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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/23017-0.txt b/23017-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40b35e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/23017-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1441 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsket, by Thomas Nelson Page + +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: Elsket + 1891 + +Author: Thomas Nelson Page + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23017] +Last Updated: October 3, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSKET *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + +ELSKET + +By Thomas Nelson Page + +1891 + + + + +I. + + “The knife hangs loose in the sheath.” + --Old Norsk Proverb. + +I spent a month of the summer of 188- in Norway--“Old Norway”--and a +friend of mine, Dr. John Robson, who is as great a fisherman as he is a +physician, and knows that I love a stream where the trout and I can meet +each other alone, and have it out face to face, uninterrupted by any +interlopers, did me a favor to which I was indebted for the experience +related below. He had been to Norway two years before, and he let me +into the secret of an unexplored region between the Nord Fiord and the +Romsdal. I cannot give the name of the place, because even now it has +not been fully explored, and he bound me by a solemn promise that I +would not divulge it to a single soul, actually going to the length of +insisting on my adding a formal oath to my affirmation. This I consented +to because I knew that my friend was a humorous man, and also because +otherwise he positively refused to inform me where the streams were +about which he had been telling such fabulous fish stories. “No,” he +said, “some of those ------ cattle who think they own the earth and have +a right to fool women at will and know how to fish, will be poking in +there, worrying Olaf and Elsket, and ruining the fishing, and I’ll be +------ if I tell you unless you make oath.” My friend is a swearing +man, though he says he swears for emphasis, not blasphemy, and on this +occasion he swore with extreme solemnity. I saw that he was in earnest, +so made affidavit and was rewarded. + +“Now,” he said, after inquiring about my climbing capacity in a way +which piqued me, and giving me the routes with a particularity which +somewhat mystified me, “Now I will write a letter to Olaf of the +Mountain and to Elsket. I once was enabled to do them a slight service, +and they will receive you. It will take him two or three weeks to get +it, so you may have to wait a little. You must wait at L---- until Olaf +comes down to take you over the mountain. You may be there when he gets +the letter, or you may have to wait for a couple of weeks, as he does +not come over the mountain often. However, you can amuse yourself around +L----; only you must always be on hand every night in case Olaf comes.” + +Although this appeared natural enough to the doctor, it sounded rather +curious to me, and it seemed yet more so when he added, “By the way, one +piece of advice: don’t talk about England to Elsket, and don’t ask any +questions.” + +“Who is Elsket?” I asked. + +“A daughter of the Vikings, poor thing,” he said. + +My curiosity was aroused, but I could get nothing further out of him, +and set it down to his unreasonable dislike of travelling Englishmen, +against whom, for some reason, he had a violent antipathy, declaring +that they did not know how to treat women nor how to fish. My friend has +a custom of speaking very strongly, and I used to wonder at the violence +of his language, which contrasted strangely with his character; for he +was the kindest-hearted man I ever knew, being a true follower of his +patron saint, old Isaac, giving his sympathy to all the unfortunate, and +even handling his frogs as if he loved them. + +Thus it was that on the afternoon of the seventh day of July, 188-, +having, for purposes of identification, a letter in my pocket to “Olaf +of the Mountain from his friend Dr. Robson,” I stood, in the rain in +the so-called “street” of L----, on the ------ Fiord, looking over the +bronzed feces of the stolid but kindly peasants who lounged silently +around, trying to see if I could detect in one a resemblance to the +picture I had formed in my mind of “Olaf of the Mountain,” or could +discern in any eye a gleam of special interest to show that its +possessor was on the watch for an expected guest. + +There was none in whom I could discover any indication that he was not +a resident of the straggling little settlement. They all stood quietly +about gazing at me and talking in low tones among themselves, chewing +tobacco or smoking their pipes, as naturally as if they were in Virginia +or Kentucky, only, if possible, in a somewhat more ruminant manner. It +gave me the single bit of home feeling I could muster, for it was, I +must confess, rather desolate standing alone in a strange land, under +those beetling crags, with the clouds almost resting on our heads, +and the rain coming down in a steady, wet, monotonous fashion. The +half-dozen little dark log or frame-houses, with their double windows +and turf roofs, standing about at all sorts of angles to the road, as if +they had rolled down the mountain like the great bowlders beyond them, +looked dark and cheerless. I was weak enough to wish for a second that +I had waited a few days for the rainy spell to be over, but two little +bareheaded children, coming down the road laughing and chattering, +recalled me to myself. They had no wrapping whatever, and nothing on +their heads but their soft flaxen hair, yet they minded the rain no more +than if they had been ducklings. I saw that these people were used to +rain. It was the inheritance of a thousand years. Something, however, +had to be done, and I recognized the fact that I was out of the beaten +track of tourists, and that if I had to stay here a week, on the +prudence of my first step depended the consideration I should receive. +It would not do to be hasty. I had a friend with me which had stood me +in good stead before, and I applied to it now. Walking slowly up to the +largest, and one of the oldest men in the group, I drew out my pipe and +a bag of old Virginia tobacco, free from any flavor than its own, and +filling the pipe, I asked him for a light in the best phrase-book +Norsk I could command. He gave it, and I placed the bag in his hand and +motioned him to fill his pipe. When that was done I handed the pouch to +another, and motioned him to fill and pass the tobacco around. One by +one they took it, and I saw that I had friends. No man can fill his pipe +from another’s bag and not wish him well. + +“Does any of you know Olaf of the Mountain?” I asked. I saw at once that +I had made an impression. The mention of that name was evidently a claim +to consideration. There was a general murmur of surprise, and the group +gathered around me. A half-dozen spoke at once. + +“He was at L---- last week,” they said, as if that fact was an item of +extensive interest. + +“I want to go there,” I said, and then was, somehow, immediately +conscious that I had made a mistake. Looks were exchanged and some words +were spoken among my friends, as if they were oblivious of my presence. + +“You cannot go there. None goes there but at night,” said one, +suggestively. + +“Who goes over the mountain comes no more,” said another, as if he +quoted a proverb, at which there was a faint intimation of laughter on +the part of several. + +My first adviser undertook a long explanation, but though he labored +faithfully I could make out no more than that it was something about +“Elsket” and “the Devil’s Ledge,” and men who had disappeared. This was +a new revelation. What object had my friend? He had never said a word +of this. Indeed, he had, I now remembered, said very little at all about +the people. He had exhausted his eloquence on the fish. I recalled his +words when I asked him about Elsket: “She is a daughter of the Vikings, +poor thing.” That was all. Had he been up to a practical joke? If so, it +seemed rather a sorry one to me just then. But anyhow I could not draw +back now. I could never face him again if I did not go on, and what was +more serious, I could never face myself. + +I was weak enough to have a thought that, after all, the mysterious Olaf +might not come; but the recollection of the fish of which my friend +had spoken as if they had been the golden fish of the “Arabian Nights,” + banished that. I asked about the streams around L----. “Yes, there was +good fishing.” But they were all too anxious to tell me about the danger +of going over the mountain to give much thought to the fishing. “No +one without Olafs blood could cross the Devil’s Ledge.” “Two men had +disappeared three years ago.” “A man had disappeared there last year. He +had gone, and had never been heard of afterward. The Devil’s Ledge was a +bad pass.” + +“Why don’t they look into the matter?” I asked. + +The reply was as near a shrug of the shoulders as a Norseman can +accomplish. + +“It was not easy to get the proof; the mountain was very dangerous, +the glacier very slippery; there were no witnesses,” etc. “Olaf of the +Mountain was not a man to trouble.” + +“He hates Englishmen,” said one, significantly. + +“I am not an Englishman, I am an American,” I explained. + +This had a sensible effect. Several began to talk at once. One had a +brother in Idaho, another had cousins in Nebraska, and so on. + +The group had by this time been augmented by the addition of almost +the entire population of the settlement; one or two rosy-cheeked women, +having babies in their arms, standing in the rain utterly regardless of +the steady downpour. + +It was a propitious time. “Can I get a place to stay here?” I inquired +of the group generally. + +“Yes,--oh, yes.” There was a consultation in which the name of “Hendrik” + was heard frequently, and then a man stepped forward and taking up my +bag and rod-case, walked off, I following, escorted by a number of my +new friends. + +I had been installed in Hendrik’s little house about an hour, and we had +just finished supper, when there was a murmur outside, and then the door +opened, and a young man stepping in, said something so rapidly that I +understood only that it concerned Olaf of the Mountain, and in some way +myself. + +“Olaf of the Mountain is here and wants to speak to you,” said my host. +“Will you go?” + +“Yes,” I said. “Why does he not come in?” + +“He will not come in,” said my host; “he never does come in.” + +“He is at the church-yard,” said the messenger; “he always stops there.” + They both spoke broken English. + +I arose and went out, taking the direction indicated. A number of my +friends stood in the road or street as I passed along, and touched their +caps to me, looking very queer in the dim twilight. They gazed at me +curiously as I walked by. + +I turned the corner of a house which stood half in the road, and just +in front of me, in its little yard, was the little white church with its +square, heavy, short spire. At the gate stood a tall figure, perfectly +motionless, leaning on a long staff. As I approached I saw that he was +an elderly man. He wore a long beard, once yellow but now gray, and he +looked very straight and large. There was something grand about him as +he stood there in the dusk. + +I came quite up to him. He did not move. + +“Good-evening,” I said. + +“Good-evening.” + +“Are you Mr. Hovedsen?” I asked, drawing out my letter. + +“I am Olaf of the Mountain,” he said slowly, as if his name embraced the +whole title. + +I handed him the letter. + +“You are----?” + +“I am----” taking my cue from his own manner. + +“The friend of her friend?” + +“His great friend.” + +“Can you climb?” + +“I can.” + +“Are you steady?” + +“Yes.” + +“It is well; are you ready?” + +I had not counted on this, and involuntarily I asked, in some surprise, +“To-night?” + +“To-night. You cannot go in the day.” + +I thought of the speech I had heard: “No one goes over the mountain +except at night,” and the ominous conclusion, “Who goes over the +mountain comes no more.” My strange host, however, diverted my thoughts. + +“A stranger cannot go except at night,” he said, gravely; and then +added, “I must get back to watch over Elsket.” + +“I shall be ready in a minute,” I said, turning. + +In ten minutes I had bade good-by to my simple hosts, and leaving them +with a sufficient evidence of my consideration to secure their lasting +good-will, I was on my way down the street again with my light luggage +on my back. This time the entire population of the little village was in +the road, and as I passed along I knew by their murmuring conversation +that they regarded my action with profound misgiving. I felt, as I +returned their touch of the cap and bade them good-by, a little like the +gladiators of old who, about to die, saluted Caesar. + +At the gate my strange guide, who had not moved from the spot where I +first found him, insisted on taking my luggage, and buckling his straps +around it and flinging it over his back, he handed me his stick, and +without a word strode off straight toward the black mountain whose vast +wall towered above us to the clouds. + +I shall never forget that climb. + +We were hardly out of the road before we began to ascend, and I had +shortly to stop for breath. My guide, however, if silent was thoughtful, +and he soon caught my gait and knew when to pause. Up through the dusk +we went, he guiding me now by a word telling me how to step, or now +turning to give me his hand to help me up a steep place, over a large +rock, or around a bad angle. For a time we had heard the roar of the +torrent as it boiled below us, but as we ascended it had gradually +hushed, and we at length were in a region of profound silence. The night +was cloudy, and as dark as it ever is in midsummer in that far +northern latitude; but I knew that we were climbing along the edge of +a precipice, on a narrow ledge of rock along the face of the cliff. The +vast black wall above us rose sheer up, and I could feel rather than +see that it went as sheer down, though my sight could not penetrate the +darkness which filled the deep abyss below. We had been climbing about +three hours when suddenly the ledge seemed to die out. My guide stopped, +and unwinding his rope from his waist, held it out to me. I obeyed +his silent gesture, and binding it around my body gave him the end. He +wrapped it about him, and then taking me by the arm, as if I had been +a child, he led me slowly along the narrow ledge around the face of the +wall, step by step, telling me where to place my feet, and waiting till +they were firmly planted. I began now to understand why no one ever went +“over the mountain” in the day. We were on a ledge nearly three thousand +feet high. If it had not been for the strong, firm hold on my arm, I +could not have stood it. As it was I dared not think. Suddenly we turned +a sharp angle and found ourselves in a curious semicircular place, +almost level and fifty or sixty feet deep in the concave, as if a great +piece had been gouged out of the mountain by the glacier which must once +have been there. + +“This is a curious place,” I ventured to say. + +“It is,” said my guide. “It is the Devil’s Seat. Men have died here.” + +His tone was almost fierce. I accepted his explanation silently. We +passed the singular spot and once more were on the ledge, but except +in one place it was not so narrow as it had been the other side of the +Devil’s Seat, and in fifteen minutes we had crossed the summit and the +path widened a little and began to descend. + +“You do well,” said my guide, briefly, “but not so well as Doctor John.” + I was well content with being ranked a good second to the doctor just +then. + +The rain had ceased, the sky had partly cleared, and, as we began to +descend, the early twilight of the northern dawn began to appear. First +the sky became a clear steel-gray and the tops of the mountains became +visible, the dark outlines beginning to be filled in, and taking on a +soft color. This lightened rapidly, until on the side facing east they +were bathed in an atmosphere so clear and transparent that they seemed +almost within a stone’s throw of us, while the other side was still +left in a shadow which was so deep as to be almost darkness. The gray +lightened and lightened into pearl until a tinge of rose appeared, and +then the sky suddenly changed to the softest blue, and a little later +the snow-white mountain-tops were bathed in pink, and it was day. + +I could see in the light that we were descending into a sort of upland +hollow between the snow-patched mountain-tops; below us was a lovely +little valley in which small pines and birches grew, and patches of the +green, short grass which stands for hay shone among the great bowlders. +Several little streams came jumping down as white as milk from the +glaciers stuck between the mountain-tops, and after resting in two +or three tiny lakes which looked like hand-mirrors lying in the grass +below, went bubbling and foaming on to the edge of the precipice, over +which they sprang, to be dashed into vapor and snow hundreds of feet +down. A half-dozen sheep and as many goats were feeding about in the +little valley; but I could not see the least sign of a house, except a +queer, brown structure, on a little knoll, with many gables and peaks, +ending in the curious dragon-pennants, which I recognized as one of the +old Norsk wooden churches of a past age. + +When, however, an hour later, we had got down to the table-land, I found +myself suddenly in front of a long, quaint, double log cottage, set +between two immense bowlders, and roofed with layers of birch bark, +covered with turf, which was blue with wild pansies. It was as if +it were built under a bed of heart’s-ease. It was very old, and had +evidently been a house of some pretension, for there was much curious +carving about the doors, and indeed about the whole front, the dragon’s +head being distinctly visible in the design. There were several lesser +houses which looked as if they had once been dwellings, but they seemed +now to be only stables. As we approached the principal door it was +opened, and there stepped forth one of the most striking figures I +ever saw--a young woman, rather tall, and as straight as an arrow. +My friend’s words involuntarily recurred to me, “A daughter of the +Vikings,” and then, somehow, I too had the feeling he had expressed, +“Poor thing!” Her figure was one of the richest and most perfect I ever +beheld. Her face was singularly beautiful; but it was less her beauty +than her nobility of look and mien combined with a certain sadness which +impressed me. The features were clear and strong and perfectly carved. +There was a firm mouth, a good jaw, strong chin, a broad brow, and deep +blue eyes which looked straight at you. Her expression was so soft and +tender as to have something pathetic in it. Her hair was flaxen, and as +fine as satin, and was brushed perfectly smooth and coiled on the back +of her shapely head, which was placed admirably on her shoulders. +She was dressed in the coarse, black-blue stuff of the country, and +a kerchief, also dark blue, was knotted under her chin, and fell back +behind her head, forming a dark background for her silken hair. + +Seeing us she stood perfectly still until we drew near, when she made +a quaint, low courtesy and advanced to meet her father with a look of +eager expectancy in her large eyes. + +“Elsket,” he said, with a tenderness which conveyed the full meaning of +the sweet pet term, “darling.” + +There was something about these people, peasants though they were, which +gave me a strange feeling of respect for them. + +“This is Doctor John’s friend,” said the old man, quietly. + +She looked at her father in a puzzled way for a moment, as if she had +not heard him, but as he repeated his introduction a light came into her +eyes, and coming up to me she held out her hand, saying, “Welcome.” + +Then turning to her father--“Have you a letter for me, father?” she +asked. + +“No, Elsket,” he said, gently; “but I will go again next month.” + +A cloud settled on her face and increased its sadness, and she turned +her head away. After a moment she went into the house and I saw that she +was weeping. A look of deep dejection came over the old man’s face also. + + + + +II. + +I found that my friend, “Doctor John,” strange to relate of a fisherman, +had not exaggerated the merits of the fishing. How they got there, two +thousand feet above the lower valley, I don’t know; but trout fairly +swarmed in the little streams, which boiled among the rocks, and they +were as greedy as if they had never seen a fly in their lives. I shortly +became contemptuous toward anything under three pounds, and addressed +myself to the task of defending my flies against the smaller ones, and +keeping them only for the big fellows, which ran over three pounds--the +patriarchs of the streams. With these I had capital sport, for they knew +every angle and hole, they sought every coign of vantage, and the rocks +were so thick and so sharp that from the time one of these veterans took +the fly, it was an equal contest which of us should come off victorious. +I was often forced to rush splashing and floundering through the water +to my waist to keep my line from being sawed, and as the water was +not an hour from the green glaciers above, it was not always entirely +pleasant. + +I soon made firm friends with my hosts, and varied the monotony of +catching three-pounders by helping them get in their hay for the +winter. Elsket, poor thing, was, notwithstanding her apparently splendid +physique, so delicate that she could no longer stand the fatigue of +manual labor, any extra exertion being liable to bring on a recurrence +of the heart-failure, from which she had suffered. I learned that she +had had a violent hemorrhage two summers before, from which she had come +near dying, and that the skill of my friend, the doctor, had doubtless +saved her life. This was the hold he had on Olaf of the Mountain: this +was the “small service” he had rendered them. + +By aiding them thus, I was enabled to be of material assistance to Olaf, +and I found in helping these good people, that work took on once more +the delight which I remembered it used to have under like circumstances +when I was a boy. I could cut or carry on my back loads of hay all day, +and feel at night as if I had been playing. Such is the singular effect +of the spirit on labor. + +To make up for this, Elsket would sometimes, when I went fishing, take +her knitting and keep me company, sitting at a little distance. With her +pale, calm face and shining hair outlined against the background of her +sad-colored kerchief, she looked like a mourning angel. I never saw her +smile except when her father came into her presence, and when she smiled +it was as if the sun had suddenly come out. I began to understand the +devotion of these two strange people, so like and yet so different. + +One rainy day she had a strange turn; she began to be restless. Her +large, sad eyes, usually so calm, became bright; the two spots in her +cheeks burned yet deeper; her face grew anxious. Then she laid her +knitting aside and took out of a great chest something on which she +began to sew busily. I was looking at her, when she caught my eye and +smiled. It was the first time she ever smiled for me. “Did you know I +was going to be married?” she asked, just as an American girl might have +done. And before I could answer, she brought me the work. It was her +wedding dress. “I have nearly finished it,” she said. Then she brought +me a box of old silver ornaments, such as the Norsk brides wear, and put +them on. When I had admired them she put them away. After a little, +she arose and began to wander about the house and out into the rain. I +watched her with interest. Her father came in, and I saw a distressed +look come into his eyes. He went up to her, and laying his hand on her +drew her toward a seat. Then taking down an old Bible, he turned to a +certain place and began to read. He read first the Psalm: “Lord, +thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to another. Before the +mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, +thou art God from everlasting, and world without end.” Then he turned +to the chapter of Corinthians, “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and +become the first-fruits of them that slept,” etc. His voice was clear, +rich, and devout, and he read it with singular earnestness and beauty. +It gave me a strange feeling; it is a part of our burial service. Then +he opened his hymn-book and began to sing a low, dirge-like hymn. I sat +silent, watching the strange service and noting its effect on Elsket. +She sat at first like a person bound, struggling to be free, then became +quieter, and at last, perfectly calm. Then Olaf knelt down, and with his +hand still on her prayed one of the most touching prayers I ever heard. +It was for patience. + +When he rose Elsket was weeping, and she went and leant in his arms like +a child, and he kissed her as tenderly as if he had been her mother. + +Next day, however, the same excited state recurred, and this time the +reading appeared to have less effect. She sewed busily, and insisted +that there must be a letter for her at L----. A violent fit of weeping +was followed by a paroxysm of coughing, and finally the old man, who had +sat quietly by her with his hand stroking her head, arose and said, “I +will go.” She threw herself into his arms, rubbing her head against him +in sign of dumb affection, and in a little while grew calm. It was still +raining and quite late, only a little before sunset; but the old +man went out, and taking the path toward L---- was soon climbing the +mountain toward the Devil’s Seat. Elsket sat up all night, but she was +as calm and as gentle as ever. + +The next morning when Olaf returned she went out to meet him. Her look +was full of eager expectancy. I did not go out, but watched her from the +door. I saw Olaf shake his head, and heard her say bitterly, “It is so +hard to wait,” and he said, gently, “Yes, it is, Elsket, but I will go +again,” and then she came in weeping quietly, the old man following with +a tender look on his strong, weather-beaten face. + +That day Elsket was taken ill. She had been trying to do a little work +in the field in the afternoon, when a sinking spell had come on. It +looked for a time as if the poor overdriven heart had knocked off work +for good and all. Strong remedies, however, left by Doctor John, set it +going again, and we got her to bed. She was still desperately feeble, +and Olaf sat up. I could not leave him, so we were sitting watching, he +one side the open platform fireplace in one corner, and I the other; he +smoking, anxious, silent, grim; I watching the expression on his gray +face. His eyes seemed set back deeper than ever under the shaggy gray +brows, and as the firelight fell on him he had the fierce, hopeless look +of a caged eagle. It was late in the night before he spoke, and then it +was half to himself and but half to me. + +“I have fought it ten long years,” he said, slowly. + +Not willing to break the thread of his thought by speaking, I lit my +pipe afresh and just looked at him. He received it as an answer. + +“She is the last of them,” he said, accepting me as an auditor rather +than addressing me. “We go back to Olaf Traetelje, the blood of Harold +Haarfager (the Fairhaired) is in our veins, and here it ends. Dane and +Swede have known our power, Saxon and Celt have bowed bare-headed to +us, and with her it ends. In this stronghold many times her fathers have +found refuge from their foes and gained breathing-time after battles +by sea and land. From this nest, like eagles, they have swooped down, +carrying all before them, and here, at last, when betrayed and hunted, +they found refuge. Here no foreign king could rule over them; here they +learnt the lesson that Christ is the only king, and that all men are his +brothers. Here they lived and worshipped him. If their dominions were +stolen from them they found here a truer wealth, content; if they had +not power, they had what was better, independence. For centuries they +held this last remnant of the dominion which Harold Haarfager had +conquered by land, and Eric of the Bloody Axe had won by sea, sending +out their sons and daughters to people the lands; but the race dwindled +as their lands had done before, and now with her dies the last. How has +it come? As ever, by betrayal!” + +The old man turned fiercely, his breast heaving, his eyes burning. + +“Was she who came of a race at whose feet jarls have crawled and +kings have knelt not good enough?” I was hearing the story and did +not interrupt him--“Not good enough for him!” he continued in his +low, fierce monotone. “I did not want him. What if he was a Saxon? His +fathers were our boatmen. Rather Cnut a thousand times. Then the race +would not have died. Then she would not be--not be so.” + +The reference to her recalled him to himself, and he suddenly relapsed +into silence. + +“At least, Cnut paid the score,” he began once more, in a low intense +undertone. “In his arms he bore him down from the Devil’s Seat, a +thousand feet sheer on the hard ice, where his cursed body lies crushed +forever, a witness of his falsehood.” + +I did not interrupt, and he rewarded my patience, giving a more +connected account, for the first time addressing me directly. + +“Her mother died when she was a child,” he said, softly. His gentle +voice contrasted strangely with the fierce undertone in which he had +been speaking. “I was mother as well as father to her. She was as good +as she was beautiful, and each day she grew more and more so. She was a +second Igenborg. Knowing that she needed other companionship than an old +man, I sought and brought her Cnut (he spoke of him as if I must know +all about him). Cnut was the son of my only kinsman, the last of his +line as well, and he was tall and straight and strong. I loved him and +he was my son, and as he grew I saw that he loved her, and I was not +sorry, for he was goodly to look on, straight and tall as one of old, +and he was good also. And she was satisfied with him, and from a child +ordered him to do her girlish bidding, and he obeyed and laughed, well +content to have her smile. And he would carry her on his shoulder, and +take her on the mountain to slide, and would gather her flowers. And +I thought it was well. And I thought that in time they would marry and +have the farm, and that there would be children about the house, and the +valley might be filled with their voices as in the old time. And I was +content. And one day _he_ came! (the reference cost him an effort). Cnut +found him fainting on the mountain and brought him here in his arms. He +had come to the village alone, and the idle fools there had told him of +me, and he had asked to meet me, and they told him of the mountain, and +that none could pass the Devil’s Ledge but those who had the old blood, +and that I loved not strangers; and he said he would pass it, and he had +come and passed safely the narrow ledge, and reached the Devil’s Seat, +when a stone had fallen upon him, and Cnut had found him there fainting, +and had lifted him and brought him here, risking his own life to save +him on the ledge. And he was near to death for days, and she nursed him +and brought him from the grave. + +“At first I was cold to him, but there was something about him that drew +me and held me. It was not that he was young and taller than Cnut, and +fair. It was not that his eyes were clear and full of light, and his +figure straight as a young pine. It was not that he had climbed the +mountain and passed the narrow ledge and the Devil’s Seat alone, though +I liked well his act; for none but those who have Harold Haarfager’s +blood have done it alone in all the years, though many have tried and +failed. I asked him what men called him, and he said, ‘Harold;’ then +laughing, said some called him, ‘Harold the Fair-haired.’ The answer +pleased me. There was something in the name which drew me to him. When +I first saw him I had thought of Harald Haarfager, and of Harald +Haardraarder, and of that other Harold, who, though a Saxon, died +bravely for his kingdom when his brother betrayed him, and I held out my +hand and gave him the clasp of friendship.” + +The old man paused, but after a brief reflection proceeded: + +“We made him welcome and we loved him. He knew the world and could tell +us many-things. He knew the story of Norway and the Vikings, and the +Sagas were on his tongue. Cnut loved him and followed him, and she (the +pause which always indicated her who filled his thoughts)--she, then but +a girl, laughed and sang for him, and he sang for her, and his voice was +rich and sweet. And she went with him to fish and to climb, and often, +when Cnut and I were in the field, we would hear her laugh, clear and +fresh from the rocks beside the streams, as he told her some fine story +of his England. He stayed here a month and a week, and then departed, +saying he would come again next year, and the house was empty and silent +after he left. But after a time we grew used to it once more and the +winter came. + +“When the spring returned we got a letter--a letter to her--saying he +would come again, and every two weeks another letter came, and I went +for it and brought it to--to her, and she read it to Cnut and me. And at +last he came and I went to meet him, and brought him here, welcome as +if he had been my eldest born, and we were glad. Cnut smiled and ran +forward and gave him his hand, and--she--she did not come at first, +but when she came she was clad in all that was her best, and wore her +silver--the things her mother and her grandmother had worn, and as she +stepped out of the door and saluted him, I saw for the first time that +she was a woman grown, and it was hard to tell which face was brighter, +hers or his, and Cnut smiled to see her so glad.” + +The old man relapsed into reflection. Presently, however, he resumed: + +“This time he was gayer than before:--the summer seemed to come with +him. He sang to her and read to her from books that he had brought, +teaching her to speak English like himself, and he would go and fish up +the streams while she sat near by and talked to him. Cnut also learned +his tongue well, and I did also, but Cnut did not see so much of him as +before, for Cnut had to work, and in the evening they were reading and +she--she--grew more and more beautiful, and laughed and sang more. And +so the summer passed. The autumn came, but he did not go, and I was well +content, for she was happy, and, in truth, the place was cheerier that +he was here. + +“Cnut alone seemed downcast, but I knew not why; and then the snow came. +One morning we awoke and the farm was as white as the mountains. I said +to him, ‘Now you are here for the winter,’ and he laughed and said, ‘No, +I will stay till the new-year. I have business then in England, and I +must go.’ And I turned, and her face was like sunshine, for she knew +that none but Cnut and I had ever passed the Devil’s Ledge in the snow, +and the other way by which I took the Doctor home was worse then, though +easier in the summer, only longer. But Cnut looked gloomy, at which I +chid him; but he was silent. And the autumn passed rapidly, so cheerful +was he, finding in the snow as much pleasure as in the sunshine, and +taking her out to slide and race on shoes till she would come in with +her cheeks like roses in summer, and her eyes like stars, and she made +it warm where she was. + +“And one evening they came home. He was gayer than ever, and she more +beautiful, but silenter than her wont. She looked like her mother the +evening I asked her to be my wife. I could not take my eyes from her. +That night Cnut was a caged wolf. At last he asked me to come out, and +then he told me that he had seen Harold kiss her and had heard him tell +her that he loved her, and she had not driven him away. My heart was +wrung for Cnut, for I loved him, and he wept like a child. I tried to +comfort him, but it was useless, and the next day he went away for a +time. I was glad to have him go, for I grieved for him, and I thought +she would miss him and be glad when he came again, and though the snow +was bad on the mountain he was sure as a wolf. He bade us good-by and +left with his eyes looking like a hurt dog’s. I thought she would have +wept to have him go, but she did not. She gave him her hand and turned +back to Harold, and smiled to him when he smiled. It was the first time +in all her life that I had not been glad to have her smile, and I was +sorry Harold had stayed, and I watched Cnut climb the mountain like a +dark speck against the snow till he disappeared. She was so happy and +beautiful that I could not long be out with her, though I grieved for +Cnut, and when she came to me and told me one night of her great love +for Harold I forgot my own regret in her joy, and I said nothing to +Harold, because she told me he said that in his country it was not usual +for the father to be told or to speak to a daughter’s lover. + +“They were much taken up together after that, and I was alone, and +I missed Cnut sorely, and would have longed for him more but for her +happiness. But one day, when he had been gone two months, I looked over +the mountain, and on the snow I saw a black speck. It had not been there +before, and I watched it as it moved, and I knew it was Cnut. + +“I said nothing until he came, and then I ran and met him. He was thin, +and worn, and older; but his eyes had a look in them which I thought was +joy at getting home; only they were not soft, and he looked taller than +when he left, and he spoke little. His eyes softened when she, hearing +his voice, came out and held out her hand to him, smiling to welcome +him; but he did not kiss her as kinsfolk do after long absence, and when +Harold came out the wolf-look came back into his eyes. Harold looked +not so pleased to see him, but held out his hand to greet him. But Cnut +stepped back, and suddenly drawing from his breast a letter placed it in +his palm, saying slowly, ‘I have been to England, Lord Harold, and have +brought you this from your Lady Ethelfrid Penrith--they expect you to +your wedding at the New Year.’ Harold turned as white as the snow under +his feet, and she gave a cry and fell full length on the ground. + +“Cnut was the first to reach her, and lifting her in his arms he bore +her into the house. Harold would have seized her, but Cnut brushed him +aside as if he had been a barley-straw, and carried her and laid her +down. When she came to herself she did not remember clearly what had +happened. She was strange to me who was her father, but she knew him. +I could have slain him, but she called him. He went to her, and she +understood only that he was going away, and she wept. He told her it +was true that he had loved another woman and had promised to marry her, +before he had met her, but now he loved her better, and he would go home +and arrange everything and return; and she listened and clung to him. I +hated him and wanted him to go, but he was my guest, and I told him that +he could not go through the snow; but he was determined. It seemed as if +he wanted now to get away, and I was glad to have him go, for my child +was strange to me, and if he had deceived one woman I knew he might +another, and Cnut said that the letter he had sent by him before the +snow came was to say he would come in time to be married at the New +Year; and Cnut said he lived in a great castle and owned broad lands, +more than one could see from the whole mountain, and his people had +brought him in and asked him many questions of him, and had offered him +gold to bring the letter back, and he had refused the gold, and brought +it without the gold; and some said he had deceived more than one woman. +And Lord Harold went to get ready, and she wept, and moaned, and was +strange. And then Cnut went to her and told her of his own love for her, +and that he was loyal to her, but she waved him from her, and when he +asked her to marry him, for he loved her truly, she said him nay with +violence, so that he came forth into the air looking white as a leper. +And he sat down, and when I came out he was sitting on a stone, and had +his knife in his hand, looking at it with a dangerous gleam in his eyes; +and just then she arose and came out, and, seeing him sitting so with +his knife, she gave a start, and her manner changed, and going to him +she spoke softly to him for the first time, and made him yield her up +the knife; for she knew that the knife hung loose in the sheath. But +then she changed again and all her anger rose against Cnut, that he had +brought Harold the letter which carried him away, and Cnut sat saying +nothing, and his face was like stone. Then Lord Harold came and said +he was ready, and he asked Cnut would he carry his luggage. And Cnut at +first refused, and then suddenly looked him full in his face, and said, +‘Yes.’ And Harold entered the house to say good-by to her, and I heard +her weeping within, and my heart grew hard against the Englishman, and +Cnut’s face was black with anger, and when Harold came forth I heard her +cry out, and he turned in the door and said he would return, and would +write her a letter to let her know when he would return. But he said it +as one speaks to a child to quiet it, not meaning it. And Cnut went in +to speak to her, and I heard her drive him out as if he had been a +dog, and he came forth with his face like a wolf’s, and taking up Lord +Harold’s luggage, he set out. And so they went over the mountain. + +“And all that night she lay awake, and I heard her moaning, and all next +day she sat like stone, and I milked the goats, and her thoughts were on +the letters he would send. + +“I spoke to her, but she spoke only of the letters to come, and I kept +silence, for I had seen that Lord Harold would come no more; for I had +seen him burn the little things she had given him, and he had taken +everything away, but I could not tell her so. And the days passed, and I +hoped that Cnut would come straight back; but he did not. It grieved me, +for I loved him, and hoped that he would return, and that in time she +would forget Lord Harold, and not be strange, but be as she had been to +Cnut before he came. Yet I thought it not wholly wonderful that Cnut did +not return at once, nor unwise; for she was lonely, and would sit all +day looking up the mountain, and when he came she would, I thought, be +glad to have him back. + +“At the end of a week she began to urge me to go for a letter. But I +told her it could not come so soon; but when another week had passed she +began to sew, and when I asked her what she sewed, she said her bridal +dress, and she became so that I agreed to go, for I knew no letter would +come, and it broke my heart to see her. And when I was ready she +kissed me, and wept in my arms, and called me her good father; and so I +started. + +“She stood in the door and watched me climb the mountain, and waved to +me almost gayly. + +“The snow was deep, but I followed the track which Cnut and the +Englishman had made two weeks before, for no new snow had fallen, and I +saw that one track was ever behind the other, and never beside it, as if +Cnut had fallen back and followed behind him. + +“And so I came near to the Devil’s Seat, where it was difficult, and from +where Cnut had brought him in his arms that day, and then, for the first +time, I began to fear, for I remembered Cnut’s look as he came from the +house when she waved him off, and it had been so easy for him with a +swing of his strong arm to have pushed the other over the cliff. But +when I saw that he had driven his stick in deep to hold hard, and that +the tracks went on beyond, I breathed freely again, and so I passed the +narrow path, and the black wall, and came to the Devil’s Seat; and as I +turned the rock my heart stopped beating, and I had nearly fallen from +the ledge. For there, scattered and half-buried in the snow, lay the +pack Cnut had carried on his back, and the snow was all dug up and piled +about as if stags had been fighting there for their lives. From the +wall, across and back, were deep furrows, as if they were ploughed by +men’s feet dug fiercely in; but they were ever deeper toward the edge, +and on one spot at the edge the snow was all torn clear from the black +rock, and beyond the seat the narrow path lay smooth, and bright, and +level as it had fallen, without a track. My knees shook under me, and I +clutched my stick for support, and everything grew black before me: and +presently I fell on my knees and crawled and peered over the edge. But +there was nothing to be seen, only where the wall slants sharp down for +a little space in one spot the snow was brushed away as if something had +struck there, and the black, smooth rock showed clean, cutting off the +sight from the glacier a thousand feet down.” + +The old man’s breast heaved. It was evidently a painful narrative, but +he kept on. + +“I sat down in the snow and thought; for I could not think at once. Cnut +had not wished to murder, or else he had flung the Englishman from the +narrow ledge with one blow of his strong arm. He had waited until they +had stood on the Devil’s Seat, and then he had thrown off his pack and +faced him, man to man. The Englishman was strong and active, taller and +heavier than Cnut. He had Harald’s name, but he had not Harald’s heart +nor blood, and Cnut had carried him in his arms over the cliff, with his +false heart like water in his body. + +“I sat there all day and into the night; for I knew that he would betray +no one more. I sorrowed for Cnut, for he was my very son. And after a +time I would have gone back to her, but I thought of her at home waiting +and watching for me with a letter, and I could not; and then I wept, and +I wished that I were Cnut, for I knew that he had had one moment of joy +when he took the Englishman in his arms. And then I took the scattered +things from the snow and threw them over the cliff; for I would not let +it be known that Cnut had flung the Englishman over. It would be talked +about over the mountain, and Cnut would be thought a murderer by those +who did not know, and some would say he had done it foully; and so +I went on over the mountain, and told it there that Cnut and the +Englishman had gone over the cliff together in the snow on their way, +and it was thought that a slip of snow had carried them. And I came back +and told her only that no letter had come.” + +He was silent so long that I thought he had ended; but presently, in a +voice so low that it was just like a whisper, he added: “I thought she +would forget, but she has not, and every fortnight she begins to sew her +dress and I go over the mountains to give her peace; for each time she +draws nearer to the end, and wears away more and more; and some day the +thin blade will snap.” + +“The thin blade” was already snapping, and even while he was speaking +the last fibres were giving way. + +The silence which followed his words was broken by Elsket; I heard a +strange sound, and Elsket called feebly, “Oh, father.” + +Olaf went quickly to her bedside. I heard him say, “My God in Heaven!” + and I sprang up and joined him. It was a hemorrhage. + +Her life-blood was flowing from her lips. She could not last like that +ten minutes. + +Providentially the remedies provided by Doctor John were right at hand, +and, thanks to them, the crimson tide was stayed before life went +out; but it was soon apparent that her strength was gone and her power +exhausted. + +We worked over her, but her pulse was running down like a broken clock. +There was no time to have got a physician, even had there been one to +get. I mentioned it; Olaf shook his head. “She is in the hands of God,” + he said. + +Olaf never left the bedside except to heat water or get some stimulant +for her. + +But, notwithstanding every effort, she failed to rally. The overtaxed +heart was giving out, and all day she sank steadily. I never saw such a +desperate face as that old man’s. It haunts me now. He hung over her. +He held her hand, now growing cold, against his cheek to keep it +warm--stroked it and kissed it. As towards evening the short, quick +breaths came, which precede dissolution, he sank on his knees. At first, +he buried his face in his hands; then in the agony of his despair, he +began to speak aloud. I never heard a more moving appeal. It was a man +speaking face to face with God for one about to enter his presence. +His eyes were wide open, as if he saw His face. He did not ask that she +should be spared to him; it was all for his “Elska,” his “Darling,” that +Jesus would be her “Herder,” and lead her beside the still waters; that +she might be spared all suffering and sorrow, and have peace. + +Presently he ended and buried his face in his hands. The quick, faint +breaths had died away, and as I looked on the still white face on the +pillow I thought that she had gone. But suddenly the large eyes slowly +opened wide. + +“Father,” she said, faintly. + +“Elsket,” the old man bent over her eagerly. + +“I am so tired.” + +“My Elsket.” + +“I love you.” + +“Yes, my Elsket.” + +“You will stay with me?” + +“Yes, always.” + +“If Cnut comes?”. + +“Yes, my Elsket.” + +“If Cnut comes----” very faintly. + +Her true lover’s name was the last on her lips. + +He bent his ear to her lips. “Yes?” + +But we never knew just what she wanted. The dim, large eyes closed, and +then the lids lifted slowly a little; there was a sigh, and Elsket’s +watching was over; the weary spirit was at peace. + +“She is with God,” he said, calmly. + +I closed the white lids gently, and moved out. Later I offered to help +him, but he said “No,” and I remained out of doors till the afternoon. + +About sunset he appeared and went up toward the old church, and I went +into the house. I found that he had laid her out in the large room, and +she lay with her face slightly turned as if asleep. She was dressed like +a bride in the bridal dress she had sewn so long; her hair was unbound, +and lay about her, fine and silken, and she wore the old silver +ornaments she had showed me. No bride had ever a more faithful +attendant. He had put them all upon her. + +After a time, as he did not come back, I went to look for him. As I +approached I heard a dull, thumping sound. When I reached the cleared +place I found him digging. He had chosen a spot just in front of the +quaint old door, with the rude, runic letters, which the earliest +sunbeams would touch. As I came up I saw he was digging her grave. +I offered to help, but he said “No.” So I carried him some food and +placing it near him left him. + +Late that evening he came down and asked me if I would sit up that +night. I told him, yes. He thanked me and went into the house. In +a little while he came out and silently went up the path toward the +mountain. + +It was a strange night that I spent in that silent valley in that still +house, only I, and the dead girl lying there so white and peaceful. I +had strange thoughts, and the earth and things earthly disappeared for +me that night shut in by those mountain walls. I was in a world alone. +I was cut off from all but God and the dead. I have dear ones in heaven, +and I was nearer to them that night, amid the mountain-tops of Norway, +than I was to earthly friends. I think I was nearer to heaven that night +than I ever shall be again till I get there. + +Day broke like a great pearl, but I did not heed it. It was all peace. + +Suddenly there was a step outside, and Olaf, with his face drawn and +gray, and bowing under the weight of the burden upon his shoulder, +stepped wearily in at the door. + +To do Elsket honor he had been over the mountain to get it. I helped +lift it down and place it, and then he waited for me to go. As I passed +out of the door I saw him bend over the quiet sleeper. I looked in +later; he had placed her in the coffin, but the top was not on and he +was on his knees beside her. + +He did not bury her that day; but he never left her side; he sat by her +all day and all night. Next day he came to the door and looked at me. +I went in and understood that he wanted me to look for the last time on +her face. It was fairer than I ever saw it. He had cut her flowers +and placed them all about her, and on her breast was a small packet of +letters. All care, all suffering, all that was merely of the earth were +cleansed away, and she looked as she lay, like a dead angel. After I +came out I heard him fastening on the top, and when he finished I +went in again. He would have attempted to carry it by himself, but I +restrained him, and without a word he took the head and I the foot, and +so lifting her tenderly we went gently out and up toward the church. We +had to pause and rest several times, for he was almost worn out. After +we had lowered her into the grave I was in doubt what to do; but Olaf +drew from his coat his two books, and standing close by the side of the +grave he opened first the little Bible and began to read in a low but +distinct voice: “Lord, thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to +another. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and +the world were made, thou art God from everlasting, and world without +end.” + +When he finished this he turned and read again: “Now is Christ risen +from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept,” etc. +They were the Psalm and the chapter which I had heard him read to Elsket +that first day when she became excited, and with which he had so often +charmed her restless spirit. + +He closed, and I thought he was done, but he opened his hymn-book and +turning over a few leaves sang the same hymn he had sung to her that +day. He sang it all through to the end, the low, strange, dirge-like +hymn, and chanted as it was by that old man alone, standing in the +fading evening light beside the grave which he had dug for his daughter, +the last of his race, I never heard anything so moving. Then he knelt, +and clasping his hands offered a prayer. The words, from habit, ran +almost as they had done when he had prayed for Elsket before, that +God would be her Shepherd, her “Herder,” and lead her beside the still +waters, and give her peace. + +When he was through I waited a little, and then I took up a spade to +help him; but he reached out and took it quietly, and seeing that he +wanted to be alone I left him. He meant to do for Elsket all the last +sacred offices himself. + +I was so fatigued that on reaching the house I dropped off to sleep and +slept till morning, and I do not know when he came into the house, if +he came at all. When I waked early next morning he was not there, and I +rose and went up to the church to hunt for him. He was sitting quietly +beside the grave, and I saw that he had placed at her head a little +cross of birchwood, on which he had burned one word, simply, + +“Elsket.” + +I spoke to him, asking him to come to the house. + +“I cannot leave her,” he said; but when I urged him he rose silently and +returned with me. + +I remained with him for a while after that, and each day he went and sat +by the grave. At last I had to leave. I urged him to come with me, but +he replied always, “No, I must watch over Elsket.” + +It was late in the evening when we set off to cross the mountain. We +came by the same path by which I had gone, Olaf leading me as carefully +and holding me as steadily as when I went over before. I stopped at the +church to lay a few wild flowers on the little gray mound where Elsket +slept so quietly. Olaf said not a word; he simply waited till I was done +and then followed me dumbly. I was so filled with sorrow for him that +I did not, except in one place, think much of the fearful cliffs along +which we made our way. At the Devil’s Seat, indeed, my nerves for a +moment seemed shaken and almost gave way as I thought of the false young +lord whose faithlessness had caused all the misery to these simple, +kindly folk, and of the fierce young Norseman who had there found so +sweet a revenge. But we came on and passed the ledge, and descending +struck the broader path just after the day broke, where it was no longer +perilous but only painful. + +There Olaf paused. “I will go back if you don’t want me,” he said. I +did not need his services, but I urged him to come on with me--to pay a +visit to his friends. “I have none,” he said, simply. Then to come home +with me and live with me in old Virginia. He said, “No,” he “must watch +over Elsket.” So finally I had to give in, and with a clasp of the hand +and a message to “her friend” Doctor John, to “remember Elsket,” he went +back and was soon lost amid the rocks. + +I was half-way down when I reached a cleared place an hour or so later, +and turned to look back. The sharp angle of the Devil’s Ledge was the +highest point visible, the very pinnacle of the mountain, and there, +clear against the burnished steel of the morning sky, on the very edge, +clear in the rare atmosphere was a small figure. It stood for a second, +a black point distinctly outlined, and then disappeared. + +It was Olaf of the Mountain, gone back to keep watch over Elsket. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsket, by Thomas Nelson Page + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSKET *** + +***** This file should be named 23017-0.txt or 23017-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/1/23017/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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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: Elsket + 1891 + +Author: Thomas Nelson Page + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23017] +Last Updated: October 3, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSKET *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + ELSKET + </h1> + <h2> + By Thomas Nelson Page <br /> <br /> 1891 + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II. </a> + </p> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The knife hangs loose in the sheath.” + —Old Norsk Proverb. +</pre> + <p> + I spent a month of the summer of 188- in Norway—“Old Norway”—and + a friend of mine, Dr. John Robson, who is as great a fisherman as he is a + physician, and knows that I love a stream where the trout and I can meet + each other alone, and have it out face to face, uninterrupted by any + interlopers, did me a favor to which I was indebted for the experience + related below. He had been to Norway two years before, and he let me into + the secret of an unexplored region between the Nord Fiord and the Romsdal. + I cannot give the name of the place, because even now it has not been + fully explored, and he bound me by a solemn promise that I would not + divulge it to a single soul, actually going to the length of insisting on + my adding a formal oath to my affirmation. This I consented to because I + knew that my friend was a humorous man, and also because otherwise he + positively refused to inform me where the streams were about which he had + been telling such fabulous fish stories. “No,” he said, “some of those + ——— cattle who think they own the earth and have a right + to fool women at will and know how to fish, will be poking in there, + worrying Olaf and Elsket, and ruining the fishing, and I’ll be ——— + if I tell you unless you make oath.” My friend is a swearing man, though + he says he swears for emphasis, not blasphemy, and on this occasion he + swore with extreme solemnity. I saw that he was in earnest, so made + affidavit and was rewarded. + </p> + <p> + “Now,” he said, after inquiring about my climbing capacity in a way which + piqued me, and giving me the routes with a particularity which somewhat + mystified me, “Now I will write a letter to Olaf of the Mountain and to + Elsket. I once was enabled to do them a slight service, and they will + receive you. It will take him two or three weeks to get it, so you may + have to wait a little. You must wait at L—— until Olaf comes + down to take you over the mountain. You may be there when he gets the + letter, or you may have to wait for a couple of weeks, as he does not come + over the mountain often. However, you can amuse yourself around L——; + only you must always be on hand every night in case Olaf comes.” + </p> + <p> + Although this appeared natural enough to the doctor, it sounded rather + curious to me, and it seemed yet more so when he added, “By the way, one + piece of advice: don’t talk about England to Elsket, and don’t ask any + questions.” + </p> + <p> + “Who is Elsket?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “A daughter of the Vikings, poor thing,” he said. + </p> + <p> + My curiosity was aroused, but I could get nothing further out of him, and + set it down to his unreasonable dislike of travelling Englishmen, against + whom, for some reason, he had a violent antipathy, declaring that they did + not know how to treat women nor how to fish. My friend has a custom of + speaking very strongly, and I used to wonder at the violence of his + language, which contrasted strangely with his character; for he was the + kindest-hearted man I ever knew, being a true follower of his patron + saint, old Isaac, giving his sympathy to all the unfortunate, and even + handling his frogs as if he loved them. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that on the afternoon of the seventh day of July, 188-, + having, for purposes of identification, a letter in my pocket to “Olaf of + the Mountain from his friend Dr. Robson,” I stood, in the rain in the + so-called “street” of L——, on the ——— Fiord, + looking over the bronzed feces of the stolid but kindly peasants who + lounged silently around, trying to see if I could detect in one a + resemblance to the picture I had formed in my mind of “Olaf of the + Mountain,” or could discern in any eye a gleam of special interest to show + that its possessor was on the watch for an expected guest. + </p> + <p> + There was none in whom I could discover any indication that he was not a + resident of the straggling little settlement. They all stood quietly about + gazing at me and talking in low tones among themselves, chewing tobacco or + smoking their pipes, as naturally as if they were in Virginia or Kentucky, + only, if possible, in a somewhat more ruminant manner. It gave me the + single bit of home feeling I could muster, for it was, I must confess, + rather desolate standing alone in a strange land, under those beetling + crags, with the clouds almost resting on our heads, and the rain coming + down in a steady, wet, monotonous fashion. The half-dozen little dark log + or frame-houses, with their double windows and turf roofs, standing about + at all sorts of angles to the road, as if they had rolled down the + mountain like the great bowlders beyond them, looked dark and cheerless. I + was weak enough to wish for a second that I had waited a few days for the + rainy spell to be over, but two little bareheaded children, coming down + the road laughing and chattering, recalled me to myself. They had no + wrapping whatever, and nothing on their heads but their soft flaxen hair, + yet they minded the rain no more than if they had been ducklings. I saw + that these people were used to rain. It was the inheritance of a thousand + years. Something, however, had to be done, and I recognized the fact that + I was out of the beaten track of tourists, and that if I had to stay here + a week, on the prudence of my first step depended the consideration I + should receive. It would not do to be hasty. I had a friend with me which + had stood me in good stead before, and I applied to it now. Walking slowly + up to the largest, and one of the oldest men in the group, I drew out my + pipe and a bag of old Virginia tobacco, free from any flavor than its own, + and filling the pipe, I asked him for a light in the best phrase-book + Norsk I could command. He gave it, and I placed the bag in his hand and + motioned him to fill his pipe. When that was done I handed the pouch to + another, and motioned him to fill and pass the tobacco around. One by one + they took it, and I saw that I had friends. No man can fill his pipe from + another’s bag and not wish him well. + </p> + <p> + “Does any of you know Olaf of the Mountain?” I asked. I saw at once that I + had made an impression. The mention of that name was evidently a claim to + consideration. There was a general murmur of surprise, and the group + gathered around me. A half-dozen spoke at once. + </p> + <p> + “He was at L—— last week,” they said, as if that fact was an + item of extensive interest. + </p> + <p> + “I want to go there,” I said, and then was, somehow, immediately conscious + that I had made a mistake. Looks were exchanged and some words were spoken + among my friends, as if they were oblivious of my presence. + </p> + <p> + “You cannot go there. None goes there but at night,” said one, + suggestively. + </p> + <p> + “Who goes over the mountain comes no more,” said another, as if he quoted + a proverb, at which there was a faint intimation of laughter on the part + of several. + </p> + <p> + My first adviser undertook a long explanation, but though he labored + faithfully I could make out no more than that it was something about + “Elsket” and “the Devil’s Ledge,” and men who had disappeared. This was a + new revelation. What object had my friend? He had never said a word of + this. Indeed, he had, I now remembered, said very little at all about the + people. He had exhausted his eloquence on the fish. I recalled his words + when I asked him about Elsket: “She is a daughter of the Vikings, poor + thing.” That was all. Had he been up to a practical joke? If so, it seemed + rather a sorry one to me just then. But anyhow I could not draw back now. + I could never face him again if I did not go on, and what was more + serious, I could never face myself. + </p> + <p> + I was weak enough to have a thought that, after all, the mysterious Olaf + might not come; but the recollection of the fish of which my friend had + spoken as if they had been the golden fish of the “Arabian Nights,” + banished that. I asked about the streams around L——. “Yes, + there was good fishing.” But they were all too anxious to tell me about + the danger of going over the mountain to give much thought to the fishing. + “No one without Olafs blood could cross the Devil’s Ledge.” “Two men had + disappeared three years ago.” “A man had disappeared there last year. He + had gone, and had never been heard of afterward. The Devil’s Ledge was a + bad pass.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don’t they look into the matter?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + The reply was as near a shrug of the shoulders as a Norseman can + accomplish. + </p> + <p> + “It was not easy to get the proof; the mountain was very dangerous, the + glacier very slippery; there were no witnesses,” etc. “Olaf of the + Mountain was not a man to trouble.” + </p> + <p> + “He hates Englishmen,” said one, significantly. + </p> + <p> + “I am not an Englishman, I am an American,” I explained. + </p> + <p> + This had a sensible effect. Several began to talk at once. One had a + brother in Idaho, another had cousins in Nebraska, and so on. + </p> + <p> + The group had by this time been augmented by the addition of almost the + entire population of the settlement; one or two rosy-cheeked women, having + babies in their arms, standing in the rain utterly regardless of the + steady downpour. + </p> + <p> + It was a propitious time. “Can I get a place to stay here?” I inquired of + the group generally. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,—oh, yes.” There was a consultation in which the name of + “Hendrik” was heard frequently, and then a man stepped forward and taking + up my bag and rod-case, walked off, I following, escorted by a number of + my new friends. + </p> + <p> + I had been installed in Hendrik’s little house about an hour, and we had + just finished supper, when there was a murmur outside, and then the door + opened, and a young man stepping in, said something so rapidly that I + understood only that it concerned Olaf of the Mountain, and in some way + myself. + </p> + <p> + “Olaf of the Mountain is here and wants to speak to you,” said my host. + “Will you go?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” I said. “Why does he not come in?” + </p> + <p> + “He will not come in,” said my host; “he never does come in.” + </p> + <p> + “He is at the church-yard,” said the messenger; “he always stops there.” + They both spoke broken English. + </p> + <p> + I arose and went out, taking the direction indicated. A number of my + friends stood in the road or street as I passed along, and touched their + caps to me, looking very queer in the dim twilight. They gazed at me + curiously as I walked by. + </p> + <p> + I turned the corner of a house which stood half in the road, and just in + front of me, in its little yard, was the little white church with its + square, heavy, short spire. At the gate stood a tall figure, perfectly + motionless, leaning on a long staff. As I approached I saw that he was an + elderly man. He wore a long beard, once yellow but now gray, and he looked + very straight and large. There was something grand about him as he stood + there in the dusk. + </p> + <p> + I came quite up to him. He did not move. + </p> + <p> + “Good-evening,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “Good-evening.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you Mr. Hovedsen?” I asked, drawing out my letter. + </p> + <p> + “I am Olaf of the Mountain,” he said slowly, as if his name embraced the + whole title. + </p> + <p> + I handed him the letter. + </p> + <p> + “You are——?” + </p> + <p> + “I am——” taking my cue from his own manner. + </p> + <p> + “The friend of her friend?” + </p> + <p> + “His great friend.” + </p> + <p> + “Can you climb?” + </p> + <p> + “I can.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you steady?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “It is well; are you ready?” + </p> + <p> + I had not counted on this, and involuntarily I asked, in some surprise, + “To-night?” + </p> + <p> + “To-night. You cannot go in the day.” + </p> + <p> + I thought of the speech I had heard: “No one goes over the mountain except + at night,” and the ominous conclusion, “Who goes over the mountain comes + no more.” My strange host, however, diverted my thoughts. + </p> + <p> + “A stranger cannot go except at night,” he said, gravely; and then added, + “I must get back to watch over Elsket.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall be ready in a minute,” I said, turning. + </p> + <p> + In ten minutes I had bade good-by to my simple hosts, and leaving them + with a sufficient evidence of my consideration to secure their lasting + good-will, I was on my way down the street again with my light luggage on + my back. This time the entire population of the little village was in the + road, and as I passed along I knew by their murmuring conversation that + they regarded my action with profound misgiving. I felt, as I returned + their touch of the cap and bade them good-by, a little like the gladiators + of old who, about to die, saluted Caesar. + </p> + <p> + At the gate my strange guide, who had not moved from the spot where I + first found him, insisted on taking my luggage, and buckling his straps + around it and flinging it over his back, he handed me his stick, and + without a word strode off straight toward the black mountain whose vast + wall towered above us to the clouds. + </p> + <p> + I shall never forget that climb. + </p> + <p> + We were hardly out of the road before we began to ascend, and I had + shortly to stop for breath. My guide, however, if silent was thoughtful, + and he soon caught my gait and knew when to pause. Up through the dusk we + went, he guiding me now by a word telling me how to step, or now turning + to give me his hand to help me up a steep place, over a large rock, or + around a bad angle. For a time we had heard the roar of the torrent as it + boiled below us, but as we ascended it had gradually hushed, and we at + length were in a region of profound silence. The night was cloudy, and as + dark as it ever is in midsummer in that far northern latitude; but I knew + that we were climbing along the edge of a precipice, on a narrow ledge of + rock along the face of the cliff. The vast black wall above us rose sheer + up, and I could feel rather than see that it went as sheer down, though my + sight could not penetrate the darkness which filled the deep abyss below. + We had been climbing about three hours when suddenly the ledge seemed to + die out. My guide stopped, and unwinding his rope from his waist, held it + out to me. I obeyed his silent gesture, and binding it around my body gave + him the end. He wrapped it about him, and then taking me by the arm, as if + I had been a child, he led me slowly along the narrow ledge around the + face of the wall, step by step, telling me where to place my feet, and + waiting till they were firmly planted. I began now to understand why no + one ever went “over the mountain” in the day. We were on a ledge nearly + three thousand feet high. If it had not been for the strong, firm hold on + my arm, I could not have stood it. As it was I dared not think. Suddenly + we turned a sharp angle and found ourselves in a curious semicircular + place, almost level and fifty or sixty feet deep in the concave, as if a + great piece had been gouged out of the mountain by the glacier which must + once have been there. + </p> + <p> + “This is a curious place,” I ventured to say. + </p> + <p> + “It is,” said my guide. “It is the Devil’s Seat. Men have died here.” + </p> + <p> + His tone was almost fierce. I accepted his explanation silently. We passed + the singular spot and once more were on the ledge, but except in one place + it was not so narrow as it had been the other side of the Devil’s Seat, + and in fifteen minutes we had crossed the summit and the path widened a + little and began to descend. + </p> + <p> + “You do well,” said my guide, briefly, “but not so well as Doctor John.” I + was well content with being ranked a good second to the doctor just then. + </p> + <p> + The rain had ceased, the sky had partly cleared, and, as we began to + descend, the early twilight of the northern dawn began to appear. First + the sky became a clear steel-gray and the tops of the mountains became + visible, the dark outlines beginning to be filled in, and taking on a soft + color. This lightened rapidly, until on the side facing east they were + bathed in an atmosphere so clear and transparent that they seemed almost + within a stone’s throw of us, while the other side was still left in a + shadow which was so deep as to be almost darkness. The gray lightened and + lightened into pearl until a tinge of rose appeared, and then the sky + suddenly changed to the softest blue, and a little later the snow-white + mountain-tops were bathed in pink, and it was day. + </p> + <p> + I could see in the light that we were descending into a sort of upland + hollow between the snow-patched mountain-tops; below us was a lovely + little valley in which small pines and birches grew, and patches of the + green, short grass which stands for hay shone among the great bowlders. + Several little streams came jumping down as white as milk from the + glaciers stuck between the mountain-tops, and after resting in two or + three tiny lakes which looked like hand-mirrors lying in the grass below, + went bubbling and foaming on to the edge of the precipice, over which they + sprang, to be dashed into vapor and snow hundreds of feet down. A + half-dozen sheep and as many goats were feeding about in the little + valley; but I could not see the least sign of a house, except a queer, + brown structure, on a little knoll, with many gables and peaks, ending in + the curious dragon-pennants, which I recognized as one of the old Norsk + wooden churches of a past age. + </p> + <p> + When, however, an hour later, we had got down to the table-land, I found + myself suddenly in front of a long, quaint, double log cottage, set + between two immense bowlders, and roofed with layers of birch bark, + covered with turf, which was blue with wild pansies. It was as if it were + built under a bed of heart’s-ease. It was very old, and had evidently been + a house of some pretension, for there was much curious carving about the + doors, and indeed about the whole front, the dragon’s head being + distinctly visible in the design. There were several lesser houses which + looked as if they had once been dwellings, but they seemed now to be only + stables. As we approached the principal door it was opened, and there + stepped forth one of the most striking figures I ever saw—a young + woman, rather tall, and as straight as an arrow. My friend’s words + involuntarily recurred to me, “A daughter of the Vikings,” and then, + somehow, I too had the feeling he had expressed, “Poor thing!” Her figure + was one of the richest and most perfect I ever beheld. Her face was + singularly beautiful; but it was less her beauty than her nobility of look + and mien combined with a certain sadness which impressed me. The features + were clear and strong and perfectly carved. There was a firm mouth, a good + jaw, strong chin, a broad brow, and deep blue eyes which looked straight + at you. Her expression was so soft and tender as to have something + pathetic in it. Her hair was flaxen, and as fine as satin, and was brushed + perfectly smooth and coiled on the back of her shapely head, which was + placed admirably on her shoulders. She was dressed in the coarse, + black-blue stuff of the country, and a kerchief, also dark blue, was + knotted under her chin, and fell back behind her head, forming a dark + background for her silken hair. + </p> + <p> + Seeing us she stood perfectly still until we drew near, when she made a + quaint, low courtesy and advanced to meet her father with a look of eager + expectancy in her large eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Elsket,” he said, with a tenderness which conveyed the full meaning of + the sweet pet term, “darling.” + </p> + <p> + There was something about these people, peasants though they were, which + gave me a strange feeling of respect for them. + </p> + <p> + “This is Doctor John’s friend,” said the old man, quietly. + </p> + <p> + She looked at her father in a puzzled way for a moment, as if she had not + heard him, but as he repeated his introduction a light came into her eyes, + and coming up to me she held out her hand, saying, “Welcome.” + </p> + <p> + Then turning to her father—“Have you a letter for me, father?” she + asked. + </p> + <p> + “No, Elsket,” he said, gently; “but I will go again next month.” + </p> + <p> + A cloud settled on her face and increased its sadness, and she turned her + head away. After a moment she went into the house and I saw that she was + weeping. A look of deep dejection came over the old man’s face also. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. + </h2> + <p> + I found that my friend, “Doctor John,” strange to relate of a fisherman, + had not exaggerated the merits of the fishing. How they got there, two + thousand feet above the lower valley, I don’t know; but trout fairly + swarmed in the little streams, which boiled among the rocks, and they were + as greedy as if they had never seen a fly in their lives. I shortly became + contemptuous toward anything under three pounds, and addressed myself to + the task of defending my flies against the smaller ones, and keeping them + only for the big fellows, which ran over three pounds—the patriarchs + of the streams. With these I had capital sport, for they knew every angle + and hole, they sought every coign of vantage, and the rocks were so thick + and so sharp that from the time one of these veterans took the fly, it was + an equal contest which of us should come off victorious. I was often + forced to rush splashing and floundering through the water to my waist to + keep my line from being sawed, and as the water was not an hour from the + green glaciers above, it was not always entirely pleasant. + </p> + <p> + I soon made firm friends with my hosts, and varied the monotony of + catching three-pounders by helping them get in their hay for the winter. + Elsket, poor thing, was, notwithstanding her apparently splendid physique, + so delicate that she could no longer stand the fatigue of manual labor, + any extra exertion being liable to bring on a recurrence of the + heart-failure, from which she had suffered. I learned that she had had a + violent hemorrhage two summers before, from which she had come near dying, + and that the skill of my friend, the doctor, had doubtless saved her life. + This was the hold he had on Olaf of the Mountain: this was the “small + service” he had rendered them. + </p> + <p> + By aiding them thus, I was enabled to be of material assistance to Olaf, + and I found in helping these good people, that work took on once more the + delight which I remembered it used to have under like circumstances when I + was a boy. I could cut or carry on my back loads of hay all day, and feel + at night as if I had been playing. Such is the singular effect of the + spirit on labor. + </p> + <p> + To make up for this, Elsket would sometimes, when I went fishing, take her + knitting and keep me company, sitting at a little distance. With her pale, + calm face and shining hair outlined against the background of her + sad-colored kerchief, she looked like a mourning angel. I never saw her + smile except when her father came into her presence, and when she smiled + it was as if the sun had suddenly come out. I began to understand the + devotion of these two strange people, so like and yet so different. + </p> + <p> + One rainy day she had a strange turn; she began to be restless. Her large, + sad eyes, usually so calm, became bright; the two spots in her cheeks + burned yet deeper; her face grew anxious. Then she laid her knitting aside + and took out of a great chest something on which she began to sew busily. + I was looking at her, when she caught my eye and smiled. It was the first + time she ever smiled for me. “Did you know I was going to be married?” she + asked, just as an American girl might have done. And before I could + answer, she brought me the work. It was her wedding dress. “I have nearly + finished it,” she said. Then she brought me a box of old silver ornaments, + such as the Norsk brides wear, and put them on. When I had admired them + she put them away. After a little, she arose and began to wander about the + house and out into the rain. I watched her with interest. Her father came + in, and I saw a distressed look come into his eyes. He went up to her, and + laying his hand on her drew her toward a seat. Then taking down an old + Bible, he turned to a certain place and began to read. He read first the + Psalm: “Lord, thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to another. + Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world + were made, thou art God from everlasting, and world without end.” Then he + turned to the chapter of Corinthians, “Now is Christ risen from the dead, + and become the first-fruits of them that slept,” etc. His voice was clear, + rich, and devout, and he read it with singular earnestness and beauty. It + gave me a strange feeling; it is a part of our burial service. Then he + opened his hymn-book and began to sing a low, dirge-like hymn. I sat + silent, watching the strange service and noting its effect on Elsket. She + sat at first like a person bound, struggling to be free, then became + quieter, and at last, perfectly calm. Then Olaf knelt down, and with his + hand still on her prayed one of the most touching prayers I ever heard. It + was for patience. + </p> + <p> + When he rose Elsket was weeping, and she went and leant in his arms like a + child, and he kissed her as tenderly as if he had been her mother. + </p> + <p> + Next day, however, the same excited state recurred, and this time the + reading appeared to have less effect. She sewed busily, and insisted that + there must be a letter for her at L——. A violent fit of + weeping was followed by a paroxysm of coughing, and finally the old man, + who had sat quietly by her with his hand stroking her head, arose and + said, “I will go.” She threw herself into his arms, rubbing her head + against him in sign of dumb affection, and in a little while grew calm. It + was still raining and quite late, only a little before sunset; but the old + man went out, and taking the path toward L—— was soon climbing + the mountain toward the Devil’s Seat. Elsket sat up all night, but she was + as calm and as gentle as ever. + </p> + <p> + The next morning when Olaf returned she went out to meet him. Her look was + full of eager expectancy. I did not go out, but watched her from the door. + I saw Olaf shake his head, and heard her say bitterly, “It is so hard to + wait,” and he said, gently, “Yes, it is, Elsket, but I will go again,” and + then she came in weeping quietly, the old man following with a tender look + on his strong, weather-beaten face. + </p> + <p> + That day Elsket was taken ill. She had been trying to do a little work in + the field in the afternoon, when a sinking spell had come on. It looked + for a time as if the poor overdriven heart had knocked off work for good + and all. Strong remedies, however, left by Doctor John, set it going + again, and we got her to bed. She was still desperately feeble, and Olaf + sat up. I could not leave him, so we were sitting watching, he one side + the open platform fireplace in one corner, and I the other; he smoking, + anxious, silent, grim; I watching the expression on his gray face. His + eyes seemed set back deeper than ever under the shaggy gray brows, and as + the firelight fell on him he had the fierce, hopeless look of a caged + eagle. It was late in the night before he spoke, and then it was half to + himself and but half to me. + </p> + <p> + “I have fought it ten long years,” he said, slowly. + </p> + <p> + Not willing to break the thread of his thought by speaking, I lit my pipe + afresh and just looked at him. He received it as an answer. + </p> + <p> + “She is the last of them,” he said, accepting me as an auditor rather than + addressing me. “We go back to Olaf Traetelje, the blood of Harold + Haarfager (the Fairhaired) is in our veins, and here it ends. Dane and + Swede have known our power, Saxon and Celt have bowed bare-headed to us, + and with her it ends. In this stronghold many times her fathers have found + refuge from their foes and gained breathing-time after battles by sea and + land. From this nest, like eagles, they have swooped down, carrying all + before them, and here, at last, when betrayed and hunted, they found + refuge. Here no foreign king could rule over them; here they learnt the + lesson that Christ is the only king, and that all men are his brothers. + Here they lived and worshipped him. If their dominions were stolen from + them they found here a truer wealth, content; if they had not power, they + had what was better, independence. For centuries they held this last + remnant of the dominion which Harold Haarfager had conquered by land, and + Eric of the Bloody Axe had won by sea, sending out their sons and + daughters to people the lands; but the race dwindled as their lands had + done before, and now with her dies the last. How has it come? As ever, by + betrayal!” + </p> + <p> + The old man turned fiercely, his breast heaving, his eyes burning. + </p> + <p> + “Was she who came of a race at whose feet jarls have crawled and kings + have knelt not good enough?” I was hearing the story and did not interrupt + him—“Not good enough for him!” he continued in his low, fierce + monotone. “I did not want him. What if he was a Saxon? His fathers were + our boatmen. Rather Cnut a thousand times. Then the race would not have + died. Then she would not be—not be so.” + </p> + <p> + The reference to her recalled him to himself, and he suddenly relapsed + into silence. + </p> + <p> + “At least, Cnut paid the score,” he began once more, in a low intense + undertone. “In his arms he bore him down from the Devil’s Seat, a thousand + feet sheer on the hard ice, where his cursed body lies crushed forever, a + witness of his falsehood.” + </p> + <p> + I did not interrupt, and he rewarded my patience, giving a more connected + account, for the first time addressing me directly. + </p> + <p> + “Her mother died when she was a child,” he said, softly. His gentle voice + contrasted strangely with the fierce undertone in which he had been + speaking. “I was mother as well as father to her. She was as good as she + was beautiful, and each day she grew more and more so. She was a second + Igenborg. Knowing that she needed other companionship than an old man, I + sought and brought her Cnut (he spoke of him as if I must know all about + him). Cnut was the son of my only kinsman, the last of his line as well, + and he was tall and straight and strong. I loved him and he was my son, + and as he grew I saw that he loved her, and I was not sorry, for he was + goodly to look on, straight and tall as one of old, and he was good also. + And she was satisfied with him, and from a child ordered him to do her + girlish bidding, and he obeyed and laughed, well content to have her + smile. And he would carry her on his shoulder, and take her on the + mountain to slide, and would gather her flowers. And I thought it was + well. And I thought that in time they would marry and have the farm, and + that there would be children about the house, and the valley might be + filled with their voices as in the old time. And I was content. And one + day <i>he</i> came! (the reference cost him an effort). Cnut found him + fainting on the mountain and brought him here in his arms. He had come to + the village alone, and the idle fools there had told him of me, and he had + asked to meet me, and they told him of the mountain, and that none could + pass the Devil’s Ledge but those who had the old blood, and that I loved + not strangers; and he said he would pass it, and he had come and passed + safely the narrow ledge, and reached the Devil’s Seat, when a stone had + fallen upon him, and Cnut had found him there fainting, and had lifted him + and brought him here, risking his own life to save him on the ledge. And + he was near to death for days, and she nursed him and brought him from the + grave. + </p> + <p> + “At first I was cold to him, but there was something about him that drew + me and held me. It was not that he was young and taller than Cnut, and + fair. It was not that his eyes were clear and full of light, and his + figure straight as a young pine. It was not that he had climbed the + mountain and passed the narrow ledge and the Devil’s Seat alone, though I + liked well his act; for none but those who have Harold Haarfager’s blood + have done it alone in all the years, though many have tried and failed. I + asked him what men called him, and he said, ‘Harold;’ then laughing, said + some called him, ‘Harold the Fair-haired.’ The answer pleased me. There + was something in the name which drew me to him. When I first saw him I had + thought of Harald Haarfager, and of Harald Haardraarder, and of that other + Harold, who, though a Saxon, died bravely for his kingdom when his brother + betrayed him, and I held out my hand and gave him the clasp of + friendship.” + </p> + <p> + The old man paused, but after a brief reflection proceeded: + </p> + <p> + “We made him welcome and we loved him. He knew the world and could tell us + many-things. He knew the story of Norway and the Vikings, and the Sagas + were on his tongue. Cnut loved him and followed him, and she (the pause + which always indicated her who filled his thoughts)—she, then but a + girl, laughed and sang for him, and he sang for her, and his voice was + rich and sweet. And she went with him to fish and to climb, and often, + when Cnut and I were in the field, we would hear her laugh, clear and + fresh from the rocks beside the streams, as he told her some fine story of + his England. He stayed here a month and a week, and then departed, saying + he would come again next year, and the house was empty and silent after he + left. But after a time we grew used to it once more and the winter came. + </p> + <p> + “When the spring returned we got a letter—a letter to her—saying + he would come again, and every two weeks another letter came, and I went + for it and brought it to—to her, and she read it to Cnut and me. And + at last he came and I went to meet him, and brought him here, welcome as + if he had been my eldest born, and we were glad. Cnut smiled and ran + forward and gave him his hand, and—she—she did not come at + first, but when she came she was clad in all that was her best, and wore + her silver—the things her mother and her grandmother had worn, and + as she stepped out of the door and saluted him, I saw for the first time + that she was a woman grown, and it was hard to tell which face was + brighter, hers or his, and Cnut smiled to see her so glad.” + </p> + <p> + The old man relapsed into reflection. Presently, however, he resumed: + </p> + <p> + “This time he was gayer than before:—the summer seemed to come with + him. He sang to her and read to her from books that he had brought, + teaching her to speak English like himself, and he would go and fish up + the streams while she sat near by and talked to him. Cnut also learned his + tongue well, and I did also, but Cnut did not see so much of him as + before, for Cnut had to work, and in the evening they were reading and she—she—grew + more and more beautiful, and laughed and sang more. And so the summer + passed. The autumn came, but he did not go, and I was well content, for + she was happy, and, in truth, the place was cheerier that he was here. + </p> + <p> + “Cnut alone seemed downcast, but I knew not why; and then the snow came. + One morning we awoke and the farm was as white as the mountains. I said to + him, ‘Now you are here for the winter,’ and he laughed and said, ‘No, I + will stay till the new-year. I have business then in England, and I must + go.’ And I turned, and her face was like sunshine, for she knew that none + but Cnut and I had ever passed the Devil’s Ledge in the snow, and the + other way by which I took the Doctor home was worse then, though easier in + the summer, only longer. But Cnut looked gloomy, at which I chid him; but + he was silent. And the autumn passed rapidly, so cheerful was he, finding + in the snow as much pleasure as in the sunshine, and taking her out to + slide and race on shoes till she would come in with her cheeks like roses + in summer, and her eyes like stars, and she made it warm where she was. + </p> + <p> + “And one evening they came home. He was gayer than ever, and she more + beautiful, but silenter than her wont. She looked like her mother the + evening I asked her to be my wife. I could not take my eyes from her. That + night Cnut was a caged wolf. At last he asked me to come out, and then he + told me that he had seen Harold kiss her and had heard him tell her that + he loved her, and she had not driven him away. My heart was wrung for + Cnut, for I loved him, and he wept like a child. I tried to comfort him, + but it was useless, and the next day he went away for a time. I was glad + to have him go, for I grieved for him, and I thought she would miss him + and be glad when he came again, and though the snow was bad on the + mountain he was sure as a wolf. He bade us good-by and left with his eyes + looking like a hurt dog’s. I thought she would have wept to have him go, + but she did not. She gave him her hand and turned back to Harold, and + smiled to him when he smiled. It was the first time in all her life that I + had not been glad to have her smile, and I was sorry Harold had stayed, + and I watched Cnut climb the mountain like a dark speck against the snow + till he disappeared. She was so happy and beautiful that I could not long + be out with her, though I grieved for Cnut, and when she came to me and + told me one night of her great love for Harold I forgot my own regret in + her joy, and I said nothing to Harold, because she told me he said that in + his country it was not usual for the father to be told or to speak to a + daughter’s lover. + </p> + <p> + “They were much taken up together after that, and I was alone, and I + missed Cnut sorely, and would have longed for him more but for her + happiness. But one day, when he had been gone two months, I looked over + the mountain, and on the snow I saw a black speck. It had not been there + before, and I watched it as it moved, and I knew it was Cnut. + </p> + <p> + “I said nothing until he came, and then I ran and met him. He was thin, + and worn, and older; but his eyes had a look in them which I thought was + joy at getting home; only they were not soft, and he looked taller than + when he left, and he spoke little. His eyes softened when she, hearing his + voice, came out and held out her hand to him, smiling to welcome him; but + he did not kiss her as kinsfolk do after long absence, and when Harold + came out the wolf-look came back into his eyes. Harold looked not so + pleased to see him, but held out his hand to greet him. But Cnut stepped + back, and suddenly drawing from his breast a letter placed it in his palm, + saying slowly, ‘I have been to England, Lord Harold, and have brought you + this from your Lady Ethelfrid Penrith—they expect you to your + wedding at the New Year.’ Harold turned as white as the snow under his + feet, and she gave a cry and fell full length on the ground. + </p> + <p> + “Cnut was the first to reach her, and lifting her in his arms he bore her + into the house. Harold would have seized her, but Cnut brushed him aside + as if he had been a barley-straw, and carried her and laid her down. When + she came to herself she did not remember clearly what had happened. She + was strange to me who was her father, but she knew him. I could have slain + him, but she called him. He went to her, and she understood only that he + was going away, and she wept. He told her it was true that he had loved + another woman and had promised to marry her, before he had met her, but + now he loved her better, and he would go home and arrange everything and + return; and she listened and clung to him. I hated him and wanted him to + go, but he was my guest, and I told him that he could not go through the + snow; but he was determined. It seemed as if he wanted now to get away, + and I was glad to have him go, for my child was strange to me, and if he + had deceived one woman I knew he might another, and Cnut said that the + letter he had sent by him before the snow came was to say he would come in + time to be married at the New Year; and Cnut said he lived in a great + castle and owned broad lands, more than one could see from the whole + mountain, and his people had brought him in and asked him many questions + of him, and had offered him gold to bring the letter back, and he had + refused the gold, and brought it without the gold; and some said he had + deceived more than one woman. And Lord Harold went to get ready, and she + wept, and moaned, and was strange. And then Cnut went to her and told her + of his own love for her, and that he was loyal to her, but she waved him + from her, and when he asked her to marry him, for he loved her truly, she + said him nay with violence, so that he came forth into the air looking + white as a leper. And he sat down, and when I came out he was sitting on a + stone, and had his knife in his hand, looking at it with a dangerous gleam + in his eyes; and just then she arose and came out, and, seeing him sitting + so with his knife, she gave a start, and her manner changed, and going to + him she spoke softly to him for the first time, and made him yield her up + the knife; for she knew that the knife hung loose in the sheath. But then + she changed again and all her anger rose against Cnut, that he had brought + Harold the letter which carried him away, and Cnut sat saying nothing, and + his face was like stone. Then Lord Harold came and said he was ready, and + he asked Cnut would he carry his luggage. And Cnut at first refused, and + then suddenly looked him full in his face, and said, ‘Yes.’ And Harold + entered the house to say good-by to her, and I heard her weeping within, + and my heart grew hard against the Englishman, and Cnut’s face was black + with anger, and when Harold came forth I heard her cry out, and he turned + in the door and said he would return, and would write her a letter to let + her know when he would return. But he said it as one speaks to a child to + quiet it, not meaning it. And Cnut went in to speak to her, and I heard + her drive him out as if he had been a dog, and he came forth with his face + like a wolf’s, and taking up Lord Harold’s luggage, he set out. And so + they went over the mountain. + </p> + <p> + “And all that night she lay awake, and I heard her moaning, and all next + day she sat like stone, and I milked the goats, and her thoughts were on + the letters he would send. + </p> + <p> + “I spoke to her, but she spoke only of the letters to come, and I kept + silence, for I had seen that Lord Harold would come no more; for I had + seen him burn the little things she had given him, and he had taken + everything away, but I could not tell her so. And the days passed, and I + hoped that Cnut would come straight back; but he did not. It grieved me, + for I loved him, and hoped that he would return, and that in time she + would forget Lord Harold, and not be strange, but be as she had been to + Cnut before he came. Yet I thought it not wholly wonderful that Cnut did + not return at once, nor unwise; for she was lonely, and would sit all day + looking up the mountain, and when he came she would, I thought, be glad to + have him back. + </p> + <p> + “At the end of a week she began to urge me to go for a letter. But I told + her it could not come so soon; but when another week had passed she began + to sew, and when I asked her what she sewed, she said her bridal dress, + and she became so that I agreed to go, for I knew no letter would come, + and it broke my heart to see her. And when I was ready she kissed me, and + wept in my arms, and called me her good father; and so I started. + </p> + <p> + “She stood in the door and watched me climb the mountain, and waved to me + almost gayly. + </p> + <p> + “The snow was deep, but I followed the track which Cnut and the Englishman + had made two weeks before, for no new snow had fallen, and I saw that one + track was ever behind the other, and never beside it, as if Cnut had + fallen back and followed behind him. + </p> + <p> + “And so I came near to the Devil’s Seat, where it was difficult, and from + where Cnut had brought him in his arms that day, and then, for the first + time, I began to fear, for I remembered Cnut’s look as he came from the + house when she waved him off, and it had been so easy for him with a swing + of his strong arm to have pushed the other over the cliff. But when I saw + that he had driven his stick in deep to hold hard, and that the tracks + went on beyond, I breathed freely again, and so I passed the narrow path, + and the black wall, and came to the Devil’s Seat; and as I turned the rock + my heart stopped beating, and I had nearly fallen from the ledge. For + there, scattered and half-buried in the snow, lay the pack Cnut had + carried on his back, and the snow was all dug up and piled about as if + stags had been fighting there for their lives. From the wall, across and + back, were deep furrows, as if they were ploughed by men’s feet dug + fiercely in; but they were ever deeper toward the edge, and on one spot at + the edge the snow was all torn clear from the black rock, and beyond the + seat the narrow path lay smooth, and bright, and level as it had fallen, + without a track. My knees shook under me, and I clutched my stick for + support, and everything grew black before me: and presently I fell on my + knees and crawled and peered over the edge. But there was nothing to be + seen, only where the wall slants sharp down for a little space in one spot + the snow was brushed away as if something had struck there, and the black, + smooth rock showed clean, cutting off the sight from the glacier a + thousand feet down.” + </p> + <p> + The old man’s breast heaved. It was evidently a painful narrative, but he + kept on. + </p> + <p> + “I sat down in the snow and thought; for I could not think at once. Cnut + had not wished to murder, or else he had flung the Englishman from the + narrow ledge with one blow of his strong arm. He had waited until they had + stood on the Devil’s Seat, and then he had thrown off his pack and faced + him, man to man. The Englishman was strong and active, taller and heavier + than Cnut. He had Harald’s name, but he had not Harald’s heart nor blood, + and Cnut had carried him in his arms over the cliff, with his false heart + like water in his body. + </p> + <p> + “I sat there all day and into the night; for I knew that he would betray + no one more. I sorrowed for Cnut, for he was my very son. And after a time + I would have gone back to her, but I thought of her at home waiting and + watching for me with a letter, and I could not; and then I wept, and I + wished that I were Cnut, for I knew that he had had one moment of joy when + he took the Englishman in his arms. And then I took the scattered things + from the snow and threw them over the cliff; for I would not let it be + known that Cnut had flung the Englishman over. It would be talked about + over the mountain, and Cnut would be thought a murderer by those who did + not know, and some would say he had done it foully; and so I went on over + the mountain, and told it there that Cnut and the Englishman had gone over + the cliff together in the snow on their way, and it was thought that a + slip of snow had carried them. And I came back and told her only that no + letter had come.” + </p> + <p> + He was silent so long that I thought he had ended; but presently, in a + voice so low that it was just like a whisper, he added: “I thought she + would forget, but she has not, and every fortnight she begins to sew her + dress and I go over the mountains to give her peace; for each time she + draws nearer to the end, and wears away more and more; and some day the + thin blade will snap.” + </p> + <p> + “The thin blade” was already snapping, and even while he was speaking the + last fibres were giving way. + </p> + <p> + The silence which followed his words was broken by Elsket; I heard a + strange sound, and Elsket called feebly, “Oh, father.” + </p> + <p> + Olaf went quickly to her bedside. I heard him say, “My God in Heaven!” and + I sprang up and joined him. It was a hemorrhage. + </p> + <p> + Her life-blood was flowing from her lips. She could not last like that ten + minutes. + </p> + <p> + Providentially the remedies provided by Doctor John were right at hand, + and, thanks to them, the crimson tide was stayed before life went out; but + it was soon apparent that her strength was gone and her power exhausted. + </p> + <p> + We worked over her, but her pulse was running down like a broken clock. + There was no time to have got a physician, even had there been one to get. + I mentioned it; Olaf shook his head. “She is in the hands of God,” he + said. + </p> + <p> + Olaf never left the bedside except to heat water or get some stimulant for + her. + </p> + <p> + But, notwithstanding every effort, she failed to rally. The overtaxed + heart was giving out, and all day she sank steadily. I never saw such a + desperate face as that old man’s. It haunts me now. He hung over her. He + held her hand, now growing cold, against his cheek to keep it warm—stroked + it and kissed it. As towards evening the short, quick breaths came, which + precede dissolution, he sank on his knees. At first, he buried his face in + his hands; then in the agony of his despair, he began to speak aloud. I + never heard a more moving appeal. It was a man speaking face to face with + God for one about to enter his presence. His eyes were wide open, as if he + saw His face. He did not ask that she should be spared to him; it was all + for his “Elska,” his “Darling,” that Jesus would be her “Herder,” and lead + her beside the still waters; that she might be spared all suffering and + sorrow, and have peace. + </p> + <p> + Presently he ended and buried his face in his hands. The quick, faint + breaths had died away, and as I looked on the still white face on the + pillow I thought that she had gone. But suddenly the large eyes slowly + opened wide. + </p> + <p> + “Father,” she said, faintly. + </p> + <p> + “Elsket,” the old man bent over her eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “I am so tired.” + </p> + <p> + “My Elsket.” + </p> + <p> + “I love you.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my Elsket.” + </p> + <p> + “You will stay with me?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, always.” + </p> + <p> + “If Cnut comes?”. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my Elsket.” + </p> + <p> + “If Cnut comes——” very faintly. + </p> + <p> + Her true lover’s name was the last on her lips. + </p> + <p> + He bent his ear to her lips. “Yes?” + </p> + <p> + But we never knew just what she wanted. The dim, large eyes closed, and + then the lids lifted slowly a little; there was a sigh, and Elsket’s + watching was over; the weary spirit was at peace. + </p> + <p> + “She is with God,” he said, calmly. + </p> + <p> + I closed the white lids gently, and moved out. Later I offered to help + him, but he said “No,” and I remained out of doors till the afternoon. + </p> + <p> + About sunset he appeared and went up toward the old church, and I went + into the house. I found that he had laid her out in the large room, and + she lay with her face slightly turned as if asleep. She was dressed like a + bride in the bridal dress she had sewn so long; her hair was unbound, and + lay about her, fine and silken, and she wore the old silver ornaments she + had showed me. No bride had ever a more faithful attendant. He had put + them all upon her. + </p> + <p> + After a time, as he did not come back, I went to look for him. As I + approached I heard a dull, thumping sound. When I reached the cleared + place I found him digging. He had chosen a spot just in front of the + quaint old door, with the rude, runic letters, which the earliest sunbeams + would touch. As I came up I saw he was digging her grave. I offered to + help, but he said “No.” So I carried him some food and placing it near him + left him. + </p> + <p> + Late that evening he came down and asked me if I would sit up that night. + I told him, yes. He thanked me and went into the house. In a little while + he came out and silently went up the path toward the mountain. + </p> + <p> + It was a strange night that I spent in that silent valley in that still + house, only I, and the dead girl lying there so white and peaceful. I had + strange thoughts, and the earth and things earthly disappeared for me that + night shut in by those mountain walls. I was in a world alone. I was cut + off from all but God and the dead. I have dear ones in heaven, and I was + nearer to them that night, amid the mountain-tops of Norway, than I was to + earthly friends. I think I was nearer to heaven that night than I ever + shall be again till I get there. + </p> + <p> + Day broke like a great pearl, but I did not heed it. It was all peace. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly there was a step outside, and Olaf, with his face drawn and gray, + and bowing under the weight of the burden upon his shoulder, stepped + wearily in at the door. + </p> + <p> + To do Elsket honor he had been over the mountain to get it. I helped lift + it down and place it, and then he waited for me to go. As I passed out of + the door I saw him bend over the quiet sleeper. I looked in later; he had + placed her in the coffin, but the top was not on and he was on his knees + beside her. + </p> + <p> + He did not bury her that day; but he never left her side; he sat by her + all day and all night. Next day he came to the door and looked at me. I + went in and understood that he wanted me to look for the last time on her + face. It was fairer than I ever saw it. He had cut her flowers and placed + them all about her, and on her breast was a small packet of letters. All + care, all suffering, all that was merely of the earth were cleansed away, + and she looked as she lay, like a dead angel. After I came out I heard him + fastening on the top, and when he finished I went in again. He would have + attempted to carry it by himself, but I restrained him, and without a word + he took the head and I the foot, and so lifting her tenderly we went + gently out and up toward the church. We had to pause and rest several + times, for he was almost worn out. After we had lowered her into the grave + I was in doubt what to do; but Olaf drew from his coat his two books, and + standing close by the side of the grave he opened first the little Bible + and began to read in a low but distinct voice: “Lord, thou hast been our + refuge, from one generation to another. Before the mountains were brought + forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, thou art God from + everlasting, and world without end.” + </p> + <p> + When he finished this he turned and read again: “Now is Christ risen from + the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept,” etc. They were + the Psalm and the chapter which I had heard him read to Elsket that first + day when she became excited, and with which he had so often charmed her + restless spirit. + </p> + <p> + He closed, and I thought he was done, but he opened his hymn-book and + turning over a few leaves sang the same hymn he had sung to her that day. + He sang it all through to the end, the low, strange, dirge-like hymn, and + chanted as it was by that old man alone, standing in the fading evening + light beside the grave which he had dug for his daughter, the last of his + race, I never heard anything so moving. Then he knelt, and clasping his + hands offered a prayer. The words, from habit, ran almost as they had done + when he had prayed for Elsket before, that God would be her Shepherd, her + “Herder,” and lead her beside the still waters, and give her peace. + </p> + <p> + When he was through I waited a little, and then I took up a spade to help + him; but he reached out and took it quietly, and seeing that he wanted to + be alone I left him. He meant to do for Elsket all the last sacred offices + himself. + </p> + <p> + I was so fatigued that on reaching the house I dropped off to sleep and + slept till morning, and I do not know when he came into the house, if he + came at all. When I waked early next morning he was not there, and I rose + and went up to the church to hunt for him. He was sitting quietly beside + the grave, and I saw that he had placed at her head a little cross of + birchwood, on which he had burned one word, simply, + </p> + <p> + “Elsket.” + </p> + <p> + I spoke to him, asking him to come to the house. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot leave her,” he said; but when I urged him he rose silently and + returned with me. + </p> + <p> + I remained with him for a while after that, and each day he went and sat + by the grave. At last I had to leave. I urged him to come with me, but he + replied always, “No, I must watch over Elsket.” + </p> + <p> + It was late in the evening when we set off to cross the mountain. We came + by the same path by which I had gone, Olaf leading me as carefully and + holding me as steadily as when I went over before. I stopped at the church + to lay a few wild flowers on the little gray mound where Elsket slept so + quietly. Olaf said not a word; he simply waited till I was done and then + followed me dumbly. I was so filled with sorrow for him that I did not, + except in one place, think much of the fearful cliffs along which we made + our way. At the Devil’s Seat, indeed, my nerves for a moment seemed shaken + and almost gave way as I thought of the false young lord whose + faithlessness had caused all the misery to these simple, kindly folk, and + of the fierce young Norseman who had there found so sweet a revenge. But + we came on and passed the ledge, and descending struck the broader path + just after the day broke, where it was no longer perilous but only + painful. + </p> + <p> + There Olaf paused. “I will go back if you don’t want me,” he said. I did + not need his services, but I urged him to come on with me—to pay a + visit to his friends. “I have none,” he said, simply. Then to come home + with me and live with me in old Virginia. He said, “No,” he “must watch + over Elsket.” So finally I had to give in, and with a clasp of the hand + and a message to “her friend” Doctor John, to “remember Elsket,” he went + back and was soon lost amid the rocks. + </p> + <p> + I was half-way down when I reached a cleared place an hour or so later, + and turned to look back. The sharp angle of the Devil’s Ledge was the + highest point visible, the very pinnacle of the mountain, and there, clear + against the burnished steel of the morning sky, on the very edge, clear in + the rare atmosphere was a small figure. It stood for a second, a black + point distinctly outlined, and then disappeared. + </p> + <p> + It was Olaf of the Mountain, gone back to keep watch over Elsket. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsket, by Thomas Nelson Page + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSKET *** + +***** This file should be named 23017-h.htm or 23017-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/1/23017/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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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: Elsket + 1891 + +Author: Thomas Nelson Page + +Release Date: October 12, 2007 [EBook #23017] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSKET *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + + +ELSKET + +By Thomas Nelson Page + +1891 + + + + +I. + + "The knife hangs loose in the sheath." + --Old Norsk Proverb. + +I spent a month of the summer of 188- in Norway--"Old Norway"--and a +friend of mine, Dr. John Robson, who is as great a fisherman as he is a +physician, and knows that I love a stream where the trout and I can meet +each other alone, and have it out face to face, uninterrupted by any +interlopers, did me a favor to which I was indebted for the experience +related below. He had been to Norway two years before, and he let me +into the secret of an unexplored region between the Nord Fiord and the +Romsdal. I cannot give the name of the place, because even now it has +not been fully explored, and he bound me by a solemn promise that I +would not divulge it to a single soul, actually going to the length of +insisting on my adding a formal oath to my affirmation. This I consented +to because I knew that my friend was a humorous man, and also because +otherwise he positively refused to inform me where the streams were +about which he had been telling such fabulous fish stories. "No," he +said, "some of those ------ cattle who think they own the earth and have +a right to fool women at will and know how to fish, will be poking in +there, worrying Olaf and Elsket, and ruining the fishing, and I'll be +------ if I tell you unless you make oath." My friend is a swearing +man, though he says he swears for emphasis, not blasphemy, and on this +occasion he swore with extreme solemnity. I saw that he was in earnest, +so made affidavit and was rewarded. + +"Now," he said, after inquiring about my climbing capacity in a way +which piqued me, and giving me the routes with a particularity which +somewhat mystified me, "Now I will write a letter to Olaf of the +Mountain and to Elsket. I once was enabled to do them a slight service, +and they will receive you. It will take him two or three weeks to get +it, so you may have to wait a little. You must wait at L---- until Olaf +comes down to take you over the mountain. You may be there when he gets +the letter, or you may have to wait for a couple of weeks, as he does +not come over the mountain often. However, you can amuse yourself around +L----; only you must always be on hand every night in case Olaf comes." + +Although this appeared natural enough to the doctor, it sounded rather +curious to me, and it seemed yet more so when he added, "By the way, one +piece of advice: don't talk about England to Elsket, and don't ask any +questions." + +"Who is Elsket?" I asked. + +"A daughter of the Vikings, poor thing," he said. + +My curiosity was aroused, but I could get nothing further out of him, +and set it down to his unreasonable dislike of travelling Englishmen, +against whom, for some reason, he had a violent antipathy, declaring +that they did not know how to treat women nor how to fish. My friend has +a custom of speaking very strongly, and I used to wonder at the violence +of his language, which contrasted strangely with his character; for he +was the kindest-hearted man I ever knew, being a true follower of his +patron saint, old Isaac, giving his sympathy to all the unfortunate, and +even handling his frogs as if he loved them. + +Thus it was that on the afternoon of the seventh day of July, 188-, +having, for purposes of identification, a letter in my pocket to "Olaf +of the Mountain from his friend Dr. Robson," I stood, in the rain in +the so-called "street" of L----, on the ------ Fiord, looking over the +bronzed feces of the stolid but kindly peasants who lounged silently +around, trying to see if I could detect in one a resemblance to the +picture I had formed in my mind of "Olaf of the Mountain," or could +discern in any eye a gleam of special interest to show that its +possessor was on the watch for an expected guest. + +There was none in whom I could discover any indication that he was not +a resident of the straggling little settlement. They all stood quietly +about gazing at me and talking in low tones among themselves, chewing +tobacco or smoking their pipes, as naturally as if they were in Virginia +or Kentucky, only, if possible, in a somewhat more ruminant manner. It +gave me the single bit of home feeling I could muster, for it was, I +must confess, rather desolate standing alone in a strange land, under +those beetling crags, with the clouds almost resting on our heads, +and the rain coming down in a steady, wet, monotonous fashion. The +half-dozen little dark log or frame-houses, with their double windows +and turf roofs, standing about at all sorts of angles to the road, as if +they had rolled down the mountain like the great bowlders beyond them, +looked dark and cheerless. I was weak enough to wish for a second that +I had waited a few days for the rainy spell to be over, but two little +bareheaded children, coming down the road laughing and chattering, +recalled me to myself. They had no wrapping whatever, and nothing on +their heads but their soft flaxen hair, yet they minded the rain no more +than if they had been ducklings. I saw that these people were used to +rain. It was the inheritance of a thousand years. Something, however, +had to be done, and I recognized the fact that I was out of the beaten +track of tourists, and that if I had to stay here a week, on the +prudence of my first step depended the consideration I should receive. +It would not do to be hasty. I had a friend with me which had stood me +in good stead before, and I applied to it now. Walking slowly up to the +largest, and one of the oldest men in the group, I drew out my pipe and +a bag of old Virginia tobacco, free from any flavor than its own, and +filling the pipe, I asked him for a light in the best phrase-book +Norsk I could command. He gave it, and I placed the bag in his hand and +motioned him to fill his pipe. When that was done I handed the pouch to +another, and motioned him to fill and pass the tobacco around. One by +one they took it, and I saw that I had friends. No man can fill his pipe +from another's bag and not wish him well. + +"Does any of you know Olaf of the Mountain?" I asked. I saw at once that +I had made an impression. The mention of that name was evidently a claim +to consideration. There was a general murmur of surprise, and the group +gathered around me. A half-dozen spoke at once. + +"He was at L---- last week," they said, as if that fact was an item of +extensive interest. + +"I want to go there," I said, and then was, somehow, immediately +conscious that I had made a mistake. Looks were exchanged and some words +were spoken among my friends, as if they were oblivious of my presence. + +"You cannot go there. None goes there but at night," said one, +suggestively. + +"Who goes over the mountain comes no more," said another, as if he +quoted a proverb, at which there was a faint intimation of laughter on +the part of several. + +My first adviser undertook a long explanation, but though he labored +faithfully I could make out no more than that it was something about +"Elsket" and "the Devil's Ledge," and men who had disappeared. This was +a new revelation. What object had my friend? He had never said a word +of this. Indeed, he had, I now remembered, said very little at all about +the people. He had exhausted his eloquence on the fish. I recalled his +words when I asked him about Elsket: "She is a daughter of the Vikings, +poor thing." That was all. Had he been up to a practical joke? If so, it +seemed rather a sorry one to me just then. But anyhow I could not draw +back now. I could never face him again if I did not go on, and what was +more serious, I could never face myself. + +I was weak enough to have a thought that, after all, the mysterious Olaf +might not come; but the recollection of the fish of which my friend +had spoken as if they had been the golden fish of the "Arabian Nights," +banished that. I asked about the streams around L----. "Yes, there was +good fishing." But they were all too anxious to tell me about the danger +of going over the mountain to give much thought to the fishing. "No +one without Olafs blood could cross the Devil's Ledge." "Two men had +disappeared three years ago." "A man had disappeared there last year. He +had gone, and had never been heard of afterward. The Devil's Ledge was a +bad pass." + +"Why don't they look into the matter?" I asked. + +The reply was as near a shrug of the shoulders as a Norseman can +accomplish. + +"It was not easy to get the proof; the mountain was very dangerous, +the glacier very slippery; there were no witnesses," etc. "Olaf of the +Mountain was not a man to trouble." + +"He hates Englishmen," said one, significantly. + +"I am not an Englishman, I am an American," I explained. + +This had a sensible effect. Several began to talk at once. One had a +brother in Idaho, another had cousins in Nebraska, and so on. + +The group had by this time been augmented by the addition of almost +the entire population of the settlement; one or two rosy-cheeked women, +having babies in their arms, standing in the rain utterly regardless of +the steady downpour. + +It was a propitious time. "Can I get a place to stay here?" I inquired +of the group generally. + +"Yes,--oh, yes." There was a consultation in which the name of "Hendrik" +was heard frequently, and then a man stepped forward and taking up my +bag and rod-case, walked off, I following, escorted by a number of my +new friends. + +I had been installed in Hendrik's little house about an hour, and we had +just finished supper, when there was a murmur outside, and then the door +opened, and a young man stepping in, said something so rapidly that I +understood only that it concerned Olaf of the Mountain, and in some way +myself. + +"Olaf of the Mountain is here and wants to speak to you," said my host. +"Will you go?" + +"Yes," I said. "Why does he not come in?" + +"He will not come in," said my host; "he never does come in." + +"He is at the church-yard," said the messenger; "he always stops there." +They both spoke broken English. + +I arose and went out, taking the direction indicated. A number of my +friends stood in the road or street as I passed along, and touched their +caps to me, looking very queer in the dim twilight. They gazed at me +curiously as I walked by. + +I turned the corner of a house which stood half in the road, and just +in front of me, in its little yard, was the little white church with its +square, heavy, short spire. At the gate stood a tall figure, perfectly +motionless, leaning on a long staff. As I approached I saw that he was +an elderly man. He wore a long beard, once yellow but now gray, and he +looked very straight and large. There was something grand about him as +he stood there in the dusk. + +I came quite up to him. He did not move. + +"Good-evening," I said. + +"Good-evening." + +"Are you Mr. Hovedsen?" I asked, drawing out my letter. + +"I am Olaf of the Mountain," he said slowly, as if his name embraced the +whole title. + +I handed him the letter. + +"You are----?" + +"I am----" taking my cue from his own manner. + +"The friend of her friend?" + +"His great friend." + +"Can you climb?" + +"I can." + +"Are you steady?" + +"Yes." + +"It is well; are you ready?" + +I had not counted on this, and involuntarily I asked, in some surprise, +"To-night?" + +"To-night. You cannot go in the day." + +I thought of the speech I had heard: "No one goes over the mountain +except at night," and the ominous conclusion, "Who goes over the +mountain comes no more." My strange host, however, diverted my thoughts. + +"A stranger cannot go except at night," he said, gravely; and then +added, "I must get back to watch over Elsket." + +"I shall be ready in a minute," I said, turning. + +In ten minutes I had bade good-by to my simple hosts, and leaving them +with a sufficient evidence of my consideration to secure their lasting +good-will, I was on my way down the street again with my light luggage +on my back. This time the entire population of the little village was in +the road, and as I passed along I knew by their murmuring conversation +that they regarded my action with profound misgiving. I felt, as I +returned their touch of the cap and bade them good-by, a little like the +gladiators of old who, about to die, saluted Caesar. + +At the gate my strange guide, who had not moved from the spot where I +first found him, insisted on taking my luggage, and buckling his straps +around it and flinging it over his back, he handed me his stick, and +without a word strode off straight toward the black mountain whose vast +wall towered above us to the clouds. + +I shall never forget that climb. + +We were hardly out of the road before we began to ascend, and I had +shortly to stop for breath. My guide, however, if silent was thoughtful, +and he soon caught my gait and knew when to pause. Up through the dusk +we went, he guiding me now by a word telling me how to step, or now +turning to give me his hand to help me up a steep place, over a large +rock, or around a bad angle. For a time we had heard the roar of the +torrent as it boiled below us, but as we ascended it had gradually +hushed, and we at length were in a region of profound silence. The night +was cloudy, and as dark as it ever is in midsummer in that far +northern latitude; but I knew that we were climbing along the edge of +a precipice, on a narrow ledge of rock along the face of the cliff. The +vast black wall above us rose sheer up, and I could feel rather than +see that it went as sheer down, though my sight could not penetrate the +darkness which filled the deep abyss below. We had been climbing about +three hours when suddenly the ledge seemed to die out. My guide stopped, +and unwinding his rope from his waist, held it out to me. I obeyed +his silent gesture, and binding it around my body gave him the end. He +wrapped it about him, and then taking me by the arm, as if I had been +a child, he led me slowly along the narrow ledge around the face of the +wall, step by step, telling me where to place my feet, and waiting till +they were firmly planted. I began now to understand why no one ever went +"over the mountain" in the day. We were on a ledge nearly three thousand +feet high. If it had not been for the strong, firm hold on my arm, I +could not have stood it. As it was I dared not think. Suddenly we turned +a sharp angle and found ourselves in a curious semicircular place, +almost level and fifty or sixty feet deep in the concave, as if a great +piece had been gouged out of the mountain by the glacier which must once +have been there. + +"This is a curious place," I ventured to say. + +"It is," said my guide. "It is the Devil's Seat. Men have died here." + +His tone was almost fierce. I accepted his explanation silently. We +passed the singular spot and once more were on the ledge, but except +in one place it was not so narrow as it had been the other side of the +Devil's Seat, and in fifteen minutes we had crossed the summit and the +path widened a little and began to descend. + +"You do well," said my guide, briefly, "but not so well as Doctor John." +I was well content with being ranked a good second to the doctor just +then. + +The rain had ceased, the sky had partly cleared, and, as we began to +descend, the early twilight of the northern dawn began to appear. First +the sky became a clear steel-gray and the tops of the mountains became +visible, the dark outlines beginning to be filled in, and taking on a +soft color. This lightened rapidly, until on the side facing east they +were bathed in an atmosphere so clear and transparent that they seemed +almost within a stone's throw of us, while the other side was still +left in a shadow which was so deep as to be almost darkness. The gray +lightened and lightened into pearl until a tinge of rose appeared, and +then the sky suddenly changed to the softest blue, and a little later +the snow-white mountain-tops were bathed in pink, and it was day. + +I could see in the light that we were descending into a sort of upland +hollow between the snow-patched mountain-tops; below us was a lovely +little valley in which small pines and birches grew, and patches of the +green, short grass which stands for hay shone among the great bowlders. +Several little streams came jumping down as white as milk from the +glaciers stuck between the mountain-tops, and after resting in two +or three tiny lakes which looked like hand-mirrors lying in the grass +below, went bubbling and foaming on to the edge of the precipice, over +which they sprang, to be dashed into vapor and snow hundreds of feet +down. A half-dozen sheep and as many goats were feeding about in the +little valley; but I could not see the least sign of a house, except a +queer, brown structure, on a little knoll, with many gables and peaks, +ending in the curious dragon-pennants, which I recognized as one of the +old Norsk wooden churches of a past age. + +When, however, an hour later, we had got down to the table-land, I found +myself suddenly in front of a long, quaint, double log cottage, set +between two immense bowlders, and roofed with layers of birch bark, +covered with turf, which was blue with wild pansies. It was as if +it were built under a bed of heart's-ease. It was very old, and had +evidently been a house of some pretension, for there was much curious +carving about the doors, and indeed about the whole front, the dragon's +head being distinctly visible in the design. There were several lesser +houses which looked as if they had once been dwellings, but they seemed +now to be only stables. As we approached the principal door it was +opened, and there stepped forth one of the most striking figures I +ever saw--a young woman, rather tall, and as straight as an arrow. +My friend's words involuntarily recurred to me, "A daughter of the +Vikings," and then, somehow, I too had the feeling he had expressed, +"Poor thing!" Her figure was one of the richest and most perfect I ever +beheld. Her face was singularly beautiful; but it was less her beauty +than her nobility of look and mien combined with a certain sadness which +impressed me. The features were clear and strong and perfectly carved. +There was a firm mouth, a good jaw, strong chin, a broad brow, and deep +blue eyes which looked straight at you. Her expression was so soft and +tender as to have something pathetic in it. Her hair was flaxen, and as +fine as satin, and was brushed perfectly smooth and coiled on the back +of her shapely head, which was placed admirably on her shoulders. +She was dressed in the coarse, black-blue stuff of the country, and +a kerchief, also dark blue, was knotted under her chin, and fell back +behind her head, forming a dark background for her silken hair. + +Seeing us she stood perfectly still until we drew near, when she made +a quaint, low courtesy and advanced to meet her father with a look of +eager expectancy in her large eyes. + +"Elsket," he said, with a tenderness which conveyed the full meaning of +the sweet pet term, "darling." + +There was something about these people, peasants though they were, which +gave me a strange feeling of respect for them. + +"This is Doctor John's friend," said the old man, quietly. + +She looked at her father in a puzzled way for a moment, as if she had +not heard him, but as he repeated his introduction a light came into her +eyes, and coming up to me she held out her hand, saying, "Welcome." + +Then turning to her father--"Have you a letter for me, father?" she +asked. + +"No, Elsket," he said, gently; "but I will go again next month." + +A cloud settled on her face and increased its sadness, and she turned +her head away. After a moment she went into the house and I saw that she +was weeping. A look of deep dejection came over the old man's face also. + + + + +II. + +I found that my friend, "Doctor John," strange to relate of a fisherman, +had not exaggerated the merits of the fishing. How they got there, two +thousand feet above the lower valley, I don't know; but trout fairly +swarmed in the little streams, which boiled among the rocks, and they +were as greedy as if they had never seen a fly in their lives. I shortly +became contemptuous toward anything under three pounds, and addressed +myself to the task of defending my flies against the smaller ones, and +keeping them only for the big fellows, which ran over three pounds--the +patriarchs of the streams. With these I had capital sport, for they knew +every angle and hole, they sought every coign of vantage, and the rocks +were so thick and so sharp that from the time one of these veterans took +the fly, it was an equal contest which of us should come off victorious. +I was often forced to rush splashing and floundering through the water +to my waist to keep my line from being sawed, and as the water was +not an hour from the green glaciers above, it was not always entirely +pleasant. + +I soon made firm friends with my hosts, and varied the monotony of +catching three-pounders by helping them get in their hay for the +winter. Elsket, poor thing, was, notwithstanding her apparently splendid +physique, so delicate that she could no longer stand the fatigue of +manual labor, any extra exertion being liable to bring on a recurrence +of the heart-failure, from which she had suffered. I learned that she +had had a violent hemorrhage two summers before, from which she had come +near dying, and that the skill of my friend, the doctor, had doubtless +saved her life. This was the hold he had on Olaf of the Mountain: this +was the "small service" he had rendered them. + +By aiding them thus, I was enabled to be of material assistance to Olaf, +and I found in helping these good people, that work took on once more +the delight which I remembered it used to have under like circumstances +when I was a boy. I could cut or carry on my back loads of hay all day, +and feel at night as if I had been playing. Such is the singular effect +of the spirit on labor. + +To make up for this, Elsket would sometimes, when I went fishing, take +her knitting and keep me company, sitting at a little distance. With her +pale, calm face and shining hair outlined against the background of her +sad-colored kerchief, she looked like a mourning angel. I never saw her +smile except when her father came into her presence, and when she smiled +it was as if the sun had suddenly come out. I began to understand the +devotion of these two strange people, so like and yet so different. + +One rainy day she had a strange turn; she began to be restless. Her +large, sad eyes, usually so calm, became bright; the two spots in her +cheeks burned yet deeper; her face grew anxious. Then she laid her +knitting aside and took out of a great chest something on which she +began to sew busily. I was looking at her, when she caught my eye and +smiled. It was the first time she ever smiled for me. "Did you know I +was going to be married?" she asked, just as an American girl might have +done. And before I could answer, she brought me the work. It was her +wedding dress. "I have nearly finished it," she said. Then she brought +me a box of old silver ornaments, such as the Norsk brides wear, and put +them on. When I had admired them she put them away. After a little, +she arose and began to wander about the house and out into the rain. I +watched her with interest. Her father came in, and I saw a distressed +look come into his eyes. He went up to her, and laying his hand on her +drew her toward a seat. Then taking down an old Bible, he turned to a +certain place and began to read. He read first the Psalm: "Lord, +thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to another. Before the +mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, +thou art God from everlasting, and world without end." Then he turned +to the chapter of Corinthians, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and +become the first-fruits of them that slept," etc. His voice was clear, +rich, and devout, and he read it with singular earnestness and beauty. +It gave me a strange feeling; it is a part of our burial service. Then +he opened his hymn-book and began to sing a low, dirge-like hymn. I sat +silent, watching the strange service and noting its effect on Elsket. +She sat at first like a person bound, struggling to be free, then became +quieter, and at last, perfectly calm. Then Olaf knelt down, and with his +hand still on her prayed one of the most touching prayers I ever heard. +It was for patience. + +When he rose Elsket was weeping, and she went and leant in his arms like +a child, and he kissed her as tenderly as if he had been her mother. + +Next day, however, the same excited state recurred, and this time the +reading appeared to have less effect. She sewed busily, and insisted +that there must be a letter for her at L----. A violent fit of weeping +was followed by a paroxysm of coughing, and finally the old man, who had +sat quietly by her with his hand stroking her head, arose and said, "I +will go." She threw herself into his arms, rubbing her head against him +in sign of dumb affection, and in a little while grew calm. It was still +raining and quite late, only a little before sunset; but the old +man went out, and taking the path toward L---- was soon climbing the +mountain toward the Devil's Seat. Elsket sat up all night, but she was +as calm and as gentle as ever. + +The next morning when Olaf returned she went out to meet him. Her look +was full of eager expectancy. I did not go out, but watched her from the +door. I saw Olaf shake his head, and heard her say bitterly, "It is so +hard to wait," and he said, gently, "Yes, it is, Elsket, but I will go +again," and then she came in weeping quietly, the old man following with +a tender look on his strong, weather-beaten face. + +That day Elsket was taken ill. She had been trying to do a little work +in the field in the afternoon, when a sinking spell had come on. It +looked for a time as if the poor overdriven heart had knocked off work +for good and all. Strong remedies, however, left by Doctor John, set it +going again, and we got her to bed. She was still desperately feeble, +and Olaf sat up. I could not leave him, so we were sitting watching, he +one side the open platform fireplace in one corner, and I the other; he +smoking, anxious, silent, grim; I watching the expression on his gray +face. His eyes seemed set back deeper than ever under the shaggy gray +brows, and as the firelight fell on him he had the fierce, hopeless look +of a caged eagle. It was late in the night before he spoke, and then it +was half to himself and but half to me. + +"I have fought it ten long years," he said, slowly. + +Not willing to break the thread of his thought by speaking, I lit my +pipe afresh and just looked at him. He received it as an answer. + +"She is the last of them," he said, accepting me as an auditor rather +than addressing me. "We go back to Olaf Traetelje, the blood of Harold +Haarfager (the Fairhaired) is in our veins, and here it ends. Dane and +Swede have known our power, Saxon and Celt have bowed bare-headed to +us, and with her it ends. In this stronghold many times her fathers have +found refuge from their foes and gained breathing-time after battles +by sea and land. From this nest, like eagles, they have swooped down, +carrying all before them, and here, at last, when betrayed and hunted, +they found refuge. Here no foreign king could rule over them; here they +learnt the lesson that Christ is the only king, and that all men are his +brothers. Here they lived and worshipped him. If their dominions were +stolen from them they found here a truer wealth, content; if they had +not power, they had what was better, independence. For centuries they +held this last remnant of the dominion which Harold Haarfager had +conquered by land, and Eric of the Bloody Axe had won by sea, sending +out their sons and daughters to people the lands; but the race dwindled +as their lands had done before, and now with her dies the last. How has +it come? As ever, by betrayal!" + +The old man turned fiercely, his breast heaving, his eyes burning. + +"Was she who came of a race at whose feet jarls have crawled and +kings have knelt not good enough?" I was hearing the story and did +not interrupt him--"Not good enough for him!" he continued in his +low, fierce monotone. "I did not want him. What if he was a Saxon? His +fathers were our boatmen. Rather Cnut a thousand times. Then the race +would not have died. Then she would not be--not be so." + +The reference to her recalled him to himself, and he suddenly relapsed +into silence. + +"At least, Cnut paid the score," he began once more, in a low intense +undertone. "In his arms he bore him down from the Devil's Seat, a +thousand feet sheer on the hard ice, where his cursed body lies crushed +forever, a witness of his falsehood." + +I did not interrupt, and he rewarded my patience, giving a more +connected account, for the first time addressing me directly. + +"Her mother died when she was a child," he said, softly. His gentle +voice contrasted strangely with the fierce undertone in which he had +been speaking. "I was mother as well as father to her. She was as good +as she was beautiful, and each day she grew more and more so. She was a +second Igenborg. Knowing that she needed other companionship than an old +man, I sought and brought her Cnut (he spoke of him as if I must know +all about him). Cnut was the son of my only kinsman, the last of his +line as well, and he was tall and straight and strong. I loved him and +he was my son, and as he grew I saw that he loved her, and I was not +sorry, for he was goodly to look on, straight and tall as one of old, +and he was good also. And she was satisfied with him, and from a child +ordered him to do her girlish bidding, and he obeyed and laughed, well +content to have her smile. And he would carry her on his shoulder, and +take her on the mountain to slide, and would gather her flowers. And +I thought it was well. And I thought that in time they would marry and +have the farm, and that there would be children about the house, and the +valley might be filled with their voices as in the old time. And I was +content. And one day _he_ came! (the reference cost him an effort). Cnut +found him fainting on the mountain and brought him here in his arms. He +had come to the village alone, and the idle fools there had told him of +me, and he had asked to meet me, and they told him of the mountain, and +that none could pass the Devil's Ledge but those who had the old blood, +and that I loved not strangers; and he said he would pass it, and he had +come and passed safely the narrow ledge, and reached the Devil's Seat, +when a stone had fallen upon him, and Cnut had found him there fainting, +and had lifted him and brought him here, risking his own life to save +him on the ledge. And he was near to death for days, and she nursed him +and brought him from the grave. + +"At first I was cold to him, but there was something about him that drew +me and held me. It was not that he was young and taller than Cnut, and +fair. It was not that his eyes were clear and full of light, and his +figure straight as a young pine. It was not that he had climbed the +mountain and passed the narrow ledge and the Devil's Seat alone, though +I liked well his act; for none but those who have Harold Haarfager's +blood have done it alone in all the years, though many have tried and +failed. I asked him what men called him, and he said, 'Harold;' then +laughing, said some called him, 'Harold the Fair-haired.' The answer +pleased me. There was something in the name which drew me to him. When +I first saw him I had thought of Harald Haarfager, and of Harald +Haardraarder, and of that other Harold, who, though a Saxon, died +bravely for his kingdom when his brother betrayed him, and I held out my +hand and gave him the clasp of friendship." + +The old man paused, but after a brief reflection proceeded: + +"We made him welcome and we loved him. He knew the world and could tell +us many-things. He knew the story of Norway and the Vikings, and the +Sagas were on his tongue. Cnut loved him and followed him, and she (the +pause which always indicated her who filled his thoughts)--she, then but +a girl, laughed and sang for him, and he sang for her, and his voice was +rich and sweet. And she went with him to fish and to climb, and often, +when Cnut and I were in the field, we would hear her laugh, clear and +fresh from the rocks beside the streams, as he told her some fine story +of his England. He stayed here a month and a week, and then departed, +saying he would come again next year, and the house was empty and silent +after he left. But after a time we grew used to it once more and the +winter came. + +"When the spring returned we got a letter--a letter to her--saying he +would come again, and every two weeks another letter came, and I went +for it and brought it to--to her, and she read it to Cnut and me. And at +last he came and I went to meet him, and brought him here, welcome as +if he had been my eldest born, and we were glad. Cnut smiled and ran +forward and gave him his hand, and--she--she did not come at first, +but when she came she was clad in all that was her best, and wore her +silver--the things her mother and her grandmother had worn, and as she +stepped out of the door and saluted him, I saw for the first time that +she was a woman grown, and it was hard to tell which face was brighter, +hers or his, and Cnut smiled to see her so glad." + +The old man relapsed into reflection. Presently, however, he resumed: + +"This time he was gayer than before:--the summer seemed to come with +him. He sang to her and read to her from books that he had brought, +teaching her to speak English like himself, and he would go and fish up +the streams while she sat near by and talked to him. Cnut also learned +his tongue well, and I did also, but Cnut did not see so much of him as +before, for Cnut had to work, and in the evening they were reading and +she--she--grew more and more beautiful, and laughed and sang more. And +so the summer passed. The autumn came, but he did not go, and I was well +content, for she was happy, and, in truth, the place was cheerier that +he was here. + +"Cnut alone seemed downcast, but I knew not why; and then the snow came. +One morning we awoke and the farm was as white as the mountains. I said +to him, 'Now you are here for the winter,' and he laughed and said, 'No, +I will stay till the new-year. I have business then in England, and I +must go.' And I turned, and her face was like sunshine, for she knew +that none but Cnut and I had ever passed the Devil's Ledge in the snow, +and the other way by which I took the Doctor home was worse then, though +easier in the summer, only longer. But Cnut looked gloomy, at which I +chid him; but he was silent. And the autumn passed rapidly, so cheerful +was he, finding in the snow as much pleasure as in the sunshine, and +taking her out to slide and race on shoes till she would come in with +her cheeks like roses in summer, and her eyes like stars, and she made +it warm where she was. + +"And one evening they came home. He was gayer than ever, and she more +beautiful, but silenter than her wont. She looked like her mother the +evening I asked her to be my wife. I could not take my eyes from her. +That night Cnut was a caged wolf. At last he asked me to come out, and +then he told me that he had seen Harold kiss her and had heard him tell +her that he loved her, and she had not driven him away. My heart was +wrung for Cnut, for I loved him, and he wept like a child. I tried to +comfort him, but it was useless, and the next day he went away for a +time. I was glad to have him go, for I grieved for him, and I thought +she would miss him and be glad when he came again, and though the snow +was bad on the mountain he was sure as a wolf. He bade us good-by and +left with his eyes looking like a hurt dog's. I thought she would have +wept to have him go, but she did not. She gave him her hand and turned +back to Harold, and smiled to him when he smiled. It was the first time +in all her life that I had not been glad to have her smile, and I was +sorry Harold had stayed, and I watched Cnut climb the mountain like a +dark speck against the snow till he disappeared. She was so happy and +beautiful that I could not long be out with her, though I grieved for +Cnut, and when she came to me and told me one night of her great love +for Harold I forgot my own regret in her joy, and I said nothing to +Harold, because she told me he said that in his country it was not usual +for the father to be told or to speak to a daughter's lover. + +"They were much taken up together after that, and I was alone, and +I missed Cnut sorely, and would have longed for him more but for her +happiness. But one day, when he had been gone two months, I looked over +the mountain, and on the snow I saw a black speck. It had not been there +before, and I watched it as it moved, and I knew it was Cnut. + +"I said nothing until he came, and then I ran and met him. He was thin, +and worn, and older; but his eyes had a look in them which I thought was +joy at getting home; only they were not soft, and he looked taller than +when he left, and he spoke little. His eyes softened when she, hearing +his voice, came out and held out her hand to him, smiling to welcome +him; but he did not kiss her as kinsfolk do after long absence, and when +Harold came out the wolf-look came back into his eyes. Harold looked +not so pleased to see him, but held out his hand to greet him. But Cnut +stepped back, and suddenly drawing from his breast a letter placed it in +his palm, saying slowly, 'I have been to England, Lord Harold, and have +brought you this from your Lady Ethelfrid Penrith--they expect you to +your wedding at the New Year.' Harold turned as white as the snow under +his feet, and she gave a cry and fell full length on the ground. + +"Cnut was the first to reach her, and lifting her in his arms he bore +her into the house. Harold would have seized her, but Cnut brushed him +aside as if he had been a barley-straw, and carried her and laid her +down. When she came to herself she did not remember clearly what had +happened. She was strange to me who was her father, but she knew him. +I could have slain him, but she called him. He went to her, and she +understood only that he was going away, and she wept. He told her it +was true that he had loved another woman and had promised to marry her, +before he had met her, but now he loved her better, and he would go home +and arrange everything and return; and she listened and clung to him. I +hated him and wanted him to go, but he was my guest, and I told him that +he could not go through the snow; but he was determined. It seemed as if +he wanted now to get away, and I was glad to have him go, for my child +was strange to me, and if he had deceived one woman I knew he might +another, and Cnut said that the letter he had sent by him before the +snow came was to say he would come in time to be married at the New +Year; and Cnut said he lived in a great castle and owned broad lands, +more than one could see from the whole mountain, and his people had +brought him in and asked him many questions of him, and had offered him +gold to bring the letter back, and he had refused the gold, and brought +it without the gold; and some said he had deceived more than one woman. +And Lord Harold went to get ready, and she wept, and moaned, and was +strange. And then Cnut went to her and told her of his own love for her, +and that he was loyal to her, but she waved him from her, and when he +asked her to marry him, for he loved her truly, she said him nay with +violence, so that he came forth into the air looking white as a leper. +And he sat down, and when I came out he was sitting on a stone, and had +his knife in his hand, looking at it with a dangerous gleam in his eyes; +and just then she arose and came out, and, seeing him sitting so with +his knife, she gave a start, and her manner changed, and going to him +she spoke softly to him for the first time, and made him yield her up +the knife; for she knew that the knife hung loose in the sheath. But +then she changed again and all her anger rose against Cnut, that he had +brought Harold the letter which carried him away, and Cnut sat saying +nothing, and his face was like stone. Then Lord Harold came and said +he was ready, and he asked Cnut would he carry his luggage. And Cnut at +first refused, and then suddenly looked him full in his face, and said, +'Yes.' And Harold entered the house to say good-by to her, and I heard +her weeping within, and my heart grew hard against the Englishman, and +Cnut's face was black with anger, and when Harold came forth I heard her +cry out, and he turned in the door and said he would return, and would +write her a letter to let her know when he would return. But he said it +as one speaks to a child to quiet it, not meaning it. And Cnut went in +to speak to her, and I heard her drive him out as if he had been a +dog, and he came forth with his face like a wolf's, and taking up Lord +Harold's luggage, he set out. And so they went over the mountain. + +"And all that night she lay awake, and I heard her moaning, and all next +day she sat like stone, and I milked the goats, and her thoughts were on +the letters he would send. + +"I spoke to her, but she spoke only of the letters to come, and I kept +silence, for I had seen that Lord Harold would come no more; for I had +seen him burn the little things she had given him, and he had taken +everything away, but I could not tell her so. And the days passed, and I +hoped that Cnut would come straight back; but he did not. It grieved me, +for I loved him, and hoped that he would return, and that in time she +would forget Lord Harold, and not be strange, but be as she had been to +Cnut before he came. Yet I thought it not wholly wonderful that Cnut did +not return at once, nor unwise; for she was lonely, and would sit all +day looking up the mountain, and when he came she would, I thought, be +glad to have him back. + +"At the end of a week she began to urge me to go for a letter. But I +told her it could not come so soon; but when another week had passed she +began to sew, and when I asked her what she sewed, she said her bridal +dress, and she became so that I agreed to go, for I knew no letter would +come, and it broke my heart to see her. And when I was ready she +kissed me, and wept in my arms, and called me her good father; and so I +started. + +"She stood in the door and watched me climb the mountain, and waved to +me almost gayly. + +"The snow was deep, but I followed the track which Cnut and the +Englishman had made two weeks before, for no new snow had fallen, and I +saw that one track was ever behind the other, and never beside it, as if +Cnut had fallen back and followed behind him. + +"And so I came near to the Devil's Seat, where it was difficult, and from +where Cnut had brought him in his arms that day, and then, for the first +time, I began to fear, for I remembered Cnut's look as he came from the +house when she waved him off, and it had been so easy for him with a +swing of his strong arm to have pushed the other over the cliff. But +when I saw that he had driven his stick in deep to hold hard, and that +the tracks went on beyond, I breathed freely again, and so I passed the +narrow path, and the black wall, and came to the Devil's Seat; and as I +turned the rock my heart stopped beating, and I had nearly fallen from +the ledge. For there, scattered and half-buried in the snow, lay the +pack Cnut had carried on his back, and the snow was all dug up and piled +about as if stags had been fighting there for their lives. From the +wall, across and back, were deep furrows, as if they were ploughed by +men's feet dug fiercely in; but they were ever deeper toward the edge, +and on one spot at the edge the snow was all torn clear from the black +rock, and beyond the seat the narrow path lay smooth, and bright, and +level as it had fallen, without a track. My knees shook under me, and I +clutched my stick for support, and everything grew black before me: and +presently I fell on my knees and crawled and peered over the edge. But +there was nothing to be seen, only where the wall slants sharp down for +a little space in one spot the snow was brushed away as if something had +struck there, and the black, smooth rock showed clean, cutting off the +sight from the glacier a thousand feet down." + +The old man's breast heaved. It was evidently a painful narrative, but +he kept on. + +"I sat down in the snow and thought; for I could not think at once. Cnut +had not wished to murder, or else he had flung the Englishman from the +narrow ledge with one blow of his strong arm. He had waited until they +had stood on the Devil's Seat, and then he had thrown off his pack and +faced him, man to man. The Englishman was strong and active, taller and +heavier than Cnut. He had Harald's name, but he had not Harald's heart +nor blood, and Cnut had carried him in his arms over the cliff, with his +false heart like water in his body. + +"I sat there all day and into the night; for I knew that he would betray +no one more. I sorrowed for Cnut, for he was my very son. And after a +time I would have gone back to her, but I thought of her at home waiting +and watching for me with a letter, and I could not; and then I wept, and +I wished that I were Cnut, for I knew that he had had one moment of joy +when he took the Englishman in his arms. And then I took the scattered +things from the snow and threw them over the cliff; for I would not let +it be known that Cnut had flung the Englishman over. It would be talked +about over the mountain, and Cnut would be thought a murderer by those +who did not know, and some would say he had done it foully; and so +I went on over the mountain, and told it there that Cnut and the +Englishman had gone over the cliff together in the snow on their way, +and it was thought that a slip of snow had carried them. And I came back +and told her only that no letter had come." + +He was silent so long that I thought he had ended; but presently, in a +voice so low that it was just like a whisper, he added: "I thought she +would forget, but she has not, and every fortnight she begins to sew her +dress and I go over the mountains to give her peace; for each time she +draws nearer to the end, and wears away more and more; and some day the +thin blade will snap." + +"The thin blade" was already snapping, and even while he was speaking +the last fibres were giving way. + +The silence which followed his words was broken by Elsket; I heard a +strange sound, and Elsket called feebly, "Oh, father." + +Olaf went quickly to her bedside. I heard him say, "My God in Heaven!" +and I sprang up and joined him. It was a hemorrhage. + +Her life-blood was flowing from her lips. She could not last like that +ten minutes. + +Providentially the remedies provided by Doctor John were right at hand, +and, thanks to them, the crimson tide was stayed before life went +out; but it was soon apparent that her strength was gone and her power +exhausted. + +We worked over her, but her pulse was running down like a broken clock. +There was no time to have got a physician, even had there been one to +get. I mentioned it; Olaf shook his head. "She is in the hands of God," +he said. + +Olaf never left the bedside except to heat water or get some stimulant +for her. + +But, notwithstanding every effort, she failed to rally. The overtaxed +heart was giving out, and all day she sank steadily. I never saw such a +desperate face as that old man's. It haunts me now. He hung over her. +He held her hand, now growing cold, against his cheek to keep it +warm--stroked it and kissed it. As towards evening the short, quick +breaths came, which precede dissolution, he sank on his knees. At first, +he buried his face in his hands; then in the agony of his despair, he +began to speak aloud. I never heard a more moving appeal. It was a man +speaking face to face with God for one about to enter his presence. +His eyes were wide open, as if he saw His face. He did not ask that she +should be spared to him; it was all for his "Elska," his "Darling," that +Jesus would be her "Herder," and lead her beside the still waters; that +she might be spared all suffering and sorrow, and have peace. + +Presently he ended and buried his face in his hands. The quick, faint +breaths had died away, and as I looked on the still white face on the +pillow I thought that she had gone. But suddenly the large eyes slowly +opened wide. + +"Father," she said, faintly. + +"Elsket," the old man bent over her eagerly. + +"I am so tired." + +"My Elsket." + +"I love you." + +"Yes, my Elsket." + +"You will stay with me?" + +"Yes, always." + +"If Cnut comes?". + +"Yes, my Elsket." + +"If Cnut comes----" very faintly. + +Her true lover's name was the last on her lips. + +He bent his ear to her lips. "Yes?" + +But we never knew just what she wanted. The dim, large eyes closed, and +then the lids lifted slowly a little; there was a sigh, and Elsket's +watching was over; the weary spirit was at peace. + +"She is with God," he said, calmly. + +I closed the white lids gently, and moved out. Later I offered to help +him, but he said "No," and I remained out of doors till the afternoon. + +About sunset he appeared and went up toward the old church, and I went +into the house. I found that he had laid her out in the large room, and +she lay with her face slightly turned as if asleep. She was dressed like +a bride in the bridal dress she had sewn so long; her hair was unbound, +and lay about her, fine and silken, and she wore the old silver +ornaments she had showed me. No bride had ever a more faithful +attendant. He had put them all upon her. + +After a time, as he did not come back, I went to look for him. As I +approached I heard a dull, thumping sound. When I reached the cleared +place I found him digging. He had chosen a spot just in front of the +quaint old door, with the rude, runic letters, which the earliest +sunbeams would touch. As I came up I saw he was digging her grave. +I offered to help, but he said "No." So I carried him some food and +placing it near him left him. + +Late that evening he came down and asked me if I would sit up that +night. I told him, yes. He thanked me and went into the house. In +a little while he came out and silently went up the path toward the +mountain. + +It was a strange night that I spent in that silent valley in that still +house, only I, and the dead girl lying there so white and peaceful. I +had strange thoughts, and the earth and things earthly disappeared for +me that night shut in by those mountain walls. I was in a world alone. +I was cut off from all but God and the dead. I have dear ones in heaven, +and I was nearer to them that night, amid the mountain-tops of Norway, +than I was to earthly friends. I think I was nearer to heaven that night +than I ever shall be again till I get there. + +Day broke like a great pearl, but I did not heed it. It was all peace. + +Suddenly there was a step outside, and Olaf, with his face drawn and +gray, and bowing under the weight of the burden upon his shoulder, +stepped wearily in at the door. + +To do Elsket honor he had been over the mountain to get it. I helped +lift it down and place it, and then he waited for me to go. As I passed +out of the door I saw him bend over the quiet sleeper. I looked in +later; he had placed her in the coffin, but the top was not on and he +was on his knees beside her. + +He did not bury her that day; but he never left her side; he sat by her +all day and all night. Next day he came to the door and looked at me. +I went in and understood that he wanted me to look for the last time on +her face. It was fairer than I ever saw it. He had cut her flowers +and placed them all about her, and on her breast was a small packet of +letters. All care, all suffering, all that was merely of the earth were +cleansed away, and she looked as she lay, like a dead angel. After I +came out I heard him fastening on the top, and when he finished I +went in again. He would have attempted to carry it by himself, but I +restrained him, and without a word he took the head and I the foot, and +so lifting her tenderly we went gently out and up toward the church. We +had to pause and rest several times, for he was almost worn out. After +we had lowered her into the grave I was in doubt what to do; but Olaf +drew from his coat his two books, and standing close by the side of the +grave he opened first the little Bible and began to read in a low but +distinct voice: "Lord, thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to +another. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and +the world were made, thou art God from everlasting, and world without +end." + +When he finished this he turned and read again: "Now is Christ risen +from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept," etc. +They were the Psalm and the chapter which I had heard him read to Elsket +that first day when she became excited, and with which he had so often +charmed her restless spirit. + +He closed, and I thought he was done, but he opened his hymn-book and +turning over a few leaves sang the same hymn he had sung to her that +day. He sang it all through to the end, the low, strange, dirge-like +hymn, and chanted as it was by that old man alone, standing in the +fading evening light beside the grave which he had dug for his daughter, +the last of his race, I never heard anything so moving. Then he knelt, +and clasping his hands offered a prayer. The words, from habit, ran +almost as they had done when he had prayed for Elsket before, that +God would be her Shepherd, her "Herder," and lead her beside the still +waters, and give her peace. + +When he was through I waited a little, and then I took up a spade to +help him; but he reached out and took it quietly, and seeing that he +wanted to be alone I left him. He meant to do for Elsket all the last +sacred offices himself. + +I was so fatigued that on reaching the house I dropped off to sleep and +slept till morning, and I do not know when he came into the house, if +he came at all. When I waked early next morning he was not there, and I +rose and went up to the church to hunt for him. He was sitting quietly +beside the grave, and I saw that he had placed at her head a little +cross of birchwood, on which he had burned one word, simply, + +"Elsket." + +I spoke to him, asking him to come to the house. + +"I cannot leave her," he said; but when I urged him he rose silently and +returned with me. + +I remained with him for a while after that, and each day he went and sat +by the grave. At last I had to leave. I urged him to come with me, but +he replied always, "No, I must watch over Elsket." + +It was late in the evening when we set off to cross the mountain. We +came by the same path by which I had gone, Olaf leading me as carefully +and holding me as steadily as when I went over before. I stopped at the +church to lay a few wild flowers on the little gray mound where Elsket +slept so quietly. Olaf said not a word; he simply waited till I was done +and then followed me dumbly. I was so filled with sorrow for him that +I did not, except in one place, think much of the fearful cliffs along +which we made our way. At the Devil's Seat, indeed, my nerves for a +moment seemed shaken and almost gave way as I thought of the false young +lord whose faithlessness had caused all the misery to these simple, +kindly folk, and of the fierce young Norseman who had there found so +sweet a revenge. But we came on and passed the ledge, and descending +struck the broader path just after the day broke, where it was no longer +perilous but only painful. + +There Olaf paused. "I will go back if you don't want me," he said. I +did not need his services, but I urged him to come on with me--to pay a +visit to his friends. "I have none," he said, simply. Then to come home +with me and live with me in old Virginia. He said, "No," he "must watch +over Elsket." So finally I had to give in, and with a clasp of the hand +and a message to "her friend" Doctor John, to "remember Elsket," he went +back and was soon lost amid the rocks. + +I was half-way down when I reached a cleared place an hour or so later, +and turned to look back. The sharp angle of the Devil's Ledge was the +highest point visible, the very pinnacle of the mountain, and there, +clear against the burnished steel of the morning sky, on the very edge, +clear in the rare atmosphere was a small figure. It stood for a second, +a black point distinctly outlined, and then disappeared. + +It was Olaf of the Mountain, gone back to keep watch over Elsket. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsket, by Thomas Nelson Page + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSKET *** + +***** This file should be named 23017.txt or 23017.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/0/1/23017/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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. 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