, and some they named with +all sorts of interesting doubts and opinions, and lastly some they only +stopped to wonder that they had nothing whatever to say either about or +against. + +As to Barbara, she noticed carefully what was said about Silla, and made +up her mind that Nikolai should be warned; he should at any rate know +what he was doing when he went and took that girl. + +And neither was it with a diminishing-glass she let him see it, as time +after time she referred to all the dangers the young factory-girls up +there were exposed to. She had sufficient instinct not to mention Silla, +so that he should not think she was speaking against her. But every time +she touched upon it, she saw well, that it went into Nikolai, and had +fully the effect she wished. + +Barbara had made some of these remarks this evening too, and Nikolai was +sitting gloomily listening to the noise outside. + +One party after another was flying past down the high-road on sledges, +like shadows in the moonlight, with shouts and cries--half-grown lads +and lassies, and now and then a party of fine people from the town +below. One tall lad, with the rope over his shoulder and his heels +digging into the hillside, was dragging a wood-sledge up, with a heavy +load of girls upon it. + +Nikolai could not help keeping watch through the kitchen window, and +left his mother, who sat inside by the paraffins lamp, without any +answer. + +They were Kristofa and Kalla, those two who were standing there in the +street talking, while they slid backwards and forwards the whole time on +a little bit of ice. They were waiting for somebody--Silla perhaps; they +were standing close by her street. It was a question which of them would +dare to venture in and be so bold as to ask Mrs. Holman with many "dear, +kind, goods" if she would allow Silla to go over to her for a little +while this evening--always untruthfulness and disorder! + +There was another sledge party with fine hats and glowing cigars +standing laughing just outside. + +Barbara stopped her knitting-pins to listen. + +"We have this noise every evening till quite late," she remarked, "as +long as the moon shines on the road." + +He turned hot all over. If Silla were to get into this, then he might as +well lay both himself and his hammer down. + +Yes, there she was looking about at the corner for her two friends. + +"Good evening, old lady," said he, suddenly coming out of the door. + +"Is that you, Nikolai?" exclaimed Silla, in surprise. "Have you seen +anything of Kristofa and Kalla? I did so want to speak to them! Haven't +you? Do you know how I got out? I was only going to get the cat in for +the night. I chased it out myself, and hid it so nicely under the wooden +tub out in the shed. If only it doesn't mew." + +She looked round again eagerly, while the elongated shadow across the +snow imitated her slender figure and swaying movements. + +"Oh, and they promised to wait for me!" + +"Well, I suppose they've only gone." + +"Only? They thought I was going out with them this evening, and if they +haven't been here already, they may perhaps stand and wait, for I must +go in, you see, or else I shall have mother coming out into the street +after me. Listen, Nik! If you were nice "--she took hold of his jacket, +and pushed him backwards and forwards--"you would find them and tell +them--can you tell them properly?--that I must be good and stay at home +this evening, but hurrah for a holiday to-morrow and the day after! Say +that mother will be washing at the Antonisens' the whole of the end of +the week, and they'll quite understand it. But be sure you find them, +Nikolai, so that they won't blame me." + +Nikolai was not insensible to her amiability, nor yet to her liveliness +and prettiness; but it had just the opposite effect. While she stood +pulling his jacket, he heard the voices on the high-road all the time. + +"That's it, that's it! You want to get quite free now, Silla. Well, just +let them drag you out among them! But that a respectable girl will let +herself be drawn into such goings on!" he added, out of humour. + +"A respectable girl? Respectable girl! May I ask what sort of fun she is +to have then? I really wonder, Nikolai, that you didn't find a +respectable girl for yourself who would walk with her back like a poker, +and her arms under her shawl, and who only lets herself slide by +accident as it were, when she comes to a slide--daren't even look out of +the corner of her eye at a hand-sledge, because she's so well-behaved! +It was a respectable one like that you ought to have had. And then, when +you were standing hammering all day in the smithy, and she was deep in +her work standing on all fours with her head behind the wash-tub at +home, I suppose that would be as you would like to have it. But I can +tell you, Nikolai, that if there isn't to be any fun in this world, then +good-bye and be rid of it. I've had to sit shut up long enough at home." + +He shook his head. "If only there weren't all those wolves howling away +there on the road. But you see, they want to amuse themselves too; +and--and the insignificant ones have to take care of what they have, it +seems to me--and if you're of the same mind, Silla, we'll go in to your +mother at once--this very moment." He took her by the hand to carry out +his intention. + +"You must be mad, Nikolai," she exclaimed in terror; the resolution was +as terrible as it was unexpected. "No, no, let it be," she begged in an +eager whisper. "Think of mother! Have you quite forgotten what mother is +like? It will be time enough when we've got something to marry on." + +"Time enough? No, it's not time enough for me, Silla. I must try and get +it said now." + +"And what will happen to me at home afterwards? And you're not dressed +for it either, this evening." + +"Oh, don't be afraid, Mr. Nikolai. I may as well see with my own eyes +how highly my daughter condescends to respect her mother who is left a +poor defenceless widow." + +It was Mrs. Holman's own voice; she was standing in the gateway, looking +preternaturally large. + +"I thought I had gone through the worst that could be, when Holman died, +and that I should be spared the pain of catching my own flesh and blood +out, without leave, in conversation in the street, in the middle of the +snow. Neither should I have thought that that person would ever presume +to come so near my house. Just you come in with me, Silla. Come in, do +you hear--at once!" + +If any one could have gathered up the component parts of Mrs. Holman's +last screaming treble, he would have found a wealth of emotions: injured +motherly dignity, wrath, contempt, hatred, and something heavy, which +was meant to have a crushing effect, and really did almost make Silla +fall on her knees; she stood there without moving. + +Nikolai had become a little hardened, however, since the old days; he +knew now that there were others of whom he was more afraid than he was +of Mrs. Holman. He was not affected by her. + +"I must ask to be allowed to come in, however, ma'am, for I didn't come +here this evening to stand out in the snow. It is to you yourself I want +to speak." + +"Perhaps it's no longer than can be said here where we stand," answered +Mrs. Holman, rudely. "Come here, Silla!" + +"Oh no, it's not very long; but then I must explain one or two things +that belong to it." + +As Mrs. Holman still continued to bar the gateway and only beckoned +again to her daughter, Silla, in her despair and terror, suddenly made +her choice. There was nothing for it but to shut her eyes and stand by +Nikolai, and she took his arm boldly. + +"Yes, ma'am, that's it, as you see. We hold together as we have done +ever since we were little. And I came this evening to ask for her, and +to ask if we could have the benefit of your leave and consent. For with +my credentials and good wages, and when I never drink and--" + +Silla now acted with the courage of despair; she pushed Nikolai so that +they all three--Mrs. Holman yielding half involuntarily--came through +the gate and from thence into the room where the battle was then fought. + +While Silla sat with her hands before her face on a chair in the dark +and Nikolai, with quiet persistency continued to plead his case, and +make as manifest as possible how he now had a prospect of becoming +foreman and could provide for Silla, Mrs. Holman assumed a mightily +offended, repellant attitude. She employed her whole power; she bridled, +and she was wrathful, and she exhibited the most extreme astonishment. +It almost looked as if he thought he could really take her daughter from +her, whether she said yes or no. What was there left for an elderly +woman to live on, when her husband was dead, and her daughter who could +keep her, refused, because she thought of marrying a smith who could not +so much as show that he had a wedded father? + +She was on the point of rising in defence to the death of her maternal +rights, when a light suddenly dawned upon her. Her eyes began to gaze +into a perspective of the future. If Nikolai ever came to justify the +great words and promises he was now making, she might, in case of the +worst, when the time came, claim an asylum with them. + +This thought, however, did not prevent her from selling every +concession, with deep sighs, as dearly as possible. + +She must say she had thought of something quite different for Silla. +And, however it might be, she would not hear of any gadding about or +sweet-hearting until Nikolai could show as much ready money as Holman +had done. + +He had had a hundred dollars and his good wages, and when Nikolai could +lay as much money on the table in front of her eyes, it would be time to +talk about it. + +A hundred dollars--that was something decided at last. He held her in a +vice with that. + +That was the feeling which filled him when, a little while after, he +sprang right across the snowdrift to shorten the way, and knocked at +Barbara's door. He must have some one to tell it to--that Mrs. Holman +had acquiesced in Silla's having in this way promised herself to him. + +It was exactly the same view of her well-considered advantage that +occurred to Barbara while she lay that night collecting herself after +the news. She raised her large person up in bed under the influence of +the brilliant idea: + +Why, then, she could live with Nikolai! + +This grocery business was completely eating her up--it did not enter her +head that she was eating _it_ up. + +She suddenly felt quite clear as to her whole position; how it would be +best both for her and Nikolai that she should give up the shop in time, +and how instead she could be of unspeakable use in helping the totally +inexperienced Silla to manage the house, and perhaps earn a few pence at +other houses. And she had never heard but that a son was bound to +provide for his mother. + +The following Sunday Mrs. Holman drank coffee at Barbara's; but as Mrs. +Holman was silent about what had taken place, Barbara was silent too. +Only once she led the conversation up to her son Nikolai, and thought +that possibly in the autumn, when the room next door was empty, he might +move into it. It would not be too much, when it was remembered how they +had always been separated. + +Why Mrs. Holman at that moment became thoughtful, pursed up her mouth +and said: "Thank you," she would not have any more coffee! and somewhat +unexpectedly shortened her visit, shall be left untold. It can only be +stated, that from that moment, a silent contest began between them under +water--under the most friendly form, it must be added, for Mrs. Holman's +sake if for nothing else. + +The coffee visits continued, if possible, with greater frequency, and +Barbara as well as Mrs. Holman discussed and talked over every possible +subject, except the one that lay nearest to their hearts--their own +personal plans in connection with Nikolai and Silla. On that point they +watched each other in diplomatic silence, like two chess-players of whom +the one dare not move until he has seen through the other one's +intention; Mrs. Holman, in the middle of some strictly reserved opinion, +taking in everything with her precise, little face and cold grey eyes, +and seeing it all clear and small as if through the bottom of a tumbler; +and Barbara, round, hospitable, large and fat, with great, overflowing +features, and generally talking about her time at the Consul's. + +But during all this, there was one thing upon which each of them became +always more and more decided--if she could not live with them herself, +she would at any rate put a stop to the other coming and filling up the +house. + +The two future mothers-in-law were each occupied to the best of their +ability in making it impossible for the other; but of this quietly +calculated conflict which was going on in the ground far below them, +Nikolai and Silla had no suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A RISE IN LIFE + + +Since Mrs. Holman had seen what Silla could busy herself with--she was +quite struck with amazement at her own blindness--she had become far +more strictly attentive, and also much more on the lookout and watch +against Nikolai. + +The fruits of idleness had unfortunately revealed themselves, and there +was no other remedy for them than to watch conscientiously and see that +Silla worked. She must really set about something that there was some +use and help in, all through the long light spring evenings, and not +just run for the milk, or out when any one came and asked if she might. + +Nikolai soon found that the situation was far from being improved after +he was acknowledged in the quality of wooer. But notwithstanding that he +saw no more of her than a short glimpse now and then, a great step in +advance had actually been made. He had now only to work hard, and that +he did manfully; the hammer worked, in his hands, as if by steam. + +In some ways, too, he was re-assured, for if Mrs. Holman watched against +him so carefully, this same watchfulness was a security against others, +too. It was well to know that she was no longer to be found up there +among those giddy girls in the evening. A cold shiver ran down his back +when he one day met young Veyergang coming out of his mother's. He only +looked indifferently at Nikolai with half-closed eyes, when they met in +the doorway, as if he did not quite remember him, and then asked Barbara +over his shoulder, with a nod at Nikolai: "Is that the fellow?" and went +out: + +"What's he been doing here, mother?" + +"Nothing." + +"Have you been borrowing money of him?" he continued sharply. + +"Of course not. Not a penny, though I do need it so badly." + +"What was he talking about?" + +"He wanted to light his cigar, as he so often does when he goes down +this way. Surely that can't do you any harm! And it wouldn't be much +good forbidding him to do it either, I should think--either for me or +for you!" She added the last words red with anger. + +"No, I certainly can't forbid him, mother. But remember, if you borrow +of him, everything is at an end between us!" + +"Oh, Nikolai, you are so quick-tempered. No, of course not; I shouldn't +think of borrowing!" As she spoke she turned round and pushed something +she had in her hand into her bosom. "No, of course not!" + +"I could hear he had been talking about me." + +"No, indeed, how could you think so?" + +"Yes he was, mother," he persisted, gloomily. + +"About you? Oh, well, I was telling him a little about how hard you were +working now to get together those few shillings for Mrs. Holman." +Barbara talked rather confusedly. + +"And perhaps about Silla, too?" he asked searchingly. + +"Oh, no! he knew all about that before. I'm not the only one who knows +about it in this gossiping place, and, upon my honour, Nikolai, it +didn't come from me--not to-day," she added. + +"I wouldn't have minded if you had said it then; it would be a good +thing for that fellow to know that she is an engaged girl." + +"Isn't that just what I said? Only he didn't believe it." + +"No, I dare say not!" Nikolai stood at the window reflecting. This visit +of Veyergang's! + +He had enough noise and worry just now down at the smithy. It was just a +question whether he should not be made a foreman. Old Mrs. Ellingsen had +sent for him several times on this account, and it looked as if it were +almost settled. + +Things had been in this condition for some time; there was no great need +of hurry in coming to a determination, as the situation was not to be +filled until the autumn. + +Lately, however, it had seemed to Nikolai that Mrs. Ellingsen was +behaving rather strangely. He noticed, too, that they were talking and +making a great deal of fuss in the smithy; but it did not strike him +that it might be Mrs. Ellingsen's intention to draw back, until one day +when one of the men remarked scornfully that he did not suppose there +was any one in the smithy who would think of supplanting Olaves. If any +one did, he would have to look out for himself, for they would all stick +to Olaves. + +Nikolai knew well that they frowned at him because he was always hard at +work, saved up his pence, and firmly refused to join the others in a +glass of beer or a dram. + +He was without a companion. And now, when this foreman's question hung +in the balance, he noticed that the whole of his past life was stirred +and dug up again till it was as thick as the grounds in a +coffee-cup--from the old police and fighting story right back to his +childhood's days among the timber-stacks. + +These old stories were Nikolai's smarting wounds. He was always thinking +they were forgotten, and they were always coming up again, and now it +was insupportable suffering. He endeavoured not to betray it by a look; +but he was by no means in a good temper as he stood there. + +The sooner he got to know from Mrs. Ellingsen how it was to end the +better; and Nikolai was soon standing with his cap in his hand in her +room, to ask what he might depend upon. + +It took a long time, with many "h'ms" and "ha's" before she managed to +get her spectacles off and the wires put properly into her hair again. +Then at last it came out with some hesitation. She meant no offence; she +knew he was a good smith enough; but there were so many who knew Olaves +to be such an honest, good fellow, and she was an old woman who needed +some one whom she could thoroughly trust--no offence meant to +Nikolai--but she must consider the matter. + +That was the answer he received, and with it his prospects, that he had +counted upon and shown to Mrs. Holman when he asked for Silla's hand, +were destroyed. + +The next day when he came into the smithy they all smiled and tittered. +They knew he had been to Mrs. Ellingsen and had got his answer. But if +they thought they could tease or frighten him into giving it up, they +were very much mistaken. + +Olaves behaved as if nothing was the matter, and even civilly offered a +helping-hand in breaking the bar-iron. + +Nikolai only turned his back on him. + +"I never meddle with any other man's work, and I don't advise any one to +worm himself into my affairs," he said, "unless he wants a dressing that +will make his back as hot as that red iron there!" he added, with a +glance at Olaves. + +There was a general silence. + +But at dinner-time there was a great deal of talking and fuss about this +affair. Every one had heard how Nikolai had threatened Olaves, and +Olaves, as a precaution, found witnesses for his words. + +"He looked as if he could use the sledge-hammer to something besides +forging bolts, that fellow, if he could do it without witnesses!" + +They might talk as much as they liked for all that Nikolai cared; he did +his work, and never heard that Hægberg had anything to complain of. He +was prepared for a disappointment now. + +There was one thing, though, that he would do before he gave in--go +straight to Hægberg and speak out, and then the master could give his +testimony as to which he wanted, if Mrs. Ellingsen asked him. + +The final answer from Mrs. Ellingsen was delayed week after week: at +last it was two months. + +What could the old woman mean? The whole smithy wondered--she must have +a foreman by the autumn. + +At last, one morning it appeared in the shape of a message. + + * * * * * + +It was drawing on towards evening one broiling hot summer day. In both +floors of the grey wooden house in which Mrs. Holman lived, the +small-paned windows stood open, drinking in the slight coolness there +was in the air, while the dwellers within went about their occupations +more or less lightly clothed. A faint breath only now and again stirred +the half transparent curtains, or the white clothes hanging on lines +across the yard. + +At the window on the ground floor just above the entrance to the cellar, +stood a slender, dark-eyed young girl with turned-up sleeves, busy at +the water tap under which she had a wash-tub full of clothes. Her head +could be seen now above, now below the short blind, cooled and refreshed +by the cold rush of water. + +Suddenly she stopped in surprise. + +Nikolai entered with his flat cap pushed triumphantly on one side. + +"The world's right enough, I can tell you, Silla. The only thing is to +see that everything is properly in order from the very beginning. He who +hasn't got a father, must be his own father, you know!" + +"But Nikolai! Did you know mother was out?" + +"Pooh! What is there that I don't know! My mother told me just now that +it was one of the washing days at Antonisens. But you see, Silla, it's +beginning to get late, and--if you'd like to know--I've been invited +to-day to be foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's. That'll be only ten dollars a +month more!" + +"Foreman? Is it true, Nikolai?" She retreated from the wash-tub, looking +doubtfully at him. "Come here with your smutty face!" she said, hastily +pulling the clothes out of the tub. "You are so awfully black! Foreman, +did you say? No, is it really true? Oh, you must put up with a little +splashing; I can't see the foreman for coal-soot! Then Mrs. Ellingsen +didn't ask Olaves first?" + +"No, she didn't." + +"And no one put out their tongue or made Mrs. Ellingsen afraid of you, +as they did before?" + +"Oh, Hægberg must have let her know that he hadn't taken any harm from +me." + +"If only they don't begin again and do what they can. For your getting +in front of them stings and chafes and torments every one of them, ever +since that time when you had to do those wheel pivots over again for +Olaves. And then they dig up all the old stories they can find." + +"Oh no! The world's right enough, I tell you, and Mrs. Ellingsen must +take the smith who works her smithy best. Besides it's as fixed as a +vice, and the contract signed this morning. And it's pretty badly +needed, for the money that mother borrowed last, it--it--whu!"--he +whistled--"has gone the same way as the rest. It disappears like smoke +with her. It seems to me she trades backwards instead of forwards, and +that the profits go the wrong way." + +"Now you're so nice and clean, that you shine. That way with your hair +or else the cock's-comb will stand up too much." + +"I rushed straight out of the smithy, you see, to come up here and cram +it into you. I went in to mother first, and then I promised her to go +down and buy some mackerel for supper. Two smacks have come in to-day, +they say." + +Silla's face showed that this was a great piece of news. They were both +natives of the town, and the arrival of the mackerel brought with it a +number of pleasant recollections and pictures from the time when they +lived in the square down by the wharves. + +She looked a little undecided. + +"What if I put on my shawl and went with you!" she exclaimed. "Wait for +me down below, Nikolai, so that we don't go together in the street up +here!" + +It was a proposal that it was not easy to resist, she was so eager about +it. And then he had been made foreman to-day! + +She was not long in putting on her blue-striped dress and a shawl over +her head and following him. + +They hastened down together; she chattering gaily as in the old days +when they had stolen out, he quite taken up with looking at and +listening to her. They walked in the middle of the road, anything but +carefully; clouds of dust arose at every step, but Nikolai only saw +Silla, dark-eyed, warm and gay in the middle of it all. + +Down in the town that warm summer evening, the streets were unusually +busy about the fish-place. There was evidently something that occasioned +more life and movement than usual. The bridge was full of people hanging +over the railings and looking down at all those who were pushing their +way forwards amid noise, shouts and cries to get a mackerel for their +supper. + +This greenish-blue, shining fish, so round and strong and quick, +sea-built for lightning speed, its head formed for cleaving the water, +and an elastic arrow-feather as the termination to an almost dangerously +slender tail--it had already been glittering for two days on the stalls +in the fish-market. + +Even as late as yesterday morning it was a rarity, and only for the +tables of the wealthier, but later in the afternoon another smack came +in,--there had been a large haul out by the Hval Islands--and to-day two +more loaded vessels, so that the market was over-stocked. + +Yes, indeed, the mackerel had come--that is to say, the mackerel that +the working-man can buy. It was to be had now for two-pence or two-pence +halfpenny apiece, both on the fish-market and up the river here. The +women, who speculated, carried them in baskets up to all the most +out-of-the-way parts of the town. + +It found its way now everywhere, where there was only a hole for it to +slip into, a kettle or a pan for it to be boiled or fried in--into all +the galleys in the harbour, from the large, superior steamship or +full-rigged vessel, down to the cooking-stoves on the timber sloops and +the little decked barges, where people were resting, and broiling it in +the summer evening, into all the back blocks and small streets from the +cellars to the garrets. Workmen and small tradesmen, husbands and wives +were going that sultry evening with one, two, or three in their hand, +according to the number of mouths there were at home. There was a smell +of fried and broiled mackerel over whole quarters of the town. + +It _must_ be sold, it was so confoundedly hot! + +"Yes, indeed, it is a blessed warmth," answered deaf Mother Andersen, +"that sends all this mackerel over the town." + +This fish has had a prejudice to overcome, although in all modesty it +has solicited nothing but the favour of being allowed to escape being +eaten. It has the reputation of being the cannibal of the North Sea--in +plain words, a man-eater, and that the dark part of its flesh comes from +drowned sailors. + +Nikolai and Silla were also down at the boats to seize their share of +the glory of the evening. Silla had not lived near the wharves in her +childhood for nothing, and to pick out the best fish from under the very +nose of the old women, was an easy matter for her. She stood eagerly +bargaining and stretching out over the boat. + +"Thanks very much, mother, but you won't fool me into taking that +sunburnt mackerel skin! Take some of those that are lying behind there +under the thwart--those two--yes, just those." + +She weighed them in her hand to see if they were firm and stiff. + +Nikolai's hand was already in his pocket; but Silla threw the mackerel +contemptuously into the boat again. + +"Why, they're as old as the hills! Eyes as dead as horn!" + +"Those beautiful--" + +"Be quiet, Nikolai! If we are to be satisfied with these for supper, +mother, you'll have to take off a farthing or two." + +In the end they went for two-pence a piece. + +"What a fine trader you are, Nikolai!" she said to tease him, on the way +home. "But do you see how big and fresh they are?" + +Barbara was standing on the steps, shading her eyes with her hand, and +looking to see if Nikolai were not soon coming with the fish. + +The person she did see coming quietly and sedately up the road was +Silla, and she chatted with her from the steps until Nikolai also at +last appeared with the two mackerel. + +Of course Silla must come in and see how they tasted; there was no +question of Barbara's honour and superabundant hospitality putting up +with anything else. + +In there on Barbara's cooking-stove the mackerel hissed and broiled that +light evening. The peculiar, rather pungent smell of frying grew +stronger and more appetising as it went on. + +Then the pieces had to be turned with fresh fat in the pan--fresh +hissing! + +The scent floated out through the open window, and far into the street. + +Barbara was big and slow in turning, while Silla, quick and ready, put +now one thing, now another into her hands, and hurried away, and was +over the fish both with her face and her opinions, long before Barbara +could collect herself. + +Nikolai's broad, pleased face followed the whole of the frying process +with deeply interested attention. + +"That mackerel's the right sort of fellow for frying!" + +And then at last to take the pieces straight from the pan on to the +bread! + +The evening breeze began to blow cool between the warm house walls. The +three who sat there enjoying the mackerel, felt as if it were a festive +night. + +And foreman too! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WEDDING POSTPONED AGAIN + + +Confined as she was, and made to work through the long evenings, while +her mother watched her like an eagle, Silla's only chance of +indemnifying herself was up at the factory. + +She went about there with a suppressed longing and eager interest, her +eyes sparkling, in the midst of all the chattering, whispering and +gossiping among her different ideals--Kristofa and Gunda, active Swedish +Lena, and pert Jakobina. If she could not be with them herself, she +might at any rate hear what fun they had had, and all that had happened. +In this way she could live their life at second hand. + +It was of course Kristofa who knew how to put everything in a +captivating, magic light. A little walk, a possible engagement, an +evening at a dance, everything was moulded by her busy imaginative power +into events that never wanted a hero, that interesting, mystic being, +who was seen, now with a cigar, now without one, who sometimes pretended +he did not know them, sometimes nodded, or only smiled. The person in +question might be some town gentleman or other, or some one from one of +the offices up there, who often had not the faintest suspicion that his +coming and going was seen in Bengal illumination, or that it caused such +a flutter in their hearts; though this did not preclude others from both +suspecting and taking advantage of it. + +These, through Kristofa's habit of spinning, grew into little romances, +which Silla took in with wide-open eyes, and afterwards continued at +home. + +Silla herself had a little romance which she kept to herself: she would +not dare to tell it to Nikolai. + +She had to take care, when she went at dinner-time to buy anything for +her mother at Barbara's, that Veyergang had not gone in there on his way +down to light his cigar. + +The last time she had met him there, he laughed and asked whether the +black-eyed maid wanted to run away from him? He was not so very +terrible! She had completely vanished lately. He had heard that her +mother kept her in a cage for the sake of a dangerous smith--was that +true? When a young girl had two such black eyes, she ought not to hide +them away. + +And yet it was not altogether a warlike condition; but he knew very well +that she watched and waited, however long it might be, until he had left +the shop. + +All this was like a ray of sunlight through the high, barred paling. + +In other respects, one day passed like another, from the hum of the +factory into the work at home, and Mrs. Holman was quite satisfied with +the help she really must say she had of Silla this summer. That her +daughter grew more large-eyed, pale and thin, it was not in her nature +to attach much importance to; it only showed that Silla was not +accustomed to systematic work. + +On the rare occasions when Nikolai had an opportunity of speaking to +her, Silla complained sadly. + +She talked herself into such exasperation that she cried over everything +that the others--all the others--had leave to do, and only she had not. +To begin with, in her childhood, and all the time she was growing up, +she had been bottled up in that cellar in the square, and now, when she +was grown up, she had got into a regular workhouse! + +After having thought gloomily and sadly over this for a time, her +reflections took another course, and she began to anticipate impetuously +how they would amuse themselves, she and Nikolai, when once she got away +from home. She would have fun like all other young people, even if they +had to give a dance in their own room. And go out in a boat in the +evening and row and fish, and on Sundays take their dinner out into the +woods, and shout so loud that the hills would ring again. + +She was almost wild, and her eyes burned with all the pressure and work +that was put upon her. + +When she did not get excited with talking, she looked depressed--more so +every time, Nikolai thought. Her face seemed to him to wear such a +plaintive expression. + +There was nothing to be done but to set his teeth and hammer away, and +hope for release by the winter. + +Georgina Korneliussen in the next house but one, who sewed uppers for +the shoemaker--she was such a nice, quiet girl. Silla should make +friends with her, Mrs. Holman thought; it began to dawn upon her that +there are limits to being trained in one's duty. On Sundays they might +take it in turns to visit one another, for then they would be under +surveillance in both places. And Mrs. Holman even allowed Silla one +Sunday to go for a walk with Georgina down in the town. Young people +must have a little pleasure now and then. + +Silla had looked forward all the week to this Sunday with the passionate +impatience of a bird that is to be let out of its cage, and the morning +rose on great expectations of what the day would bring with it. + +It seemed as if the soup with swedes in it would never be ready, so that +they could have dinner. And afterwards there was endless waiting for +Georgina, who could not finish adorning herself. + +At last she came out, tightly laced, and with a strip of crochet in the +neck of her dress. What sort of oil or fatty substance she had plastered +down her hair with may be left unsaid; but Silla in her brown straw hat +and a plain white collar, felt for a moment insignificant beside her. +But she quickly took her friend's arm; now they were off to amuse +themselves! + +Down to the town they went, Silla impatiently champing the bit in her +desire to get there in time to take part in the day's pleasures. + +In the streets and the park at this respectable time in the afternoon, +crowds of people clad in their best were strolling up and down looking +at one another, and for a long time Silla and Georgina had enough to do +in directing one another's attention to the finest and most fashionable +dresses, and especially the long white flowing scarfs wound under the +chin and thrown over the shoulder. These, and white straw hats with +light blue or pink ribbons and roses, were the objects of their vehement +admiration. + +They went up and down, lost sight of and met again the same dresses, and +the same stiff quiet Sunday faces. + +This was repeated until it became wearisome, and Silla proposed that +they should go somewhere else, which, under Georgina's guidance, led to +a walk round the fortress. + +Nature was not their object; and they only met one or two tired, bored +individuals who evidently did not know what to do with themselves on +Sunday afternoon: now and then they stopped and looked up at the trees. + +A sentry called his long-drawn "Relieve guard!" It sounded like a mighty +yawn in the afternoon. Out on the calm, shining fjord lay boats and +vessels drifting in the breathless heat. + +There was nothing here, so they made their way down to the harbour. + +Here, too, was emptiness and Sunday desolation, the vessels seemed to +have died out. + +Another cruise up the street. + +On the market-place stood some unemployed forces, who had found a Sunday +amusement in exchanging watches,[5] while the bells of the church behind +them were ringing in the congregation to evening service. + +[Footnote 5: In Norway this is a pastime often resorted to by men on +holidays, when time hangs heavy on their hands. I have seen even old men +deeply absorbed in the examination of each other's watches, with a view +to their exchange.--_Trans_.] + +Tired, wearied, and thirsty, they continued their walk up the street +until they came into the motley stream of people who were wending their +way down to the piers, where the steamers were constantly coming in and +going out with passengers from and to the islands. + +Here a difference of opinion arose. + +Georgina thought there were so many people, and perhaps it was not +proper to go by the steamer, as it was beginning to grow late. + +But Silla thought that they had swallowed dust in the streets long +enough, and that they must make use of the little time they had. Was +Georgina going home satisfied with the pleasure she had already had? + +It was cool and airy sitting in the wind in the front of the boat and +resting themselves after the fruitless roaming in the heat. + +They went on shore from the crowded steamboat to the island, where the +people gradually dispersed along the various shady walks. + +Close to the way up from the pier, and commanding a view of the bay, +stood the great place of amusement, with all its gates invitingly open, +and the sound of dance-music floating out. Within was life and +merriment. + +Silla stopped to look in and listen to the music, but Georgina, highly +scandalised, pulled her on. + +Was that the place for a respectable girl to stop? + +Silla followed slowly; there was inspiriting dance-music brightening all +the path within the wooden paling, and she drank it in with both ears, +while the rhythm rocked in her veins. + +A little higher up, where the path turned off, she stopped again; she +could not leave the music, and scandalised Georgina by going right up to +the paling and trying to see in. + +Georgina would leave her that very minute! She ought to have so much +respect for herself as not to stand there! _She_ had, at any rate, and +cared too much for her good name even to want to listen to such a noise, +and would go a long way round to avoid it. + +She was extremely indignant. + +Silla could really not comprehend how it could take the gloss off either +of them if they stood there a little and listened; nor yet what they had +come out for. Just where there was a little life and gaiety they were to +shut their eyes and put their fingers in their ears. But where it was so +"nice and proper" it had not been particularly amusing; and she would +give her a new sixpence if Georgina could tell her of a "proper" +amusement when they had a holiday: they had been searching for one now +both long and carefully. + +She sauntered on. + +According to Georgina, there was still nice time before the evening +traffic to the place of amusement began, and they spent it in diverse +walks in the roads, though never so far that they could not keep an eye +on the steamers and be standing in good time among the crowd that was +thronging the pier. + +Tired, cross and footsore, they at last reached home late in the +evening, where Silla, in the middle of the account she was giving her +mother of all the places they had been to, fell asleep in her chair. + +The music was running in her head, and she dreamt she was at a ball. + + * * * * * + +There was a pleasant crackling in the stove at Barbara's in the chilly +autumn days, when people who could not afford it so well were loth to +begin fires. + +It was, therefore, very comfortable to stand about at her counter +talking, and still more so for the chosen few who were fortunate enough +to be invited to partake of a cup of coffee. + +But of late Barbara had not been nearly so even-tempered as formerly. +She suffered from changeableness of spirits, was sometimes unnaturally +stingy, so that it looked as if she wanted to count the groats or the +coffee-beans, at other times in a different mood, open-handed and +liberal to both guests and customers. + +Whatever the reason might be, it was certain that now and then in quiet +moments she would fall into a brown study. The bill for sugar, meal, +flour and coffee had come in again. + +The till was anything but prepared for such an achievement; it groaned +and rattled whatever time in the day she pulled it out or pushed it in. + +Time, however, went on inexorably, notwithstanding that the stove roared +so cheerfully as if nothing were the matter. + +And it had now gone so far that the day after to-morrow was the day for +payment. + +Barbara was in a--for her--most unnatural state of excitement. In the +hope of obtaining a very last, further postponement, she had this +afternoon carried out her long contemplated attack on the salesman down +in his office, but had met with a decided refusal. If she did not pay +now, after all she had promised, then--well, then, after the answer she +received, it looked as if the wheel would suddenly come to a standstill. + +It was this that Barbara, going feverishly in and out, with her best +bonnet still loosely tied upon her head, was explaining to Nikolai, who +was sitting in the kitchen. + +Nikolai's face did not look as if he saw any help for it. On the +contrary, he sat bending forward with compressed lips, looking down at +the floor and twirling his thumbs. His hair as well as the position of +his shoulders and his whole expression looked combative. + +Barbara sat down by the cooking-stove; she drew a heavy breath, and +sighed out of an oppressed breast. + +It would come to an execution as sure as she lived--and it was for +thirty-eight dollars! + +Nikolai knew well what she was coming to, and that she was only waiting +for him to give her a word that she could hang on to; but this money +that he had scraped together was held much faster. He knew what he +wanted, and this trade was only going farther and farther backwards, in +any case. + +Barbara groaned. She might as well go into the black ground at once. + +Nikolai only snapped his fingers and looked down, doubly decided, at the +crack in the floor. + +When the pause had become unbearable any longer, and she saw clearly +that no answer was coming, she began to cry softly. + +She _had_ thought, she sobbed, that when she had a son who was a smith's +foreman, she would not stand quite helpless in the world. + +"You know, mother, how badly I am in want of money myself." + +Again an obstinate silence, with continued sobbing and drying of eyes on +Barbara's side. + +"It might be as well to consider whether the shop really paid?" +suggested Nikolai at last cautiously. + +"Would he like her to give up like a cow to be slaughtered before +Christmas," she exclaimed angrily--"and no more money than that was!" + +"I only meant it would be better to stop in time." + +But these words had the effect of fire on gunpowder. She got up, as red +as a tile. Just so! Now _he_ wanted her to close! + +She rushed--in a manner somewhat recalling the useful animal just +mentioned by herself, when it is trying to get loose--into the shop and +back again. + +If Nikolai thought that she would give up and go bankrupt to be jeered +at by everybody, when she only needed to go down and borrow that little +of Ludvig, he was very much mistaken. + +Barbara was quite flushed. + +She would not let herself be ruined a second time for Nikolai's sake. It +was quite enough that he had injured her welfare once before in this +world. Yes, he need not sit and look at her with open mouth. What else +was she turned out of the Veyergangs' house for, where she had been so +important, if it was not because Nikolai had lifted his hand against the +Consul-General's Ludvig. Oh yes, he might wonder as much as he liked, +but that was why she had been driven out helpless into the world, from +comfortable circumstances. And then when an opportunity came for Nikolai +to support her a little, he had some one else to spend his money upon. + +But the most vexatious part of it was that Nikolai also wanted to forbid +her to apply to one who was as good as her own child, when there was the +necessity for it. + +She would pay no attention to that however. If _he_ would not help her, +he must put up with her going to one who could, now that it was a +question of closing the shop and the whole business. + +No, she swore she would not go bankrupt. And she struck the table so +that the coppers danced in the drawer. + +It was a good thing that it was this week, for next week he was going +abroad for two or three months; he had said so himself yesterday, so +that both she and Silla heard it. + +Nikolai sat quite pale. His mouth moved as if it were trembling, and he +wiped his forehead once or twice with his sleeve. + +He looked slowly up at his mother; it was as if he were afraid of +getting to hate her. + +"You shall have the money." + +He felt he was on the point of bursting into tears, and must get away to +have his rage out. + +It was another postponement for him and Silla until the spring. And +where was the end of it to be? + +His hand shook and fumbled with the door-handle. + +This fresh piece of information, which his mother had so unexpectedly +given Nikolai, that it was he who had destroyed her well-being, was like +yet another stone weighing him down. + +It crushed him like a moral defeat. He could not rid himself of the +thought that there was something in it. He felt his courage was +weakened, and he went about disheartened. + +He had lost another quarter as to his prospects of getting married, and +if his mother required or rather claimed money from him again for her +down-hill trade, what could he do? + +It was like work without hope, and despondency began to take hold of +him. + +When he put his shillings away in the tin box on Saturday, it was with +bitter thoughts. At any moment his mother might come and swallow the +whole of it--as she, of course, had a right to do, since he in his time +had wasted all hers. + +He had always thought that when it came to the point, it was he who had +a reckoning to demand of his mother, because she had brought him into +the world without being able to give him a father, and then let him go. + +But now it seemed to be just the other way. His mother, with her +all-consuming business, was the great, lawful gulf for all his +happiness. + +He began to be weary of it all. + +Amid all this there sometimes dawned and smouldered a faint glow of +rebellion within him, although, in his honest endeavour to come to the +bottom of the truth, it was some time before it blazed up. + +Should he let Silla go, too, into this same gulf? + +The answer blazed up clearly, so that the flames shone and flickered: + +"Not while there was a rag left of what was called Nikolai!" + +And with reference to his mother, and his having perhaps brought +misfortune upon her, should he not have hit out, but just let himself be +insulted and trampled upon, as he was going to be again now? His mother, +tall and big, would just squeeze them to death with that shop, both he +and Silla. They were not even to have leave or the right to sigh. + +But he would not have that. + +He had thrashed Veyergang, and only repented that he had not hit harder. +As he had come into the world, he would be a human being, even if he +were to have his head cut off for it afterwards. + +The shop up there should not be fattened with another penny out of the +tin box. If his mother ever came to want for food, she would always find +a place in his room; but that she should put a stop to his ever getting +a room of his own--no, thank you! + +He was like another man when he had at last made this clear to himself. +Yes, his name was Nikolai, and he was foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FAIR AND THE CONVICT + + +The winter was passing. + +It was at the time of the fair in the beginning of February. The streets +swarmed with people and the snow in the thaw had turned to powdered +sugar with the traffic. + +A motley row of stalls stretched from market-place to market-place. +Trumpets brayed, buffoons shouted, the lottery-wheel went round, the +cryers howled. Music filled the air in volleys of blustering flourishes, +and amidst it all, over the whole town, pleasure-seeking, dancing and +merriment, until far on into the night. + +Dull noise and the sound of music penetrated up to the manufacturing +part of the town. In the evenings the town lay beneath it in increased +illumination. + +There was a kind of intoxication in the air, and there was many an +impatient, longing soul up there of such as look severely upon +themselves, while plenty of the looser sort streamed down. + +From year to year the accounts grew of the large fair-balls, of the +trumpets, the coloured lamps in the garden, and the matadores who stood +treat. It was tempting and attractive. + +As early as the second day Kristofa came, excited and eager, with a +solution of the question as far as she and Gunda and Silla were +concerned--money for tickets and cakes too, for all three! + +She behaved most mysteriously, talked all the time of a certain person, +whom she dared not, for all the world, mention. + +Silla had never before been to anything of the kind, the most she had +ever done was to stand outside among the longing crowd, who had to +content themselves with looking at the coloured lamps and listening to +the music. Now at last there was a chance for her too. + +Oh, if she dared! + +She was restless the whole morning, and had two round red spots of +colour on her cheeks. + +At dinner-time her mother came up tired and out of breath from the town. + +She had had to promise the Antonisens to stand at their cake-stall on +the market-place through the fair-week and help sell. It was +hardly-earned money in the cold there and in the middle of all that +shouting and bawling; but she would do her duty, and not swerve from it +when there was a penny to earn. It would not be closed and packed up +before midnight, so she must stay down there these few nights. + +There was a buzzing and singing in Silla's ears; it was as if the door +were opening to her of itself. She could go now if she liked. + +She was almost frightened. + +As she was taking some washing home in the afternoon, down the street, +young Veyergang suddenly brushed close by her. + +She almost screamed; then he had come back! + +She dared not look up, and felt herself turn red, but had a momentary +impression that he smiled and looked steadily at her and then nodded. + +She knew the delicate scent of his cigar, and had a feeling that his +clothes creaked, as it were, when he moved--a peculiarity which was +connected with the romantic ideas of distinguished gentlemen that +Kristofa had awakened in her. + +It was he, she was quite sure now, who had given them the tickets. + +Her heart beat and fluttered within her like a disturbed and frightened +bird. + +She went home in a reverie, so that at last Mrs. Holman had to ask if +she were out of her mind. + +She stole a glance into the looking-glass over the drawers. + +Her eyes, were they so very black? The freckles were still there. There +was a cure for freckles--but there were _not_ so many as there looked to +be; the old glass was so full of spots and holes in the quicksilver. + +Mrs. Holman, to her surprise, saw Silla standing and rubbing, breathing +on and polishing the mirror. Her daughter must have been seized with a +new zeal. + +On the evening of the third day of the fair, Nikolai strolled up to the +factory district by lamplight. + +He had been fairing on his own account, and had bought a workbox as a +surprise for Silla--one with looking-glass inside the lid--and this +afternoon he had put some mounting and a nice lock upon it. + +He could surely in some way succeed in meeting her and showing it to +her--so easily and with such a spring the lock went! And scissors and +needle case he had put inside. She should have the key in her own +keeping, and he would keep the box. + +He had tied it in a handkerchief and put two cakes on the top, so that +the person who could guess that it was anything but a workman's bundle +that he was carrying would be more than clever. + +He passed close beneath his mother's windows where there was a light, +and peeped in to see if Silla might happen to be standing at the +counter, and then strolled about indifferently up and down the streets. + +It was so strangely deserted and empty here this evening. + +And, look as he would through the gate and the paling, it was not +possible for him to discover a light in Mrs. Holman's window. + +After having exhausted every artifice, he stationed himself on the watch +for a long time where the roads crossed and one went up to the Valsets' +cottage. + +But fortune did not favour him this evening; he remained standing there +with his workbox. + +It was dark all down the street except near the lamp-post. + +There was somebody! There she was! + +He hurried up. + +No, it was that Jakobina Silla had been so much with in the summer. + +There would at any rate be no harm in asking her. + +"Isn't Mrs. Holman at home this evening?" he asked, taking off his cap. + +"No; she's down at the fair, helping sell." + +The inference flashed with a passionate joy upon Nikolai; then he would +be able to go in and see Silla. + +"And so, when the cat's away the mice will play," continued Jakobina. It +was pretty well known that the smith came there for Silla's sake, and +her vexation at her three friends having got tickets, and not her, +filled her with spiteful gaiety. "Silla has taken a little trip into the +town, too!" she added, laughing. + +"Silla!" + +"Yes, why shouldn't she? Mrs. Holman is sitting in the cold down there +at a stall, kicking and stamping her feet; why shouldn't her daughter do +the same at the fair ball?"--Jakobina was great at saying witty +things--"especially when she perhaps has some one who will both dance +with her and treat her," she said, letting off another shot, as Nikolai +seemed to be struck dumb. + +"Who's put that lie into your head, girl?" + +"If I'm lying, so's Kristofa; and that Silla went down with her and +Gunda a couple of hours ago I saw with my own eyes. The one I mean can +afford to give fair-tickets to either three or six. But perhaps they +were going to a prayer-meeting," she added, winking with one eye. + +"What nonsense are you talking! You'd better take care what you say!" he +exclaimed angrily. + +"Ha, ha!" she laughed; "you're not such a stranger to him--he's almost +related. We're so grand, we are! We heard enough of that from your +mother last summer, when she got him to pay for that fine black dress, +and they wouldn't let her have credit for any more sewing materials for +her shop." + +Nikolai had heard enough. + +His mother had wrung his very blood from him, and then--deceived him in +spite of it. + +He suddenly saw her before him in the cold light of indifference. + +She had never been a mother to him, had never cared a pin's head about +him! All this about a mother had only been something he had imagined. + +He made a movement with his hands as if he were done with her. The one +she cared about, and had a mother's feeling for, was this-- + +He did not know whether he had thought the name himself, or whether +Jakobina had said it; but it rang in his ears like the stroke of a +hammer on a shining anvil, as he rushed down: + +"Ludvig Veyergang!" + +He had robbed him of his mother from his earliest childhood. Was he +going to drag Silla away from him too? + +The thought at last became too impossible, and he slackened his pace. + +That Jakobina was always so full of gossip and lies! This about Silla +was all nonsense! There was nothing so dreadful in the three girls +having taken a trip down to see a little of the fair; and they made that +sharp-tongued Jakobina, whom they did not want to have with them, think +they were all three going to the ball. + +He, he, he! it was Silla who had thought of that! He would tell her he +had seen that at once as soon as she told him. + +He shook his head; for a moment he felt immensely re-assured, and +relapsed into the bitter thoughts about his mother. + +But--it would not be so out of the way if he went and looked for them; +they might have taken it into their heads to stand outside and listen to +the music. + +The kettle-drums at the place of amusement were rattling out delight far +into the air. From the menagerie close by brayed a shrieking trumpet, +and the street outside was black with people. + +It is not easy to say why it should have been so, but uneasiness again +took possession of him. + +In the illuminated entrance the strings and lines of lamps shone with an +uncertain light in the raw gusty evening air; whole and half lines grew +dim and almost went out, and then flared up again with a glare over the +snow and the inpouring streams of people. + +He could only advance at a foot's pace here; but while he slowly worked +his way in, he looked all round. He only needed to see the outline of +the figure he was looking for. + +She was not among the people standing outside. + +It was almost tiresome, now he had made up his mind he should see her. + +He began to think of going to the booths to look for her there, and his +glance wandered indifferently over the people. + +She?--that rosy, laughing girl in there in the garden, with the round +hat and the bit of boa round her neck over her jacket, was no other than +Gunda! + +He held his breath, as if he expected the next moment to see others in +the crowd there among the lamps. + +"Have you a ticket? Garden or ball?" he was asked at the entrance. + +Nikolai would like to have taken tickets for the whole thing; but the +pence he had about him were only enough for the garden. + +The row of lamps lighted up the snowy road to a crowded restaurant, from +the first floor windows of which came the shrieks of a woman's soprano, +followed every now and then by a storm of applause. Farther on, a +roundabout, crammed with people, was going round under an illuminated +roof to the accompaniment of shrill music. + +On both sides was a moving and, as regards the male portion, very +miscellaneous and mixed crowd of fair-frequenters. + +He searched the garden through, but in the darker paths outside the +principal one, only a few loitering, shivering figures were to be seen, +who seemed hovering like longing moths about the light. + +It was down in that building, from which came sounds of music, the one +to which all the people streamed and stood in a dense crowd outside, +that the ball was going on. + +All the blood in him seemed suddenly to stand still, and he approached +slowly and hesitatingly, his face grey with apprehension. + +He stood outside for a long time, gazing in at the large, lighted +windows. Dark shadows passed behind the blinds, an unceasing variety of +heads and shoulders. + +There where the blind was pulled a little to one side he saw the +round-headed Gunda again; the back of her head was so near him that he +would have liked to push the pane in and ask her where Silla was? + +He felt the shaking of the floor and the music twice as much where he +was standing; it was as if the whole ball had got into his head. + +Now he caught a glimpse of a sloping shoulder and half a back in an +overcoat, with a cane sticking out of the owner's pocket--and part of a +fashionable hat-brim. + +The figure was smoking a cigar and bending down as if to talk. + +To whom?--To whom? + +For it was Ludvig Veyergang's, that narrow, straight back, that seemed +in its pride as if it could not bend above the hips. + +And then that way with his arm and his eye-glass. + +Now he was gone; he must be dancing. + +The clear glimpse he could get through the little opening in the blind +was dimmed by moisture. Only when a heavy drop ran down the pane in the +heat inside, could he catch a fraction of a glimpse through the streak. + +There came Veyergang's shadow, with stick and hat again, and lower down +the crooked outline of a woman's head in lively gesticulation. + +Again the figure with the stick disappeared, and Nikolai prepared to +watch for it. + +A drop just wept a smooth streak down the pane, and the next moment he +caught a glimpse of a dancing figure--only a bent head and a half-hidden +face. + +He had seen enough--more than if he had had a hundred chandeliers to see +by. + +Immediately after, Nikolai was in the stream in front of the door. + +It opened and closed incessantly to admit those who gave up tickets, and +disclosed, in misty perspective, a miscellaneous confusion of hot, +flushed faces. + +Now and then a pair came out and hastened up to the large restaurant. + +He heard both exclamations and taunts. + +"Now then! now then!" came from the crowd. + +Nikolai only worked his way towards the door. If once he stood there--! + +"Ticket?" + +Nikolai did not answer. + +"Ticket, man? Ticket?" + +Nikolai only pressed boldly a step nearer. + +The police-constable made a movement, but met a look in Nikolai's face +which made him feel justified in restraining himself. This pertinacious, +silent working man looked as though he could strike. + +The door continued to open and shut as incessantly as before, and both +the constable and the ticket collector had become in a measure +reconciled to the man who stood there so persistently--it almost looked +as if he had a lawful business there, with that bundle in his hand--when +Nikolai suddenly put his smith's shoulder to the door and pressed +violently against it. + +The ticket collector resisted in vain with his body; his hands were +occupied. + +Through the opening Nikolai had seen Silla, red, laughing, and out of +breath with dancing, coming down the room with Ludvig Veyergang; he was +looking about short-sightedly, with his hat pressed down sideways over +his forehead and his eye-glass in one eye, with light arrogance, as if +he were only going about his lawful business, when he was ruining a +young girl. + +There was a noise and disturbance down at the door. + +"Turn him out! Turn him out!" + +At last the cry sounded over the whole room. It was an interlude, during +which the audience climbed up on to tables and benches to try to see. + +Nikolai would blindly and roughly have forced his way in, had not the +police officer met him at the door, and with his own and the constable's +united efforts managed to drag the strong, unruly smith out. + +His one thought, while with a certain cool, temperate leniency they +dragged him out into the half-darkness, was to keep so near that he +could have an eye on the door. He felt with suppressed rage that if they +drove him to it, he would sooner die than leave the garden now. + +The music ceased. A number of people, hot and breathless, streamed out +during a pause in the dancing. + +There came Veyergang--and Silla, bashful and half-resisting, with him. +They took the way up to the restaurant. + +Nikolai suddenly disengaged himself with a jerk, and the next moment, +emerging from the darkness, thrust himself between them. + +Silla uttered a cry of terror, but Nikolai only gave her a half-glance, +and flung her behind him--and thus stood face to face with Veyergang. + +The young lion changed colour and retreated a step before the expression +of violent hatred confronting him; but, recognising the old enemy of his +school days, he curled his lip scornfully. + +_That_ look made Nikolai rush upon him, and Veyergang, with a cry of +"You cowardly ruffian!" returned the blow with his walking-stick right +across Nikolai's face, so that the stick snapped. + +"Help! help! Police!" + +Nikolai had struck his fist into Veyergang's chest so that the buttons +of his coat were torn open, when he was surrounded by three policemen. + +A young girl suddenly rushed wildly in among them. + +Spectators collected in greater numbers around. + +This was a fair-fight of the first sort; and that tall, dark girl too! + +"A mad bull-dog of a smith! Put him under arrest!" exclaimed Veyergang +furiously, when he felt himself in safety. "You may meditate there in +the meantime. You are not at all indispensable, my friend!" he went on +in a coolly teasing tone. "The black-eyed lassie shall enjoy herself at +the fair all the same." + +The words were hardly spoken before Nikolai had wrenched himself free. +He swung the bundle, with the box in it, about him so that nobody could +come near him, and darted like a flash of lightning upon Veyergang, +exclaiming between his teeth: "It's the last time in your life that +you'll say that!" + +One hand fumbled with Veyergang's coat, and the other dealt him a blow +with the full weight of the box, so that he fell backwards on to the +snow. + +He did not get up again--did not stir. + +There were cries and a tumult among the spectators. Some cried "Murder," +others for a doctor. And all the while the music clashed and jingled in +three directions. + +A high police functionary attempted to quiet the excitement, and +discreet hands bore the unconscious man out to a sledge, and drove him +to the hospital. All the excited wrath of the crowd was turned against +the perpetrator of the deed, who was led out strongly guarded. + +For safety's sake, out in the gate, irons were put on both his hands and +his feet, and this was done in the midst of an ever-increasing crowd +from the street. + +But when there was a mention of taking him into the sledge, the girl +threw herself upon him, and clung so tightly that it was impossible to +tear her away. She still cried and clung to him, much to the delight and +amusement of the assembled crowd of boys, after they had got him into +the sledge. + +It was impossible for them to start, although they dragged and pulled at +her till the gathers of her dress gave way. + +The boys shouted. + +"Pull--tear--drag the clothes off my back!" + +"There, have a little common-sense, lass!" said one of the constables. + +"You mustn't take him! You sha'n't take him!" + +She wrenched and pulled at his handcuffs. + +"It's my fault! Can't you tell them so, Nikolai?" she cried piercingly, +and the policemen took the opportunity to detach her hands. + +The sledge dashed off, and Silla, without a shawl, after it, followed by +a swarm of boys. + +She saw the door of the police-station open for Nikolai without being +able to reach him or hinder it; hour after hour she passed outside, +listening and waiting, while the constables again and again intimated to +her that she must go home. + +When at length she wandered away in despair, she kept stopping; but up +on the bridge over the waterfall she stood still a long while. + +It roared so strangely down there in the dark. It seemed as if in some +way or other she belonged to it. + +All night she lay with a dull feeling of what had happened, and writhed +under an unspeakable terror for the result of Nikolai's act. + +Now and then she groaned out a suffering sigh. + +She could not get rid of the sight of the handcuffs, and in her delirium +felt the cold iron still in her hands, until at last the bitter feeling +came over her of how miserably she had behaved to him. She felt as +though the thought of her must make Nikolai sick. + +She lay staring at herself as in a vision--how she had gone about and +never thought or cared about anything but her own pleasure, while +Nikolai, her smith boy, with the strong arms and the true eyes, who now +sat behind the prison bolts, had striven and toiled, and saved, and +worked for both of them, so that they might be together. + +And she could see too, now, all at once, as if scales had fallen from +her eyes, that he had been terribly afraid for her. + +If only he still cared for her! He had said: "Go home, Silla"--twice--so +kindly and gently, that she began to cry when she thought of it. + +Had she known or understood what it was to love anybody before just now? +And perhaps it was too late! + +The thought filled her with despair again, and wild pictures arose in +her mind--Veyergang falling and lying stretched upon the snow, and then +Nikolai's arms with the handcuffs on them stretching up out of the +factory waterfall. + +She lay awake until the morning and saw the same things--the handcuffs +in the waterfall, and Veyergang turning away from the blow and falling; +and then the whole thing over again--and again. + +She sat there the whole day until dusk. Then her restlessness drove her +down to the police-station. + +There the gas was already lighted in the passages, and there were so +many doors through which busy men in uniform were going in and out. At +the entrances several people were standing waiting. + +She had not the courage to ask. + +For a long time she walked restlessly in the thickly-falling snow round +the building. + +At last she felt that she must go in; and in a condition which made her +blind to her surroundings, she at length stood patiently, white and +covered with snow, at the gate of the prison. + +When at length it opened, she wanted to go in. + +"What do you want?" + +"To hear about Nikolai." + +"Nikolai? What Nikolai?" + +"He who came in here last night." + +"You don't mean him, the murderer? Are you his sister?" + +"No." + +"_That's_ a good thing, for the bad fellow hasn't got long to live." He +made an expressive movement with his hand across his throat. "The man he +attacked is dead--died at midday, and the murderer is now sitting in +chains." + +Silla did not know how it was that the door was shut behind her again, +and did not feel that it was snowing thickly and silently, while the +light from the lamps shone through a veil of snow--did not know how she +had reached the bridge again. + +That was where she ought to be. + +Nikolai was sitting down there with handcuffs on, and stretching up his +hands, and crying--crying to her! + + * * * * * + +The next morning a bit of a dress was seen sticking up out of the loose +snow in the dam. Her skull had been broken in the high fall from the +bridge against the edge of the ice. + + * * * * * + +It was proved that young Veyergang's death had been caused directly by +the blow that had been dealt him which had penetrated to the brain. + +And the impression was not to be softened by Nikolai's behaviour before +the court. He stood there with wild sorrow in his heart over Silla's +death, and answered that if Veyergang had had seven lives, he would have +taken them all. + +When questioned as to his parents, he at first declared that he had +never known any; but when pressed further, he exclaimed, pointing at a +large-boned woman who was sitting, crying on a bench: + +"Her name is Barbara. They say she is my mother; but he who took away my +happiness in this world got both her affection and her mother's milk." + +Barbara wailed. + +His father? It might be the whole town!--he looked round on the +officials of the court. + +This was an answer which fully confirmed the opinion which had been +general from the first in this horrible, sensational murder case--that +the court had here before it a bold criminal nature, early hardened in +the dregs of town life. + +The police still had a pretty clear remembrance of this individual from +his violent conduct and other doubtful circumstances under a charge of +theft. And it appeared from his past life, which was thoroughly sifted, +that from his earliest childhood he had evinced dangerous tendencies, so +that there had even been talk of placing him in an asylum for depraved +children. + +There were repeated facts brought forward from the time of his +apprenticeship in Hægberg's smithy, which proved that he was an +individual given to fighting and violence. + +Not longer ago than last year he had threatened Olaves' life, or so the +witnesses interpreted it; and it appeared in the examination in court, +that on the evening in question he had persistently plotted against the +deceased, and had, just before the perpetration of the deed, declared +his murderous intention in the threat: "It's the last time in your life +that you'll say that!" + +There was undeniably an extenuating circumstance in the fact that there +was a love-story connected with the affair, and that the act seemed to +be prompted by jealousy. On the other hand, it was clearly shown that it +might also be considered as the outcome of an old hatred existing even +in the years of their childhood. + +The sentence of imprisonment with hard labour for life was passed. + + * * * * * + +There was rifle-practice going on, puff after puff, down in the moat. +Further along, on the green, some soldiers were being drilled, and now +and again a trumpet signal sounded out on the still morning air. + +Under a guard of overseers a little band of fettered prisoners was being +conducted, with a clanking echo at every step, along the ramparts from +their work towards the inner building of the convict prison. + +At a hole in the wall the last of the prisoners slackened his pace a +little. He cast a lingering glance through the opening. + +The fjord lay shining blue beneath, with its many white sails and a +steamer leaving a thick trail of smoke behind it on the water. + +He drew a deep breath, his nostrils expanded, and there were signs of +great agitation in his broad face. + +The others were already five or six steps in advance, and the overseer +began to roar at Number 66, exclaiming morosely: + +"You'd give something to be able to fly out now, Nikolai!" + +"I think that's the way we're all made!" he answered quickly. + +"Then you should try and behave so as to get a remission." + +Nikolai shook his head bitterly; a gleam shot from his grey eyes. + +"If I got out, it would only be to come in again. For either the world +ought to go to prison or I ought, and I suppose it may as well be the +last!" + +The clanking went on again. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES*** + + +******* This file should be named 15853-8.txt or 15853-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/8/5/15853 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/15853-8.zip b/15853-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..746fcf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/15853-8.zip diff --git a/15853-h.zip b/15853-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..155f167 --- /dev/null +++ b/15853-h.zip diff --git a/15853-h/15853-h.htm b/15853-h/15853-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3174c4b --- /dev/null +++ b/15853-h/15853-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5456 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of One of Life's Slaves, by Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie</title> +<style type="text/css"> +.style1 {font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; } +.style2 {font-size: 95%; } +.indent1 {margin-left: 1em; } +.indent2 {margin-left: 24em;} +.indent3 {margin-left: 27em;} +p { text-align: justify; } +H1 { text-align: center; } +H2 { text-align: center; } +H3 { text-align: center; } +H4 { margin-left: -1em; } +H5 { font-size: 105%; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 25%; } +H6 { font-size: 105%; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 12%; } +H6.pg { text-align: center; font-size: 70%; margin-left: 0%; } +body { margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + pre {font-size: 8pt;} +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, One of Life's Slaves, by Jonas Lauritz Idemil +Lie, Translated by Jessie Muir</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: One of Life's Slaves</p> +<p>Author: Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie</p> +<p>Translator: Jessie Muir</p> +<p>Release Date: May 18, 2005 [eBook #15853]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES***</p> +<br><br><h3>E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Jim Wiborg,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br><br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES</h1> + +<h2>BY JONAS LIE</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF "THE VISIONARY," ETC. ETC.</h3> + +<h3><i>TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY</i></h3> +<h2><i>JESSIE MUIR</i></h2> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h6 class="pg">LONDON HODDER BROTHERS 13 NEW BRIDGE STREET, D.C.<br> +<i>Printed by</i> BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co. <i>London & Edinburgh</i></h6> + +<h3>1895</h3> +<br> +<br> + +<hr width="100%"> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>PREFACE</h4> + + +<p>In a review which appeared in the <i>Athenæum</i>, of a translation of one of +Jonas Lie's earlier works—"Den Fremsynte" ("The Visionary")—the +reviewer expressed a hope that I would follow up that translation with +"an English version of Lie's 'Livsslaven,' that intensely tragic and +pathetic story of suffering and wrong." It is in accordance with this +suggestion that the present volume makes its appearance. + +<p>In taking Christiania life for the subject of "Livsslaven," Jonas Lie +attempted for the second time to break down the preconceived opinion of +critics, that such a subject did not come within his province. They were +accustomed to have tales of sea-life from his pen, and could not readily +be persuaded that another sphere of life might afford equal scope for +his talent. "Thomas Ross," published in 1878, had treated of Christiania +life, and had attracted but little attention; and now, in the spring of +1883, appeared this "story of a smith's apprentice, with his struggles +for existence and his ultimate final failure owing to the irresistible +indulgence of a passionate physical instinct." At first this too seemed +to be a failure. To use the words of Arne Garborg, a Norwegian author +and critic, Lie "had spoken—cried out in the passion or agony of his +soul, and people stood there quite calm and as if they had heard +nothing;" there seemed to be a total lack of sympathetic comprehension +on the part of the public. In the end, however, the book found its way +to the hearts of its readers, and, to quote Mr. Gosse's words on the +subject, "achieved a very great success; it was realistic and modern in +a certain sense and to a discreet degree, and it appealed, as scarcely +any Norwegian novel had done before, to all classes of Scandinavian +society." + +<p>Lie himself, in speaking of this work, says that a writer should "aim at +presenting his subject in such a way that the reader may see, hear, +feel, and comprehend it with the utmost possible intensity." This +precept he has certainly put into practice in the present instance, for +the subject is treated with such power and so full a grasp, that in +reading the book one feels an actual anxiety, an oppression as of +approaching disaster. This, at any rate, is the case with the original, +and I trust that its power has not been altogether lost in the process +of rendering into another language, but that the stamp of genuineness, +the author's leading characteristic, may to some extent be found also in +this translation. + +<div class="indent3">J. MUIR.</div> +<div class="indent3">CHRISTIANA,</div> +<div class="indent3">November 10, 1894.</div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr width="100%"> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br> +<table summary="Table of Contents" align="center"> +<tr><td><b>CHAPTER</b></td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> I. </td><td><a href="#i">NEGLECTED RESPONSIBILITIES</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> II. </td><td><a href="#ii">A STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> III. </td><td><a href="#iii">A FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> IV. </td><td><a href="#iv">A STOLEN INTERVIEW</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> V. </td><td><a href="#v">AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> VI. </td><td><a href="#vi">THE FACTORY GIRLS</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> VII. </td><td><a href="#vii">"THE WORLD IS RIGHT ENOUGH AFTER ALL"</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> VIII. </td><td><a href="#viii">AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> IX. </td><td><a href="#ix">AN IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> X. </td><td><a href="#x">A RISE IN LIFE</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> XI. </td><td><a href="#xi">THE WEDDING POSTPONED AGAIN</a> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"> XII. </td><td><a href="#xii">THE FAIR AND THE CONVICT</a> </td></tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr width="100%"> +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<h1>ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES</h1> + + +<a name="i"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER I</b></h4> + +<h4><i>NEGLECTED RESPONSIBILITIES</i></h4> + +<p> +"Like a prince in his cradle," you say, "with invisible fairies and the +innocent peace of childhood over him!"</p> + +<p>What fairy stood by the cradle of Barbara's Nikolai it would be +difficult to say. Out at the tinsmith's, in the little house with the +cracked and broken window-panes in the outskirts of the town, there was +often a run of visitors, generally late at night, when wanderers on the +high road were at a loss for a night's lodging. Many a revel had been +held there, and it was not once only that the cradle had been overturned +in a fight, or that a drunken man had fallen full length across it.</p> + +<p>Nikolai's mother was called Barbara, and came from Heimdalhögden, +somewhere far up in the country—a genuine mountain lass, shining with +health, red and white, strong and broad-shouldered, and with teeth like +the foam in the milk pail. She had heard so much about the town from +cattle-dealers that came over the mountain, that a longing and +restlessness had taken possession of her.</p> + +<p>And then she had gone out to service in the town.</p> + +<p>She was about as suitable there as a tumble-down haystack in a handsome +town street, or as a cow on a flight of stairs—that is to say, not at +all.</p> + +<p>She used to waste her time on the market-place by all the hay loads. She +must see and feel the hay—<i>that</i> was not at all like mountain grass. +"No indeed! Mountain grass was so soft, and then, how it smelt! Oh dear +no!"</p> + +<p>But her mistress had other uses for her servant than letting her spend +the morning talking to hay-cart drivers. So she went from place to +place, each time descending both as regarded wages and mistress. Barbara +was good-natured and honest; but she had one fault—the great one of +being totally unfit for all possible town situations.</p> + +<p>Yet Society has, as we know, a wonderful faculty for making use of, +assimilating and reconstructing everything, even the apparently most +meaningless and useless, for its own purpose. And the way it took, +quickly enough, with poor Barbara was that she became the only thing in +which she could be of any service in the town—namely, a nurse.</p> + +<p>It was a sad time and a hard struggle while the shame lasted, almost +enough to kill her; and after that, she never thought of returning to +the Heimdal mountains again.</p> + +<p>But things were to be still harder.</p> + +<p>The various social claims, which an age of progress increasingly lays +upon the lady of the house in the upper classes of society, asserted +themselves here in the town by an ever increasing demand for nurses.</p> + +<p>"The reason," as Dr. Schneibel explained, "was simply a law of +Nature—you can't be a milch-cow and an intelligent human being at the +same time. The renovation of blood and nerves must be artificially +conveyed from that class of society which stands nearer to Nature."</p> + +<p>And now the thing was to find an extra-healthy, thoroughly strong nurse +for Consul-General Veyergang's two delicate, newly-arrived, little ones.</p> + +<p>Dr. Schneibel had very thoughtfully kept a nurse in reserve for Mrs. +Veyergang—"a really remarkable specimen of the original healthiness in +the common stock. One might say—h'm, h'm—that if Mrs. Veyergang could +not get to the mountains, the mountains were so courteous as to come to +her. The girl still had an odour of the cowshed about her perhaps; but +when all's said and done, that was only a stronger assurance of +originality. And <i>that</i> is an important factor in our day, madam, when +milk is adulterated even from the very cows themselves.—Quite young, +scarcely twenty!"</p> + +<p>Barbara Högden had not the faintest suspicion, as she carried water and +wood, or stood at the edge of the ice beating linen, or did any drudgery +she could find to do, in order to earn a little money to pay for herself +and her baby at the tinsmith's, that, from her deepest degradation, she +had risen at one step to the rank of an exceptionally sought-after and +esteemed person in the town.</p> + +<p>For a nurse <i>is</i> an esteemed person. Indeed, she is on the expectancy +list to become respected.</p> + +<p>After having nursed her mistress's child, and been a correspondingly +unnatural mother to her own, she ends by sleeping on down, and being +considered in every way, until a new nurse for a new heir deposes her +from her dynasty.</p> + +<p>Should she prefer to give her own little baby the only treasure she +possesses, her healthy breast, should she really be so blind to her own +interests, why then the case is different, and (to use Dr. Schneibel's +words) not altogether unmerited, only a result of the social economy to +which she does not know how to be intelligently subordinate, and which +will reduce her, with the inexorable logic of the laws of civilisation, +to a useless superfluity, which Society's organism rejects. Or, vulgarly +speaking, she is left with shame, contempt and poverty resting upon both +her and her illegitimate offspring. As a private individual, she is in a +sense right; but socially, as a member of society——!</p> + +<p>At first poor Barbara was quite blind on this point, utterly obstinate, +rigid as a mountain pony that could not be got to stir.</p> + +<p>Dr. Schneibel was standing for the third time at the tinsmith's, with +his stick under his nose, while his gig waited down in the road. Each +time he had added to both wages and arguments, and had again and again +pointed out how bad it would be both for her and her boy if she +continued so obstinate. He appealed to her own good sense. How could she +expect to bring him up in such poor, narrow circumstances, and with all +this toiling and moiling? She would only need to give up a part of her +large wages to the tinsmith, and they would look well after the boy. +Besides she could often come out and see him, at least once a month!—he +could promise her that on the Veyergangs' behalf, and it was very kind +of them now they lived such a long way out of town.</p> + +<p>Dr. Schneibel talked both kindly and severely, both good-naturedly and +sharply: he was almost like a father.</p> + +<p>Barbara felt a pang of fear every time she saw him come down the street, +and turn in by the rotten, mouldy wooden fence. She watched him like a +bird that is afraid for her nest, and was sitting close to the wall in +the darkest corner with the cradle behind her, when he opened the door. +It was impossible for her to answer except by a sob. The tinsmith's wife +did all the talking with: "Why, bless me, yes!" and "Bless me, no!" and +"Just so, doctor!" in garrulous superabundance, while Barbara only sat +and meditated on taking her baby on her back and departing.</p> + +<p>But to-day the doctor had talked so very kindly to her and offered her +so much money. He had appealed so directly to her conscience, patted the +child, and said that when it came to the point, he was sure she was not +the mother who could be so cruel as to bring misery upon such a pretty +little fellow, let him suffer want, let his pretty little feet be cold, +when he might lie both comfortable and warm and like a little prince in +his cradle!</p> + +<p>It was not possible to resist, and in her emotion something like a half +promise escaped her.</p> + +<p>Afterwards a neighbour came in and was of exactly the same opinion, and +told of all the little children whom she had known that had died of want +and neglect, only in the houses round about, during the last two years, +because their mothers had had to go out and work all day and could not +pay any one to look after them. And she and the tinsmith's wife both +spoke at once about the same thing—only the same thing.</p> + +<p>Barbara sat listening and tending her child. Her heart felt like +breaking. For a moment she thought of going, not to Högden, but in +another way, home with him at once.</p> + +<p>It was a temptation.</p> + +<p>That night she broke into sobs so ungovernable, that, in order not to +disturb the household in their slumbers, she went out into the soft, +drizzling rain: it quieted and cooled her.</p> + +<p>As she was standing the next morning, helping a neighbour's wife to +rinse and wring the clothes by the brook, a pony-carriage stopped in the +road. The coachman—he had gold lace on his hat and coat—got down and +went in to the tinsmith's.</p> + +<p>"You must wring that sheet right out, Barbara," said the neighbour's +wife; "it'll be the last you'll wring here, for that's the Consul's +carriage."</p> + +<p>And Barbara wrung the sheet until there was not a drop of water in it. +It had come now!</p> + +<p>She went in and dressed the child; she hardly knew what she was doing, +and hardly felt it under her hands.</p> + +<p>She saw the man give six dollars to the tinsmith's wife. He was so stiff +and tall and distinguished-looking, with such a big, aristocratic nose, +and he made a kind of bend every time she happened to look at him, and +assured her that there was no hurry—not the least! They never woke +before nine at the Consul's, so there was still plenty of time. And then +he looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>And every time he looked at his watch, she looked at her boy: there were +now orders and a time fixed for her to leave him.</p> + +<p>He had fallen asleep again. If he were to wake, she did not know what +would happen—she was sure she could not leave him then.</p> + +<p>"No hurry, no hurry!" and he took the thick silver watch out of his +pocket once more.</p> + +<p>But now it was she who was in a hurry, and so eager that she gave +herself no time to look round before she was seated in the carriage, and +the long, stiff-necked, braided coachman was driving her away along the +road of her appointed destiny.</p> + +<p>In the summer she accompanied the Consul-General's family to a +bathing-place. There Barbara wheeled the perambulator with the two +children in it along the shore, and more than once the Veyergangs were +flattered by the exclamations of passers-by: "What a fine-looking +nurse!"</p> + +<p>But there were difficulties with her, too—fits of melancholy to which +she completely gave way. She would sit by the cradle, her eyes red with +weeping, longing for her child, and would neither eat nor drink.</p> + +<p>This was a matter of no little importance. A nurse must be kept in good +spirits; her frame of mind has such an immense influence on her health, +and that again on the health of the child.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Veyergang had all sorts of good things brought in from the +pastry-cook's to enliven her; silk handkerchiefs and aprons abounded, +and the servants at home received injunctions to inquire after Barbara's +boy at the tinsmith's.</p> + +<p>There was praise and nothing but praise to be given every time the +Consul-General's Lars stopped there in driving past, and when Barbara +only received a message of that kind, she could be happy and contented +the whole month.</p> + +<p>She was made much of, as she very soon felt. If she said or wanted +anything, she was obeyed as if she were the mistress herself. And +handsome clothes with constant change of fine underclothing, not to +mention meat and drink—hardly anything of what she was accustomed to +call work, her hands had already become quite soft and supple. And she +felt that she was beginning to be attached to the two little ones whom +she tended day and night.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>One day, after the Consul's family had returned from the bathing-place, +Barbara set out for the tinsmith's. It was late in the autumn. She could +hardly ever remember the road out there so bad and muddy as it was now. +Both her boots and the bottom of her dress would need cleaning and +washing when she got back again.</p> + +<p>The thought that she would soon see her boy put her in a cold +perspiration; but of course things were best as they were, now that she +could pay so well for him.</p> + +<p>When she turned in by the wooden fence and saw the cottage with its +familiar cracked windows in front of her, she slackened her pace a +little. A feeling of apprehension suddenly came over her.</p> + +<p>And then the neighbour's wife, whom she had so often helped, came out +and began to talk and give her information, rattling on like a +steam-engine. There had been war among the neighbours in the tinsmith's +alley, and now that she saw Barbara herself, the truth should out, the +real, actual truth.</p> + +<p>The tinsmith's people need not imagine that other people hadn't got eyes +in their head! Everything they possessed had gone to the pawnbroker's; +there was barely enough of the tin-ware left to put in his cracked +windows. And what they lived on, nobody round there could imagine, +unless it was the payment they got for that poor little ill-used boy, +that they gave lager-beer to, to keep him quiet. For no one would put up +there now that the police had begun to keep an eye on the company, not +even certain people who were not generally so particular about their +quarters.</p> + +<p>"But if you take my advice, Barbara, you'll take the boy to blockmaker +Holman's down at the wharf. They are such nice, respectable people, and +have pitied the boy so when I told them how they were treating him out +here."</p> + +<p>Blockmaker Holman, blockmaker Holman! The name rang in her ears as, +heavy-hearted, she entered the tinsmith's.</p> + +<p>There he lay among the ragged, dirty clothes, pale, thin and neglected, +with frightened eyes. He began to cry when she took him up; he did not +know her, and she scarcely knew him.</p> + +<p>The disappointment—all that she felt—found vent in a rising torrent of +angry words against the tinsmith and his wife.</p> + +<p>But at the same time, while she was washing the boy, she felt how big, +coarse and clumsy his face and body were, compared to the two delicate +ones she was accustomed to. She saw now for the first time how +impossible it would be to keep him herself.</p> + +<p>But he should go to the blockmaker's, poor boy! Her name wasn't Barbara +if she didn't get her mistress to see to that at once—as early as +to-morrow.</p> + +<p>She returned home with a face red and swollen with crying, and was +inconsolable the whole evening until her mistress came down from the +office with the promise that the matter should be arranged.</p> + +<p>And thus it was that Nikolai came to blockmaker Holman's.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="ii"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER II</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>A STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN</i></b></h4> + +<p> +It is in some ways a blessing that those who have suffered hardship and +been neglected in their babyhood, do not remember anything about it—and +yet perhaps something clings to them.</p> + +<p>So, at any rate, Mrs. Holman declared. From the very first day the boy +came into the house, she could see he had been brought up in a thieves' +nest. His eyes were so wise and watchful, and he could be so craftily +cunning and refractory, long before he could speak. She declared that he +was positively malicious, so drowsy and quiet as he would be until she +had just fallen asleep, when he would begin to shout as loud as a +watchman.</p> + +<p>But every one who knew anything about the Holmans, said that if they had +not been fortunate in getting the boy, he had at any rate been fortunate +in having found his way to them. There were not two opinions as to what +an orderly woman Mrs. Holman was, and how strict in the fulfilment of +her duty. Tall, thin and neat in her person, even her small, +liver-coloured face, with the pale blue expressionless eyes, told you at +once that she was not the woman to allow herself to be carried away by +rash impetuosity.</p> + +<p>And on the few occasions in the year that Barbara visited the boy—it +was not so easy for her to come now that the Veyergangs lived in their +country house all the year round—she could see for herself how +well-cared-for and clean he was, and how strictly he was kept. From the +time she got there to the time she left, she heard nothing except how +difficult it was to straighten out all the tinsmith's dents, all that +had been wrongly and improperly dealt with from the very first, +especially his obstinate temper! Now he really could walk quite a good +way, but he would do nothing but crawl, and so quickly, that no sooner +had she, Mrs. Holman, taken her eyes off him than he might be anywhere, +either at the saucepans and pots, or in the water-bucket, or else at the +plummets on the bell. And he upset things, and got himself in a mess, +wherever he went; yesterday the cat's food lay all over the floor! So +now she had hung the birch-rod low down on the wall, so that it might be +before his eyes; for it was necessary to frighten him, and vigilance and +punishment must positively be used. And Barbara must know herself, that +it wasn't so easy to manage other people's children, and especially such +a stray creature, come into the world in such a manner!</p> + +<p>It was all just, as Barbara was obliged to acknowledge to herself, from +beginning to end, however much it might sting her, and therefore she was +always in a hurry to get away again.</p> + +<p>It cannot be denied that she learnt something from it too, namely, what +she, on her side, might have reason and right to say to Mrs. Veyergang +about all the toil she had had with her two, if they ever had a +difference.</p> + +<p>But the same spirit of disobedience remained in the boy as he grew +older. It was impossible to cure him of it, for all that Mrs. Holman +could do, and Holman had to help too sometimes. This did not happen, +however, until his wife had duly impressed on him the moral necessity of +taking upon himself his share of the duties of the house.</p> + +<p>Holman was a silent man with a pair of quiet, shining eyes. He went and +came, morning and evening, rubbed and dried his shoes, and stood +hesitating at the door with some tool or other, or the tail of a block +in his hand, before he went in. What he might think of his married life +there was little opportunity of seeing in his face. One thing was +certain—a wife like Mrs. Holman was a treasure, which could not be +sufficiently prized; and if there was not quite so much left of Holman, +if, in fact, he had become—with all reverence be it said—something of +a fool, yet every one was sensible that in that union it must be so, if +the balance was to be kept. Any one who had only seen or spoken to Mrs. +Holman once, understood it immediately, but what was not so easy to +understand was that, after all, it was Holman who made the blocks down +in the workshop, by which the household lived.</p> + +<p>It was still more remarkable that he had sometimes been met in the +gateway in an irresponsible condition, such as no one would have +expected in a man so happily married as he was.</p> + +<p>After the miracle of Mrs. Holman's having a little girl herself had +happened—after that great and important change in the household, it was +deliberated whether it would not be better to rid the room of other +people's progeny. But then it was good regular money to have, and in +time the boy could be made use of at the cradle.</p> + +<p>It was the lightest work in the world—just made for a little boy, +sitting and rocking the cradle with his foot—nothing but a little +practice for him.</p> + +<p>But here, too, she was to have sad experience. She left him by the +cradle went she went out, but when she came home, he would be standing +gazing out of the window or from the top of the cellar stairs at the +children playing in the square. She had even caught him right outside +with the door open behind him—it was all the same to him, as long as he +could get out of the cellar and away from his duty.</p> + +<p>Well, the young rogue would have to pay for it, as much as his mortal +back could bear!</p> + +<p>And she assured the servant upstairs, who put in her head to hear what +the little imp had done now, as he was screaming so—that all the +punishment she gave him, and all her attempts, both by letting him have +no supper and by locking him in, were equally useless: he was just as +defiant and unreliable as ever!</p> + +<p>She had frightened him now by saying that the devil sat in the corner +behind the bed and watched to see if he left the cradle!</p> + +<p>He was almost beside himself with terror, and fancied all the time that +he could see the aforesaid sinister personage putting up his head over +Mrs. Holman's pillow. He could not help looking now and again towards +the window—there was some one playing outside in the square. And, +somehow or other, he came to be standing there, and stood until he once +more remembered what was behind him. Then he darted back like an arrow, +and sat staring in mortal fear into the corner.</p> + +<p>From being made useful beside the cradle, Nikolai was advanced in course +of time to mind the Holman's daughter Ursula, outside the cellar steps. +To move farther, only as far as the trees over on the other side of the +street, was a capital offence. The idea of what overstepping the bounds +meant, was impressed upon him with full force. How could Mrs. Holman be +sure otherwise that he did not take Silla right up to the basin round +the fountain, where all the naughty boys played with their ships, and +shouted and made a noise? His poor little body had received so many +black and blue marks every time he had fallen into temptation that at +last the limits stood instinctively before his frightened perception +like an invisible iron grating. A foot's breadth beyond was, in his +imagination, the blackest crime, an enormity which would draw down the +fiercest retribution upon him.</p> + +<p>That Silla was an uncommon and remarkable being of a higher order, so to +speak, than himself, had been driven into him in so many ways ever since +she came into the world, that he looked upon the assertion as raised +above all doubt.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding everything that he had endured for her sake, or perhaps, +by a strange contradiction, just because of these sufferings, the +feeling that she was under his care was most highly developed. His +admiration of her was unqualified; he thought her more than remarkable +in her blue bow and an old red stuff rose in her hat, and he submitted +to a wilfulness which was quite as despotic as even Mrs. Holman's. When +he had sat long enough and let her fill his hair with dust, she would +order him to pull off her shoes and stockings. If he did it, he got a +beating; if he did not do it, she screamed, and then he got a beating +too.</p> + +<p>Insecurity was, so to speak, the soil on which he lived, and the +hurried, shrinking glances he continually cast, as if from habit, +towards the cellar door—even when his often guilt-laden conscience felt +itself most guiltless—were only the fruit of daily experience.</p> + +<p>"You could see the bad conscience in his face, a long way off," said +Mrs. Holman; and it was true—the quick, watchful look up with the grey +eyes was to see what sins he was guilty of now.</p> + +<p>"Good neighbours and other good things," the catechism says. But in our +times we have no neighbours; you do not know who lives on the floor +above you or on the floor below, or even on the other side of the +passage. And so it was that no one in the house had any ear to speak of +for Nikolai's various untoward fortunes below in the cellar, although +their character often asserted itself with no uncertain sound during +their execution.</p> + +<p>The neighbours had become accustomed to the continual screaming and +howling of that naughty boy, just as one accustoms one's self to piano +practising or the din of a factory; perhaps too, they comforted +themselves with the thought that it was most fortunate that such a +morally depraved child had come under discipline and correction.</p> + +<p>When Nikolai and Silla wandered as usual up and down the pavement +outside the cellar, the people of the house might often in passing give +the little girl a friendly nod. To give Nikolai any encouragement in +that way would have been a mistake.</p> + +<p>Maren, the cook, who had come to the floor above last hiring-day[1], had +naturally no conception of Mrs. Holman's strict, conscientious +character, and was therefore to be excused in what now took place.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 1: The days for changing servants in Norway are in the spring +and autumn. In Christiania they are the second Friday after Easter, and +the second Friday after Michaelmas.]</p> + +<p>She went down into the cellar with the lantern one evening to fetch coal +and wood, panting and puffing down the stairs as she used to do; she had +a bend in both hips from rheumatism, and rocked from one side to the +other like a boat's mast in rough weather.</p> + +<p>From the wood-cellar she all at once heard a sound as of wailing in the +darkness within. It was as though some one were crying, and now and +again sobbing convulsively for some time without being able to produce a +distinct sound.</p> + +<p>The voice sounded so utterly broken-hearted that Maren stopped putting +the wood into her apron and stood by the chopping-block listening. It +seemed to come from one of the coal cellars up the dark passage. At last +she seized the lantern and groped her way in; she must come to the +bottom of this.</p> + +<p>"Is any one here?" she cried at the door whence the sobbing came.</p> + +<p>There was a sudden complete silence.</p> + +<p>She knocked hard with a bit of wood, but then from within there came a +terrified scream, which made Maren drop the wood from her apron and pull +open the hasp of the door which was fastened with a piece of wood.</p> + +<p>"But who has put the poor little boy in here—in the pitch black +darkness?"</p> + +<p>By the light of the lantern she saw Nikolai staring at her in wild +terror.</p> + +<p>"I thought it was the devil, I did. Yes, for he does knock on the wall."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'd frighten any one out of their senses, boy, with those ugly +words!"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Holman says so;" and with a quick, inquiring glance up at Maren he +added, "but do you think she only says it so that I shan't touch her +sugar?"</p> + +<p>"Is that what you are here for?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't taken anything from her, but I will, if she says it whether I +do or not! It was only that Monday when I put my tongue down into the +bag and licked when I'd gone for half a pound. But now I'll crunch it so +that she'll only have the empty bag left! I'll take! I'll steal!" he +added and ground his teeth. "Don't—don't go!" he sobbed, catching hold +of her dress, "for when it's dark again, he'll come and take me!"</p> + +<p>What was Maren to do? She stood hesitating and considering; she dare not +let the boy out.</p> + +<p>She might try and beg him off from Mrs. Holman.</p> + +<p>"Only get me another beating for that, too!" was the answer.</p> + +<p>There was nothing else for it; she could not let the poor little +frightened thing stay there in the coal-hole. So, with eyes closed to +the consequences of her own determination, she exclaimed: "Then you must +come up into the kitchen with me, and sleep on the bench there +to-night."</p> + +<p>This time, Nikolai did not weigh the probabilities of what Mrs. Holman +would say or do; he only took hold of her skirt with both hands. And +with the boy close in her wake, Maren sailed up the kitchen stairs +again.</p> + +<p>While she was looking out some of her old shawls and skirts to put under +him, taking some of the clothes from her own bed, and making it as +comfortable and warm as she could for him on the bench, Nikolai seemed +to have forgotten all his troubles.</p> + +<p>There was so much that was new up here. There were such a number of +shining tin things hanging all over the wall, and then the cat was an +old friend. He had seen it many a time down in the yard, and now he had +to squeeze himself together to get hold of it, it had crept so far under +the bed.</p> + +<p>There! He had knocked down the tin kettle with his back!</p> + +<p>He fled in terror to the door. But Maren picked it up quite quietly; +there was not a word of scolding, a thing he wondered more at than +either the tin things or the cat.</p> + +<p>Maren had at last fallen asleep after all the aching and pain of the +rheumatism in her weary joints, with which she always had to contend at +the beginning of the night. She was awakened by a wild shriek.</p> + +<p>"What is it—what is it, Nikolai? Nikolai!"</p> + +<p>She lighted the bit of candle. He was sitting up, fencing with his arms.</p> + +<p>"I thought they were going to take my head off," he explained, when he +at length collected himself.</p> + +<p>When she lay down again, Maren could not help thinking how glad she was +that she had no child to be responsible for. Every one has his trouble, +and now she had this rheumatism.</p> + +<p>But it was a shock to her, when, on the kitchen stairs next morning, in +the presence of the servants both from the other side of the passage and +from the first floor, Mrs. Holman called her to account for having +interfered in what was none of her business. She then received such full +information, once for all, both as to why Mrs. Holman had shut him in, +and what they had to go through daily with that boy, that Maren was +completely nonplussed. For this Mrs. Holman could stake her life upon, +that if there was any one in the house who could not stand disorder or +unseemly behaviour, it was she. She could not imagine a worse punishment +than to have it said of her that she allowed shame and depravity to +flourish in her sight.</p> + +<p>But when Maren sat down there in the evening by the lantern on the +chopping-block, and could hear the boy screaming right from the Holmans' +room, she was not capable of going upstairs until the worst was over. +She thought she had never heard anything so heart-rending, even though +it was in the cause of justice.</p> + +<p>Up with Maren was a kind of harbour of refuge for the boy. He would sit +there as quiet as a mouse in the corner by the wood-box, carving himself +boats, which he put under his blouse when he carried Holman's dinner +down to the workshop near the quay.</p> + +<p>To represent, however, that Nikolai's existence was passed, so to speak, +in the coal-cellar, or under blows on back and ear from Mrs. Holman's +warm hands, would be an exaggeration. He had also his palmy days, when +Mrs. Holman overflowed with words of praise—praise, if not exactly of +him, yet of everything that she had accomplished in her daily toil for +his moral improvement.</p> + +<p>Twice a year she had to call for the payment for him at the +Consul-General's office in the town. Nikolai, too, often had leave to go +out to the country house with the kitchen cart, which had come in to +make the morning purchases.</p> + +<p>And there he would sit, while the cart rumbled and jolted along the +road, smart and clean, head and body respectively combed and scoured +like a copper kettle that has been cleaned with sand and lye. He could +not sit still a minute; he talked and asked questions—always about the +horse, the wonderful brown horse—whether it was the best or the second +best, if it could go faster than the railway train, or who and what it +could beat.</p> + +<p>Then the cart turned—so much too soon—into the yard in front of the +kitchen door, and he was led through the passage by the man-servant to +the nursery.</p> + +<p>"I hope you have rubbed your shoes? You might have had the sense, Lars, +not to bring the boy in that way, with such shoes as those!" His mother +took him and set him on a chair.</p> + +<p>And then he was given bread-and-butter and cracknels and milk. But he +must wait now until she came in again, for she was busy to-day washing +Lizzie's and Ludvig's clothes.</p> + +<p>In rushed the aforesaid children, his equals in point of age; the one +was drawing a large saddled horse after him, the other was carrying two +large, dressed dolls. They had been sent out by their mother to play +with Nikolai. And they were soon in full gallop round the nursery. +Gee-up! gee-up!—Nikolai drew, and Ludvig rode—hi! gee-up! And at last +Nikolai wanted to ride too; he had been drawing for such a long time. +But Ludvig would not get down, so Nikolai dropped the bridle and pulled +him off the horse by one leg.</p> + +<p>"You ragged boy! How dare you?"</p> + +<p>"Ragged boy! Ragged boy yourself!" It ended with a fling up on to the +bed, behind which Ludvig entrenched himself howling, while his sister +took his part and joined in.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, what is the matter, dears?" cried Barbara, hurrying +in. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Nikolai, behaving like that to the +Consul's children! You'd better try it on! There Ludvig—there, there, +Lizzie—he shan't hurt you! Just do what they want, do you hear, +Nikolai!"</p> + +<p>And then Barbara had to lament over Ludvig's starched collar, which had +got crumpled.</p> + +<p>"Come here, my precious boy. Come now, and then you shall play again +directly."</p> + +<p>She took him up on her knee. "It's my own precious boy, it is, who's so +good! There, hold his blouse, Nikolai, and you shall see such a fine +boy, and so good, so good!"</p> + +<p>"Show him my Sunday clothes, Barbara, and the patent leather shoes!" And +Nikolai was allowed to look into the drawers at all Ludvig's and +Lizzie's dresses and sashes and fine underclothes, and to peep into the +toy-cupboard to be bewildered by all the old drums and trumpets and +headless men and horses, and tin soldiers, and Noah's arks, with their +belongings, all of which, Barbara said, they had been given because they +were so good.</p> + +<p>There was a pile of things in the lower part of the cupboard, so that +Nikolai could understand that they must have been very, very good, and +that his mother, too—and at this he felt a bitter disappointment—must, +in return, be very, very fond of them. They must be very different +children to what he was, if they never deserved a whipping, but always +playthings. He became quite tired and downcast, as he stood there. If he +ever met Ludvig anywhere, he would pay him out about the horse.</p> + +<p>At last the hour of departure arrived, when he was to go with the +pony-carriage that fetched the Consul from town at three o'clock. The +two children both clung to his mother's skirt when she followed him out.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, Nikolai!" and she patted him in such a way on the cheek and +head that he looked at her half doubtingly, "and give my respects to +Holman and Mrs. Holman. Do you hear? Whatever you do, don't forget Mrs. +Holman. And—I declare you're kicking the varnish now! You must sit +quite still, Nikolai, the whole way. Don't you know that you mustn't +come near those fine carriage-cushions with your boots? You should just +see how nicely Ludvig and Lizzie sit, when they go for a drive—don't +you, dears?"</p> + +<p>And off he set.</p> + +<p>It had indeed been a gala day, and he had been given a large, sugared +twist to take with him, and it tasted delicious; but somehow or other he +began to cry all at once on the way home.</p> + +<p>The next day he had full confirmation of how delightful it had been.</p> + +<p>While he was going up and down the pavement in his daily occupation of +taking care of Silla, he caught fragments of Mrs. Holman's remarks to +the housekeeper up stairs, as they stood under the archway; he never for +a moment lost sight of her tall figure.</p> + +<p>"You may well say so, Miss Damm. Take him into the room with their own +children; there aren't many grand folks that would have done such an +honour to one like him." ... "We must do so many things in this world, +Miss Damm—we must scour the boards over the gutter, so to speak, and +put up with them—and I don't mind saying that he showed that he was +well cared-for from top to toe." ... "Such an honour! It might have been +some respectable child they had asked there. He ought to remember it the +whole of his life!" ... "So grand as she is now, she doesn't much care +about coming out here and acknowledging the boy. It's nothing for those +that can pay to get rid of their shame!"</p> + +<p>Nikolai crushed with all his might an old decapitated cock's head, which +lay in the gutter, with the heel of his boot, until it was as flat as a +penny.</p> + +<p>When the terror of bogies and the devil in the coal-cellar had lost its +power, one of Mrs. Holman's most powerful means of keeping Nikolai in +order was a threat of sending him to the parish school—an institution +which stood before her imagination as a publicly authorised house of +correction for youth, and a daily training-ground in the fulfilment of +one's duty.</p> + +<p>He never obtained any very clear idea of what would happen when he went +to school; but that it was something quite indeterminably dreadful was +evident from the constantly renewed disguised hints, and the repressed, +mystical groans and nods by which they were accompanied.</p> + +<p>One day the threat was really carried out: he was to go next Monday +morning.</p> + +<p>Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he counted on his fingers—he had +all those days left. And how he took care of and played with Silla +during them, and darted on errands like an arrow!</p> + +<p>At last there was only the Sunday afternoon left.</p> + +<p>He sat at tea-time with Silla and tried to take comfort from her +opinions about school, heard that he was to have his Sunday clothes on +to-morrow too, because it was the first time, and fell asleep that night +with drops of perspiration on his forehead.</p> + +<p>In the morning Nikolai was not to be found.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman inquired, and sought, and called, promising liberally both +torments and pardon if he would only come at once; but it was all of no +use, he had vanished.</p> + +<p>After dinner Maren upstairs was startled by seeing him emerge from under +her bed. She gave him some food and asked him to promise to go home; and +Nikolai said he would, only not before it was dark.</p> + +<p>In the twilight he made an excursion down to the quay, where he amused +himself for an hour by sitting and rocking in a ship's boat; then in the +wet October darkness he slunk through the narrow, dripping passages +between the warehouses, until he was sure that there was no longer any +light on the square, and spent the rest of the evening lying peeping +over the paling at the light in the two cellar windows at home. He +noticed how Holman came slinking cautiously up and stood a little while +at the door before going in, and how they put Silla to bed. The light +from the windows told him, like two dimly-glaring, merciless eyes, that +if he came home now, the well-merited sentence of justice would most +certainly be carried out.</p> + +<p>Then the light was put out.</p> + +<p>Through the drizzling rain late that night the gleam of a lantern +glanced among the stacks of wet planks, and behind it was a pair of eyes +which were accustomed to look in the dark for all kinds of persons who +might think fit to hide themselves in the yard. The lantern wandered +about among the narrow rows, sometimes standing still, while it threw +its searching, reddish light as far as possible in between the planks.</p> + +<p>No one was discovered that night. Among the many square spaces which +could give shelter, Nikolai, with a certain inborn instinct, had chosen +the foremost and most unsuspicious looking one, which stood half built +with a sloping plank-roof over it. There he lay wedged into the farthest +corner, close wrapped in the happy Nirvana of self-forgetfulness—school +zero, and Mrs. Holman a cipher—his body bent down over his knees, his +coat pulled up about his neck to keep out the drips, and his boots down +in the wet mud.</p> + +<p>But that night under the wet sky, with Trondsen's planks for his +bed-posts, brought something new into his mind, a feeling—showing +certainly the greatest insensibility to all Mrs. Holman's solicitous +care—that the timber-yard was really his home, a certain independent, +free savage's consciousness in relation to everything that they might +afterwards think fit to screw him into, the school no less than Mrs. +Holman's cellar steps; the planks in the timber-yard shone so white in +bright weather, and when it grew dark, they stood there like his +oft-tried, secret friends, who could screen him from the terrors at +home.</p> + +<p>He was taken to school, however, and one of his first timid, inquiring +glances was to discover the thrashing-block with which Mrs. Holman had +threatened him. He had pictured it to himself giving blow after blow +with a rod, and beating incessantly, like the chicory factory at the +bottom of the square.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough there was no such block. But there were other things +into which he was to be squeezed and forced like a last into a boot; and +he was a hard last, which often would not go farther than the leg, and +had to be hammered and knocked the rest of the way, where others more +pliable glided smoothly down like eels.</p> + +<p>There were things he understood, and things he did not understand. The +former did not often happen to be explained to him, the latter he did +not understand however many explanations were given; the result was a +painful consciousness, a continual difference or falling short both in +relation to his lessons and his teachers, which had to be adjusted by +the cane and detention, while the majority of his schoolmates, in this +particular also, more supple, worked themselves out like true virtuosi.</p> + +<p>But what was even a whole day at school, with its full measure of +misfortunes, in comparison to the endlessly long, dull hours of the +evening, when Mrs. Holman, with her own eyes, "watched over him, to see +that he learnt his lessons," and he hardly dared so much as to glance +across at Silla.</p> + +<p>As to Holman, experience had taught them that his fixed and staring eyes +saw nothing: he sat mute and quiet the whole evening. In Mrs. Selvig's +tap-room he found a remedy which made him insensible to moral lectures +even the most reasonable and impressive. There he stood every evening a +quarter of an hour after working-hours, as regular as clockwork, and +when the hands of the clock drew near to eight, he just as regularly set +off homewards, a punctuality which, be it said in passing, had gained +for him in the tap-room the title of <i>General with order</i>.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="iii"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER III</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>A FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES</i></b></h4> + +<p> +That was a dangerous corner, where the wide street leading to the +grammar school crossed the narrow one that led to the board school; and, +on the days when the afternoon hours for the latter began just when the +grammar school's long morning was over, it might happen that the free, +exuberant spirits of those who were leaving school came into collision +with the heavier and more bitter mood of those who were on their way to +it.</p> + +<p>Ludvig Veyergang, with his sealskin satchel on his back, had already +travelled this road for several years. He had been nicknamed the +Ostrich, because of his little head with the bird-like nose, his long +bare neck, and the way he walked. When he met Nikolai, he pretended not +to know him, and Nikolai whistled and clattered with his shoes on the +pavement.</p> + +<p>The board school's new slide ran along the gutter a good way out into +the grammar school street. It was the product of the joint work of many +for a whole week, and fate willed that Nikolai, at the head of a string +of comrades, should come full speed down it, hallooing and shouting, +just as Ludvig Veyergang and a few others came round the corner. Young +Veyergang received a push that made him drop his pencil-case; and pens, +lead and slate pencils lay strewn over the ground.</p> + +<p>"Pick them up, you beggar!" he cried to Nikolai, for it was he who had +knocked up against him. "I shall tell about you at home, you may be +pretty sure. Pick them up, or—"</p> + +<p>A kick sent a few loose lumps of snow in answer.</p> + +<p>"You shall be made to bend soon enough, if that's what you want. Father +shall be told, this very day, that you are the leader of the street cads +in the town; and if no one else will tell your mother about it, I'll +tell her myself, however much she cries!"</p> + +<p>"Do you want to have your ostrich-beak pulled?"</p> + +<p>"You'd better try it on! Perhaps you don't know that we pay for you at +the blockmaker's. But I'll take care that you get thrashed until you beg +my pardon: a fellow who doesn't even know who his father is, and his +mother only wishes he had never been born!"</p> + +<p>The last words were hardly out of his mouth when Nikolai sprang upon him +with both fists like a pair of sledge-hammers, and for a few blissful +seconds hammered out every trace of difference in birth and position. +Now he should feel "both his father and his mother!"</p> + +<p>It was one of the board school's memorable and famous days, when the +wine was tapped from Ludvig Veyergang's nose in the snow; and even the +next day at dinner-time, two or three school classes of interested +spectators were searching for traces of red spots in the snow by the +lamp-post.</p> + +<p>But, though he enjoyed great honour and admiration during the whole +afternoon at school, Nikolai knew that at home he would meet with an +utterly different interpretation of the event, news of which the Holmans +must already have received, surely and promptly, from the Veyergangs.</p> + +<p>As he neared home, he went slower and slower. The thought of what might +await him, made his feet grow heavier and heavier, and when he had +separated from his last companion, he suddenly stopped and turned down +by the chandler's, where the street led away from, and not towards his +home.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>It was now the third night Nikolai had been away, explained Mrs. Holman +to the policeman outside; and it was not much wonder if he expected the +reward he deserved, and felt his back smart. Lay hands on better +people's children! And the son of Consul Veyergang, his own benefactor, +too!</p> + +<p>But where could he be? He could not possibly be in the timber-yard now, +at this time of year.</p> + +<p>His stronghold was not easy to hit upon either, for it was something +very like looking in her own pocket. In common with other evil-doers, +Nikolai was driven by an irresistible desire—like moths that flutter +round a candle—to hide himself as near as possible to the place of his +fear and dread, where Mrs. Holman was, and where he could catch a +glimpse of Silla.</p> + +<p>Holman lay at night and felt, through his intoxication, that things were +going wrong with Nikolai. He heard it dripping and dripping in the thaw +outside—splash, splash! The sound came in a monotonous chant: +Ni-ko-lai, Ni-ko-lai.</p> + +<p>He would ruin his health out there!</p> + +<p>With sudden energy he sat up in bed. Where else would Nikolai be than +under the old carriage hood that stood in the loft over the coach-house, +mouldy and dropping to pieces with its opening towards the wall?</p> + +<p>It was in the light of this idea that he rushed out.</p> + +<p>Nikolai never felt the blockmaker's hand; he still slept on happily, as +it lifted him up by the coat collar.</p> + +<p>It was only when he stood erect on both feet that he grasped the +situation, and threw himself down again, kicking and screaming. He would +not go home, they might kill him first, or take off his head!</p> + +<p>The heels of his boots made it evident both to sight and feeling that he +meant it: he was utterly beside himself.</p> + +<p>Only let Holman get him inside the door, and the strap should dance! +Holman had worked himself up into a state of excitement.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman was waiting in the doorway with a candle. By its light she +saw an ashy pale face, with eyes staring at her, and at the same time +heard the words: "You won't get me in! If I was born in the street, I +can live in the street!" She caught a glance from the sharp, defiant +grey eyes—then out of the blockmaker's hands, out of the gate, and he +was gone!</p> + +<p>The blows on Ludvig's nose had gone to Barbara's heart. But when she +heard that Nikolai had run away from the Holmans' and that there was +some talk of getting him into an institute for morally depraved +children, there was crying and weeping. She had had shame enough with +the boy, and this she could not survive! Her mistress must prevent it. +She was conscious of having done her duty and more than her duty all +these years that she had been Ludvig and Lizzie's nurse, but she could +not put up with this! Her mistress must prevent it, or she did not know +what she might do, or what might happen: she felt quite capable of +leaving them.</p> + +<p>Barbara sat sighing and weeping in the nursery, until the children were +almost afraid to go in.</p> + +<p>Such attacks generally lasted, at the most, one day; but this one had +now been going on for three, and was disturbing the comfort of the +house. Then Mrs. Veyergang got one of her headaches, and was going to +have an afternoon nap, her accustomed cure, during which everything must +be kept perfectly quiet around her.</p> + +<p>It was Barbara who generally guarded her slumbers by going hushing and +quieting right out into the kitchen, and keeping watch at the door into +the passage. But now she only sat in her room sobbing.</p> + +<p>It did surprise her a little that her mistress lay so quiet all the time +without calling her. On the other hand, she rather enjoyed the sentence +she was carrying out. Her mistress should know what opposing her meant, +even if it were to last the whole week.</p> + +<p>It grew dark, and still her mistress lay there. She lay until the Consul +came driving home towards evening; and she did not even ring for lights +when she got up.</p> + +<p>It was with a shawl about her head and a face red with weeping, that +Mrs. Veyergang received her husband that evening; she was in a violently +excited state of mind, and her voice quite trembled.</p> + +<p>She wanted nothing less than that he should give Barbara warning.</p> + +<p>A tyranny existed in the house that was quite unparalleled—had existed +for several years—and if she had put up with it without +complaining—her husband knew that she had never complained—it was for +the children's sake. But it was really unnecessary now, and "it may be +just as well to seize the opportunity; she has become far, far too +overbearing in the house!"</p> + +<p>It was a matter of course that the warning was given in the most +appreciative and considerate, although firmly decisive manner. The whole +circle of Mrs. Veyergang's acquaintance agreed that they had all +expected that the Veyergangs would really one day part with that +pampered creature!</p> + +<p>The only person who was thoroughly astonished and quite stunned, as if +by a thunder-clap, was Barbara herself; and for a long time she could +not understand that she, the Veyergangs' Barbara, had actually received +warning to leave Ludvig and Lizzie and the house where she had been so +indispensable.</p> + +<p>She went about with a solemn, injured air, and expected that a change of +decision would some day take place. Then she became humble to her +mistress, and wept before the children.</p> + +<p>But there was always only the same kindness, which ever clenched the +dismissal more firmly.</p> + +<p>And now her mistress began to talk about a substantial acknowledgement +of her services with which the Consul would present her on her +departure.</p> + +<p>In indignation Barbara tied the strings of her best bonnet beneath her +chin, and with offended dignity requested permission to go into town.</p> + +<p>Her mistress was to know the meaning of this when she returned later in +the day. It was nothing less than that it was her fixed, resolute +purpose to offer herself to others who would appreciate her better than +the Veyergangs did.</p> + +<p>She directed her wrathful steps straight to Scheele, the magistrate's +house: they had four children, and were looking for a nurse. They were +the Consul's most intimate friends, where she would only need to present +herself, and they would jump at the opportunity. How often the +magistrate's wife had praised her management, and talked condescendingly +to her, when they had dined at the Veyergangs on Sundays! She had more +than once thought Mrs. Veyergang fortunate in having such a treasure in +the house, and sighed over her own inability to find just such another.</p> + +<p>But—how unfortunate it was—Mrs. Scheele was extremely sorry—they had +just engaged another nurse!</p> + +<p>"Fancy!" exclaimed Mrs. Scheele, when her husband came down from his +office, "there is a revolution at the Veyergangs', and that high and +mighty Nurse Barbara has got her dismissal. She has been here and +offered herself to us. I wouldn't have that pampered creature at any +price!"</p> + +<p>Barbara walked a long way that day and to the best houses. On a large +sheet of paper, folded in three, she had the Consul-General's long and +excellent testimonial to exhibit; moreover she was fully conscious of +the extent to which she was known. But though she stood so large and +erect and smart at the door, and comported herself so well, there was no +one who could make any use of her!</p> + +<p>And late in the evening, later than was needful, as she did not wish to +show herself, she came home again, disappointed and weary.</p> + +<p>It really seemed as if all the celebrity she had acquired during all +these years, all her fidelity, all her prestige as nurse at the +Veyergangs, was to vanish at one stroke into thin air!</p> + +<p>Deeply hurt as she was after her unlucky expedition, it was remarkable +that no one in the house asked her how she had got on—though there were +plenty of mischievous glances from her fellow-servants, whose standing +with their mistress had depended for so many years upon her. And +whenever she tried to broach the subject with Mrs. Veyergang, the latter +always turned the conversation—indeed, once she even dismissed the +subject, saying that Barbara must know that she never meddled with such +things.</p> + +<p>But the kindness increased as the day of her departure approached. +Barbara began to perceive how this screw of kindness, that turned so +gently, was screwing her farther and farther out of the house. The +Consul had Nikolai placed on trial as apprentice in a smithy down by the +crane, and from Mrs. Veyergang she received one thing after another, as +remembrances. But when, one day, the Consul—very thoughtfully—made her +a present of one of his old travelling trunks, she let her large, heavy +person sink down upon its lid, completely overwhelmed. She could not +bring herself to think, had never believed, that the day would come when +she must part from her mistress and Ludvig and Lizzie—it would kill +her!</p> + +<p>This was a direct appeal to the Consul himself, but the answer was not +exactly as Barbara wished. He patted her on the shoulder, saying:</p> + +<p>"I'm glad, my dear Barbara, that you feel that you have been well off."</p> + +<p>When she went into the Consul's office for a settlement and to receive +her savings-bank book—the amount it contained was a hundred and +fourteen specie-dollars, a result, the Consul said, with which she ought +to be thoroughly satisfied, when she considered the great expense she +had been put to with Nikolai—she declared her intention of resting for +a time before she went out to service again, and had made arrangements +to lodge with a farmer out in the country: she had now been toiling for +others for fourteen years!</p> + +<p>The last evening, which she had dreaded so, went more easily than she +had expected. The Consul and his wife were invited to the Willocks' +country-house in the afternoon with the children, so the farewell could +only be a short one, before they got into the carriage.</p> + +<p>She was left standing with the feeling of Lizzie's soft fur, which she +had stroked, in her fingers.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="iv"></a> +<h4><b>CHAPTER IV</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>A STOLEN INTERVIEW</i></b></h4> + +<p> +Holman made his usual turn into Selvig's public-house every evening to +brace himself for his return home. When the ale-bottle had been emptied, +and a proper number of drams consumed, his at first hurried, restless +look was stiffened into a dull, staring, fixed mask. It was the crust +about his heart, far within the unconscious, degraded man, who enjoyed +his daily hour of oblivion to that life-struggle which he had taken upon +himself when he chose to unite his lot inseparably with that of his +duty-breathing wife, that life-struggle in which he continually declared +"pass," and turned aside. When he sat there silently staring over his +glass, it was felt that he was brooding over something, possibly only +the number of drams he had drunk, possibly his bill, possibly, too, a +remote world of thought, where, like a philosopher, he gazed silently +down into unfathomable depths. Or possibly he was musing in silent +resignation upon the problem of matrimony, and the strange law of +consequence which had set him down here in the public-house.</p> + +<p>But regularity in all things, said Holman, and when the clock struck +eight, with his tools in his hand and his head bent, he turned his +faltering steps homewards.</p> + +<p>On Saturday evenings, when work was over at the workshop, a tall, active +young girl, with large wrists, thin arms and a stooping figure, would +often come down to fetch him. She had a basket, and a piece of paper on +which was written what she was to buy with the week's wages.</p> + +<p>The two would then go up the street together, walking slower and slower +as they went. Time after time he would stop, and look thoughtfully about +him with one hand in his pocket, and an occasionally ejaculated "H'm, +h'm!"—until they arrived at Mrs. Selvig's steps and green door, when he +would suddenly declare that he had some "things" lying in there: he +would be out again directly.</p> + +<p>Silla knew by experience what "directly" meant, and meanwhile went her +own way over the yards.</p> + +<p>Through the lovely August evening, one troop of workmen after another +came over the bridge near the mouth of the river, several of them with +the same sort of escort as her father, of wife or child. It was so usual +and its meaning so self-evident, that no one ever gave it a thought.</p> + +<p>While the different gates and yards were emitting their streams of +workmen, Silla had approached one of the narrow passages with which the +loading places are furrowed. On each side was a wooden hoarding, and +there were stacks of timber within. The irregularly cut up, black muddy +roadway led into a forge and implement yard.</p> + +<p>Just at the corner lay a heap of rubbish, full of broken bottles and +pottery. She stood there with her basket, every now and then taking a +step backwards, up the heap, to make room for passers-by. In this way +she gained the top of the heap, and could see over the hoarding into the +yard.</p> + +<p>They were still busy receiving wages in there in a crowd round a little +shed which did duty as an office.</p> + +<p>With outstretched neck, and her two shining dark eyes turned almost like +a bird's, she stood and looked eagerly in. There was no mistake about +her object.</p> + +<p>"Well, lass! are you looking for your sweetheart?" said a voice below.</p> + +<p>But, as she at that moment caught sight of Nikolai, and he signalled to +her, she took no notice of the voice, and waved her basket vigorously.</p> + +<p>He came out down the passage, unwashed and sooty, straight from his +work.</p> + +<p>"He's gone now!"</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"He had red hair, and had on blue braces and a sailmaker's cap. I think +it was the man from Grönlien they call Ottersnake; and he accused me of +standing here and looking for my sweetheart!"</p> + +<p>"I'll sweetheart him! If I only get hold of him, I'll hammer him into +nails! And then I'll pull his red hair to oakum, so that his father will +only need to put it into the pitch-kettle!"</p> + +<p>He looked about; but as the Ottersnake, who was doomed to so cruel and +terrible a fate, was nowhere to be seen, his wrath suddenly subsided, +and with an upward movement of the head, he proposed:</p> + +<p>"Baker Ring's, Silla?"</p> + +<p>He had his week's wages in his pocket, so they made a short cut through +two or three muddy back yards, which had planks laid down across the +worst places, up to the baker's shop.</p> + +<p>Oh, how they bought, and how they did eat!</p> + +<p>There were some specially delicious expensive cakes with jam inside. And +it was the two collars, that he had thought of buying for himself next +week, that they ate up!</p> + +<p>With a great feeling of his own importance Nikolai related how he had +now forged six large iron hooks with links to them; and she must not +imagine that they wanted nothing but hammering—no, they had to be +hammered out and beaten and bent at the right time! Down there they only +made stakes and picks and tires; but he meant to be either a locksmith +or a brazier.</p> + +<p>This did not interest Silla very much; she wanted to hear about the +picnic on Sunday, when he had gone to the woods with the journeymen. It +must have been awfully jolly! And didn't they dance too?</p> + +<p>"I should just think they did. Anders Berg is a capital fellow; he's +going to set up for himself in Svelvig soon, and get married."</p> + +<p>"And were the others engaged, too?"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw!"</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Pooh!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you? Can't you tell me?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it's nothing—only nonsense! There's not one of them that'll make +a smith's wife—creatures that have larks now with one fellow and now +with another?"</p> + +<p>"And did you dance?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the 'prentices have only to run after beer; but when I'm a +journeyman—but, Silla, the time—we must hurry!" he broke off suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's not late yet. One more nice one with jam—do go in and buy it! +Oh, do, Nikolai!" she begged, and as he ran in to get what she wanted, +she called after him:</p> + +<p>"And some sweets to eat on the way home—some of those at four for a +halfpenny."</p> + +<p>"Can't you eat it as you go along, Silla?" he urged, when he came out +again; "you must make haste! Just think if she heard at home that you +had been with me."</p> + +<p>"Pooh, there's no hurry," and she leaned against the wall, and regaled +herself—"for you see," she mumbled, "father won't be out of Mrs. +Selvig's yet a-while, and I'll say first of all that <i>that</i> has kept me: +I can reckon at least half an hour for that. And then to mother I have +the excuse that it's Saturday evening, and there were so many people in +the shop that I could hardly get to the counter. And when I won't have +any supper, you know, I'll only say I've got such a headache with +standing and waiting in the shop: it was so stifling in there. I think +mother's nose would be very fine, if she could guess that I had met you. +Well, what are you looking so solemn about?"</p> + +<p>"She at home"—he never named her mother in any other fashion—"forces +you into lies every single day; no one has a right to speak the truth +but her!"</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she tossed her head impatiently; she had heard this so often.</p> + +<p>"She eats up all the honesty in the room by herself, you know, for it's +quite impossible to act honestly by her, for very terror. She keeps +discipline, and much or little, it's all the same. Any one who wants to +speak the truth without using his fists to back it up will get thrashed +as I did! It doesn't matter for me; but when I think of you going home +and making up all those lies again, and that you are so frightened, and +haven't the strength to stand against them, Silla!"</p> + +<p>She tried to laugh and make light of it; but her face fell sadly. She +could not bear this unpleasant subject, for she was obliged to tell +lies, however angry he might be.</p> + +<p>And then she suddenly began to hurry.</p> + +<p>"No, no, we must go home, Nikolai. I daren't stand here any longer."</p> + +<p>Nikolai was starting off, but stopped suddenly at sight of Silla's +dismayed countenance. She had turned her pocket inside out, and stood +holding it while she gazed and searched on the ground round her. Then, +in feverish haste, she unfastened her bodice, and searched there.</p> + +<p>"The money! Oh, the money, Nikolai!" she cried anxiously, and went on +shaking her skirt and looking about her, almost beside herself. "The +silver was wrapped up in the two dollar notes, just as father gave them +to me, and I put them into my pocket at once."</p> + +<p>"What <i>shall</i> I do, Nikolai?" She began to cry, but all at once, with a +sudden thought, she flew to the basket. But it was not there.</p> + +<p>They searched and searched.</p> + +<p>Of course it must be at the corner by the rubbish-heap, for she had +stood there and waved her basket. It would be lying among the broken +bottles.</p> + +<p>The pale, thin rim of the autumn moon had risen over the yards while +they were searching there step by step, Silla every now and then +uttering a despondent, monotonous "Suppose I don't find it!" and Nikolai +plunging his arm up to the elbow into puddles in which the roll of money +might have fallen.</p> + +<p>They had been by the bridge, they had searched the rubbish-heap, they +had looked up and down and everywhere; it was not to be found.</p> + +<p>It was beginning to be late, and Mrs. Holman was waiting at home. She +would be really waiting now.</p> + +<p>Silla began to cry.</p> + +<p>Nikolai had only asked her once or twice to be quiet, and he would find +the money. Now he suddenly said:</p> + +<p>"I should like to give you another good feed of cakes to-day, and then +throw myself into the sea with you, Silla. It would be no lie that we +lay there."</p> + +<p>Whether his proposition was meant seriously or not, it did not gain a +hearing with her. She sat hopeless and despairing on a log while the big +tears ran down her cheeks.</p> + +<p>The seventeen-year-old workshop apprentice stood thoughtfully, with his +flat cap pushed back over his rough hair, blackened by the week's work. +He was gazing intently into an old rotten hole in the log. The hole +became more and more rotten, more and more hollow, more and more empty +while his busy thoughts were trying to find an expedient. But none came.</p> + +<p>Fully aware of her fate, Silla rose, took her basket, and started +homewards with her eyes fixed on the ground. She was going to the +scaffold. Nikolai accompanied her as far as he dared, reiterating in +different ways: "Don't be afraid, Silla, they can't kill you!"</p> + +<p>Something like a low wail said that she heard him.</p> + +<p>When she disappeared round the corner, he made a short cut which only he +and one or two old yard cats knew of; and from the hoarding at the +bottom of the square he saw her go, with bent head and the same quiet +step, without stopping, down the cellar stairs.</p> + +<p>When it was dark, he stood outside the window and listened. He heard her +still sobbing quietly, after the storm that had passed over her.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman had examined and cross-examined, and at last extracted from +Silla the confession that she had been with Nikolai. That she, Mrs. +Holman's daughter, in spite of all prohibitions, sought the society of +that misled prodigal, who had rewarded her with such ingratitude, was +enough to bring her to her grave. And no one would persuade her either +that Holman's hardly-earned week's wages could vanish like steam from a +kettle. A half-starved apprentice-boy, walking beside a well-filled +pocket—any one could understand what the result of that would be. +Master Nikolai had only carefully and craftily watched his time, when he +knew that Silla had her father's money in her pocket, to get it shuffled +into his own.</p> + +<p>Matters were not improved by Silla in her obstinacy declaring that he +had not so much as seen the money—as if Nikolai would take a farthing +from <i>her</i>!</p> + +<p>This last remark sealed his fate—there should be no concealment of his +conduct on Mrs. Holman's part.</p> + +<p>There was a commotion in the forge-yard, when the nest day a +police-officer came and arrested Nikolai. He was to be taken to the +police-station for having defrauded a young girl on Saturday evening of +the whole of her father's week's wages.</p> + +<p>But when they were gone, Anders Berg swore, as he brought the +sledge-hammer down on the anvil, that that Nikolai had never done. The +others—Jan Peter, and Katrinus, and Bernt Johan Jakobsen and Petter +Evensen—they thought nothing; but to bring the police into a +respectable work-yard! He had better get work in some other place after +this!</p> + +<p>For the first moment Nikolai had only one sensation—the paralysing fear +by which a first acquaintance with the police is always accompanied. The +feeling that he had a good conscience did indeed leap up within him, but +only to die away again immediately. He had so often had that, and it had +always proved to be too thin a sheet of ice to stand upon in the hour of +trial. That kind of self-esteem was a plant which had too often been +trodden under Mrs. Holman's heel to be able to bloom now as a fragrant, +full-blown flower within him.</p> + +<p>The outcome of his reflections was a sudden twist and a violent jerk, by +which he hoped to escape from his inconvenient companion, the sole +result, however, being that he immediately had a constable at each arm.</p> + +<p>When brought up for examination before the police superintendent, a +dark, unwilling defiance glowed in his face, and the sharp glance—too +sharp for a lad of his age—did not prepossess any one in his favour.</p> + +<p>Silla? He had not been with any Silla on Saturday.</p> + +<p>It would never occur to him to betray her, and it was only when he was +confronted with her and her mother, and heard that she had confessed, +that he admitted it.</p> + +<p>Silla continued to maintain, in a voice choked with tears, that he had +not taken the money, but this proved nothing either for or against him. +On the other hand what had more weight were the facts that had been +elucidated on ransacking and examining the room in which he lodged—he +lived in a garret at glazier Olsen's with three other apprentices—for +they all agreed in saying that on the Saturday in question he had come +home late, after they were asleep, and had gone out again very early on +the Sunday morning.</p> + +<p>The assertion of the accused that this was to renew the search for the +lost money down by the yard did not seem very credible. But it was +impossible to get any nearer to him.</p> + +<p>A hardened young rascal. This was his foster-mother's testimony too.</p> + +<p>Nikolai stood with his cap in his hand, looking down at the floor. He +had a habit of drawing the skin of his forehead up and down when he was +meditating. In the broad, young face with the large features, the grey +eyes into which there sometimes came a peculiar look, and the cock's +comb, of a tinge between zinc and copper, the police inspector's +penetrating and—after many year's practice—not easily deceived eye saw +the marks of one who would probably in the future often give occupation +to the police.</p> + +<p>"In order to exclude the possibility of conferences with the other +apprentices in his room," he dictated for the record, "considering that +the accused has manifested <i>mala fides</i> by an attempt to escape, as well +as by his untruthful conduct and denials under examination, he will, for +the present, be placed under arrest."</p> + +<p>As the words of the order were read out, there were a few involuntary +contractions of the muscles in Nikolai's face, which was damp with +perspiration; there quivered in it the poor man's curse, at never having +a way of escape; a false step, and he is caught, a lost dollar, and he +comes before the court.</p> + +<p>After another examination Nikolai was acquitted for want of evidence.</p> + +<p>The morning when the prison door closed behind him, he slunk down the +street with a feeling that all the windows on both sides were looking at +him; it was anything but the gait of one who can let his honesty's sun +shine once more.</p> + +<p>Down at his lodging at Mrs. Olsen's he found his few things put ready in +the cupboard under the stairs to be fetched away, and a message was left +that his place in the garret was occupied by some one else.</p> + +<p>He did not ask why. Mrs. Olsen's silence hurt him more than if she had +cried aloud about people who drew on her "an examination and search of +the house, and other disturbances."</p> + +<p>And then he had to go down and show himself at the forge again—to +Hægberg the master, and Anders Berg, and the journeymen, and all the +apprentices.</p> + +<p>It was with uncertain steps and stopping time after time. What did +Anders Berg think, he wondered.</p> + +<p>In a fit of despondency he half turned. But he must do it. So he held up +his head and began to whistle. But as he neared the coal-begrimed wooden +palings of the work-yard the whistling ceased, and he was in a cold +perspiration when he entered the gate.</p> + +<p>Without saying a word he went to the coal-bin and began to lift some +bars of pig-iron which had to be moved aside. While he did so, no one +either greeted or spoke to him.</p> + +<p>Anders Berg had an iron in the furnace, and it was not until he and +another man had finished hammering it out, that he came up to Nikolai +and said:</p> + +<p>"I was sure you would come back again. Here's some work for you; you can +file these three keys."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Nikolai was placed at one of the vices, and was soon busily at +work with both coarse and fine files.</p> + +<p>Anders Berg's words had done him such good, had placed him at once as it +were on his feet before the whole workshop, and in his heart he made a +vow of friendship and devotion to Anders Berg for ever.</p> + +<p>There were showers of sparks and a ringing from the sledge-hammers in +the large smithy, and sharp blows of hammers, while the files shrieked +and whistled and set one's teeth on edge. The work went on and Nikolai +thought he had never known until to-day how splendid it was to be a +smith. He might as well do the key-bit with the fine file at once, while +the key was on that side of the vice; and he filed the notch as neatly +and smoothly as if it had been intended for a chest of drawers, and not +a great pipeless key for a wooden gate.</p> + +<p>Now came the handle. He worked away with the coarse file, until he could +scarcely hear the sledge-hammer for its shrieking.</p> + +<p>At the anvil stood a man making clincher nails, while one of the +apprentices pulled the bellows and occasionally gathered the nails +together. They were talking and laughing, and now and again some loud +exclamation penetrated to Nikolai. It was only when the boy made a +grimace at him, that it occurred to Nikolai that he was the subject of +the conversation, and instantly the large file became quite light in his +hand, and he had suddenly eyes and ears only for what was going on +around him.</p> + +<p>They were standing talking and nodding over there by the vices; Jan +Peter ran and repeated what this one said and what the other one said. +It was easy to see what the meaning of it all was, and that he now stood +there like any show animal; no, like something much worse—like one who +was capable of going to the pockets of any one of them!</p> + +<p>There was not one of the apprentices who would share his night's lodging +with him now. He could see that.</p> + +<p>He stood straining his ears, with a feeling that they were killing him +in all the work-yards round—they were filing him down at the vices, +hammering him flat with the small hammers, and crushing him with the +sledge-hammers. He guessed and understood glances and looks.</p> + +<p>"Well, you know, Matthias," he heard from away there by the nails which +the man was now gathering into his apron, "there are many easier trades +than standing in a smithy: make a good pick out of your fists, lad!"</p> + +<p>"He-he-he!" laughed the boy addressed.</p> + +<p>"Or make yourself pincers that you can get down into skirt-pockets +with—all the lassies in the town, lad, that have any pence."</p> + +<p>Nikolai heard every word and the hoarse laughter that followed; he was +very pale.</p> + +<p>Coarse merriment shone in the man's sooty face, and, as their eyes met, +he made a contemptuous grimace.</p> + +<p>Soon after he came past with his apron full of nails. Their eyes met +again; the scornful ones grew more scornful; Nikolai seemed to see them +in a haze, and then the journeyman received a blow full in the face +which laid him on his back, scattering the nails as he fell.</p> + +<p>There was a short pause of surprise before they all rushed upon him.</p> + +<p>But Nikolai swung the big file about him like a madman. He felt with +frenzied pleasure, how he would strike—strike down the whole smithy one +by one until justice was done him. Wait a little, he had only begun +yet—a hammer was lying on the block.</p> + +<p>But the men in the smithy did not wait, and the next moment it was he +who lay on his back, his eyes blinded by blue and yellow sparks, and as +many of his adversaries around and upon him as there was room for; he +should be held fast and sent about his business now—he had used a +weapon!</p> + +<p>He felt a powerful grasp on his coat collar, a grasp that included the +skin, felt himself dragged up and, without a pause, half carried, half +flung, out of the smithy door.</p> + +<p>It was Anders Berg, who had exerted his power to rescue him, and +who—still only slightly relaxing his hold—led him out of the gate.</p> + +<p>It was his farewell to the smithy.</p> + +<p>"I'll just tell you something," exclaimed Anders Berg later, when the +commotion had subsided; he was still red in the face and spoke loudly, +while he hammered cold.</p> + +<p>"There's come a wrong bend in Nikolai; but it isn't his fault!"</p> + +<p>The hammer rang on the iron.</p> + +<p>Nikolai did not take a lodging anywhere that evening; he was too bruised +and dirty for that, his clothes too torn and ragged, and, more than +anything else, he felt too sore to meet people now that he had left the +smithy in such a way.</p> + +<p>When night fell, he had once more taken up his familiar quarters in one +of the stacks of planks down at the timber-yard. There, in one of the +deep square spaces he lay and looked up at the stars and thought how +entertaining the world had become!</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="v"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER V</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED</i></b></h4> + +<p>Nikolai was out of work, that was very certain.</p> + +<p>It never entered his head to present himself at any other smithy: they +all knew each other too well for that. And even at barge-builder +Hansen's, where he got a lodging up in the tool-loft, and his food on +the days when he got a chance of doing something useful, they wanted to +know now why he had left his trade. As if that were any business of +theirs!</p> + +<p>So Nikolai suddenly disappeared.</p> + +<p>On the quay, the harbour and the steamers, a fellow with his hands could +surely get on just as well as any other.</p> + +<p>It was with fresh and dauntless courage, though with a stomach not +overladen with food during the last few days, that he went down there.</p> + +<p>He was received with a certain appreciative admiration. He found that it +was a well-known fact that he had had an encounter with the police, and +had been sufficiently dexterous to get off without their being able to +fix anything upon him; the news of such an exploit travels like +wild-fire in that world, and spreads a halo around its subject.</p> + +<p>And as long as he was supposed to be only an idler, or an apprentice who +was airing himself and taking a day or two's holiday from the smithy, +the shareholders in the different businesses down there were both +agreeable and talkative. But when—and that not once only—he suddenly +turned to, and darted over the landing-stage from the steamer with a +large trunk on his back and a traveller at his heels, past the cabs up +to the hotel, they quite changed their tone. Had he a badge? Or did he +think perhaps, that it would do to take other people's business? They +knew very well what sort of a fellow he was!</p> + +<p>He was well aware that he could not get a badge, so he must get along as +he best could by working and toiling and fighting for an empty stomach, +and make his way by threats and with his fists, and—when it was a case +of being entrusted with a burden, or getting first hold of a trunk—by +being deaf, stone-deaf, to everything they might think of calling out +about him.</p> + +<p>There were ten men to every job requiring one, and, as it were, a wall +or circle drawn round every road to earning something. Some small jobs +he might now and then chance to be alone in—when the lock of a door had +slipped, or the door came off its hinges, or some kind of smithcraft was +required at a moment's notice. But he gained no more than a bare +subsistence, often only a dram or two by way of thanks.</p> + +<p>And now that it had been such a long winter, he was both hungry and +cold. The nights especially were so long. He often took spirits for his +supper to get them to pass. And then he had to think over what he would +try his hand at the next day—cutting the ice, work on the quay, +clearing away snow or carrying planks in the yard.</p> + +<p>Thinly-clad and with no overcoat, and rather red with the cold, he +clattered down in a coat that was in holes at the elbows, and his old +scarf that had taken its hue from the smithy, pulled high up about his +ears. It was not difficult to see in him the smith's apprentice. +Whenever he met any of Hægberg's men, he burst into a scornful laugh. +Did they think, perhaps, that he was slovenly clad? It was just as he +was now, that he wanted to be. He wanted to be free and have neither +master nor journeyman nor any one over him, and to care for nobody.</p> + +<p>If the forge-yard was one point that he preferred to keep away from, +there were also other places in the town that he made a round to +avoid—namely, that part of the quay where the blockmaker's workshop +lay, and the Holmans' house up in the square.</p> + +<p>Whatever the reason might be, he had no wish to meet Silla.</p> + +<p>The last time he had spoken to her—the day after he had left the +smithy—he noticed that she was looking about in a frightened way the +whole time, and wanted him to stand first in one place and then in +another. It could not be fear of any one at home, and then it suddenly +dawned upon him that she was ashamed that people should see her standing +and talking to him, so with a "Good-bye, Silla!" he darted from her.</p> + +<p>Afterwards he thoroughly enjoyed seeing her look so unhappy and so eager +to show him that she did not care what people thought. What did she care +about him, when he had nothing to treat her with? It was not fit for her +to stand talking to a fellow like him.</p> + +<p>There is a splendid friend and ally for every one who has thin, ragged +clothes, and that is the sun. He distributes overcoats in the shape of +warm, sunny walls, brings life and movement with him, and then there +need no longer be any uncertainty about a midday-meal.</p> + +<p>Nikolai had had work on the quay the whole morning, and was now +standing, in the midday rest, baking himself against the sunny wall, and +yawning.</p> + +<p>He stopped in the middle of a yawn. That slight figure in the faded +cotton dress, that was running with her body bent forwards, and a +handkerchief over the little, dark head, to keep off the sun—it was no +other than Silla!</p> + +<p>She was darting along among the baskets and traffic on the fish-quay; +there was a searching haste in her like that of a frightened corn-crake, +that turns its head now to one side now to the other as it runs. She had +caught sight of him, and now she began calling:</p> + +<p>"Nikolai! Nikolai!</p> + +<p>"Nikolai!"—she almost choked in her hurry to speak—"Nikolai, just +think! Mother, when she was unpicking my old blue dress to-day, she +found the money in the lining, inside the lining, both the notes, and +the silver too. I ran down to tell you directly I had taken father's +dinner to the workshop. And now I'm going to the smithy, and they shall +hear what they have done to you. Could you believe it! Inside the +lining! I am so awfully, awfully glad"—and her eyes did look almost +wild—You can't think what a grave face mother put on!"</p> + +<p>"Just tell them at home that it's all the same to me!" said he bitterly +and unmelted. But she did not notice it; she wanted to go to the smithy, +and away she went.</p> + +<p>He had no objection. But now that Anders Berg had set up for himself in +Svelvig, there was no one there he cared about, to hear it. For he was a +free man now!</p> + +<p>He stood with his hands in his trouser pockets, gazing over the edge of +the quay at a sunken sugar-loaf, which a crowd of small boys, amid noise +and clamour, were labouring to get up. It lay already half melted on the +green bottom, on which the sun drew wavy lines.</p> + +<p>Silla might try all she could to get him into the smithy. Since they had +tacked the word thief on to him, he had got soaked through with salt +water, just like the sugar-loaf. And besides, to stand there and slave, +when he could be his own——</p> + +<p>"Hi, you boys! I'll show you how to get the sugar-loaf up, but you will +have to eat it yourselves."</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>The public-house—the one at Mrs. Selvig's, with the green door and +white window frames, farthest down the street—had seen Holman's quiet, +subdued, stooping figure come and go for many years. His grasp on the +door-handle was just as precise, his walk up to the brown counter after +having laid down his tools, exactly the same, though his face had a +little more colour in it. He had a certain reputation there, which had +allowed of his "chalking up" for several years past, and there was a +regular proportion of his account, about which his inexorably correct +wife had not the faintest idea—"for Holman had his weekly +pocket-money."</p> + +<p>And as usual on Saturday evenings, Silla was walking about outside with +the basket, waiting for him.</p> + +<p>She was really quite nicely dressed in her cotton gown with a little +white handkerchief tied round her neck; but clothes did not seem to set +her off. The slight, overgrown figure seemed to show through everywhere.</p> + +<p>She made a quick turn, when she thought she caught a glimpse of Nikolai +at the bottom of the street. She had fancied the same thing last +Saturday evening. She had not really spoken to him since early in the +summer, when he got so angry because she wanted him to go into the +smithy again.</p> + +<p>She went quickly down the street—she was quite certain that it was he!</p> + +<p>She hurried on farther, down to the bridge; but it was the same as last +time—he was not to be seen. So she turned back again, disappointed, +keeping constant watch on Mrs. Selvig's green door. She knew her father +would appear as the clock struck eight.</p> + +<p>She went up towards it and down again: she began to grow impatient. It +must be past the time. They were beginning to shut the shops here and +there, and if she was to get anything bought this evening, it would be +impossible to wait any longer.</p> + +<p>She must really go up and see whether her father were sitting there +still—whether he had not perhaps gone when she was down at the bridge: +he never mistook the time.</p> + +<p>She had gone up the street as far as the place where the stone pavement +began, when she saw the green door open and slam quickly to again, as a +bare-headed, half-dressed servant-girl ran out. Immediately after, a man +came out in similar haste, and through the door which he left standing +open behind him, a number of people, with and without hats, streamed out +on to the steps.</p> + +<p>Something was the matter!</p> + +<p>Now a window was also opened, or rather hammered open, so that the pane +clashed down on to the pavement.</p> + +<p>Probably some drunken man or other, who could not stand any longer—it +was Saturday evening, you know—and who was making a row, and must be +taken by the police.</p> + +<p>She had often seen such sights before, and was quite accustomed to them. +She was not anxious about her father either: he never interfered in such +matters.</p> + +<p>But why did he not come out? Every one else had come out.</p> + +<p>A faint, slanting gleam of evening light had fallen in through the empty +square of window. Her father generally sat at the table just inside; he +always kept the same place. And she went up and peered in between the +flower-pots,—some half-stifled, dirty geraniums and hydrangeas, +saturated with public-house effluvia.</p> + +<p>Who was that—that man who was lying on the dirty counter, with his +necktie and shirt unfastened and one arm hanging down—was it her +father?</p> + +<p>"If only some one had a lancet!—he moved just now—a lancet!"</p> + +<p>What more they said on the steps she did not notice, except that some +wanted to deny her entrance, and others again said that she was Holman's +daughter.</p> + +<p>She awoke, as if after a fall from a great height during which she had +lost consciousness, to find herself sitting by the counter supporting +her father's head. She thought she remembered clinging to his neck and +begging him to answer her: but there was no rattling in his throat now.</p> + +<p>They had placed an old, worn sofa-pillow and the seat of a chair under +his head. Behind stood quart and pint measures, dram-glasses, tin +funnels and beer-bottles pushed right up to the wall to make room. His +wide-open eyes stared up at the once white-washed beams of the ceiling, +and one side of his face was drawn up into a grin, which made him look +as if he were unspeakably disgusted with the dirty ceiling.</p> + +<p>A big man sat at the door. Silla knew him: he was the public-house bear, +as he was called; he who turned people out for Mrs. Selvig. He was +sitting silent on the bench.</p> + +<p>There was perfect stillness in the room; she heard only the drip from +the tap of the brandy-cask down into the dish beneath, and saw, through +the half-open door to the inner room, Mrs. Selvig and her two daughters +bustling about on tiptoe.</p> + +<p>A young man in spectacles entered. He asked a few rapid questions, while +he opened a case of instruments on the counter at the feet of the +prostrate figure. He listened at its chest with the stethoscope and +without it, and shook his head, pulled out a lancet, and pushed the +shirt sleeve up the hanging arm.</p> + +<p>"Hold the sleeve, so that it doesn't slip down!" he said with a glance +up at Silla; he took her to be a member of the household.</p> + +<p>The lancet pierced and pierced again. The ashen grey face of the girl +looked into his, as if she would beg him for only one drop of that which +was the life.</p> + +<p>There came out something like a thick, dark syrup.</p> + +<p>He listened again, felt again; one more trial with the lancet, and it +was with an air of superiority, and a mouth drawn up like his +professor's, that the young bachelor of medicine turned to those +assembled and pronounced his concise verdict:</p> + +<p>"Stone dead! The man's stone dead!—from drink!"</p> + +<p>His words were followed by a cry from Silla, who threw herself upon her +father.</p> + +<p>"Is that his daughter?" asked the young doctor. He carefully wiped his +lancet at the light, and put his instruments together preparatory to +going, but gazed at the same time over his spectacles at her. Heedless +of everything, she cried incessantly over the body.</p> + +<p>"You aren't dead, are you, father? Father!"</p> + +<p>It was a wild sorrow, without consideration or bashfulness, and the +young doctor felt that he was witnessing an unpleasant scene from life +in the outskirts of the town. He had done his duty and hastened out.</p> + +<p>A twenty-year-old workshop apprentice, pale and overcome, was standing +behind Silla, trying to recall her to herself. He took her by the +shoulder, and whispered repeatedly, as loudly as respect for the dead +would allow:</p> + +<p>"Silla! Silla! don't you hear? It's me—Nikolai!"</p> + +<p>And he tried in vain two or three times to lift her up from the body.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile a policeman stood and examined Mrs. Selvig and the girls. He +made notes, and took down the particulars of the death.</p> + +<p>Just finished his usual quantity, a bottle of ale and four drams. The +girl at the bar saw him quickly stretch out his hand—had the impression +that he wanted another dram—and when he slowly sank down from his +chair, supposed that he was drunk. Used never to be so drunk that he +could not walk or stand, at any rate by supporting himself or holding on +to convenient, firm things.</p> + +<p>This last piece of evidence was deposed to by several of the regular +customers, or as they were described in the police report—"Several of +the regular visitors to the refreshment-room, whose testimony may be +considered as thoroughly reliable."</p> + +<p>Several of these silent, somewhat tottering, figures who had been thus +aroused from their dull, Saturday evening drowsiness, had already +disappeared from the scene. Bottles and glasses remained standing with +their contents.</p> + +<p>"Might there not possibly be some other direct or indirect cause?"</p> + +<p>It was at first hesitatingly that Mrs. Selvig could think of anything of +the sort.</p> + +<p>Unwilling as she was to go to extremes with an old, regular customer, +she yet had been obliged this evening to give him to understand that +whatever he required in future must be paid for in cash. His bill had +now, after all the years he had enjoyed credit in the tap-room, grown so +enormous, that she, a widow with two daughters, could no longer feel +justified in letting it run on. During all the years he had frequented +her house, she had faithfully kept her word never to send a bill home to +his house. But a bill cannot lie for ever on the threshold, as the +police know. That is the way of the world: it is the same for one as it +is for the other—so it must just be got by a distress warrant. That was +what she had said to him, unwilling though she had been to do so, and so +unpleasant, she could truthfully say, as it was to disturb such a quiet, +decent man.</p> + +<p>It was high time to rid the bar of its encumbrance. The public-house +bear had hunted up a hand-barrow, but had to get a couple more men to +help carry. And they must have a proper contrivance with a cloth over, +so that the whole thing would look like a hospital stretcher—a dead man +with nothing but a tablecloth over him would make too great a commotion +out in the street!</p> + +<p>It was something of this kind that Mrs. Selvig and her daughters were +busy looking out and putting together, out of some green bed-hangings. +One's good name is dear to every one, and Mrs. Selvig felt that what had +just taken place was a blow to the house.</p> + +<p>It was now nearly dark in the tap-room. Holman's dark figure had been +moved on to the stretcher, which stood on the floor ready to be lifted, +and a message had been sent to Mrs. Holman.</p> + +<p>Perhaps they delayed purposely; a little later in the evening when it +was darker, and an undesirable sensation in the street would be avoided.</p> + +<p>Silla's face was stiff with crying. There was no one in the room but her +and Nikolai.</p> + +<p>He stood by the counter, and she was sitting with her back to the +window; there was no sound but the humming of a gnat in the +half-darkness up under the curtain.</p> + +<p>At last he broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"He was kind, both to you and to me, as often as he dared be, you know."</p> + +<p>Silla did not answer.</p> + +<p>"He always dreaded going home at night so, you know. He'll be spared +that now, and setting his foot inside this public-house again, too!"</p> + +<p>"Father! Father!" broke from Silla, followed by a fit of violent +sobbing.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Silla!" he said, interrupted by the repressed weight on his own +breast. "If you have no father, you have some one here who will take +care of you, and knows what it is—I have never had any father either, +nor ever seen any. And I <i>will</i> be a smith, as there won't be any more +block-making for you now. I only wanted to tell you, so that you can +remember it afterwards," he added softly—it did not look as if Silla +were listening to him.</p> + +<p>"And this evening I'll follow you right to the corner, and I'll stand +there until everything is in, and I shall be outside to-night; so you +know it, if anything is wanted."</p> + +<p>"Yes, stay outside, Nikolai!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>The public-house bear and the two bearers came in. They lifted the +stretcher out through the door, and, with a little difficulty at the +turn, down the steps, where a few spectators stood.</p> + +<p>And so they went up the street—the dead with the two bearers and the +public-house bear in front, and Silla and Nikolai behind.</p> + +<p>At the place where they were to part, he pressed the basket, which she +had forgotten, into her hand, and then stood looking after them.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="vi"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER VI</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>THE FACTORY GIRLS</i></b></h4> + +<p>What becomes of all the swarm of orphan children down in the by-streets +and outskirt alleys of the capital—children of whom no one has any +account, and no one takes any account, who swarm down there only one +floor higher, so to speak, than the spawn and small fry which are +floating below in the sea among the quay piles, and which will one day +become large male and female fish?</p> + +<p>Disease wields a broad broom in the earliest age. The harbour takes them +into its embrace; the streets with their stray livelihoods, or a +wandering vagabond life, takes them; refuges, police-stations, prisons +and the house of correction take them. In later years, labour also, on a +great scale, has taken them into its embrace—the factory doors stand +wide open.</p> + +<p>People who now and then have an attack of conscientious scruples about +existences to which they may possibly stand in original relationship, +can draw a sigh of relief. The responsibility is at any rate diminished, +as the chances now are that they will be drawn into Labour's educating +wheel; and then, too, the matter is in certain respects carried over +into moral territory.</p> + +<p>There they sat, the more ripely-developed youth of the town, in rows up +in the rooms of the Veyergang firm's great factory, and minded the +whirring shuttles, balls and rollers—Swedish Lena, and Stina, and +Kristofa, and Kalla, and Josefa and Gunda, and all the rest of them. Had +any one asked them about their parents, they would now and then have +been hard put to it for an answer.</p> + +<p>The conversation went on very busily at the top of the room; it was even +continued with nods and glances whenever one or other of the controlling +authorities turned his steps in that direction. They had to gesticulate, +nod, talk in a loud voice, but they got on best with their faces close +up to one another in all this whizzing, where the band-wheels each +whirred away for their little sub-division of power, the boards of the +floor quivered and shook with the movement of the engines, and the +waterfall outside in the sun, with a thundering and deafening roar, +buried the great water-wheel beneath its creamy, powerful splendour.</p> + +<p>They were for the most part quite young vagabond girls of from barely +sixteen to twenty, who were making the noise up there: new-comers, more +or less, without practice, who were still striving to acquire the knack. +And that was Silla Holman, she with the dark hair, slender and freckled, +with heelless slippers and a large spot of paraffine on the front of her +dress, who coughed and questioned, and questioned and coughed, while her +eyes looked like two little round, black fire-balls, and her weak, flat +chest went up and down with the mere exertion of making herself heard. +She sat there among the youngest; her fingers worked among the spools, +and now and then she looked up like a bird.</p> + +<p>They had got over the angry dispute about Josefa's new braided jacket. +She need not try to persuade any one that she had got the money from her +stepmother; no, let any one who liked believe that, but neither Gunda +nor Jakobina did! Then Kristofa had related her wonderful adventure of +last Sunday—she was always passing through remarkable occurrences, most +wonderfully interesting, if not true to quite a corresponding degree, in +which fine ladies and gentlemen played the principal parts, and she +chanced to be the initiated one.</p> + +<p>And now the conversation had turned upon something so interesting that +Silla listened with both her ears. There was to be dancing on Sunday +evening up at the Letvindt, and the talk was of handkerchiefs, bows, and +finery—which some possessed and others had to borrow—and of who danced +best and treated most liberally. Kristofa was able to inform them that +there was to be a violin and a clarionet, and that both students and +ordinary people and ships' officers were to be there!</p> + +<p>Some strangers who were going over the factory came up the room, and +stopped and questioned and examined. And the young workwomen sat each in +her place, with head bent over her work, as if she had no thought for +anything but her reels.</p> + +<p>The morning light shone with a kind of dizzy stillness in from the great +windows high up in the wall, over human beings, machinery and bales.</p> + +<p>It was nearly twelve. The last hour always dragged so slowly, and the +smell of oil and the heat from the engines seemed to increase and become +almost stupifying.</p> + +<p>Still a few more long stifling minutes. At last the bell rang.</p> + +<p>And dressed, as if by a stroke of magic, the factory girls swarmed down +the steps, with their breakfast-tins in their hands, in their neat +aprons, handkerchiefs nicely tied under their chins, and knitted shawls +crossed over their chests.</p> + +<p>Oh, the bright spring air!—to take a good breath of it! Silla, hot and +thirsty, knocked off a bit of frozen snow from the fence with her tin +and ate it.</p> + +<p>With her head full of all that Kristofa had held out to her about the +dance at the Letvindt, she wandered down arm-in-arm with a long row of +her companions. The road out from the factory was quite crowded; lower +down it widened out, with a street-like pavement.</p> + +<p>"Look, look, Kristofa! Veyergang has come back from England already!" +The young girls nudged each other, highly interested. "New topcoat; +light, light brown!"</p> + +<p>"Pooh! <i>I</i> saw him come by the steamer yesterday, him and a whole heap +of English people. They were all brown together; I counted exactly seven +different kinds of dirt-colour!" It was Josefa who was using her tongue; +she had had practice at a milliner's.</p> + +<p>"He'll have to take care of the oil!" tittered one.</p> + +<p>"He's awfully handsome! Look what a grand forehead! Oh, what a lovely +red silk handkerchief in his breast-pocket!" whispered Kristofa to +Silla.</p> + +<p>The row squeezed themselves up against the fence. The person in question +came by humming carelessly, with his head held high and swinging his +walking-stick. All the young girls stared respectfully and stupidly +straight in front of them, though not without a glance out of the corner +of their eye. He disappeared up the stream, cleaving it like a salmon.</p> + +<p>"He parts his hair at the back of his head!"—"His hat is like a +pudding-basin!"—"Don't breathe upon him, he is so thin!"—"He is his +own father's son!"—"Oh, what a conceited stick!"</p> + +<p>They had turned to look after him.</p> + +<p>"He isn't nearly so stern as he walks there; but in the factory, you +know, he has to be as firm as a rock. Johanna Sjoberg, who does clear +starching, recognised him down at the masked ball at the fair; she told +me so herself."</p> + +<p>"You can just fancy," struck in Jakobina, "what a number of fine people +come to the rooms in that way. You think you are only waltzing with a +common man, and perhaps it is the son of the richest man in the town! +But if you are a little careful you can easily tell by the way they +dance, or by their watch, or their shirt-collar, or because they chew +such fine tobacco."</p> + +<p>"He looked at us, did you notice?" whispered Kristofa eagerly into +Silla's ear.</p> + +<p>"Yes, because he knows me," said Silla, a little confused at his having +fixed his eyes on her.</p> + +<p>There was a burst of laughter.</p> + +<p>"Is that young crow going to caw too?"</p> + +<p>The young crow grew hot beneath her handkerchief, but she did not +answer. She knew quite well, that he did know her; he had been in the +office when she went out with her mother to the Consul-General's to +apply for a place in the factory.</p> + +<p>A stream of girls from another factory fell like a tributary into +theirs, and then through ramifications of streets and lanes, the whole +flowed out into the irregular part of the town that was built of wood, +below—through narrow entrances and up narrow flights of steps, into +brown, red, white or grey houses, houses with slate roofs, with turf +roofs, with tile roofs, and new houses that had barely been roofed.</p> + +<p>Silla slipped into a narrow, damp entry. The sun shone through the +cracks in the rotten woodwork full of bent rusty nails, and from time to +time a dirty stream issued from beneath the gate, and disappeared into +the gutter.</p> + +<p>She stopped a moment as she heard her mother's righteous indignation +venting itself within, in the familiar, dry, measured tones; and it was +hesitatingly and with a depressed look that she opened the gate, behind +which stood Mrs. Andersen's servant-maid, furiously red, and incapable +of defending herself, while Mrs. Holman, her skirts fastened up, and her +feet astride over the gutter-board, was rinsing and wringing out +clothes. She was working calmly and deliberately; nothing in her cold +grey eyes betrayed agitation.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Andersen ought at least to have the good sense to understand that +clothes that had been used so long couldn't be got ready in one week. +For that matter, you're welcome to tell her so from me. And I haven't +been accustomed either, even in my humble position, to send clothes to +the wash not patched or mended; and I can tell you that both Mother +Nilsen next door and the people in this house have wondered to see the +things that a person, who calls herself a chandler's wife, lets her +husband and children wear! No, you needn't contradict me, my good girl; +when I say a thing, it's the truth. And the stockings—we'll say nothing +about them; for one heel was gathered up with a piece of twine, so that +it was a disgrace to stand and wash them. People may look as high and +mighty as they like—the wash speaks out!"</p> + +<p>With slow, crushing significance she turned to her daughter.</p> + +<p>"If you had come a little sooner, Silla, you might have saved me a great +deal of work. But it's of no consequence; the sooner I'm dead and gone, +the better. I've never wanted to live either, since your father went +away."</p> + +<p>"I'll help you wring, mother."</p> + +<p>"Now it's all done? Many thanks! But it would have shown a little +forethought, if you, who have only been sitting up in the factory, had +hurried yourself a little to help your mother, who's had to stand and +work hard all the morning."</p> + +<p>"Thanks for the information, Mrs. Holman." It was Mrs. Andersen's +servant, who had at last recovered her voice. "But I think you won't +need to trouble yourself any more about our washing. It's much too plain +and humble for such grand sentiments."</p> + +<p>She dropped a curtsey, and then added, as she vanished quickly out of +the gate:</p> + +<p>"If only your soap-lye was half as sharp as your tongue!"</p> + +<p>It was always Mrs. Holman's strong point, and one on which she prided +herself, that she was always hungering and thirsting after righteousness +in this world—in others. Inasmuch as part of this sentence also points +inwards towards one's self, she was fortunate in finding her own +doorstep well swept. She was also in the favourable position of being +able to lay down both the law and the exceptions.</p> + +<p>To every one comes a time when he is surrounded by a lustre, and that +blockmaker Holman had existed was something which was really properly +understood—perhaps by his wife too—only after he had disappeared from +the scene.</p> + +<p>The fact is, that it makes a great difference to a household whether it +has the husband's work and weekly wages to subsist upon or not, and as a +further aggravation of the situation, her dead husband's bill at Mrs. +Selvig's thrust its extremely unexpected, unwelcome face into Mrs. +Holman's room. Mrs. Holman could never get into her head that that bill +was correct—why, Holman had had his fixed, regular pocket-money!</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman's bitter observations were numerous when she found herself +compelled to choose between want and seeking work.</p> + +<p>She had known to a pin's point how she would employ her husband's +earnings in her own room, and occupied herself also with the way in +which others might have things in theirs. During all these years, she +had, so to speak, sat comfortably on the top of the load and driven; but +now, unfortunately, the day had come when she herself must get down and +draw—and that she felt herself less fitted for.</p> + +<p>It was when brought into this critical situation that Mrs. Holman +thought that if an exertion was ever to be made, it must be made now—by +whom, she left unsaid. To this end she availed herself of her +acquaintance with Consul Veyergang to get her daughter Silla taken into +his factory. Unemployed hands must have something to do, and it would, +at any rate, yield some small compensation for the weekly money lost +with her husband. If she then stayed at home and kept house well, and in +addition mended and took in washing when it came in her way, no one +would venture to charge Mrs. Holman with not knowing how to do her duty +during these hard days.</p> + +<p>And she still discharged this duty of hers by strictly keeping Silla +from passing her leisure time in idleness, which was dangerous for young +people. Sewing and darning and patching all the evening—there could be +no better way of being trained in steadiness.</p> + +<p>But it was just while Silla sat and sewed and darned and patched in the +evening by the low oil-lamp that the dancing and gaiety were best +carried on in her head, and that all Kristofa's and her friends' +word-pictures transformed themselves into actual experiences. Bubble +after bubble, the one more wonderful than the other, floated up or burst +right in front of Mrs. Holman's nose, while she sat knitting. She saw +nothing, only wondered a little sometimes what there could be to smile +and laugh at in the heel of a stocking.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="vii"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER VII</b></h4> + +<h4><b>"<i>THE WORLD IS RIGHT ENOUGH AFTER ALL</i>"</b></h4> + +<p> +Down in Hægberg's smithy it looked as if it were going to be not only +blue Monday,[2] but blank Tuesday too. With the exception of one +solitary figure, it was black and empty. Outside the door a row of iron +picks, spades and crowbars, were waiting to be sharpened for the navvies +on the new harbour works.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 2: An extra day's holiday taken by +workmen after the lawful bank holiday is called "blue Monday"; if still +another follows, it is called "blank Tuesday."]</p> + +<p>Hægberg was going about with his leather apron hanging down over one +shoulder, as furious as a Berserk. There were no respectable men and +apprentices to be had nowadays; but he would give them notice man by +man, as sure as his name was Hægberg!</p> + +<p>One was standing there grinding. And he had stood there quite alone, +filing with all his might at his journeyman's probation work, the whole +of St. John's day yesterday. That's how it is: one goes on the spree, +and another pinches and is so stingy about his money, that he would +willingly lay his soul in the fire for it. The fellow was a good enough +workman, to be sure, and if he had not had that affair with the police, +then—yes, no—no, yes, to be sure, he was acquitted of that, so he was!</p> + +<p>The person in question was Nikolai, who had entered Hægberg's smithy +again to complete his years of apprenticeship.</p> + +<p>Ah, at last! There came two men sauntering over the yard to the smithy.</p> + +<p>Hægberg turned round and pretended not to see them; on consideration, it +was not the time to part with one's men. He only went up himself and +took one of the crowbars out of the forge; and when the two culprits +arrived, he stood there, tall, lean, strong, and grey-haired, hammering +so that the sparks flew.</p> + +<p>This piece of work, unworthy of the master, spoke louder than the +angriest reproaches, and when in silence he flung the crowbar down, and +began sharpening a pick, it was sufficiently evident that there was +thunder in the air.</p> + +<p>By degrees during the morning they arrived, with staring eyes, beating +temples, and faces either pale or red from being up all night, one with +a swollen eye, another with a plaster across his nose. Their voices were +hoarse, and they each went silently to work. They must exert themselves +if they were to get through all the tool-work that remained.</p> + +<p>Work went on uninterruptedly almost the whole afternoon, without a word +being spoken over the whole smithy. By that time most of the work had +been got through, and Hægberg himself went out to do business in the +town.</p> + +<p>Those who were left at work shone with perspiration, and either because +work had been the best cure for the excesses of the preceding Midsummer +Day and Midsummer Eve, or it was the general relief at the departure of +the master, one man began suddenly to sing, a couple more to yawn and +stretch themselves lazily in the enjoyment of their pleasant +recollections; and then the talk began about the way they had each spent +their holiday.</p> + +<p>Only Nikolai went on undisturbed; he cared more about a screw-hole in +the hinge on his probation work than all their Midsummer Eve outings, +and if he only worked away now, it would be finished by the end of the +month.</p> + +<p>His small hammer sounded above their talk,—the tar-barrels, wood-stacks +and old house-walls that they had burnt, and their drinking and +merriment until they had not a penny left,—haw-haw!</p> + +<p>The hammer rang above it all.</p> + +<p>Jan Peter had gone in a boat over to the islands, and seen so many +bonfires,[3] both there and on the hills round, that it was impossible +to count them.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 3: It is the custom in Norway on Midsummer Eve +to burn large bonfires, which can be seen for many miles round.]</p> + +<p>Yes, when a fellow's drunk!</p> + +<p>The hammer went on again.</p> + +<p>One man stretched himself and yawned with the whole Midsummer holiday in +his jaws. "Up on Grefsen ridge, cold punch had flowed down the hill as +good as free. Veyergang's son had given the girls at the factory an old +boat from Maridal Lake and half a barrel of pitch; heard the cuckoo and +had larks all night—came down again when it was nearly eight o'clock."</p> + +<p>The hammer rang no longer.</p> + +<p>"Veyergang's son—the girls at Veyergang's factory!" Nikolai stood, +anxious and uncertain, listening, and now and again glancing quickly and +sharply over at the man who was speaking.</p> + +<p>Then he washed off the soot, and disappeared.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>Silla had been down to the Valsets' cottage to fetch the customary +evening pint of milk, when at the gate she met Nikolai. He said he had +seen her go in, but she knew quite well that he had been watching for +her.</p> + +<p>"You can't think what fun I had on Midsummer Eve, Nikolai!" she said, +holding out the can by the handle towards him. "If you only knew! No, +never in all my life!"</p> + +<p>"Up on Grefsen ridge?"</p> + +<p>"How did you know; tell me, how did you know?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I—one of the smiths was up there. But I can't understand how you +could get away from her at home."</p> + +<p>"No, it was a near chance, too, I can tell you!" She looked round, and +said in a cautious whisper: "Mother doesn't know but that I lay and +turned over in my bed at home all Midsummer night. She went to eat St. +John's porridge with aunt out at Asker, and I was to stay at home, and +iron; but at nine o'clock, I said good-bye and went my way. Oh +Nikolai!"—she clapped her hands, laughing—"you should have heard how +she scolded yesterday morning when she came back, because I was still in +bed! Did you hear that we were treated to punch, too?"</p> + +<p>"Who gave it you?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, wouldn't you like to know! But, Nikolai, you won't tell. It was a +certain person who treated us."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"He came up to see that they did not light the bonfire too near the +wood. Yes, you must know, Nikolai, that it was no less a person than +young Veyergang! There was a Midsummer party at his father's, and they +were to see the fire from the stairs at exactly half-past eleven.</p> + +<p>"And then he treated them to punch? You too?"</p> + +<p>"It was just me! 'Her with the black eyes,' he said."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he has spoken to you before, too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; he knows perfectly well that my name is Silla. I meet him +every single day, you must know."</p> + +<p>Nikolai made a movement as if he were bringing down a hammer on the +hillside. "Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Last Saturday in the office, when he had reckoned a <i>krone</i> too much in +the pass-book, he said I could keep it and spend it on cakes."</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! Did he say that? Wonderful, how kind he is!" Nikolai said this +with something that was meant for laughter. "The cook is very kind, too, +when she feeds the goose so as to get hold of it!"</p> + +<p>He stood with one arm round the gate-post, looking at her; she had grown +so pretty and elegant, and almost taller since he had seen her last. "A +young girl who doesn't even know that she is pretty."</p> + +<p>Silla pouted; her whole expression was one of supercilious disavowal.</p> + +<p>"If they offer her a cake, or a handkerchief, or a little fun, she +stretches out her neck and runs up. I should think you might understand +that, Silla, from all you see round you! How many of them, I should like +to know, will ever come to be the wife of an honest working-man? They +manage to dance a few times, and then it's all over. And they wanted to +be just as kind to you now, Silla! That Veyergang is on the watch for +you! If I'm not on the watch for him——" He suddenly looked pale and +ugly.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking of, Nikolai? Don't go on like that!"</p> + +<p>"You may well say what was I thinking of, to stand there grinding and +filing away the whole month at my probation work, and then let you go up +there among that pack of wolves. But I was born like that—that +everything should go wrong with me!"</p> + +<p>Silla stood, as she always did when Nikolai put on this tone, downcast +and dispirited, her slender figure bending forwards, and her eyes on the +ground.</p> + +<p>"We two, Silla," he continued at length, with a shake as if of +resolution, but his voice trembled—"we two have been, as it were, +brought up together. And with things as they were, if they could make me +go wrong, it would have been still easier for you to be twisted by them, +for I was strong, you see; but you were weak, and had always to creep +like a cat among lies and difficulties. And so—so—I thought that we +two—who have always stood by one another—and I haven't had anyone else +I could trust, as you know, Silla, and neither have you—that we should +join hands. And if you're of the same mind, then——"</p> + +<p>He had clasped his broad hands round the gate-post, and was squeezing it +with all the strength of his square-set figure, while he waited for her +answer. He gazed at her bent head, but she did not look up; and he drew +a deep breath, for he felt that he must go on.</p> + +<p>"And now I've got together a little money, and not bought anything, and +have filed and filed away at my probation work; because when I become +journeyman, and another year has passed, and I've laid by a little, +then—then it might be that you could get away from the factory dirt and +the ordering at home both at once, and be a real smith's wife, Silla. +You've never had any one to take care of you as I've done, you know; and +you don't know how good I'll be to you! For a fellow who hasn't had +either father or mother, and since I was up at the police-station I +haven't had many companions either—" But here his emotion overpowered +him.</p> + +<p>"Such an uncommonly pretty smith's wife you would make, Silla! If any +one has eyes for a smith, it's you; they are like sparks in the fire! +And then to come home and see only the top of your pretty little black +head at the room door! In spite of having always been treated like a +dog, and worse than that—like a thief, it would all be nothing at all, +if that was how it could end. One's own room with a lock on the door and +the chest, that would be something better than being dragged round a +dancing-hall, Silla, by fine fellows and sailors."</p> + +<p>The last words, which were uttered in warm excitement, would have been +better left unsaid; for, from standing melted and overcome, with tears +in her eyes, she suddenly fired up against the accusation.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to deny me a little pleasure, too, Nikolai? I'm not to see +any one, not to go anywhere. Oh no! I'm to be a girl who has never +danced, a regular queer bird, that's first been kept in a cage by her +mother, and then by——" her voice quivered, and she began to cry. "Is +that what you call being kind to me, Nikolai? You must be trying to make +me afraid of you, too!"</p> + +<p>"Afraid of me?—of me, Silla?"</p> + +<p>"Don't they all look upon me as a baby that's tied to her mother's +apron-strings? And now you come and want to help her, Nikolai. That's +right! That's right! Only keep me in! Oh yes, you and mother! It's only +a question of who gets the power over me. But you'd better take care, +Nikolai!"</p> + +<p>She began to cry bitterly in impotent rage.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, cry away! I won't say anything. You've got some one else to +comfort you for a little while," he added moodily.</p> + +<p>She suddenly sprang up, went up to him, and laid her arm confidingly on +his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Don't you <i>know</i> that I'll be your wife, Nikolai?" she said, looking +full and ardently into his eyes; there were still tears on her dark, +freckled face.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you will, Silla, you shall see who can work."</p> + +<p>"But mother, Nikolai! Oh, I'm so frightened—so frightened only that +she'll get to know that we sometimes meet. She looks at me so hard every +time I've been an errand, and I've always been gone so long. But when I +sit darning and patching of an evening, I sometimes imagine that you +come in so fine and rich, and that you own the whole of Hægberg's +smithy, so that mother has to give in."</p> + +<p>"No, do you think about that, Silla? Then I will come. She'll have to +give in like smoke, if I come only with my credentials, and my honest +trade as well."</p> + +<p>What was it that had happened that light, hazy, summer evening, when the +waterfall thundered out beneath the bridge, when the trees seemed to +swell with new budding leaves, and the sun glittered on the windows here +and there? Was he intoxicated, or was it the evening that had taken an +extra Midsummer carouse? The last he saw of Silla was that she hurried +homewards with her can, and that she had looked round at him, as she +turned into the road among the houses.</p> + +<p>The world was right enough after all. When he reckoned it up properly, +it was not at all so unreasonable, even if the lock did sometimes get +out of order; and then—well, then one had to be both strong and +neat-handed to get it open again.</p> + +<p>No, it was right enough. You only see that when you get inside, and so +there must be police and masters and order in everything, so that it can +lock.</p> + +<p>Nikolai stood riveting and meditating down in the smithy. He had now got +his journeyman's credentials, and everything was rose-colour. The fact +that he and the world were becoming reconciled showed in shining +characters over the whole of his broad face. His short, strong figure +moved with a newly-acquired, quick confidence at his work.</p> + +<p>He worked now for journeyman's wages, and could save up a nice little +sum each week. One fortunate circumstance in the case was that he never +dared make Silla a present of anything, neither handkerchiefs nor +anything else, because of Mrs. Holman. A penny saved is a penny gained, +and she should have it all in good time.</p> + +<p>On Saturday evenings, as soon as he had had a little wash in the +cooling-water, he took his way up towards the manufacturing part of the +town. He carried his hammer and pincers, and an iron plate or a lock in +his hand; he must look as if he were engaged in his lawful work. And +then came the chance whether on his way up or down he caught a glimpse +of Silla.</p> + +<p>It was quite a chance, and it sometimes happened that he just met Mrs. +Holman instead. He must put up with that; at any rate, he looked right +into the street there, in the cluster of houses where Silla walked +several times a day. But what he found more difficult to put up with +was, that on those occasions when he was fortunate, she was walking +arm-in-arm with two or three other factory-girls, so that he scarcely +got more than the one glimpse and short nod from her before they turned +in now here, now there.</p> + +<p>What did she want to go loitering about in the evening with those +dissipated girls for? Was that the sort of thing for Silla? She was +neither old enough nor wise enough to understand what she was getting +mixed up in, and what a fine gentleman meant who nodded to her—for the +sake of her pretty eyes. Amuse themselves? Yes, go round in the mill, +until they come out crushed and ground!</p> + +<p>No! She must come out of this.</p> + +<p>And so he must work away with his file, and add one week's earnings to +another, until he had made the silver hook large enough to draw her to +him.</p> + +<p>Yes, once she was with him!—he forgot himself in thoughts about +house-rent and wedding outlay.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="viii"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL</i></b></h4> + +<p> +Some time after Nikolai had got his credentials, he was pleasantly +surprised by a visitor—he could hardly believe his own eyes—none other +than his mother, who was watching for him one Saturday afternoon, +outside the basement where he dined.</p> + +<p>She had heard that he had become a journeyman, and could not rest until +she got a lift on one of the plank-loads which was going in to town, and +paid him a visit. She was so glad. If he knew how many sighs she had +heaved for his sake, and how many bitter tears she had shed—the big, +handsome, half peasant-clad woman was red in the face, and wept and +dried her eyes incessantly on her folded pocket-handkerchief, while she +gave expression to her emotion and joy over the way in which everything +had turned out, as if by special guidance.</p> + +<p>She had been so unfortunate for a long time; but now that she had got +her son again, everything looked different for her. Oh, how big and +broad and fine he had grown—a regular smith! He had a frock-coat now +for Sundays, hadn't he? And he must have a hat, too. He must let her +advise him; she knew all about it from what she had seen in the world.</p> + +<p>It was with quite strange, at first almost mixed, feelings that Nikolai +thus suddenly saw a mother fall down to him—some day a father might +come tumbling down too!</p> + +<p>It was so many years since he had thought of her, and the picture he +really had of her was buried in the bitter salt slough of tears in the +depths of his recollections, which he was far from being in the mood to +stir up. There were things within him, which he avoided from an +instinctive feeling of safety in the whole of his new, happy existence; +but such a thing as finding his mother again must surely belong to the +happiness of the new Nikolai, the journeyman smith! Yes, of course, he +was fond of her, and it was immensely affecting.</p> + +<p>And while he walked beside her, and was glad too, and kind and obliging, +and gave up his Saturday afternoon with half a day's pay, he had, +without exactly intending it, spent on a present—an exceedingly large, +gay, flowered silk handkerchief—as much as it had taken him a fortnight +to scrape together; and, besides that, had paid for some fine bread and +a ham, which she had to take back with her, and of which she even tried +a few goodly slices down in the town by way of afternoon refreshment.</p> + +<p>She had an appetite, and she could not be very much accustomed to +economising either;—this was about the sum of the happy, filial +comments that Nikolai made to himself after the meeting. In addition to +this, he felt himself unexpectedly lightened of a good deal of money; +and it was in a rather dispirited mood that he went up in the evening in +the hope of seeing Silla, and telling her of his new happiness.</p> + +<p>The whole of that side of the town up under the hill already lay in +shadow, and in the oppressively warm evening, labourers were walking +with their coats over their shoulders, while sounds of life and noise +rose here and there from the shops in the manufacturing district below.</p> + +<p>Nikolai had traversed in vain the district surrounding the Valsets' +cottage, keeping constant watch at the same time down the broad +high-road, which went past the gate, and the footpath that crept +straight across the field down behind it. Silla was not to be seen. A +girl went with a bucket from the cowshed into the pent-house. She looked +up towards him and laughed, and the consequence was that Nikolai +continued his way towards the factory without once turning round. They +must be able to see through the walls in there! And they had already +begun to wonder at his coming there so often.</p> + +<p>The waterfall was turned off, so that only a white streak ran over the +dam and fell drop by drop upon the wheel. A cart was rattling along the +road in front of him. Now it stopped to unload; the load was tumbled off +with one tilt. It was mould that they were driving to the garden outside +the office building at the factory.</p> + +<p>Within the fence were a number of women and girls busily at work. They +were raking, pulling up and planting, while a man followed with a hose; +and out of the open window, with his straw hat on his head, hung young +Veyergang, and talked.</p> + +<p>There stood Mrs. Holman, with arms akimbo, beside one of the black +flower-beds, inspecting some plant that she had patted down with her +hand; and—Silla! on her knees, pulling up weeds into her apron from a +bed close to the house. It was with her Veyergang was joking from the +window, and she shook her head and laughed, and looked up for a +moment—she dared not answer because of Mrs. Holman.</p> + +<p>It was as if a pair of pincers with many claws had suddenly taken hold +of Nikolai's heart, and he all at once remembered so vividly the day +when he had had Ludvig Veyergang under his fists.</p> + +<p>He went back with a weight like lead upon his breast, and sat down on +the edge of a ditch in the field, whence he could, unseen, keep an eye +upon all who came down the road.</p> + +<p>She had looked so much too pretty when she raised her head with that +suppressed merriment in her glance. This was what his thoughts would +return to, and he only saw before him what he suffered from.</p> + +<p>An hour had passed. Almost stupidly he had watched one after another +come down the road; but all at once his face changed colour. Ludvig +Veyergang was sauntering past, dashing and easy, with his stick held +loosely in his hand. He had red cheeks like a girl, and fine black +whiskers beneath the straw hat, and he half closed his grey eyes to look +about him, while he hummed softly.</p> + +<p>Nikolai gazed despondently after him, as he disappeared down the road.</p> + +<p>Again this same old hopelessness before a superior force, this feeling +for which he could never find words and vent, unless it some day +happened that—he closed his eyes, and there was a compressed, violent +expression about his mouth and chin.</p> + +<p>There came Silla by Mrs. Holman's side, with bent head, like a willow +that is bowed by its growth. Sometimes she stole a glance around, like a +school-girl who avoids her teacher's eye.</p> + +<p>They separated at the Valsets' cottage; Silla went in after the +evening's milk.</p> + +<p>She came out again with the can, and took the path over the meadow. She +went quickly, smiling to herself, and an almost frightened expression +came into her face when Nikolai rose out of the bush by the ditch.</p> + +<p>"Do you start when you see me, Silla?"</p> + +<p>"How fierce you look!" she answered jestingly.</p> + +<p>"You did say you'd be my wife, didn't you, Silla?"</p> + +<p>"What makes you say that now, Nikolai? It's such a long time to then."</p> + +<p>"I may need to hear it once more. When you aren't more sure than I am, +you like to feel twice whether the strap you are holding on to is firmly +fastened, or if it will give way. You have got so much into your head +since you came up here to the factory."</p> + +<p>"Take care! Just you take care, Nikolai. You have become so dreadfully +afraid for me lately," she said, laughing saucily; "but I've become a +little grown-up too. It's only you who don't see it, and stand there +like a post! But you can't think how awfully busy I am now. As soon as +ever I've swallowed my supper, I go up to the factory again. I and +Kristofa and Kalla and Josefa have got the whole of the weeding and +tidying up in the office garden, down all the peas and carrots, and +cabbage-beds as well; and when it grows over in the autumn, we shall +have that too."</p> + +<p>Nikolai only stood reckoning. Twenty-seven dollars, subtracting what he +had spent on his mother to-day—the ham, too, for he would not get that +back—that was what he owned, and he needed at least twice as much again +before he could get the most necessary things for his room. Only to get +her out of this, even if he had to work day and night.</p> + +<p>Aloud he only said cautiously: "If we are only wise, and careful, and +look well ahead, perhaps we may be sitting in our own room by next +spring, Silla. But so many things may happen in between," he added +huskily, with a deep-drawn sigh.</p> + +<p>"I really believe there'll be neither life nor courage in you until +you're married, Nikolai," she said, laughing; "you're so horrid to meet +now, that it's enough to make one quite sad and uncomfortable the whole +evening. A nice sweetheart you are!" She swung roguishly round on her +heel, with the can extended, and ran down the road, nodding a farewell.</p> + +<p>He had not got so far as to tell her what he had originally gone up +there for—the news about his mother, and, to tell the truth, he had +completely forgotten it; but it would be time enough next time he met +her. And it must not be too long to that, things looking as they did +now.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>A few weeks afterwards some one inquired for him.</p> + +<p>A peasant carter, in a state of great uncertainty about his load, had +stopped outside the eating-house. Part of the load was made up of his +mother's big chest, which the man had undertaken to drive to town, and +leave for the meantime at Nikolai's. Barbara herself was to follow in a +day or two.</p> + +<p>She must have some project in her head! Perhaps she was thinking of +going out to service again.</p> + +<p>And one evening when he came home he found a red wooden box and a pair +of laced boots upon the chest. His mother must have been there!</p> + +<p>Half an hour later she appeared. She had only been out to buy a little +new rye-bread, cheese, and butter to take up to her lodgings this +evening.</p> + +<p>In the meantime she cut some for herself and offered some to him.</p> + +<p>Her ample figure, in addition to her effects, almost filled Nikolai's +narrow little bedroom. She had become rather short of breath, and +acquired a double-chin with so much sitting indoors; the lower part of +her face, which, in the brilliancy of youth, had been covered with pure, +healthy mountain roses, now, as it moved in the process of eating, gave +only the impression of powerful crushing with still solid teeth, in +which, however, toothache, from many scalding cups of coffee, had made +here and there serious inroads. While she sat on the chest and he on the +bed, she gave expression to the following:</p> + +<p>The farmer with whom she had bargained to live—for eighteen dollars a +year and help at the busy seasons, while she found herself in +coffee—was so pinching and mean about the board, that she had been +obliged to buy one thing and another herself; well, he had seen the ham +himself, and knew what she had been accustomed to at the Veyergangs'. +She could truly say that she had swallowed her food with tears many a +time, when she thought of all that she had done for Ludvig and Lizzie, +that she had carried them in her arms and been more to them than their +own mother. And then to think that the reward of all this should be hard +work in the hay and corn harvest! No, she was praised by too many mouths +for that!</p> + +<p>She had waited patiently, too, thinking they would remember old Barbara. +Oh no! one would have to remind them one's self, if that were to be!</p> + +<p>But now that she had Nikolai there, she had thought and meditated and +reflected about setting up a little shop in the town. And she had been +out to the Consul's to-day.</p> + +<p>He was cross when she went into the office, and snappish; but she knew +him, and began talking cleverly:</p> + +<p>"How is mistress and Mr. Ludvig and Miss Lizzie, might I be so bold as +to ask? Bless me, they must have grown so tall and so grand now, that +they couldn't be expected to know a poor servant again!"</p> + +<p>"'Thin—thin as laths,' he laughed. 'You might easily hold them one in +each arm now! But you must have eaten up the whole barn up there; I +didn't remember that you were so big, Barbara. I should think he's had +to give up house and lands, that farmer?' he said, to tease me.</p> + +<p>"'Thank you, I wasn't accustomed to cattle fodder at the Consul's +house,' said I; 'and it's me, rather, that's in such circumstances that +I must leave. That man takes pretty good care that he is not cheated.'</p> + +<p>"And then I talked about Ludvig and Lizzie until I began to cry.</p> + +<p>"'And that harum-scarum boy of yours?' he asked.</p> + +<p>"'Thank you,' said I, 'my son Nikolai is now a finished journeyman smith +in this city.'</p> + +<p>"And then I told him my thoughts of coming to town to go into trade. 'I +have always noticed that it has been better to be behind the counter +than in front of it,' I said.</p> + +<p>"Then he laughed. 'You want to make yourself a new storehouse in town, I +see, Barbara.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, sir, when it can be done honestly, and with a little help; every +one aims at their own maintenance.'</p> + +<p>"And then he promised me right down a free room and kitchen in one of +the houses up in the manufacturing part of the town for a whole year!"</p> + +<p>As mother and son sat opposite to one another, they were not without a +certain similarity; but where the leading of fate had turned the +features of his broad, intelligent face into muscle and energy, it had +in Barbara relaxed all the springs into dull, ponderous fat.</p> + +<p>It was not, however, without a certain amount of enthusiasm that she now +unfolded her plans for the little business, and how she should procure +credit, a little at each place; she still had acquaintances at the shops +in the neighbourhood, from the time she was at the Veyergangs'. +Afterwards it was only to sell out, pay for the old, get new again; it +all went round like a winch!</p> + +<p>But she must have a little more ready money, for hers would not go far +enough. Now, if Nikolai could help her with a little; it would all lie +in the goods, so that, for that matter, it was the same whether he put +his pence there or in his pocket—the same to a T!</p> + +<p>Could he tell her where she could buy a counter cheap! Or rather, get it +on credit; if there was anything she was hard up for now, it was ready +money. Perhaps she might as well try to take out a little more at the +carpenter's at once, only a fair-sized folding-table, two beds, and a +few chairs. She had thought that when once she had got it started and +into order, Nikolai might live with her. If she prepared all his meals +for him besides, the one thing might be set off against the other, and +part of his wages go towards it—he must himself reckon up and say how +much he thought.</p> + +<p>Barbara continued more eagerly to build up in her own mind, and +emphasising now and then with a smack of her hand, how everything was to +be.</p> + +<p>But as she waxed warmer and more elated over her visions of the future, +Nikolai sat doubtful, and softly beating a measure with his foot. All +this about the shop might be right enough. His mother must surely +understand it, she who had been at the Veyergangs', and had now, +moreover, talked to the Consul himself. But the more she initiated him +into her plans, and in them appropriated him entirely to herself, and +talked away as if there could be no obstacle in any corner of the +heavens, the wider did the gulf between their wills and interests open +before him. She came with a mother's long-dispensed-with right, and just +now he knew in his heart that he belonged still more to another, and +must go his own way.</p> + +<p>She could not know that she was coming upon nails the whole time in the +wall, so he would have to speak out.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, mother"—he looked down at the floor—"you're welcome to +my money, if only it's certain I get it back again by the new year, so +there's nothing to hinder that. But, you know, why I must have it again +is—is because I and Mrs. Holman's Silla have agreed to marry and settle +down. And I'm quite determined about it, for I've worked and toiled for +that, ever since Holman died; and it would be ill for me if I had to be +without her."</p> + +<p>His sharp, grey eyes shot a glance up at her, and the mother +instinctively felt that here was a will that had escaped from her hands.</p> + +<p>This was something that had never entered into her plans.</p> + +<p>In order to remove her dissatisfaction, he let her have his thirty +dollars before she went.</p> + +<p>There is a branch of trade in the narrow streets and outskirts, whose +position is one storey higher than the stall-woman. It sells its wares +from a house, comprises, according to legislation, a great many more +effects, and allows the individual concerned to lead a more comfortable +existence, with a step farther from hand to mouth; that is to say, it +gains, instead of a day's credit or a weekly settlement, a week's credit +or a monthly settlement.</p> + +<p>It was in this small trade that Barbara wanted to start, and if it can +be said of America that whole towns and undertakings arise in a moment +of time, something of the same kind might well be said of Barbara's +shop.</p> + +<p>Barely a week later she was in her house, and had in the window an +exhibition of balls of cotton, bread, twists, sweets, stay-laces, +needle-cases, snuff, clay pipes, steel pens, matches, etc., etc., while +she herself sat behind the counter—which was a packing-case disguised +under some print—and ground coffee, which she roasted in the kitchen +beyond. In a drawer that would lock, which Nikolai had overlooked, stood +the cigar-box that did duty as a cash-box, with a few coppers in it.</p> + +<p>The acquaintance between Mrs. Holman and Barbara, too, was already +renewed, with the secret about Silla preserved on Barbara's side.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman—she lived only in the street below—had come up, while +Barbara was standing on her steps in the evening, to look at her new +surroundings by the light of the just completed shop-window. And then +she must not pass an old acquaintance's door. She must come in and have +a cup of coffee—it was standing clearing on the hob, if she would +condescend.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman might very well have had her own opinion about a good deal +that she saw in there, but she preferred, while she drank her coffee, to +give Barbara some idea of the series of dispensations which she had +passed through since Holman died.</p> + +<p>"Oh no, don't turn your cup up yet! <i>One</i> more, Mrs. Holman."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman drank a third cup too, without becoming at all less +melancholy. Her quiet, cold grey eyes had looked and explored while she +talked, and sucked in observations of Barbara's open-handed, profuse +management, like pipe-clayed fat. But when she left, she had, with many +cautious reservations, and in the hope that Barbara's wares would stand +the test in the long run, expressed her inclination to remove her custom +to Barbara.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman's Silla was just standing at the counter—she wanted a pint +of groats to take home with her—when Barbara, who was measuring them +out, suddenly saw Ludvig Veyergang at the door.</p> + +<p>He had seen Barbara before, and as he passed the door twice a day now, +he nodded to her whenever she showed herself on the steps. But so +friendly as he was to-day! Barbara was quite softened, and very nearly +called him Ludvig, he was so lively and playful about her shop. He stood +looking with half-closed eyes, and laughing at Silla, who grew redder +and more bashful, and only tried in her confusion to get the bag of +groats out of Barbara's hand. He had taken his straw hat off his curly +hair for the heat, and looked so nice and handsome.</p> + +<p>Silla hardly dared look up at him, and only heard something about +freckles not being anything to mind when one had such dark eyes, when, +with head in advance, she rushed out of the door.</p> + +<p>Barbara's opinion afterwards about Silla's behaviour—her having all at +once turned crimson, and rushed away at a few innocent words from such a +well-meaning and handsome man as Ludvig Veyergang—her son heard the +same evening. A young girl ought to stand modestly, and not go on like +that: if she did, it was a sure way of getting all that could be called +man-folk at her heels.</p> + +<p>Was she anything for Nikolai—that awkward, dark, long girl, who ran +about in that bodice that was too short for her, looking like a +half-peeled, bent prawn in the back, and went balancing along the edge +of the gutter, as if she were going to be a tightrope dancer—without +any education? Upon her word, if it had been any other than Ludvig +Veyergang, she would have had him peeping after her at every corner.</p> + +<p>"But, do you know, Nikolai, it suddenly came into my head while he stood +there, that here was the person who both could and would help me with +those fifteen dollars I still want so badly. But he was gone before I +could collect myself."</p> + +<p>"Him? N—no, mother! I'll get them for you, if you'll only wait a +little; and I think you can use my money as well as his."</p> + +<p>"Well, if I hadn't got you, Nikolai!" sighed Barbara, moved; "and now +you shall have some coffee that's good, and new cinnamon-sticks with it, +that I didn't get sold to-day."</p> + +<p>"No, thanks all the same, mother," he answered, gloomily: he was already +at the door.</p> + +<p>Later in the evening he succeeded in meeting Silla. She was so merry and +laughing this evening.</p> + +<p>"I ran away; didn't look at him at all. Would you have liked me to stay, +perhaps?" she said, playfully.</p> + +<p>He was disarmed for the moment, she laughed so confidingly.</p> + +<p>But as he went down, he still saw Veyergang's insolent, half-closed +eyes, and the curl coming out beneath his hat, and—he could not help +it—he felt as if it were twined round his finger!</p> + +<p>That she chattered so gaily did not please him, nor yet that whenever he +made time to go up in the evening she came down breathless from the +garden, and was always full of whether young Veyergang had been there or +not, what he had said, and what she had thought, and whether Kristofa +had afterwards agreed or disagreed with her. It was as if she could not +talk of anything else!</p> + +<p>Yet it was not so bad, he supposed, so long as it was she herself who +chattered and talked about it to him.</p> + +<p>But the perspiration would stream from him in the smithy, when he stood +and thought about it all up there. He felt as though he were under a +screw.</p> + +<p>Why should not the poor man's possession be left in peace? Here he was +toiling away, and would give every drop of blood in his body to be able +to marry; and that other one, who had his pockets full, and could have +any fine lady for the asking—they were worse than wild beasts and +murderers! And amidst all this the time was passing.</p> + +<p>He had blessed both the autumn mud and darkness, which put an end to all +the running about in the evening; and now winter days and snow had come. +When he reckoned up—and he was always reckoning—he found that by the +New Year he would be worth seventy-five specie-dollars—what he had +almost starved himself to save—and of these his mother had had +forty-five, and since then thirteen more. He had made a half bargain +about a room with a kitchen at a fair price per month, and what he +wanted for the house, too. The last time he had lent his mother money, +she had said that he need not be afraid, she was selling the goods and +sweeping in the profits.</p> + +<p>Everything was in order, so the battle with Mrs. Holman had better be +fought at once. And when he laid before her his journeyman's +credentials, his seventy-five dollars, and his regular earnings, with +the advance he was to have from the New Year at Hægberg's, she would +have to be so kind as to give in.</p> + +<p>It was on one of the days between Christmas and the New Year that he +went up to his mother to let her know that he must have his money out in +February. Then he would go to Mrs. Holman.</p> + +<p>It struck him that his mother was rather confused and forgetful while +she made the coffee.</p> + +<p>She thought she was half crazy to-day, she said; but he should have his +coffee, and Christmas should not pass without his having something good; +it had not been the custom where she was brought up.</p> + +<p>Oh, dear! So Nikolai wanted his money back already. She had grown so +forgetful, that she had not remembered that it was so soon. And just +before Christmas she had had to settle a bill for coffee and sugar +which, upon her word, she had not thought or known would come in until +after the fair or at Midsummer! But he need not be afraid; she knew well +enough where she could get the money, if she liked to tie on her bonnet +and go out after it.</p> + +<p>"So drink, Nikolai; it's as strong as a rock. It isn't Christmas more +than once a year, as they say in the country. I believe you're afraid. +For your money? Oh, no; never you fear! If your mother, Barbara, has +promised anything, she'll keep it; so you may be easy. So nice as Ludvig +was to me the last time he was in here—it was only the afternoon of +Little Christmas Eve.[4] Barbara needn't be at a loss for a few pence +when I say my son wants them. Oh, dear no! Now, Nikolai, don't look like +that. Don't you hear you shall have it? My goodness, how you do look at +me!"</p> + +<p>[Footnote 4: The day before Christmas Eve proper.]</p> + +<p>He said nothing, only sat still a long time, and Barbara thought it was +getting oppressively quiet. She tried first one thing and then another.</p> + +<p>"I'll try it directly after New Year. I would never have borrowed your +money if I'd known it would be like this."</p> + +<p>"No, mother. You must pay me the money when you can; I won't press you +for it. But if you try to beg it from Ludvig Veyergang, we are parted +for this world, and as far as I get into the next, too! So now you know, +mother. And many thanks for the wedding this time, both from me and +Silla!" and he pulled open the door.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="ix"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER IX</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>AN IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN</i></b></h4> + +<p> +If Silla had not come like a wedge between the bark and the wood, how +comfortably and free from care Barbara could have lived now. She had no +one but Silla to thank that she was now deprived of all the help she +might and—it was her firm conviction—ought to have had in her son +Nikolai, with the regular earnings he might have put, every single week, +into the till; which, for some reason or other, never would exhibit the +amount it ought to have done.</p> + +<p>It was not improbable that Barbara, after the fashion of country people, +forgot to take into account the articles that went towards the +nourishment of her own weighty person. On the other hand her ever ready +hospitality with the coffee-pot was not without its savour of +trade-policy—what she gave away was only to be looked upon as seed +which would bring forth a hundredfold in the shape of customers.</p> + +<p>Barbara's room was thus becoming the meetingplace for all the gossiping +forces of the neighbourhood.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>The posts in the fences had snow hats on, and snow-drifts lay by the +roadside and on the fields.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, when the sledges were creaking outside in the cold, and +the door too, whenever anybody came in, Mother Taraldsen, who cupped +people and applied leeches, and tall Mother Bækken were sitting and +enjoying a cup of steaming hot coffee with loaf-sugar.</p> + +<p>Mother Taraldsen was holding forth on the subject of bad liquids and +ruined times, and how every trade was going down-hill, while Mother +Bækken, getting more and more full of objections, put her head on one +side, and stirred up her cup.</p> + +<p>"I can remember a little of the old times too, and I don't know if they +were any better, though every one is welcome to have his opinion, of +course," here the long, yellow face with the eyes blinking with their +own meaning, was laid almost across the cup; "but the day has grown +longer for workmen now. Just think how they sat in the dark in the farms +and cottages with pine-torches in the fireplace to cut and spin by; and +there lay the lads the whole long winter through, and idled and yawned +in their beds from three or four in the afternoon until they had to go +out with a lantern and see to the horses for the night. But paraffine +has got them out of their beds. It's as if we had the sun the whole +winter now, and people can see to earn a few pence."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but everything hasn't got right in that way either, when they sit +and play cards and gamble and drink at the public-houses."</p> + +<p>"That's not oil, that's gas! But that's good for something, too, both in +the street lamps and up in the factory."</p> + +<p>"And for drunkenness and dancing and wickedness."</p> + +<p>Mother Bækken made a bend down to her cup with the side of her cheek and +her chin, and up again in order to contradict in her most ingenious +manner. But just then Anne Graves came in to the counter—it was she who +kept the churchyard in order—and then one must be careful what one +says.</p> + +<p>Thank you kindly! She had no objection to a warm cup of coffee in this +cold. She had had a busy day to-day with the big funeral; they must have +heard all the ringing at dinner-time. He was an excellent man. She +enlarged, by the plundering of diverse fragments of the funeral sermon, +upon his worth and importance as a man and a citizen of the town. There +had been speeches and such countless black hats and flowers, that the +coffin was quite hidden. Yes, that was the third they had taken in since +the New Year, she uttered with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"You never know what sort of people you have among you, until they are +dead," remarked Mother Bækken. "If he had been the poor man's friend, +they could have sung and trumpeted a little about it while he lived. +Perhaps that's turned the wrong way, but—" she slowly, and with +increasing expression, bent her face over her cup.</p> + +<p>Mother Bækken must always have her own interpretations, so Mother +Taraldsen discreetly warded off a disturbance of the peace by striking +into the very middle of the manufacturing part of the town. She had come +up the streets yesterday evening with a covered cup containing leeches, +and you might really think that if, all that long way up from the +chemist's, you had escaped rogues and robbers, you ought to go free up +here. But there came those great, grown-up girls, flying one after +another along a slide down the street, screaming and shouting, so that +it was enough to knock people down. So she had dropped the cup with all +five leeches in it, and if it had not been moonlight so that she could +see to pick them up again on the snow, she would have lost every single +one. It was that Josefa and Gunda and Kalla down the street, and that +long Silla—she came along like a ghost. Ah, Mrs. Holman, who is so +particular, should see what sort of a daughter she has, when it gets +dark.</p> + +<p>Barbara nodded to herself, and thought that Nikolai should just hear +what people said.</p> + +<p>"I must really go out and look at them one evening, yes indeed. Well, +that about the leeches I disapprove of entirely and altogether, I must +confess. But young blood must have movement in some way, and may I +ask,"—here Mother Bækken laid one fore-finger upon the other—"have +they any way of amusing themselves, if they must <i>not</i> dance, and <i>not</i> +slide, and <i>not</i> toboggan?"</p> + +<p>But now Mother Taraldsen grew angry.</p> + +<p>"If it's proper for respectable young girls to tear about and make a +row, it must be the new fashion that Mother Bækken's preaching about. If +you kept a careful watch at the corners, you might perhaps see that +there were those who were out to meet the flock of geese."</p> + +<p>"Then it would be better if you came down on <i>them</i> instead of the poor +girls," replied Mother Bækken obstinately; "a man like that clerk down +at the contractor's, and him at the Stores, and then that fine clerk, +that Veyergang up at the factory and his friends."</p> + +<p>Barbara was standing at the counter with a customer.</p> + +<p>Nobody must say anything against her Ludvig. She knew him; she had been +with him day and night for fourteen years. If she only had a halfpenny +for every time he had cried and screamed for Barbara!</p> + +<p>She would have enlarged upon the subject, if it had not been for the man +at her back who was calling out for his soft soap.</p> + +<p>So cup-and-leech-Mother Taraldsen went on, saying that the girls stood +poking their heads out of every single gate the whole way up the street; +she saw it so well when she came home from applying leeches of an +evening.</p> + +<p>She and Anne Graves then began to review the young people more closely. +There were some they would not even mention, and some they named with +all sorts of interesting doubts and opinions, and lastly some they only +stopped to wonder that they had nothing whatever to say either about or +against.</p> + +<p>As to Barbara, she noticed carefully what was said about Silla, and made +up her mind that Nikolai should be warned; he should at any rate know +what he was doing when he went and took that girl.</p> + +<p>And neither was it with a diminishing-glass she let him see it, as time +after time she referred to all the dangers the young factory-girls up +there were exposed to. She had sufficient instinct not to mention Silla, +so that he should not think she was speaking against her. But every time +she touched upon it, she saw well, that it went into Nikolai, and had +fully the effect she wished.</p> + +<p>Barbara had made some of these remarks this evening too, and Nikolai was +sitting gloomily listening to the noise outside.</p> + +<p>One party after another was flying past down the high-road on sledges, +like shadows in the moonlight, with shouts and cries—half-grown lads +and lassies, and now and then a party of fine people from the town +below. One tall lad, with the rope over his shoulder and his heels +digging into the hillside, was dragging a wood-sledge up, with a heavy +load of girls upon it.</p> + +<p>Nikolai could not help keeping watch through the kitchen window, and +left his mother, who sat inside by the paraffins lamp, without any +answer.</p> + +<p>They were Kristofa and Kalla, those two who were standing there in the +street talking, while they slid backwards and forwards the whole time on +a little bit of ice. They were waiting for somebody—Silla perhaps; they +were standing close by her street. It was a question which of them would +dare to venture in and be so bold as to ask Mrs. Holman with many "dear, +kind, goods" if she would allow Silla to go over to her for a little +while this evening—always untruthfulness and disorder!</p> + +<p>There was another sledge party with fine hats and glowing cigars +standing laughing just outside.</p> + +<p>Barbara stopped her knitting-pins to listen.</p> + +<p>"We have this noise every evening till quite late," she remarked, "as +long as the moon shines on the road."</p> + +<p>He turned hot all over. If Silla were to get into this, then he might as +well lay both himself and his hammer down.</p> + +<p>Yes, there she was looking about at the corner for her two friends.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, old lady," said he, suddenly coming out of the door.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Nikolai?" exclaimed Silla, in surprise. "Have you seen +anything of Kristofa and Kalla? I did so want to speak to them! Haven't +you? Do you know how I got out? I was only going to get the cat in for +the night. I chased it out myself, and hid it so nicely under the wooden +tub out in the shed. If only it doesn't mew."</p> + +<p>She looked round again eagerly, while the elongated shadow across the +snow imitated her slender figure and swaying movements.</p> + +<p>"Oh, and they promised to wait for me!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose they've only gone."</p> + +<p>"Only? They thought I was going out with them this evening, and if they +haven't been here already, they may perhaps stand and wait, for I must +go in, you see, or else I shall have mother coming out into the street +after me. Listen, Nik! If you were nice "—she took hold of his jacket, +and pushed him backwards and forwards—"you would find them and tell +them—can you tell them properly?—that I must be good and stay at home +this evening, but hurrah for a holiday to-morrow and the day after! Say +that mother will be washing at the Antonisens' the whole of the end of +the week, and they'll quite understand it. But be sure you find them, +Nikolai, so that they won't blame me."</p> + +<p>Nikolai was not insensible to her amiability, nor yet to her liveliness +and prettiness; but it had just the opposite effect. While she stood +pulling his jacket, he heard the voices on the high-road all the time.</p> + +<p>"That's it, that's it! You want to get quite free now, Silla. Well, just +let them drag you out among them! But that a respectable girl will let +herself be drawn into such goings on!" he added, out of humour.</p> + +<p>"A respectable girl? Respectable girl! May I ask what sort of fun she is +to have then? I really wonder, Nikolai, that you didn't find a +respectable girl for yourself who would walk with her back like a poker, +and her arms under her shawl, and who only lets herself slide by +accident as it were, when she comes to a slide—daren't even look out of +the corner of her eye at a hand-sledge, because she's so well-behaved! +It was a respectable one like that you ought to have had. And then, when +you were standing hammering all day in the smithy, and she was deep in +her work standing on all fours with her head behind the wash-tub at +home, I suppose that would be as you would like to have it. But I can +tell you, Nikolai, that if there isn't to be any fun in this world, then +good-bye and be rid of it. I've had to sit shut up long enough at home."</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "If only there weren't all those wolves howling away +there on the road. But you see, they want to amuse themselves too; +and—and the insignificant ones have to take care of what they have, it +seems to me—and if you're of the same mind, Silla, we'll go in to your +mother at once—this very moment." He took her by the hand to carry out +his intention.</p> + +<p>"You must be mad, Nikolai," she exclaimed in terror; the resolution was +as terrible as it was unexpected. "No, no, let it be," she begged in an +eager whisper. "Think of mother! Have you quite forgotten what mother is +like? It will be time enough when we've got something to marry on."</p> + +<p>"Time enough? No, it's not time enough for me, Silla. I must try and get +it said now."</p> + +<p>"And what will happen to me at home afterwards? And you're not dressed +for it either, this evening."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't be afraid, Mr. Nikolai. I may as well see with my own eyes +how highly my daughter condescends to respect her mother who is left a +poor defenceless widow."</p> + +<p>It was Mrs. Holman's own voice; she was standing in the gateway, looking +preternaturally large.</p> + +<p>"I thought I had gone through the worst that could be, when Holman died, +and that I should be spared the pain of catching my own flesh and blood +out, without leave, in conversation in the street, in the middle of the +snow. Neither should I have thought that that person would ever presume +to come so near my house. Just you come in with me, Silla. Come in, do +you hear—at once!"</p> + +<p>If any one could have gathered up the component parts of Mrs. Holman's +last screaming treble, he would have found a wealth of emotions: injured +motherly dignity, wrath, contempt, hatred, and something heavy, which +was meant to have a crushing effect, and really did almost make Silla +fall on her knees; she stood there without moving.</p> + +<p>Nikolai had become a little hardened, however, since the old days; he +knew now that there were others of whom he was more afraid than he was +of Mrs. Holman. He was not affected by her.</p> + +<p>"I must ask to be allowed to come in, however, ma'am, for I didn't come +here this evening to stand out in the snow. It is to you yourself I want +to speak."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it's no longer than can be said here where we stand," answered +Mrs. Holman, rudely. "Come here, Silla!"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, it's not very long; but then I must explain one or two things +that belong to it."</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Holman still continued to bar the gateway and only beckoned +again to her daughter, Silla, in her despair and terror, suddenly made +her choice. There was nothing for it but to shut her eyes and stand by +Nikolai, and she took his arm boldly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am, that's it, as you see. We hold together as we have done +ever since we were little. And I came this evening to ask for her, and +to ask if we could have the benefit of your leave and consent. For with +my credentials and good wages, and when I never drink and—"</p> + +<p>Silla now acted with the courage of despair; she pushed Nikolai so that +they all three—Mrs. Holman yielding half involuntarily—came through +the gate and from thence into the room where the battle was then fought.</p> + +<p>While Silla sat with her hands before her face on a chair in the dark +and Nikolai, with quiet persistency continued to plead his case, and +make as manifest as possible how he now had a prospect of becoming +foreman and could provide for Silla, Mrs. Holman assumed a mightily +offended, repellant attitude. She employed her whole power; she bridled, +and she was wrathful, and she exhibited the most extreme astonishment. +It almost looked as if he thought he could really take her daughter from +her, whether she said yes or no. What was there left for an elderly +woman to live on, when her husband was dead, and her daughter who could +keep her, refused, because she thought of marrying a smith who could not +so much as show that he had a wedded father?</p> + +<p>She was on the point of rising in defence to the death of her maternal +rights, when a light suddenly dawned upon her. Her eyes began to gaze +into a perspective of the future. If Nikolai ever came to justify the +great words and promises he was now making, she might, in case of the +worst, when the time came, claim an asylum with them.</p> + +<p>This thought, however, did not prevent her from selling every +concession, with deep sighs, as dearly as possible.</p> + +<p>She must say she had thought of something quite different for Silla. +And, however it might be, she would not hear of any gadding about or +sweet-hearting until Nikolai could show as much ready money as Holman +had done.</p> + +<p>He had had a hundred dollars and his good wages, and when Nikolai could +lay as much money on the table in front of her eyes, it would be time to +talk about it.</p> + +<p>A hundred dollars—that was something decided at last. He held her in a +vice with that.</p> + +<p>That was the feeling which filled him when, a little while after, he +sprang right across the snowdrift to shorten the way, and knocked at +Barbara's door. He must have some one to tell it to—that Mrs. Holman +had acquiesced in Silla's having in this way promised herself to him.</p> + +<p>It was exactly the same view of her well-considered advantage that +occurred to Barbara while she lay that night collecting herself after +the news. She raised her large person up in bed under the influence of +the brilliant idea:</p> + +<p>Why, then, she could live with Nikolai!</p> + +<p>This grocery business was completely eating her up—it did not enter her +head that she was eating <i>it</i> up.</p> + +<p>She suddenly felt quite clear as to her whole position; how it would be +best both for her and Nikolai that she should give up the shop in time, +and how instead she could be of unspeakable use in helping the totally +inexperienced Silla to manage the house, and perhaps earn a few pence at +other houses. And she had never heard but that a son was bound to +provide for his mother.</p> + +<p>The following Sunday Mrs. Holman drank coffee at Barbara's; but as Mrs. +Holman was silent about what had taken place, Barbara was silent too. +Only once she led the conversation up to her son Nikolai, and thought +that possibly in the autumn, when the room next door was empty, he might +move into it. It would not be too much, when it was remembered how they +had always been separated.</p> + +<p>Why Mrs. Holman at that moment became thoughtful, pursed up her mouth +and said: "Thank you," she would not have any more coffee! and somewhat +unexpectedly shortened her visit, shall be left untold. It can only be +stated, that from that moment, a silent contest began between them under +water—under the most friendly form, it must be added, for Mrs. Holman's +sake if for nothing else.</p> + +<p>The coffee visits continued, if possible, with greater frequency, and +Barbara as well as Mrs. Holman discussed and talked over every possible +subject, except the one that lay nearest to their hearts—their own +personal plans in connection with Nikolai and Silla. On that point they +watched each other in diplomatic silence, like two chess-players of whom +the one dare not move until he has seen through the other one's +intention; Mrs. Holman, in the middle of some strictly reserved opinion, +taking in everything with her precise, little face and cold grey eyes, +and seeing it all clear and small as if through the bottom of a tumbler; +and Barbara, round, hospitable, large and fat, with great, overflowing +features, and generally talking about her time at the Consul's.</p> + +<p>But during all this, there was one thing upon which each of them became +always more and more decided—if she could not live with them herself, +she would at any rate put a stop to the other coming and filling up the +house.</p> + +<p>The two future mothers-in-law were each occupied to the best of their +ability in making it impossible for the other; but of this quietly +calculated conflict which was going on in the ground far below them, +Nikolai and Silla had no suspicion.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="x"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER X</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>A RISE IN LIFE</i></b></h4> + +<p> +Since Mrs. Holman had seen what Silla could busy herself with—she was +quite struck with amazement at her own blindness—she had become far +more strictly attentive, and also much more on the lookout and watch +against Nikolai.</p> + +<p>The fruits of idleness had unfortunately revealed themselves, and there +was no other remedy for them than to watch conscientiously and see that +Silla worked. She must really set about something that there was some +use and help in, all through the long light spring evenings, and not +just run for the milk, or out when any one came and asked if she might.</p> + +<p>Nikolai soon found that the situation was far from being improved after +he was acknowledged in the quality of wooer. But notwithstanding that he +saw no more of her than a short glimpse now and then, a great step in +advance had actually been made. He had now only to work hard, and that +he did manfully; the hammer worked, in his hands, as if by steam.</p> + +<p>In some ways, too, he was re-assured, for if Mrs. Holman watched against +him so carefully, this same watchfulness was a security against others, +too. It was well to know that she was no longer to be found up there +among those giddy girls in the evening. A cold shiver ran down his back +when he one day met young Veyergang coming out of his mother's. He only +looked indifferently at Nikolai with half-closed eyes, when they met in +the doorway, as if he did not quite remember him, and then asked Barbara +over his shoulder, with a nod at Nikolai: "Is that the fellow?" and went +out:</p> + +<p>"What's he been doing here, mother?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Have you been borrowing money of him?" he continued sharply.</p> + +<p>"Of course not. Not a penny, though I do need it so badly."</p> + +<p>"What was he talking about?"</p> + +<p>"He wanted to light his cigar, as he so often does when he goes down +this way. Surely that can't do you any harm! And it wouldn't be much +good forbidding him to do it either, I should think—either for me or +for you!" She added the last words red with anger.</p> + +<p>"No, I certainly can't forbid him, mother. But remember, if you borrow +of him, everything is at an end between us!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Nikolai, you are so quick-tempered. No, of course not; I shouldn't +think of borrowing!" As she spoke she turned round and pushed something +she had in her hand into her bosom. "No, of course not!"</p> + +<p>"I could hear he had been talking about me."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, how could you think so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes he was, mother," he persisted, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"About you? Oh, well, I was telling him a little about how hard you were +working now to get together those few shillings for Mrs. Holman." +Barbara talked rather confusedly.</p> + +<p>"And perhaps about Silla, too?" he asked searchingly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! he knew all about that before. I'm not the only one who knows +about it in this gossiping place, and, upon my honour, Nikolai, it +didn't come from me—not to-day," she added.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have minded if you had said it then; it would be a good +thing for that fellow to know that she is an engaged girl."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that just what I said? Only he didn't believe it."</p> + +<p>"No, I dare say not!" Nikolai stood at the window reflecting. This visit +of Veyergang's!</p> + +<p>He had enough noise and worry just now down at the smithy. It was just a +question whether he should not be made a foreman. Old Mrs. Ellingsen had +sent for him several times on this account, and it looked as if it were +almost settled.</p> + +<p>Things had been in this condition for some time; there was no great need +of hurry in coming to a determination, as the situation was not to be +filled until the autumn.</p> + +<p>Lately, however, it had seemed to Nikolai that Mrs. Ellingsen was +behaving rather strangely. He noticed, too, that they were talking and +making a great deal of fuss in the smithy; but it did not strike him +that it might be Mrs. Ellingsen's intention to draw back, until one day +when one of the men remarked scornfully that he did not suppose there +was any one in the smithy who would think of supplanting Olaves. If any +one did, he would have to look out for himself, for they would all stick +to Olaves.</p> + +<p>Nikolai knew well that they frowned at him because he was always hard at +work, saved up his pence, and firmly refused to join the others in a +glass of beer or a dram.</p> + +<p>He was without a companion. And now, when this foreman's question hung +in the balance, he noticed that the whole of his past life was stirred +and dug up again till it was as thick as the grounds in a +coffee-cup—from the old police and fighting story right back to his +childhood's days among the timber-stacks.</p> + +<p>These old stories were Nikolai's smarting wounds. He was always thinking +they were forgotten, and they were always coming up again, and now it +was insupportable suffering. He endeavoured not to betray it by a look; +but he was by no means in a good temper as he stood there.</p> + +<p>The sooner he got to know from Mrs. Ellingsen how it was to end the +better; and Nikolai was soon standing with his cap in his hand in her +room, to ask what he might depend upon.</p> + +<p>It took a long time, with many "h'ms" and "ha's" before she managed to +get her spectacles off and the wires put properly into her hair again. +Then at last it came out with some hesitation. She meant no offence; she +knew he was a good smith enough; but there were so many who knew Olaves +to be such an honest, good fellow, and she was an old woman who needed +some one whom she could thoroughly trust—no offence meant to +Nikolai—but she must consider the matter.</p> + +<p>That was the answer he received, and with it his prospects, that he had +counted upon and shown to Mrs. Holman when he asked for Silla's hand, +were destroyed.</p> + +<p>The next day when he came into the smithy they all smiled and tittered. +They knew he had been to Mrs. Ellingsen and had got his answer. But if +they thought they could tease or frighten him into giving it up, they +were very much mistaken.</p> + +<p>Olaves behaved as if nothing was the matter, and even civilly offered a +helping-hand in breaking the bar-iron.</p> + +<p>Nikolai only turned his back on him.</p> + +<p>"I never meddle with any other man's work, and I don't advise any one to +worm himself into my affairs," he said, "unless he wants a dressing that +will make his back as hot as that red iron there!" he added, with a +glance at Olaves.</p> + +<p>There was a general silence.</p> + +<p>But at dinner-time there was a great deal of talking and fuss about this +affair. Every one had heard how Nikolai had threatened Olaves, and +Olaves, as a precaution, found witnesses for his words.</p> + +<p>"He looked as if he could use the sledge-hammer to something besides +forging bolts, that fellow, if he could do it without witnesses!"</p> + +<p>They might talk as much as they liked for all that Nikolai cared; he did +his work, and never heard that Hægberg had anything to complain of. He +was prepared for a disappointment now.</p> + +<p>There was one thing, though, that he would do before he gave in—go +straight to Hægberg and speak out, and then the master could give his +testimony as to which he wanted, if Mrs. Ellingsen asked him.</p> + +<p>The final answer from Mrs. Ellingsen was delayed week after week: at +last it was two months.</p> + +<p>What could the old woman mean? The whole smithy wondered—she must have +a foreman by the autumn.</p> + +<p>At last, one morning it appeared in the shape of a message.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>It was drawing on towards evening one broiling hot summer day. In both +floors of the grey wooden house in which Mrs. Holman lived, the +small-paned windows stood open, drinking in the slight coolness there +was in the air, while the dwellers within went about their occupations +more or less lightly clothed. A faint breath only now and again stirred +the half transparent curtains, or the white clothes hanging on lines +across the yard.</p> + +<p>At the window on the ground floor just above the entrance to the cellar, +stood a slender, dark-eyed young girl with turned-up sleeves, busy at +the water tap under which she had a wash-tub full of clothes. Her head +could be seen now above, now below the short blind, cooled and refreshed +by the cold rush of water.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she stopped in surprise.</p> + +<p>Nikolai entered with his flat cap pushed triumphantly on one side.</p> + +<p>"The world's right enough, I can tell you, Silla. The only thing is to +see that everything is properly in order from the very beginning. He who +hasn't got a father, must be his own father, you know!"</p> + +<p>"But Nikolai! Did you know mother was out?"</p> + +<p>"Pooh! What is there that I don't know! My mother told me just now that +it was one of the washing days at Antonisens. But you see, Silla, it's +beginning to get late, and—if you'd like to know—I've been invited +to-day to be foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's. That'll be only ten dollars a +month more!"</p> + +<p>"Foreman? Is it true, Nikolai?" She retreated from the wash-tub, looking +doubtfully at him. "Come here with your smutty face!" she said, hastily +pulling the clothes out of the tub. "You are so awfully black! Foreman, +did you say? No, is it really true? Oh, you must put up with a little +splashing; I can't see the foreman for coal-soot! Then Mrs. Ellingsen +didn't ask Olaves first?"</p> + +<p>"No, she didn't."</p> + +<p>"And no one put out their tongue or made Mrs. Ellingsen afraid of you, +as they did before?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Hægberg must have let her know that he hadn't taken any harm from +me."</p> + +<p>"If only they don't begin again and do what they can. For your getting +in front of them stings and chafes and torments every one of them, ever +since that time when you had to do those wheel pivots over again for +Olaves. And then they dig up all the old stories they can find."</p> + +<p>"Oh no! The world's right enough, I tell you, and Mrs. Ellingsen must +take the smith who works her smithy best. Besides it's as fixed as a +vice, and the contract signed this morning. And it's pretty badly +needed, for the money that mother borrowed last, it—it—whu!"—he +whistled—"has gone the same way as the rest. It disappears like smoke +with her. It seems to me she trades backwards instead of forwards, and +that the profits go the wrong way."</p> + +<p>"Now you're so nice and clean, that you shine. That way with your hair +or else the cock's-comb will stand up too much."</p> + +<p>"I rushed straight out of the smithy, you see, to come up here and cram +it into you. I went in to mother first, and then I promised her to go +down and buy some mackerel for supper. Two smacks have come in to-day, +they say."</p> + +<p>Silla's face showed that this was a great piece of news. They were both +natives of the town, and the arrival of the mackerel brought with it a +number of pleasant recollections and pictures from the time when they +lived in the square down by the wharves.</p> + +<p>She looked a little undecided.</p> + +<p>"What if I put on my shawl and went with you!" she exclaimed. "Wait for +me down below, Nikolai, so that we don't go together in the street up +here!"</p> + +<p>It was a proposal that it was not easy to resist, she was so eager about +it. And then he had been made foreman to-day!</p> + +<p>She was not long in putting on her blue-striped dress and a shawl over +her head and following him.</p> + +<p>They hastened down together; she chattering gaily as in the old days +when they had stolen out, he quite taken up with looking at and +listening to her. They walked in the middle of the road, anything but +carefully; clouds of dust arose at every step, but Nikolai only saw +Silla, dark-eyed, warm and gay in the middle of it all.</p> + +<p>Down in the town that warm summer evening, the streets were unusually +busy about the fish-place. There was evidently something that occasioned +more life and movement than usual. The bridge was full of people hanging +over the railings and looking down at all those who were pushing their +way forwards amid noise, shouts and cries to get a mackerel for their +supper.</p> + +<p>This greenish-blue, shining fish, so round and strong and quick, +sea-built for lightning speed, its head formed for cleaving the water, +and an elastic arrow-feather as the termination to an almost dangerously +slender tail—it had already been glittering for two days on the stalls +in the fish-market.</p> + +<p>Even as late as yesterday morning it was a rarity, and only for the +tables of the wealthier, but later in the afternoon another smack came +in,—there had been a large haul out by the Hval Islands—and to-day two +more loaded vessels, so that the market was over-stocked.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, the mackerel had come—that is to say, the mackerel that +the working-man can buy. It was to be had now for two-pence or two-pence +halfpenny apiece, both on the fish-market and up the river here. The +women, who speculated, carried them in baskets up to all the most +out-of-the-way parts of the town.</p> + +<p>It found its way now everywhere, where there was only a hole for it to +slip into, a kettle or a pan for it to be boiled or fried in—into all +the galleys in the harbour, from the large, superior steamship or +full-rigged vessel, down to the cooking-stoves on the timber sloops and +the little decked barges, where people were resting, and broiling it in +the summer evening, into all the back blocks and small streets from the +cellars to the garrets. Workmen and small tradesmen, husbands and wives +were going that sultry evening with one, two, or three in their hand, +according to the number of mouths there were at home. There was a smell +of fried and broiled mackerel over whole quarters of the town.</p> + +<p>It <i>must</i> be sold, it was so confoundedly hot!</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, it is a blessed warmth," answered deaf Mother Andersen, +"that sends all this mackerel over the town."</p> + +<p>This fish has had a prejudice to overcome, although in all modesty it +has solicited nothing but the favour of being allowed to escape being +eaten. It has the reputation of being the cannibal of the North Sea—in +plain words, a man-eater, and that the dark part of its flesh comes from +drowned sailors.</p> + +<p>Nikolai and Silla were also down at the boats to seize their share of +the glory of the evening. Silla had not lived near the wharves in her +childhood for nothing, and to pick out the best fish from under the very +nose of the old women, was an easy matter for her. She stood eagerly +bargaining and stretching out over the boat.</p> + +<p>"Thanks very much, mother, but you won't fool me into taking that +sunburnt mackerel skin! Take some of those that are lying behind there +under the thwart—those two—yes, just those."</p> + +<p>She weighed them in her hand to see if they were firm and stiff.</p> + +<p>Nikolai's hand was already in his pocket; but Silla threw the mackerel +contemptuously into the boat again.</p> + +<p>"Why, they're as old as the hills! Eyes as dead as horn!"</p> + +<p>"Those beautiful—"</p> + +<p>"Be quiet, Nikolai! If we are to be satisfied with these for supper, +mother, you'll have to take off a farthing or two."</p> + +<p>In the end they went for two-pence a piece.</p> + +<p>"What a fine trader you are, Nikolai!" she said to tease him, on the way +home. "But do you see how big and fresh they are?"</p> + +<p>Barbara was standing on the steps, shading her eyes with her hand, and +looking to see if Nikolai were not soon coming with the fish.</p> + +<p>The person she did see coming quietly and sedately up the road was +Silla, and she chatted with her from the steps until Nikolai also at +last appeared with the two mackerel.</p> + +<p>Of course Silla must come in and see how they tasted; there was no +question of Barbara's honour and superabundant hospitality putting up +with anything else.</p> + +<p>In there on Barbara's cooking-stove the mackerel hissed and broiled that +light evening. The peculiar, rather pungent smell of frying grew +stronger and more appetising as it went on.</p> + +<p>Then the pieces had to be turned with fresh fat in the pan—fresh +hissing!</p> + +<p>The scent floated out through the open window, and far into the street.</p> + +<p>Barbara was big and slow in turning, while Silla, quick and ready, put +now one thing, now another into her hands, and hurried away, and was +over the fish both with her face and her opinions, long before Barbara +could collect herself.</p> + +<p>Nikolai's broad, pleased face followed the whole of the frying process +with deeply interested attention.</p> + +<p>"That mackerel's the right sort of fellow for frying!"</p> + +<p>And then at last to take the pieces straight from the pan on to the +bread!</p> + +<p>The evening breeze began to blow cool between the warm house walls. The +three who sat there enjoying the mackerel, felt as if it were a festive +night.</p> + +<p>And foreman too!</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="xi"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER XI</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>THE WEDDING POSTPONED AGAIN</i></b></h4> + +<p> +Confined as she was, and made to work through the long evenings, while +her mother watched her like an eagle, Silla's only chance of +indemnifying herself was up at the factory.</p> + +<p>She went about there with a suppressed longing and eager interest, her +eyes sparkling, in the midst of all the chattering, whispering and +gossiping among her different ideals—Kristofa and Gunda, active Swedish +Lena, and pert Jakobina. If she could not be with them herself, she +might at any rate hear what fun they had had, and all that had happened. +In this way she could live their life at second hand.</p> + +<p>It was of course Kristofa who knew how to put everything in a +captivating, magic light. A little walk, a possible engagement, an +evening at a dance, everything was moulded by her busy imaginative power +into events that never wanted a hero, that interesting, mystic being, +who was seen, now with a cigar, now without one, who sometimes pretended +he did not know them, sometimes nodded, or only smiled. The person in +question might be some town gentleman or other, or some one from one of +the offices up there, who often had not the faintest suspicion that his +coming and going was seen in Bengal illumination, or that it caused such +a flutter in their hearts; though this did not preclude others from both +suspecting and taking advantage of it.</p> + +<p>These, through Kristofa's habit of spinning, grew into little romances, +which Silla took in with wide-open eyes, and afterwards continued at +home.</p> + +<p>Silla herself had a little romance which she kept to herself: she would +not dare to tell it to Nikolai.</p> + +<p>She had to take care, when she went at dinner-time to buy anything for +her mother at Barbara's, that Veyergang had not gone in there on his way +down to light his cigar.</p> + +<p>The last time she had met him there, he laughed and asked whether the +black-eyed maid wanted to run away from him? He was not so very +terrible! She had completely vanished lately. He had heard that her +mother kept her in a cage for the sake of a dangerous smith—was that +true? When a young girl had two such black eyes, she ought not to hide +them away.</p> + +<p>And yet it was not altogether a warlike condition; but he knew very well +that she watched and waited, however long it might be, until he had left +the shop.</p> + +<p>All this was like a ray of sunlight through the high, barred paling.</p> + +<p>In other respects, one day passed like another, from the hum of the +factory into the work at home, and Mrs. Holman was quite satisfied with +the help she really must say she had of Silla this summer. That her +daughter grew more large-eyed, pale and thin, it was not in her nature +to attach much importance to; it only showed that Silla was not +accustomed to systematic work.</p> + +<p>On the rare occasions when Nikolai had an opportunity of speaking to +her, Silla complained sadly.</p> + +<p>She talked herself into such exasperation that she cried over everything +that the others—all the others—had leave to do, and only she had not. +To begin with, in her childhood, and all the time she was growing up, +she had been bottled up in that cellar in the square, and now, when she +was grown up, she had got into a regular workhouse!</p> + +<p>After having thought gloomily and sadly over this for a time, her +reflections took another course, and she began to anticipate impetuously +how they would amuse themselves, she and Nikolai, when once she got away +from home. She would have fun like all other young people, even if they +had to give a dance in their own room. And go out in a boat in the +evening and row and fish, and on Sundays take their dinner out into the +woods, and shout so loud that the hills would ring again.</p> + +<p>She was almost wild, and her eyes burned with all the pressure and work +that was put upon her.</p> + +<p>When she did not get excited with talking, she looked depressed—more so +every time, Nikolai thought. Her face seemed to him to wear such a +plaintive expression.</p> + +<p>There was nothing to be done but to set his teeth and hammer away, and +hope for release by the winter.</p> + +<p>Georgina Korneliussen in the next house but one, who sewed uppers for +the shoemaker—she was such a nice, quiet girl. Silla should make +friends with her, Mrs. Holman thought; it began to dawn upon her that +there are limits to being trained in one's duty. On Sundays they might +take it in turns to visit one another, for then they would be under +surveillance in both places. And Mrs. Holman even allowed Silla one +Sunday to go for a walk with Georgina down in the town. Young people +must have a little pleasure now and then.</p> + +<p>Silla had looked forward all the week to this Sunday with the passionate +impatience of a bird that is to be let out of its cage, and the morning +rose on great expectations of what the day would bring with it.</p> + +<p>It seemed as if the soup with swedes in it would never be ready, so that +they could have dinner. And afterwards there was endless waiting for +Georgina, who could not finish adorning herself.</p> + +<p>At last she came out, tightly laced, and with a strip of crochet in the +neck of her dress. What sort of oil or fatty substance she had plastered +down her hair with may be left unsaid; but Silla in her brown straw hat +and a plain white collar, felt for a moment insignificant beside her. +But she quickly took her friend's arm; now they were off to amuse +themselves!</p> + +<p>Down to the town they went, Silla impatiently champing the bit in her +desire to get there in time to take part in the day's pleasures.</p> + +<p>In the streets and the park at this respectable time in the afternoon, +crowds of people clad in their best were strolling up and down looking +at one another, and for a long time Silla and Georgina had enough to do +in directing one another's attention to the finest and most fashionable +dresses, and especially the long white flowing scarfs wound under the +chin and thrown over the shoulder. These, and white straw hats with +light blue or pink ribbons and roses, were the objects of their vehement +admiration.</p> + +<p>They went up and down, lost sight of and met again the same dresses, and +the same stiff quiet Sunday faces.</p> + +<p>This was repeated until it became wearisome, and Silla proposed that +they should go somewhere else, which, under Georgina's guidance, led to +a walk round the fortress.</p> + +<p>Nature was not their object; and they only met one or two tired, bored +individuals who evidently did not know what to do with themselves on +Sunday afternoon: now and then they stopped and looked up at the trees.</p> + +<p>A sentry called his long-drawn "Relieve guard!" It sounded like a mighty +yawn in the afternoon. Out on the calm, shining fjord lay boats and +vessels drifting in the breathless heat.</p> + +<p>There was nothing here, so they made their way down to the harbour.</p> + +<p>Here, too, was emptiness and Sunday desolation, the vessels seemed to +have died out.</p> + +<p>Another cruise up the street.</p> + +<p>On the market-place stood some unemployed forces, who had found a Sunday +amusement in exchanging watches,[5] while the bells of the church behind +them were ringing in the congregation to evening service.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 5: In Norway this is a pastime often resorted to by men on +holidays, when time hangs heavy on their hands. I have seen even old men +deeply absorbed in the examination of each other's watches, with a view +to their exchange.—<i>Trans</i>.]</p> + +<p>Tired, wearied, and thirsty, they continued their walk up the street +until they came into the motley stream of people who were wending their +way down to the piers, where the steamers were constantly coming in and +going out with passengers from and to the islands.</p> + +<p>Here a difference of opinion arose.</p> + +<p>Georgina thought there were so many people, and perhaps it was not +proper to go by the steamer, as it was beginning to grow late.</p> + +<p>But Silla thought that they had swallowed dust in the streets long +enough, and that they must make use of the little time they had. Was +Georgina going home satisfied with the pleasure she had already had?</p> + +<p>It was cool and airy sitting in the wind in the front of the boat and +resting themselves after the fruitless roaming in the heat.</p> + +<p>They went on shore from the crowded steamboat to the island, where the +people gradually dispersed along the various shady walks.</p> + +<p>Close to the way up from the pier, and commanding a view of the bay, +stood the great place of amusement, with all its gates invitingly open, +and the sound of dance-music floating out. Within was life and +merriment.</p> + +<p>Silla stopped to look in and listen to the music, but Georgina, highly +scandalised, pulled her on.</p> + +<p>Was that the place for a respectable girl to stop?</p> + +<p>Silla followed slowly; there was inspiriting dance-music brightening all +the path within the wooden paling, and she drank it in with both ears, +while the rhythm rocked in her veins.</p> + +<p>A little higher up, where the path turned off, she stopped again; she +could not leave the music, and scandalised Georgina by going right up to +the paling and trying to see in.</p> + +<p>Georgina would leave her that very minute! She ought to have so much +respect for herself as not to stand there! <i>She</i> had, at any rate, and +cared too much for her good name even to want to listen to such a noise, +and would go a long way round to avoid it.</p> + +<p>She was extremely indignant.</p> + +<p>Silla could really not comprehend how it could take the gloss off either +of them if they stood there a little and listened; nor yet what they had +come out for. Just where there was a little life and gaiety they were to +shut their eyes and put their fingers in their ears. But where it was so +"nice and proper" it had not been particularly amusing; and she would +give her a new sixpence if Georgina could tell her of a "proper" +amusement when they had a holiday: they had been searching for one now +both long and carefully.</p> + +<p>She sauntered on.</p> + +<p>According to Georgina, there was still nice time before the evening +traffic to the place of amusement began, and they spent it in diverse +walks in the roads, though never so far that they could not keep an eye +on the steamers and be standing in good time among the crowd that was +thronging the pier.</p> + +<p>Tired, cross and footsore, they at last reached home late in the +evening, where Silla, in the middle of the account she was giving her +mother of all the places they had been to, fell asleep in her chair.</p> + +<p>The music was running in her head, and she dreamt she was at a ball.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>There was a pleasant crackling in the stove at Barbara's in the chilly +autumn days, when people who could not afford it so well were loth to +begin fires.</p> + +<p>It was, therefore, very comfortable to stand about at her counter +talking, and still more so for the chosen few who were fortunate enough +to be invited to partake of a cup of coffee.</p> + +<p>But of late Barbara had not been nearly so even-tempered as formerly. +She suffered from changeableness of spirits, was sometimes unnaturally +stingy, so that it looked as if she wanted to count the groats or the +coffee-beans, at other times in a different mood, open-handed and +liberal to both guests and customers.</p> + +<p>Whatever the reason might be, it was certain that now and then in quiet +moments she would fall into a brown study. The bill for sugar, meal, +flour and coffee had come in again.</p> + +<p>The till was anything but prepared for such an achievement; it groaned +and rattled whatever time in the day she pulled it out or pushed it in.</p> + +<p>Time, however, went on inexorably, notwithstanding that the stove roared +so cheerfully as if nothing were the matter.</p> + +<p>And it had now gone so far that the day after to-morrow was the day for +payment.</p> + +<p>Barbara was in a—for her—most unnatural state of excitement. In the +hope of obtaining a very last, further postponement, she had this +afternoon carried out her long contemplated attack on the salesman down +in his office, but had met with a decided refusal. If she did not pay +now, after all she had promised, then—well, then, after the answer she +received, it looked as if the wheel would suddenly come to a standstill.</p> + +<p>It was this that Barbara, going feverishly in and out, with her best +bonnet still loosely tied upon her head, was explaining to Nikolai, who +was sitting in the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Nikolai's face did not look as if he saw any help for it. On the +contrary, he sat bending forward with compressed lips, looking down at +the floor and twirling his thumbs. His hair as well as the position of +his shoulders and his whole expression looked combative.</p> + +<p>Barbara sat down by the cooking-stove; she drew a heavy breath, and +sighed out of an oppressed breast.</p> + +<p>It would come to an execution as sure as she lived—and it was for +thirty-eight dollars!</p> + +<p>Nikolai knew well what she was coming to, and that she was only waiting +for him to give her a word that she could hang on to; but this money +that he had scraped together was held much faster. He knew what he +wanted, and this trade was only going farther and farther backwards, in +any case.</p> + +<p>Barbara groaned. She might as well go into the black ground at once.</p> + +<p>Nikolai only snapped his fingers and looked down, doubly decided, at the +crack in the floor.</p> + +<p>When the pause had become unbearable any longer, and she saw clearly +that no answer was coming, she began to cry softly.</p> + +<p>She <i>had</i> thought, she sobbed, that when she had a son who was a smith's +foreman, she would not stand quite helpless in the world.</p> + +<p>"You know, mother, how badly I am in want of money myself."</p> + +<p>Again an obstinate silence, with continued sobbing and drying of eyes on +Barbara's side.</p> + +<p>"It might be as well to consider whether the shop really paid?" +suggested Nikolai at last cautiously.</p> + +<p>"Would he like her to give up like a cow to be slaughtered before +Christmas," she exclaimed angrily—"and no more money than that was!"</p> + +<p>"I only meant it would be better to stop in time."</p> + +<p>But these words had the effect of fire on gunpowder. She got up, as red +as a tile. Just so! Now <i>he</i> wanted her to close!</p> + +<p>She rushed—in a manner somewhat recalling the useful animal just +mentioned by herself, when it is trying to get loose—into the shop and +back again.</p> + +<p>If Nikolai thought that she would give up and go bankrupt to be jeered +at by everybody, when she only needed to go down and borrow that little +of Ludvig, he was very much mistaken.</p> + +<p>Barbara was quite flushed.</p> + +<p>She would not let herself be ruined a second time for Nikolai's sake. It +was quite enough that he had injured her welfare once before in this +world. Yes, he need not sit and look at her with open mouth. What else +was she turned out of the Veyergangs' house for, where she had been so +important, if it was not because Nikolai had lifted his hand against the +Consul-General's Ludvig. Oh yes, he might wonder as much as he liked, +but that was why she had been driven out helpless into the world, from +comfortable circumstances. And then when an opportunity came for Nikolai +to support her a little, he had some one else to spend his money upon.</p> + +<p>But the most vexatious part of it was that Nikolai also wanted to forbid +her to apply to one who was as good as her own child, when there was the +necessity for it.</p> + +<p>She would pay no attention to that however. If <i>he</i> would not help her, +he must put up with her going to one who could, now that it was a +question of closing the shop and the whole business.</p> + +<p>No, she swore she would not go bankrupt. And she struck the table so +that the coppers danced in the drawer.</p> + +<p>It was a good thing that it was this week, for next week he was going +abroad for two or three months; he had said so himself yesterday, so +that both she and Silla heard it.</p> + +<p>Nikolai sat quite pale. His mouth moved as if it were trembling, and he +wiped his forehead once or twice with his sleeve.</p> + +<p>He looked slowly up at his mother; it was as if he were afraid of +getting to hate her.</p> + +<p>"You shall have the money."</p> + +<p>He felt he was on the point of bursting into tears, and must get away to +have his rage out.</p> + +<p>It was another postponement for him and Silla until the spring. And +where was the end of it to be?</p> + +<p>His hand shook and fumbled with the door-handle.</p> + +<p>This fresh piece of information, which his mother had so unexpectedly +given Nikolai, that it was he who had destroyed her well-being, was like +yet another stone weighing him down.</p> + +<p>It crushed him like a moral defeat. He could not rid himself of the +thought that there was something in it. He felt his courage was +weakened, and he went about disheartened.</p> + +<p>He had lost another quarter as to his prospects of getting married, and +if his mother required or rather claimed money from him again for her +down-hill trade, what could he do?</p> + +<p>It was like work without hope, and despondency began to take hold of +him.</p> + +<p>When he put his shillings away in the tin box on Saturday, it was with +bitter thoughts. At any moment his mother might come and swallow the +whole of it—as she, of course, had a right to do, since he in his time +had wasted all hers.</p> + +<p>He had always thought that when it came to the point, it was he who had +a reckoning to demand of his mother, because she had brought him into +the world without being able to give him a father, and then let him go.</p> + +<p>But now it seemed to be just the other way. His mother, with her +all-consuming business, was the great, lawful gulf for all his +happiness.</p> + +<p>He began to be weary of it all.</p> + +<p>Amid all this there sometimes dawned and smouldered a faint glow of +rebellion within him, although, in his honest endeavour to come to the +bottom of the truth, it was some time before it blazed up.</p> + +<p>Should he let Silla go, too, into this same gulf?</p> + +<p>The answer blazed up clearly, so that the flames shone and flickered:</p> + +<p>"Not while there was a rag left of what was called Nikolai!"</p> + +<p>And with reference to his mother, and his having perhaps brought +misfortune upon her, should he not have hit out, but just let himself be +insulted and trampled upon, as he was going to be again now? His mother, +tall and big, would just squeeze them to death with that shop, both he +and Silla. They were not even to have leave or the right to sigh.</p> + +<p>But he would not have that.</p> + +<p>He had thrashed Veyergang, and only repented that he had not hit harder. +As he had come into the world, he would be a human being, even if he +were to have his head cut off for it afterwards.</p> + +<p>The shop up there should not be fattened with another penny out of the +tin box. If his mother ever came to want for food, she would always find +a place in his room; but that she should put a stop to his ever getting +a room of his own—no, thank you!</p> + +<p>He was like another man when he had at last made this clear to himself. +Yes, his name was Nikolai, and he was foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's.</p> + + +<hr width="100%"> + +<a name="xii"></a> + +<h4><b>CHAPTER XII</b></h4> + +<h4><b><i>THE FAIR AND THE CONVICT</i></b></h4> + +<p> +The winter was passing.</p> + +<p>It was at the time of the fair in the beginning of February. The streets +swarmed with people and the snow in the thaw had turned to powdered +sugar with the traffic.</p> + +<p>A motley row of stalls stretched from market-place to market-place. +Trumpets brayed, buffoons shouted, the lottery-wheel went round, the +cryers howled. Music filled the air in volleys of blustering flourishes, +and amidst it all, over the whole town, pleasure-seeking, dancing and +merriment, until far on into the night.</p> + +<p>Dull noise and the sound of music penetrated up to the manufacturing +part of the town. In the evenings the town lay beneath it in increased +illumination.</p> + +<p>There was a kind of intoxication in the air, and there was many an +impatient, longing soul up there of such as look severely upon +themselves, while plenty of the looser sort streamed down.</p> + +<p>From year to year the accounts grew of the large fair-balls, of the +trumpets, the coloured lamps in the garden, and the matadores who stood +treat. It was tempting and attractive.</p> + +<p>As early as the second day Kristofa came, excited and eager, with a +solution of the question as far as she and Gunda and Silla were +concerned—money for tickets and cakes too, for all three!</p> + +<p>She behaved most mysteriously, talked all the time of a certain person, +whom she dared not, for all the world, mention.</p> + +<p>Silla had never before been to anything of the kind, the most she had +ever done was to stand outside among the longing crowd, who had to +content themselves with looking at the coloured lamps and listening to +the music. Now at last there was a chance for her too.</p> + +<p>Oh, if she dared!</p> + +<p>She was restless the whole morning, and had two round red spots of +colour on her cheeks.</p> + +<p>At dinner-time her mother came up tired and out of breath from the town.</p> + +<p>She had had to promise the Antonisens to stand at their cake-stall on +the market-place through the fair-week and help sell. It was +hardly-earned money in the cold there and in the middle of all that +shouting and bawling; but she would do her duty, and not swerve from it +when there was a penny to earn. It would not be closed and packed up +before midnight, so she must stay down there these few nights.</p> + +<p>There was a buzzing and singing in Silla's ears; it was as if the door +were opening to her of itself. She could go now if she liked.</p> + +<p>She was almost frightened.</p> + +<p>As she was taking some washing home in the afternoon, down the street, +young Veyergang suddenly brushed close by her.</p> + +<p>She almost screamed; then he had come back!</p> + +<p>She dared not look up, and felt herself turn red, but had a momentary +impression that he smiled and looked steadily at her and then nodded.</p> + +<p>She knew the delicate scent of his cigar, and had a feeling that his +clothes creaked, as it were, when he moved—a peculiarity which was +connected with the romantic ideas of distinguished gentlemen that +Kristofa had awakened in her.</p> + +<p>It was he, she was quite sure now, who had given them the tickets.</p> + +<p>Her heart beat and fluttered within her like a disturbed and frightened +bird.</p> + +<p>She went home in a reverie, so that at last Mrs. Holman had to ask if +she were out of her mind.</p> + +<p>She stole a glance into the looking-glass over the drawers.</p> + +<p>Her eyes, were they so very black? The freckles were still there. There +was a cure for freckles—but there were <i>not</i> so many as there looked to +be; the old glass was so full of spots and holes in the quicksilver.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Holman, to her surprise, saw Silla standing and rubbing, breathing +on and polishing the mirror. Her daughter must have been seized with a +new zeal.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the third day of the fair, Nikolai strolled up to the +factory district by lamplight.</p> + +<p>He had been fairing on his own account, and had bought a workbox as a +surprise for Silla—one with looking-glass inside the lid—and this +afternoon he had put some mounting and a nice lock upon it.</p> + +<p>He could surely in some way succeed in meeting her and showing it to +her—so easily and with such a spring the lock went! And scissors and +needle case he had put inside. She should have the key in her own +keeping, and he would keep the box.</p> + +<p>He had tied it in a handkerchief and put two cakes on the top, so that +the person who could guess that it was anything but a workman's bundle +that he was carrying would be more than clever.</p> + +<p>He passed close beneath his mother's windows where there was a light, +and peeped in to see if Silla might happen to be standing at the +counter, and then strolled about indifferently up and down the streets.</p> + +<p>It was so strangely deserted and empty here this evening.</p> + +<p>And, look as he would through the gate and the paling, it was not +possible for him to discover a light in Mrs. Holman's window.</p> + +<p>After having exhausted every artifice, he stationed himself on the watch +for a long time where the roads crossed and one went up to the Valsets' +cottage.</p> + +<p>But fortune did not favour him this evening; he remained standing there +with his workbox.</p> + +<p>It was dark all down the street except near the lamp-post.</p> + +<p>There was somebody! There she was!</p> + +<p>He hurried up.</p> + +<p>No, it was that Jakobina Silla had been so much with in the summer.</p> + +<p>There would at any rate be no harm in asking her.</p> + +<p>"Isn't Mrs. Holman at home this evening?" he asked, taking off his cap.</p> + +<p>"No; she's down at the fair, helping sell."</p> + +<p>The inference flashed with a passionate joy upon Nikolai; then he would +be able to go in and see Silla.</p> + +<p>"And so, when the cat's away the mice will play," continued Jakobina. It +was pretty well known that the smith came there for Silla's sake, and +her vexation at her three friends having got tickets, and not her, +filled her with spiteful gaiety. "Silla has taken a little trip into the +town, too!" she added, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Silla!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, why shouldn't she? Mrs. Holman is sitting in the cold down there +at a stall, kicking and stamping her feet; why shouldn't her daughter do +the same at the fair ball?"—Jakobina was great at saying witty +things—"especially when she perhaps has some one who will both dance +with her and treat her," she said, letting off another shot, as Nikolai +seemed to be struck dumb.</p> + +<p>"Who's put that lie into your head, girl?"</p> + +<p>"If I'm lying, so's Kristofa; and that Silla went down with her and +Gunda a couple of hours ago I saw with my own eyes. The one I mean can +afford to give fair-tickets to either three or six. But perhaps they +were going to a prayer-meeting," she added, winking with one eye.</p> + +<p>"What nonsense are you talking! You'd better take care what you say!" he +exclaimed angrily.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!" she laughed; "you're not such a stranger to him—he's almost +related. We're so grand, we are! We heard enough of that from your +mother last summer, when she got him to pay for that fine black dress, +and they wouldn't let her have credit for any more sewing materials for +her shop."</p> + +<p>Nikolai had heard enough.</p> + +<p>His mother had wrung his very blood from him, and then—deceived him in +spite of it.</p> + +<p>He suddenly saw her before him in the cold light of indifference.</p> + +<p>She had never been a mother to him, had never cared a pin's head about +him! All this about a mother had only been something he had imagined.</p> + +<p>He made a movement with his hands as if he were done with her. The one +she cared about, and had a mother's feeling for, was this—</p> + +<p>He did not know whether he had thought the name himself, or whether +Jakobina had said it; but it rang in his ears like the stroke of a +hammer on a shining anvil, as he rushed down:</p> + +<p>"Ludvig Veyergang!"</p> + +<p>He had robbed him of his mother from his earliest childhood. Was he +going to drag Silla away from him too?</p> + +<p>The thought at last became too impossible, and he slackened his pace.</p> + +<p>That Jakobina was always so full of gossip and lies! This about Silla +was all nonsense! There was nothing so dreadful in the three girls +having taken a trip down to see a little of the fair; and they made that +sharp-tongued Jakobina, whom they did not want to have with them, think +they were all three going to the ball.</p> + +<p>He, he, he! it was Silla who had thought of that! He would tell her he +had seen that at once as soon as she told him.</p> + +<p>He shook his head; for a moment he felt immensely re-assured, and +relapsed into the bitter thoughts about his mother.</p> + +<p>But—it would not be so out of the way if he went and looked for them; +they might have taken it into their heads to stand outside and listen to +the music.</p> + +<p>The kettle-drums at the place of amusement were rattling out delight far +into the air. From the menagerie close by brayed a shrieking trumpet, +and the street outside was black with people.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to say why it should have been so, but uneasiness again +took possession of him.</p> + +<p>In the illuminated entrance the strings and lines of lamps shone with an +uncertain light in the raw gusty evening air; whole and half lines grew +dim and almost went out, and then flared up again with a glare over the +snow and the inpouring streams of people.</p> + +<p>He could only advance at a foot's pace here; but while he slowly worked +his way in, he looked all round. He only needed to see the outline of +the figure he was looking for.</p> + +<p>She was not among the people standing outside.</p> + +<p>It was almost tiresome, now he had made up his mind he should see her.</p> + +<p>He began to think of going to the booths to look for her there, and his +glance wandered indifferently over the people.</p> + +<p>She?—that rosy, laughing girl in there in the garden, with the round +hat and the bit of boa round her neck over her jacket, was no other than +Gunda!</p> + +<p>He held his breath, as if he expected the next moment to see others in +the crowd there among the lamps.</p> + +<p>"Have you a ticket? Garden or ball?" he was asked at the entrance.</p> + +<p>Nikolai would like to have taken tickets for the whole thing; but the +pence he had about him were only enough for the garden.</p> + +<p>The row of lamps lighted up the snowy road to a crowded restaurant, from +the first floor windows of which came the shrieks of a woman's soprano, +followed every now and then by a storm of applause. Farther on, a +roundabout, crammed with people, was going round under an illuminated +roof to the accompaniment of shrill music.</p> + +<p>On both sides was a moving and, as regards the male portion, very +miscellaneous and mixed crowd of fair-frequenters.</p> + +<p>He searched the garden through, but in the darker paths outside the +principal one, only a few loitering, shivering figures were to be seen, +who seemed hovering like longing moths about the light.</p> + +<p>It was down in that building, from which came sounds of music, the one +to which all the people streamed and stood in a dense crowd outside, +that the ball was going on.</p> + +<p>All the blood in him seemed suddenly to stand still, and he approached +slowly and hesitatingly, his face grey with apprehension.</p> + +<p>He stood outside for a long time, gazing in at the large, lighted +windows. Dark shadows passed behind the blinds, an unceasing variety of +heads and shoulders.</p> + +<p>There where the blind was pulled a little to one side he saw the +round-headed Gunda again; the back of her head was so near him that he +would have liked to push the pane in and ask her where Silla was?</p> + +<p>He felt the shaking of the floor and the music twice as much where he +was standing; it was as if the whole ball had got into his head.</p> + +<p>Now he caught a glimpse of a sloping shoulder and half a back in an +overcoat, with a cane sticking out of the owner's pocket—and part of a +fashionable hat-brim.</p> + +<p>The figure was smoking a cigar and bending down as if to talk.</p> + +<p>To whom?—To whom?</p> + +<p>For it was Ludvig Veyergang's, that narrow, straight back, that seemed +in its pride as if it could not bend above the hips.</p> + +<p>And then that way with his arm and his eye-glass.</p> + +<p>Now he was gone; he must be dancing.</p> + +<p>The clear glimpse he could get through the little opening in the blind +was dimmed by moisture. Only when a heavy drop ran down the pane in the +heat inside, could he catch a fraction of a glimpse through the streak.</p> + +<p>There came Veyergang's shadow, with stick and hat again, and lower down +the crooked outline of a woman's head in lively gesticulation.</p> + +<p>Again the figure with the stick disappeared, and Nikolai prepared to +watch for it.</p> + +<p>A drop just wept a smooth streak down the pane, and the next moment he +caught a glimpse of a dancing figure—only a bent head and a half-hidden +face.</p> + +<p>He had seen enough—more than if he had had a hundred chandeliers to see +by.</p> + +<p>Immediately after, Nikolai was in the stream in front of the door.</p> + +<p>It opened and closed incessantly to admit those who gave up tickets, and +disclosed, in misty perspective, a miscellaneous confusion of hot, +flushed faces.</p> + +<p>Now and then a pair came out and hastened up to the large restaurant.</p> + +<p>He heard both exclamations and taunts.</p> + +<p>"Now then! now then!" came from the crowd.</p> + +<p>Nikolai only worked his way towards the door. If once he stood there—!</p> + +<p>"Ticket?"</p> + +<p>Nikolai did not answer.</p> + +<p>"Ticket, man? Ticket?"</p> + +<p>Nikolai only pressed boldly a step nearer.</p> + +<p>The police-constable made a movement, but met a look in Nikolai's face +which made him feel justified in restraining himself. This pertinacious, +silent working man looked as though he could strike.</p> + +<p>The door continued to open and shut as incessantly as before, and both +the constable and the ticket collector had become in a measure +reconciled to the man who stood there so persistently—it almost looked +as if he had a lawful business there, with that bundle in his hand—when +Nikolai suddenly put his smith's shoulder to the door and pressed +violently against it.</p> + +<p>The ticket collector resisted in vain with his body; his hands were +occupied.</p> + +<p>Through the opening Nikolai had seen Silla, red, laughing, and out of +breath with dancing, coming down the room with Ludvig Veyergang; he was +looking about short-sightedly, with his hat pressed down sideways over +his forehead and his eye-glass in one eye, with light arrogance, as if +he were only going about his lawful business, when he was ruining a +young girl.</p> + +<p>There was a noise and disturbance down at the door.</p> + +<p>"Turn him out! Turn him out!"</p> + +<p>At last the cry sounded over the whole room. It was an interlude, during +which the audience climbed up on to tables and benches to try to see.</p> + +<p>Nikolai would blindly and roughly have forced his way in, had not the +police officer met him at the door, and with his own and the constable's +united efforts managed to drag the strong, unruly smith out.</p> + +<p>His one thought, while with a certain cool, temperate leniency they +dragged him out into the half-darkness, was to keep so near that he +could have an eye on the door. He felt with suppressed rage that if they +drove him to it, he would sooner die than leave the garden now.</p> + +<p>The music ceased. A number of people, hot and breathless, streamed out +during a pause in the dancing.</p> + +<p>There came Veyergang—and Silla, bashful and half-resisting, with him. +They took the way up to the restaurant.</p> + +<p>Nikolai suddenly disengaged himself with a jerk, and the next moment, +emerging from the darkness, thrust himself between them.</p> + +<p>Silla uttered a cry of terror, but Nikolai only gave her a half-glance, +and flung her behind him—and thus stood face to face with Veyergang.</p> + +<p>The young lion changed colour and retreated a step before the expression +of violent hatred confronting him; but, recognising the old enemy of his +school days, he curled his lip scornfully.</p> + +<p><i>That</i> look made Nikolai rush upon him, and Veyergang, with a cry of +"You cowardly ruffian!" returned the blow with his walking-stick right +across Nikolai's face, so that the stick snapped.</p> + +<p>"Help! help! Police!"</p> + +<p>Nikolai had struck his fist into Veyergang's chest so that the buttons +of his coat were torn open, when he was surrounded by three policemen.</p> + +<p>A young girl suddenly rushed wildly in among them.</p> + +<p>Spectators collected in greater numbers around.</p> + +<p>This was a fair-fight of the first sort; and that tall, dark girl too!</p> + +<p>"A mad bull-dog of a smith! Put him under arrest!" exclaimed Veyergang +furiously, when he felt himself in safety. "You may meditate there in +the meantime. You are not at all indispensable, my friend!" he went on +in a coolly teasing tone. "The black-eyed lassie shall enjoy herself at +the fair all the same."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly spoken before Nikolai had wrenched himself free. +He swung the bundle, with the box in it, about him so that nobody could +come near him, and darted like a flash of lightning upon Veyergang, +exclaiming between his teeth: "It's the last time in your life that +you'll say that!"</p> + +<p>One hand fumbled with Veyergang's coat, and the other dealt him a blow +with the full weight of the box, so that he fell backwards on to the +snow.</p> + +<p>He did not get up again—did not stir.</p> + +<p>There were cries and a tumult among the spectators. Some cried "Murder," +others for a doctor. And all the while the music clashed and jingled in +three directions.</p> + +<p>A high police functionary attempted to quiet the excitement, and +discreet hands bore the unconscious man out to a sledge, and drove him +to the hospital. All the excited wrath of the crowd was turned against +the perpetrator of the deed, who was led out strongly guarded.</p> + +<p>For safety's sake, out in the gate, irons were put on both his hands and +his feet, and this was done in the midst of an ever-increasing crowd +from the street.</p> + +<p>But when there was a mention of taking him into the sledge, the girl +threw herself upon him, and clung so tightly that it was impossible to +tear her away. She still cried and clung to him, much to the delight and +amusement of the assembled crowd of boys, after they had got him into +the sledge.</p> + +<p>It was impossible for them to start, although they dragged and pulled at +her till the gathers of her dress gave way.</p> + +<p>The boys shouted.</p> + +<p>"Pull—tear—drag the clothes off my back!"</p> + +<p>"There, have a little common-sense, lass!" said one of the constables.</p> + +<p>"You mustn't take him! You sha'n't take him!"</p> + +<p>She wrenched and pulled at his handcuffs.</p> + +<p>"It's my fault! Can't you tell them so, Nikolai?" she cried piercingly, +and the policemen took the opportunity to detach her hands.</p> + +<p>The sledge dashed off, and Silla, without a shawl, after it, followed by +a swarm of boys.</p> + +<p>She saw the door of the police-station open for Nikolai without being +able to reach him or hinder it; hour after hour she passed outside, +listening and waiting, while the constables again and again intimated to +her that she must go home.</p> + +<p>When at length she wandered away in despair, she kept stopping; but up +on the bridge over the waterfall she stood still a long while.</p> + +<p>It roared so strangely down there in the dark. It seemed as if in some +way or other she belonged to it.</p> + +<p>All night she lay with a dull feeling of what had happened, and writhed +under an unspeakable terror for the result of Nikolai's act.</p> + +<p>Now and then she groaned out a suffering sigh.</p> + +<p>She could not get rid of the sight of the handcuffs, and in her delirium +felt the cold iron still in her hands, until at last the bitter feeling +came over her of how miserably she had behaved to him. She felt as +though the thought of her must make Nikolai sick.</p> + +<p>She lay staring at herself as in a vision—how she had gone about and +never thought or cared about anything but her own pleasure, while +Nikolai, her smith boy, with the strong arms and the true eyes, who now +sat behind the prison bolts, had striven and toiled, and saved, and +worked for both of them, so that they might be together.</p> + +<p>And she could see too, now, all at once, as if scales had fallen from +her eyes, that he had been terribly afraid for her.</p> + +<p>If only he still cared for her! He had said: "Go home, Silla"—twice—so +kindly and gently, that she began to cry when she thought of it.</p> + +<p>Had she known or understood what it was to love anybody before just now? +And perhaps it was too late!</p> + +<p>The thought filled her with despair again, and wild pictures arose in +her mind—Veyergang falling and lying stretched upon the snow, and then +Nikolai's arms with the handcuffs on them stretching up out of the +factory waterfall.</p> + +<p>She lay awake until the morning and saw the same things—the handcuffs +in the waterfall, and Veyergang turning away from the blow and falling; +and then the whole thing over again—and again.</p> + +<p>She sat there the whole day until dusk. Then her restlessness drove her +down to the police-station.</p> + +<p>There the gas was already lighted in the passages, and there were so +many doors through which busy men in uniform were going in and out. At +the entrances several people were standing waiting.</p> + +<p>She had not the courage to ask.</p> + +<p>For a long time she walked restlessly in the thickly-falling snow round +the building.</p> + +<p>At last she felt that she must go in; and in a condition which made her +blind to her surroundings, she at length stood patiently, white and +covered with snow, at the gate of the prison.</p> + +<p>When at length it opened, she wanted to go in.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"To hear about Nikolai."</p> + +<p>"Nikolai? What Nikolai?"</p> + +<p>"He who came in here last night."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean him, the murderer? Are you his sister?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"<i>That's</i> a good thing, for the bad fellow hasn't got long to live." He +made an expressive movement with his hand across his throat. "The man he +attacked is dead—died at midday, and the murderer is now sitting in +chains."</p> + +<p>Silla did not know how it was that the door was shut behind her again, +and did not feel that it was snowing thickly and silently, while the +light from the lamps shone through a veil of snow—did not know how she +had reached the bridge again.</p> + +<p>That was where she ought to be.</p> + +<p>Nikolai was sitting down there with handcuffs on, and stretching up his +hands, and crying—crying to her!</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>The next morning a bit of a dress was seen sticking up out of the loose +snow in the dam. Her skull had been broken in the high fall from the +bridge against the edge of the ice.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>It was proved that young Veyergang's death had been caused directly by +the blow that had been dealt him which had penetrated to the brain.</p> + +<p>And the impression was not to be softened by Nikolai's behaviour before +the court. He stood there with wild sorrow in his heart over Silla's +death, and answered that if Veyergang had had seven lives, he would have +taken them all.</p> + +<p>When questioned as to his parents, he at first declared that he had +never known any; but when pressed further, he exclaimed, pointing at a +large-boned woman who was sitting, crying on a bench:</p> + +<p>"Her name is Barbara. They say she is my mother; but he who took away my +happiness in this world got both her affection and her mother's milk."</p> + +<p>Barbara wailed.</p> + +<p>His father? It might be the whole town!—he looked round on the +officials of the court.</p> + +<p>This was an answer which fully confirmed the opinion which had been +general from the first in this horrible, sensational murder case—that +the court had here before it a bold criminal nature, early hardened in +the dregs of town life.</p> + +<p>The police still had a pretty clear remembrance of this individual from +his violent conduct and other doubtful circumstances under a charge of +theft. And it appeared from his past life, which was thoroughly sifted, +that from his earliest childhood he had evinced dangerous tendencies, so +that there had even been talk of placing him in an asylum for depraved +children.</p> + +<p>There were repeated facts brought forward from the time of his +apprenticeship in Hægberg's smithy, which proved that he was an +individual given to fighting and violence.</p> + +<p>Not longer ago than last year he had threatened Olaves' life, or so the +witnesses interpreted it; and it appeared in the examination in court, +that on the evening in question he had persistently plotted against the +deceased, and had, just before the perpetration of the deed, declared +his murderous intention in the threat: "It's the last time in your life +that you'll say that!"</p> + +<p>There was undeniably an extenuating circumstance in the fact that there +was a love-story connected with the affair, and that the act seemed to +be prompted by jealousy. On the other hand, it was clearly shown that it +might also be considered as the outcome of an old hatred existing even +in the years of their childhood.</p> + +<p>The sentence of imprisonment with hard labour for life was passed.</p> + +<hr width="50%"> + +<p>There was rifle-practice going on, puff after puff, down in the moat. +Further along, on the green, some soldiers were being drilled, and now +and again a trumpet signal sounded out on the still morning air.</p> + +<p>Under a guard of overseers a little band of fettered prisoners was being +conducted, with a clanking echo at every step, along the ramparts from +their work towards the inner building of the convict prison.</p> + +<p>At a hole in the wall the last of the prisoners slackened his pace a +little. He cast a lingering glance through the opening.</p> + +<p>The fjord lay shining blue beneath, with its many white sails and a +steamer leaving a thick trail of smoke behind it on the water.</p> + +<p>He drew a deep breath, his nostrils expanded, and there were signs of +great agitation in his broad face.</p> + +<p>The others were already five or six steps in advance, and the overseer +began to roar at Number 66, exclaiming morosely:</p> + +<p>"You'd give something to be able to fly out now, Nikolai!"</p> + +<p>"I think that's the way we're all made!" he answered quickly.</p> + +<p>"Then you should try and behave so as to get a remission."</p> + +<p>Nikolai shook his head bitterly; a gleam shot from his grey eyes.</p> + +<p>"If I got out, it would only be to come in again. For either the world +ought to go to prison or I ought, and I suppose it may as well be the +last!"</p> + +<p>The clanking went on again.</p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 15853-h.txt or 15853-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/8/5/15853">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/8/5/15853</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: One of Life's Slaves + + +Author: Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie + +Translator: Jessie Muir + +Release Date: May 18, 2005 [eBook #15853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES*** + + +E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Jim Wiborg, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES + +by + +JONAS LIE + +Author of "The Visionary," etc. etc. + +Translated from the Norwegian by Jessie Muir + +London Hodder Brothers 13 New Bridge Street, D.C. +Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., London & Edinburgh + +1895 + + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In a review which appeared in the _Athenaeum_, of a translation of one +of Jonas Lie's earlier works--"Den Fremsynte" ("The Visionary")--the +reviewer expressed a hope that I would follow up that translation with +"an English version of Lie's 'Livsslaven,' that intensely tragic and +pathetic story of suffering and wrong." It is in accordance with this +suggestion that the present volume makes its appearance. + +In taking Christiania life for the subject of "Livsslaven," Jonas Lie +attempted for the second time to break down the preconceived opinion of +critics, that such a subject did not come within his province. They were +accustomed to have tales of sea-life from his pen, and could not readily +be persuaded that another sphere of life might afford equal scope for +his talent. "Thomas Ross," published in 1878, had treated of Christiania +life, and had attracted but little attention; and now, in the spring of +1883, appeared this "story of a smith's apprentice, with his struggles +for existence and his ultimate final failure owing to the irresistible +indulgence of a passionate physical instinct." At first this too seemed +to be a failure. To use the words of Arne Garborg, a Norwegian author +and critic, Lie "had spoken--cried out in the passion or agony of his +soul, and people stood there quite calm and as if they had heard +nothing;" there seemed to be a total lack of sympathetic comprehension +on the part of the public. In the end, however, the book found its way +to the hearts of its readers, and, to quote Mr. Gosse's words on the +subject, "achieved a very great success; it was realistic and modern in +a certain sense and to a discreet degree, and it appealed, as scarcely +any Norwegian novel had done before, to all classes of Scandinavian +society." + +Lie himself, in speaking of this work, says that a writer should "aim +at presenting his subject in such a way that the reader may see, hear, +feel, and comprehend it with the utmost possible intensity." This +precept he has certainly put into practice in the present instance, for +the subject is treated with such power and so full a grasp, that in +reading the book one feels an actual anxiety, an oppression as of +approaching disaster. This, at any rate, is the case with the original, +and I trust that its power has not been altogether lost in the process +of rendering into another language, but that the stamp of genuineness, +the author's leading characteristic, may to some extent be found also +in this translation. + +J. MUIR. + +CHRISTIANA, + +November 10, 1894. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. NEGLECTED RESPONSIBILITIES + + II. A STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN + + III. A FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + IV. A STOLEN INTERVIEW + + V. AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED + + VI. THE FACTORY GIRLS + + VII. "THE WORLD IS RIGHT ENOUGH AFTER ALL" + +VIII. AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL + + IX. AN IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN + + X. A RISE IN LIFE + + XI. THE WEDDING POSTPONED AGAIN + + XII. THE FAIR AND THE CONVICT + + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +NEGLECTED RESPONSIBILITIES + + +"Like a prince in his cradle," you say, "with invisible fairies and the +innocent peace of childhood over him!" + +What fairy stood by the cradle of Barbara's Nikolai it would be +difficult to say. Out at the tinsmith's, in the little house with the +cracked and broken window-panes in the outskirts of the town, there was +often a run of visitors, generally late at night, when wanderers on the +high road were at a loss for a night's lodging. Many a revel had been +held there, and it was not once only that the cradle had been overturned +in a fight, or that a drunken man had fallen full length across it. + +Nikolai's mother was called Barbara, and came from Heimdalhoegden, +somewhere far up in the country--a genuine mountain lass, shining with +health, red and white, strong and broad-shouldered, and with teeth like +the foam in the milk pail. She had heard so much about the town from +cattle-dealers that came over the mountain, that a longing and +restlessness had taken possession of her. + +And then she had gone out to service in the town. + +She was about as suitable there as a tumble-down haystack in a handsome +town street, or as a cow on a flight of stairs--that is to say, not at +all. + +She used to waste her time on the market-place by all the hay loads. She +must see and feel the hay--_that_ was not at all like mountain grass. +"No indeed! Mountain grass was so soft, and then, how it smelt! Oh dear +no!" + +But her mistress had other uses for her servant than letting her spend +the morning talking to hay-cart drivers. So she went from place to +place, each time descending both as regarded wages and mistress. Barbara +was good-natured and honest; but she had one fault--the great one of +being totally unfit for all possible town situations. + +Yet Society has, as we know, a wonderful faculty for making use of, +assimilating and reconstructing everything, even the apparently most +meaningless and useless, for its own purpose. And the way it took, +quickly enough, with poor Barbara was that she became the only thing in +which she could be of any service in the town--namely, a nurse. + +It was a sad time and a hard struggle while the shame lasted, almost +enough to kill her; and after that, she never thought of returning to +the Heimdal mountains again. + +But things were to be still harder. + +The various social claims, which an age of progress increasingly lays +upon the lady of the house in the upper classes of society, asserted +themselves here in the town by an ever increasing demand for nurses. + +"The reason," as Dr. Schneibel explained, "was simply a law of +Nature--you can't be a milch-cow and an intelligent human being at the +same time. The renovation of blood and nerves must be artificially +conveyed from that class of society which stands nearer to Nature." + +And now the thing was to find an extra-healthy, thoroughly strong nurse +for Consul-General Veyergang's two delicate, newly-arrived, little ones. + +Dr. Schneibel had very thoughtfully kept a nurse in reserve for Mrs. +Veyergang--"a really remarkable specimen of the original healthiness in +the common stock. One might say--h'm, h'm--that if Mrs. Veyergang could +not get to the mountains, the mountains were so courteous as to come to +her. The girl still had an odour of the cowshed about her perhaps; but +when all's said and done, that was only a stronger assurance of +originality. And _that_ is an important factor in our day, madam, when +milk is adulterated even from the very cows themselves.--Quite young, +scarcely twenty!" + +Barbara Hoegden had not the faintest suspicion, as she carried water and +wood, or stood at the edge of the ice beating linen, or did any drudgery +she could find to do, in order to earn a little money to pay for herself +and her baby at the tinsmith's, that, from her deepest degradation, she +had risen at one step to the rank of an exceptionally sought-after and +esteemed person in the town. + +For a nurse _is_ an esteemed person. Indeed, she is on the expectancy +list to become respected. + +After having nursed her mistress's child, and been a correspondingly +unnatural mother to her own, she ends by sleeping on down, and being +considered in every way, until a new nurse for a new heir deposes her +from her dynasty. + +Should she prefer to give her own little baby the only treasure she +possesses, her healthy breast, should she really be so blind to her own +interests, why then the case is different, and (to use Dr. Schneibel's +words) not altogether unmerited, only a result of the social economy to +which she does not know how to be intelligently subordinate, and which +will reduce her, with the inexorable logic of the laws of civilisation, +to a useless superfluity, which Society's organism rejects. Or, vulgarly +speaking, she is left with shame, contempt and poverty resting upon both +her and her illegitimate offspring. As a private individual, she is in a +sense right; but socially, as a member of society----! + +At first poor Barbara was quite blind on this point, utterly obstinate, +rigid as a mountain pony that could not be got to stir. + +Dr. Schneibel was standing for the third time at the tinsmith's, with +his stick under his nose, while his gig waited down in the road. Each +time he had added to both wages and arguments, and had again and again +pointed out how bad it would be both for her and her boy if she +continued so obstinate. He appealed to her own good sense. How could she +expect to bring him up in such poor, narrow circumstances, and with all +this toiling and moiling? She would only need to give up a part of her +large wages to the tinsmith, and they would look well after the boy. +Besides she could often come out and see him, at least once a month!--he +could promise her that on the Veyergangs' behalf, and it was very kind +of them now they lived such a long way out of town. + +Dr. Schneibel talked both kindly and severely, both good-naturedly and +sharply: he was almost like a father. + +Barbara felt a pang of fear every time she saw him come down the street, +and turn in by the rotten, mouldy wooden fence. She watched him like a +bird that is afraid for her nest, and was sitting close to the wall in +the darkest corner with the cradle behind her, when he opened the door. +It was impossible for her to answer except by a sob. The tinsmith's wife +did all the talking with: "Why, bless me, yes!" and "Bless me, no!" and +"Just so, doctor!" in garrulous superabundance, while Barbara only sat +and meditated on taking her baby on her back and departing. + +But to-day the doctor had talked so very kindly to her and offered her +so much money. He had appealed so directly to her conscience, patted the +child, and said that when it came to the point, he was sure she was not +the mother who could be so cruel as to bring misery upon such a pretty +little fellow, let him suffer want, let his pretty little feet be cold, +when he might lie both comfortable and warm and like a little prince in +his cradle! + +It was not possible to resist, and in her emotion something like a half +promise escaped her. + +Afterwards a neighbour came in and was of exactly the same opinion, and +told of all the little children whom she had known that had died of want +and neglect, only in the houses round about, during the last two years, +because their mothers had had to go out and work all day and could not +pay any one to look after them. And she and the tinsmith's wife both +spoke at once about the same thing--only the same thing. + +Barbara sat listening and tending her child. Her heart felt like +breaking. For a moment she thought of going, not to Hoegden, but in +another way, home with him at once. + +It was a temptation. + +That night she broke into sobs so ungovernable, that, in order not to +disturb the household in their slumbers, she went out into the soft, +drizzling rain: it quieted and cooled her. + +As she was standing the next morning, helping a neighbour's wife to +rinse and wring the clothes by the brook, a pony-carriage stopped in the +road. The coachman--he had gold lace on his hat and coat--got down and +went in to the tinsmith's. + +"You must wring that sheet right out, Barbara," said the neighbour's +wife; "it'll be the last you'll wring here, for that's the Consul's +carriage." + +And Barbara wrung the sheet until there was not a drop of water in it. +It had come now! + +She went in and dressed the child; she hardly knew what she was doing, +and hardly felt it under her hands. + +She saw the man give six dollars to the tinsmith's wife. He was so stiff +and tall and distinguished-looking, with such a big, aristocratic nose, +and he made a kind of bend every time she happened to look at him, and +assured her that there was no hurry--not the least! They never woke +before nine at the Consul's, so there was still plenty of time. And then +he looked at his watch. + +And every time he looked at his watch, she looked at her boy: there were +now orders and a time fixed for her to leave him. + +He had fallen asleep again. If he were to wake, she did not know what +would happen--she was sure she could not leave him then. + +"No hurry, no hurry!" and he took the thick silver watch out of his +pocket once more. + +But now it was she who was in a hurry, and so eager that she gave +herself no time to look round before she was seated in the carriage, and +the long, stiff-necked, braided coachman was driving her away along the +road of her appointed destiny. + +In the summer she accompanied the Consul-General's family to a +bathing-place. There Barbara wheeled the perambulator with the two +children in it along the shore, and more than once the Veyergangs were +flattered by the exclamations of passers-by: "What a fine-looking +nurse!" + +But there were difficulties with her, too--fits of melancholy to which +she completely gave way. She would sit by the cradle, her eyes red with +weeping, longing for her child, and would neither eat nor drink. + +This was a matter of no little importance. A nurse must be kept in good +spirits; her frame of mind has such an immense influence on her health, +and that again on the health of the child. + +Mrs. Veyergang had all sorts of good things brought in from the +pastry-cook's to enliven her; silk handkerchiefs and aprons abounded, +and the servants at home received injunctions to inquire after Barbara's +boy at the tinsmith's. + +There was praise and nothing but praise to be given every time the +Consul-General's Lars stopped there in driving past, and when Barbara +only received a message of that kind, she could be happy and contented +the whole month. + +She was made much of, as she very soon felt. If she said or wanted +anything, she was obeyed as if she were the mistress herself. And +handsome clothes with constant change of fine underclothing, not to +mention meat and drink--hardly anything of what she was accustomed to +call work, her hands had already become quite soft and supple. And she +felt that she was beginning to be attached to the two little ones whom +she tended day and night. + + * * * * * + +One day, after the Consul's family had returned from the bathing-place, +Barbara set out for the tinsmith's. It was late in the autumn. She could +hardly ever remember the road out there so bad and muddy as it was now. +Both her boots and the bottom of her dress would need cleaning and +washing when she got back again. + +The thought that she would soon see her boy put her in a cold +perspiration; but of course things were best as they were, now that she +could pay so well for him. + +When she turned in by the wooden fence and saw the cottage with its +familiar cracked windows in front of her, she slackened her pace a +little. A feeling of apprehension suddenly came over her. + +And then the neighbour's wife, whom she had so often helped, came out +and began to talk and give her information, rattling on like a +steam-engine. There had been war among the neighbours in the tinsmith's +alley, and now that she saw Barbara herself, the truth should out, the +real, actual truth. + +The tinsmith's people need not imagine that other people hadn't got eyes +in their head! Everything they possessed had gone to the pawnbroker's; +there was barely enough of the tin-ware left to put in his cracked +windows. And what they lived on, nobody round there could imagine, +unless it was the payment they got for that poor little ill-used boy, +that they gave lager-beer to, to keep him quiet. For no one would put up +there now that the police had begun to keep an eye on the company, not +even certain people who were not generally so particular about their +quarters. + +"But if you take my advice, Barbara, you'll take the boy to blockmaker +Holman's down at the wharf. They are such nice, respectable people, and +have pitied the boy so when I told them how they were treating him out +here." + +Blockmaker Holman, blockmaker Holman! The name rang in her ears as, +heavy-hearted, she entered the tinsmith's. + +There he lay among the ragged, dirty clothes, pale, thin and neglected, +with frightened eyes. He began to cry when she took him up; he did not +know her, and she scarcely knew him. + +The disappointment--all that she felt--found vent in a rising torrent of +angry words against the tinsmith and his wife. + +But at the same time, while she was washing the boy, she felt how big, +coarse and clumsy his face and body were, compared to the two delicate +ones she was accustomed to. She saw now for the first time how +impossible it would be to keep him herself. + +But he should go to the blockmaker's, poor boy! Her name wasn't Barbara +if she didn't get her mistress to see to that at once--as early as +to-morrow. + +She returned home with a face red and swollen with crying, and was +inconsolable the whole evening until her mistress came down from the +office with the promise that the matter should be arranged. + +And thus it was that Nikolai came to blockmaker Holman's. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A STRICT DISCIPLINARIAN + + +It is in some ways a blessing that those who have suffered hardship and +been neglected in their babyhood, do not remember anything about it--and +yet perhaps something clings to them. + +So, at any rate, Mrs. Holman declared. From the very first day the boy +came into the house, she could see he had been brought up in a thieves' +nest. His eyes were so wise and watchful, and he could be so craftily +cunning and refractory, long before he could speak. She declared that he +was positively malicious, so drowsy and quiet as he would be until she +had just fallen asleep, when he would begin to shout as loud as a +watchman. + +But every one who knew anything about the Holmans, said that if they had +not been fortunate in getting the boy, he had at any rate been fortunate +in having found his way to them. There were not two opinions as to what +an orderly woman Mrs. Holman was, and how strict in the fulfilment of +her duty. Tall, thin and neat in her person, even her small, +liver-coloured face, with the pale blue expressionless eyes, told you at +once that she was not the woman to allow herself to be carried away by +rash impetuosity. + +And on the few occasions in the year that Barbara visited the boy--it +was not so easy for her to come now that the Veyergangs lived in their +country house all the year round--she could see for herself how +well-cared-for and clean he was, and how strictly he was kept. From the +time she got there to the time she left, she heard nothing except how +difficult it was to straighten out all the tinsmith's dents, all that +had been wrongly and improperly dealt with from the very first, +especially his obstinate temper! Now he really could walk quite a good +way, but he would do nothing but crawl, and so quickly, that no sooner +had she, Mrs. Holman, taken her eyes off him than he might be anywhere, +either at the saucepans and pots, or in the water-bucket, or else at the +plummets on the bell. And he upset things, and got himself in a mess, +wherever he went; yesterday the cat's food lay all over the floor! So +now she had hung the birch-rod low down on the wall, so that it might be +before his eyes; for it was necessary to frighten him, and vigilance and +punishment must positively be used. And Barbara must know herself, that +it wasn't so easy to manage other people's children, and especially such +a stray creature, come into the world in such a manner! + +It was all just, as Barbara was obliged to acknowledge to herself, from +beginning to end, however much it might sting her, and therefore she was +always in a hurry to get away again. + +It cannot be denied that she learnt something from it too, namely, what +she, on her side, might have reason and right to say to Mrs. Veyergang +about all the toil she had had with her two, if they ever had a +difference. + +But the same spirit of disobedience remained in the boy as he grew +older. It was impossible to cure him of it, for all that Mrs. Holman +could do, and Holman had to help too sometimes. This did not happen, +however, until his wife had duly impressed on him the moral necessity of +taking upon himself his share of the duties of the house. + +Holman was a silent man with a pair of quiet, shining eyes. He went and +came, morning and evening, rubbed and dried his shoes, and stood +hesitating at the door with some tool or other, or the tail of a block +in his hand, before he went in. What he might think of his married life +there was little opportunity of seeing in his face. One thing was +certain--a wife like Mrs. Holman was a treasure, which could not be +sufficiently prized; and if there was not quite so much left of Holman, +if, in fact, he had become--with all reverence be it said--something of +a fool, yet every one was sensible that in that union it must be so, if +the balance was to be kept. Any one who had only seen or spoken to Mrs. +Holman once, understood it immediately, but what was not so easy to +understand was that, after all, it was Holman who made the blocks down +in the workshop, by which the household lived. + +It was still more remarkable that he had sometimes been met in the +gateway in an irresponsible condition, such as no one would have +expected in a man so happily married as he was. + +After the miracle of Mrs. Holman's having a little girl herself had +happened--after that great and important change in the household, it was +deliberated whether it would not be better to rid the room of other +people's progeny. But then it was good regular money to have, and in +time the boy could be made use of at the cradle. + +It was the lightest work in the world--just made for a little boy, +sitting and rocking the cradle with his foot--nothing but a little +practice for him. + +But here, too, she was to have sad experience. She left him by the +cradle went she went out, but when she came home, he would be standing +gazing out of the window or from the top of the cellar stairs at the +children playing in the square. She had even caught him right outside +with the door open behind him--it was all the same to him, as long as he +could get out of the cellar and away from his duty. + +Well, the young rogue would have to pay for it, as much as his mortal +back could bear! + +And she assured the servant upstairs, who put in her head to hear what +the little imp had done now, as he was screaming so--that all the +punishment she gave him, and all her attempts, both by letting him have +no supper and by locking him in, were equally useless: he was just as +defiant and unreliable as ever! + +She had frightened him now by saying that the devil sat in the corner +behind the bed and watched to see if he left the cradle! + +He was almost beside himself with terror, and fancied all the time that +he could see the aforesaid sinister personage putting up his head over +Mrs. Holman's pillow. He could not help looking now and again towards +the window--there was some one playing outside in the square. And, +somehow or other, he came to be standing there, and stood until he once +more remembered what was behind him. Then he darted back like an arrow, +and sat staring in mortal fear into the corner. + +From being made useful beside the cradle, Nikolai was advanced in course +of time to mind the Holman's daughter Ursula, outside the cellar steps. +To move farther, only as far as the trees over on the other side of the +street, was a capital offence. The idea of what overstepping the bounds +meant, was impressed upon him with full force. How could Mrs. Holman be +sure otherwise that he did not take Silla right up to the basin round +the fountain, where all the naughty boys played with their ships, and +shouted and made a noise? His poor little body had received so many +black and blue marks every time he had fallen into temptation that at +last the limits stood instinctively before his frightened perception +like an invisible iron grating. A foot's breadth beyond was, in his +imagination, the blackest crime, an enormity which would draw down the +fiercest retribution upon him. + +That Silla was an uncommon and remarkable being of a higher order, so to +speak, than himself, had been driven into him in so many ways ever since +she came into the world, that he looked upon the assertion as raised +above all doubt. + +Notwithstanding everything that he had endured for her sake, or perhaps, +by a strange contradiction, just because of these sufferings, the +feeling that she was under his care was most highly developed. His +admiration of her was unqualified; he thought her more than remarkable +in her blue bow and an old red stuff rose in her hat, and he submitted +to a wilfulness which was quite as despotic as even Mrs. Holman's. When +he had sat long enough and let her fill his hair with dust, she would +order him to pull off her shoes and stockings. If he did it, he got a +beating; if he did not do it, she screamed, and then he got a beating +too. + +Insecurity was, so to speak, the soil on which he lived, and the +hurried, shrinking glances he continually cast, as if from habit, +towards the cellar door--even when his often guilt-laden conscience felt +itself most guiltless--were only the fruit of daily experience. + +"You could see the bad conscience in his face, a long way off," said +Mrs. Holman; and it was true--the quick, watchful look up with the grey +eyes was to see what sins he was guilty of now. + +"Good neighbours and other good things," the catechism says. But in our +times we have no neighbours; you do not know who lives on the floor +above you or on the floor below, or even on the other side of the +passage. And so it was that no one in the house had any ear to speak of +for Nikolai's various untoward fortunes below in the cellar, although +their character often asserted itself with no uncertain sound during +their execution. + +The neighbours had become accustomed to the continual screaming and +howling of that naughty boy, just as one accustoms one's self to piano +practising or the din of a factory; perhaps too, they comforted +themselves with the thought that it was most fortunate that such a +morally depraved child had come under discipline and correction. + +When Nikolai and Silla wandered as usual up and down the pavement +outside the cellar, the people of the house might often in passing give +the little girl a friendly nod. To give Nikolai any encouragement in +that way would have been a mistake. + +Maren, the cook, who had come to the floor above last hiring-day[1], had +naturally no conception of Mrs. Holman's strict, conscientious +character, and was therefore to be excused in what now took place. + +[Footnote 1: The days for changing servants in Norway are in the spring +and autumn. In Christiania they are the second Friday after Easter, and +the second Friday after Michaelmas.] + +She went down into the cellar with the lantern one evening to fetch coal +and wood, panting and puffing down the stairs as she used to do; she had +a bend in both hips from rheumatism, and rocked from one side to the +other like a boat's mast in rough weather. + +From the wood-cellar she all at once heard a sound as of wailing in the +darkness within. It was as though some one were crying, and now and +again sobbing convulsively for some time without being able to produce a +distinct sound. + +The voice sounded so utterly broken-hearted that Maren stopped putting +the wood into her apron and stood by the chopping-block listening. It +seemed to come from one of the coal cellars up the dark passage. At last +she seized the lantern and groped her way in; she must come to the +bottom of this. + +"Is any one here?" she cried at the door whence the sobbing came. + +There was a sudden complete silence. + +She knocked hard with a bit of wood, but then from within there came a +terrified scream, which made Maren drop the wood from her apron and pull +open the hasp of the door which was fastened with a piece of wood. + +"But who has put the poor little boy in here--in the pitch black +darkness?" + +By the light of the lantern she saw Nikolai staring at her in wild +terror. + +"I thought it was the devil, I did. Yes, for he does knock on the wall." + +"Oh, you'd frighten any one out of their senses, boy, with those ugly +words!" + +"Mrs. Holman says so;" and with a quick, inquiring glance up at Maren he +added, "but do you think she only says it so that I shan't touch her +sugar?" + +"Is that what you are here for?" + +"I haven't taken anything from her, but I will, if she says it whether I +do or not! It was only that Monday when I put my tongue down into the +bag and licked when I'd gone for half a pound. But now I'll crunch it so +that she'll only have the empty bag left! I'll take! I'll steal!" he +added and ground his teeth. "Don't--don't go!" he sobbed, catching hold +of her dress, "for when it's dark again, he'll come and take me!" + +What was Maren to do? She stood hesitating and considering; she dare not +let the boy out. + +She might try and beg him off from Mrs. Holman. + +"Only get me another beating for that, too!" was the answer. + +There was nothing else for it; she could not let the poor little +frightened thing stay there in the coal-hole. So, with eyes closed to +the consequences of her own determination, she exclaimed: "Then you must +come up into the kitchen with me, and sleep on the bench there +to-night." + +This time, Nikolai did not weigh the probabilities of what Mrs. Holman +would say or do; he only took hold of her skirt with both hands. And +with the boy close in her wake, Maren sailed up the kitchen stairs +again. + +While she was looking out some of her old shawls and skirts to put under +him, taking some of the clothes from her own bed, and making it as +comfortable and warm as she could for him on the bench, Nikolai seemed +to have forgotten all his troubles. + +There was so much that was new up here. There were such a number of +shining tin things hanging all over the wall, and then the cat was an +old friend. He had seen it many a time down in the yard, and now he had +to squeeze himself together to get hold of it, it had crept so far under +the bed. + +There! He had knocked down the tin kettle with his back! + +He fled in terror to the door. But Maren picked it up quite quietly; +there was not a word of scolding, a thing he wondered more at than +either the tin things or the cat. + +Maren had at last fallen asleep after all the aching and pain of the +rheumatism in her weary joints, with which she always had to contend at +the beginning of the night. She was awakened by a wild shriek. + +"What is it--what is it, Nikolai? Nikolai!" + +She lighted the bit of candle. He was sitting up, fencing with his arms. + +"I thought they were going to take my head off," he explained, when he +at length collected himself. + +When she lay down again, Maren could not help thinking how glad she was +that she had no child to be responsible for. Every one has his trouble, +and now she had this rheumatism. + +But it was a shock to her, when, on the kitchen stairs next morning, in +the presence of the servants both from the other side of the passage and +from the first floor, Mrs. Holman called her to account for having +interfered in what was none of her business. She then received such full +information, once for all, both as to why Mrs. Holman had shut him in, +and what they had to go through daily with that boy, that Maren was +completely nonplussed. For this Mrs. Holman could stake her life upon, +that if there was any one in the house who could not stand disorder or +unseemly behaviour, it was she. She could not imagine a worse punishment +than to have it said of her that she allowed shame and depravity to +flourish in her sight. + +But when Maren sat down there in the evening by the lantern on the +chopping-block, and could hear the boy screaming right from the Holmans' +room, she was not capable of going upstairs until the worst was over. +She thought she had never heard anything so heart-rending, even though +it was in the cause of justice. + +Up with Maren was a kind of harbour of refuge for the boy. He would sit +there as quiet as a mouse in the corner by the wood-box, carving himself +boats, which he put under his blouse when he carried Holman's dinner +down to the workshop near the quay. + +To represent, however, that Nikolai's existence was passed, so to speak, +in the coal-cellar, or under blows on back and ear from Mrs. Holman's +warm hands, would be an exaggeration. He had also his palmy days, when +Mrs. Holman overflowed with words of praise--praise, if not exactly of +him, yet of everything that she had accomplished in her daily toil for +his moral improvement. + +Twice a year she had to call for the payment for him at the +Consul-General's office in the town. Nikolai, too, often had leave to go +out to the country house with the kitchen cart, which had come in to +make the morning purchases. + +And there he would sit, while the cart rumbled and jolted along the +road, smart and clean, head and body respectively combed and scoured +like a copper kettle that has been cleaned with sand and lye. He could +not sit still a minute; he talked and asked questions--always about the +horse, the wonderful brown horse--whether it was the best or the second +best, if it could go faster than the railway train, or who and what it +could beat. + +Then the cart turned--so much too soon--into the yard in front of the +kitchen door, and he was led through the passage by the man-servant to +the nursery. + +"I hope you have rubbed your shoes? You might have had the sense, Lars, +not to bring the boy in that way, with such shoes as those!" His mother +took him and set him on a chair. + +And then he was given bread-and-butter and cracknels and milk. But he +must wait now until she came in again, for she was busy to-day washing +Lizzie's and Ludvig's clothes. + +In rushed the aforesaid children, his equals in point of age; the one +was drawing a large saddled horse after him, the other was carrying two +large, dressed dolls. They had been sent out by their mother to play +with Nikolai. And they were soon in full gallop round the nursery. +Gee-up! gee-up!--Nikolai drew, and Ludvig rode--hi! gee-up! And at last +Nikolai wanted to ride too; he had been drawing for such a long time. +But Ludvig would not get down, so Nikolai dropped the bridle and pulled +him off the horse by one leg. + +"You ragged boy! How dare you?" + +"Ragged boy! Ragged boy yourself!" It ended with a fling up on to the +bed, behind which Ludvig entrenched himself howling, while his sister +took his part and joined in. + +"What is the matter, what is the matter, dears?" cried Barbara, hurrying +in. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Nikolai, behaving like that to the +Consul's children! You'd better try it on! There Ludvig--there, there, +Lizzie--he shan't hurt you! Just do what they want, do you hear, +Nikolai!" + +And then Barbara had to lament over Ludvig's starched collar, which had +got crumpled. + +"Come here, my precious boy. Come now, and then you shall play again +directly." + +She took him up on her knee. "It's my own precious boy, it is, who's so +good! There, hold his blouse, Nikolai, and you shall see such a fine +boy, and so good, so good!" + +"Show him my Sunday clothes, Barbara, and the patent leather shoes!" And +Nikolai was allowed to look into the drawers at all Ludvig's and +Lizzie's dresses and sashes and fine underclothes, and to peep into the +toy-cupboard to be bewildered by all the old drums and trumpets and +headless men and horses, and tin soldiers, and Noah's arks, with their +belongings, all of which, Barbara said, they had been given because they +were so good. + +There was a pile of things in the lower part of the cupboard, so that +Nikolai could understand that they must have been very, very good, and +that his mother, too--and at this he felt a bitter disappointment--must, +in return, be very, very fond of them. They must be very different +children to what he was, if they never deserved a whipping, but always +playthings. He became quite tired and downcast, as he stood there. If he +ever met Ludvig anywhere, he would pay him out about the horse. + +At last the hour of departure arrived, when he was to go with the +pony-carriage that fetched the Consul from town at three o'clock. The +two children both clung to his mother's skirt when she followed him out. + +"Good-bye, Nikolai!" and she patted him in such a way on the cheek and +head that he looked at her half doubtingly, "and give my respects to +Holman and Mrs. Holman. Do you hear? Whatever you do, don't forget Mrs. +Holman. And--I declare you're kicking the varnish now! You must sit +quite still, Nikolai, the whole way. Don't you know that you mustn't +come near those fine carriage-cushions with your boots? You should just +see how nicely Ludvig and Lizzie sit, when they go for a drive--don't +you, dears?" + +And off he set. + +It had indeed been a gala day, and he had been given a large, sugared +twist to take with him, and it tasted delicious; but somehow or other he +began to cry all at once on the way home. + +The next day he had full confirmation of how delightful it had been. + +While he was going up and down the pavement in his daily occupation of +taking care of Silla, he caught fragments of Mrs. Holman's remarks to +the housekeeper up stairs, as they stood under the archway; he never for +a moment lost sight of her tall figure. + +"You may well say so, Miss Damm. Take him into the room with their own +children; there aren't many grand folks that would have done such an +honour to one like him." ... "We must do so many things in this world, +Miss Damm--we must scour the boards over the gutter, so to speak, and +put up with them--and I don't mind saying that he showed that he was +well cared-for from top to toe." ... "Such an honour! It might have been +some respectable child they had asked there. He ought to remember it the +whole of his life!" ... "So grand as she is now, she doesn't much care +about coming out here and acknowledging the boy. It's nothing for those +that can pay to get rid of their shame!" + +Nikolai crushed with all his might an old decapitated cock's head, which +lay in the gutter, with the heel of his boot, until it was as flat as a +penny. + +When the terror of bogies and the devil in the coal-cellar had lost its +power, one of Mrs. Holman's most powerful means of keeping Nikolai in +order was a threat of sending him to the parish school--an institution +which stood before her imagination as a publicly authorised house of +correction for youth, and a daily training-ground in the fulfilment of +one's duty. + +He never obtained any very clear idea of what would happen when he went +to school; but that it was something quite indeterminably dreadful was +evident from the constantly renewed disguised hints, and the repressed, +mystical groans and nods by which they were accompanied. + +One day the threat was really carried out: he was to go next Monday +morning. + +Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he counted on his fingers--he had +all those days left. And how he took care of and played with Silla +during them, and darted on errands like an arrow! + +At last there was only the Sunday afternoon left. + +He sat at tea-time with Silla and tried to take comfort from her +opinions about school, heard that he was to have his Sunday clothes on +to-morrow too, because it was the first time, and fell asleep that night +with drops of perspiration on his forehead. + +In the morning Nikolai was not to be found. + +Mrs. Holman inquired, and sought, and called, promising liberally both +torments and pardon if he would only come at once; but it was all of no +use, he had vanished. + +After dinner Maren upstairs was startled by seeing him emerge from under +her bed. She gave him some food and asked him to promise to go home; and +Nikolai said he would, only not before it was dark. + +In the twilight he made an excursion down to the quay, where he amused +himself for an hour by sitting and rocking in a ship's boat; then in the +wet October darkness he slunk through the narrow, dripping passages +between the warehouses, until he was sure that there was no longer any +light on the square, and spent the rest of the evening lying peeping +over the paling at the light in the two cellar windows at home. He +noticed how Holman came slinking cautiously up and stood a little while +at the door before going in, and how they put Silla to bed. The light +from the windows told him, like two dimly-glaring, merciless eyes, that +if he came home now, the well-merited sentence of justice would most +certainly be carried out. + +Then the light was put out. + +Through the drizzling rain late that night the gleam of a lantern +glanced among the stacks of wet planks, and behind it was a pair of eyes +which were accustomed to look in the dark for all kinds of persons who +might think fit to hide themselves in the yard. The lantern wandered +about among the narrow rows, sometimes standing still, while it threw +its searching, reddish light as far as possible in between the planks. + +No one was discovered that night. Among the many square spaces which +could give shelter, Nikolai, with a certain inborn instinct, had chosen +the foremost and most unsuspicious looking one, which stood half built +with a sloping plank-roof over it. There he lay wedged into the farthest +corner, close wrapped in the happy Nirvana of self-forgetfulness--school +zero, and Mrs. Holman a cipher--his body bent down over his knees, his +coat pulled up about his neck to keep out the drips, and his boots down +in the wet mud. + +But that night under the wet sky, with Trondsen's planks for his +bed-posts, brought something new into his mind, a feeling--showing +certainly the greatest insensibility to all Mrs. Holman's solicitous +care--that the timber-yard was really his home, a certain independent, +free savage's consciousness in relation to everything that they might +afterwards think fit to screw him into, the school no less than Mrs. +Holman's cellar steps; the planks in the timber-yard shone so white in +bright weather, and when it grew dark, they stood there like his +oft-tried, secret friends, who could screen him from the terrors at +home. + +He was taken to school, however, and one of his first timid, inquiring +glances was to discover the thrashing-block with which Mrs. Holman had +threatened him. He had pictured it to himself giving blow after blow +with a rod, and beating incessantly, like the chicory factory at the +bottom of the square. + +Strangely enough there was no such block. But there were other things +into which he was to be squeezed and forced like a last into a boot; and +he was a hard last, which often would not go farther than the leg, and +had to be hammered and knocked the rest of the way, where others more +pliable glided smoothly down like eels. + +There were things he understood, and things he did not understand. The +former did not often happen to be explained to him, the latter he did +not understand however many explanations were given; the result was a +painful consciousness, a continual difference or falling short both in +relation to his lessons and his teachers, which had to be adjusted by +the cane and detention, while the majority of his schoolmates, in this +particular also, more supple, worked themselves out like true virtuosi. + +But what was even a whole day at school, with its full measure of +misfortunes, in comparison to the endlessly long, dull hours of the +evening, when Mrs. Holman, with her own eyes, "watched over him, to see +that he learnt his lessons," and he hardly dared so much as to glance +across at Silla. + +As to Holman, experience had taught them that his fixed and staring eyes +saw nothing: he sat mute and quiet the whole evening. In Mrs. Selvig's +tap-room he found a remedy which made him insensible to moral lectures +even the most reasonable and impressive. There he stood every evening a +quarter of an hour after working-hours, as regular as clockwork, and +when the hands of the clock drew near to eight, he just as regularly set +off homewards, a punctuality which, be it said in passing, had gained +for him in the tap-room the title of _General with order_. + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + +That was a dangerous corner, where the wide street leading to the +grammar school crossed the narrow one that led to the board school; and, +on the days when the afternoon hours for the latter began just when the +grammar school's long morning was over, it might happen that the free, +exuberant spirits of those who were leaving school came into collision +with the heavier and more bitter mood of those who were on their way to +it. + +Ludvig Veyergang, with his sealskin satchel on his back, had already +travelled this road for several years. He had been nicknamed the +Ostrich, because of his little head with the bird-like nose, his long +bare neck, and the way he walked. When he met Nikolai, he pretended not +to know him, and Nikolai whistled and clattered with his shoes on the +pavement. + +The board school's new slide ran along the gutter a good way out into +the grammar school street. It was the product of the joint work of many +for a whole week, and fate willed that Nikolai, at the head of a string +of comrades, should come full speed down it, hallooing and shouting, +just as Ludvig Veyergang and a few others came round the corner. Young +Veyergang received a push that made him drop his pencil-case; and pens, +lead and slate pencils lay strewn over the ground. + +"Pick them up, you beggar!" he cried to Nikolai, for it was he who had +knocked up against him. "I shall tell about you at home, you may be +pretty sure. Pick them up, or--" + +A kick sent a few loose lumps of snow in answer. + +"You shall be made to bend soon enough, if that's what you want. Father +shall be told, this very day, that you are the leader of the street cads +in the town; and if no one else will tell your mother about it, I'll +tell her myself, however much she cries!" + +"Do you want to have your ostrich-beak pulled?" + +"You'd better try it on! Perhaps you don't know that we pay for you at +the blockmaker's. But I'll take care that you get thrashed until you beg +my pardon: a fellow who doesn't even know who his father is, and his +mother only wishes he had never been born!" + +The last words were hardly out of his mouth when Nikolai sprang upon him +with both fists like a pair of sledge-hammers, and for a few blissful +seconds hammered out every trace of difference in birth and position. +Now he should feel "both his father and his mother!" + +It was one of the board school's memorable and famous days, when the +wine was tapped from Ludvig Veyergang's nose in the snow; and even the +next day at dinner-time, two or three school classes of interested +spectators were searching for traces of red spots in the snow by the +lamp-post. + +But, though he enjoyed great honour and admiration during the whole +afternoon at school, Nikolai knew that at home he would meet with an +utterly different interpretation of the event, news of which the Holmans +must already have received, surely and promptly, from the Veyergangs. + +As he neared home, he went slower and slower. The thought of what might +await him, made his feet grow heavier and heavier, and when he had +separated from his last companion, he suddenly stopped and turned down +by the chandler's, where the street led away from, and not towards his +home. + + * * * * * + +It was now the third night Nikolai had been away, explained Mrs. Holman +to the policeman outside; and it was not much wonder if he expected the +reward he deserved, and felt his back smart. Lay hands on better +people's children! And the son of Consul Veyergang, his own benefactor, +too! + +But where could he be? He could not possibly be in the timber-yard now, +at this time of year. + +His stronghold was not easy to hit upon either, for it was something +very like looking in her own pocket. In common with other evil-doers, +Nikolai was driven by an irresistible desire--like moths that flutter +round a candle--to hide himself as near as possible to the place of his +fear and dread, where Mrs. Holman was, and where he could catch a +glimpse of Silla. + +Holman lay at night and felt, through his intoxication, that things were +going wrong with Nikolai. He heard it dripping and dripping in the thaw +outside--splash, splash! The sound came in a monotonous chant: +Ni-ko-lai, Ni-ko-lai. + +He would ruin his health out there! + +With sudden energy he sat up in bed. Where else would Nikolai be than +under the old carriage hood that stood in the loft over the coach-house, +mouldy and dropping to pieces with its opening towards the wall? + +It was in the light of this idea that he rushed out. + +Nikolai never felt the blockmaker's hand; he still slept on happily, as +it lifted him up by the coat collar. + +It was only when he stood erect on both feet that he grasped the +situation, and threw himself down again, kicking and screaming. He would +not go home, they might kill him first, or take off his head! + +The heels of his boots made it evident both to sight and feeling that he +meant it: he was utterly beside himself. + +Only let Holman get him inside the door, and the strap should dance! +Holman had worked himself up into a state of excitement. + +Mrs. Holman was waiting in the doorway with a candle. By its light she +saw an ashy pale face, with eyes staring at her, and at the same time +heard the words: "You won't get me in! If I was born in the street, I +can live in the street!" She caught a glance from the sharp, defiant +grey eyes--then out of the blockmaker's hands, out of the gate, and he +was gone! + +The blows on Ludvig's nose had gone to Barbara's heart. But when she +heard that Nikolai had run away from the Holmans' and that there was +some talk of getting him into an institute for morally depraved +children, there was crying and weeping. She had had shame enough with +the boy, and this she could not survive! Her mistress must prevent it. +She was conscious of having done her duty and more than her duty all +these years that she had been Ludvig and Lizzie's nurse, but she could +not put up with this! Her mistress must prevent it, or she did not know +what she might do, or what might happen: she felt quite capable of +leaving them. + +Barbara sat sighing and weeping in the nursery, until the children were +almost afraid to go in. + +Such attacks generally lasted, at the most, one day; but this one had +now been going on for three, and was disturbing the comfort of the +house. Then Mrs. Veyergang got one of her headaches, and was going to +have an afternoon nap, her accustomed cure, during which everything must +be kept perfectly quiet around her. + +It was Barbara who generally guarded her slumbers by going hushing and +quieting right out into the kitchen, and keeping watch at the door into +the passage. But now she only sat in her room sobbing. + +It did surprise her a little that her mistress lay so quiet all the time +without calling her. On the other hand, she rather enjoyed the sentence +she was carrying out. Her mistress should know what opposing her meant, +even if it were to last the whole week. + +It grew dark, and still her mistress lay there. She lay until the Consul +came driving home towards evening; and she did not even ring for lights +when she got up. + +It was with a shawl about her head and a face red with weeping, that +Mrs. Veyergang received her husband that evening; she was in a violently +excited state of mind, and her voice quite trembled. + +She wanted nothing less than that he should give Barbara warning. + +A tyranny existed in the house that was quite unparalleled--had existed +for several years--and if she had put up with it without +complaining--her husband knew that she had never complained--it was for +the children's sake. But it was really unnecessary now, and "it may be +just as well to seize the opportunity; she has become far, far too +overbearing in the house!" + +It was a matter of course that the warning was given in the most +appreciative and considerate, although firmly decisive manner. The whole +circle of Mrs. Veyergang's acquaintance agreed that they had all +expected that the Veyergangs would really one day part with that +pampered creature! + +The only person who was thoroughly astonished and quite stunned, as if +by a thunder-clap, was Barbara herself; and for a long time she could +not understand that she, the Veyergangs' Barbara, had actually received +warning to leave Ludvig and Lizzie and the house where she had been so +indispensable. + +She went about with a solemn, injured air, and expected that a change of +decision would some day take place. Then she became humble to her +mistress, and wept before the children. + +But there was always only the same kindness, which ever clenched the +dismissal more firmly. + +And now her mistress began to talk about a substantial acknowledgement +of her services with which the Consul would present her on her +departure. + +In indignation Barbara tied the strings of her best bonnet beneath her +chin, and with offended dignity requested permission to go into town. + +Her mistress was to know the meaning of this when she returned later in +the day. It was nothing less than that it was her fixed, resolute +purpose to offer herself to others who would appreciate her better than +the Veyergangs did. + +She directed her wrathful steps straight to Scheele, the magistrate's +house: they had four children, and were looking for a nurse. They were +the Consul's most intimate friends, where she would only need to present +herself, and they would jump at the opportunity. How often the +magistrate's wife had praised her management, and talked condescendingly +to her, when they had dined at the Veyergangs on Sundays! She had more +than once thought Mrs. Veyergang fortunate in having such a treasure in +the house, and sighed over her own inability to find just such another. + +But--how unfortunate it was--Mrs. Scheele was extremely sorry--they had +just engaged another nurse! + +"Fancy!" exclaimed Mrs. Scheele, when her husband came down from his +office, "there is a revolution at the Veyergangs', and that high and +mighty Nurse Barbara has got her dismissal. She has been here and +offered herself to us. I wouldn't have that pampered creature at any +price!" + +Barbara walked a long way that day and to the best houses. On a large +sheet of paper, folded in three, she had the Consul-General's long and +excellent testimonial to exhibit; moreover she was fully conscious of +the extent to which she was known. But though she stood so large and +erect and smart at the door, and comported herself so well, there was no +one who could make any use of her! + +And late in the evening, later than was needful, as she did not wish to +show herself, she came home again, disappointed and weary. + +It really seemed as if all the celebrity she had acquired during all +these years, all her fidelity, all her prestige as nurse at the +Veyergangs, was to vanish at one stroke into thin air! + +Deeply hurt as she was after her unlucky expedition, it was remarkable +that no one in the house asked her how she had got on--though there were +plenty of mischievous glances from her fellow-servants, whose standing +with their mistress had depended for so many years upon her. And +whenever she tried to broach the subject with Mrs. Veyergang, the latter +always turned the conversation--indeed, once she even dismissed the +subject, saying that Barbara must know that she never meddled with such +things. + +But the kindness increased as the day of her departure approached. +Barbara began to perceive how this screw of kindness, that turned so +gently, was screwing her farther and farther out of the house. The +Consul had Nikolai placed on trial as apprentice in a smithy down by the +crane, and from Mrs. Veyergang she received one thing after another, as +remembrances. But when, one day, the Consul--very thoughtfully--made her +a present of one of his old travelling trunks, she let her large, heavy +person sink down upon its lid, completely overwhelmed. She could not +bring herself to think, had never believed, that the day would come when +she must part from her mistress and Ludvig and Lizzie--it would kill +her! + +This was a direct appeal to the Consul himself, but the answer was not +exactly as Barbara wished. He patted her on the shoulder, saying: + +"I'm glad, my dear Barbara, that you feel that you have been well off." + +When she went into the Consul's office for a settlement and to receive +her savings-bank book--the amount it contained was a hundred and +fourteen specie-dollars, a result, the Consul said, with which she ought +to be thoroughly satisfied, when she considered the great expense she +had been put to with Nikolai--she declared her intention of resting for +a time before she went out to service again, and had made arrangements +to lodge with a farmer out in the country: she had now been toiling for +others for fourteen years! + +The last evening, which she had dreaded so, went more easily than she +had expected. The Consul and his wife were invited to the Willocks' +country-house in the afternoon with the children, so the farewell could +only be a short one, before they got into the carriage. + +She was left standing with the feeling of Lizzie's soft fur, which she +had stroked, in her fingers. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A STOLEN INTERVIEW + + +Holman made his usual turn into Selvig's public-house every evening to +brace himself for his return home. When the ale-bottle had been emptied, +and a proper number of drams consumed, his at first hurried, restless +look was stiffened into a dull, staring, fixed mask. It was the crust +about his heart, far within the unconscious, degraded man, who enjoyed +his daily hour of oblivion to that life-struggle which he had taken upon +himself when he chose to unite his lot inseparably with that of his +duty-breathing wife, that life-struggle in which he continually declared +"pass," and turned aside. When he sat there silently staring over his +glass, it was felt that he was brooding over something, possibly only +the number of drams he had drunk, possibly his bill, possibly, too, a +remote world of thought, where, like a philosopher, he gazed silently +down into unfathomable depths. Or possibly he was musing in silent +resignation upon the problem of matrimony, and the strange law of +consequence which had set him down here in the public-house. + +But regularity in all things, said Holman, and when the clock struck +eight, with his tools in his hand and his head bent, he turned his +faltering steps homewards. + +On Saturday evenings, when work was over at the workshop, a tall, active +young girl, with large wrists, thin arms and a stooping figure, would +often come down to fetch him. She had a basket, and a piece of paper on +which was written what she was to buy with the week's wages. + +The two would then go up the street together, walking slower and slower +as they went. Time after time he would stop, and look thoughtfully about +him with one hand in his pocket, and an occasionally ejaculated "H'm, +h'm!"--until they arrived at Mrs. Selvig's steps and green door, when he +would suddenly declare that he had some "things" lying in there: he +would be out again directly. + +Silla knew by experience what "directly" meant, and meanwhile went her +own way over the yards. + +Through the lovely August evening, one troop of workmen after another +came over the bridge near the mouth of the river, several of them with +the same sort of escort as her father, of wife or child. It was so usual +and its meaning so self-evident, that no one ever gave it a thought. + +While the different gates and yards were emitting their streams of +workmen, Silla had approached one of the narrow passages with which the +loading places are furrowed. On each side was a wooden hoarding, and +there were stacks of timber within. The irregularly cut up, black muddy +roadway led into a forge and implement yard. + +Just at the corner lay a heap of rubbish, full of broken bottles and +pottery. She stood there with her basket, every now and then taking a +step backwards, up the heap, to make room for passers-by. In this way +she gained the top of the heap, and could see over the hoarding into the +yard. + +They were still busy receiving wages in there in a crowd round a little +shed which did duty as an office. + +With outstretched neck, and her two shining dark eyes turned almost like +a bird's, she stood and looked eagerly in. There was no mistake about +her object. + +"Well, lass! are you looking for your sweetheart?" said a voice below. + +But, as she at that moment caught sight of Nikolai, and he signalled to +her, she took no notice of the voice, and waved her basket vigorously. + +He came out down the passage, unwashed and sooty, straight from his +work. + +"He's gone now!" + +"Who?" + +"He had red hair, and had on blue braces and a sailmaker's cap. I think +it was the man from Groenlien they call Ottersnake; and he accused me of +standing here and looking for my sweetheart!" + +"I'll sweetheart him! If I only get hold of him, I'll hammer him into +nails! And then I'll pull his red hair to oakum, so that his father will +only need to put it into the pitch-kettle!" + +He looked about; but as the Ottersnake, who was doomed to so cruel and +terrible a fate, was nowhere to be seen, his wrath suddenly subsided, +and with an upward movement of the head, he proposed: + +"Baker Ring's, Silla?" + +He had his week's wages in his pocket, so they made a short cut through +two or three muddy back yards, which had planks laid down across the +worst places, up to the baker's shop. + +Oh, how they bought, and how they did eat! + +There were some specially delicious expensive cakes with jam inside. And +it was the two collars, that he had thought of buying for himself next +week, that they ate up! + +With a great feeling of his own importance Nikolai related how he had +now forged six large iron hooks with links to them; and she must not +imagine that they wanted nothing but hammering--no, they had to be +hammered out and beaten and bent at the right time! Down there they only +made stakes and picks and tires; but he meant to be either a locksmith +or a brazier. + +This did not interest Silla very much; she wanted to hear about the +picnic on Sunday, when he had gone to the woods with the journeymen. It +must have been awfully jolly! And didn't they dance too? + +"I should just think they did. Anders Berg is a capital fellow; he's +going to set up for himself in Svelvig soon, and get married." + +"And were the others engaged, too?" + +"Pshaw!" + +"Well?" + +"Pooh!" + +"What's the matter with you? Can't you tell me?" + +"Why, it's nothing--only nonsense! There's not one of them that'll make +a smith's wife--creatures that have larks now with one fellow and now +with another?" + +"And did you dance?" + +"Oh, the 'prentices have only to run after beer; but when I'm a +journeyman--but, Silla, the time--we must hurry!" he broke off suddenly. + +"Oh, it's not late yet. One more nice one with jam--do go in and buy it! +Oh, do, Nikolai!" she begged, and as he ran in to get what she wanted, +she called after him: + +"And some sweets to eat on the way home--some of those at four for a +halfpenny." + +"Can't you eat it as you go along, Silla?" he urged, when he came out +again; "you must make haste! Just think if she heard at home that you +had been with me." + +"Pooh, there's no hurry," and she leaned against the wall, and regaled +herself--"for you see," she mumbled, "father won't be out of Mrs. +Selvig's yet a-while, and I'll say first of all that _that_ has kept me: +I can reckon at least half an hour for that. And then to mother I have +the excuse that it's Saturday evening, and there were so many people in +the shop that I could hardly get to the counter. And when I won't have +any supper, you know, I'll only say I've got such a headache with +standing and waiting in the shop: it was so stifling in there. I think +mother's nose would be very fine, if she could guess that I had met you. +Well, what are you looking so solemn about?" + +"She at home"--he never named her mother in any other fashion--"forces +you into lies every single day; no one has a right to speak the truth +but her!" + +"Oh!" she tossed her head impatiently; she had heard this so often. + +"She eats up all the honesty in the room by herself, you know, for it's +quite impossible to act honestly by her, for very terror. She keeps +discipline, and much or little, it's all the same. Any one who wants to +speak the truth without using his fists to back it up will get thrashed +as I did! It doesn't matter for me; but when I think of you going home +and making up all those lies again, and that you are so frightened, and +haven't the strength to stand against them, Silla!" + +She tried to laugh and make light of it; but her face fell sadly. She +could not bear this unpleasant subject, for she was obliged to tell +lies, however angry he might be. + +And then she suddenly began to hurry. + +"No, no, we must go home, Nikolai. I daren't stand here any longer." + +Nikolai was starting off, but stopped suddenly at sight of Silla's +dismayed countenance. She had turned her pocket inside out, and stood +holding it while she gazed and searched on the ground round her. Then, +in feverish haste, she unfastened her bodice, and searched there. + +"The money! Oh, the money, Nikolai!" she cried anxiously, and went on +shaking her skirt and looking about her, almost beside herself. "The +silver was wrapped up in the two dollar notes, just as father gave them +to me, and I put them into my pocket at once." + +"What _shall_ I do, Nikolai?" She began to cry, but all at once, with a +sudden thought, she flew to the basket. But it was not there. + +They searched and searched. + +Of course it must be at the corner by the rubbish-heap, for she had +stood there and waved her basket. It would be lying among the broken +bottles. + +The pale, thin rim of the autumn moon had risen over the yards while +they were searching there step by step, Silla every now and then +uttering a despondent, monotonous "Suppose I don't find it!" and Nikolai +plunging his arm up to the elbow into puddles in which the roll of money +might have fallen. + +They had been by the bridge, they had searched the rubbish-heap, they +had looked up and down and everywhere; it was not to be found. + +It was beginning to be late, and Mrs. Holman was waiting at home. She +would be really waiting now. + +Silla began to cry. + +Nikolai had only asked her once or twice to be quiet, and he would find +the money. Now he suddenly said: + +"I should like to give you another good feed of cakes to-day, and then +throw myself into the sea with you, Silla. It would be no lie that we +lay there." + +Whether his proposition was meant seriously or not, it did not gain a +hearing with her. She sat hopeless and despairing on a log while the big +tears ran down her cheeks. + +The seventeen-year-old workshop apprentice stood thoughtfully, with his +flat cap pushed back over his rough hair, blackened by the week's work. +He was gazing intently into an old rotten hole in the log. The hole +became more and more rotten, more and more hollow, more and more empty +while his busy thoughts were trying to find an expedient. But none came. + +Fully aware of her fate, Silla rose, took her basket, and started +homewards with her eyes fixed on the ground. She was going to the +scaffold. Nikolai accompanied her as far as he dared, reiterating in +different ways: "Don't be afraid, Silla, they can't kill you!" + +Something like a low wail said that she heard him. + +When she disappeared round the corner, he made a short cut which only he +and one or two old yard cats knew of; and from the hoarding at the +bottom of the square he saw her go, with bent head and the same quiet +step, without stopping, down the cellar stairs. + +When it was dark, he stood outside the window and listened. He heard her +still sobbing quietly, after the storm that had passed over her. + +Mrs. Holman had examined and cross-examined, and at last extracted from +Silla the confession that she had been with Nikolai. That she, Mrs. +Holman's daughter, in spite of all prohibitions, sought the society of +that misled prodigal, who had rewarded her with such ingratitude, was +enough to bring her to her grave. And no one would persuade her either +that Holman's hardly-earned week's wages could vanish like steam from a +kettle. A half-starved apprentice-boy, walking beside a well-filled +pocket--any one could understand what the result of that would be. +Master Nikolai had only carefully and craftily watched his time, when he +knew that Silla had her father's money in her pocket, to get it shuffled +into his own. + +Matters were not improved by Silla in her obstinacy declaring that he +had not so much as seen the money--as if Nikolai would take a farthing +from _her_! + +This last remark sealed his fate--there should be no concealment of his +conduct on Mrs. Holman's part. + +There was a commotion in the forge-yard, when the nest day a +police-officer came and arrested Nikolai. He was to be taken to the +police-station for having defrauded a young girl on Saturday evening of +the whole of her father's week's wages. + +But when they were gone, Anders Berg swore, as he brought the +sledge-hammer down on the anvil, that that Nikolai had never done. The +others--Jan Peter, and Katrinus, and Bernt Johan Jakobsen and Petter +Evensen--they thought nothing; but to bring the police into a +respectable work-yard! He had better get work in some other place after +this! + +For the first moment Nikolai had only one sensation--the paralysing fear +by which a first acquaintance with the police is always accompanied. The +feeling that he had a good conscience did indeed leap up within him, but +only to die away again immediately. He had so often had that, and it had +always proved to be too thin a sheet of ice to stand upon in the hour of +trial. That kind of self-esteem was a plant which had too often been +trodden under Mrs. Holman's heel to be able to bloom now as a fragrant, +full-blown flower within him. + +The outcome of his reflections was a sudden twist and a violent jerk, by +which he hoped to escape from his inconvenient companion, the sole +result, however, being that he immediately had a constable at each arm. + +When brought up for examination before the police superintendent, a +dark, unwilling defiance glowed in his face, and the sharp glance--too +sharp for a lad of his age--did not prepossess any one in his favour. + +Silla? He had not been with any Silla on Saturday. + +It would never occur to him to betray her, and it was only when he was +confronted with her and her mother, and heard that she had confessed, +that he admitted it. + +Silla continued to maintain, in a voice choked with tears, that he had +not taken the money, but this proved nothing either for or against him. +On the other hand what had more weight were the facts that had been +elucidated on ransacking and examining the room in which he lodged--he +lived in a garret at glazier Olsen's with three other apprentices--for +they all agreed in saying that on the Saturday in question he had come +home late, after they were asleep, and had gone out again very early on +the Sunday morning. + +The assertion of the accused that this was to renew the search for the +lost money down by the yard did not seem very credible. But it was +impossible to get any nearer to him. + +A hardened young rascal. This was his foster-mother's testimony too. + +Nikolai stood with his cap in his hand, looking down at the floor. He +had a habit of drawing the skin of his forehead up and down when he was +meditating. In the broad, young face with the large features, the grey +eyes into which there sometimes came a peculiar look, and the cock's +comb, of a tinge between zinc and copper, the police inspector's +penetrating and--after many year's practice--not easily deceived eye saw +the marks of one who would probably in the future often give occupation +to the police. + +"In order to exclude the possibility of conferences with the other +apprentices in his room," he dictated for the record, "considering that +the accused has manifested _mala fides_ by an attempt to escape, as well +as by his untruthful conduct and denials under examination, he will, for +the present, be placed under arrest." + +As the words of the order were read out, there were a few involuntary +contractions of the muscles in Nikolai's face, which was damp with +perspiration; there quivered in it the poor man's curse, at never having +a way of escape; a false step, and he is caught, a lost dollar, and he +comes before the court. + +After another examination Nikolai was acquitted for want of evidence. + +The morning when the prison door closed behind him, he slunk down the +street with a feeling that all the windows on both sides were looking at +him; it was anything but the gait of one who can let his honesty's sun +shine once more. + +Down at his lodging at Mrs. Olsen's he found his few things put ready in +the cupboard under the stairs to be fetched away, and a message was left +that his place in the garret was occupied by some one else. + +He did not ask why. Mrs. Olsen's silence hurt him more than if she had +cried aloud about people who drew on her "an examination and search of +the house, and other disturbances." + +And then he had to go down and show himself at the forge again--to +Haegberg the master, and Anders Berg, and the journeymen, and all the +apprentices. + +It was with uncertain steps and stopping time after time. What did +Anders Berg think, he wondered. + +In a fit of despondency he half turned. But he must do it. So he held up +his head and began to whistle. But as he neared the coal-begrimed wooden +palings of the work-yard the whistling ceased, and he was in a cold +perspiration when he entered the gate. + +Without saying a word he went to the coal-bin and began to lift some +bars of pig-iron which had to be moved aside. While he did so, no one +either greeted or spoke to him. + +Anders Berg had an iron in the furnace, and it was not until he and +another man had finished hammering it out, that he came up to Nikolai +and said: + +"I was sure you would come back again. Here's some work for you; you can +file these three keys." + +Whereupon Nikolai was placed at one of the vices, and was soon busily at +work with both coarse and fine files. + +Anders Berg's words had done him such good, had placed him at once as it +were on his feet before the whole workshop, and in his heart he made a +vow of friendship and devotion to Anders Berg for ever. + +There were showers of sparks and a ringing from the sledge-hammers in +the large smithy, and sharp blows of hammers, while the files shrieked +and whistled and set one's teeth on edge. The work went on and Nikolai +thought he had never known until to-day how splendid it was to be a +smith. He might as well do the key-bit with the fine file at once, while +the key was on that side of the vice; and he filed the notch as neatly +and smoothly as if it had been intended for a chest of drawers, and not +a great pipeless key for a wooden gate. + +Now came the handle. He worked away with the coarse file, until he could +scarcely hear the sledge-hammer for its shrieking. + +At the anvil stood a man making clincher nails, while one of the +apprentices pulled the bellows and occasionally gathered the nails +together. They were talking and laughing, and now and again some loud +exclamation penetrated to Nikolai. It was only when the boy made a +grimace at him, that it occurred to Nikolai that he was the subject of +the conversation, and instantly the large file became quite light in his +hand, and he had suddenly eyes and ears only for what was going on +around him. + +They were standing talking and nodding over there by the vices; Jan +Peter ran and repeated what this one said and what the other one said. +It was easy to see what the meaning of it all was, and that he now stood +there like any show animal; no, like something much worse--like one who +was capable of going to the pockets of any one of them! + +There was not one of the apprentices who would share his night's lodging +with him now. He could see that. + +He stood straining his ears, with a feeling that they were killing him +in all the work-yards round--they were filing him down at the vices, +hammering him flat with the small hammers, and crushing him with the +sledge-hammers. He guessed and understood glances and looks. + +"Well, you know, Matthias," he heard from away there by the nails which +the man was now gathering into his apron, "there are many easier trades +than standing in a smithy: make a good pick out of your fists, lad!" + +"He-he-he!" laughed the boy addressed. + +"Or make yourself pincers that you can get down into skirt-pockets +with--all the lassies in the town, lad, that have any pence." + +Nikolai heard every word and the hoarse laughter that followed; he was +very pale. + +Coarse merriment shone in the man's sooty face, and, as their eyes met, +he made a contemptuous grimace. + +Soon after he came past with his apron full of nails. Their eyes met +again; the scornful ones grew more scornful; Nikolai seemed to see them +in a haze, and then the journeyman received a blow full in the face +which laid him on his back, scattering the nails as he fell. + +There was a short pause of surprise before they all rushed upon him. + +But Nikolai swung the big file about him like a madman. He felt with +frenzied pleasure, how he would strike--strike down the whole smithy one +by one until justice was done him. Wait a little, he had only begun +yet--a hammer was lying on the block. + +But the men in the smithy did not wait, and the next moment it was he +who lay on his back, his eyes blinded by blue and yellow sparks, and as +many of his adversaries around and upon him as there was room for; he +should be held fast and sent about his business now--he had used a +weapon! + +He felt a powerful grasp on his coat collar, a grasp that included the +skin, felt himself dragged up and, without a pause, half carried, half +flung, out of the smithy door. + +It was Anders Berg, who had exerted his power to rescue him, and +who--still only slightly relaxing his hold--led him out of the gate. + +It was his farewell to the smithy. + +"I'll just tell you something," exclaimed Anders Berg later, when the +commotion had subsided; he was still red in the face and spoke loudly, +while he hammered cold. + +"There's come a wrong bend in Nikolai; but it isn't his fault!" + +The hammer rang on the iron. + +Nikolai did not take a lodging anywhere that evening; he was too bruised +and dirty for that, his clothes too torn and ragged, and, more than +anything else, he felt too sore to meet people now that he had left the +smithy in such a way. + +When night fell, he had once more taken up his familiar quarters in one +of the stacks of planks down at the timber-yard. There, in one of the +deep square spaces he lay and looked up at the stars and thought how +entertaining the world had become! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AMONG THE UNEMPLOYED + + +Nikolai was out of work, that was very certain. + +It never entered his head to present himself at any other smithy: they +all knew each other too well for that. And even at barge-builder +Hansen's, where he got a lodging up in the tool-loft, and his food on +the days when he got a chance of doing something useful, they wanted to +know now why he had left his trade. As if that were any business of +theirs! + +So Nikolai suddenly disappeared. + +On the quay, the harbour and the steamers, a fellow with his hands could +surely get on just as well as any other. + +It was with fresh and dauntless courage, though with a stomach not +overladen with food during the last few days, that he went down there. + +He was received with a certain appreciative admiration. He found that it +was a well-known fact that he had had an encounter with the police, and +had been sufficiently dexterous to get off without their being able to +fix anything upon him; the news of such an exploit travels like +wild-fire in that world, and spreads a halo around its subject. + +And as long as he was supposed to be only an idler, or an apprentice who +was airing himself and taking a day or two's holiday from the smithy, +the shareholders in the different businesses down there were both +agreeable and talkative. But when--and that not once only--he suddenly +turned to, and darted over the landing-stage from the steamer with a +large trunk on his back and a traveller at his heels, past the cabs up +to the hotel, they quite changed their tone. Had he a badge? Or did he +think perhaps, that it would do to take other people's business? They +knew very well what sort of a fellow he was! + +He was well aware that he could not get a badge, so he must get along as +he best could by working and toiling and fighting for an empty stomach, +and make his way by threats and with his fists, and--when it was a case +of being entrusted with a burden, or getting first hold of a trunk--by +being deaf, stone-deaf, to everything they might think of calling out +about him. + +There were ten men to every job requiring one, and, as it were, a wall +or circle drawn round every road to earning something. Some small jobs +he might now and then chance to be alone in--when the lock of a door had +slipped, or the door came off its hinges, or some kind of smithcraft was +required at a moment's notice. But he gained no more than a bare +subsistence, often only a dram or two by way of thanks. + +And now that it had been such a long winter, he was both hungry and +cold. The nights especially were so long. He often took spirits for his +supper to get them to pass. And then he had to think over what he would +try his hand at the next day--cutting the ice, work on the quay, +clearing away snow or carrying planks in the yard. + +Thinly-clad and with no overcoat, and rather red with the cold, he +clattered down in a coat that was in holes at the elbows, and his old +scarf that had taken its hue from the smithy, pulled high up about his +ears. It was not difficult to see in him the smith's apprentice. +Whenever he met any of Haegberg's men, he burst into a scornful laugh. +Did they think, perhaps, that he was slovenly clad? It was just as he +was now, that he wanted to be. He wanted to be free and have neither +master nor journeyman nor any one over him, and to care for nobody. + +If the forge-yard was one point that he preferred to keep away from, +there were also other places in the town that he made a round to +avoid--namely, that part of the quay where the blockmaker's workshop +lay, and the Holmans' house up in the square. + +Whatever the reason might be, he had no wish to meet Silla. + +The last time he had spoken to her--the day after he had left the +smithy--he noticed that she was looking about in a frightened way the +whole time, and wanted him to stand first in one place and then in +another. It could not be fear of any one at home, and then it suddenly +dawned upon him that she was ashamed that people should see her standing +and talking to him, so with a "Good-bye, Silla!" he darted from her. + +Afterwards he thoroughly enjoyed seeing her look so unhappy and so eager +to show him that she did not care what people thought. What did she care +about him, when he had nothing to treat her with? It was not fit for her +to stand talking to a fellow like him. + +There is a splendid friend and ally for every one who has thin, ragged +clothes, and that is the sun. He distributes overcoats in the shape of +warm, sunny walls, brings life and movement with him, and then there +need no longer be any uncertainty about a midday-meal. + +Nikolai had had work on the quay the whole morning, and was now +standing, in the midday rest, baking himself against the sunny wall, and +yawning. + +He stopped in the middle of a yawn. That slight figure in the faded +cotton dress, that was running with her body bent forwards, and a +handkerchief over the little, dark head, to keep off the sun--it was no +other than Silla! + +She was darting along among the baskets and traffic on the fish-quay; +there was a searching haste in her like that of a frightened corn-crake, +that turns its head now to one side now to the other as it runs. She had +caught sight of him, and now she began calling: + +"Nikolai! Nikolai! + +"Nikolai!"--she almost choked in her hurry to speak--"Nikolai, just +think! Mother, when she was unpicking my old blue dress to-day, she +found the money in the lining, inside the lining, both the notes, and +the silver too. I ran down to tell you directly I had taken father's +dinner to the workshop. And now I'm going to the smithy, and they shall +hear what they have done to you. Could you believe it! Inside the +lining! I am so awfully, awfully glad"--and her eyes did look almost +wild--You can't think what a grave face mother put on!" + +"Just tell them at home that it's all the same to me!" said he bitterly +and unmelted. But she did not notice it; she wanted to go to the smithy, +and away she went. + +He had no objection. But now that Anders Berg had set up for himself in +Svelvig, there was no one there he cared about, to hear it. For he was a +free man now! + +He stood with his hands in his trouser pockets, gazing over the edge of +the quay at a sunken sugar-loaf, which a crowd of small boys, amid noise +and clamour, were labouring to get up. It lay already half melted on the +green bottom, on which the sun drew wavy lines. + +Silla might try all she could to get him into the smithy. Since they had +tacked the word thief on to him, he had got soaked through with salt +water, just like the sugar-loaf. And besides, to stand there and slave, +when he could be his own---- + +"Hi, you boys! I'll show you how to get the sugar-loaf up, but you will +have to eat it yourselves." + + * * * * * + +The public-house--the one at Mrs. Selvig's, with the green door and +white window frames, farthest down the street--had seen Holman's quiet, +subdued, stooping figure come and go for many years. His grasp on the +door-handle was just as precise, his walk up to the brown counter after +having laid down his tools, exactly the same, though his face had a +little more colour in it. He had a certain reputation there, which had +allowed of his "chalking up" for several years past, and there was a +regular proportion of his account, about which his inexorably correct +wife had not the faintest idea--"for Holman had his weekly +pocket-money." + +And as usual on Saturday evenings, Silla was walking about outside with +the basket, waiting for him. + +She was really quite nicely dressed in her cotton gown with a little +white handkerchief tied round her neck; but clothes did not seem to set +her off. The slight, overgrown figure seemed to show through everywhere. + +She made a quick turn, when she thought she caught a glimpse of Nikolai +at the bottom of the street. She had fancied the same thing last +Saturday evening. She had not really spoken to him since early in the +summer, when he got so angry because she wanted him to go into the +smithy again. + +She went quickly down the street--she was quite certain that it was he! + +She hurried on farther, down to the bridge; but it was the same as last +time--he was not to be seen. So she turned back again, disappointed, +keeping constant watch on Mrs. Selvig's green door. She knew her father +would appear as the clock struck eight. + +She went up towards it and down again: she began to grow impatient. It +must be past the time. They were beginning to shut the shops here and +there, and if she was to get anything bought this evening, it would be +impossible to wait any longer. + +She must really go up and see whether her father were sitting there +still--whether he had not perhaps gone when she was down at the bridge: +he never mistook the time. + +She had gone up the street as far as the place where the stone pavement +began, when she saw the green door open and slam quickly to again, as a +bare-headed, half-dressed servant-girl ran out. Immediately after, a man +came out in similar haste, and through the door which he left standing +open behind him, a number of people, with and without hats, streamed out +on to the steps. + +Something was the matter! + +Now a window was also opened, or rather hammered open, so that the pane +clashed down on to the pavement. + +Probably some drunken man or other, who could not stand any longer--it +was Saturday evening, you know--and who was making a row, and must be +taken by the police. + +She had often seen such sights before, and was quite accustomed to them. +She was not anxious about her father either: he never interfered in such +matters. + +But why did he not come out? Every one else had come out. + +A faint, slanting gleam of evening light had fallen in through the empty +square of window. Her father generally sat at the table just inside; he +always kept the same place. And she went up and peered in between the +flower-pots,--some half-stifled, dirty geraniums and hydrangeas, +saturated with public-house effluvia. + +Who was that--that man who was lying on the dirty counter, with his +necktie and shirt unfastened and one arm hanging down--was it her +father? + +"If only some one had a lancet!--he moved just now--a lancet!" + +What more they said on the steps she did not notice, except that some +wanted to deny her entrance, and others again said that she was Holman's +daughter. + +She awoke, as if after a fall from a great height during which she had +lost consciousness, to find herself sitting by the counter supporting +her father's head. She thought she remembered clinging to his neck and +begging him to answer her: but there was no rattling in his throat now. + +They had placed an old, worn sofa-pillow and the seat of a chair under +his head. Behind stood quart and pint measures, dram-glasses, tin +funnels and beer-bottles pushed right up to the wall to make room. His +wide-open eyes stared up at the once white-washed beams of the ceiling, +and one side of his face was drawn up into a grin, which made him look +as if he were unspeakably disgusted with the dirty ceiling. + +A big man sat at the door. Silla knew him: he was the public-house bear, +as he was called; he who turned people out for Mrs. Selvig. He was +sitting silent on the bench. + +There was perfect stillness in the room; she heard only the drip from +the tap of the brandy-cask down into the dish beneath, and saw, through +the half-open door to the inner room, Mrs. Selvig and her two daughters +bustling about on tiptoe. + +A young man in spectacles entered. He asked a few rapid questions, while +he opened a case of instruments on the counter at the feet of the +prostrate figure. He listened at its chest with the stethoscope and +without it, and shook his head, pulled out a lancet, and pushed the +shirt sleeve up the hanging arm. + +"Hold the sleeve, so that it doesn't slip down!" he said with a glance +up at Silla; he took her to be a member of the household. + +The lancet pierced and pierced again. The ashen grey face of the girl +looked into his, as if she would beg him for only one drop of that which +was the life. + +There came out something like a thick, dark syrup. + +He listened again, felt again; one more trial with the lancet, and it +was with an air of superiority, and a mouth drawn up like his +professor's, that the young bachelor of medicine turned to those +assembled and pronounced his concise verdict: + +"Stone dead! The man's stone dead!--from drink!" + +His words were followed by a cry from Silla, who threw herself upon her +father. + +"Is that his daughter?" asked the young doctor. He carefully wiped his +lancet at the light, and put his instruments together preparatory to +going, but gazed at the same time over his spectacles at her. Heedless +of everything, she cried incessantly over the body. + +"You aren't dead, are you, father? Father!" + +It was a wild sorrow, without consideration or bashfulness, and the +young doctor felt that he was witnessing an unpleasant scene from life +in the outskirts of the town. He had done his duty and hastened out. + +A twenty-year-old workshop apprentice, pale and overcome, was standing +behind Silla, trying to recall her to herself. He took her by the +shoulder, and whispered repeatedly, as loudly as respect for the dead +would allow: + +"Silla! Silla! don't you hear? It's me--Nikolai!" + +And he tried in vain two or three times to lift her up from the body. + +Meanwhile a policeman stood and examined Mrs. Selvig and the girls. He +made notes, and took down the particulars of the death. + +Just finished his usual quantity, a bottle of ale and four drams. The +girl at the bar saw him quickly stretch out his hand--had the impression +that he wanted another dram--and when he slowly sank down from his +chair, supposed that he was drunk. Used never to be so drunk that he +could not walk or stand, at any rate by supporting himself or holding on +to convenient, firm things. + +This last piece of evidence was deposed to by several of the regular +customers, or as they were described in the police report--"Several of +the regular visitors to the refreshment-room, whose testimony may be +considered as thoroughly reliable." + +Several of these silent, somewhat tottering, figures who had been thus +aroused from their dull, Saturday evening drowsiness, had already +disappeared from the scene. Bottles and glasses remained standing with +their contents. + +"Might there not possibly be some other direct or indirect cause?" + +It was at first hesitatingly that Mrs. Selvig could think of anything of +the sort. + +Unwilling as she was to go to extremes with an old, regular customer, +she yet had been obliged this evening to give him to understand that +whatever he required in future must be paid for in cash. His bill had +now, after all the years he had enjoyed credit in the tap-room, grown so +enormous, that she, a widow with two daughters, could no longer feel +justified in letting it run on. During all the years he had frequented +her house, she had faithfully kept her word never to send a bill home to +his house. But a bill cannot lie for ever on the threshold, as the +police know. That is the way of the world: it is the same for one as it +is for the other--so it must just be got by a distress warrant. That was +what she had said to him, unwilling though she had been to do so, and so +unpleasant, she could truthfully say, as it was to disturb such a quiet, +decent man. + +It was high time to rid the bar of its encumbrance. The public-house +bear had hunted up a hand-barrow, but had to get a couple more men to +help carry. And they must have a proper contrivance with a cloth over, +so that the whole thing would look like a hospital stretcher--a dead man +with nothing but a tablecloth over him would make too great a commotion +out in the street! + +It was something of this kind that Mrs. Selvig and her daughters were +busy looking out and putting together, out of some green bed-hangings. +One's good name is dear to every one, and Mrs. Selvig felt that what had +just taken place was a blow to the house. + +It was now nearly dark in the tap-room. Holman's dark figure had been +moved on to the stretcher, which stood on the floor ready to be lifted, +and a message had been sent to Mrs. Holman. + +Perhaps they delayed purposely; a little later in the evening when it +was darker, and an undesirable sensation in the street would be avoided. + +Silla's face was stiff with crying. There was no one in the room but her +and Nikolai. + +He stood by the counter, and she was sitting with her back to the +window; there was no sound but the humming of a gnat in the +half-darkness up under the curtain. + +At last he broke the silence. + +"He was kind, both to you and to me, as often as he dared be, you know." + +Silla did not answer. + +"He always dreaded going home at night so, you know. He'll be spared +that now, and setting his foot inside this public-house again, too!" + +"Father! Father!" broke from Silla, followed by a fit of violent +sobbing. + +"Listen, Silla!" he said, interrupted by the repressed weight on his own +breast. "If you have no father, you have some one here who will take +care of you, and knows what it is--I have never had any father either, +nor ever seen any. And I _will_ be a smith, as there won't be any more +block-making for you now. I only wanted to tell you, so that you can +remember it afterwards," he added softly--it did not look as if Silla +were listening to him. + +"And this evening I'll follow you right to the corner, and I'll stand +there until everything is in, and I shall be outside to-night; so you +know it, if anything is wanted." + +"Yes, stay outside, Nikolai!" she whispered. + +The public-house bear and the two bearers came in. They lifted the +stretcher out through the door, and, with a little difficulty at the +turn, down the steps, where a few spectators stood. + +And so they went up the street--the dead with the two bearers and the +public-house bear in front, and Silla and Nikolai behind. + +At the place where they were to part, he pressed the basket, which she +had forgotten, into her hand, and then stood looking after them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FACTORY GIRLS + + +What becomes of all the swarm of orphan children down in the by-streets +and outskirt alleys of the capital--children of whom no one has any +account, and no one takes any account, who swarm down there only one +floor higher, so to speak, than the spawn and small fry which are +floating below in the sea among the quay piles, and which will one day +become large male and female fish? + +Disease wields a broad broom in the earliest age. The harbour takes them +into its embrace; the streets with their stray livelihoods, or a +wandering vagabond life, takes them; refuges, police-stations, prisons +and the house of correction take them. In later years, labour also, on a +great scale, has taken them into its embrace--the factory doors stand +wide open. + +People who now and then have an attack of conscientious scruples about +existences to which they may possibly stand in original relationship, +can draw a sigh of relief. The responsibility is at any rate diminished, +as the chances now are that they will be drawn into Labour's educating +wheel; and then, too, the matter is in certain respects carried over +into moral territory. + +There they sat, the more ripely-developed youth of the town, in rows +up in the rooms of the Veyergang firm's great factory, and minded the +whirring shuttles, balls and rollers--Swedish Lena, and Stina, and +Kristofa, and Kalla, and Josefa and Gunda, and all the rest of them. Had +any one asked them about their parents, they would now and then have +been hard put to it for an answer. + +The conversation went on very busily at the top of the room; it was even +continued with nods and glances whenever one or other of the controlling +authorities turned his steps in that direction. They had to gesticulate, +nod, talk in a loud voice, but they got on best with their faces close +up to one another in all this whizzing, where the band-wheels each +whirred away for their little sub-division of power, the boards of the +floor quivered and shook with the movement of the engines, and the +waterfall outside in the sun, with a thundering and deafening roar, +buried the great water-wheel beneath its creamy, powerful splendour. + +They were for the most part quite young vagabond girls of from barely +sixteen to twenty, who were making the noise up there: new-comers, more +or less, without practice, who were still striving to acquire the knack. +And that was Silla Holman, she with the dark hair, slender and freckled, +with heelless slippers and a large spot of paraffine on the front of her +dress, who coughed and questioned, and questioned and coughed, while her +eyes looked like two little round, black fire-balls, and her weak, flat +chest went up and down with the mere exertion of making herself heard. +She sat there among the youngest; her fingers worked among the spools, +and now and then she looked up like a bird. + +They had got over the angry dispute about Josefa's new braided jacket. +She need not try to persuade any one that she had got the money from her +stepmother; no, let any one who liked believe that, but neither Gunda +nor Jakobina did! Then Kristofa had related her wonderful adventure of +last Sunday--she was always passing through remarkable occurrences, most +wonderfully interesting, if not true to quite a corresponding degree, +in which fine ladies and gentlemen played the principal parts, and she +chanced to be the initiated one. + +And now the conversation had turned upon something so interesting that +Silla listened with both her ears. There was to be dancing on Sunday +evening up at the Letvindt, and the talk was of handkerchiefs, bows, and +finery--which some possessed and others had to borrow--and of who danced +best and treated most liberally. Kristofa was able to inform them that +there was to be a violin and a clarionet, and that both students and +ordinary people and ships' officers were to be there! + +Some strangers who were going over the factory came up the room, and +stopped and questioned and examined. And the young workwomen sat each in +her place, with head bent over her work, as if she had no thought for +anything but her reels. + +The morning light shone with a kind of dizzy stillness in from the great +windows high up in the wall, over human beings, machinery and bales. + +It was nearly twelve. The last hour always dragged so slowly, and the +smell of oil and the heat from the engines seemed to increase and become +almost stupifying. + +Still a few more long stifling minutes. At last the bell rang. + +And dressed, as if by a stroke of magic, the factory girls swarmed down +the steps, with their breakfast-tins in their hands, in their neat +aprons, handkerchiefs nicely tied under their chins, and knitted shawls +crossed over their chests. + +Oh, the bright spring air!--to take a good breath of it! Silla, hot and +thirsty, knocked off a bit of frozen snow from the fence with her tin +and ate it. + +With her head full of all that Kristofa had held out to her about the +dance at the Letvindt, she wandered down arm-in-arm with a long row of +her companions. The road out from the factory was quite crowded; lower +down it widened out, with a street-like pavement. + +"Look, look, Kristofa! Veyergang has come back from England already!" +The young girls nudged each other, highly interested. "New topcoat; +light, light brown!" + +"Pooh! _I_ saw him come by the steamer yesterday, him and a whole heap +of English people. They were all brown together; I counted exactly seven +different kinds of dirt-colour!" It was Josefa who was using her tongue; +she had had practice at a milliner's. + +"He'll have to take care of the oil!" tittered one. + +"He's awfully handsome! Look what a grand forehead! Oh, what a lovely +red silk handkerchief in his breast-pocket!" whispered Kristofa to +Silla. + +The row squeezed themselves up against the fence. The person in question +came by humming carelessly, with his head held high and swinging his +walking-stick. All the young girls stared respectfully and stupidly +straight in front of them, though not without a glance out of the corner +of their eye. He disappeared up the stream, cleaving it like a salmon. + +"He parts his hair at the back of his head!"--"His hat is like a +pudding-basin!"--"Don't breathe upon him, he is so thin!"--"He is his +own father's son!"--"Oh, what a conceited stick!" + +They had turned to look after him. + +"He isn't nearly so stern as he walks there; but in the factory, you +know, he has to be as firm as a rock. Johanna Sjoberg, who does clear +starching, recognised him down at the masked ball at the fair; she told +me so herself." + +"You can just fancy," struck in Jakobina, "what a number of fine people +come to the rooms in that way. You think you are only waltzing with a +common man, and perhaps it is the son of the richest man in the town! +But if you are a little careful you can easily tell by the way they +dance, or by their watch, or their shirt-collar, or because they chew +such fine tobacco." + +"He looked at us, did you notice?" whispered Kristofa eagerly into +Silla's ear. + +"Yes, because he knows me," said Silla, a little confused at his having +fixed his eyes on her. + +There was a burst of laughter. + +"Is that young crow going to caw too?" + +The young crow grew hot beneath her handkerchief, but she did not +answer. She knew quite well, that he did know her; he had been in the +office when she went out with her mother to the Consul-General's to +apply for a place in the factory. + +A stream of girls from another factory fell like a tributary into +theirs, and then through ramifications of streets and lanes, the whole +flowed out into the irregular part of the town that was built of wood, +below--through narrow entrances and up narrow flights of steps, into +brown, red, white or grey houses, houses with slate roofs, with turf +roofs, with tile roofs, and new houses that had barely been roofed. + +Silla slipped into a narrow, damp entry. The sun shone through the +cracks in the rotten woodwork full of bent rusty nails, and from time to +time a dirty stream issued from beneath the gate, and disappeared into +the gutter. + +She stopped a moment as she heard her mother's righteous indignation +venting itself within, in the familiar, dry, measured tones; and it was +hesitatingly and with a depressed look that she opened the gate, behind +which stood Mrs. Andersen's servant-maid, furiously red, and incapable +of defending herself, while Mrs. Holman, her skirts fastened up, and her +feet astride over the gutter-board, was rinsing and wringing out +clothes. She was working calmly and deliberately; nothing in her cold +grey eyes betrayed agitation. + +"Mrs. Andersen ought at least to have the good sense to understand that +clothes that had been used so long couldn't be got ready in one week. +For that matter, you're welcome to tell her so from me. And I haven't +been accustomed either, even in my humble position, to send clothes to +the wash not patched or mended; and I can tell you that both Mother +Nilsen next door and the people in this house have wondered to see the +things that a person, who calls herself a chandler's wife, lets her +husband and children wear! No, you needn't contradict me, my good girl; +when I say a thing, it's the truth. And the stockings--we'll say nothing +about them; for one heel was gathered up with a piece of twine, so that +it was a disgrace to stand and wash them. People may look as high and +mighty as they like--the wash speaks out!" + +With slow, crushing significance she turned to her daughter. + +"If you had come a little sooner, Silla, you might have saved me a great +deal of work. But it's of no consequence; the sooner I'm dead and gone, +the better. I've never wanted to live either, since your father went +away." + +"I'll help you wring, mother." + +"Now it's all done? Many thanks! But it would have shown a little +forethought, if you, who have only been sitting up in the factory, had +hurried yourself a little to help your mother, who's had to stand and +work hard all the morning." + +"Thanks for the information, Mrs. Holman." It was Mrs. Andersen's +servant, who had at last recovered her voice. "But I think you won't +need to trouble yourself any more about our washing. It's much too plain +and humble for such grand sentiments." + +She dropped a curtsey, and then added, as she vanished quickly out of +the gate: + +"If only your soap-lye was half as sharp as your tongue!" + +It was always Mrs. Holman's strong point, and one on which she prided +herself, that she was always hungering and thirsting after righteousness +in this world--in others. Inasmuch as part of this sentence also points +inwards towards one's self, she was fortunate in finding her own +doorstep well swept. She was also in the favourable position of being +able to lay down both the law and the exceptions. + +To every one comes a time when he is surrounded by a lustre, and that +blockmaker Holman had existed was something which was really properly +understood--perhaps by his wife too--only after he had disappeared from +the scene. + +The fact is, that it makes a great difference to a household whether it +has the husband's work and weekly wages to subsist upon or not, and as +a further aggravation of the situation, her dead husband's bill at Mrs. +Selvig's thrust its extremely unexpected, unwelcome face into Mrs. +Holman's room. Mrs. Holman could never get into her head that that bill +was correct--why, Holman had had his fixed, regular pocket-money! + +Mrs. Holman's bitter observations were numerous when she found herself +compelled to choose between want and seeking work. + +She had known to a pin's point how she would employ her husband's +earnings in her own room, and occupied herself also with the way in +which others might have things in theirs. During all these years, she +had, so to speak, sat comfortably on the top of the load and driven; but +now, unfortunately, the day had come when she herself must get down and +draw--and that she felt herself less fitted for. + +It was when brought into this critical situation that Mrs. Holman +thought that if an exertion was ever to be made, it must be made +now--by whom, she left unsaid. To this end she availed herself of her +acquaintance with Consul Veyergang to get her daughter Silla taken into +his factory. Unemployed hands must have something to do, and it would, +at any rate, yield some small compensation for the weekly money lost +with her husband. If she then stayed at home and kept house well, and +in addition mended and took in washing when it came in her way, no one +would venture to charge Mrs. Holman with not knowing how to do her duty +during these hard days. + +And she still discharged this duty of hers by strictly keeping Silla +from passing her leisure time in idleness, which was dangerous for young +people. Sewing and darning and patching all the evening--there could be +no better way of being trained in steadiness. + +But it was just while Silla sat and sewed and darned and patched in the +evening by the low oil-lamp that the dancing and gaiety were best +carried on in her head, and that all Kristofa's and her friends' +word-pictures transformed themselves into actual experiences. Bubble +after bubble, the one more wonderful than the other, floated up or burst +right in front of Mrs. Holman's nose, while she sat knitting. She saw +nothing, only wondered a little sometimes what there could be to smile +and laugh at in the heel of a stocking. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"THE WORLD IS RIGHT ENOUGH AFTER ALL" + + +Down in Haegberg's smithy it looked as if it were going to be not only +blue Monday,[2] but blank Tuesday too. With the exception of one +solitary figure, it was black and empty. Outside the door a row of iron +picks, spades and crowbars, were waiting to be sharpened for the navvies +on the new harbour works. + +[Footnote 2: An extra day's holiday taken by workmen after the lawful +bank holiday is called "blue Monday"; if still another follows, it is +called "blank Tuesday."] + +Haegberg was going about with his leather apron hanging down over one +shoulder, as furious as a Berserk. There were no respectable men and +apprentices to be had nowadays; but he would give them notice man by +man, as sure as his name was Haegberg! + +One was standing there grinding. And he had stood there quite alone, +filing with all his might at his journeyman's probation work, the whole +of St. John's day yesterday. That's how it is: one goes on the spree, +and another pinches and is so stingy about his money, that he would +willingly lay his soul in the fire for it. The fellow was a good enough +workman, to be sure, and if he had not had that affair with the police, +then--yes, no--no, yes, to be sure, he was acquitted of that, so he was! + +The person in question was Nikolai, who had entered Haegberg's smithy +again to complete his years of apprenticeship. + +Ah, at last! There came two men sauntering over the yard to the smithy. + +Haegberg turned round and pretended not to see them; on consideration, it +was not the time to part with one's men. He only went up himself and +took one of the crowbars out of the forge; and when the two culprits +arrived, he stood there, tall, lean, strong, and grey-haired, hammering +so that the sparks flew. + +This piece of work, unworthy of the master, spoke louder than the +angriest reproaches, and when in silence he flung the crowbar down, and +began sharpening a pick, it was sufficiently evident that there was +thunder in the air. + +By degrees during the morning they arrived, with staring eyes, beating +temples, and faces either pale or red from being up all night, one with +a swollen eye, another with a plaster across his nose. Their voices were +hoarse, and they each went silently to work. They must exert themselves +if they were to get through all the tool-work that remained. + +Work went on uninterruptedly almost the whole afternoon, without a word +being spoken over the whole smithy. By that time most of the work had +been got through, and Haegberg himself went out to do business in the +town. + +Those who were left at work shone with perspiration, and either because +work had been the best cure for the excesses of the preceding Midsummer +Day and Midsummer Eve, or it was the general relief at the departure of +the master, one man began suddenly to sing, a couple more to yawn and +stretch themselves lazily in the enjoyment of their pleasant +recollections; and then the talk began about the way they had each spent +their holiday. + +Only Nikolai went on undisturbed; he cared more about a screw-hole in +the hinge on his probation work than all their Midsummer Eve outings, +and if he only worked away now, it would be finished by the end of the +month. + +His small hammer sounded above their talk,--the tar-barrels, wood-stacks +and old house-walls that they had burnt, and their drinking and +merriment until they had not a penny left,--haw-haw! + +The hammer rang above it all. + +Jan Peter had gone in a boat over to the islands, and seen so many +bonfires,[3] both there and on the hills round, that it was impossible +to count them. + +[Footnote 3: It is the custom in Norway on Midsummer Eve to burn large +bonfires, which can be seen for many miles round.] + +Yes, when a fellow's drunk! + +The hammer went on again. + +One man stretched himself and yawned with the whole Midsummer holiday in +his jaws. "Up on Grefsen ridge, cold punch had flowed down the hill as +good as free. Veyergang's son had given the girls at the factory an old +boat from Maridal Lake and half a barrel of pitch; heard the cuckoo and +had larks all night--came down again when it was nearly eight o'clock." + +The hammer rang no longer. + +"Veyergang's son--the girls at Veyergang's factory!" Nikolai stood, +anxious and uncertain, listening, and now and again glancing quickly and +sharply over at the man who was speaking. + +Then he washed off the soot, and disappeared. + + * * * * * + +Silla had been down to the Valsets' cottage to fetch the customary +evening pint of milk, when at the gate she met Nikolai. He said he had +seen her go in, but she knew quite well that he had been watching for +her. + +"You can't think what fun I had on Midsummer Eve, Nikolai!" she said, +holding out the can by the handle towards him. "If you only knew! No, +never in all my life!" + +"Up on Grefsen ridge?" + +"How did you know; tell me, how did you know?" + +"Oh, I--one of the smiths was up there. But I can't understand how you +could get away from her at home." + +"No, it was a near chance, too, I can tell you!" She looked round, and +said in a cautious whisper: "Mother doesn't know but that I lay and +turned over in my bed at home all Midsummer night. She went to eat St. +John's porridge with aunt out at Asker, and I was to stay at home, and +iron; but at nine o'clock, I said good-bye and went my way. Oh +Nikolai!"--she clapped her hands, laughing--"you should have heard how +she scolded yesterday morning when she came back, because I was still in +bed! Did you hear that we were treated to punch, too?" + +"Who gave it you?" + +"Ah, wouldn't you like to know! But, Nikolai, you won't tell. It was a +certain person who treated us." + +"Indeed!" + +"He came up to see that they did not light the bonfire too near the +wood. Yes, you must know, Nikolai, that it was no less a person than +young Veyergang! There was a Midsummer party at his father's, and they +were to see the fire from the stairs at exactly half-past eleven. + +"And then he treated them to punch? You too?" + +"It was just me! 'Her with the black eyes,' he said." + +"Perhaps he has spoken to you before, too?" + +"Yes, indeed; he knows perfectly well that my name is Silla. I meet him +every single day, you must know." + +Nikolai made a movement as if he were bringing down a hammer on the +hillside. "Indeed!" + +"Last Saturday in the office, when he had reckoned a _krone_ too much in +the pass-book, he said I could keep it and spend it on cakes." + +"Ha! ha! Did he say that? Wonderful, how kind he is!" Nikolai said this +with something that was meant for laughter. "The cook is very kind, too, +when she feeds the goose so as to get hold of it!" + +He stood with one arm round the gate-post, looking at her; she had grown +so pretty and elegant, and almost taller since he had seen her last. "A +young girl who doesn't even know that she is pretty." + +Silla pouted; her whole expression was one of supercilious disavowal. + +"If they offer her a cake, or a handkerchief, or a little fun, she +stretches out her neck and runs up. I should think you might understand +that, Silla, from all you see round you! How many of them, I should like +to know, will ever come to be the wife of an honest working-man? They +manage to dance a few times, and then it's all over. And they wanted to +be just as kind to you now, Silla! That Veyergang is on the watch for +you! If I'm not on the watch for him----" He suddenly looked pale and +ugly. + +"What are you thinking of, Nikolai? Don't go on like that!" + +"You may well say what was I thinking of, to stand there grinding +and filing away the whole month at my probation work, and then let you +go up there among that pack of wolves. But I was born like that--that +everything should go wrong with me!" + +Silla stood, as she always did when Nikolai put on this tone, downcast +and dispirited, her slender figure bending forwards, and her eyes on the +ground. + +"We two, Silla," he continued at length, with a shake as if of +resolution, but his voice trembled--"we two have been, as it were, +brought up together. And with things as they were, if they could make me +go wrong, it would have been still easier for you to be twisted by them, +for I was strong, you see; but you were weak, and had always to creep +like a cat among lies and difficulties. And so--so--I thought that we +two--who have always stood by one another--and I haven't had anyone else +I could trust, as you know, Silla, and neither have you--that we should +join hands. And if you're of the same mind, then----" + +He had clasped his broad hands round the gate-post, and was squeezing it +with all the strength of his square-set figure, while he waited for her +answer. He gazed at her bent head, but she did not look up; and he drew +a deep breath, for he felt that he must go on. + +"And now I've got together a little money, and not bought anything, and +have filed and filed away at my probation work; because when I become +journeyman, and another year has passed, and I've laid by a little, +then--then it might be that you could get away from the factory dirt and +the ordering at home both at once, and be a real smith's wife, Silla. +You've never had any one to take care of you as I've done, you know; and +you don't know how good I'll be to you! For a fellow who hasn't had +either father or mother, and since I was up at the police-station I +haven't had many companions either--" But here his emotion overpowered +him. + +"Such an uncommonly pretty smith's wife you would make, Silla! If any +one has eyes for a smith, it's you; they are like sparks in the fire! +And then to come home and see only the top of your pretty little black +head at the room door! In spite of having always been treated like a +dog, and worse than that--like a thief, it would all be nothing at all, +if that was how it could end. One's own room with a lock on the door and +the chest, that would be something better than being dragged round a +dancing-hall, Silla, by fine fellows and sailors." + +The last words, which were uttered in warm excitement, would have been +better left unsaid; for, from standing melted and overcome, with tears +in her eyes, she suddenly fired up against the accusation. + +"Do you want to deny me a little pleasure, too, Nikolai? I'm not to see +any one, not to go anywhere. Oh no! I'm to be a girl who has never +danced, a regular queer bird, that's first been kept in a cage by her +mother, and then by----" her voice quivered, and she began to cry. "Is +that what you call being kind to me, Nikolai? You must be trying to make +me afraid of you, too!" + +"Afraid of me?--of me, Silla?" + +"Don't they all look upon me as a baby that's tied to her mother's +apron-strings? And now you come and want to help her, Nikolai. That's +right! That's right! Only keep me in! Oh yes, you and mother! It's only +a question of who gets the power over me. But you'd better take care, +Nikolai!" + +She began to cry bitterly in impotent rage. + +"Oh, well, cry away! I won't say anything. You've got some one else to +comfort you for a little while," he added moodily. + +She suddenly sprang up, went up to him, and laid her arm confidingly on +his shoulder. + +"Don't you _know_ that I'll be your wife, Nikolai?" she said, looking +full and ardently into his eyes; there were still tears on her dark, +freckled face. + +"Well, if you will, Silla, you shall see who can work." + +"But mother, Nikolai! Oh, I'm so frightened--so frightened only that +she'll get to know that we sometimes meet. She looks at me so hard every +time I've been an errand, and I've always been gone so long. But when +I sit darning and patching of an evening, I sometimes imagine that you +come in so fine and rich, and that you own the whole of Haegberg's +smithy, so that mother has to give in." + +"No, do you think about that, Silla? Then I will come. She'll have to +give in like smoke, if I come only with my credentials, and my honest +trade as well." + +What was it that had happened that light, hazy, summer evening, when the +waterfall thundered out beneath the bridge, when the trees seemed to +swell with new budding leaves, and the sun glittered on the windows here +and there? Was he intoxicated, or was it the evening that had taken an +extra Midsummer carouse? The last he saw of Silla was that she hurried +homewards with her can, and that she had looked round at him, as she +turned into the road among the houses. + +The world was right enough after all. When he reckoned it up properly, +it was not at all so unreasonable, even if the lock did sometimes get +out of order; and then--well, then one had to be both strong and +neat-handed to get it open again. + +No, it was right enough. You only see that when you get inside, and so +there must be police and masters and order in everything, so that it can +lock. + +Nikolai stood riveting and meditating down in the smithy. He had now got +his journeyman's credentials, and everything was rose-colour. The fact +that he and the world were becoming reconciled showed in shining +characters over the whole of his broad face. His short, strong figure +moved with a newly-acquired, quick confidence at his work. + +He worked now for journeyman's wages, and could save up a nice little +sum each week. One fortunate circumstance in the case was that he never +dared make Silla a present of anything, neither handkerchiefs nor +anything else, because of Mrs. Holman. A penny saved is a penny gained, +and she should have it all in good time. + +On Saturday evenings, as soon as he had had a little wash in the +cooling-water, he took his way up towards the manufacturing part of the +town. He carried his hammer and pincers, and an iron plate or a lock in +his hand; he must look as if he were engaged in his lawful work. And +then came the chance whether on his way up or down he caught a glimpse +of Silla. + +It was quite a chance, and it sometimes happened that he just met Mrs. +Holman instead. He must put up with that; at any rate, he looked right +into the street there, in the cluster of houses where Silla walked +several times a day. But what he found more difficult to put up with +was, that on those occasions when he was fortunate, she was walking +arm-in-arm with two or three other factory-girls, so that he scarcely +got more than the one glimpse and short nod from her before they turned +in now here, now there. + +What did she want to go loitering about in the evening with those +dissipated girls for? Was that the sort of thing for Silla? She was +neither old enough nor wise enough to understand what she was getting +mixed up in, and what a fine gentleman meant who nodded to her--for the +sake of her pretty eyes. Amuse themselves? Yes, go round in the mill, +until they come out crushed and ground! + +No! She must come out of this. + +And so he must work away with his file, and add one week's earnings to +another, until he had made the silver hook large enough to draw her to +him. + +Yes, once she was with him!--he forgot himself in thoughts about +house-rent and wedding outlay. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL + + +Some time after Nikolai had got his credentials, he was pleasantly +surprised by a visitor--he could hardly believe his own eyes--none other +than his mother, who was watching for him one Saturday afternoon, +outside the basement where he dined. + +She had heard that he had become a journeyman, and could not rest until +she got a lift on one of the plank-loads which was going in to town, and +paid him a visit. She was so glad. If he knew how many sighs she had +heaved for his sake, and how many bitter tears she had shed--the big, +handsome, half peasant-clad woman was red in the face, and wept and +dried her eyes incessantly on her folded pocket-handkerchief, while she +gave expression to her emotion and joy over the way in which everything +had turned out, as if by special guidance. + +She had been so unfortunate for a long time; but now that she had got +her son again, everything looked different for her. Oh, how big and +broad and fine he had grown--a regular smith! He had a frock-coat now +for Sundays, hadn't he? And he must have a hat, too. He must let her +advise him; she knew all about it from what she had seen in the world. + +It was with quite strange, at first almost mixed, feelings that Nikolai +thus suddenly saw a mother fall down to him--some day a father might +come tumbling down too! + +It was so many years since he had thought of her, and the picture he +really had of her was buried in the bitter salt slough of tears in the +depths of his recollections, which he was far from being in the mood to +stir up. There were things within him, which he avoided from an +instinctive feeling of safety in the whole of his new, happy existence; +but such a thing as finding his mother again must surely belong to the +happiness of the new Nikolai, the journeyman smith! Yes, of course, he +was fond of her, and it was immensely affecting. + +And while he walked beside her, and was glad too, and kind and obliging, +and gave up his Saturday afternoon with half a day's pay, he had, +without exactly intending it, spent on a present--an exceedingly large, +gay, flowered silk handkerchief--as much as it had taken him a fortnight +to scrape together; and, besides that, had paid for some fine bread and +a ham, which she had to take back with her, and of which she even tried +a few goodly slices down in the town by way of afternoon refreshment. + +She had an appetite, and she could not be very much accustomed to +economising either;--this was about the sum of the happy, filial +comments that Nikolai made to himself after the meeting. In addition to +this, he felt himself unexpectedly lightened of a good deal of money; +and it was in a rather dispirited mood that he went up in the evening in +the hope of seeing Silla, and telling her of his new happiness. + +The whole of that side of the town up under the hill already lay in +shadow, and in the oppressively warm evening, labourers were walking +with their coats over their shoulders, while sounds of life and noise +rose here and there from the shops in the manufacturing district below. + +Nikolai had traversed in vain the district surrounding the Valsets' +cottage, keeping constant watch at the same time down the broad +high-road, which went past the gate, and the footpath that crept +straight across the field down behind it. Silla was not to be seen. A +girl went with a bucket from the cowshed into the pent-house. She looked +up towards him and laughed, and the consequence was that Nikolai +continued his way towards the factory without once turning round. They +must be able to see through the walls in there! And they had already +begun to wonder at his coming there so often. + +The waterfall was turned off, so that only a white streak ran over the +dam and fell drop by drop upon the wheel. A cart was rattling along the +road in front of him. Now it stopped to unload; the load was tumbled off +with one tilt. It was mould that they were driving to the garden outside +the office building at the factory. + +Within the fence were a number of women and girls busily at work. They +were raking, pulling up and planting, while a man followed with a hose; +and out of the open window, with his straw hat on his head, hung young +Veyergang, and talked. + +There stood Mrs. Holman, with arms akimbo, beside one of the black +flower-beds, inspecting some plant that she had patted down with her +hand; and--Silla! on her knees, pulling up weeds into her apron from a +bed close to the house. It was with her Veyergang was joking from the +window, and she shook her head and laughed, and looked up for a +moment--she dared not answer because of Mrs. Holman. + +It was as if a pair of pincers with many claws had suddenly taken hold +of Nikolai's heart, and he all at once remembered so vividly the day +when he had had Ludvig Veyergang under his fists. + +He went back with a weight like lead upon his breast, and sat down on +the edge of a ditch in the field, whence he could, unseen, keep an eye +upon all who came down the road. + +She had looked so much too pretty when she raised her head with that +suppressed merriment in her glance. This was what his thoughts would +return to, and he only saw before him what he suffered from. + +An hour had passed. Almost stupidly he had watched one after another +come down the road; but all at once his face changed colour. Ludvig +Veyergang was sauntering past, dashing and easy, with his stick held +loosely in his hand. He had red cheeks like a girl, and fine black +whiskers beneath the straw hat, and he half closed his grey eyes to look +about him, while he hummed softly. + +Nikolai gazed despondently after him, as he disappeared down the road. + +Again this same old hopelessness before a superior force, this feeling +for which he could never find words and vent, unless it some day +happened that--he closed his eyes, and there was a compressed, violent +expression about his mouth and chin. + +There came Silla by Mrs. Holman's side, with bent head, like a willow +that is bowed by its growth. Sometimes she stole a glance around, like +a school-girl who avoids her teacher's eye. + +They separated at the Valsets' cottage; Silla went in after the +evening's milk. + +She came out again with the can, and took the path over the meadow. She +went quickly, smiling to herself, and an almost frightened expression +came into her face when Nikolai rose out of the bush by the ditch. + +"Do you start when you see me, Silla?" + +"How fierce you look!" she answered jestingly. + +"You did say you'd be my wife, didn't you, Silla?" + +"What makes you say that now, Nikolai? It's such a long time to then." + +"I may need to hear it once more. When you aren't more sure than I am, +you like to feel twice whether the strap you are holding on to is firmly +fastened, or if it will give way. You have got so much into your head +since you came up here to the factory." + +"Take care! Just you take care, Nikolai. You have become so dreadfully +afraid for me lately," she said, laughing saucily; "but I've become a +little grown-up too. It's only you who don't see it, and stand there +like a post! But you can't think how awfully busy I am now. As soon as +ever I've swallowed my supper, I go up to the factory again. I and +Kristofa and Kalla and Josefa have got the whole of the weeding and +tidying up in the office garden, down all the peas and carrots, and +cabbage-beds as well; and when it grows over in the autumn, we shall +have that too." + +Nikolai only stood reckoning. Twenty-seven dollars, subtracting what he +had spent on his mother to-day--the ham, too, for he would not get that +back--that was what he owned, and he needed at least twice as much again +before he could get the most necessary things for his room. Only to get +her out of this, even if he had to work day and night. + +Aloud he only said cautiously: "If we are only wise, and careful, and +look well ahead, perhaps we may be sitting in our own room by next +spring, Silla. But so many things may happen in between," he added +huskily, with a deep-drawn sigh. + +"I really believe there'll be neither life nor courage in you until +you're married, Nikolai," she said, laughing; "you're so horrid to meet +now, that it's enough to make one quite sad and uncomfortable the whole +evening. A nice sweetheart you are!" She swung roguishly round on her +heel, with the can extended, and ran down the road, nodding a farewell. + +He had not got so far as to tell her what he had originally gone up +there for--the news about his mother, and, to tell the truth, he had +completely forgotten it; but it would be time enough next time he met +her. And it must not be too long to that, things looking as they did +now. + + * * * * * + +A few weeks afterwards some one inquired for him. + +A peasant carter, in a state of great uncertainty about his load, had +stopped outside the eating-house. Part of the load was made up of his +mother's big chest, which the man had undertaken to drive to town, and +leave for the meantime at Nikolai's. Barbara herself was to follow in a +day or two. + +She must have some project in her head! Perhaps she was thinking of +going out to service again. + +And one evening when he came home he found a red wooden box and a pair +of laced boots upon the chest. His mother must have been there! + +Half an hour later she appeared. She had only been out to buy a little +new rye-bread, cheese, and butter to take up to her lodgings this +evening. + +In the meantime she cut some for herself and offered some to him. + +Her ample figure, in addition to her effects, almost filled Nikolai's +narrow little bedroom. She had become rather short of breath, and +acquired a double-chin with so much sitting indoors; the lower part of +her face, which, in the brilliancy of youth, had been covered with pure, +healthy mountain roses, now, as it moved in the process of eating, gave +only the impression of powerful crushing with still solid teeth, in +which, however, toothache, from many scalding cups of coffee, had made +here and there serious inroads. While she sat on the chest and he on the +bed, she gave expression to the following: + +The farmer with whom she had bargained to live--for eighteen dollars +a year and help at the busy seasons, while she found herself in +coffee--was so pinching and mean about the board, that she had been +obliged to buy one thing and another herself; well, he had seen the ham +himself, and knew what she had been accustomed to at the Veyergangs'. +She could truly say that she had swallowed her food with tears many a +time, when she thought of all that she had done for Ludvig and Lizzie, +that she had carried them in her arms and been more to them than their +own mother. And then to think that the reward of all this should be hard +work in the hay and corn harvest! No, she was praised by too many mouths +for that! + +She had waited patiently, too, thinking they would remember old Barbara. +Oh no! one would have to remind them one's self, if that were to be! + +But now that she had Nikolai there, she had thought and meditated and +reflected about setting up a little shop in the town. And she had been +out to the Consul's to-day. + +He was cross when she went into the office, and snappish; but she knew +him, and began talking cleverly: + +"How is mistress and Mr. Ludvig and Miss Lizzie, might I be so bold as +to ask? Bless me, they must have grown so tall and so grand now, that +they couldn't be expected to know a poor servant again!" + +"'Thin--thin as laths,' he laughed. 'You might easily hold them one in +each arm now! But you must have eaten up the whole barn up there; I +didn't remember that you were so big, Barbara. I should think he's had +to give up house and lands, that farmer?' he said, to tease me. + +"'Thank you, I wasn't accustomed to cattle fodder at the Consul's +house,' said I; 'and it's me, rather, that's in such circumstances that +I must leave. That man takes pretty good care that he is not cheated.' + +"And then I talked about Ludvig and Lizzie until I began to cry. + +"'And that harum-scarum boy of yours?' he asked. + +"'Thank you,' said I, 'my son Nikolai is now a finished journeyman smith +in this city.' + +"And then I told him my thoughts of coming to town to go into trade. +'I have always noticed that it has been better to be behind the counter +than in front of it,' I said. + +"Then he laughed. 'You want to make yourself a new storehouse in town, +I see, Barbara.' + +"'Yes, sir, when it can be done honestly, and with a little help; every +one aims at their own maintenance.' + +"And then he promised me right down a free room and kitchen in one of +the houses up in the manufacturing part of the town for a whole year!" + +As mother and son sat opposite to one another, they were not without a +certain similarity; but where the leading of fate had turned the +features of his broad, intelligent face into muscle and energy, it had +in Barbara relaxed all the springs into dull, ponderous fat. + +It was not, however, without a certain amount of enthusiasm that she now +unfolded her plans for the little business, and how she should procure +credit, a little at each place; she still had acquaintances at the +shops in the neighbourhood, from the time she was at the Veyergangs'. +Afterwards it was only to sell out, pay for the old, get new again; it +all went round like a winch! + +But she must have a little more ready money, for hers would not go far +enough. Now, if Nikolai could help her with a little; it would all lie +in the goods, so that, for that matter, it was the same whether he put +his pence there or in his pocket--the same to a T! + +Could he tell her where she could buy a counter cheap! Or rather, get it +on credit; if there was anything she was hard up for now, it was ready +money. Perhaps she might as well try to take out a little more at the +carpenter's at once, only a fair-sized folding-table, two beds, and a +few chairs. She had thought that when once she had got it started and +into order, Nikolai might live with her. If she prepared all his meals +for him besides, the one thing might be set off against the other, and +part of his wages go towards it--he must himself reckon up and say how +much he thought. + +Barbara continued more eagerly to build up in her own mind, and +emphasising now and then with a smack of her hand, how everything was to +be. + +But as she waxed warmer and more elated over her visions of the future, +Nikolai sat doubtful, and softly beating a measure with his foot. All +this about the shop might be right enough. His mother must surely +understand it, she who had been at the Veyergangs', and had now, +moreover, talked to the Consul himself. But the more she initiated him +into her plans, and in them appropriated him entirely to herself, and +talked away as if there could be no obstacle in any corner of the +heavens, the wider did the gulf between their wills and interests open +before him. She came with a mother's long-dispensed-with right, and just +now he knew in his heart that he belonged still more to another, and +must go his own way. + +She could not know that she was coming upon nails the whole time in the +wall, so he would have to speak out. + +"Well, you see, mother"--he looked down at the floor--"you're welcome to +my money, if only it's certain I get it back again by the new year, so +there's nothing to hinder that. But, you know, why I must have it again +is--is because I and Mrs. Holman's Silla have agreed to marry and settle +down. And I'm quite determined about it, for I've worked and toiled for +that, ever since Holman died; and it would be ill for me if I had to be +without her." + +His sharp, grey eyes shot a glance up at her, and the mother +instinctively felt that here was a will that had escaped from her hands. + +This was something that had never entered into her plans. + +In order to remove her dissatisfaction, he let her have his thirty +dollars before she went. + +There is a branch of trade in the narrow streets and outskirts, whose +position is one storey higher than the stall-woman. It sells its wares +from a house, comprises, according to legislation, a great many more +effects, and allows the individual concerned to lead a more comfortable +existence, with a step farther from hand to mouth; that is to say, it +gains, instead of a day's credit or a weekly settlement, a week's credit +or a monthly settlement. + +It was in this small trade that Barbara wanted to start, and if it can +be said of America that whole towns and undertakings arise in a moment +of time, something of the same kind might well be said of Barbara's +shop. + +Barely a week later she was in her house, and had in the window an +exhibition of balls of cotton, bread, twists, sweets, stay-laces, +needle-cases, snuff, clay pipes, steel pens, matches, etc., etc., while +she herself sat behind the counter--which was a packing-case disguised +under some print--and ground coffee, which she roasted in the kitchen +beyond. In a drawer that would lock, which Nikolai had overlooked, stood +the cigar-box that did duty as a cash-box, with a few coppers in it. + +The acquaintance between Mrs. Holman and Barbara, too, was already +renewed, with the secret about Silla preserved on Barbara's side. + +Mrs. Holman--she lived only in the street below--had come up, while +Barbara was standing on her steps in the evening, to look at her new +surroundings by the light of the just completed shop-window. And then +she must not pass an old acquaintance's door. She must come in and have +a cup of coffee--it was standing clearing on the hob, if she would +condescend. + +Mrs. Holman might very well have had her own opinion about a good deal +that she saw in there, but she preferred, while she drank her coffee, +to give Barbara some idea of the series of dispensations which she had +passed through since Holman died. + +"Oh no, don't turn your cup up yet! _One_ more, Mrs. Holman." + +Mrs. Holman drank a third cup too, without becoming at all less +melancholy. Her quiet, cold grey eyes had looked and explored while she +talked, and sucked in observations of Barbara's open-handed, profuse +management, like pipe-clayed fat. But when she left, she had, with many +cautious reservations, and in the hope that Barbara's wares would stand +the test in the long run, expressed her inclination to remove her custom +to Barbara. + +Mrs. Holman's Silla was just standing at the counter--she wanted a pint +of groats to take home with her--when Barbara, who was measuring them +out, suddenly saw Ludvig Veyergang at the door. + +He had seen Barbara before, and as he passed the door twice a day now, +he nodded to her whenever she showed herself on the steps. But so +friendly as he was to-day! Barbara was quite softened, and very nearly +called him Ludvig, he was so lively and playful about her shop. He stood +looking with half-closed eyes, and laughing at Silla, who grew redder +and more bashful, and only tried in her confusion to get the bag of +groats out of Barbara's hand. He had taken his straw hat off his curly +hair for the heat, and looked so nice and handsome. + +Silla hardly dared look up at him, and only heard something about +freckles not being anything to mind when one had such dark eyes, when, +with head in advance, she rushed out of the door. + +Barbara's opinion afterwards about Silla's behaviour--her having all at +once turned crimson, and rushed away at a few innocent words from such a +well-meaning and handsome man as Ludvig Veyergang--her son heard the +same evening. A young girl ought to stand modestly, and not go on like +that: if she did, it was a sure way of getting all that could be called +man-folk at her heels. + +Was she anything for Nikolai--that awkward, dark, long girl, who ran +about in that bodice that was too short for her, looking like a +half-peeled, bent prawn in the back, and went balancing along the edge +of the gutter, as if she were going to be a tightrope dancer--without +any education? Upon her word, if it had been any other than Ludvig +Veyergang, she would have had him peeping after her at every corner. + +"But, do you know, Nikolai, it suddenly came into my head while he stood +there, that here was the person who both could and would help me with +those fifteen dollars I still want so badly. But he was gone before I +could collect myself." + +"Him? N--no, mother! I'll get them for you, if you'll only wait a +little; and I think you can use my money as well as his." + +"Well, if I hadn't got you, Nikolai!" sighed Barbara, moved; "and now +you shall have some coffee that's good, and new cinnamon-sticks with it, +that I didn't get sold to-day." + +"No, thanks all the same, mother," he answered, gloomily: he was already +at the door. + +Later in the evening he succeeded in meeting Silla. She was so merry and +laughing this evening. + +"I ran away; didn't look at him at all. Would you have liked me to stay, +perhaps?" she said, playfully. + +He was disarmed for the moment, she laughed so confidingly. + +But as he went down, he still saw Veyergang's insolent, half-closed +eyes, and the curl coming out beneath his hat, and--he could not help +it--he felt as if it were twined round his finger! + +That she chattered so gaily did not please him, nor yet that whenever he +made time to go up in the evening she came down breathless from the +garden, and was always full of whether young Veyergang had been there or +not, what he had said, and what she had thought, and whether Kristofa +had afterwards agreed or disagreed with her. It was as if she could not +talk of anything else! + +Yet it was not so bad, he supposed, so long as it was she herself who +chattered and talked about it to him. + +But the perspiration would stream from him in the smithy, when he stood +and thought about it all up there. He felt as though he were under a +screw. + +Why should not the poor man's possession be left in peace? Here he was +toiling away, and would give every drop of blood in his body to be able +to marry; and that other one, who had his pockets full, and could have +any fine lady for the asking--they were worse than wild beasts and +murderers! And amidst all this the time was passing. + +He had blessed both the autumn mud and darkness, which put an end to all +the running about in the evening; and now winter days and snow had come. +When he reckoned up--and he was always reckoning--he found that by the +New Year he would be worth seventy-five specie-dollars--what he had +almost starved himself to save--and of these his mother had had +forty-five, and since then thirteen more. He had made a half bargain +about a room with a kitchen at a fair price per month, and what he +wanted for the house, too. The last time he had lent his mother money, +she had said that he need not be afraid, she was selling the goods and +sweeping in the profits. + +Everything was in order, so the battle with Mrs. Holman had better be +fought at once. And when he laid before her his journeyman's +credentials, his seventy-five dollars, and his regular earnings, with +the advance he was to have from the New Year at Haegberg's, she would +have to be so kind as to give in. + +It was on one of the days between Christmas and the New Year that he +went up to his mother to let her know that he must have his money out in +February. Then he would go to Mrs. Holman. + +It struck him that his mother was rather confused and forgetful while +she made the coffee. + +She thought she was half crazy to-day, she said; but he should have his +coffee, and Christmas should not pass without his having something good; +it had not been the custom where she was brought up. + +Oh, dear! So Nikolai wanted his money back already. She had grown so +forgetful, that she had not remembered that it was so soon. And just +before Christmas she had had to settle a bill for coffee and sugar +which, upon her word, she had not thought or known would come in until +after the fair or at Midsummer! But he need not be afraid; she knew well +enough where she could get the money, if she liked to tie on her bonnet +and go out after it. + +"So drink, Nikolai; it's as strong as a rock. It isn't Christmas more +than once a year, as they say in the country. I believe you're afraid. +For your money? Oh, no; never you fear! If your mother, Barbara, has +promised anything, she'll keep it; so you may be easy. So nice as Ludvig +was to me the last time he was in here--it was only the afternoon of +Little Christmas Eve.[4] Barbara needn't be at a loss for a few pence +when I say my son wants them. Oh, dear no! Now, Nikolai, don't look like +that. Don't you hear you shall have it? My goodness, how you do look at +me!" + +[Footnote 4: The day before Christmas Eve proper.] + +He said nothing, only sat still a long time, and Barbara thought it was +getting oppressively quiet. She tried first one thing and then another. + +"I'll try it directly after New Year. I would never have borrowed your +money if I'd known it would be like this." + +"No, mother. You must pay me the money when you can; I won't press you +for it. But if you try to beg it from Ludvig Veyergang, we are parted +for this world, and as far as I get into the next, too! So now you know, +mother. And many thanks for the wedding this time, both from me and +Silla!" and he pulled open the door. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN + + +If Silla had not come like a wedge between the bark and the wood, how +comfortably and free from care Barbara could have lived now. She had no +one but Silla to thank that she was now deprived of all the help she +might and--it was her firm conviction--ought to have had in her son +Nikolai, with the regular earnings he might have put, every single week, +into the till; which, for some reason or other, never would exhibit the +amount it ought to have done. + +It was not improbable that Barbara, after the fashion of country people, +forgot to take into account the articles that went towards the +nourishment of her own weighty person. On the other hand her ever ready +hospitality with the coffee-pot was not without its savour of +trade-policy--what she gave away was only to be looked upon as seed +which would bring forth a hundredfold in the shape of customers. + +Barbara's room was thus becoming the meetingplace for all the gossiping +forces of the neighbourhood. + + * * * * * + +The posts in the fences had snow hats on, and snow-drifts lay by the +roadside and on the fields. + +One afternoon, when the sledges were creaking outside in the cold, and +the door too, whenever anybody came in, Mother Taraldsen, who cupped +people and applied leeches, and tall Mother Baekken were sitting and +enjoying a cup of steaming hot coffee with loaf-sugar. + +Mother Taraldsen was holding forth on the subject of bad liquids and +ruined times, and how every trade was going down-hill, while Mother +Baekken, getting more and more full of objections, put her head on one +side, and stirred up her cup. + +"I can remember a little of the old times too, and I don't know if they +were any better, though every one is welcome to have his opinion, of +course," here the long, yellow face with the eyes blinking with their +own meaning, was laid almost across the cup; "but the day has grown +longer for workmen now. Just think how they sat in the dark in the farms +and cottages with pine-torches in the fireplace to cut and spin by; and +there lay the lads the whole long winter through, and idled and yawned +in their beds from three or four in the afternoon until they had to go +out with a lantern and see to the horses for the night. But paraffine +has got them out of their beds. It's as if we had the sun the whole +winter now, and people can see to earn a few pence." + +"Yes, but everything hasn't got right in that way either, when they sit +and play cards and gamble and drink at the public-houses." + +"That's not oil, that's gas! But that's good for something, too, both in +the street lamps and up in the factory." + +"And for drunkenness and dancing and wickedness." + +Mother Baekken made a bend down to her cup with the side of her cheek and +her chin, and up again in order to contradict in her most ingenious +manner. But just then Anne Graves came in to the counter--it was she who +kept the churchyard in order--and then one must be careful what one +says. + +Thank you kindly! She had no objection to a warm cup of coffee in this +cold. She had had a busy day to-day with the big funeral; they must have +heard all the ringing at dinner-time. He was an excellent man. She +enlarged, by the plundering of diverse fragments of the funeral sermon, +upon his worth and importance as a man and a citizen of the town. There +had been speeches and such countless black hats and flowers, that the +coffin was quite hidden. Yes, that was the third they had taken in since +the New Year, she uttered with a sigh. + +"You never know what sort of people you have among you, until they are +dead," remarked Mother Baekken. "If he had been the poor man's friend, +they could have sung and trumpeted a little about it while he lived. +Perhaps that's turned the wrong way, but--" she slowly, and with +increasing expression, bent her face over her cup. + +Mother Baekken must always have her own interpretations, so Mother +Taraldsen discreetly warded off a disturbance of the peace by striking +into the very middle of the manufacturing part of the town. She had come +up the streets yesterday evening with a covered cup containing leeches, +and you might really think that if, all that long way up from the +chemist's, you had escaped rogues and robbers, you ought to go free up +here. But there came those great, grown-up girls, flying one after +another along a slide down the street, screaming and shouting, so that +it was enough to knock people down. So she had dropped the cup with all +five leeches in it, and if it had not been moonlight so that she could +see to pick them up again on the snow, she would have lost every single +one. It was that Josefa and Gunda and Kalla down the street, and that +long Silla--she came along like a ghost. Ah, Mrs. Holman, who is so +particular, should see what sort of a daughter she has, when it gets +dark. + +Barbara nodded to herself, and thought that Nikolai should just hear +what people said. + +"I must really go out and look at them one evening, yes indeed. Well, +that about the leeches I disapprove of entirely and altogether, I must +confess. But young blood must have movement in some way, and may I +ask,"--here Mother Baekken laid one fore-finger upon the other--"have +they any way of amusing themselves, if they must _not_ dance, and _not_ +slide, and _not_ toboggan?" + +But now Mother Taraldsen grew angry. + +"If it's proper for respectable young girls to tear about and make a +row, it must be the new fashion that Mother Baekken's preaching about. If +you kept a careful watch at the corners, you might perhaps see that +there were those who were out to meet the flock of geese." + +"Then it would be better if you came down on _them_ instead of the poor +girls," replied Mother Baekken obstinately; "a man like that clerk down +at the contractor's, and him at the Stores, and then that fine clerk, +that Veyergang up at the factory and his friends." + +Barbara was standing at the counter with a customer. + +Nobody must say anything against her Ludvig. She knew him; she had been +with him day and night for fourteen years. If she only had a halfpenny +for every time he had cried and screamed for Barbara! + +She would have enlarged upon the subject, if it had not been for the man +at her back who was calling out for his soft soap. + +So cup-and-leech-Mother Taraldsen went on, saying that the girls stood +poking their heads out of every single gate the whole way up the street; +she saw it so well when she came home from applying leeches of an +evening. + +She and Anne Graves then began to review the young people more closely. +There were some they would not even mention, and some they named with +all sorts of interesting doubts and opinions, and lastly some they only +stopped to wonder that they had nothing whatever to say either about or +against. + +As to Barbara, she noticed carefully what was said about Silla, and made +up her mind that Nikolai should be warned; he should at any rate know +what he was doing when he went and took that girl. + +And neither was it with a diminishing-glass she let him see it, as time +after time she referred to all the dangers the young factory-girls up +there were exposed to. She had sufficient instinct not to mention Silla, +so that he should not think she was speaking against her. But every time +she touched upon it, she saw well, that it went into Nikolai, and had +fully the effect she wished. + +Barbara had made some of these remarks this evening too, and Nikolai was +sitting gloomily listening to the noise outside. + +One party after another was flying past down the high-road on sledges, +like shadows in the moonlight, with shouts and cries--half-grown lads +and lassies, and now and then a party of fine people from the town +below. One tall lad, with the rope over his shoulder and his heels +digging into the hillside, was dragging a wood-sledge up, with a heavy +load of girls upon it. + +Nikolai could not help keeping watch through the kitchen window, and +left his mother, who sat inside by the paraffins lamp, without any +answer. + +They were Kristofa and Kalla, those two who were standing there in the +street talking, while they slid backwards and forwards the whole time on +a little bit of ice. They were waiting for somebody--Silla perhaps; they +were standing close by her street. It was a question which of them would +dare to venture in and be so bold as to ask Mrs. Holman with many "dear, +kind, goods" if she would allow Silla to go over to her for a little +while this evening--always untruthfulness and disorder! + +There was another sledge party with fine hats and glowing cigars +standing laughing just outside. + +Barbara stopped her knitting-pins to listen. + +"We have this noise every evening till quite late," she remarked, "as +long as the moon shines on the road." + +He turned hot all over. If Silla were to get into this, then he might as +well lay both himself and his hammer down. + +Yes, there she was looking about at the corner for her two friends. + +"Good evening, old lady," said he, suddenly coming out of the door. + +"Is that you, Nikolai?" exclaimed Silla, in surprise. "Have you seen +anything of Kristofa and Kalla? I did so want to speak to them! Haven't +you? Do you know how I got out? I was only going to get the cat in for +the night. I chased it out myself, and hid it so nicely under the wooden +tub out in the shed. If only it doesn't mew." + +She looked round again eagerly, while the elongated shadow across the +snow imitated her slender figure and swaying movements. + +"Oh, and they promised to wait for me!" + +"Well, I suppose they've only gone." + +"Only? They thought I was going out with them this evening, and if they +haven't been here already, they may perhaps stand and wait, for I must +go in, you see, or else I shall have mother coming out into the street +after me. Listen, Nik! If you were nice "--she took hold of his jacket, +and pushed him backwards and forwards--"you would find them and tell +them--can you tell them properly?--that I must be good and stay at home +this evening, but hurrah for a holiday to-morrow and the day after! Say +that mother will be washing at the Antonisens' the whole of the end of +the week, and they'll quite understand it. But be sure you find them, +Nikolai, so that they won't blame me." + +Nikolai was not insensible to her amiability, nor yet to her liveliness +and prettiness; but it had just the opposite effect. While she stood +pulling his jacket, he heard the voices on the high-road all the time. + +"That's it, that's it! You want to get quite free now, Silla. Well, just +let them drag you out among them! But that a respectable girl will let +herself be drawn into such goings on!" he added, out of humour. + +"A respectable girl? Respectable girl! May I ask what sort of fun she is +to have then? I really wonder, Nikolai, that you didn't find a +respectable girl for yourself who would walk with her back like a poker, +and her arms under her shawl, and who only lets herself slide by +accident as it were, when she comes to a slide--daren't even look out of +the corner of her eye at a hand-sledge, because she's so well-behaved! +It was a respectable one like that you ought to have had. And then, when +you were standing hammering all day in the smithy, and she was deep in +her work standing on all fours with her head behind the wash-tub at +home, I suppose that would be as you would like to have it. But I can +tell you, Nikolai, that if there isn't to be any fun in this world, then +good-bye and be rid of it. I've had to sit shut up long enough at home." + +He shook his head. "If only there weren't all those wolves howling away +there on the road. But you see, they want to amuse themselves too; +and--and the insignificant ones have to take care of what they have, it +seems to me--and if you're of the same mind, Silla, we'll go in to your +mother at once--this very moment." He took her by the hand to carry out +his intention. + +"You must be mad, Nikolai," she exclaimed in terror; the resolution was +as terrible as it was unexpected. "No, no, let it be," she begged in an +eager whisper. "Think of mother! Have you quite forgotten what mother is +like? It will be time enough when we've got something to marry on." + +"Time enough? No, it's not time enough for me, Silla. I must try and get +it said now." + +"And what will happen to me at home afterwards? And you're not dressed +for it either, this evening." + +"Oh, don't be afraid, Mr. Nikolai. I may as well see with my own eyes +how highly my daughter condescends to respect her mother who is left a +poor defenceless widow." + +It was Mrs. Holman's own voice; she was standing in the gateway, looking +preternaturally large. + +"I thought I had gone through the worst that could be, when Holman died, +and that I should be spared the pain of catching my own flesh and blood +out, without leave, in conversation in the street, in the middle of the +snow. Neither should I have thought that that person would ever presume +to come so near my house. Just you come in with me, Silla. Come in, do +you hear--at once!" + +If any one could have gathered up the component parts of Mrs. Holman's +last screaming treble, he would have found a wealth of emotions: injured +motherly dignity, wrath, contempt, hatred, and something heavy, which +was meant to have a crushing effect, and really did almost make Silla +fall on her knees; she stood there without moving. + +Nikolai had become a little hardened, however, since the old days; he +knew now that there were others of whom he was more afraid than he was +of Mrs. Holman. He was not affected by her. + +"I must ask to be allowed to come in, however, ma'am, for I didn't come +here this evening to stand out in the snow. It is to you yourself I want +to speak." + +"Perhaps it's no longer than can be said here where we stand," answered +Mrs. Holman, rudely. "Come here, Silla!" + +"Oh no, it's not very long; but then I must explain one or two things +that belong to it." + +As Mrs. Holman still continued to bar the gateway and only beckoned +again to her daughter, Silla, in her despair and terror, suddenly made +her choice. There was nothing for it but to shut her eyes and stand by +Nikolai, and she took his arm boldly. + +"Yes, ma'am, that's it, as you see. We hold together as we have done +ever since we were little. And I came this evening to ask for her, and +to ask if we could have the benefit of your leave and consent. For with +my credentials and good wages, and when I never drink and--" + +Silla now acted with the courage of despair; she pushed Nikolai so that +they all three--Mrs. Holman yielding half involuntarily--came through +the gate and from thence into the room where the battle was then fought. + +While Silla sat with her hands before her face on a chair in the dark +and Nikolai, with quiet persistency continued to plead his case, and +make as manifest as possible how he now had a prospect of becoming +foreman and could provide for Silla, Mrs. Holman assumed a mightily +offended, repellant attitude. She employed her whole power; she bridled, +and she was wrathful, and she exhibited the most extreme astonishment. +It almost looked as if he thought he could really take her daughter from +her, whether she said yes or no. What was there left for an elderly +woman to live on, when her husband was dead, and her daughter who could +keep her, refused, because she thought of marrying a smith who could not +so much as show that he had a wedded father? + +She was on the point of rising in defence to the death of her maternal +rights, when a light suddenly dawned upon her. Her eyes began to gaze +into a perspective of the future. If Nikolai ever came to justify the +great words and promises he was now making, she might, in case of the +worst, when the time came, claim an asylum with them. + +This thought, however, did not prevent her from selling every +concession, with deep sighs, as dearly as possible. + +She must say she had thought of something quite different for Silla. +And, however it might be, she would not hear of any gadding about or +sweet-hearting until Nikolai could show as much ready money as Holman +had done. + +He had had a hundred dollars and his good wages, and when Nikolai could +lay as much money on the table in front of her eyes, it would be time to +talk about it. + +A hundred dollars--that was something decided at last. He held her in a +vice with that. + +That was the feeling which filled him when, a little while after, he +sprang right across the snowdrift to shorten the way, and knocked at +Barbara's door. He must have some one to tell it to--that Mrs. Holman +had acquiesced in Silla's having in this way promised herself to him. + +It was exactly the same view of her well-considered advantage that +occurred to Barbara while she lay that night collecting herself after +the news. She raised her large person up in bed under the influence of +the brilliant idea: + +Why, then, she could live with Nikolai! + +This grocery business was completely eating her up--it did not enter her +head that she was eating _it_ up. + +She suddenly felt quite clear as to her whole position; how it would be +best both for her and Nikolai that she should give up the shop in time, +and how instead she could be of unspeakable use in helping the totally +inexperienced Silla to manage the house, and perhaps earn a few pence at +other houses. And she had never heard but that a son was bound to +provide for his mother. + +The following Sunday Mrs. Holman drank coffee at Barbara's; but as Mrs. +Holman was silent about what had taken place, Barbara was silent too. +Only once she led the conversation up to her son Nikolai, and thought +that possibly in the autumn, when the room next door was empty, he might +move into it. It would not be too much, when it was remembered how they +had always been separated. + +Why Mrs. Holman at that moment became thoughtful, pursed up her mouth +and said: "Thank you," she would not have any more coffee! and somewhat +unexpectedly shortened her visit, shall be left untold. It can only be +stated, that from that moment, a silent contest began between them under +water--under the most friendly form, it must be added, for Mrs. Holman's +sake if for nothing else. + +The coffee visits continued, if possible, with greater frequency, and +Barbara as well as Mrs. Holman discussed and talked over every possible +subject, except the one that lay nearest to their hearts--their own +personal plans in connection with Nikolai and Silla. On that point they +watched each other in diplomatic silence, like two chess-players of whom +the one dare not move until he has seen through the other one's +intention; Mrs. Holman, in the middle of some strictly reserved opinion, +taking in everything with her precise, little face and cold grey eyes, +and seeing it all clear and small as if through the bottom of a tumbler; +and Barbara, round, hospitable, large and fat, with great, overflowing +features, and generally talking about her time at the Consul's. + +But during all this, there was one thing upon which each of them became +always more and more decided--if she could not live with them herself, +she would at any rate put a stop to the other coming and filling up the +house. + +The two future mothers-in-law were each occupied to the best of their +ability in making it impossible for the other; but of this quietly +calculated conflict which was going on in the ground far below them, +Nikolai and Silla had no suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A RISE IN LIFE + + +Since Mrs. Holman had seen what Silla could busy herself with--she was +quite struck with amazement at her own blindness--she had become far +more strictly attentive, and also much more on the lookout and watch +against Nikolai. + +The fruits of idleness had unfortunately revealed themselves, and there +was no other remedy for them than to watch conscientiously and see that +Silla worked. She must really set about something that there was some +use and help in, all through the long light spring evenings, and not +just run for the milk, or out when any one came and asked if she might. + +Nikolai soon found that the situation was far from being improved after +he was acknowledged in the quality of wooer. But notwithstanding that he +saw no more of her than a short glimpse now and then, a great step in +advance had actually been made. He had now only to work hard, and that +he did manfully; the hammer worked, in his hands, as if by steam. + +In some ways, too, he was re-assured, for if Mrs. Holman watched against +him so carefully, this same watchfulness was a security against others, +too. It was well to know that she was no longer to be found up there +among those giddy girls in the evening. A cold shiver ran down his back +when he one day met young Veyergang coming out of his mother's. He only +looked indifferently at Nikolai with half-closed eyes, when they met in +the doorway, as if he did not quite remember him, and then asked Barbara +over his shoulder, with a nod at Nikolai: "Is that the fellow?" and went +out: + +"What's he been doing here, mother?" + +"Nothing." + +"Have you been borrowing money of him?" he continued sharply. + +"Of course not. Not a penny, though I do need it so badly." + +"What was he talking about?" + +"He wanted to light his cigar, as he so often does when he goes down +this way. Surely that can't do you any harm! And it wouldn't be much +good forbidding him to do it either, I should think--either for me or +for you!" She added the last words red with anger. + +"No, I certainly can't forbid him, mother. But remember, if you borrow +of him, everything is at an end between us!" + +"Oh, Nikolai, you are so quick-tempered. No, of course not; I shouldn't +think of borrowing!" As she spoke she turned round and pushed something +she had in her hand into her bosom. "No, of course not!" + +"I could hear he had been talking about me." + +"No, indeed, how could you think so?" + +"Yes he was, mother," he persisted, gloomily. + +"About you? Oh, well, I was telling him a little about how hard you were +working now to get together those few shillings for Mrs. Holman." +Barbara talked rather confusedly. + +"And perhaps about Silla, too?" he asked searchingly. + +"Oh, no! he knew all about that before. I'm not the only one who knows +about it in this gossiping place, and, upon my honour, Nikolai, it +didn't come from me--not to-day," she added. + +"I wouldn't have minded if you had said it then; it would be a good +thing for that fellow to know that she is an engaged girl." + +"Isn't that just what I said? Only he didn't believe it." + +"No, I dare say not!" Nikolai stood at the window reflecting. This visit +of Veyergang's! + +He had enough noise and worry just now down at the smithy. It was just a +question whether he should not be made a foreman. Old Mrs. Ellingsen had +sent for him several times on this account, and it looked as if it were +almost settled. + +Things had been in this condition for some time; there was no great need +of hurry in coming to a determination, as the situation was not to be +filled until the autumn. + +Lately, however, it had seemed to Nikolai that Mrs. Ellingsen was +behaving rather strangely. He noticed, too, that they were talking and +making a great deal of fuss in the smithy; but it did not strike him +that it might be Mrs. Ellingsen's intention to draw back, until one day +when one of the men remarked scornfully that he did not suppose there +was any one in the smithy who would think of supplanting Olaves. If any +one did, he would have to look out for himself, for they would all stick +to Olaves. + +Nikolai knew well that they frowned at him because he was always hard at +work, saved up his pence, and firmly refused to join the others in a +glass of beer or a dram. + +He was without a companion. And now, when this foreman's question hung +in the balance, he noticed that the whole of his past life was stirred +and dug up again till it was as thick as the grounds in a +coffee-cup--from the old police and fighting story right back to his +childhood's days among the timber-stacks. + +These old stories were Nikolai's smarting wounds. He was always thinking +they were forgotten, and they were always coming up again, and now it +was insupportable suffering. He endeavoured not to betray it by a look; +but he was by no means in a good temper as he stood there. + +The sooner he got to know from Mrs. Ellingsen how it was to end the +better; and Nikolai was soon standing with his cap in his hand in her +room, to ask what he might depend upon. + +It took a long time, with many "h'ms" and "ha's" before she managed to +get her spectacles off and the wires put properly into her hair again. +Then at last it came out with some hesitation. She meant no offence; she +knew he was a good smith enough; but there were so many who knew Olaves +to be such an honest, good fellow, and she was an old woman who needed +some one whom she could thoroughly trust--no offence meant to +Nikolai--but she must consider the matter. + +That was the answer he received, and with it his prospects, that he had +counted upon and shown to Mrs. Holman when he asked for Silla's hand, +were destroyed. + +The next day when he came into the smithy they all smiled and tittered. +They knew he had been to Mrs. Ellingsen and had got his answer. But if +they thought they could tease or frighten him into giving it up, they +were very much mistaken. + +Olaves behaved as if nothing was the matter, and even civilly offered a +helping-hand in breaking the bar-iron. + +Nikolai only turned his back on him. + +"I never meddle with any other man's work, and I don't advise any one to +worm himself into my affairs," he said, "unless he wants a dressing that +will make his back as hot as that red iron there!" he added, with a +glance at Olaves. + +There was a general silence. + +But at dinner-time there was a great deal of talking and fuss about this +affair. Every one had heard how Nikolai had threatened Olaves, and +Olaves, as a precaution, found witnesses for his words. + +"He looked as if he could use the sledge-hammer to something besides +forging bolts, that fellow, if he could do it without witnesses!" + +They might talk as much as they liked for all that Nikolai cared; he did +his work, and never heard that Haegberg had anything to complain of. He +was prepared for a disappointment now. + +There was one thing, though, that he would do before he gave in--go +straight to Haegberg and speak out, and then the master could give his +testimony as to which he wanted, if Mrs. Ellingsen asked him. + +The final answer from Mrs. Ellingsen was delayed week after week: at +last it was two months. + +What could the old woman mean? The whole smithy wondered--she must have +a foreman by the autumn. + +At last, one morning it appeared in the shape of a message. + + * * * * * + +It was drawing on towards evening one broiling hot summer day. In both +floors of the grey wooden house in which Mrs. Holman lived, the +small-paned windows stood open, drinking in the slight coolness there +was in the air, while the dwellers within went about their occupations +more or less lightly clothed. A faint breath only now and again stirred +the half transparent curtains, or the white clothes hanging on lines +across the yard. + +At the window on the ground floor just above the entrance to the cellar, +stood a slender, dark-eyed young girl with turned-up sleeves, busy at +the water tap under which she had a wash-tub full of clothes. Her head +could be seen now above, now below the short blind, cooled and refreshed +by the cold rush of water. + +Suddenly she stopped in surprise. + +Nikolai entered with his flat cap pushed triumphantly on one side. + +"The world's right enough, I can tell you, Silla. The only thing is to +see that everything is properly in order from the very beginning. He who +hasn't got a father, must be his own father, you know!" + +"But Nikolai! Did you know mother was out?" + +"Pooh! What is there that I don't know! My mother told me just now that +it was one of the washing days at Antonisens. But you see, Silla, it's +beginning to get late, and--if you'd like to know--I've been invited +to-day to be foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's. That'll be only ten dollars a +month more!" + +"Foreman? Is it true, Nikolai?" She retreated from the wash-tub, looking +doubtfully at him. "Come here with your smutty face!" she said, hastily +pulling the clothes out of the tub. "You are so awfully black! Foreman, +did you say? No, is it really true? Oh, you must put up with a little +splashing; I can't see the foreman for coal-soot! Then Mrs. Ellingsen +didn't ask Olaves first?" + +"No, she didn't." + +"And no one put out their tongue or made Mrs. Ellingsen afraid of you, +as they did before?" + +"Oh, Haegberg must have let her know that he hadn't taken any harm from +me." + +"If only they don't begin again and do what they can. For your getting +in front of them stings and chafes and torments every one of them, ever +since that time when you had to do those wheel pivots over again for +Olaves. And then they dig up all the old stories they can find." + +"Oh no! The world's right enough, I tell you, and Mrs. Ellingsen must +take the smith who works her smithy best. Besides it's as fixed as a +vice, and the contract signed this morning. And it's pretty badly +needed, for the money that mother borrowed last, it--it--whu!"--he +whistled--"has gone the same way as the rest. It disappears like smoke +with her. It seems to me she trades backwards instead of forwards, and +that the profits go the wrong way." + +"Now you're so nice and clean, that you shine. That way with your hair +or else the cock's-comb will stand up too much." + +"I rushed straight out of the smithy, you see, to come up here and cram +it into you. I went in to mother first, and then I promised her to go +down and buy some mackerel for supper. Two smacks have come in to-day, +they say." + +Silla's face showed that this was a great piece of news. They were both +natives of the town, and the arrival of the mackerel brought with it a +number of pleasant recollections and pictures from the time when they +lived in the square down by the wharves. + +She looked a little undecided. + +"What if I put on my shawl and went with you!" she exclaimed. "Wait for +me down below, Nikolai, so that we don't go together in the street up +here!" + +It was a proposal that it was not easy to resist, she was so eager about +it. And then he had been made foreman to-day! + +She was not long in putting on her blue-striped dress and a shawl over +her head and following him. + +They hastened down together; she chattering gaily as in the old days +when they had stolen out, he quite taken up with looking at and +listening to her. They walked in the middle of the road, anything but +carefully; clouds of dust arose at every step, but Nikolai only saw +Silla, dark-eyed, warm and gay in the middle of it all. + +Down in the town that warm summer evening, the streets were unusually +busy about the fish-place. There was evidently something that occasioned +more life and movement than usual. The bridge was full of people hanging +over the railings and looking down at all those who were pushing their +way forwards amid noise, shouts and cries to get a mackerel for their +supper. + +This greenish-blue, shining fish, so round and strong and quick, +sea-built for lightning speed, its head formed for cleaving the water, +and an elastic arrow-feather as the termination to an almost dangerously +slender tail--it had already been glittering for two days on the stalls +in the fish-market. + +Even as late as yesterday morning it was a rarity, and only for the +tables of the wealthier, but later in the afternoon another smack came +in,--there had been a large haul out by the Hval Islands--and to-day two +more loaded vessels, so that the market was over-stocked. + +Yes, indeed, the mackerel had come--that is to say, the mackerel that +the working-man can buy. It was to be had now for two-pence or two-pence +halfpenny apiece, both on the fish-market and up the river here. The +women, who speculated, carried them in baskets up to all the most +out-of-the-way parts of the town. + +It found its way now everywhere, where there was only a hole for it to +slip into, a kettle or a pan for it to be boiled or fried in--into all +the galleys in the harbour, from the large, superior steamship or +full-rigged vessel, down to the cooking-stoves on the timber sloops and +the little decked barges, where people were resting, and broiling it in +the summer evening, into all the back blocks and small streets from the +cellars to the garrets. Workmen and small tradesmen, husbands and wives +were going that sultry evening with one, two, or three in their hand, +according to the number of mouths there were at home. There was a smell +of fried and broiled mackerel over whole quarters of the town. + +It _must_ be sold, it was so confoundedly hot! + +"Yes, indeed, it is a blessed warmth," answered deaf Mother Andersen, +"that sends all this mackerel over the town." + +This fish has had a prejudice to overcome, although in all modesty it +has solicited nothing but the favour of being allowed to escape being +eaten. It has the reputation of being the cannibal of the North Sea--in +plain words, a man-eater, and that the dark part of its flesh comes from +drowned sailors. + +Nikolai and Silla were also down at the boats to seize their share of +the glory of the evening. Silla had not lived near the wharves in her +childhood for nothing, and to pick out the best fish from under the very +nose of the old women, was an easy matter for her. She stood eagerly +bargaining and stretching out over the boat. + +"Thanks very much, mother, but you won't fool me into taking that +sunburnt mackerel skin! Take some of those that are lying behind there +under the thwart--those two--yes, just those." + +She weighed them in her hand to see if they were firm and stiff. + +Nikolai's hand was already in his pocket; but Silla threw the mackerel +contemptuously into the boat again. + +"Why, they're as old as the hills! Eyes as dead as horn!" + +"Those beautiful--" + +"Be quiet, Nikolai! If we are to be satisfied with these for supper, +mother, you'll have to take off a farthing or two." + +In the end they went for two-pence a piece. + +"What a fine trader you are, Nikolai!" she said to tease him, on the way +home. "But do you see how big and fresh they are?" + +Barbara was standing on the steps, shading her eyes with her hand, and +looking to see if Nikolai were not soon coming with the fish. + +The person she did see coming quietly and sedately up the road was +Silla, and she chatted with her from the steps until Nikolai also at +last appeared with the two mackerel. + +Of course Silla must come in and see how they tasted; there was no +question of Barbara's honour and superabundant hospitality putting up +with anything else. + +In there on Barbara's cooking-stove the mackerel hissed and broiled that +light evening. The peculiar, rather pungent smell of frying grew +stronger and more appetising as it went on. + +Then the pieces had to be turned with fresh fat in the pan--fresh +hissing! + +The scent floated out through the open window, and far into the street. + +Barbara was big and slow in turning, while Silla, quick and ready, put +now one thing, now another into her hands, and hurried away, and was +over the fish both with her face and her opinions, long before Barbara +could collect herself. + +Nikolai's broad, pleased face followed the whole of the frying process +with deeply interested attention. + +"That mackerel's the right sort of fellow for frying!" + +And then at last to take the pieces straight from the pan on to the +bread! + +The evening breeze began to blow cool between the warm house walls. The +three who sat there enjoying the mackerel, felt as if it were a festive +night. + +And foreman too! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE WEDDING POSTPONED AGAIN + + +Confined as she was, and made to work through the long evenings, while +her mother watched her like an eagle, Silla's only chance of +indemnifying herself was up at the factory. + +She went about there with a suppressed longing and eager interest, her +eyes sparkling, in the midst of all the chattering, whispering and +gossiping among her different ideals--Kristofa and Gunda, active Swedish +Lena, and pert Jakobina. If she could not be with them herself, she +might at any rate hear what fun they had had, and all that had happened. +In this way she could live their life at second hand. + +It was of course Kristofa who knew how to put everything in a +captivating, magic light. A little walk, a possible engagement, an +evening at a dance, everything was moulded by her busy imaginative power +into events that never wanted a hero, that interesting, mystic being, +who was seen, now with a cigar, now without one, who sometimes pretended +he did not know them, sometimes nodded, or only smiled. The person in +question might be some town gentleman or other, or some one from one of +the offices up there, who often had not the faintest suspicion that his +coming and going was seen in Bengal illumination, or that it caused such +a flutter in their hearts; though this did not preclude others from both +suspecting and taking advantage of it. + +These, through Kristofa's habit of spinning, grew into little romances, +which Silla took in with wide-open eyes, and afterwards continued at +home. + +Silla herself had a little romance which she kept to herself: she would +not dare to tell it to Nikolai. + +She had to take care, when she went at dinner-time to buy anything for +her mother at Barbara's, that Veyergang had not gone in there on his way +down to light his cigar. + +The last time she had met him there, he laughed and asked whether the +black-eyed maid wanted to run away from him? He was not so very +terrible! She had completely vanished lately. He had heard that her +mother kept her in a cage for the sake of a dangerous smith--was that +true? When a young girl had two such black eyes, she ought not to hide +them away. + +And yet it was not altogether a warlike condition; but he knew very well +that she watched and waited, however long it might be, until he had left +the shop. + +All this was like a ray of sunlight through the high, barred paling. + +In other respects, one day passed like another, from the hum of the +factory into the work at home, and Mrs. Holman was quite satisfied with +the help she really must say she had of Silla this summer. That her +daughter grew more large-eyed, pale and thin, it was not in her nature +to attach much importance to; it only showed that Silla was not +accustomed to systematic work. + +On the rare occasions when Nikolai had an opportunity of speaking to +her, Silla complained sadly. + +She talked herself into such exasperation that she cried over everything +that the others--all the others--had leave to do, and only she had not. +To begin with, in her childhood, and all the time she was growing up, +she had been bottled up in that cellar in the square, and now, when she +was grown up, she had got into a regular workhouse! + +After having thought gloomily and sadly over this for a time, her +reflections took another course, and she began to anticipate impetuously +how they would amuse themselves, she and Nikolai, when once she got away +from home. She would have fun like all other young people, even if they +had to give a dance in their own room. And go out in a boat in the +evening and row and fish, and on Sundays take their dinner out into the +woods, and shout so loud that the hills would ring again. + +She was almost wild, and her eyes burned with all the pressure and work +that was put upon her. + +When she did not get excited with talking, she looked depressed--more so +every time, Nikolai thought. Her face seemed to him to wear such a +plaintive expression. + +There was nothing to be done but to set his teeth and hammer away, and +hope for release by the winter. + +Georgina Korneliussen in the next house but one, who sewed uppers for +the shoemaker--she was such a nice, quiet girl. Silla should make +friends with her, Mrs. Holman thought; it began to dawn upon her that +there are limits to being trained in one's duty. On Sundays they might +take it in turns to visit one another, for then they would be under +surveillance in both places. And Mrs. Holman even allowed Silla one +Sunday to go for a walk with Georgina down in the town. Young people +must have a little pleasure now and then. + +Silla had looked forward all the week to this Sunday with the passionate +impatience of a bird that is to be let out of its cage, and the morning +rose on great expectations of what the day would bring with it. + +It seemed as if the soup with swedes in it would never be ready, so that +they could have dinner. And afterwards there was endless waiting for +Georgina, who could not finish adorning herself. + +At last she came out, tightly laced, and with a strip of crochet in the +neck of her dress. What sort of oil or fatty substance she had plastered +down her hair with may be left unsaid; but Silla in her brown straw hat +and a plain white collar, felt for a moment insignificant beside her. +But she quickly took her friend's arm; now they were off to amuse +themselves! + +Down to the town they went, Silla impatiently champing the bit in her +desire to get there in time to take part in the day's pleasures. + +In the streets and the park at this respectable time in the afternoon, +crowds of people clad in their best were strolling up and down looking +at one another, and for a long time Silla and Georgina had enough to do +in directing one another's attention to the finest and most fashionable +dresses, and especially the long white flowing scarfs wound under the +chin and thrown over the shoulder. These, and white straw hats with +light blue or pink ribbons and roses, were the objects of their vehement +admiration. + +They went up and down, lost sight of and met again the same dresses, and +the same stiff quiet Sunday faces. + +This was repeated until it became wearisome, and Silla proposed that +they should go somewhere else, which, under Georgina's guidance, led to +a walk round the fortress. + +Nature was not their object; and they only met one or two tired, bored +individuals who evidently did not know what to do with themselves on +Sunday afternoon: now and then they stopped and looked up at the trees. + +A sentry called his long-drawn "Relieve guard!" It sounded like a mighty +yawn in the afternoon. Out on the calm, shining fjord lay boats and +vessels drifting in the breathless heat. + +There was nothing here, so they made their way down to the harbour. + +Here, too, was emptiness and Sunday desolation, the vessels seemed to +have died out. + +Another cruise up the street. + +On the market-place stood some unemployed forces, who had found a Sunday +amusement in exchanging watches,[5] while the bells of the church behind +them were ringing in the congregation to evening service. + +[Footnote 5: In Norway this is a pastime often resorted to by men on +holidays, when time hangs heavy on their hands. I have seen even old men +deeply absorbed in the examination of each other's watches, with a view +to their exchange.--_Trans_.] + +Tired, wearied, and thirsty, they continued their walk up the street +until they came into the motley stream of people who were wending their +way down to the piers, where the steamers were constantly coming in and +going out with passengers from and to the islands. + +Here a difference of opinion arose. + +Georgina thought there were so many people, and perhaps it was not +proper to go by the steamer, as it was beginning to grow late. + +But Silla thought that they had swallowed dust in the streets long +enough, and that they must make use of the little time they had. Was +Georgina going home satisfied with the pleasure she had already had? + +It was cool and airy sitting in the wind in the front of the boat and +resting themselves after the fruitless roaming in the heat. + +They went on shore from the crowded steamboat to the island, where the +people gradually dispersed along the various shady walks. + +Close to the way up from the pier, and commanding a view of the bay, +stood the great place of amusement, with all its gates invitingly open, +and the sound of dance-music floating out. Within was life and +merriment. + +Silla stopped to look in and listen to the music, but Georgina, highly +scandalised, pulled her on. + +Was that the place for a respectable girl to stop? + +Silla followed slowly; there was inspiriting dance-music brightening all +the path within the wooden paling, and she drank it in with both ears, +while the rhythm rocked in her veins. + +A little higher up, where the path turned off, she stopped again; she +could not leave the music, and scandalised Georgina by going right up to +the paling and trying to see in. + +Georgina would leave her that very minute! She ought to have so much +respect for herself as not to stand there! _She_ had, at any rate, and +cared too much for her good name even to want to listen to such a noise, +and would go a long way round to avoid it. + +She was extremely indignant. + +Silla could really not comprehend how it could take the gloss off either +of them if they stood there a little and listened; nor yet what they had +come out for. Just where there was a little life and gaiety they were to +shut their eyes and put their fingers in their ears. But where it was so +"nice and proper" it had not been particularly amusing; and she would +give her a new sixpence if Georgina could tell her of a "proper" +amusement when they had a holiday: they had been searching for one now +both long and carefully. + +She sauntered on. + +According to Georgina, there was still nice time before the evening +traffic to the place of amusement began, and they spent it in diverse +walks in the roads, though never so far that they could not keep an eye +on the steamers and be standing in good time among the crowd that was +thronging the pier. + +Tired, cross and footsore, they at last reached home late in the +evening, where Silla, in the middle of the account she was giving her +mother of all the places they had been to, fell asleep in her chair. + +The music was running in her head, and she dreamt she was at a ball. + + * * * * * + +There was a pleasant crackling in the stove at Barbara's in the chilly +autumn days, when people who could not afford it so well were loth to +begin fires. + +It was, therefore, very comfortable to stand about at her counter +talking, and still more so for the chosen few who were fortunate enough +to be invited to partake of a cup of coffee. + +But of late Barbara had not been nearly so even-tempered as formerly. +She suffered from changeableness of spirits, was sometimes unnaturally +stingy, so that it looked as if she wanted to count the groats or the +coffee-beans, at other times in a different mood, open-handed and +liberal to both guests and customers. + +Whatever the reason might be, it was certain that now and then in quiet +moments she would fall into a brown study. The bill for sugar, meal, +flour and coffee had come in again. + +The till was anything but prepared for such an achievement; it groaned +and rattled whatever time in the day she pulled it out or pushed it in. + +Time, however, went on inexorably, notwithstanding that the stove roared +so cheerfully as if nothing were the matter. + +And it had now gone so far that the day after to-morrow was the day for +payment. + +Barbara was in a--for her--most unnatural state of excitement. In the +hope of obtaining a very last, further postponement, she had this +afternoon carried out her long contemplated attack on the salesman down +in his office, but had met with a decided refusal. If she did not pay +now, after all she had promised, then--well, then, after the answer she +received, it looked as if the wheel would suddenly come to a standstill. + +It was this that Barbara, going feverishly in and out, with her best +bonnet still loosely tied upon her head, was explaining to Nikolai, who +was sitting in the kitchen. + +Nikolai's face did not look as if he saw any help for it. On the +contrary, he sat bending forward with compressed lips, looking down at +the floor and twirling his thumbs. His hair as well as the position of +his shoulders and his whole expression looked combative. + +Barbara sat down by the cooking-stove; she drew a heavy breath, and +sighed out of an oppressed breast. + +It would come to an execution as sure as she lived--and it was for +thirty-eight dollars! + +Nikolai knew well what she was coming to, and that she was only waiting +for him to give her a word that she could hang on to; but this money +that he had scraped together was held much faster. He knew what he +wanted, and this trade was only going farther and farther backwards, in +any case. + +Barbara groaned. She might as well go into the black ground at once. + +Nikolai only snapped his fingers and looked down, doubly decided, at the +crack in the floor. + +When the pause had become unbearable any longer, and she saw clearly +that no answer was coming, she began to cry softly. + +She _had_ thought, she sobbed, that when she had a son who was a smith's +foreman, she would not stand quite helpless in the world. + +"You know, mother, how badly I am in want of money myself." + +Again an obstinate silence, with continued sobbing and drying of eyes on +Barbara's side. + +"It might be as well to consider whether the shop really paid?" +suggested Nikolai at last cautiously. + +"Would he like her to give up like a cow to be slaughtered before +Christmas," she exclaimed angrily--"and no more money than that was!" + +"I only meant it would be better to stop in time." + +But these words had the effect of fire on gunpowder. She got up, as red +as a tile. Just so! Now _he_ wanted her to close! + +She rushed--in a manner somewhat recalling the useful animal just +mentioned by herself, when it is trying to get loose--into the shop and +back again. + +If Nikolai thought that she would give up and go bankrupt to be jeered +at by everybody, when she only needed to go down and borrow that little +of Ludvig, he was very much mistaken. + +Barbara was quite flushed. + +She would not let herself be ruined a second time for Nikolai's sake. It +was quite enough that he had injured her welfare once before in this +world. Yes, he need not sit and look at her with open mouth. What else +was she turned out of the Veyergangs' house for, where she had been so +important, if it was not because Nikolai had lifted his hand against the +Consul-General's Ludvig. Oh yes, he might wonder as much as he liked, +but that was why she had been driven out helpless into the world, from +comfortable circumstances. And then when an opportunity came for Nikolai +to support her a little, he had some one else to spend his money upon. + +But the most vexatious part of it was that Nikolai also wanted to forbid +her to apply to one who was as good as her own child, when there was the +necessity for it. + +She would pay no attention to that however. If _he_ would not help her, +he must put up with her going to one who could, now that it was a +question of closing the shop and the whole business. + +No, she swore she would not go bankrupt. And she struck the table so +that the coppers danced in the drawer. + +It was a good thing that it was this week, for next week he was going +abroad for two or three months; he had said so himself yesterday, so +that both she and Silla heard it. + +Nikolai sat quite pale. His mouth moved as if it were trembling, and he +wiped his forehead once or twice with his sleeve. + +He looked slowly up at his mother; it was as if he were afraid of +getting to hate her. + +"You shall have the money." + +He felt he was on the point of bursting into tears, and must get away to +have his rage out. + +It was another postponement for him and Silla until the spring. And +where was the end of it to be? + +His hand shook and fumbled with the door-handle. + +This fresh piece of information, which his mother had so unexpectedly +given Nikolai, that it was he who had destroyed her well-being, was like +yet another stone weighing him down. + +It crushed him like a moral defeat. He could not rid himself of the +thought that there was something in it. He felt his courage was +weakened, and he went about disheartened. + +He had lost another quarter as to his prospects of getting married, and +if his mother required or rather claimed money from him again for her +down-hill trade, what could he do? + +It was like work without hope, and despondency began to take hold of +him. + +When he put his shillings away in the tin box on Saturday, it was with +bitter thoughts. At any moment his mother might come and swallow the +whole of it--as she, of course, had a right to do, since he in his time +had wasted all hers. + +He had always thought that when it came to the point, it was he who had +a reckoning to demand of his mother, because she had brought him into +the world without being able to give him a father, and then let him go. + +But now it seemed to be just the other way. His mother, with her +all-consuming business, was the great, lawful gulf for all his +happiness. + +He began to be weary of it all. + +Amid all this there sometimes dawned and smouldered a faint glow of +rebellion within him, although, in his honest endeavour to come to the +bottom of the truth, it was some time before it blazed up. + +Should he let Silla go, too, into this same gulf? + +The answer blazed up clearly, so that the flames shone and flickered: + +"Not while there was a rag left of what was called Nikolai!" + +And with reference to his mother, and his having perhaps brought +misfortune upon her, should he not have hit out, but just let himself be +insulted and trampled upon, as he was going to be again now? His mother, +tall and big, would just squeeze them to death with that shop, both he +and Silla. They were not even to have leave or the right to sigh. + +But he would not have that. + +He had thrashed Veyergang, and only repented that he had not hit harder. +As he had come into the world, he would be a human being, even if he +were to have his head cut off for it afterwards. + +The shop up there should not be fattened with another penny out of the +tin box. If his mother ever came to want for food, she would always find +a place in his room; but that she should put a stop to his ever getting +a room of his own--no, thank you! + +He was like another man when he had at last made this clear to himself. +Yes, his name was Nikolai, and he was foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FAIR AND THE CONVICT + + +The winter was passing. + +It was at the time of the fair in the beginning of February. The streets +swarmed with people and the snow in the thaw had turned to powdered +sugar with the traffic. + +A motley row of stalls stretched from market-place to market-place. +Trumpets brayed, buffoons shouted, the lottery-wheel went round, the +cryers howled. Music filled the air in volleys of blustering flourishes, +and amidst it all, over the whole town, pleasure-seeking, dancing and +merriment, until far on into the night. + +Dull noise and the sound of music penetrated up to the manufacturing +part of the town. In the evenings the town lay beneath it in increased +illumination. + +There was a kind of intoxication in the air, and there was many an +impatient, longing soul up there of such as look severely upon +themselves, while plenty of the looser sort streamed down. + +From year to year the accounts grew of the large fair-balls, of the +trumpets, the coloured lamps in the garden, and the matadores who stood +treat. It was tempting and attractive. + +As early as the second day Kristofa came, excited and eager, with a +solution of the question as far as she and Gunda and Silla were +concerned--money for tickets and cakes too, for all three! + +She behaved most mysteriously, talked all the time of a certain person, +whom she dared not, for all the world, mention. + +Silla had never before been to anything of the kind, the most she had +ever done was to stand outside among the longing crowd, who had to +content themselves with looking at the coloured lamps and listening to +the music. Now at last there was a chance for her too. + +Oh, if she dared! + +She was restless the whole morning, and had two round red spots of +colour on her cheeks. + +At dinner-time her mother came up tired and out of breath from the town. + +She had had to promise the Antonisens to stand at their cake-stall on +the market-place through the fair-week and help sell. It was +hardly-earned money in the cold there and in the middle of all that +shouting and bawling; but she would do her duty, and not swerve from it +when there was a penny to earn. It would not be closed and packed up +before midnight, so she must stay down there these few nights. + +There was a buzzing and singing in Silla's ears; it was as if the door +were opening to her of itself. She could go now if she liked. + +She was almost frightened. + +As she was taking some washing home in the afternoon, down the street, +young Veyergang suddenly brushed close by her. + +She almost screamed; then he had come back! + +She dared not look up, and felt herself turn red, but had a momentary +impression that he smiled and looked steadily at her and then nodded. + +She knew the delicate scent of his cigar, and had a feeling that his +clothes creaked, as it were, when he moved--a peculiarity which was +connected with the romantic ideas of distinguished gentlemen that +Kristofa had awakened in her. + +It was he, she was quite sure now, who had given them the tickets. + +Her heart beat and fluttered within her like a disturbed and frightened +bird. + +She went home in a reverie, so that at last Mrs. Holman had to ask if +she were out of her mind. + +She stole a glance into the looking-glass over the drawers. + +Her eyes, were they so very black? The freckles were still there. There +was a cure for freckles--but there were _not_ so many as there looked to +be; the old glass was so full of spots and holes in the quicksilver. + +Mrs. Holman, to her surprise, saw Silla standing and rubbing, breathing +on and polishing the mirror. Her daughter must have been seized with a +new zeal. + +On the evening of the third day of the fair, Nikolai strolled up to the +factory district by lamplight. + +He had been fairing on his own account, and had bought a workbox as a +surprise for Silla--one with looking-glass inside the lid--and this +afternoon he had put some mounting and a nice lock upon it. + +He could surely in some way succeed in meeting her and showing it to +her--so easily and with such a spring the lock went! And scissors and +needle case he had put inside. She should have the key in her own +keeping, and he would keep the box. + +He had tied it in a handkerchief and put two cakes on the top, so that +the person who could guess that it was anything but a workman's bundle +that he was carrying would be more than clever. + +He passed close beneath his mother's windows where there was a light, +and peeped in to see if Silla might happen to be standing at the +counter, and then strolled about indifferently up and down the streets. + +It was so strangely deserted and empty here this evening. + +And, look as he would through the gate and the paling, it was not +possible for him to discover a light in Mrs. Holman's window. + +After having exhausted every artifice, he stationed himself on the watch +for a long time where the roads crossed and one went up to the Valsets' +cottage. + +But fortune did not favour him this evening; he remained standing there +with his workbox. + +It was dark all down the street except near the lamp-post. + +There was somebody! There she was! + +He hurried up. + +No, it was that Jakobina Silla had been so much with in the summer. + +There would at any rate be no harm in asking her. + +"Isn't Mrs. Holman at home this evening?" he asked, taking off his cap. + +"No; she's down at the fair, helping sell." + +The inference flashed with a passionate joy upon Nikolai; then he would +be able to go in and see Silla. + +"And so, when the cat's away the mice will play," continued Jakobina. It +was pretty well known that the smith came there for Silla's sake, and +her vexation at her three friends having got tickets, and not her, +filled her with spiteful gaiety. "Silla has taken a little trip into the +town, too!" she added, laughing. + +"Silla!" + +"Yes, why shouldn't she? Mrs. Holman is sitting in the cold down there +at a stall, kicking and stamping her feet; why shouldn't her daughter do +the same at the fair ball?"--Jakobina was great at saying witty +things--"especially when she perhaps has some one who will both dance +with her and treat her," she said, letting off another shot, as Nikolai +seemed to be struck dumb. + +"Who's put that lie into your head, girl?" + +"If I'm lying, so's Kristofa; and that Silla went down with her and +Gunda a couple of hours ago I saw with my own eyes. The one I mean can +afford to give fair-tickets to either three or six. But perhaps they +were going to a prayer-meeting," she added, winking with one eye. + +"What nonsense are you talking! You'd better take care what you say!" he +exclaimed angrily. + +"Ha, ha!" she laughed; "you're not such a stranger to him--he's almost +related. We're so grand, we are! We heard enough of that from your +mother last summer, when she got him to pay for that fine black dress, +and they wouldn't let her have credit for any more sewing materials for +her shop." + +Nikolai had heard enough. + +His mother had wrung his very blood from him, and then--deceived him in +spite of it. + +He suddenly saw her before him in the cold light of indifference. + +She had never been a mother to him, had never cared a pin's head about +him! All this about a mother had only been something he had imagined. + +He made a movement with his hands as if he were done with her. The one +she cared about, and had a mother's feeling for, was this-- + +He did not know whether he had thought the name himself, or whether +Jakobina had said it; but it rang in his ears like the stroke of a +hammer on a shining anvil, as he rushed down: + +"Ludvig Veyergang!" + +He had robbed him of his mother from his earliest childhood. Was he +going to drag Silla away from him too? + +The thought at last became too impossible, and he slackened his pace. + +That Jakobina was always so full of gossip and lies! This about Silla +was all nonsense! There was nothing so dreadful in the three girls +having taken a trip down to see a little of the fair; and they made that +sharp-tongued Jakobina, whom they did not want to have with them, think +they were all three going to the ball. + +He, he, he! it was Silla who had thought of that! He would tell her he +had seen that at once as soon as she told him. + +He shook his head; for a moment he felt immensely re-assured, and +relapsed into the bitter thoughts about his mother. + +But--it would not be so out of the way if he went and looked for them; +they might have taken it into their heads to stand outside and listen to +the music. + +The kettle-drums at the place of amusement were rattling out delight far +into the air. From the menagerie close by brayed a shrieking trumpet, +and the street outside was black with people. + +It is not easy to say why it should have been so, but uneasiness again +took possession of him. + +In the illuminated entrance the strings and lines of lamps shone with an +uncertain light in the raw gusty evening air; whole and half lines grew +dim and almost went out, and then flared up again with a glare over the +snow and the inpouring streams of people. + +He could only advance at a foot's pace here; but while he slowly worked +his way in, he looked all round. He only needed to see the outline of +the figure he was looking for. + +She was not among the people standing outside. + +It was almost tiresome, now he had made up his mind he should see her. + +He began to think of going to the booths to look for her there, and his +glance wandered indifferently over the people. + +She?--that rosy, laughing girl in there in the garden, with the round +hat and the bit of boa round her neck over her jacket, was no other than +Gunda! + +He held his breath, as if he expected the next moment to see others in +the crowd there among the lamps. + +"Have you a ticket? Garden or ball?" he was asked at the entrance. + +Nikolai would like to have taken tickets for the whole thing; but the +pence he had about him were only enough for the garden. + +The row of lamps lighted up the snowy road to a crowded restaurant, from +the first floor windows of which came the shrieks of a woman's soprano, +followed every now and then by a storm of applause. Farther on, a +roundabout, crammed with people, was going round under an illuminated +roof to the accompaniment of shrill music. + +On both sides was a moving and, as regards the male portion, very +miscellaneous and mixed crowd of fair-frequenters. + +He searched the garden through, but in the darker paths outside the +principal one, only a few loitering, shivering figures were to be seen, +who seemed hovering like longing moths about the light. + +It was down in that building, from which came sounds of music, the one +to which all the people streamed and stood in a dense crowd outside, +that the ball was going on. + +All the blood in him seemed suddenly to stand still, and he approached +slowly and hesitatingly, his face grey with apprehension. + +He stood outside for a long time, gazing in at the large, lighted +windows. Dark shadows passed behind the blinds, an unceasing variety of +heads and shoulders. + +There where the blind was pulled a little to one side he saw the +round-headed Gunda again; the back of her head was so near him that he +would have liked to push the pane in and ask her where Silla was? + +He felt the shaking of the floor and the music twice as much where he +was standing; it was as if the whole ball had got into his head. + +Now he caught a glimpse of a sloping shoulder and half a back in an +overcoat, with a cane sticking out of the owner's pocket--and part of a +fashionable hat-brim. + +The figure was smoking a cigar and bending down as if to talk. + +To whom?--To whom? + +For it was Ludvig Veyergang's, that narrow, straight back, that seemed +in its pride as if it could not bend above the hips. + +And then that way with his arm and his eye-glass. + +Now he was gone; he must be dancing. + +The clear glimpse he could get through the little opening in the blind +was dimmed by moisture. Only when a heavy drop ran down the pane in the +heat inside, could he catch a fraction of a glimpse through the streak. + +There came Veyergang's shadow, with stick and hat again, and lower down +the crooked outline of a woman's head in lively gesticulation. + +Again the figure with the stick disappeared, and Nikolai prepared to +watch for it. + +A drop just wept a smooth streak down the pane, and the next moment he +caught a glimpse of a dancing figure--only a bent head and a half-hidden +face. + +He had seen enough--more than if he had had a hundred chandeliers to see +by. + +Immediately after, Nikolai was in the stream in front of the door. + +It opened and closed incessantly to admit those who gave up tickets, and +disclosed, in misty perspective, a miscellaneous confusion of hot, +flushed faces. + +Now and then a pair came out and hastened up to the large restaurant. + +He heard both exclamations and taunts. + +"Now then! now then!" came from the crowd. + +Nikolai only worked his way towards the door. If once he stood there--! + +"Ticket?" + +Nikolai did not answer. + +"Ticket, man? Ticket?" + +Nikolai only pressed boldly a step nearer. + +The police-constable made a movement, but met a look in Nikolai's face +which made him feel justified in restraining himself. This pertinacious, +silent working man looked as though he could strike. + +The door continued to open and shut as incessantly as before, and both +the constable and the ticket collector had become in a measure +reconciled to the man who stood there so persistently--it almost looked +as if he had a lawful business there, with that bundle in his hand--when +Nikolai suddenly put his smith's shoulder to the door and pressed +violently against it. + +The ticket collector resisted in vain with his body; his hands were +occupied. + +Through the opening Nikolai had seen Silla, red, laughing, and out of +breath with dancing, coming down the room with Ludvig Veyergang; he was +looking about short-sightedly, with his hat pressed down sideways over +his forehead and his eye-glass in one eye, with light arrogance, as if +he were only going about his lawful business, when he was ruining a +young girl. + +There was a noise and disturbance down at the door. + +"Turn him out! Turn him out!" + +At last the cry sounded over the whole room. It was an interlude, during +which the audience climbed up on to tables and benches to try to see. + +Nikolai would blindly and roughly have forced his way in, had not the +police officer met him at the door, and with his own and the constable's +united efforts managed to drag the strong, unruly smith out. + +His one thought, while with a certain cool, temperate leniency they +dragged him out into the half-darkness, was to keep so near that he +could have an eye on the door. He felt with suppressed rage that if they +drove him to it, he would sooner die than leave the garden now. + +The music ceased. A number of people, hot and breathless, streamed out +during a pause in the dancing. + +There came Veyergang--and Silla, bashful and half-resisting, with him. +They took the way up to the restaurant. + +Nikolai suddenly disengaged himself with a jerk, and the next moment, +emerging from the darkness, thrust himself between them. + +Silla uttered a cry of terror, but Nikolai only gave her a half-glance, +and flung her behind him--and thus stood face to face with Veyergang. + +The young lion changed colour and retreated a step before the expression +of violent hatred confronting him; but, recognising the old enemy of his +school days, he curled his lip scornfully. + +_That_ look made Nikolai rush upon him, and Veyergang, with a cry of +"You cowardly ruffian!" returned the blow with his walking-stick right +across Nikolai's face, so that the stick snapped. + +"Help! help! Police!" + +Nikolai had struck his fist into Veyergang's chest so that the buttons +of his coat were torn open, when he was surrounded by three policemen. + +A young girl suddenly rushed wildly in among them. + +Spectators collected in greater numbers around. + +This was a fair-fight of the first sort; and that tall, dark girl too! + +"A mad bull-dog of a smith! Put him under arrest!" exclaimed Veyergang +furiously, when he felt himself in safety. "You may meditate there in +the meantime. You are not at all indispensable, my friend!" he went on +in a coolly teasing tone. "The black-eyed lassie shall enjoy herself at +the fair all the same." + +The words were hardly spoken before Nikolai had wrenched himself free. +He swung the bundle, with the box in it, about him so that nobody could +come near him, and darted like a flash of lightning upon Veyergang, +exclaiming between his teeth: "It's the last time in your life that +you'll say that!" + +One hand fumbled with Veyergang's coat, and the other dealt him a blow +with the full weight of the box, so that he fell backwards on to the +snow. + +He did not get up again--did not stir. + +There were cries and a tumult among the spectators. Some cried "Murder," +others for a doctor. And all the while the music clashed and jingled in +three directions. + +A high police functionary attempted to quiet the excitement, and +discreet hands bore the unconscious man out to a sledge, and drove him +to the hospital. All the excited wrath of the crowd was turned against +the perpetrator of the deed, who was led out strongly guarded. + +For safety's sake, out in the gate, irons were put on both his hands and +his feet, and this was done in the midst of an ever-increasing crowd +from the street. + +But when there was a mention of taking him into the sledge, the girl +threw herself upon him, and clung so tightly that it was impossible to +tear her away. She still cried and clung to him, much to the delight and +amusement of the assembled crowd of boys, after they had got him into +the sledge. + +It was impossible for them to start, although they dragged and pulled at +her till the gathers of her dress gave way. + +The boys shouted. + +"Pull--tear--drag the clothes off my back!" + +"There, have a little common-sense, lass!" said one of the constables. + +"You mustn't take him! You sha'n't take him!" + +She wrenched and pulled at his handcuffs. + +"It's my fault! Can't you tell them so, Nikolai?" she cried piercingly, +and the policemen took the opportunity to detach her hands. + +The sledge dashed off, and Silla, without a shawl, after it, followed by +a swarm of boys. + +She saw the door of the police-station open for Nikolai without being +able to reach him or hinder it; hour after hour she passed outside, +listening and waiting, while the constables again and again intimated to +her that she must go home. + +When at length she wandered away in despair, she kept stopping; but up +on the bridge over the waterfall she stood still a long while. + +It roared so strangely down there in the dark. It seemed as if in some +way or other she belonged to it. + +All night she lay with a dull feeling of what had happened, and writhed +under an unspeakable terror for the result of Nikolai's act. + +Now and then she groaned out a suffering sigh. + +She could not get rid of the sight of the handcuffs, and in her delirium +felt the cold iron still in her hands, until at last the bitter feeling +came over her of how miserably she had behaved to him. She felt as +though the thought of her must make Nikolai sick. + +She lay staring at herself as in a vision--how she had gone about and +never thought or cared about anything but her own pleasure, while +Nikolai, her smith boy, with the strong arms and the true eyes, who now +sat behind the prison bolts, had striven and toiled, and saved, and +worked for both of them, so that they might be together. + +And she could see too, now, all at once, as if scales had fallen from +her eyes, that he had been terribly afraid for her. + +If only he still cared for her! He had said: "Go home, Silla"--twice--so +kindly and gently, that she began to cry when she thought of it. + +Had she known or understood what it was to love anybody before just now? +And perhaps it was too late! + +The thought filled her with despair again, and wild pictures arose in +her mind--Veyergang falling and lying stretched upon the snow, and then +Nikolai's arms with the handcuffs on them stretching up out of the +factory waterfall. + +She lay awake until the morning and saw the same things--the handcuffs +in the waterfall, and Veyergang turning away from the blow and falling; +and then the whole thing over again--and again. + +She sat there the whole day until dusk. Then her restlessness drove her +down to the police-station. + +There the gas was already lighted in the passages, and there were so +many doors through which busy men in uniform were going in and out. At +the entrances several people were standing waiting. + +She had not the courage to ask. + +For a long time she walked restlessly in the thickly-falling snow round +the building. + +At last she felt that she must go in; and in a condition which made her +blind to her surroundings, she at length stood patiently, white and +covered with snow, at the gate of the prison. + +When at length it opened, she wanted to go in. + +"What do you want?" + +"To hear about Nikolai." + +"Nikolai? What Nikolai?" + +"He who came in here last night." + +"You don't mean him, the murderer? Are you his sister?" + +"No." + +"_That's_ a good thing, for the bad fellow hasn't got long to live." He +made an expressive movement with his hand across his throat. "The man he +attacked is dead--died at midday, and the murderer is now sitting in +chains." + +Silla did not know how it was that the door was shut behind her again, +and did not feel that it was snowing thickly and silently, while the +light from the lamps shone through a veil of snow--did not know how she +had reached the bridge again. + +That was where she ought to be. + +Nikolai was sitting down there with handcuffs on, and stretching up his +hands, and crying--crying to her! + + * * * * * + +The next morning a bit of a dress was seen sticking up out of the loose +snow in the dam. Her skull had been broken in the high fall from the +bridge against the edge of the ice. + + * * * * * + +It was proved that young Veyergang's death had been caused directly by +the blow that had been dealt him which had penetrated to the brain. + +And the impression was not to be softened by Nikolai's behaviour before +the court. He stood there with wild sorrow in his heart over Silla's +death, and answered that if Veyergang had had seven lives, he would have +taken them all. + +When questioned as to his parents, he at first declared that he had +never known any; but when pressed further, he exclaimed, pointing at a +large-boned woman who was sitting, crying on a bench: + +"Her name is Barbara. They say she is my mother; but he who took away my +happiness in this world got both her affection and her mother's milk." + +Barbara wailed. + +His father? It might be the whole town!--he looked round on the +officials of the court. + +This was an answer which fully confirmed the opinion which had been +general from the first in this horrible, sensational murder case--that +the court had here before it a bold criminal nature, early hardened in +the dregs of town life. + +The police still had a pretty clear remembrance of this individual from +his violent conduct and other doubtful circumstances under a charge of +theft. And it appeared from his past life, which was thoroughly sifted, +that from his earliest childhood he had evinced dangerous tendencies, so +that there had even been talk of placing him in an asylum for depraved +children. + +There were repeated facts brought forward from the time of his +apprenticeship in Haegberg's smithy, which proved that he was an +individual given to fighting and violence. + +Not longer ago than last year he had threatened Olaves' life, or so the +witnesses interpreted it; and it appeared in the examination in court, +that on the evening in question he had persistently plotted against the +deceased, and had, just before the perpetration of the deed, declared +his murderous intention in the threat: "It's the last time in your life +that you'll say that!" + +There was undeniably an extenuating circumstance in the fact that there +was a love-story connected with the affair, and that the act seemed to +be prompted by jealousy. On the other hand, it was clearly shown that it +might also be considered as the outcome of an old hatred existing even +in the years of their childhood. + +The sentence of imprisonment with hard labour for life was passed. + + * * * * * + +There was rifle-practice going on, puff after puff, down in the moat. +Further along, on the green, some soldiers were being drilled, and now +and again a trumpet signal sounded out on the still morning air. + +Under a guard of overseers a little band of fettered prisoners was being +conducted, with a clanking echo at every step, along the ramparts from +their work towards the inner building of the convict prison. + +At a hole in the wall the last of the prisoners slackened his pace a +little. He cast a lingering glance through the opening. + +The fjord lay shining blue beneath, with its many white sails and a +steamer leaving a thick trail of smoke behind it on the water. + +He drew a deep breath, his nostrils expanded, and there were signs of +great agitation in his broad face. + +The others were already five or six steps in advance, and the overseer +began to roar at Number 66, exclaiming morosely: + +"You'd give something to be able to fly out now, Nikolai!" + +"I think that's the way we're all made!" he answered quickly. + +"Then you should try and behave so as to get a remission." + +Nikolai shook his head bitterly; a gleam shot from his grey eyes. + +"If I got out, it would only be to come in again. For either the world +ought to go to prison or I ought, and I suppose it may as well be the +last!" + +The clanking went on again. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF LIFE'S SLAVES*** + + +******* This file should be named 15853.txt or 15853.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/8/5/15853 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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