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diff --git a/39744.txt b/39744.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e12e25 --- /dev/null +++ b/39744.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7328 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Arne: Early Tales and Sketches, by Bjornstjerne Bjornson + +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: Arne: Early Tales and Sketches + Patriots Edition + +Author: Bjornstjerne Bjornson + +Translator: Rasmus B. Anderson + +Release Date: May 20, 2012 [EBook #39744] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARNE: EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES *** + + + + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Margo Romberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + ARNE + + EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES + + + + + WORKS OF BJOeRNSTJERNE BJOeRNSON + + PATRIOTS EDITION + + ARNE + + EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES + + _Translated from the Norse + By_ + Rasmus B. Anderson + + NEW YORK + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + + + + + Copyright, 1881, 1882, + By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE + PREFACE 5 + + ARNE + Chapter I 9 + Chapter II 14 + Chapter III 28 + Chapter IV 42 + Chapter V 52 + Chapter VI 60 + Chapter VII 70 + Chapter VIII 77 + Chapter IX 89 + Chapter X 108 + Chapter XI 126 + Chapter XII 139 + Chapter XIII 149 + Chapter XIV 163 + Chapter XV 174 + Chapter XVI 195 + + + EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES + + The Railroad and the Churchyard + Chapter I 203 + Chapter II 219 + Chapter III 237 + + Thrond 248 + + A Dangerous Wooing 264 + + The Bear Hunter 272 + + The Father 284 + + The Eagle's Nest 290 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +"Arne" was written in 1858, one year later than "Synnoeve Solbakken," and +is thought by many to be Bjoernson's best story, though it is, in my +opinion, surpassed in simplicity of style and delicate analysis of +motives, feelings, and character by "A Happy Boy," his third long story, +the translation of which is now in progress, and which will follow this +volume. + +Norway's most eminent composers have written music for many of +Bjoernson's poems, and made them favorite songs, not only with the +cultivated classes, but also with the common people. To the songs in +"Arne" melodies were composed by Bjoernson's brilliant cousin, Rikard +Nordraak, who died in 1865, only twenty-three years old, but who had +already won a place as one of Norway's greatest composers. + +With a view of popularizing these melodies in this country, all the +poems have been given in precisely the same metre and rhyme as the +original, and those caring to know how the tunes are supposed to have +sounded on the lips of Arne are referred to "The Norway Music Album," +edited by Auber Forestier and myself, and published by Oliver Ditson & +Co. of Boston. In it will be found, together with the original and +English words, Rikard Nordraak's music to the following five songs from +"Arne":-- + + +1. "Oh, my pet lamb, lift your head," from chapter v. + +2. "It was such a pleasant, sunny day," from chapter viii. + +3. "The tree's early leaf-buds were bursting their brown," from chapter +xii. + +4. "Oh how I wonder what I should see + Over the lofty mountains,"[1] from chapter xiv. + +5. "He went in the forest the whole day long," from chapter xiv. + +Mr. Bjoernson returned to Norway in May, 1881; he was welcomed with +enthusiasm, and on the 17th of the same month, Norway's natal day, he +delivered the oration at the dedication of the Wergeland Monument to a +gathering of more than ten thousand people. His visit to America was a +brilliant success. His addresses to his countrymen in America were +chiefly on the constitutional struggle of Norway, on which subject an +article by him will be found in the February (1881) issue of "Scribner's +Monthly." As a souvenir of his pleasant sojourn among us, I will here +attempt an English translation of the poem "Olaf Trygvason" with which +he usually greeted his hearers at his lectures. It is one of his most +popular songs. + + Spreading sails o'er the North Sea speed; + High on deck stands at dawn, indeed, + Erling Skjalgson from Sole. + Spying o'er the sea towards Denmark: + "Wherefore comes not Olaf Trygvason?" + + Six and fifty the dragons are; + Sails are furled ... toward Denmark stare + Sun-scorched men ... then rises: + "Where stays the King's Long Serpent? + Wherefore comes not Olaf Trygvason?" + + But when sun on the second day + Saw the watery, mastless way, + Like a great storm it sounded: + "Where stays the King's Long Serpent? + Wherefore comes not Olaf Trygvason?" + + Quiet, quiet, in that same hour + Stood they all; for with endless power, + Groaning, the sea was splashing: + "Taken the King's Long Serpent! + Fallen is Olaf Trygvason!" + + Thus for more than an hundred years + Sounds in every seaman's ears, + Chiefly in moon-lit watches: + "Taken the King's Long Serpent! + Fallen is Olaf Trygvason!" + +The reader will not fail to be reminded by this song by Bjoernson of +Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" (the Musician's Tale), in his "Tales of +a Wayside Inn," and especially of those beautiful poems in this +collection, "The Building of the Long Serpent," and "The Crew of the +Long Serpent." + +Hoping the translation of these stories and songs will enable the reader +to appreciate in some degree the secret of Bjoernson's great popularity +in the fair land that lies beneath the eternal snow and the unsetting +sun, I now offer "Arne" to the American public. + + RASMUS B. ANDERSON. + +ASGARD, MADISON, WIS., + _August, 1881_. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +There was a deep gorge between two mountains; through this gorge a +large, full stream flowed heavily over a rough and stony bottom. Both +sides were high and steep, and so one side was bare; but close to its +foot, and so near the stream that the latter sprinkled it with moisture +every spring and autumn, stood a group of fresh-looking trees, gazing +upward and onward, yet unable to advance this way or that. + +"What if we should clothe the mountain?" said the juniper one day to the +foreign oak, to which it stood nearer than all the others. The oak +looked down to find out who it was that spoke, and then it looked up +again without deigning a reply. The river rushed along so violently that +it worked itself into a white foam; the north wind had forced its way +through the gorge and shrieked in the clefts of the rocks; the naked +mountain, with its great weight, hung heavily over and felt cold. "What +if we should clothe the mountain?" said the juniper to the fir on the +other side. "If anybody is to do it, I suppose it must be we," said the +fir, taking hold of its beard and glancing toward the birch. "What do +you think?" But the birch peered cautiously up at the mountain, which +hung over it so threateningly that it seemed as if it could scarcely +breathe. "Let us clothe it in God's name!" said the birch. And so, +though there were but these three, they undertook to clothe the +mountain. The juniper went first. + +When they had gone a little way, they met the heather. The juniper +seemed as though about to go past it. "Nay, take the heather along," +said the fir. And the heather joined them. Soon it began to glide on +before the juniper. "Catch hold of me," said the heather. The juniper +did so, and where there was only a wee crevice, the heather thrust in a +finger, and where it first had placed a finger, the juniper took hold +with its whole hand. They crawled and crept along, the fir laboring on +behind, the birch also. "This is well worth doing," said the birch. + +But the mountain began to ponder on what manner of insignificant objects +these might be that were clambering up over it. And after it had been +considering the matter a few hundred years it sent a little brook down +to inquire. It was yet in the time of the spring freshets, and the brook +stole on until it reached the heather. "Dear, dear heather, cannot you +let me pass; I am so small." The heather was very busy; only raised +itself a little and pressed onward. In, under, and onward went the +brook. "Dear, dear juniper, cannot you let me pass; I am so small." The +juniper looked sharply at it; but if the heather had let it pass, why, +in all reason, it must do so too. Under it and onward went the brook; +and now came to the spot where the fir stood puffing on the hill-side. +"Dear, dear fir, cannot you let me pass; I am really so small," said the +brook,--and it kissed the fir's foot and made itself so very sweet. The +fir became bashful at this, and let it pass. But the birch raised itself +before the brook asked it. "Hi, hi, hi!" said the brook and grew. "Ha, +ha, ha!" said the brook and grew. "Ho, ho, ho!" said the brook, and +flung the heather and the juniper and the fir and the birch flat on +their faces and backs, up and down these great hills. The mountain sat +for many hundred years musing on whether it had not smiled a little +that day. + +It was plain enough: the mountain did not want to be clad. The heather +fretted over this until it grew green again, and then it started +forward. "Fresh courage!" said the heather. + +The juniper had half raised itself to look at the heather, and continued +to keep this position, until at length it stood upright. It scratched +its head and set forth again, taking such a vigorous foothold that it +seemed as though the mountain must feel it. "If you will not have me, +then I will have you." The fir crooked its toes a little to find out +whether they were whole, then lifted one foot, found it whole, then the +other, which proved also to be whole, then both of them. It first +investigated the ground it had been over, next where it had been lying, +and finally where it should go. After this it began to wend its way +slowly along, and acted just as though it had never fallen. The birch +had become most wretchedly soiled, but now rose up and made itself tidy. +Then they sped onward, faster and faster, upward and on either side, in +sunshine and in rain. "What in the world can this be?" said the +mountain, all glittering with dew, as the summer sun shone down on +it,--the birds sang, the wood-mouse piped, the hare hopped along, and +the ermine hid itself and screamed. + +Then the day came when the heather could peep with one eye over the edge +of the mountain. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" said the heather, and away +it went. "Dear me! what is it the heather sees?" said the juniper, and +moved on until it could peer up. "Oh dear, oh dear!" it shrieked, and +was gone. "What is the matter with the juniper to-day?" said the fir, +and took long strides onward in the heat of the sun. Soon it could raise +itself on its toes and peep up. "Oh dear!" Branches and needles stood on +end in wonderment. It worked its way forward, came up, and was gone. +"What is it all the others see, and not I?" said the birch; and, lifting +well its skirts, it tripped after. It stretched its whole head up at +once. "Oh,--oh!--is not here a great forest of fir and heather, of +juniper and birch, standing upon the table-land waiting for us?" said +the birch; and its leaves quivered in the sunshine so that the dew +trembled. "Aye, this is what it is to reach the goal!" said the juniper. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Up on the hill-top it was that Arne was born. His mother's name was +Margit, and she was the only child at the houseman's place,--Kampen.[2] +Once, in her eighteenth year, she stayed too long at a dance; her +companions had left her, and so Margit thought that the way home would +be just as long whether she waited until the dancing was over or not. +And thus it happened that she kept her seat until the fiddler, known as +Nils the tailor, suddenly laid aside his fiddle, as was his wont when +drink took possession of him, let others troll the tune, seized the +prettiest girl, moved his foot as evenly as the rhythm of a song, and +with his boot-heel took the hat from the head of the tallest person +present. "Ho!" said he. When Margit went home that evening, the +moon-beams played on the snow with most wondrous beauty. After she had +reached her bed-chamber she was moved to look out once more. She took +off her boddice, but remained standing with it in her hand. Then she +felt that she was cold, closed the door hastily, undressed, and nestled +in under the robe. That night Margit dreamed about a great red cow that +had wandered into the field. She went to drive it out, but though she +tried hard, she could not stir from the spot; the cow stood calmly +grazing there until it grew plump and well fed, and every now and then +it looked at her, with large, heavy eyes. + +The next time there was a dance in the parish Margit was present. She +cared little for dancing that evening; she kept her seat to listen to +the music, and it seemed strange to her that there were not others also +who preferred this. But when the evening had worn on, the fiddler arose +and wanted to dance. All at once he went directly to Margit Kampen. She +scarcely knew what she was about, but she danced with Nils the tailor. + +Soon the weather grew warm, and there was no more dancing. That spring +Margit took such interest in a little lamb that had fallen ill, that her +mother almost thought she was overdoing it. + +"It is only a little lamb," said the mother. + +"Yes, but it is ill," replied Margit. + +It was some time since she had been to church; she wished to have her +mother go, she said, and some one must be at home. One Sunday, later in +the summer, the weather was so fine that the hay could well be left out +for twenty-four hours, and the mother said that now they surely might +both go. Margit could not reasonably object to this, and got ready for +church; but when they were so far on their way that they could hear the +church-bells, she burst into tears. The mother grew deathly pale: but +they went on, the mother in advance, Margit following, listened to the +sermon, joined in all the hymns to the very last, followed the prayer, +and heard the bell ring before they left. But when they were seated in +the family-room at home again, the mother took Margit's face between her +hands and said:-- + +"Hide nothing from me, my child." + +There came another winter when Margit did not dance. But Nils the tailor +fiddled, took more strong drink than ever, and always, toward the close +of the evening, swung the prettiest girl at the party. In those days, it +was told as a certain fact that he could marry whom he pleased among the +daughters of the first gard-owners in the parish; some added that Eli +Boeen herself had courted him for her daughter Birgit, who was madly in +love with him. + +But just at that time an infant of the houseman's daughter at Kampen was +brought to baptism; it was christened Arne, and tailor Nils was spoken +of as its father. + +The evening of the same day Nils was at a large wedding; there he got +drunk. He would not play, but danced all the time, and scarcely brooked +having others on the floor. But when he crossed to Birgit Boeen and asked +her to dance, she declined. He gave a short laugh, turned on his heel, +and caught hold of the first girl he encountered. She resisted. He +looked down; it was a little dark maiden who had been sitting gazing +fixedly at him, and who was now pale. Bowing lightly over her, he +whispered,-- + +"Will you not dance with _me_, Karen?" + +She made no reply. He asked once more. Then she answered in a whisper, +as he had asked,-- + +"_That_ dance might go farther than I wished." + +He drew slowly back, but once in the middle of the floor, he made a +spring and danced the halling[3] alone. No one else was dancing; the +others stood looking on in silence. + +Afterwards he went out in the barn, and there he lay down and wept. +Margit kept at home with the little boy. She heard about Nils, how he +went from dance to dance, and she looked at the child and wept,--looked +at him again and was happy. The first thing she taught him was to say +papa; but this she dared not do when the mother, or the grandmother, as +she was henceforth called, chanced to be near. The result of this was +that it was the grandmother whom the boy called papa. It cost Margit +much to break him of this, and thus she fostered in him an early +shrewdness. He was not very large before he knew that Nils the tailor +was his father, and when he reached the age in which the romantic +acquires a flavor, he became also aware what sort of a man tailor Nils +was. The grandmother had strictly forbidden even the mention of his +name; what she mainly strove for was to have the houseman's place, +Kampen, become an independent gard, so that her daughter and her boy +might be free from care. She availed herself of the gard-owner's +poverty, effected the purchase of the place, paid off a portion of the +money each year, and managed the business like a man, for she had been a +widow for fourteen years. Kampen was a large place, and had been +extended until now it fed four cows, sixteen sheep, and a horse in which +she was half owner. + +Nils the tailor meanwhile took to roving about the parish; his business +had fallen off, partly because he felt less interest in it, partly also +because he was not liked as before. He gave, therefore, more time to +fiddling; this led oftener to drinking and thence to fighting and evil +days. There were those who had heard him say he was unhappy. + +Arne might have been about six years old, when one winter day he was +frolicking in the bed, whose coverlet he had up for a sail, while he was +steering with a ladle. The grandmother sat spinning in the room, +absorbed in her own thoughts, and nodded occasionally as though she +would make a fixed fact of something she was thinking about. The boy +knew that he was unheeded, and he fell to singing, just as he had +learned it, the rough, wild song about tailor Nils:-- + + "Unless 'twas only yesterday hither first you came, + You've surely heard already of Nils the tailor's fame. + + "Unless 'twas but this morning you came among us first, + You've heard how he knocked over tall Johan Knutson Kirst. + + "How, in his famous barn-fight with Ola Stor-Johann, + He said, 'Bring down your porridge when we two fight again.' + + "That fighting fellow, Bugge, a famous man was he: + His name was known all over fjord and fell and sea. + + "'Now, choose the place, you tailor, where I shall knock you down, + And then I'll spit upon it, and there I'll lay your crown.' + + "'Ah, only come so near, I may catch your scent, my man, + Your bragging hurts nobody; don't dream it ever can.' + + "The first round was a poor one, and neither man could beat; + But both kept in their places, and steady on their feet. + + "The second round, poor Bugge was beaten black and blue. + 'Little Bugge, are you tired? It's going hard with you.' + + "The third round, Bugge tumbled, and bleeding there he lay. + 'Now, Bugge, where's your bragging?' 'Bad luck to me to-day!'"[4] + +More the boy did not sing; but there were two other stanzas which his +mother was not likely to have taught him:-- + + "Have you seen a tree cast its shadow on yesterday's snow? + Have you seen how Nils does his smiles on the girls bestow? + + "Have you looked at Nils when to dance he just commences? + Come, my girl, you must go; it is too late, when you've lost + your senses." + +These two stanzas the grandmother knew, and they came all the more +distinctly into her mind because they were not sung. She said nothing to +the boy; but to the mother she said, "Teach the boy well about your own +shame; do not forget the last verses." + +Nils the tailor was so broken down by drink that he was no longer the +man he had been, and some people thought his end could not be far +distant. + +It so happened that two American gentlemen were visiting in the parish, +and having heard that a wedding was going on in the vicinity, wanted to +attend it, that they might learn the customs of the country. Nils was +playing there. They gave each a dollar to the fiddler, and asked for a +halling; but no one would come forward to dance it, however much it was +urged. Several begged Nils himself to dance. "He was best, after all," +they said. He refused, but the request became still more urgent, and +finally unanimous. This was what he wanted. He gave his fiddle to +another player, took off his jacket and cap, and stepped smiling into +the middle of the room. He was followed by the same eager attention as +of old, and this gave him his old strength. The people crowded closely +together, those who were farthest back climbing upon tables and benches. +Some of the girls were perched up higher than all the rest, and foremost +among these--a tall girl with sunny brown hair of a varying tint, with +blue eyes deeply set beneath a strong forehead, a large mouth that often +smiled, drawing a little to one side as it did so--was Birgit Boeen. Nils +saw her, as he glanced up at the beam. The music struck up, a deep +silence followed, and he began. He dashed forward along the floor, his +body inclining to one side, half aslant, keeping time to the fiddle. +Crouching down, he balanced himself, now on one foot, now on the other, +flung his legs crosswise under him, sprang up again, stood as though +about to make a fling, and then moved on aslant as before. The fiddle +was handled by skillful fingers, and more and more fire was thrown into +the tune. Nils threw his head farther and farther back, and suddenly his +boot-heel touched the beam, sending the dust from the ceiling in showers +over them all. The people laughed and shouted about him; the girls stood +well-nigh breathless. The tune hurrahed with the rest, stimulating him +anew with more and more strongly-marked accents, nor did he resist the +exciting influences. He bent forward, hopped along in time to the music, +made ready apparently for a fling, but only as a hoax, and then moved +on, his body aslant as before; and when he seemed the least prepared for +it, his boot-heel thundered against the beam again and again, whereupon +he turned summersaults forwards and backwards in the air, landing each +time erect on his feet. He broke off abruptly, and the tune, running +through some wild variations, worked its way down to a deep tone in the +bass, where it quivered and vibrated, and died away with a long-drawn +stroke of the bow. The crowd dispersed, and loud, eager conversation, +mingled with shouts and exclamations, broke the silence. Nils stood +leaning against the wall, and the American gentlemen went over to him, +with their interpreter, and each gave him five dollars. + +The Americans talked a little with the interpreter, whereupon the latter +asked Nils if he would go with them as their servant; he should have +whatever wages he wanted. "Whither?" asked Nils. The people crowded +about them as closely as possible. "Out into the world," was the reply. +"When?" asked Nils, and looking around with a shining face, he caught +Birgit Boeen's eyes, and did not let them go again. "In a week, when we +come back here," was the answer. "It is possible I will be ready," +replied Nils, weighing his two five-dollar pieces. He had rested one arm +on the shoulder of a man standing near him, and it trembled so that the +man wanted to help him to the bench. + +"It is nothing," replied Nils, made some wavering steps across the +floor, then some firm ones, and, turning, asked for a spring-dance.[5] + +All the girls had come to the front. Casting a long, lingering look +about him, he went straightway to one of them in a dark skirt; it was +Birgit Boeen. He held out his hand, and she gave him both of hers; then +he laughed, drew back, caught hold of the girl beside her, and danced +away with perfect abandon. The blood coursed up in Birgit's neck and +face. A tall man, with a mild countenance, was standing directly behind +her; he took her by the hand and danced off after Nils. The latter saw +this, and--it might have been only through heedlessness--he danced so +hard against them that the man and Birgit were sent reeling over and +fell heavily on the floor. Shouting and laughter arose about them. +Birgit got up at last, went aside, and wept bitterly. + +The man with the mild face rose more slowly and went straight over to +Nils, who was still dancing. "You had better stop a little," said the +man. Nils did not hear, and then the man took him by the arm. Nils tore +himself away and looked at him. "I do not know you," said he, with a +smile. "No; but you shall learn to know me," said the man with the mild +face, and with this he struck Nils a blow over one eye. Nils, who was +wholly unprepared for this, was plunged heavily across the sharp-edged +hearth-stone, and when he promptly tried to rise, he found that he could +not; his back was broken. + +At Kampen a change had taken place. The grandmother had been growing +very feeble of late, and when she realized this she strove harder than +ever to save money enough to pay off the last installment on the gard. +"Then you and the boy will have all you need," she said to her daughter. +"And if you let any one come in and waste it for you, I will turn in my +grave." During the autumn, too, she had the pleasure of being able to +stroll up to the former head-gard with the last remaining portion of the +debt, and happy was she when she had taken her seat again, and could +say, "Now that is done!" But at that very time she was attacked by her +last illness; she betook herself forthwith to her bed, and never rose +again. Her daughter buried her in a vacant spot in the churchyard, and +placed over her a handsome cross, whereon was inscribed her name and +age, with a verse from one of Kingo's[6] hymns. A fortnight after the +grandmother was laid in her grave, her Sunday gown was made over into +clothes for the boy, and when he put them on, he became as solemn as +though he were his grandmother come back again. Of his own accord, he +went to the book with big print and large clasps she had read and sung +from every Sunday, opened it, and there inside found her spectacles. +These the boy had never been permitted to touch during his grandmother's +lifetime; now he timidly took them up, put them on his nose, and looked +through them into the book. All was misty. "How strange," thought the +boy, "it was through them grandmother could read the word of God." He +held them high up toward the light to see what the matter was, and--the +spectacles lay on the floor. + +He was much alarmed, and when the door at that moment opened, it seemed +to him as though his grandmother must be coming in, but it was his +mother, and behind her, six men, who, with much tramping and noise, were +bearing in a litter, which they placed in the middle of the floor. For a +long time the door was left open, so that it grew cold in the room. + +On the litter lay a man with dark hair and pale face; the mother moved +about weeping. "Lay him carefully on the bed," she begged, herself +lending a helping hand. But while the men were moving with him, +something made a noise under their feet. "Oh, it is only grandmother's +spectacles," thought the boy, but he did not say so. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +It was in the autumn, as before stated. A week after Nils the tailor was +borne into Margit Kampen's home, there came word to him from the +Americans that he must hold himself in readiness to start. He lay just +then writhing under a terrible attack of pain, and, gnashing his teeth, +he shrieked, "Let them go to hell!" Margit stood motionless, as though +he had made no answer. He noticed this, and presently he repeated slowly +and feebly, "Let them--go." + +As the winter advanced, he improved so much that he was able to sit up, +although his health was shattered for life. The first time he actually +sat up, he took out his fiddle and tuned it, but became so agitated that +he had to go to bed again. He grew very taciturn, but was not hard to +get along with; and as time wore on, he taught the boy to read, and +began to take work in at home. He never went out, and would not talk +with those who dropped in to see him. At first Margit used to bring him +the parish news; he was always gloomy afterwards, so she ceased to do +so. + +When spring had fairly set in, he and Margit would sit longer than usual +talking together after the evening meal. The boy was then sent off to +bed. Some time later in the spring their bans were published in church, +after which they were quietly married. + +He did his share of work in the fields now, and managed everything in a +sensible, orderly way. Margit said to the boy, "There is both profit +and pleasure in him. Now you must be obedient and good, that you may do +your best for him." + +Margit had remained tolerably stout through all her sorrow; she had a +ruddy face and very large eyes, which looked all the larger because +there was a ring round them. She had full lips, a round face, and looked +healthy and strong, although she was not very strong. At this period of +her life, she was looking better than ever; and she always sang when she +was at work, as had ever been her wont. + +One Sunday afternoon, father and son went out to see how the crops were +thriving that year. Arne ran about his father, shooting with a bow and +arrow. Nils had himself made them for the boy. Thus they passed on +directly up toward the road leading past the church and parsonage, down +to what was called the broad valley. Nils seated himself on a stone by +the roadside and fell to dreaming; the boy shot into the road and sprang +after his arrow,--it was in the direction of the church. "Not too far +away!" said the father. While the boy was playing there, he paused, as +though listening. "Father, I hear music!" The father listened too; they +heard the sounds of fiddling, almost drowned at times by loud shouts and +wild uproar; but above all rose the steady rumbling of cart-wheels and +the clatter of horses' feet; it was a bridal procession, wending its way +home from church. "Come here, boy," shouted the father, and Arne knew by +the tones of the voice that he must make haste. The father had hurriedly +risen and hidden behind a large tree. The boy hastened after him. "Not +here, over there!" cried the father, and the boy stepped behind an +alder-copse. Already the carts were winding round the birch-grove; they +came at a wild speed, the horses were white with foam, drunken people +were crying and shouting; father and son counted cart after cart,--there +were in all fourteen. In the first sat two fiddlers, and the wedding +march sounded merrily through the clear air,--a boy stood behind and +drove. Afterwards came a crowned bride, who sat on a high seat and +glittered in the sunshine; she smiled, and her mouth drew to one side; +beside her sat a man clad in blue and with a mild face. The bridal train +followed, the men sat on the women's laps; small boys were sitting +behind, drunken men were driving,--there were six people to one horse; +the man who presided at the feast came in the last cart, holding a keg +of brandy on his lap. They passed by screaming and singing, and drove +recklessly down the hill; the fiddling, the voices, the rattling of +wheels, lingered behind them in the dust; the breeze bore up single +shrieks, soon only a dull rumbling, and then nothing. Nils stood +motionless; there was a rustling behind him, he turned; it was the boy +who was creeping forward. + +"Who was it, father?" But the boy started, for his father's face was +dreadful. Arne stood motionless waiting for an answer; then he remained +where he was because he got none. After some time he became impatient +and ventured again. "Shall we go?" Nils was still gazing after the +bridal train, but he now controlled himself and started on. Arne +followed after. He put an arrow into the bow, shot it, and ran. "Do not +trample down the grass," said Nils gruffly. The boy let the arrow lie +and came back. After a while he had forgotten this, and once when his +father paused, he lay down and turned summersaults. "Do not trample down +the grass, I say." Here Arne was seized by one arm, and lifted by it +with such violence that it was almost put out of joint. Afterward, he +walked quietly behind. + +At the door Margit awaited them; she had just come in from the stable, +where she had evidently had pretty hard work, for her hair was tumbled, +her linen soiled, her dress likewise, but she stood in the door smiling. +"A couple of the cows got loose and have been into mischief; now they +are tied again." + +"You might make yourself a little tidy on Sunday," said Nils, as he went +past into the house. + +"Yes, there is some sense in tidying up now that the work is done," said +Margit, and followed him. She began to fix herself at once, and sang +while she was doing so. Now Margit sang well, but sometimes there was a +little huskiness in her voice. + +"Stop that screaming," said Nils; he had thrown himself on his back +across the bed. Margit stopped. + +Then the boy came storming in. "There has come into the yard a great +black dog, a dreadful looking"-- + +"Hold your tongue, boy," said Nils from the bed, and thrust out one foot +to stamp on the floor with it. "A devilish noise that boy is always +making," he muttered afterward, and drew his foot up again. + +The mother held up a warning finger to the boy. "You surely must see +that father is not in a good humor," she meant. "Will you not have some +strong coffee with syrup in it?" said she; she wanted to put him in a +good humor again. This was a drink the grandmother had liked, and the +rest of them too. Nils did not like it at all, but had drunk it because +the others did so. "Will you not have some strong coffee with syrup in +it?" repeated Margit; for he had made no reply the first time. Nils +raised himself up on both elbows and shrieked, "Do you think I will pour +down such slops?" + +Margit was struck with surprise, and, taking the boy with her, went out. + +They had a number of things to attend to outside, and did not come in +before supper-time. Then Nils was gone. Arne was sent out into the field +to call him, but found him nowhere. They waited until the supper was +nearly cold, then ate, and still Nils had not come. Margit became +uneasy, sent the boy to bed, and sat down to wait. A little after +midnight Nils appeared. + +"Where have you been, dear?" asked she. + +"That is none of your business," he answered, and slowly sat down on the +bench. + +He was drunk. + +After this, Nils often went out in the parish, and always came home +drunk. "I cannot stand it at home here with you," said he once when he +came in. She tried gently to defend herself, and then he stamped on the +floor and bade her be silent: if he was drunk, it was her fault; if he +was wicked, it was her fault too; if he was a cripple and an unfortunate +being for his whole life, why, she was to blame too, and that infernal +boy of hers. + +"Why were you always dangling after me?" said he, and wept. "What harm +had I done you that you could not leave me in peace?" + +"Lord have mercy on me!" said Margit. "Was it I who went after you?" + +"Yes, it was!" he shrieked as he arose, and amid tears he continued: +"You have succeeded in getting what you wanted. I drag myself about from +tree to tree. I go every day and look at my own grave. But I could have +lived in splendor with the finest gard girl in the parish. I might have +traveled as far as the sun goes, had not you and your damned boy put +yourselves in my way." + +She tried again to defend herself. "It was, at all events, not the boy's +fault." + +"If you do not hold your tongue, I will strike you!"--and he struck her. + +After he had slept himself sober the next day, he was ashamed, and was +especially kind to the boy. But soon he was drunk again, and then he +struck the mother. At last he got to striking her almost every time he +was drunk. The boy cried and lamented; then he struck him too. Sometimes +his repentance was so deep that he felt compelled to leave the house. +About this time his fondness for dancing revived. He began to go about +fiddling as in former days, and took the boy with him to carry the +fiddle-case. Thus Arne saw a great deal. The mother wept because he had +to go along, but dared not say so to the father. "Hold faithfully to +God, and learn nothing evil," she begged, and tenderly caressed her boy. +But at the dances there was a great deal of diversion; at home with the +mother there was none at all. Arne turned more and more from her and to +the father; she saw this and was silent. At the dances Arne learned many +songs, and he sang them at home to his father; this amused the latter, +and now and then the boy could even get him to laugh. This was so +flattering to Arne that he exerted himself to learn as many songs as +possible; soon he noticed what kind the father liked best, and what it +was that made him laugh. When there was not enough of this element in +the songs he was singing, the boy added to it himself, and this early +gave him practice in adapting words to music. It was chiefly lampoons +and odious things about people who had risen to power and prosperity, +that the father liked and the boy sang. + +The mother finally concluded to take him with her to the stable of +evenings; numerous were the pretexts he found to escape going, but when, +nevertheless, she managed to take him with her, she talked kindly to him +about God and good things, usually ending by taking him in her arms, +and, amid blinding tears, begging him, entreating him not to become a +bad man. + +The mother taught the boy to read, and he was surprisingly quick at +learning. The father was proud of this, and, especially when he was +drunk, told Arne he had his head. + +Soon the father fell into the habit, when drink got the better of him, +of calling on Arne at dancing-parties to sing for the people. The boy +always obeyed, singing song after song amid laughter and uproar; the +applause pleased the son almost more than it did the father, and finally +there was no end to the songs Arne could sing. Anxious mothers who heard +this, went themselves to his mother and told her of it; their reason for +so doing being that the character of these songs was not what it should +be. The mother put her arms about her boy and forbade him, in the name +of God and all that was sacred, to sing such songs, and now it seemed to +Arne that everything he took delight in his mother opposed. For the +first time he told his father what his mother had said. She had to +suffer for this the next time the father was drunk; he held his peace +until then. But no sooner had it become clear to the boy what he had +done than in his soul he implored pardon of God and her; he could not +bring himself to do so in spoken words. His mother was just as kind as +ever to him, and this cut him to the quick. + +Once, however, he forgot this. He had a faculty for mimicking people. +Above all, he could talk and sing as others did. The mother came in one +evening when Arne was entertaining his father with this, and it occurred +to the father, after she had gone out, that the boy should imitate his +mother's singing. Arne refused at first, but his father, who lay over on +the bed and laughed until it shook, insisted finally that he should sing +like his mother. She is gone, thought the boy, and cannot hear it, and +he mimicked her singing as it sounded sometimes when she was hoarse and +choked with tears. The father laughed until it seemed almost hideous to +the boy, and he stopped of himself. Just then the mother came in from +the kitchen; she looked long and hard at the boy, as she crossed the +floor to a shelf after a milk-pan and turned to carry it out. + +A burning heat ran through his whole body; she had heard it all. He +sprang down from the table where he had been sitting, went out, cast +himself on the ground, and it seemed as though he must bury himself out +of sight. He could not rest, and got up feeling that he must go farther +on. He went past the barn, and behind it sat the mother, sewing on a +fine, new shirt, just for him. She had always been in the habit of +singing a hymn over her work when she sat sewing, but now she was not +singing. She was not weeping, either; she only sat and sewed. Arne could +bear it no longer he flung himself down in the grass directly in front +of her, looked up at her, and wept and sobbed bitterly. The mother +dropped her work and took his head between her hands. + +"Poor Arne!" said she, and laid her own beside his. He did not try to +say a word, but wept as he had never done before. "I knew you were good +at heart," said the mother, and stroked down his hair. + +"Mother, you must not say no to what I am going to ask for," was the +first thing he could say. + +"That you know I cannot do," answered she. + +He tried to stop crying, and then stammered out, with his head still in +her lap: "Mother, sing something for me." + +"My dear, I cannot," said she, softly. + +"Mother, sing something for me," begged the boy, "or I believe I will +never be able to look at you again." + +She stroked his hair, but was silent. + +"Mother, sing, sing, I say! Sing," he begged, "or I will go so far away +that I will never come home any more." + +And while he, now fourteen in his fifteenth year as he was, lay there +with his head in his mother's lap, she began to sing over him:-- + + "Father, stretch forth Thy mighty hand, + Thy Holy Spirit send yonder: + Bless Thou the child on the lonely strand, + Nor in its sports let it wander. + Slipp'ry the way, the water deep,-- + Lord, in Thy arm but the darling keep, + Then through Thy mercy 't will never + Drown, but with Thee live forever. + + "Missing her child, in disquiet sore, + Much for its safety fearing, + Often the mother calls from her door, + Never an answer hearing,-- + Then comes the thought: where'er it be, + Blessed Lord, it is near to Thee; + Jesus will guide his brother + Home to the anxious mother."[7] + +She sang several verses. Arne lay still: there descended upon him a +blessed peace, and under its influence he felt a refreshing weariness. +The last thing he distinctly heard was about Jesus: it bore him into the +midst of a great light, and there it seemed as though twelve or thirteen +were singing; but the mother's voice rose above them all. A lovelier +voice he had never heard; he prayed that he might sing thus. It seemed +to him that if he were to sing right softly he might do so; and now he +sang softly, tried again softly, and still more softly, and then, +rejoiced at the bliss that seemed almost dawning for him, he joined in +with full voice, and the spell was broken. He awakened, looked about +him, listened, but heard nothing, save the everlasting, mighty roar of +the force, and the little creek that flowed past the barn, with its low +and incessant murmuring. The mother was gone,--she had laid under his +head the half-finished shirt and her jacket. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +When the time came to take the herds up into the woods, Arne wanted to +tend them. His father objected; the boy had never tended cattle, and he +was now in his fifteenth year. But he was so urgent that it was finally +arranged as he wished; and the entire spring, summer, and autumn he was +in the woods by himself the livelong day, only going home to sleep. + +He took his books up there with him. He read and carved letters in the +bark of the trees; he went about thinking, longing, and singing. When he +came home in the evening his father was often drunk, and beat the +mother, cursed her and the parish, and talked about how he might once +have journeyed far away. Then the longing for travel entered the boy's +mind too. There was no comfort at home, and the books opened other +worlds to him; sometimes it seemed as though the air, too, wafted him +far away over the lofty mountains. + +So it happened about midsummer that he met Kristian, the captain's +eldest son, who came with the servant boy to the woods after the horses, +in order to get a ride home. He was a few years older than Arne, +light-hearted and gay, unstable in all his thoughts, but nevertheless +firm in his resolves. He spoke rapidly and in broken sentences, and +usually about two things at once; rode horseback without a saddle, shot +birds on the wing, went fly-fishing, and seemed to Arne the goal of his +aspirations. He also had his head full of travel, and told Arne about +foreign lands until everything about them was radiant. He discovered +Arne's fondness for reading, and now carried up to him those books he +had read himself. After Arne had finished reading these, Kristian +brought him new ones; he sat there himself on Sundays, and taught Arne +how to find his way in the geography and the map; and all summer and +autumn Arne read until he grew pale and thin. + +In the winter he was allowed to read at home; partly because he was to +be confirmed the next year, partly because he always knew how to manage +his father. He began to go to school; but there he took most comfort +when he closed his eyes and fancied himself over his books at home; +besides, there were no longer any companions for him among the peasant +boys. + +His father's ill-treatment of the mother increased with years, as did +also his fondness for drink and his bodily suffering. And when Arne, +notwithstanding this, had to sit and amuse him, in order to furnish the +mother with an hour's peace, and then often talk of things he now, in +his heart, despised, he felt growing within him a hatred for his father. +This he hid far down in his heart, as he did his love for his mother. +When he was with Kristian, their talk ran on great journeys and books; +even to him he said nothing about how things were at home. But many +times after these wide-ranging talks, when he was walking home alone, +wondering what might now meet him there, he wept and prayed to God, in +the starry heavens, to grant that he might soon be allowed to go away. + +In the summer he and Kristian were confirmed. Directly afterward, the +latter carried out his plan. His father had to let him go from home and +become a sailor. He presented Arne with his books, promised to write +often to him,--and went away. + +Now Arne was alone. + +About this time he was again filled with a desire to write songs. He no +longer patched up old ones; he made new ones, and wove into them all +that grieved him most. + +But his heart grew too heavy, and his sorrow broke forth in his songs. +He now lay through long, sleepless nights, brooding, until he felt sure +that he could bear this no longer, but must journey far away, seek +Kristian, and not say a word about it to any one. He thought of his +mother, and what would become of her,--and he could scarcely look her in +the face. + +He sat up late one evening reading. When his heart became too gloomy, he +took refuge in his books, and did not perceive that they increased the +venom. His father was at a wedding, but was expected home that evening; +his mother was tired, and dreaded her husband's return; had therefore +gone to bed. Arne started up at the sound of a heavy fall in the passage +and the rattling of something hard, which struck against the door. It +was his father who had come home. + +Arne opened the door and looked at him. + +"Is that you, my clever boy? Come and help your father up!" + +He was raised up and helped in toward the bench. Arne took up the +fiddle-case, carried it in, and closed the door. + +"Yes, look at me, you clever boy. I am not handsome now; this is no +longer tailor Nils. This I say--to you, that you--never shall drink +brandy; it is--the world and the flesh and the devil--He resisteth the +proud but giveth grace unto the humble.--Ah, woe, woe is me!--How far it +has gone with me!" + +He sat still a while, then he sang, weeping,-- + + "Merciful Lord, I come to Thee; + Help, if there can be help for me; + Though by the mire of sin defiled, + I'm still thine own dear ransomed child."[8] + +"Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak +the word only"--He flung himself down, hid his face in his hands, and +sobbed convulsively. Long he lay thus, and then he repeated word for +word from the Bible, as he had learned it probably more than twenty +years before: "Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, help me! +But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, +and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of +the crumbs which fall from their master's table!" + +He was silent now, and dissolved in a flood of tears. + +The mother had awakened long since, but had not dared raise her eyes, +now that her husband was weeping like one who is saved; she leaned on +her elbows and looked up. + +But scarcely had Nils descried her, than he shrieked out: "Are you +staring at me; you, too?--you want to see, I suppose, what you have +brought me to. Aye, this is the way I look, exactly so!" He rose up, +and she hid herself under the robe. "No, do not hide, I will find you +easily enough," said he, extending his right hand, and groping his way +along with outstretched forefinger. "Tickle, tickle!" said he, as he +drew off the covers and placed his finger on her throat. + +"Father!" said Arne. + +"Oh dear! how shriveled up and thin you have grown. There is not much +flesh here. Tickle, tickle." + +The mother convulsively seized his hand with both of hers, but could not +free herself, and so rolled herself into a ball. + +"Father!" said Arne. + +"So life has come into you now. How she writhes, the fright! Tickle, +tickle!" + +"Father!" said Arne. The room seemed to swim about him. + +"Tickle, I say!" + +She let go his hands and gave up. + +"Father!" shouted Arne. He sprang to the corner, where stood an axe. + +"It is only from obstinacy that you do not scream. You had better not do +so either; I have taken such a frightful fancy. Tickle, tickle!" + +"Father!" shrieked Arne, seizing the axe, but remained standing as +though nailed to the spot, for at that moment the father drew himself +up, gave a piercing cry, clutched at his breast, and fell over. "Jesus +Christ!" said he, and lay quite still. + +Arne knew not where he stood or what he stood over; he waited, as it +were, for the room to burst asunder, and for a strong light to break in +somewhere. The mother began to draw her breath heavily, as though she +were rolling off some great weight. She finally half rose, and saw the +father lying stretched out on the floor, the son standing beside him +with an axe. + +"Merciful Lord, what have you done?" she shrieked, and started up out of +bed, threw her skirt about her, and came nearer; then Arne felt as if +his tongue were unloosed. + +"He fell down himself," said he. + +"Arne, Arne, I do not believe you," cried the mother, in a loud, +rebuking tone. "Now Jesus be with you!" and she flung herself over the +corpse, with piteous lamentation. + +Now the boy came out of his stupor, and dropping down on his knees, +exclaimed, "As surely as I look for mercy from God, he fell as he stood +there." + +"Then our Lord himself has been here," said she, quietly; and, sitting +on the floor, she fixed her eyes on the corpse. + +Nils lay precisely as he fell, stiff, with open eyes and mouth. His +hands had drawn near together, as though he had tried to clasp them, but +had been unable to do so. + +"Take hold of your father, you are so strong, and help me lay him on the +bed." + +And they took hold of him and laid him on the bed. Margit closed his +eyes and mouth, stretched him out and folded his hands. + +Mother and son stood and looked at him. All they had experienced until +then neither seemed so long nor contained so much as this moment. If the +devil himself had been there, the Lord had been there also; the +encounter had been short. All the past was now settled. + +It was a little after midnight, and they had to be there with the dead +man until day dawned. Arne crossed the floor, and made a great fire on +the hearth, the mother sat down by it. And now, as she sat there, it +rushed through her mind how many evil days she had had with Nils; and +then she thanked God, in a loud, fervent prayer, for what He had done. +"But I have truly had some good days also," said she, and wept as +though she regretted her recent thankfulness; and it ended in her +taking the greatest blame on herself who had acted contrary to God's +commandment, out of love for the departed one, had been disobedient to +her mother, and therefore had been punished through this sinful love. + +Arne sat down directly opposite her. The mother's eyes were fixed on the +bed. + +"Arne, you must remember that it was for your sake I bore it all," and +she wept, yearning for a loving word in order to gain a support against +her own self-accusations, and comfort for all coming time. The boy +trembled and could not answer. "You must never leave me," sobbed she. + +Then it came suddenly to his mind what she had been, in all this time of +sorrow, and how boundless would be her desolation should he, as a reward +for her great fidelity, forsake her now. + +"Never, never!" he whispered, longing to go to her, yet unable to do +so. + +They kept their seats, but their tears flowed freely together. She +prayed aloud, now for the dead man, now for herself and her boy; and +thus, amid prayers and tears, the time passed. Finally she said:-- + +"Arne, you have such a fine voice, you must sit over by the bed and sing +for your father." + +And it seemed as though strength was forthwith given him to do so. He +got up, and went to fetch a hymn-book, then lit a torch, and with the +torch in one hand, the hymn-book in the other, he sat down at the head +of the bed and, in a clear voice, sang Kingo's one hundred and +twenty-seventh hymn:-- + + "Turn from us, gracious Lord, thy dire displeasure! + Let not thy bloody rod, beyond all measure, + Chasten thy children, laden with sore oppressions, + For our transgressions."[9] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +Arne became habitually silent and shy. He tended cattle and made songs. +He passed his nineteenth birthday, and still he kept on tending cattle. +He borrowed books from the priest and read; but he took interest in +nothing else. + +The priest sent word to him one day that he had better become a +school-master, "because the parish ought to derive benefit from your +talents and knowledge." Arne made no reply to this; but the next day, +while driving the sheep before him, he made the following song:-- + + "Oh, my pet lamb, lift your head, + Though the stoniest path you tread, + Over the mountains lonely, + Still your bells follow only. + + "Oh, my pet lamb, walk with care, + Lest you spoil all your wool beware, + Mother must soon be sewing + Skins for the summer's going. + + "Oh, my pet lamb, try to grow + Fat and fine wheresoe'er you go! + Know you not, little sweeting, + A spring lamb is dainty eating!"[10] + +One day in his twentieth year Arne chanced to overhear a conversation +between his mother and the wife of the former gard owner; they were +disputing about the horse they owned in common. + +"I must wait to hear what Arne says," remarked the mother. + +"That lazy fellow!" was the reply. "He would like, I dare say, to have +the horse go ranging about the woods as he does himself." + +The mother was now silent, although before she had been arguing her own +case well. + +Arne turned as red as fire. It had not occurred to him before that his +mother might have to listen to taunting words for his sake, and yet +perhaps she had often been obliged to do so. Why had she not told him of +this? + +He considered the matter well, and now it struck him that his mother +scarcely ever talked with him. But neither did he talk with her. With +whom did he talk, after all? + +Often on Sunday, when he sat quietly at home, he felt a desire to read +sermons to his mother, whose eyes were poor; she had wept too much in +her day. But he did not have the courage to do so. Many times he had +wanted to offer to read aloud to her from his own books, when all was +still in the house, and he thought the time must hang heavily on her +hands. But his courage failed him for this too. + +"It cannot matter much. I must give up tending the herds, and move down +to mother." + +He let several days pass, and became firm in his resolve. Then he drove +the cattle far around in the wood, and made the following song:-- + + "The vale is full of trouble, but here sweet Peace may reign; + Within this quiet forest no bailiffs may distrain; + None fight, as in the vale, in the Blessed Church's name, + Yet if a church were here, it would no doubt be just the same. + + "How peaceful is the forest:--true, the hawk is far from kind, + I fear he now is striving the plumpest sparrow to find; + I fear yon eagle's coming to rob the kid of breath, + And yet perchance if long it lived, it might be tired to death. + + "The woodman fells one tree, and another rots away, + The red fox killed the lambkin white at sunset yesterday; + The wolf, though, killed the fox, and the wolf itself must die, + For Arne shot him down to-day before the dew was dry. + + "I'll hie me to the valley back--the forest is as bad; + And I must see to take good heed, lest thinking drive me mad. + I saw a boy in my dreams, though where I cannot tell-- + But I know he had killed his father--I think it was in Hell."[11] + +He came home and told his mother that she might send out in the parish +after another herd-boy; he wanted to manage the gard himself. Thus it +was arranged; but the mother was always after him with warnings not to +overtax himself with work. She used also to prepare such good meals for +him at this time that he often felt ashamed; but he said nothing. + +He was working at a song, the refrain of which was "Over the lofty +mountains." He never succeeded in finishing it, and this was chiefly +because he wanted to have the refrain in every other line; finally he +gave it up. + +But many of the songs he made got out among the people, where they were +well liked; there were those who wished very much to talk with him, +especially as they had known him from boyhood up. But Arne was shy of +all whom he did not know, and thought ill of them, chiefly because he +believed they thought ill of him. + +His constant companion in the fields was a middle-aged man, called +Upland Knut, who had a habit of singing over his work; but he always +sang the same song. After listening to this for a few months, Arne was +moved to ask him if he did not know any others. + +"No," was the man's reply. + +Then after the lapse of several days, once when Knut was singing his +song, Arne asked: + +"How did you chance to learn this _one_?" + +"Oh, it just happened so," said the man. + +Arne went straight from him into the house; but there sat his mother +weeping, a sight he had not seen since his father's death. He pretended +not to notice her, and went toward the door again; but he felt his +mother looking sorrowfully after him again and he had to stop. + +"What are you crying for, mother?" + +For a while his words were the only sound in the room, and therefore +they came back to him again and again, so often that he felt they had +not been said gently enough. He asked once more:-- + +"What are you crying for?" + +"Oh, I am sure I do not know;" but now she wept harder than ever. + +He waited a long time, then was forced to say, as courageously as he +could:-- + +"There must be something you are crying about!" + +Again there was silence. He felt very guilty, although _she_ had said +nothing, and _he_ knew nothing. + +"It just happened so," said the mother. Presently she added, "I am after +all most fortunate," and then she wept. + +But Arne hastened out, and he felt drawn toward the Kamp gorge. He sat +down to look into it, and while he was sitting there, he too wept. "If I +only knew what I was crying for," mused Arne. + +Above him, in the new-plowed field, Upland Knut was singing his song:-- + + "Ingerid Sletten of Willow-pool + Had no costly trinkets to wear; + But a cap she had that was far more fair, + Although it was only of wool. + + "It had no trimming, and now was old, + But her mother who long had gone + Had given it her, and so it shone + To Ingerid more than gold. + + "For twenty years she laid it aside, + That it might not be worn away; + 'My cap I'll wear on that blissful day + When I shall become a bride.' + + "For thirty years she laid it aside + Lest the colors might fade away. + 'My cap I'll wear when to God I pray + A happy and grateful bride.' + + "For forty years she laid it aside, + Still holding her mother as dear; + 'My little cap, I certainly fear + I never shall be a bride.' + + "She went to look for the cap one day + In the chest where it long had lain; + But ah! her looking was all in vain,-- + The cap had moldered away."[12] + +Arne sat and listened as though the words had been music far away up the +slope. He went up to Knut. + +"Have you a mother?" asked he. + +"No." + +"Have you a father?" + +"Oh, no; I have no father." + +"Is it long since they died?" + +"Oh, yes; it is long since." + +"You have not many, I dare say, who care for you?" + +"Oh, no; not many." + +"Have you any one here?" + +"No, not here." + +"But yonder in your native parish?" + +"Oh, no; not there either." + +"Have you not any one at all who cares for you?" + +"Oh, no; I have not." + +But Arne went from him loving his own mother so intensely that it seemed +as though his heart would break; and he felt, as it were, a blissful +light over him. "Thou Heavenly Father," thought he, "Thou hast given her +to me, and such unspeakable love with the gift, and I put this away from +me; and one day when I want it, she will be perhaps no more!" He felt a +desire to go to her, if for nothing else only to look at her. But on the +way, it suddenly occurred to him: "Perhaps because you did not +appreciate her you may soon have to endure the grief of losing her!" He +stood still at once. "Almighty God! what then would become of me?" + +He felt as though some calamity must be happening at home. He hastened +toward the house; cold sweat stood on his brow; his feet scarcely +touched the ground. He tore open the passage door, but within the whole +atmosphere was at once filled with peace. He softly opened the door into +the family-room. The mother had gone to bed, the moon shone full in her +face, and she lay sleeping calmly as a child. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Some days after this, mother and son, who of late had been more +together, agreed to be present at the wedding of some relatives at a +neighboring gard. The mother had not been to any party since she was a +girl. + +They knew few people at the wedding, save by name, and Arne thought it +especially strange that everybody stared at him wherever he went. + +Once some words were spoken behind him in the passage; he was not sure, +but he fancied he understood them, and every drop of blood rushed into +his face whenever he thought of them. + +He could not keep his eyes off the man who had spoken these words; +finally, he took a seat beside him. But as he drew up to the table he +thought the conversation took another turn. + +"Well, now I am going to tell you a story, which proves that nothing can +be buried so deep down in night that it will not find its way into +daylight," said the man, and Arne was sure he looked at _him_. He was an +ill-favored man, with thin, red hair encircling a great, round brow. +Beneath were a pair of very small eyes and a little bottle-shaped nose; +but the mouth was very large, with very pale, out-turned lips. When he +laughed, he showed his gums. His hands lay on the table: they were +clumsy and coarse, but the wrists were slender. He looked sharp and +talked fast, but with much effort. People nicknamed him the +Rattle-tongue, and Arne knew that tailor Nils had dealt roughly with him +in the old days. + +"Yes, there is a great deal of wickedness in this world; it comes nearer +home to us than we think. But no matter; you shall hear now of an ugly +deed. Those who are old remember Alf, Scrip Alf. 'Sure to come back!' +said Alf; that saying comes from him; for when he had struck a +bargain--and he could trade, that fellow!--he flung his scrip on his +back. 'Sure to come back,' said Alf. A devilish good fellow, fine +fellow, splendid fellow, this Alf, Scrip Alf! + +"Well, there was Alf and Big Lazy-bones--aye, you knew Big +Lazy-bones?--he was big and he was lazy too. He looked too long at a +shining black horse Scrip Alf drove and had trained to spring like a +summer frog. And before Big Lazy-bones knew what he was about, he had +given fifty dollars for the nag Big Lazy-bones mounted a carriole,[13] +as large as life, to drive like a king with his fifty-dollar horse; but +now he might lash and swear until the gard was all in a smoke; the horse +ran, for all that, against all the doors and walls that were in the way; +he was stone blind. + +"Afterwards, Alf and Big Lazy-bones fell to quarreling about this horse +all through the parish, just like a couple of dogs. Big Lazy-bones +wanted his money back; but you may believe he never got so much as two +Danish shillings. Scrip Alf thrashed him until the hair flew. 'Sure to +come back,' said Alf. Devilish good fellow, fine fellow, splendid +fellow, this Alf--Scrip Alf. + +"Well, then, some years passed by without his being heard of again. + +"It might have been ten years later that he was published on the church +hill;[14] there had been left to him a tremendous fortune. Big +Lazy-bones was standing by. 'I knew very well,' said he, 'that it was +money that was crying for Scrip Alf, and not people.' + +"Now there was a great deal of gossip about Alf; and out of it all was +gathered that he had been seen last on this side of Roeren, and not on +the other. Yes, you remember the Roeren road--the old road? + +"But Big Lazy-bones had succeeded in rising to great power and splendor, +owning both farm and complete outfit. + +"Moreover, he had professed great piety, and everybody knew he did not +become pious for nothing--any more than other folks do. People began to +talk about it. + +"It was at this time that the Roeren road was to be changed, old-time +folks wanted to go straight ahead, and so it went directly over Roeren; +but we like things level, and so the road now runs down by the river. +There was a mining and a blasting, until one might have expected Roeren +to come tumbling down. All sorts of officials came there, but the +amtmand[15] oftenest of all, for he was allowed double mileage. And now, +one day while they were digging down among the rocks, some one went to +pick up a stone, but got hold of a hand that was sticking out of the +rocks, and so strong was this hand that it sent the man who took hold of +it reeling backwards. Now he who found this hand was Big Lazy-bones. The +lensmand[16] was sauntering about there, he was called, and the skeleton +of a whole man was dug out. The doctor was sent for too; he put the +bones so skillfully together that now only the flesh was wanting. But +people claimed that this skeleton was precisely the same size as Scrip +Alf. 'Sure to come back!' said Alf. + +"Every one thought it most strange that a dead hand could upset a fellow +like Big Lazy-bones, even when it did not strike at all. The lensmand +talked seriously to him about it,--of course when no one was by to hear. +But then Big Lazy-bones swore until everything grew black about the +lensmand. + +"'Well, well,' said the lensmand, 'if you had nothing to do with this, +you are just the fellow to go to bed with the skeleton to-night; hey?' +'To be sure I am,' replied Big Lazy-bones. And now the doctor jointed +the bones firmly together, and placed the skeleton in one of the beds of +the barracks. In the other Big Lazy-bones was to sleep, but the lensmand +laid down in his gown, close up to the wall. When it grew dark and Big +Lazy-bones had to go in to his bed-fellow, it just seemed as though the +door shut of itself, and he stood in the dark. But Big Lazy-bones fell +to singing hymns, for he had a strong voice. 'Why are you singing +hymns?' asked the lensmand, outside of the wall. 'No one knows whether +he has had the chorister,' answered Big Lazy-bones. Afterward he fell to +praying with all his might. 'Why are you praying?' asked the lensmand, +outside of the wall. 'He has no doubt been a great sinner,' answered Big +Lazy-bones. Then for a long time all was still, and it really seemed as +though the lensmand must be sleeping. Then there was a shriek that made +the barracks shake. 'Sure to come back!' An infernal noise and uproar +arose: 'Hand over those fifty dollars of mine!' bellowed Big +Lazy-bones, and there followed a screaming and a wrestling; the +lensmand flung open the door, people rushed in with sticks and stones, +and there lay Big Lazy-bones in the middle of the floor, and on him was +the skeleton." + +It was very still around the table. Finally a man who was about to light +his clay pipe, said:-- + +"He surely went mad after that day." + +"He did." + +Arne felt every one looking at him, and therefore he could not raise his +eyes. + +"It is, as I have said," put in the first speaker; "nothing can be +buried so deep down in night that it will not find its way into +daylight!" + +"Well, now I will tell about a son who beat his own father," said a +fair, heavily-built man, with a round face. Arne knew not where he was +sitting. + +"It was a bully of a powerful race, over in Hardanger; he was the ruin +of many people. His father and he disagreed about the yearly allowance, +and the result of this was that the man had no peace at home or in the +parish. + +"Owing to this he grew more and more wicked, and his father took him to +task. 'I will take rebuke from no one,' said the son. 'From me you shall +take it as long as I live,' said the father. 'If you do not hold your +tongue I will beat you,' said the son, and sprang to his feet. 'Aye, do +so if you dare, and you will never prosper in the world,' answered the +father, as he too rose. 'Do you think so?'--and the son rushed at him +and knocked him down. But the father did not resist; he crossed his arms +and let his son do as he chose with him. + +"The son beat him, seized hold of him and dragged him to the door. 'I +will have peace in the house!' But when they came to the door, the +father raised himself up. 'Not farther than to the door,' said he, 'for +so far I dragged my own father.' The son paid no heed to this, but +dragged his head across the threshold. 'Not farther than to the door, I +say!' Here the old man flung his son down at his feet, and chastised +him, just as though he were a child." + +"That was badly done," said several. + +"Did not strike his father, though," Arne thought some one said; but he +was not sure of it. + +"Now I shall tell _you_ something," said Arne, rising up, as pale as +death, not knowing what he was going to say. He only saw the words +floating about him like great snow-flakes. "I will make a grasp at them +hap-hazard!" and he began. + +"A troll met a boy who was walking along a road crying. 'Of whom are you +most afraid?' said the troll, 'of yourself, or of others?' But the boy +was crying, because he had dreamed in the night that he had been forced +to kill his wicked father, and so he answered, 'I am most afraid of +myself.' 'Then be at peace with yourself, and never cry any more; for +hereafter you shall only be at war with others.' And the troll went his +way. But the first person the boy met laughed at him, and so the boy had +to laugh back again. The next person he met struck him; the boy had to +defend himself, and struck back. The third person he met tried to kill +him, and so the boy had to take his life. Then everybody said hard +things about him, and therefore he knew only hard things to say of +everybody. They locked their cupboards and doors against him, so he had +to steal his way to what he needed; he even had to steal his night's +rest. Since they would not let him do anything good, he had to do +something bad. Then the parish said, 'We must get rid of this boy; he is +so bad'; and one fine day they put him out of the way. But the boy had +not the least idea that he had done anything wicked, and so after death +he came strolling right into the presence of the Lord. There on a bench +sat the father he had not slain, and right opposite, on another bench, +sat all those who had forced him to do wrong. + +"'Which bench are you afraid of?' asked the Lord, and the boy pointed to +the long one. + +"'Sit down there, beside your father,' said the Lord, and the boy turned +to do so. + +"Then the father fell from the bench, with a great gash in his neck. In +his place there came one in the likeness of the boy, with repentant +countenance and ghastly features; then another with drunken face and +drooping form; still another with the face of a madman, with tattered +clothes and with hideous laughter. + +"'Thus it might have been with you,' said the Lord. + +"'Can that really be?' replied the boy, touching the hem of the Lord's +garment. + +"Then both benches fell down from heaven, and the boy stood beside the +Lord again and laughed. + +"'Remember this when you awaken,' said the Lord, and at that moment the +boy awoke. + +"Now the boy who dreamed thus is I, and they who tempted him by thinking +him wicked are you. I no longer fear myself, but I am afraid of you. Do +not stir up my evil passions, for it is doubtful whether I may get hold +of the Lord's garment." + +He rushed out, and the men looked at each other. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +It was the next day, in the barn of the same gard. Arne had been drunk +for the first time in his life, was ill in consequence of it, and had +been lying in the barn almost twenty-four hours. Now, turning over, he +had propped himself up on his elbows, and thus talked with himself:-- + +"Everything I look at becomes cowardice. That I did not run away when I +was a boy, was cowardice; that I listened to father rather than to +mother, was cowardice; that I sang those wicked songs for him was +cowardice; I became a herd-boy, that was from cowardice;--I took to +reading--oh, yes! that was from cowardice, too; I wanted to hide away +from myself. Even after I was grown up, I did not help mother against +father--cowardice; that I did not that night--ugh!--cowardice! I should +most likely have waited until _she_ was killed. I could not stand it at +home after that--cowardice; neither did I go my way--cowardice; I did +nothing, I tended cattle--cowardice. To be sure, I had promised mother +to stay with her; but I should actually have been cowardly enough to +break the promise, had I not been afraid to mingle with people. For I am +afraid of people chiefly because I believe they see how bad I am. And it +is fear of people makes me speak ill of them--cursed cowardice! I make +rhymes from cowardice. I dare not think in a straightforward manner +about my own affairs, and so I turn to those of others--and that is to +be a poet. + +"I should have sat down and cried until the hills were turned into +water, that is what I should have done; but instead I say: 'Hush, hush!' +and set myself to rocking. And even my songs are cowardly; for were they +courageous they would be better. I am afraid of strong thoughts; afraid +of everything that is strong; if I do rise up to strength, it is in a +frenzy, and frenzy is cowardice. I am more clever, more capable, better +informed than I seem to be. I am better than my words; but through +cowardice I dare not be what I am. Fy! I drank brandy from cowardice; I +wanted to deaden the pain! Fy! it hurt. I drank, nevertheless; drank, +nevertheless; drank my father's heart's blood, and yet I drank! The fact +is, my cowardice is beyond all bounds; but the most cowardly thing of +all is that I can sit here and say all this to myself. + +"Kill myself? Pooh! For that I am too cowardly. And then I believe in +God,--yes, I believe in God. I long to go to Him; but cowardice keeps me +from Him. From so great a change a cowardly person winces. But what if I +tried as well as I am able? Almighty God! What if I tried? I might find +a cure that even my milksop nature could bear; for I have no bone in me +any longer, nor gristle; only something fluid, slush.... What if I +tried, with good, mild books,--I am afraid of the strong ones,--with +pleasant stories and legends, all such as are mild; and then a sermon +every Sunday and a prayer every evening, and regular work, that religion +may find fruitful soil; it cannot do so amid slothfulness. What if I +tried, dear, gentle God of my childhood,--what if I tried?" + +But some one opened the barn-door, and hurried across the floor, pale as +death, although drops of sweat rolled down the face. It was Arne's +mother. It was the second day she had been seeking for her son. She +called his name but did not pause to listen; only called and rushed +about, till he answered from the hay-mow, where he was lying. She gave a +loud shriek, sprang to the mow more lightly than a boy, and threw +herself upon him. + +"Arne, Arne, are you here? So I have really found you. I have been +looking for you since yesterday; I have searched the whole night! Poor, +poor Arne! I saw they had wounded you. I wanted so much to talk with you +and comfort you; but then I never dare talk with you! Arne, I saw you +drink! O God Almighty! let me never see it again!" + +It was long before she could say more. "Jesus have mercy on you, my +child; I saw you drink! Suddenly you were gone, drunk and crushed with +grief as you were, and I ran around to all the houses. I went far out in +the field; I did not find you. I searched in every copse; I asked every +one. I was _here_, too, but you did not answer me--Arne, Arne! I walked +along the river; but it did not seem to be deep enough anywhere"--She +pressed up close to him. "Then it came with such relief to my mind that +you might have gone home, and I am sure I was not more than a quarter of +an hour getting over the road. I opened the door and looked in every +room, and then first remembered that I myself had the key; you could not +possibly have entered. Arne, last night I searched along the road on +both sides; I dared not go to the Kamp gorge. I know not how I came +here; no one helped me; but the Lord put it into my heart that you must +be here!" + +He tried to soothe her. + +"Arne, indeed, you must never drink brandy again." + +"No, you may be sure of that." + +"They must have been very rough with you. Were they rough with you?" + +"Oh, no; it was I who was _cowardly_." He laid stress on the word. + +"I cannot exactly understand why they should be rough with you. What was +it they did to you? You will never tell me anything," and she began to +weep again. + +"You never tell me anything, either," said Arne, gently. + +"But you are most to blame, Arne. I got so into the habit of being +silent in your father's day that you ought to have helped me a little on +the way! My God! there are only two of us, and we have suffered so much +together!" + +"Let us see if we cannot do better," whispered Arne. "Next Sunday I will +read the sermon to you." + +"God bless you for that! Arne?" + +"Yes?" + +"I have something I ought to say to you." + +"Say it, mother." + +"I have sinned greatly against you; I have done something wrong." + +"You, mother?" And it touched him so deeply that his own good, +infinitely patient mother should accuse herself of having sinned +against him, who had never been really good to her, that he put his arm +round her, patted her, and burst into tears. + +"Yes, I have; and yet I could not help it." + +"Oh, you have never wronged me in any way." + +"Yes, I have,--God knows it; it was only because I was so fond of you. +But you must forgive me; do you hear?" + +"Yes, I will forgive you." + +"Well, then, I will tell you about it another time; but you will forgive +me?" + +"Oh, yes, mother!" + +"You see, it is perhaps because of this that it has been so hard to talk +with you; I have sinned against you." + +"I beg of you not to talk so, mother." + +"I am happy now, having been able to say so much." + +"We must talk more together, we two, mother." + +"Yes, that we must; and then you will really read the sermon for me?" + +"Yes, I will do so." + +"Poor Arne! God bless you!" + +"I think it is best for us to go home." + +"Yes, we will go home." + +"Why are you looking round so, mother?" + +"Your father lay in this barn, and wept." + +"Father?" said Arne, and grew very pale. + +"Poor Nils! It was the day you were christened. Why are you looking +round, Arne?" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +From the day that Arne tried with his whole heart to live closer to his +mother his relations with other people were entirely changed. He looked +on them more with the mother's mild eyes. But he often found it hard to +keep true to his resolve; for what he thought most deeply about his +mother did not always understand. Here is a song from those days:-- + + "It was such a pleasant, sunny day, + In-doors I could not think of staying: + I strolled to the wood, on my back I lay, + And rocked what my mind was saying; + But there crawled emmets, and gnats stung there, + The wasps and the clegs brought dire despair. + +"'My dear, will you not go out in this pleasant weather?' said mother. +She sat singing on the porch. + + "It was such a pleasant, sunny day, + In-doors I could not think of staying: + I strayed to a field, on my back I lay, + And sang what my mind was saying; + But snakes came out to enjoy the sun, + Three ells were they long, and away I run. + +"'In such pleasant weather we can go barefoot,' said mother, and she +pulled off her stockings. + + "It was such a pleasant, sunny day, + In-doors I could no longer tarry: + I stepped in a boat, on my back I lay, + The tide did me onward carry; + The sun, though, scorched till my nose was burned; + There's limit to all, so to shore I turned. + +"'What fine days these are for drying the hay!' said mother, as she +shook it with a rake. + + "It was such a pleasant, sunny day, + In-doors I could not think of staying: + I climbed up a tree, and thought there I'd stay, + For there were cool breezes playing. + A grub to fall on my neck then there chanced; + I sprang down and screamed, and how madly I danced. + +"'Well, if the cow does not thrive such a day as this, she never will,' +said mother, as she gazed up the slope. + + "It was such a pleasant, sunny day, + In-doors I could no peace discover: + I made for the force that did loudly play, + For _there_ it must surely hover; + But there I drowned while the sun still shone. + If you made this song, it is surely not my own.[17] + +"'It would take only about three such sunny days to get everything under +cover,' said mother; and off she started to make my bed." + + * * * * * + +Nevertheless, this companionship with his mother brought every day more +and more comfort to Arne. What she did not understand formed quite as +much of a tie between them as what she did understand. For the fact of +her not comprehending a thing made him think it over oftener, and she +grew only the dearer to him because he found her limits on every side. +Yes, she became infinitely dear to him. + +As a child, Arne had not cared much for nursery stories. Now, as a grown +person, he longed for them, and they led to traditions and ancient +ballads. His mind was filled with a wonderful yearning; he walked much +alone, and many of the places round about, which formerly he had not +noticed, seemed strangely beautiful. In the days when he had gone with +those of his own age to the priest's to prepare for confirmation, he had +often played with them by a large lake below the parsonage, called Black +Water, because it was deep and black. He began to think of this lake +now, and one evening he wended his way thither. + +He sat down behind a copse, just at the foot of the parsonage. This lay +on the side of a very steep hill, which towered up beyond until it +became a high mountain; the opposite bank was similar, and therefore +huge shadows were cast over the lake from both sides, but in its centre +was a stripe of beautiful silvery water. All was at rest; the sun was +just setting; a faint sound of tinkling bells floated over from the +opposite shore; otherwise profound silence reigned. Arne did not look +right across the lake, but first turned his eyes toward its lower end, +for there the sun was shedding a sprinkling of burning red, ere it +departed. Down there the mountains had parted to make room between them +for a long, low valley, and against this the waves dashed; and it seemed +as though the mountains had gradually sloped together to form a swing in +which to rock this valley, which was dotted with its many gards. The +curling smoke rose upward, and passed from sight; the fields were green +and reeking; boats laden with hay were approaching the landings. Arne +saw many people passing to and fro, but could hear no noise. Thence the +eye wandered beyond the shore, where God's dark forest alone loomed up. +Through the forest and along the lake men had drawn a road, as it were, +with a finger, for a winding streak of dust plainly marked its course. +This Arne's eye followed until it came directly opposite to where he was +sitting; there the forest ended; the mountains made a little more room, +and straightways gard after gard lay spread about. The houses were still +larger than those at the lower end, were painted red, and had higher +windows, which now were in a blaze of light. The hills sparkled in +dazzling sunshine; the smallest child playing about could be plainly +seen; glittering white sand lay dry on the shore, and upon this little +children bounded with their dogs. But suddenly the whole scene became +desolate and gloomy; the houses dark red, the meadows dingy green, the +sand grayish-white, and the children small clumps: a mass of mist had +risen above the mountains, and had shut out the sun. Arne kept his eye +fixed on the lake; there he found everything again. The fields were +rocking there, and the forest silently joined them; the houses stood +looking down, doors open, and children going out and in. Nursery tales +and childish things came thronging into his mind, as little fish come +after a bait, swim away, come back again, but do not nibble. + +"Let us sit down here until your mother comes; the priest's lady will +surely get through some time." + +Arne was startled; some one had sat down just behind him. + +"But I might be allowed to stay just this one night," said a beseeching +voice, choked with tears; it seemed to be that of a young girl, not +quite grown up. + +"Do not cry any more; it is shocking to cry because you must go home to +your mother." This last came in a mild voice that spoke slowly and +belonged to a man. + +"That is not the reason I am crying." + +"Why are you crying, then?" + +"Because I shall no longer be with Mathilde." + +This was the name of the priest's only daughter, and reminded Arne that +a peasant girl had been brought up with her. + +"That could not last forever, any way." + +"Yes, but just one day longer, dear!" and she sobbed violently. + +"It is best you should go home at once; perhaps it is already too late." + +"Too late? Why so? Who ever heard of such a thing?" + +"You are peasant-born, and a peasant you shall remain: we cannot afford +to keep a fine lady." + +"I should still be a peasant, even if I remained here." + +"You are no judge of that." + +"I have always worn peasant's clothes." + +"It is not that which makes the difference." + +"I have been spinning and weaving and cooking." + +"It is not _that_, either." + +"I can talk just as you and mother do." + +"Not that, either." + +"Then I do not know what it can be," said the girl, and laughed. + +"Time will show. Besides, I am afraid you already have too many ideas." + +"Ideas, ideas! You are always saying that. I have no ideas." She wept +again. + +"Oh, you are a weathercock,--that you are!" + +"The priest never said so." + +"No, but now _I_ say so." + +"A weathercock? Who ever heard of such a thing? I will not be a +weathercock." + +"Come, then, what will you be?" + +"What will I be? Did you ever hear the like? I will be nothing." + +"Very good, then; be nothing." + +Now the girl laughed. Presently she said, gravely, "It is unkind of you +to say I am nothing." + +"Dear me, when that was what you wanted to be yourself!" + +"No, I do not want to be nothing." + +"Very good, then; be everything." + +The girl laughed. Presently, with a sorrowful voice, "The priest never +fooled with me in this way." + +"No, he only made a fool of you." + +"The priest? You have never been so kind to me as the priest has." + +"No, for that would have spoiled you." + +"Sour milk can never become sweet." + +"Oh, yes, when it is boiled to whey." + +Here the girl burst out laughing. + +"There comes your mother." + +Then she grew sober again. + +"Such a long-winded woman as the priest's lady I have never met in all +the days of my life," here interposed a shrill, rattling voice. "Make +haste, now, Baard. Get up and push the boat out. We will not get home +to-night. The lady wished me to see that Eli kept her feet dry. Dear me, +you will have to see to that yourself. Every morning she must take a +walk, for the sake of her health. It is health, health, from morning +till night. Get up, now, Baard, and push out the boat. Just think, I +have to set sponge this evening!" + +"The chest has not come yet," said he, and lay still. + +"But the chest is not to come, either; it is to remain until the first +Sunday there is service. Do you hear, Eli? Pick yourself up; take your +bundle, and come. Get up, now, Baard!" + +She led the way, and the girl followed. + +"Come, now, I say,--come now!" resounded from below. + +"Have you looked after the plug in the boat?" asked Baard, still without +rising. + +"Yes, it is there;" and Arne heard her just then hammering it in with +the scoop. "But get up, I say, Baard! Surely we are not to stay here all +night?" + +"I am waiting for the chest." + +"But, my dear, bless you, I have told you it is to wait until the first +Sunday there is service." + +"There it comes," said Baard, and they heard the rattling of a cart. + +"Why, I said it was to wait until the first Sunday there is service." + +"I said we were to take it along." + +Without anything further, the wife hastened up to the cart, and carried +the bundle, the lunch-box, and other small things down to the boat. Then +Baard arose, went up, and took the chest himself. + +But behind the cart there came rushing along a girl in a straw hat, with +floating hair; it was the priest's daughter. + +"Eli! Eli!" she called, as she ran. + +"Mathilde! Mathilde!" Eli answered, and ran toward her. + +They met on the hill, put their arms about each other, and wept. Then +Mathilde took up something she had set down on the grass: it was a +bird-cage. + +"You shall have Narrifas; yes, you shall. Mother wishes it, too. You +shall, after all, have Narrifas,--indeed, you shall; and then you will +think of me. And very often row--row--row over to me," and the tears of +both flowed freely. + +"Eli! Come, now, Eli! Do not stand there!" was heard from below. + +"But I want to go along," said Mathilde. "I want to go and sleep with +you to-night!" + +"Yes, yes, yes!" and with arms twined about each other's necks they +moved down toward the landing. + +Presently Arne saw the boat out on the water. Eli stood high on the +stern, with the bird-cage, and waved her hand; Mathilde was left behind, +and sat on the stone landing weeping. + +She remained sitting there as long as the boat was on the water; it was +but a short distance across to the red house, as said before; and Arne +kept his seat, too. He watched the boat, as she did. It soon passed into +the darkness, and he waited until it drew up to the shore: then he saw +Eli and her parents in the water; in it he followed them up toward the +houses, until they came to the prettiest one of them all. He saw the +mother go in first, then the father with the chest, and last of all the +daughter, so far as he could judge from their size. Soon after the +daughter came out again, and sat down in front of the store-house door, +probably that she might gaze over at the other side, where at that +moment the sun was shedding its parting rays. But the young lady from +the parsonage had already gone, and Arne alone sat watching Eli in the +water. + +"I wonder if she sees me!" + +He got up and moved away. The sun had set, but the sky was bright and +clear blue, as it often is of a summer night. Mist from land and water +rose and floated over the mountains on both sides; but the peaks held +themselves above it, and stood peering at one another. He went higher +up. The lake grew blacker and deeper, and seemed, as it were, to +contract. The upper valley shortened, and drew closer to the lake. The +mountains were nearer to the eye, but looked more like a shapeless mass, +for the light of the sun defines. The sky itself appeared nearer, and +all surrounding objects became friendly and familiar. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +Love and woman were beginning to play a prominent part in his thoughts; +in the ancient ballads and stories of the olden times such themes were +reflected as in a magic mirror, just as the girl had been in the lake. +He constantly brooded over them, and after that evening he found +pleasure in singing about them; for they seemed, as it were, to have +come nearer home to him. But the thought glided away, and floated back +again with a song that was unknown to him; he felt as though another had +made it for him,-- + + "Fair Venevill bounded on lithesome feet + Her lover to meet. + He sang till it sounded afar away, + 'Good-day, good-day,' + While blithesome birds were singing on every blooming spray + 'On Midsummer Day + There is dancing and play; + But now I know not whether she weaves her wreath or nay.' + + "She wove him a wreath of corn-flowers blue: + 'Mine eyes so true.' + He took it, but soon away it was flung: + 'Farewell!' he sung; + And still with merry singing across the fields he sprung + 'On Midsummer Day,' etc. + + "She wove him a chain. 'Oh, keep it with care! + 'T is made of my hair.' + She yielded him then, in an hour of bliss, + Her pure first kiss; + But he blushed as deeply as she the while her lips met his. + 'On Midsummer Day,' etc. + + "She wove him a wreath with a lily-band: + 'My true right hand.' + She wove him another with roses aglow: + 'My left hand, now.' + He took them gently from her, but blushes dyed his brow + 'On Midsummer Day,' etc. + + "She wove him a wreath of all flowers round: + 'All I have found.' + She wept, but she gathered and wove on still: + 'Take all you will.' + Without a word he took it, and fled across the hill. + 'On Midsummer Day,' etc. + + "She wove on, bewildered and out of breath: + 'My bridal wreath.' + She wove till her fingers aweary had grown: + 'Now put it on.' + But when she turned to see him, she found that he had gone. + 'On Midsummer Day,' etc. + + "She wove on in haste, as for life and death, + Her bridal wreath; + But the Midsummer sun no longer shone, + And the flowers were gone; + But though she had no flowers, wild fancy still wove on. + 'On Midsummer-Day + There is dancing and play; + But now I know not whether she weaves her wreath or nay."[18] + +It was his own intense melancholy that called forth the first image of +love that glided so gloomily through his soul. A twofold longing,--to +have some one to love and to become something great,--blended together +and became one. At this time he was working again at the song, "Over the +lofty mountains," altering it, and all the while singing and thinking +quietly to himself, "Surely I will get 'over' some day; I will sing +until I gain courage." He did not forget his mother in these his +thoughts of roving; indeed, he took comfort in the thought that as soon +as he got firm foothold in the strange land, he would come back after +her, and offer her conditions which he never could be able to provide +for her at home. But in the midst of all these mighty yearnings there +played something calm, cheering, refined, that darted away and came +again, took hold and fled, and, dreamer that he had become, he was more +in the power of these spontaneous thoughts than he himself was aware. + +There lived in the parish a jovial man whose name was Ejnar Aasen. When +he was twenty years old he had broken his leg; since then he had walked +with a cane; but wherever he came hobbling along, there was always mirth +afoot. The man was rich. On his property there was a large nut-wood, and +there was sure to be assembled, on one of the brightest, pleasantest +days in autumn, a group of merry girls gathering nuts. At these +nutting-parties he had plenty of feasting for his guests all day, and +dancing in the evening. For most of these girls he had been godfather; +indeed, he was the godfather of half the parish; all the children called +him godfather, and from them every one else, both old and young, learned +to do so. + +Godfather and Arne were well acquainted, and he liked the young man +because of the verses he made. Now godfather asked Arne to come to the +nutting-party. Arne blushed and declined; he was not used to being with +girls, he said. + +"Then you must get used to it," replied godfather. + +Arne could not sleep at night because of this; fear and yearning were at +war within him; but whatever the result might be, he went along, and was +about the only youth among all these girls. He could not deny that he +felt disappointed; they were neither those he had sung about, nor those +he had feared to meet. There was an excitement and merriment, the like +of which he had never known before, and the first thing that struck him +was that they could laugh over nothing in the world; and if three +laughed, why, then, five laughed, simply because those three laughed. +They all acted as though they were members of the same household; and +yet many of them had not met before that day. If they caught the bough +they were jumping after, they laughed at that, and if they did not catch +it, they laughed at that, too. They fought for the hook to draw it down +with; those who got it laughed, and those who did not get it, laughed +also. Godfather hobbled after them with his cane, and offered all the +hindrance in his power. Those whom he caught laughed because he caught +them, and those whom he did not catch laughed because he did not catch +them. But they all laughed at Arne for being sober, and when he tried to +laugh, they laughed, because he was laughing at last. + +They seated themselves finally on a large hill, godfather in the centre, +and all the girls around him. The hill commanded a fine outlook; the sun +scorched; but the girls heeded it not, they sat, casting nut-husks and +shells at one another, giving the kernels to godfather. He tried to +quiet them at last, striking at them with his cane, as far as he could +reach; for now he wanted them to tell stories, above all, something +amusing. But to get them started seemed more difficult than to stop a +carriage on a hill-side. Godfather began himself. There were many who +did not want to listen; for they knew already everything he had to tell; +but they all ended by listening attentively. Before they knew what they +were about, they sat in the centre, and each took her turn in following +his example as best she could. Now Arne was much astonished to find that +just in proportion to the noise the girls had made before was the +gravity of the stories they now told. Love was the chief theme of these. + +"But you, Aasa, have a good one; I remember that from last year," said +godfather, turning to a plump girl with a round, pleasant face, who sat +braiding the hair of a younger sister, whose head was in her lap. + +"Several that are here may know that," said she. + +"Well, give it to us anyway," they begged. + +"I will not have to be urged long," said she, and, still braiding, she +told and sang, as follows:-- + +"There was a grown-up youth who tended cattle, and he was in the habit +of driving his herds upward, along the banks of a broad stream. High up +on his way, there was a crag which hung out so far over the stream, that +when he stood on it he could call out to any one on the other side. For +on the other side of the stream there was a herd-girl whom he could see +all day long, but he could not come over to her. + + 'Now, tell me thy name, thou girl that art sitting, + Up there with thy sheep, so busily knitting?' + +he asked, over and over again, for many days, until at last one day +there came the answer,-- + + 'My name floats about like a duck in wet weather;-- + Come over, thou boy in the cap of brown leather.' + +"But this made the youth no wiser than before, and he thought he would +pay no further heed to the girl. This was not so easy, though, for, let +him drive the cattle where he would, he was always drawn back to the +crag. Then the youth grew alarmed, and called over:-- + + 'Well, who is your father, and where are you biding? + On the road to the church I have ne'er seen you riding.' + +"The youth more than half believed her, in fact, to be a hulder.[19] + + 'My house is burned down, and my father is drowned, + And the road to the church-hill I never have found.' + +"Now this also made the youth no wiser than before. By day he lingered +on the crag, and by night he dreamed that she was dancing around him, +and gave him a lash with a great cow's-tail each time he tried to take +hold of her. Soon he could not sleep at all, neither could he work, and +the poor youth was in a wretched state. Again he called aloud,-- + + 'If thou art a hulder, then pray do not spell me,-- + If thou art a maiden, then hasten to tell me?' + +"But there came no answer, and then he was sure that this was a hulder. +He gave up tending cattle, but it was just as bad, for wherever he went, +or whatever he did, he thought of the fair hulder who blew on the horn. + +"Then one day, as he stood chopping wood, there came a girl through the +yard who actually looked like the hulder. But when she came nearer, it +was not she. He thought much about this; then the girl came back, and in +the distance it was the hulder, and he ran directly toward her. But the +moment he came near her it was not she. + +"After this, let the youth be at church, at a dance, at other social +gatherings, or where he would, the girl was there too; when he was far +from her, she seemed to be the hulder; near to her, she seemed to be +another; he asked her then whether it were she or not; but she laughed +at him. It is just as well to spring into it as to creep into it, +thought the youth, and so he married the girl. + +"No sooner was this done than the youth ceased to like the girl. Away +from her, he longed for her; but when with her, he longed for one he did +not see; therefore he was harsh toward his wife; she bore this and was +silent. + +"But one day, when he was searching for the horses, he found his way to +the crag, and sitting down, he called out,-- + + 'Like fairy moonlight to me thou seemest, + Like midsummer fires from afar thou gleamest.' + +"He thought it did him good to sit there, and he fell into the way of +going thither whenever anything went amiss at home. The wife wept when +she was left alone. + +"But one day, while the youth was sitting on the crag, the hulder, her +living self, appeared on the opposite side, and blew her horn. He +eagerly cried,-- + + 'Ah, dear, art thou come! all around thee is shining! + Ah, blow now again! I am sitting here pining.' + +"Then she answered,-- + + 'Away from thy mind the dreams I am blowing,-- + The rye is all rotting for want of mowing.' + +"But the youth was frightened, and went home again. Before long, though, +he was so tired of his wife that he felt compelled to wander off to the +wood and take his seat on the crag. Then a voice sang,-- + + 'I dreamed thou wast here; ho, hasten to bind me! + No, not over there, but behind you will find me.'[20] + +"The youth started up, looked about him, and espied a green skirt +disappearing through the woods. He pursued. Now there was a chase +through the woods. As fleet of foot as the hulder was, no mortal could +be; he cast steel[21] over her again and again; she ran on the same as +before. By and by she began to grow tired. The youth knew this from her +foot-fall, though her form convinced him that it was the hulder herself, +and none other. 'You shall surely be mine now,' thought the youth, and +suddenly flung his arms about her with such force that both he and she +rolled far down the hill before they could stop. Then the hulder laughed +until the youth thought the mountains fairly rang; he took her on his +knee, and she looked so fair, just as he had once thought his wife +would look. + +"'Oh, dear, who are you that are so fair?' asked the youth, and as he +caressed her, he felt that her cheeks were warm and glowing. + +"'Why, good gracious, I am your wife,' said she." + +The girls laughed, and thought the youth was very foolish. But godfather +asked Arne if he had been listening. + +"Well, now, I will tell you something," said a little girl, with a +little round face, and such a very little nose. + +"There was a little youth who wanted very much to woo a little maiden; +they were both grown up, yet were both very small indeed. But the youth +could not muster up courage enough to begin his wooing. He always joined +her after church, but they did not then get beyond the weather in their +talk; he sought her at the dances, and he danced her almost to death, +but talk with her he could not. 'You must learn to write, and then you +will not have to,' said he to himself, and so the youth took to writing; +but he never thought he could do well enough, and so he wrote a whole +year before he dared think of a letter. Then the trouble was how to +deliver it so that no one should see, and he waited until once they +chanced to meet alone behind the church. + +"'I have a letter for you,' said the youth. + +"'But I cannot read writing,' answered the maiden. + +"And the youth got no further. + +"Then he took service at her father's house, and hung round her the +whole day long. Once he came very near speaking to her; he had already +opened his mouth, when there flew into it a large fly. 'If only no one +comes and takes her from me,' thought the youth. But there came no one +to take her from him, because she was so small. + +"Some one did come along, though, at last, for he was small too. The +youth well knew what he was after, and when he and the girl went +up-stairs together, the youth made his way to the key-hole. Now he who +was within offered himself. 'Alas, dunce that I am, not to have made +more haste!' thought the youth. He who was inside kissed the girl right +on the lips. 'That must have tasted good,' thought the youth. But he +who was inside had drawn the girl down on his knee. 'What a world we +live in!' said the youth, and wept. This the girl heard, and went to the +door. + +"'What do you want of me, you ugly boy, that you never give me any +peace?' + +"'I?--I only wanted to ask you if I might be your groomsman.' + +"'No; my brothers are to be the groomsmen,' answered the girl,--and +slammed the door in his face. + +"And the youth got no further." + +The girls laughed a great deal at this story, and sent a shower of husks +flying round after it. + +Godfather now wanted Eli Boeen to tell something. + +What should it be? + +Why, she might tell what she had told over on the hill, when he was with +them, the time she gave him the new garters. It was a good while before +Eli was ready, for she laughed so hard, but at last she told:-- + +"A girl and a boy were walking together on the same road. 'Why, see the +thrush that is following us,' said the girl. 'It is I whom it is +following,' said the boy. 'It is just as likely to be me,' answered the +girl. 'That we can soon see,' remarked the boy; 'now you take the lower +road, and I will take the upper one, and we will meet at the top of the +hill.' They did so. 'Was it not following me?' asked the boy, when they +met. 'No, it was following me,' answered the girl. 'Then there must be +two.' They walked together again a little way, but then there was only +one thrush; the boy thought it flew on his side; but the girl thought it +flew on hers. 'The deuce! I'll not bother my head any more about that +thrush,' said the boy. 'Nor I either,' replied the girl. + +"But no sooner had they said this than the thrush was gone. 'It was on +_your_ side,' said the boy. 'No, I thank you; I saw plainly it was on +_yours_. But there! There it comes again!' called out the girl. 'Yes, it +is on _my_ side!' cried the boy. But now the girl became angry. 'May all +the plagues take me if I walk with you any longer!' and she went her own +way. Then the thrush left the boy, and the way became so tedious that he +began to call out. She answered. 'Is the thrush with you?' shouted the +boy. 'No, it is with you.' 'Oh, dear! You must come here again, then +perhaps it will come too.' And the girl came again; they took each other +by the hand and walked together. 'Kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit!' was heard on +the girl's side. 'Kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit!' was heard on the boy's side. +'Kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit, kvit!' was heard on both +sides, and when they came to look, there were a thousand million +thrushes round about them. 'Why, how strange!' said the girl, and looked +up at the boy. 'Bless you!' said the boy, and caressed the girl." + +This story all the girls thought fine. + +Then godfather suggested that they should tell what they had dreamed the +night before, and he would decide who had had the finest dream. + +What! tell their dreams? No, indeed! And there was no end to the +laughing and whispering. But then one after another began to remark that +she had had such a fine dream last night; others, again, that, fine as +the ones they had had, it could not by any means be. And finally, they +all were seized with a desire to tell their dreams. But it must not be +out loud, it must only be to _one_, and that must by no means be +godfather. Arne was sitting quietly on the hill, and so he was the one +to whom they dared tell their dreams. + +Arne took a seat beneath a hazel, and then she who had told the first +story came to him. She thought a long time, and then told as follows:-- + +"I dreamed I stood by a great lake. Then I saw some one go on the water, +and it was one whom I will not name. He climbed up in a large pond-lily, +and sat and sang. But I went out on one of those large leaves that the +pond-lily has, and which lie and float; on it I wanted to row over to +him. But no sooner had I stepped on the leaf than it began to sink with +me, and I grew much alarmed and cried. Then he came rowing over to me in +the pond-lily, lifted me up to where he sat, and we rowed all over the +lake. Was not that a nice dream?" + +The little maiden who had told the little story now came. + +"I dreamed I had caught a little bird, and I was so happy that I did not +want to let it go until I got home. But there I did not dare let go of +it, lest father and mother should tell me I must let it out again. So I +went up in the garret with it, but there the cat was lurking, and so I +could not let go of it there either. Then I did not know what to do, so +I took it up in the hay-loft; but, good gracious! there were so many +cracks there that it could easily fly away! Well, then I went out in the +yard again, and there I thought stood one whom I will not name. He was +playing with a large, black dog. 'I would rather play with that bird of +yours,' said he, and came close up to me. But I thought I started to +run, and he and the large dog after me, and thus I ran all round the +yard; but then mother opened the front door, drew me quickly in, and +slammed the door. Outside, the boy stood laughing, with his face against +the window-pane. 'See, here is the bird!' said he,--and, just think, he +really had the bird! Was not that a funny dream?" + +Then she came who had told about all the thrushes,--Eli they had called +her. It was the Eli he had seen that evening in the boat and in the +water. She was the same and yet not the same, so grown-up and pretty she +looked as she sat there, with her delicately cut face and slender form. +She laughed immoderately, and therefore it was long before she could +control herself; but then she told as follows:-- + +"I had been feeling so glad that I was coming to the nutting-party +to-day that I dreamed last night I was sitting here on the hill. The sun +shone brightly, and I had a whole lapful of nuts. But then there came a +little squirrel, right in among the nuts, and it sat on its hind legs in +my lap and ate them all up. Was not that a funny dream?" + +Yet other dreams were told Arne, and then he was to decide which was the +finest. He had to take a long time to consider, and meanwhile godfather +started off with the whole crowd for the gard, and Arne was to follow. +They sprang down the hill, formed in a row when they had reached the +plain, and sang all the way to the house. + +Arne still sat there listening to the singing. The sun fell directly on +the group, it shone on their white sleeves; soon they twined their arms +about each other's waists; they went dancing across the meadow, +godfather after them with his cane, because they were treading down his +grass. Arne thought no more about the dreams. Soon he even left off +watching the girls; his thoughts wandered far beyond the valley, as did +the fine sunbeams, and he sat alone there on the hill and spun. Before +he was aware of it, he was entangled in a close web of melancholy; he +yearned to break away, and never in the world before so ardently as now. +He faithfully promised himself that when he got home he would talk with +his mother, come of it what would. + +His thoughts grew stronger, and drifted into the song,-- + + "Over the lofty mountains." + +Words had never flowed so readily as now, nor had they ever blended so +surely into verse,--they almost seemed like girls sitting around on a +hill. He had a scrap of paper about him and placing it on his knee, he +wrote. When the song was complete, he arose, like one who was released, +felt that he could not see people, and took the forest road home, +although he knew that the night, too, would be needed for this. The +first time he sat down to rest on the way, he felt for the song, that he +might sing it aloud as he went along, and let it be borne all over the +parish; but he found he had left it in the place where it was written. + +One of the girls went up the hill to look for him, did not find him, but +found his song. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +To talk with the mother was more easily thought than done. Arne alluded +to Kristian and the letter that never came; but the mother went away +from him, and for whole days after he thought her eyes looked red. He +had also another indication of her feelings, and that was that she +prepared unusually good meals for him. + +He had to go up in the woods to fetch an armful of fuel one day; the +road led through the forest, and just where he was to do his chopping +was the place where people went to pick whortleberries in the autumn. He +had put down his axe in order to take off his jacket, and was just about +beginning, when two girls came walking along with berry pails. It was +his wont to hide himself rather than meet girls, and so he did now. + +"O dear, O dear! What a lot of berries! Eli, Eli!" + +"Yes, dear, I see them." + +"Well, then, do not go any farther; here are many pailfuls!" + +"I thought there was a rustling in that bush over there!" + +"Oh, you must be mad!" and the girls rushed at each other, and put their +arms about each other's waists. They stood for a long while so still, +that they scarcely breathed. + +"It is surely nothing; let us go on picking!" + +"Yes, I really think we will." + +And so they began to gather berries. + +"It was very kind of you, Eli, to come over to the parsonage to-day. +Have you anything to tell me?" + +"I have been at godfather's." + +"Yes, you told me that; but have you nothing about _him_,--you know +who?" + +"Oh, yes!" + +"Oh, oh! Eli, is that so? Make haste; tell me!" + +"He has been there again!" + +"Oh, nonsense!" + +"Yes, indeed; both father and mother pretended they did not see it, but +I went up in the garret and hid." + +"More, more! Did he follow you there?" + +"I think father told him where I was; he is always so provoking." + +"And so he came? Sit down, sit down here beside me. Well, so he came?" + +"Yes; but he did not say much, for he was so bashful." + +"Every word! Do you hear? every word!" + +"'Are you afraid of me?' said he. 'Why should I be afraid?' said I. 'You +know what it is I want of you,' said he, and sat down on the chest +beside me." + +"Beside you!" + +"And then he put his arm round my waist." + +"His arm round your waist? Are you wild?" + +"I wanted to get away from him, but he would not let me go. 'Dear Eli,' +said he,"--she laughed, and the other girl laughed too. + +"Well? well?" + +"'Will you be my wife?'" + +"Ha, ha, ha!" + +"Ha, ha, ha!" + +And then both--"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" + +Finally, the laughter, too, had to come to an end, and then a long +silence ensued. After a while, the first one asked, but softly, +"Say,--was it not too bad that he put his arm round your waist?" + +Either the other one made no reply to this, or else she spoke in such a +low tone that it could not be heard; perhaps, too, she answered only +with a smile. Presently the first one asked:-- + +"Have neither your father nor your mother said anything since?" + +"Father came up and looked at me, but I kept hiding; for he laughed +every time he saw me." + +"But your mother?" + +"Why, she said nothing; but she was less harsh than usual." + +"Well, you certainly refused him?" + +"Of course." + +Then there was a long silence again. + +"Eli!" + +"Well?" + +"Do you think any one will ever come that way to me?" + +"Yes, to be sure." + +"How you talk! O--h! say, Eli? What if he should put his arm round my +waist?" She covered her face. + +There was much laughter, afterwards whispering and tittering. + +The girls soon went away. They had neither seen Arne, nor the axe and +the jacket, and he was glad. + +Some days later he put Upland Knut in the houseman's place under Kampen. + +"You shall no longer be lonely," said Arne. + +Arne himself took to steady work. He had early learned to cut with the +hand-saw, for he had himself added much to the house at home. Now he +wanted to work at his trade, for he knew it was well to have some +definite occupation; it was also good for him to get out among people; +and so changed had he gradually become, that he longed for this whenever +he had kept to himself for a while. Thus it came to pass that he was at +the parsonage for a time that winter doing carpentering, and the two +girls were often together there. Arne wondered, when he saw them, who it +could be that was now courting Eli Boeen. + +It so happened one day, when they went out for a ride, that Arne had to +drive for the young lady of the parsonage and Eli; he had good ears, yet +could not hear what they were talking about; sometimes Mathilde spoke to +him, at which Eli laughed and hid her face. Once Mathilde asked if it +was true he could make verses. "No!" he said promptly: then they both +laughed, chattered, and laughed. This made him indignant, and he +pretended not to see them. + +Once he was sitting in the servants' hall, when there was dancing there. +Mathilde and Eli both came in to look on. They were disputing about +something in the corner where they stood. Eli would not, but Mathilde +would, and she won. Then they both crossed the floor to him, courtesied, +and asked whether he could dance. He answered "No," and then they both +turned, laughed, and ran away. "They keep up a perpetual laughter," +thought Arne, and became sober. But the priest had a little adopted son, +about ten or twelve years old, of whom Arne thought a good deal; from +this boy Arne learned to dance when no one else was present. + +Eli had a little brother about the same age as the priest's adopted son. +These two were playmates, and Arne made sleds, skees,[22] and snares for +them; and he often talked with them about their sisters, especially +about Eli. One day Eli's brother brought word that Arne should not be so +careless with his hair. + +"Who said so?" + +"Eli said so; but I was not to tell that she said so." + +Some days after, Arne sent a message to Eli that she should laugh a +little less. The boy came back with the reply that Arne should laugh a +little more. + +Once the boy asked for something he had written. Arne let him have it, +and thought no more of it. After a while the boy thought he would please +Arne with the tidings that both the girls liked his writing very much. + +"Why, have they seen it?" + +"Yes, it was for them I wanted it." + +Arne asked the boys to bring him something their sisters had written; +they did so. Arne corrected the mistakes with a carpenter's pencil. He +asked the boys to place the paper where it could easily be found. +Afterwards he found it again in his jacket pocket, but at the bottom was +written, "Corrected by a conceited fellow!" + +The next day Arne finished his work at the parsonage, and set out for +home. So gentle as he was this winter, his mother had never seen him +since those sorrowful days after his father's death. He read the sermon +for her, went with her to church, and was very kind to her. But she well +knew it was all to get her consent to journey away from her when spring +came. Then one day he had a message from Boeen to know if he would come +there and do some carpentering. + +Arne was quite startled, and answered "Yes," as though he scarcely knew +what he was saying. No sooner had the messenger gone than the mother +said, + +"You may well be astonished! From Boeen?" + +"Is that so strange?" asked Arne, but did not look at her as he spoke. + +"From Boeen?" cried the mother, once more. + +"Well, why not as well from there as from another gard?" Arne now looked +up a little. + +"From Boeen and Birgit Boeen! Baard, who gave your father the blow that +was his ruin, and that for Birgit Boeen's sake!" + +"What do you say?" now cried the youth. "Was that Baard Boeen?" + +Son and mother stood and looked at each other. Between the two a whole +life was unfolded, and this was a moment wherein they could see the +black thread which all along had been woven through it. They fell later +to talking about the father's proud days, when old Eli Boeen herself had +courted him for her daughter Birgit, and got a refusal. They went +through his whole life just as far as where he was knocked down, and +both found out that Baard's fault had been the least. Nevertheless, it +was he who had given the father that fatal blow,--he it was. + +"Am I not yet done with father?" then thought Arne, and decided at the +same moment to go. + +When Arne came walking, with the hand-saw on his shoulder, over the ice +and up toward Boeen, it seemed to him a pretty gard. The house always +looked as though it were newly painted; he was a little chilled, and +that was perhaps why it seemed so cozy to him. He did not go directly +in, but went beyond toward the stable, where a flock of shaggy goats +were standing in the snow, gnawing at the bark of some fir branches. A +shepherd dog walked to and fro on the barn-bridge, and barked as though +the devil himself was coming to the gard; but the moment Arne stood +still, he wagged his tail and let him pat him. The kitchen door on the +farther side of the house was often opened, and Arne looked down there +each time; but it was either the dairy-maid, with tubs and pails, or the +cook, who was throwing something out to the goats. Inside the barn they +were threshing with frequent strokes, and to the left, in front of the +wood-shed, stood a boy chopping wood; behind him there were many layers +of wood piled up. + +Arne put down his saw and went into the kitchen; there white sand was +spread on the floor, and finely cut juniper leaves strewed over it; on +the walls glittered copper kettles, and crockery stood in rows. They +were cooking dinner. Arne asked to speak with Baard. "Go into the +sitting-room," some one said, pointing to the door. He went; there was +no latch to the door, but a brass handle; it was cheerful in there, and +brightly painted, the ceiling was decorated with many roses, the +cupboards were red, with the owner's name in black, the bed-stead was +also red, but bordered with blue stripes. By the stove sat a +broad-shouldered man, with a mild face, and long, yellow hair; he was +putting hoops about some pails; by the long table sat a tall, slender +woman, with a high linen cap on her head, and dressed in tight-fitting +clothes; she was sorting corn into two heaps. Besides these there were +no others in the room. + +"Good day, and bless the work!" said Arne, drawing off his hat. Both +looked up; the man smiled, and asked who it was. + +"It is he who is to do carpentering." + +The man smiled more, and said, as he nodded his head and began his work +again,-- + +"Well, then, it is Arne Kampen!" + +"Arne Kampen?" cried the wife, and stared fixedly before her. + +The man looked up hastily, and smiled again. "The son of tailor Nils," +he said, and went on once more with his work. + +After a while, the wife got up, crossed the floor to the shelf, turned, +went to the cupboard, turned again, and as she at last was rummaging in +a table drawer, she asked, without looking up,-- + +"Is _he_ to work _here_?" + +"Yes, that he is," said the man, also without looking up. "It seems no +one has asked you to sit down," he observed, addressing himself to Arne. + +The latter took a seat; the wife left the room, the man continued to +work; and so Arne asked if he too should begin. + +"Let us first have dinner." + +The wife did not come in again; but the next time the kitchen-door +opened it was Eli who came. She appeared at first not to notice Arne; +when he rose to go to her, she stood still, and half turned to give him +her hand, but she did not look at him. They exchanged a few words; the +father worked on. Eli had her hair braided, wore a tight-sleeved dress, +was slender and straight, had round wrists and small hands. She laid the +table; the working-people dined in the next room, but Arne with the +family in this one; it so happened that they had their meals separately +to-day; usually they all ate at the same table in the large, light +kitchen. + +"Is not mother coming?" asked the man. + +"No, she is up-stairs weighing wool." + +"Have you asked her?" + +"Yes; but she says she does not want anything." + +There was silence for a while. + +"But it is cold up-stairs." + +"She did not want me to make a fire." + +After dinner Arne began work; in the evening he was again with the +family in the sitting-room. Then the wife, too, was there. The women +were sewing. The husband was busy with some trifles, and Arne helped +him; there was a prolonged silence, for Eli, who usually led in +conversation, was also silent. Arne thought with dismay that it probably +was often thus at his own home; but he realized it now for the first +time. Eli drew a long breath at last, as though she had restrained +herself long enough, and then she fell to laughing. Then the father also +laughed, and Arne, too, thought it was laughable, and joined in. From +this time forth they talked of various things; but it ended in Arne and +Eli doing most of the talking, the father putting in an occasional word. +But once, when Arne had been speaking for some time and happened to look +up, he met the eyes of the mother, Birgit; she had dropped her sewing, +and sat staring fixedly at him. Now she picked up her work again, but at +the first word he spoke she raised her eyes. + +Bed-time came, and each one went his way. Arne thought he would notice +the dream he had the first night in a new place; but there seemed to be +no sense in it. The whole day long he had talked little or none with the +master of the gard, but at night it was of him he dreamed. The last +thing was that Baard sat playing cards with tailor Nils. The latter was +very angry and pale in the face; but Baard smiled and won the game. + +Arne remained several days, during which time there was scarcely any +talking, but a great deal of work. Not only those in the family room +were silent, but the servants, the tenants, even the women. There was an +old dog on the gard that barked every time strangers came; but the gard +people never heard the dog without saying "hush!" and then he went +growling off and laid down again. At home at Kampen there was a large +weather-vane on the house, which turned with the wind; there was a still +larger vane here, to which Arne's attention was attracted because it did +not turn. When there was a strong current of wind, the vane struggled +to get loose, and Arne looked at it until he felt compelled to go up on +the roof and set the vane free. It was not frozen fast, as he had +supposed, but a pin was stuck through it that it might be kept still. +This Arne took out and threw down; the pin struck Baard, who came +walking along. He glanced up. + +"What are you doing there?" + +"I am letting loose the vane." + +"Do not do so; it makes such a wailing noise when it is in motion." + +Arne sat astride the gable. + +"That is better than always being quiet." + +Baard looked up at Arne, and Arne looked down on Baard; then Baard +smiled. + +"He who has to howl when he talks had much better keep silent, I am +sure." + +Now it often happens that words haunt us long after they were uttered, +especially when they were the last ones heard. So these words haunted +Arne when he crept down in the cold from the roof, and were still with +him in the evening when he entered the family room. Eli was standing, in +the twilight, by a window, gazing out over the ice which lay glittering +beneath the moon's beams. Arne went to the other window and looked out +as she was doing. Within all was cozy and quiet, without it was cold; a +sharp wind swept across the valley, so shaking the trees that the +shadows they cast in the moonlight did not lie still, but went groping +about in the snow. From the parsonage there glimmered a light, opening +out and closing in, assuming many shapes and colors, as light is apt to +do when one gazes at it too long. The mountain loomed up beyond, dark +and gloomy, with romance in its depths and moonshine on its upper banks +of snow. The sky was aglow with stars, and a little flickering northern +light appeared in one quarter of the horizon, but did not spread. A +short distance from the window, down toward the lake, there were some +trees whose shadows kept prowling from one to the other, but the great +ash stood alone, writing on the snow. + +The night was very still,--only now and then something shrieked and +howled with a long, wailing cry. + +"What is that?" asked Arne. + +"It is the weather-vane," said Eli; and afterwards she continued more +softly, as though to herself: "It must have been let loose." + +But Arne had been feeling like one who wanted to speak and could not. +Now he said:-- + +"Do you remember the story about the thrushes that sang?" + +"Yes." + +"Why, to be sure, it was you who told that one! It was a pretty story." + +She said, in so gentle a voice that it seemed as though it were the +first time he heard it,-- + +"I often think there is something that sings when it is quite still." + +"That is the good within ourselves." + +She looked at him as though there were something too much in that +answer; they were both quiet afterward. Then she asked, as she traced +figures with one finger on the window-pane,-- + +"Have you made any songs lately?" + +He blushed; but this she did not see. Therefore she asked again,-- + +"How do you manage when you make songs?" + +"Would you really like to know?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"I hoard up the thoughts that others are in the habit of letting go," he +answered evasively. + +She was long silent, for she had doubtless been making an attempt at a +song or two. What if she had had those thoughts and let them go. + +"That is strange," said she, as though to herself, and fell to tracing +figures on the pane again. + +"I made a song after I had seen you the first time." + +"Where was that?" + +"Over by the parsonage, the evening you left there. I saw you in the +lake." + +She laughed, then was still a while. + +"Let me hear that song." + +Arne had never before done such a thing, but now he sang for her the +song,-- + + "Fair Venevill bounded on lithesome feet, + Her lover to meet," etc. + +Eli stood there very attentive; she stood there long after he was +through. At last she burst out,-- + +"Oh, how I pity her!" + +"It seems as though I had not made it myself," said Arne, for he felt +ashamed at having produced it. Nor did he understand how he had come to +do so. He remained standing there as if looking after the song. + +Then she said: "But I hope it will not be that way with me!" + +"No, no, no! I was only thinking of myself." + +"Is that to be your fate, then?" + +"I do not know; but I felt so at that time--indeed, I do not understand +it now, but I once had such a heavy heart." + +"That was strange." She began to write on the window-pane again. + +The next day, when Arne came in to dinner he went over to the window. +Outside it was gray and foggy, within warm and pleasant; but on the +window-pane a finger had traced "Arne, Arne, Arne!" and over again +"Arne." It was the window where Eli had stood the preceding evening. + +But Eli did not come down-stairs that day; she was feeling ill. She had +not been well at all of late; she had said so herself, and it was +plainly to be seen. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +A day later Arne came in and announced that he had just heard on the +gard that the priest's daughter Mathilde had that very moment started +for the town, as she thought, for a few days, but, as had been decided, +to stay there for a year or two. Eli had heard nothing of this before, +and fell fainting. + +It was the first time Arne had seen any one faint, and he was much +alarmed; he ran for the maid-servants, they went for the parents, who +started at once; there was confusion all over the gard, even the +shepherd-dog barked on the barn-bridge. When Arne came in again, later, +the mother was on her knees by the bedside, the father stood holding the +sick girl's head. The maid-servants were running, one for water, +another for medicine, which was kept in a cupboard, a third was +unfastening Eli's jacket at the throat. + +"The Lord help and bless us!" cried the mother. "It was certainly wrong +that we said nothing to her; it was you, Baard, who would have it so. +The Lord help and bless us!" + +Baard made no reply. + +"I said we had better tell her; but nothing is ever done as I wish. The +Lord help and bless us! You are always so underhand with her, Baard; you +do not understand her; you do not know what it is to care for any one." + +Baard still made no reply. + +"She is not like others; they can bear sorrow, but it completely upsets +her, poor thing, she is so slight. And especially now when she is not +well at all. Wake up again, my dear child, and we will be kind to you! +Wake up again, Eli, my own dear child, and do not grieve us so!" + +Then Baard said,-- + +"You are either too silent, or you talk too much;" and he looked over at +Arne, as though he did not wish him to hear all this, but to go away. As +the maid-servants remained in the room, however, Arne thought that he +might stay, too, but he walked to the window. Now the patient rallied +so far that she could look about her and recognize people; but at the +same moment her memory returned; she shrieked "Mathilde," burst into +hysterical weeping, and sobbed until it was painful to be in the room +with her. The mother tried to comfort her; the father had placed himself +where he might be seen; but the sick girl waved her hand to them. "Go +away!" she cried, "I do not love you!" + +"Good gracious! You do not love your parents?" said the mother. + +"No! You are cruel to me, and take from me the only joy I have!" + +"Eli, Eli! Do not speak such dreadful words!" begged the mother. + +"Yes, mother," she shrieked; "now I must say it! Yes, mother! You want +me to marry that hateful man, and I will not. You shut me up here, where +I am never happy, except when I am to go out! You take Mathilde from me, +the only person I love and long for in the world! O God, what will +become of me when Mathilde is no longer here--especially now that I have +so much, so much I cannot manage when I have no one to talk with?" + +"But you really have so seldom been with her lately," said Baard. + +"What did that matter when I had her over at the window yonder!" +answered the sick girl, and she cried in such a child-like way, that it +seemed to Arne as though he had never before seen anything like it. + +"But you could not see her there," said Baard. + +"I could see the gard," answered she; and the mother added, hotly,-- + +"You do not understand such things at all." + +Then Baard said no more. + +"Now I can never go to the window!" said Eli. "I went there in the +morning when I got up; in the evening I sat there in the moonlight: and +I went there when I had no one else to go to. Mathilde, Mathilde!" + +She writhed in the bed, and again gave way to hysterical weeping. Baard +sat down on a stool near by and watched her. + +But Eli did not get over this as soon as her parents may have expected. +Toward evening they first saw that she was likely to have a protracted +illness, the seeds of which had doubtless been gathering for some time; +and Arne was called in to assist in carrying her up to her own room. She +was unconscious, and lay very pale and still; the mother sat down beside +her; the father stood at the foot of the bed and looked on; afterwards +he went down to his work. Arne did the same; but that night when he went +to bed he prayed for her, prayed that she, young and fair as she was, +might have a happy life, and that no one might shut out joy from her. + +The following day the father and mother sat talking together when Arne +came in; the mother had been shedding tears. Arne asked how things were +going; each waited for the other to speak, and therefore it was long +before he got a reply; but finally the father said, "It looks pretty +bad." + +Later, Arne heard that Eli had been delirious the whole night; or, as +the father said, had been raving. Now she lay violently ill, knew no +one, would not take any food, and the parents were just sitting there, +deliberating whether they should call in the doctor. When, later, they +went up-stairs to the sick girl, and Arne was left alone again, he felt +as though life and death were both up there, but he sat outside. + +In a few days, though, she was better. Once when the father was keeping +watch, she took a fancy to have Narrifas, the bird which Mathilde had +given her, standing beside the bed. Then Baard told her the truth, that +in all this confusion the bird had been forgotten, and that it was dead. +The mother came just while Baard was telling this, and she burst out in +the door,--"Good gracious me! how heedless you are, Baard, to tell such +things to that sick child! See, now she is fainting away again; Heaven +forgive you for what you have done!" + +Every time the patient revived she screamed for the bird, said that it +would never go well with Mathilde since Narrifas was dead, wanted to go +to her, and fell into a swoon again. Baard stood there and looked on +until he could bear it no longer; then he wanted to help wait on her +too; but the mother pushed him away, saying that she would take care of +the sick girl alone. Then Baard gazed at both of them a long while, +after which he put on his cap with both hands, turned, and went out. + +The priest and his wife came over later; for the illness had taken fresh +hold on Eli, and had become so bad that they knew not whether it was +tending to life or death. + +Both the priest and the priest's wife reasoned with Baard, and urged +that he was too harsh with Eli; they had heard about the bird, and the +priest told him bluntly that such conduct was rough; he would take the +child home to the parsonage, he said, as soon as she had improved enough +to be moved. The priest's wife finally would not even see Baard; she +wept and sat with the sick girl, sent for the doctor, took his orders +herself, and came over several times each day to carry them out. Baard +went wandering about from place to place in the yard, going chiefly +where he could be alone; he would often stand still for a long time, +then straighten his cap with both hands, and find something to do. + +The mother did not speak to him any more; they scarcely looked at each +other. Baard went up to the sick girl's room several times each day; he +took off his shoes at the bottom of the stairs, laid down his hat +outside of the door, which he opened cautiously. The moment he came in, +Birgit would turn as though she had not seen him, and then sit as +before, with her head in her hand, looking straight before her and at +the sick girl. The latter lay still and pale, unconscious of anything +about her. Baard would stand a while at the foot of the bed, look at +them both, and say nothing. Once, when Eli moved as though about to +awaken, he stole away directly as softly as he had come. + +Arne often thought that words had now been exchanged between husband and +wife and parents and child, which had been long brewing, and which +would not soon be forgotten. He longed to get away, although he would +have liked first to know how Eli's illness would end. But this he could +learn even if he left, he thought; he went, therefore, to Baard, and +said that he wished to go home; the work for which he had come was done. +Baard sat outside on the chopping-block when Arne came to tell him this. +He sat digging in the snow with a pin. Arne knew the pin; for it was the +same that had fastened the weather vane. Without looking up Baard +said,-- + +"I suppose it is not pleasant to be here now, but I feel as if I did not +want you to leave." + +Baard said no more; nor did Arne speak. He stood a while, then went away +and busied himself with some work, as though it were decided that he +should remain. + +Later, when Arne was called in to dinner, Baard still sat on the +chopping-block. Arne went over to him and asked how Eli was getting on. + +"I think she must be pretty bad to-day," said Baard; "I see that mother +is crying." + +Arne felt as though some one had bidden him to sit down, and he sat down +directly opposite Baard on the end of a fallen tree. + +"I have been thinking of your father these days," said Baard, so +unexpectedly, that Arne could make no reply. "You know, I dare say, what +there was between us two?" + +"Yes, I know." + +"Ah, well, you only know half, as might have been expected, and +naturally lay the greatest blame on me." + +Arne answered presently: "You have doubtless settled that matter with +your God, as my father has surely done." + +"Ah, well, that may be as one takes it," answered Baard. "When I found +this pin again, it seemed so strange to me that you should come here and +loosen the vane. Just as well first as last, thought I." He had taken +off his cap and sat looking into it. + +Arne did not yet understand that by this Baard meant that he now wanted +to talk with him about his father. Indeed, he still did not understand +it, even after Baard was well under way, so little was this like the +man. But what had been working before in his mind, he gradually +comprehended as the story advanced, and if he had hitherto had respect +for this blundering but thoroughly good man, it was not lessened now. + +"I might have been about fourteen years old," said Baard, then paused, +as he did from time to time throughout his whole story, said a few words +more, and paused again in such a manner that his story bore the strong +impress of having every word weighed. "I might have been about fourteen +years old when I became acquainted with your father, who was of the same +age. He was very wild, and could not bear to have any one above him. And +what he never could forgive me was, that I was the head of the class +when we were confirmed, and he was number two. He often offered to +wrestle with me, but nothing ever came of it; I suppose because we were +neither of us sure of ourselves. But it is strange that he fought every +day, and no misfortune befell him; the one time I tried my hand it +turned out as badly as could be; but, to be sure, I had waited a long +time too. + +"Nils fluttered about all the girls and they about him. There was only +one I wanted, but he took her from me at every dance, at every wedding, +at every party; it was the one to whom I am now married.... I often had +a desire, as I sat looking on, to make a trial of strength with him, +just because of this matter; but I was afraid I might lose, and I knew +that if I did so I should lose her too. When the others had gone, I +would lift the weights he had lifted, kick the beam he had kicked, but +the next time he danced away from me with the girl, I did not dare +tackle him, although it chanced once, as Nils stood joking with her +right before my face, that I laid hold of a good sized fellow who stood +by and tossed him against the beam, as though for sport. Nils grew pale, +too, that time. + +"If he had only been kind to the girl; but he was false to her, and that +evening after evening. I almost think she cared more for him each time. +Then it was that the last thing happened. I thought now it must either +break or bear. Nor did the Lord want him to go about any longer; and +therefore he fell a little more heavily than I had intended. I never saw +him after that." + +They sat for a long time silent. Finally Baard continued:-- + +"I offered myself again. She answered neither yes nor no; and so I +thought she would like me better afterwards. We were married; the +wedding took place down in the valley, at the house of her father's +sister, who left her property to her; we began with plenty, and what we +then had has increased. Our gards lay alongside of each other, and they +have since been thrown into one, as had been my idea from boyhood up. +But many other things did not turn out as I had planned." + +He was long silent; Arne thought, for a while, he was weeping; it was +not so. But he spoke in a still gentler tone than usual when he began +again,-- + +"At first she was quiet and very sorrowful. I had nothing to say for her +comfort, and so I was silent. Later, she fell at times into that +commanding way that you have perhaps noticed in her; yet it was after +all a change, and so I was silent then, too. But a truly happy day I +have not had since I was married, and that has been now for twenty +years." + +He broke the pin in two; then he sat a while looking at the pieces. + +"When Eli grew to be a large girl, I thought she would find more +happiness among strangers than here. It is seldom that I have insisted +on anything; it usually has been wrong, too, when I have; and so it was +with this. The mother yearned for her child, although only the lake +parted them; and at last I found out that Eli was not under the best +influences over at the parsonage, for there is really much good-natured +nonsense about the priest's family; but I found it out too late. Now she +seems to care for neither father nor mother." + +He had taken his cap off again; now his long hair fell over his eyes; he +stroked it aside, and put on his cap with both hands, as though about to +go; but as in getting up he turned toward the house, he stopped and +added, with a glance at the chamber window,-- + +"I thought it was best she and Mathilde should not bid each other +good-by; but that proved to be wrong. I told her the little bird was +dead, for it was my fault, you know, and it seemed to me right to +confess; but that was wrong too. And so it is with everything. I have +always meant to do the best, but it has turned out to be the worst; and +now it has gone so far that they speak ill of me, both wife and +daughter, and I am alone here." + +A girl now called out to them that dinner was getting cold. Baard got +up. "I hear the horses neighing," said he, "somebody must have forgotten +them;" and with this he went over to the stable to give them hay. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Eli was very weak after her illness; the mother sat over her night and +day, and was never down-stairs; the father made his usual visits up to +the sick-room in his stocking feet, and leaving his cap outside of the +door. Arne was still at the gard; he and the father sat together of +evenings; he had come to think a good deal of Baard, who was a +well-educated man, a deep thinker, but seemed to be afraid of what he +knew. Arne helped him to get things right in his mind and told him much +that he did not know before, and Baard was very grateful. + +Eli could now sit up at intervals; and as she began to improve she took +many fancies into her head. Thus it was that one evening as Arne sat in +the room below Eli's chamber singing songs in a loud voice, the mother +came down and brought word that Eli wanted to know if he would not come +up-stairs and sing that she might hear the words. Arne had undoubtedly +been singing for Eli all along; for when her mother gave him the message +he grew red, and rose as though he would deny what he had been doing, +although no one had charged him with it. He soon recovered his +composure, and said evasively that there was very little he could sing. +But the mother remarked that it did not seem so when he was alone. + +Arne yielded and went. He had not seen Eli since the day he had helped +carry her up-stairs; he felt that she must now be greatly changed, and +was almost afraid to see her. But when he softly opened the door and +entered, it was so dark in the room that he saw no one. He paused on the +threshold. + +"Who is it?" asked Eli, in a clear, low voice. + +"It is Arne Kampen," he answered, in a guarded tone, that the words +might fall softly. + +"It was kind of you to come." + +"How are you now, Eli?" + +"Thank you, I am better." + +"Please sit down, Arne," said she, presently, and Arne felt his way to a +chair that stood by the foot of the bed. "It was so nice to hear you +singing, you must sing a little for me up here." + +"If I only knew anything that was suitable." + +There was silence for a moment; then she said, "Sing a hymn," and he did +so; it was a part of one of the confirmation hymns. When he had +finished, he heard that she was weeping, and so he dared not sing any +more; but presently she said, "Sing another one like that," and he sang +another, choosing the one usually sung when the candidates for +confirmation are standing in the church aisle. + +"How many things I have thought of while I have been lying here," said +Eli. He did not know what to answer, and he heard her weeping quietly in +the dark. A clock was ticking on the wall, it gave warning that it was +about to strike, and then struck; Eli drew a long breath several times +as though she would ease her breast, and then she said, "One knows so +little. I have known neither father nor mother. I have not been kind to +them,--and that is why it gives me such strange feelings to hear that +confirmation hymn." + +When people talk in the dark, they are always more truthful than when +they see each other face to face; they can say more, too. + +"It is good to hear your words," replied Arne; he was thinking of what +she had said when she was taken ill. + +She knew what he meant; and so she remarked, "Had not this happened to +me, God only knows how long it might have been before I had found my +mother." + +"She has been talking with you now?" + +"Every day; she has done nothing else." + +"Then, I dare say, you have heard many things." + +"You may well say so." + +"I suppose she talked about my father?" + +"Yes." + +"Does she still think of him?" + +"She does." + +"He was not kind to her." + +"Poor mother!" + +"He was worst of all, though, to himself." + +Thoughts now arose that neither liked to express to the other. Eli was +the first to break the silence. + +"They say you are like your father." + +"So I have heard," he answered, evasively. + +She paid no heed to the tone of his voice; and so, after a while, she +continued, "Could he, too, make songs?" + +"No." + +"Sing a song for me,--one you have made yourself." + +But Arne was not in the habit of confessing that the songs he sang were +his own. "I have none," said he. + +"Indeed you have, and I am sure you will sing them for me if I ask it." + +What he had never done for others, he now did for her. He sang the +following song:-- + + "The tree's early leaf-buds were bursting their brown: + 'Shall I take them away?' said the frost, sweeping down. + 'No, dear; leave them alone + Till blossoms here have grown,' + Prayed the tree, while it trembled from rootlet to crown. + + "The tree bore its blossoms, and all the birds sung: + 'Shall I take them away?' said the wind, as it swung. + 'No, dear; leave them alone + Till berries here have grown,' + Said the tree, while its leaflets all quivering hung. + + "The tree bore its fruit in the midsummer glow: + Said the girl, 'May I gather thy berries or no?' + 'Yes, dear, all thou canst see; + Take them; all are for thee,' + Said the tree, while it bent down its laden boughs low."[23] + +This song almost took her breath away. He, too, sat there silent, after +he was through, as though he had sung more than he cared to say to her. + +Darkness has great power over those who are sitting in it and dare not +speak; they are never so near each other as then. If Eli only turned, +only moved her hand on the bed-cover, only breathed a little more +heavily than usual, Arne heard it. "Arne, could not you teach me to make +songs?" + +"Have you never tried?" + +"Yes, these last few days I have; but I have not succeeded." + +"Why, what did you want to have in them?" + +"Something about my mother, who cared so much for your father." + +"That is a sad theme." + +"I have cried over it, too." + +"You must not think of what you are going to put in your songs; it comes +of itself." + +"How does it come?" + +"As other precious things, when you least expect it." + +They were both silent. + +"I wonder, Arne, that you are longing to go away when you have so much +that is beautiful within yourself." + +"Do _you_ know that I am longing?" + +She made no reply to this, but lay still a few moments, as though in +thought. + +"Arne, you must not go away!" said she, and this sent a glow through +him. + +"Well, sometimes I have less desire to go." + +"Your mother must be very fond of you. I should like to see your +mother." + +"Come over to Kampen when you are well." + +And now all at once he pictured her sitting in the cheerful room at +Kampen, looking out on the mountains; his chest began to heave, the +blood rushed to his head. "It is warm in here," said he, getting up. + +She heard this. "Are you going, Arne?" asked she, and he sat down again. + +"You must come over to us often; mother likes you so much." + +"I should be glad to come myself; but I must have some errand, though." + +Eli was silent for a while, as if she were considering something. "I +believe," said she, "that mother has something she wants to ask of you." + +He heard her turn in bed. There was no sound to be heard, either in the +room or outside, save the ticking of the clock on the wall. At last she +burst out,-- + +"How I wish it were summer!" + +"That it were summer?" and there rose up in his mind, blended with +fragrant foliage and the tinkling of cattle bells, shouts from the +mountains, singing from the valleys, Black Water glittering in the +sunshine, the gards rocking in it, and Eli coming out and sitting down, +as she had done that evening long ago. + +"If it were summer," said she, "and I were sitting on the hill, I really +believe I could sing a song." + +He laughed and asked: "What would it be about?" + +"Oh, something easy, about--I do not know myself--" + +"Tell me, Eli!" and he sprang up in delight; then, recollecting himself, +he sat down again. + +"No; not for all the world!" She laughed. + +"I sang for you when you asked me." + +"Yes, you did; but--no! no!" + +"Eli, do you think I would make sport of your little verse?" + +"No; I do not think so, Arne; but it is not anything I have made +myself." + +"It is by some one else, then." + +"Yes, it just came floating of itself." + +"Then you can surely repeat it to me." + +"No, no; it is not altogether that either, Arne. Do not ask me any +more." She must have hid her face in the bedclothes, for the last words +seemed to come out of them. + +"You are not as kind to me now, Eli, as I was to you!" he said, and +rose. + +"Arne, there is a difference--you do not understand me--but it was--I do +not know myself--another time--do not be angry with me, Arne! Do not go +away from me!" She began to weep. + +"Eli, what is the matter?" He listened. "Are you feeling ill?" He did +not think she was. She still wept; he thought that he must either go +forward or backward. + +"Eli!" + +"Yes!" + +They both spoke in whispers. + +"Give me your hand!" + +She did not answer; he listened intently, eagerly, felt about on the +coverlid, and clasped a warm little hand that lay outside. + +They heard steps on the stairs, and let go of each other's hands. It was +Eli's mother, who was bringing in a light. "You are sitting quite too +long in the dark," said she, and put the candlestick on the table. But +neither Eli nor Arne could bear the light; she turned toward the +pillow, he held his hand up before his eyes. "Oh, yes; it hurts the eyes +a little at first," said her mother; "but that will soon pass off." + +Arne searched on the floor for the cap he did not have with him, and +then he left the room. + +The next day he heard that Eli was coming down-stairs for a little while +after dinner. He gathered together his tools, and said good-by. When she +came down he was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +Spring comes late in the mountains. The mail that passed along the +highway during the winter three times a week, in April only passes once, +and the inhabitants know then that in the outside world the snow is +thawed, the ice broken; that the steamers are running, and the plow put +into the earth. Here, the snow still lies three ells deep; the cattle +low in the stalls, and the birds come, but hide themselves, shivering +with the cold. Occasionally some traveler arrives, saying he has left +his cart down in the valley, and he has flowers with him, which he +shows,--he has gathered them by the wayside. Then the people become +restless, go about talking together, look at the sky and down in the +valley, wondering how much the sun gains each day. They strew ashes on +the snow, and think of those who are now gathering flowers. + +It was at such a time that old Margit Kampen came walking up to the +parsonage and asked to speak with "father."[24] She was invited into the +study, where the priest, a slender, fair-haired, gentle-looking man with +large eyes and spectacles, received her kindly, knew who she was, and +asked her to sit down. + +"Is it now something about Arne again?" he inquired, as though they had +often talked together about him. + +"Heaven help me!" said Margit; "it is never anything but good I have to +say of him, and yet my heart is so heavy." She looked very sad as she +spoke. + +"Has that longing come back again?" asked the priest. + +"Worse than ever," said the mother. "I do not even believe he will stay +with me until spring comes to us here." + +"And yet he has promised never to leave you." + +"True enough; but, dear me, he must manage for himself now; when the +mind is set upon going, go one must, I suppose. But what will become of +me?" + +"Still I will believe, as long as possible, that he will not leave you," +said the priest. + +"Certainly not; but what if he should never be content at home? I would +then have it on my conscience that I stood in his way. There are times +when I think I ought to ask him myself to go away." + +"How do you know that he is longing now more than ever?" + +"Oh, from many things. Since midwinter he has not worked out in the +parish a single day. On the other hand, he has made three trips to town, +and has stayed away a long while each time. He scarcely ever talks now +when he is working, as he often used to do. He sits for hours by the +little window up-stairs, and looks out over the mountains in the +direction of the Kamp gorge; he sometimes stays there a whole Sunday +afternoon, and often when it is moonlight, he sits there far into the +night." + +"Does he never read to you?" + +"Of course he reads and sings to me every Sunday; but he always seems in +a hurry, except now and then, when he overdoes it." + +"Does he never come and talk with you?" + +"He often lets so long a time pass without saying a word, that I cannot +help crying when I sit alone. Then, I suppose, he sees this, for he +begins to talk with me, but it is always about trifles, never about +anything serious." + +The priest was walking up and down; now he stopped and asked, "Why do +you not speak with him about it?" + +It was some time before she made any reply to this; she sighed several +times, she looked first downward, then on either side,--she folded the +handkerchief she carried. + +"I came here to-day to have a talk with father about something that lies +heavily on my heart." + +"Speak freely, it will lighten the burden." + +"I know that; for I have now dragged it along alone these many years, +and it grows heavier each year." + +"What is it, my good woman?" + +There was a brief pause; then she said, "I have sinned greatly against +my son,"--and she began to cry. + +The priest came close up to her. "Confess it to me," said he, "then we +will together pray God that you may be forgiven." + +Margit sobbed and dried her eyes, but began to weep afresh as soon as +she tried to speak, and this was repeated several times. The priest +comforted her, and said she surely could not have been guilty of +anything very sinful, that she was no doubt too strict with herself, and +so on. Margit wept, however, and could not muster the courage to begin +until the priest had seated himself by her side and spoken kindly words +to her. Then, in broken sentences, she faltered forth her confession:-- + +"He had a hard time of it when he was a boy, and so his mind became bent +on travel. Then he met Kristian, he who has grown so very rich over +there where they dig for gold. Kristian gave Arne so many books that he +ceased to be like the rest of us; they sat together in the long +evenings, and when Kristian went away, my boy longed to follow him. +Just at that time, though, his father fell down dead, and Arne promised +never to leave me. Yet I was like a hen that had brooded a duck's egg, +when the young duckling had burst the shell, he wanted to go out on the +great water, and I remained on the bank screaming. If he did not +actually go away himself, his heart went in his songs, and every morning +I thought I would find his bed empty. + +"Then there came a letter for him from a far-off country, and I knew it +must be from Kristian. God forgive me, I hid it! I thought that would be +the end of the matter, but still another one came, and as I had kept the +first from him, I had to keep the second one too. But, indeed, it seemed +as though they would burn a hole in the chest where they lay, for my +thoughts would go there from the time I opened my eyes in the morning +until I closed them at night. And you never have known anything so bad +as this, for there came a third! I stood holding it in my hand for a +quarter of an hour; I carried it in my bosom for three days, weighing +within me whether I should give it to him or lay it away with the +others, but perhaps it would have power to lure the boy away from me, +and I could not help it, I put the letter away with the others. Now I +went about in sorrow every day, both because of those that were in the +chest and because of the new ones that might come. I was afraid of +every person who came to our house. When we were in the house together, +and there came a knock at the door, I trembled, for it might be a +letter, and then _he_ would get it. When he was out in the parish, I +kept thinking at home that now perhaps he would get a letter while he +was away, and that it might have something in it about those that had +come before. When he was coming home, I watched his face in the +distance, and, dear me! how happy I was when I saw him smiling, for then +I knew he had no letter! He had grown so handsome, too, just like his +father, but much fairer and more gentle-looking. And then he had such a +voice for singing: when he sat outside of the door at sunset, singing +toward the mountain ridge and listening for the echo, I felt in my heart +that I never could live without him! If I only saw him, or if I knew he +was anywhere around, and he looked tolerably happy, and would only give +me a word now and then, I wished for nothing more on earth, and would +not have had a single tear unshed. + +"But just as he seemed to be getting on better, and to be feeling more +at ease among people, there came word from the parish post-office that a +fourth letter had now come, and that in it there were two hundred +dollars! I thought I should drop right down on the spot where I stood. +What should I do now? The letter, of course, I could get out of the way; +but the money? I could not sleep for several nights on account of this +money. I kept it up in the garret for a while, then left it in the +cellar behind a barrel, and once I was so beside myself that I laid it +in the window so that he might find it. When I heard him coming, I took +it away again. At last I found a way, though. I gave him the money and +said it had been out at interest since mother's lifetime. He spent it in +improving the gard, as had been in my own mind, and there it was not +lost. But then it happened that same autumn that he sat one evening +wondering why Kristian had so entirely forgotten him. + +"Now the wound opened afresh, and the money burned. What I had done was a +sin, and the sin had been of no use to me! + +"The mother who has sinned against her own child is the most unhappy of +all mothers,--and yet I only did it out of love. So I shall be punished, +I dare say, by losing what is dearest to me. For since midwinter he has +taken up again the tune he sings when he is longing; he has sung it from +boyhood up, and I never hear it without growing pale. Then I feel I +could give up all for him, and now you shall see for yourself,"--she +took a scrap of paper out of her bosom, unfolded it, and gave it to the +priest,--"here is something he is writing at from time to time; it +certainly belongs to that song. I brought it with me, for I cannot read +such fine writing; please see if there is anything in it about his going +away." + +There was only one stanza on this paper. For the second one there were +half and whole lines here and there, as if it were a song he had +forgotten, and was now calling to mind again, verse by verse. The first +stanza ran,-- + + "Oh, how I wonder what I should see + Over the lofty mountains! + Snow here shuts out the view from me, + Round about stands the green pine-tree. + Longing to hasten over-- + Dare it become a rover?" + +"Is it about his going away?" asked Margit, her eyes fixed eagerly on +the priest's face. + +"Yes, it is," answered he, and let the paper drop. + +"Was I not sure of it! Ah, me! I know that tune so well!" She looked at +the priest, her hands folded, anxious, intent, while tear after tear +trickled down her cheek. + +But the priest knew as little how to advise as she. "The boy must be +left to himself in this matter," said he. "Life cannot be altered for +his sake, but it depends on himself whether he shall one day find out +its meaning. Now it seems he wants to go away to do so." + +"But was it not just so with the old woman?" said Margit. + +"With the old woman?" repeated the priest. + +"Yes; she who went out to fetch the sunshine into her house, instead of +cutting windows in the walls." + +The priest was astonished at her shrewdness; but it was not the first +time she had surprised him when she was on this theme; for Margit, +indeed, had not thought of anything else for seven or eight years. + +"Do you think he will leave me? What shall I do? And the money? And the +letters?" All this crowded upon her at once. + +"Well, it was not right about the letters. You can hardly be justified +in withholding from your son what belonged to him. It was still worse, +however, to place a fellow Christian in a bad light when it was not +deserved, and the worst of all was that it was one whom Arne loved and +who was very fond of him in return. But we will pray God to forgive you, +we will both pray." + +Margit bowed her head; she still sat with her hands folded. + +"How earnestly I would pray him for forgiveness, if I only knew he would +stay!" She was probably confounding in her mind the Lord and Arne. + +The priest pretended he had not noticed this. "Do you mean to confess +this to him at once?" he asked. + +She looked down and said in a low tone, "If I dared wait a little while +I should like to do so." + +The priest turned aside to hide a smile, as he asked, "Do you not think +your sin becomes greater the longer you delay the confession?" + +Both hands were busied with her handkerchief: she folded it into a very +small square, and tried to get it into a still smaller one, but that was +not possible. + +"If I confess about the letters, I am afraid he will leave me." + +"You dare not place your reliance on the Lord, then?" + +"Why, to be sure I do!" she said hurriedly; then she added softly, "But +what if he should go anyway?" + +"So, then, you are more afraid of Arne's leaving you than of continuing +in sin?" + +Margit had unfolded her handkerchief again; she put it now to her eyes, +for she was beginning to weep. + +The priest watched her for a while, then he continued: "Why did you tell +me all this when you did not mean it to lead to anything?" He waited a +long time, but she did not answer. "You thought, perhaps, your sin would +become less when you had confessed it?" + +"I thought that it would," said she, softly, with her head bowed still +farther down on her breast. + +The priest smiled and got up. "Well, well, my dear Margit, you must act +so that you will have joy in your old age." + +"If I could only keep what I have!" said she; and the priest thought +she dared not imagine any greater happiness than living in her constant +state of anxiety. He smiled as he lit his pipe. + +"If we only had a little girl who could get hold of him, then you should +see that he would stay!" + +She looked up quickly, and her eyes followed the priest until he paused +in front of her. + +"Eli Boeen? What"-- + +She colored and looked down again; but she made no reply. + +The priest, who had stood still, waiting, said finally, but this time in +quite a low tone "What if we should arrange it so that they should meet +oftener at the parsonage?" + +She glanced up at the priest to find out whether he was really in +earnest. But she did not quite dare believe him. + +The priest had begun to walk up and down again, but now he paused. "See +here, Margit! When it comes to the point, perhaps this was your whole +errand here to-day, hey?" + +She bowed her head far down, she thrust two fingers into the folded +handkerchief, and brought out a corner of it. "Well, yes, God help me; +that was exactly what I wanted." + +The priest burst out laughing, and rubbed his hands. "Perhaps that was +what you wanted the last time you were here, too?" + +She drew the corner of the handkerchief farther out; she stretched it +and stretched it. "Since you ask me, yes, it was just that." + +"Ha, ha, ha, ha! Ah, Margit! Margit! We shall see what we can do; for, +to tell the truth, my wife and daughter have for a long time had the +same thoughts as you." + +"Is it possible?" She looked up, at once so happy and so bashful, that +the priest had his own delight in her open, pretty face, in which the +childlike expression had been preserved through all sorrow and anxiety. + +"Ah, well, Margit, you, whose love is so great, will, I have no doubt, +obtain forgiveness, for love's sake, both from your God and from your +son, for the wrong you have done. You have probably been punished enough +already in the continual, wearing anxiety you have lived in; we shall, +if God is willing, bring this to a speedy end, for, if He _wishes_ this, +He will help us a little now." + +She drew a long sigh, which she repeated again and again; then she +arose, gave her thanks, dropped a courtesy, and courtesied again at the +door. But she was scarcely well outside before a change came over her. +She cast upward a look beaming with gratitude, and she hurried more and +more the farther she got away from people, and lightly as she tripped +down toward Kampen that day, she had not done for many, many years. When +she got so far on her way that she could see the thick smoke curling +gayly up from the chimney, she blessed the house, the whole gard, the +priest, and Arne,--and then remembered that they were going to have +smoked beef for dinner,--her favorite dish! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Kampen was a beautiful gard. It lay in the midst of a plain, bordered +below by the Kamp gorge, and above by the parish road; on the opposite +side of the road was a thick wood, a little farther beyond, a rising +mountain ridge, and behind this the blue, snow-capped mountains. On the +other side of the gorge there was also a broad mountain range, which +first entirely surrounded Black Water on the side where Boeen lay, then +grew higher toward Kampen, but at the same time turned aside to make way +for the broad basin called the lower parish, and which began just below, +for Kampen was the last gard in the upper parish. + +The front door of the dwelling-house was turned toward the road; it was +probably about two thousand paces off; a path with leafy birch-trees on +either side led thither. The wood lay on both sides of the clearing; the +fields and meadows could, therefore, extend as far as the owners +themselves wished; it was in all respects a most excellent gard. A +little garden lay in front of the house. Arne managed it as his books +directed. To the left were the stables and other out-houses. They were +nearly all new built, and formed a square opposite the dwelling-house. +The latter was painted red, with white window-frames and doors, was two +stories high, thatched with turf, and small shrubs grew on the roof; the +one gable had a vane staff, on which turned an iron cock, with high, +spread tail. + +Spring had come to the mountain districts. It was a Sunday morning; +there was a little heaviness in the air, but it was calm and without +frost; mist hung over the wood, but Margit thought it would lift during +the day. Arne had read the sermon for his mother and sung the hymns, +which had done him good; now he was in full trim, ready to go up to the +parsonage. He opened the door, the fresh perfume of the leaves was +wafted toward him, the garden lay dew-covered and bowed by the morning +mist, and from the Kamp gorge there came a roaring, mingled at intervals +with mighty booms, making everything tremble to the ear and the eye. + +Arne walked upward. The farther he got from the force the less +awe-inspiring became its roar, which finally spread itself like the deep +tones of an organ over the whole landscape. + +"The Lord be with him on his way!" said the mother, opening the window +and looking after him until the shrubbery closed about him. The fog +lifted more and more, the sun cut through it; there was life now about +the fields and in the garden; all Arne's work sprouted out in fresh +growth, sending fragrance and joy up to the mother. Spring is lovely to +those who long have been surrounded by winter. + +Arne had no fixed errand at the parsonage, but still he wanted to learn +about the papers he and the priest took together. Recently he had seen +the names of several Norsemen who had done remarkably well digging gold +in America, and among them was Kristian. Now Arne had heard a rumor that +Kristian was expected home. He could, no doubt, get information about +this at the parsonage,--and if Kristian had really returned, then Arne +would go to him in the interval between spring and haying time. This was +working in his mind until he had advanced so far that he could see Black +Water, and Boeen on the other side. The fog had lifted there, too; the +sun was playing on the green, the mountain loomed up with shining peak, +but the fog was still lying in its lap; the wood darkened the water on +the right side, but in front of the house the ground was more flat, and +its white sand glittered in the sunshine. Suddenly his thoughts sped to +the red-painted building with white doors and window-frames, that he had +had in mind when he painted his own. He did not remember those first +gloomy days he had passed there; he only thought of that bright summer +they had both seen, he and Eli, up beside her sick-bed. Since then he +had not been to Boeen, nor would he go there, not for the whole world. If +only his thoughts barely touched on it, he grew crimson and abashed; and +yet this happened again every day, and many times a day. If there was +anything which could drive him out of the parish, it was just this! + +Onward he went, as though he would flee from his thoughts, but the +farther he walked the nearer opposite Boeen he came, and the more he +gazed upon it. The fog was entirely gone, the sky clear from one +mountain outline to the other, the birds sailed along and called aloud +to one another in the glad sunny air, the fields responded with millions +of flowers; the Kamp force did not here compel gladness to bow the knee +in submission and awe, but buoyant and frolicsome it tumbled over, +singing, twinkling, rejoicing without end! + +Arne had walked till he was in a glowing heat; he flung himself down in +the grass at the foot of a hill, looked over towards Boeen, then turned +away to avoid seeing it. Presently he heard singing above him, pure and +clear, as song had never sounded to him before; it floated out over the +meadow, mingled with the chattering of the birds, and he was scarcely +sure of the tune before he recognized the words too,--for the tune was +his favorite one, and the words were those that had been working in his +mind from the time he was a boy, and forgotten the same day he had +brought them forth! He sprang up as though he would catch them, then +paused and listened; here came the first stanza, here came the second, +here came the third and the fourth of his own forgotten song streaming +down to him:-- + + "Oh, how I wonder what I should see + Over the lofty mountains! + Snow here shuts out the view from me, + Round about stands the green pine-tree, + Longing to hasten over-- + Dare it become a rover? + + "Soars the eagle with strong wing play, + Over the lofty mountains; + Rows through the young and vigorous day + Sating his courage in quest of prey; + When he will swooping downward, + Tow'rd far-off lands gazing onward. + + "Leaf-heavy apple, wilt thou not go + Over the lofty mountains? + Forth putting buds 'mid summer's glow, + Thou wilt till next time wait, I know; + All of these birds art swinging, + Knowing not what they're singing. + + "He who for twenty years longed to flee + Over the lofty mountains, + Nor beyond them can hope to see, + Smaller each year feels himself to be; + Hears what the birds are singing, + Thou art with confidence swinging. + + "Bird, with thy chatt'ring, what wouldst thou here + Over the lofty mountains? + Fairer the lands beyond must appear, + Higher the trees and the skies far more clear. + Wouldst thou but longing be bringing, + Bird, but no wings with thy singing? + + "Shall I the journey never take + Over the lofty mountains? + Must my poor thoughts on this rock-wall break? + Must it a dread, ice-bound prison make, + Shutting at last in around me, + Till for my tomb it surround me? + + "Forth will I! forth! Oh, far, far away, + Over the lofty mountains! + I will be crushed and consumed if I stay; + Courage tow'rs up and seeks the way, + Let it its flight now be taking, + Not on this rock-wall be breaking! + + "One day I know I shall wander afar + Over the lofty mountains! + Lord, my God, is thy door ajar? + Good is thy home where the blessed are; + Keep it though closed a while longer, + Till my deep longing grow stronger."[25] + +Arne stood still until the last verse, the last word, had died away. +Again he heard the birds sporting and twittering, but he knew not +whether he himself dared stir. Find out who had been singing, though, he +must; he raised his foot and trod so carefully that he could not hear +the grass rustle. A little butterfly alighted on a flower, directly at +his feet, had to start up again, flew only a little piece farther, had +to start up again, and so on all over the hill as he crept cautiously +up. Soon he came to a leafy bush, and cared to go no farther, for now he +could see. A bird flew up from the bush, gave a startled cry and darted +over the sloping hill-side, and then she who was sitting within view +looked up. Arne stooped far down, holding his breath, his heart +throbbing so wildly that he heard its every beat, listening, not daring +to move a leaf, for it was, indeed, she,--it was Eli whom he saw! + +After a long, long while, he looked up just a little, and would gladly +have drawn a step nearer but he thought the bird might perhaps have its +nest under the bush, and was afraid he would tread on it. He peered out +between the leaves as they blew aside and closed together again. The sun +shone directly on her. She wore a black dress without sleeves,[26] and +had a boy's straw hat perched lightly on her head, and slanting a little +to one side. In her lap lay a book, and on it a profusion of wild +flowers; her right hand was dreamily toying with them; in her left, +which rested on her knee, her head was bowed. She was gazing in the +direction of the bird's flight, and it really seemed as though she had +been weeping. + +Anything more lovely Arne had neither seen nor dreamed of in his whole +life; the sun, too, had scattered all its gold over her and the spot +where she was sitting, and the song still floated about her, although +its last notes had long since been sung, so that he thought, +breathed--aye, even his heart beat in time to it. + +She took up the book and opened it, but soon closed it again and sat as +before, beginning to hum something else. It was, "The tree's early +leaf-buds were bursting their brown." He knew it at once, although she +did not quite remember either the words or the tune, and made many +mistakes. The stanza she knew best was the last one, therefore she often +repeated it; but she sang it thus:-- + + "The tree bore its berries, so mellow and red: + 'May I gather thy berries?' a sweet maiden said. + 'Yes, dear; all thou canst see; + Take them; all are for thee;' + Said the tree--trala-lala, trala, lala--said."[27] + +Then suddenly she sprang up, scattering the flowers all around her, and +sang aloud, so that the tune, as it quivered through the air, could +easily be heard all the way over to Boeen. And then she ran away. Should +he call after her? No! There she went skipping over the hills, singing, +trolling; her hat fell off, she picked it up again; and then she stood +still in the midst of the tallest grass. + +"Shall I call after her? She is looking round!" + +He quickly stooped down. It was a long while before he dared peep forth +again; at first he only raised his head; he could not see her: then he +drew himself up on his knees, and still could not see her; finally, he +got all the way up. No, she was gone! He no longer wanted to go to the +parsonage. He wanted nothing! + +Later he sat where she had been sitting, still sat there until the sun +drew near the meridian. The lake was not ruffled by a single ripple; the +smoke from the gards began to curl upward; the land-rails, one after +another, had ceased their call; the small birds, though, continued their +sportive gambols, but withdrew to the wood; the dew was gone and the +grass looked sober; not a breath of wind stirred the leaves; it was +about an hour from noon. Arne scarcely knew how it was that he found +himself seated there, weaving together a little song; a sweet melody +offered itself for it, and into a heart curiously full of all that was +gentle, the tune came and went until the picture was complete. He sang +the song calmly as he had made it:-- + + "He went in the forest the whole day long, + The whole day long; + For there he had heard such a wonderful song, + A wonderful song. + + "He fashioned a flute from a willow spray, + A willow spray, + To see if within it the sweet tune lay, + The sweet tune lay. + + "It whispered and told him its name at last, + Its name at last; + But then, while he listened, away it passed, + Away it passed. + + "But oft when he slumbered, again it stole, + Again it stole, + With touches of love upon his soul, + Upon his soul. + + "Then he tried to catch it, and keep it fast, + And keep it fast; + But he woke, and away in the night it passed, + In the night it passed. + + "'My Lord, let me pass in the night, I pray, + In the night, I pray; + For the tune has taken my heart away, + My heart away.' + + "Then answered the Lord, 'It is thy friend + It is thy friend, + Though not for an hour shall thy longing end, + Thy longing end; + + "'And all the others are nothing to thee, + Nothing to thee, + To this that thou seekest and never shalt see, + Never shalt see.'"[28] + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +It was a Sunday evening in midsummer; the priest had returned from +church, and Margit had been sitting with him until it was nearly seven +o'clock. Now she took her leave, and hastened down the steps and out +into the yard, for there she had just caught sight of Eli Boeen, who had +been playing for some time with the priest's son and her own brother. + +"Good evening!" said Margit, standing still, "and God bless you all!" + +"Good evening!" replied Eli, blushing crimson, and showing a desire to +stop playing, although the boys urged her to continue; but she begged to +be excused, and they had to let her go for that evening. + +"It seems to me I ought to know you," said Margit. + +"That is quite likely," was the reply. + +"This surely never can be Eli Boeen?" + +Yes, it was she. + +"Oh, dear me! So you are Eli Boeen! Yes, now I see you are like your +mother." + +Eli's auburn hair had become unfastened, so that it floated carelessly +about her; her face was as hot and as red as a berry, her bosom heaved, +she could not speak, and laughed because she was so out of breath. + +"Yes, that is the way with young people." + +Margit looked at Eli with satisfaction as she spoke. + +"I suppose you do not know me?" + +Eli had no doubt wanted to ask who she was, but could not command the +courage to do so, because the other was so much older than she; now she +said that she did not remember having seen her before. + +"Well, to be sure, that is scarcely to be expected; old folks seldom get +out. You may perhaps know my son, Arne Kampen. I am his mother." She +stole a sly glance, as she spoke, at Eli, on whom these words wrought a +considerable change. "I am inclined to think he worked over at Boeen +once, did he not?" + +Yes, it was Eli's impression, too, that he had done so. + +"The weather is fine this evening. We turned our hay to-day, and got it +in before I left home; it is really blessed weather." + +"There will surely be a good hay-harvest this year," Eli observed. + +"Yes, you may well say so. I suppose everything looks splendidly over at +Boeen." + +"They are through harvesting there." + +"Oh, of course; plenty of help, stirring people. Are you going home this +evening?" + +No, she did not intend to do so. They talked together about one thing +and another and gradually became so well acquainted that Margit felt at +liberty to ask Eli to walk a short distance with her. + +"Could you not keep me company a few steps?" said she. "I so seldom find +any one to talk with, and I dare say it will make no difference to you." + +Eli excused herself because she had not her jacket on. + +"Well, I know, it is really a shame to ask such a thing the first time I +meet a person; but then one has to bear with old folks." + +Eli said she was quite willing to go, she only wanted to fetch her +jacket. + +It was a close-fitting jacket; when it was hooked, she looked as if she +wore a complete dress; but now she only fastened the two lowest hooks, +she was so warm. Her fine linen had a small turned down collar, and was +fastened at the throat with a silver button, in the form of a bird with +outspread wings. Such a one tailor Nils had worn the first time Margit +Kampen had danced with him. + +"What a handsome button," she remarked, looking at it. + +"My mother gave it to me," said Eli. + +"Yes, so I thought," and Margit helped the girl adjust it as she spoke. + +Now they walked on along the road. The new-mown hay was lying about in +heaps. Margit took up a handful, smelled it, and thought it was good. +She asked about the live stock at the parsonage, was led thereby to +inquire about that at Boeen, and then told how much they had at Kampen. + +"The gard has prospered finely of late years, and it can be made as much +larger as we ourselves wish. It feeds twelve milch cows now, and could +feed more; but Arne reads a great many books, and manages according to +them, and so he must have his cows fed in a first-rate way." + +Eli made no reply to all this, as was quite natural; but Margit asked +her how old she was. She was nineteen. + +"Have you taken any part in the house-work? You look so dainty, I +suppose it has not been much." + +Oh, yes, she had helped in various ways, especially of late. + +"Well, it is a good thing to become accustomed to a little of +everything; if one should get a large house of one's own, there might be +many things to be done. But, to be sure, when one finds good help +already in the house, it does not matter so very much." + +Eli now thought she ought to turn back, for they had gone far beyond the +parsonage lands. + +"It will be some time yet before the sun sets; it would be kind if you +would chat with me a little longer." And Eli went on. + +Then Margit began to talk about Arne. "I do not know if you are very +well acquainted with him. He can teach you something about everything. +Bless me! how much that boy has read!" + +Eli confessed that she was aware he had read a great deal. + +"Oh, yes; that is really the least that can be said of him. Why, his +conduct to his mother all his days is something far beyond that. If the +old saying is true, that one who is good to his mother is sure to be +good to his wife, the girl Arne chooses will not have very much to +grumble about. What is it you are looking for, child?" + +"I only lost a little twig I had in my hand." + +They were both silent after this, and walked on without looking at each +other. + +"He has such strange ways," began the mother, presently; "he was so +often frightened when he was a child that he got into the habit of +thinking everything over to himself, and such folks never know how to +put themselves forward." + +Now Eli insisted on turning back, but Margit assured her that it was +only a short distance now to Kampen, and see Kampen she must, as she was +so near. But Eli thought it was too late that day. + +"There is always some one who can go home with you," said Margit. + +"No, no," promptly replied Eli, and was about to leave. + +"To be sure, Arne is not at home," said Margit; "so it will not be he; +but there will be sure to be some one else." + +Now Eli had less objection to going; besides, she wanted very much to +see Kampen. "If only it does not grow too late," said she. + +"Well, if we stand here much longer talking about it, I suppose it may +grow too late," and they went on. + +"You have read a great deal, I dare say; you who were brought up at the +priest's?" + +Yes, Eli had read a good deal. + +"That will be useful," Margit suggested, "when you are married to one +who knows less than you." + +Eli thought she would never be married to such a person. + +"Ah, well, it would perhaps not be best either; but in this parish there +is so little learning." + +Eli asked where the smoke rising yonder in the wood came from. + +"It comes from the new houseman's place belonging to Kampen. A man +called Upland Knut lives there. He was alone in the world, and so Arne +gave him that place to clear. He knows what it is to be lonely, my poor +Arne." + +Soon they reached an ascent whence the gard could be seen. The sun shone +full in their faces; they held up their hands to shade their eyes and +gazed down at Kampen. It lay in the midst of a plain, the houses red +painted and with white window-frames; the grass in the surrounding +meadows had been mown, the hay might still be seen in heaps here and +there, the grain-fields lay green and rich among the pale meadows; over +by the cow-house all was stir and bustle: the cows, sheep, and goats +were just coming home, their bells were tinkling the dogs were barking, +the milk-maids shouting, while above all rose with awful din the roar of +the force in the Kamp gorge. The longer Eli looked, the more completely +this grand tune filled her ears, and at last it seemed so appalling to +her that her heart throbbed wildly; it roared and thundered through her +head until she grew bewildered, and at the same time felt so warm and +tender that involuntarily she took such short, hesitating steps, that +Margit begged her to walk a little faster. + +She started. "I never heard anything like that waterfall," said she; "I +am almost afraid of it." + +"You will soon get used to it," said the mother; "at last you would even +miss it if you could not hear it." + +"Dear me! do you think so?" cried Eli. + +"Well, you will see," said Margit, smiling. + +"Come now, let us first look at the cattle," she continued, turning off +from the main road. "These trees on each side Nils planted. He wanted to +have everything nice, Nils did, that is what Arne likes too; look! +there you can see the garden my boy has laid out." + +"Oh, how pretty!" cried Eli, running over to the garden fence. She had +often seen Kampen, but only from a distance, where the garden was not +visible. + +"We will look at that after a while," said Margit. + +Eli hastily glanced through the windows, as she went past the house; +there was no one inside. + +They stationed themselves on the barn-bridge and watched the cows as +they passed lowing into the stable. Margit named them to Eli, told how +much milk each one gave, and which of them calved in the summer, which +did not. The sheep were counted and let into the fold; they were of a +large, foreign breed; Arne had raised them from two lambs he got from +the south. "He gives much attention to all such things, although you +would not think it of him." + +They now went into the barn, and examined the hay that had been housed, +and Eli had to smell it--"for such hay is not to be found everywhere." +Margit pointed through the barn-hatch over the fields, and told what +each one yielded and how much was sown of each kind of seed. + +They went out toward the house; but Eli, who had not spoken a word in +reply to all that had been said, as they passed by the garden, asked if +she might go into it. And when leave had been given her to go, she +begged to be allowed to pluck a flower or two. There was a little bench +away in one corner; she went and sat down on it, only to try it, +apparently, for she rose at once. + +"We must hurry now, if we would not be too late," said Margit, standing +in the door. And now they went in. Margit asked Eli if she should offer +her some refreshments on this her first visit; but Eli blushed and +hastily declined. Then the girl's eyes wandered all around the room they +had entered; it was where the family sat in the day-time, and the +windows opened on the road; the room was not large but it was cozy, and +there was a clock and a stove in it. On the wall hung Nils's fiddle, +dingy and old, but with new strings. Near it also hung a couple of guns +belonging to Arne, an English angling-rod and other rare things which +the mother took down and showed to Eli, who looked at them and handled +them. The room was without paint, for Arne disliked it; nor was there +any painting in the room looking toward the Kamp gorge, with the fresh +green mountains directly opposite and the blue ones in the background; +this latter room,--which was in the new part of the building, as was the +entire half of the house it was in,--was larger and prettier than the +first. The two smaller rooms in the wing were painted, for there the +mother was to live when she was old, and Arne had brought a wife into +the house. They went into the kitchen, the store-house, the bake-house, +Eli spoke not a single word; indeed, she viewed everything about her as +though from afar off; only when anything was held out for her inspection +she touched it, but very daintily. Margit, who had kept up an unbroken +stream of chatter the whole way, now led her into the passage again; +they must go and take a look up-stairs. + +There also were well-arranged rooms, corresponding with those below; but +they were new and had scarcely yet been occupied, except one, which +looked toward the gorge. In these rooms were kept all sorts of articles +which were not in daily household use. Here hung a whole lot of robes, +together with other bedclothes; the mother took hold of them, lifted +them up, and now and then insisted on having Eli do the same. +Meanwhile, it actually seemed as though the young girl were gaining a +little courage, or else her pleasure in these things increased; for to +some of them she went back a second time, asked questions about them, +and became more and more interested. + +Finally the mother said, "Now at last we will go into Arne's own room;" +and then they went into the room overlooking the Kamp gorge. Once more +the awful din of the force smote upon their ears, for the window was +open. They were up so high that they could see the spray rising between +the mountains, but not the force itself, save in one spot farther on, +where a fragment had fallen from the cliff, just where the torrent, with +all its might, took its final leap into the depths below. Fresh turf +covered the upward turned side of this fallen piece of rock, a few fir +cones had buried themselves in it, and sent forth a growth of trees with +their roots in the crevices. The wind had tugged at and shaken the +trees, the force had washed them so completely that there was not a +branch four ells from the roots; they were crooked in the knees, their +boughs knotted and gnarled, yet they kept their footing, and shot far up +between the rocky walls. This was the first thing Eli noticed from the +window; the next, the dazzling white snow-capped peaks rising above the +green mountains. She turned her eyes away, let them wander over the +peaceful, fruitful fields, and finally about the room where she stood; +the roar of the force had hitherto prevented this. + +How calm and cheerful it was within, compared with the scene without. +She did not look at any single article, because one blended into the +other, and most of them were new to her, for Arne had centred his +affections in this room, and, simple as it was, it was artistic in +almost every particular. It seemed as though the sound of his songs came +floating toward her, while she stood there, or as though he himself +smiled at her from every object. The first thing her eyes singled out in +the room, was a broad, handsomely carved book-shelf. There were so many +books on it that she did not believe the priest had more. A pretty +cabinet was the next thing she noticed. Here he kept many rare things, +his mother said. Here, too, he had his money, she added, in a whisper. +They had twice had property left to them, she told afterwards; they +would have one more inheritance besides, if things went as they should. +"But money is not the best thing in the world, after all. Arne may get +what is far better." + +There were many little trinkets in the room which were interesting to +examine, and Eli looked at them all, as happy as a child. + +Margit patted her on the shoulder, saying, as she looked brightly into +her eyes, "I have never seen you before to-day, my child, but I am +already very fond of you." Before Eli had time to feel embarrassed, +Margit pulled at her dress, and said, quite softly, "You see that little +red chest; there is something nice in that, I can tell you." + +Eli looked at the chest: it was a small, square one, which she at once +longed to call her own. + +"Arne does not want me to know what is in that chest," whispered the +mother, "and he always keeps the key hid." She walked up to some clothes +hanging on the wall, took down a velvet waistcoat, felt in the +watch-pocket, and there found the key. "Come, now, you shall see," she +whispered. + +Eli did not think the mother was doing quite right, but women are +women,--and these two now crossed softly over to the chest and knelt in +front of it. As the mother raised the lid, so pleasant a perfume rose +toward them that Eli clapped her hands even before she had seen +anything. Spread over the top was a kerchief which the mother took away. +"Now you shall see," she whispered, as she took up a fine, black silk +neckerchief, such a one as men do not wear. "It looks just as if it were +for a girl," said the mother. "Here is another," she added. + +Eli could not help taking hold of this; but when the mother insisted +upon trying it on her, she declined, and hung her head. The mother +carefully folded them up again. + +"See!" she then said, taking up some pretty silk ribbons; "everything +here looks as if it were meant for a girl." + +Eli grew red as fire, but not a sound escaped her; her bosom heaved, her +eyes had a shy look, otherwise she stood immovable. + +"Here are more things still!" The mother took hold of a beautiful black +dress pattern, as she spoke. "This is fine goods, I dare say," said she, +as she held it up to the light. + +Eli's hands trembled, when the mother asked her to take hold of the +cloth, she felt the blood rushing to her head; she would gladly have +turned away, but this was not easy to do. + +"He has bought something every time he has been to town," said the +mother. + +Eli could scarcely control herself any longer; her eyes roamed about the +chest from one article to another, and back again to the dress goods; +she, in fact, saw nothing else. But the mother persisted, and the last +thing she took up was wrapped in paper; they slowly unwrapped it; this +became attractive again. Eli grew eager; it proved to be a pair of small +shoes. They had never seen anything like these, either one of them; the +mother wondered how they could be made. Eli said nothing, but when she +went to touch the shoes, all her fingers made marks on them; she felt so +ashamed that she came very near bursting into tears. She longed most of +all to take her leave, but she dared not speak, nor dare she do anything +to make the mother look up. + +Margit was wholly occupied with her own thoughts. "Does it not look just +as if he had bought them one by one for some one he had not the courage +to give them to?" said she, as she put each article back in the place +where she had found it; she must have had practice in so doing. "Now let +us see what there is in this little box," she added, softly opening it, +as though now they were going to find something really choice. + +There lay a buckle, broad enough for a belt; that was the first thing +she showed Eli; the next was two gold rings, tied together, and then the +girl caught sight of a velvet hymn-book with silver clasps; further she +could not look, for on the silver of the book was engraved, in small +letters, "Eli, Baardsdatter Boeen."[29] + +Margit called her attention to something, got no reply, but saw that +tear after tear was trickling down on the silk kerchief, and spreading +over it. Then the mother laid down the brooch she held in her hand, +closed the little box, turned round and clasped Eli in her arms. The +daughter wept on her shoulder, and the mother wept over her, but +neither of them spoke a word. + + * * * * * + +A little while later, Eli was walking alone in the garden: the mother +had gone into the kitchen to prepare something good for supper, for now +Arne would soon be home. By and by, Margit came out into the garden to +look for her young friend, and found her sitting writing in the sand. As +the mother joined her, Eli quickly smoothed the sand over what she had +written,--looked up and smiled; she had been weeping. + +"There is nothing to cry about, my child," said Margit, and gave her a +pat. + +They saw a black object moving between the bushes on the road. Eli stole +into the house, the mother followed her. Here a bounteous repast was +awaiting them: cream pudding, smoked meat, and cakes; but Eli had no +eyes for these things; she crossed the floor to the corner where the +clock stood, sat down on a chair close to the wall, and trembled if she +only heard a cat stir. The mother stood by the table. Firm steps were +heard on the flag-stones, a short, light step in the passage, the door +was gently opened, and Arne came in. + +The first object his eyes lighted on was Eli in the clock corner; he let +go of the door and stood still. This made Eli yet more embarrassed; she +got up, regretted at once having done so, and turned towards the wall. + +"Are _you_ here?" said Arne, softly, blushing crimson. + +Eli shaded her eyes with one hand, as one does when the sun shines too +full in the face. + +"How--?" He could get no farther, but he advanced a step or two. + +She put her hand down again, turned toward him, then, bowing her head, +she burst into tears. + +"God bless you, Eli!" said he, and drew his arm around her; she nestled +close up to him. He whispered something in her ear; she made no reply, +but clasped her hands about his neck. + +They stood thus for a long time, and not a sound was heard save the roar +of the force, sending forth its eternal song. By and by some one was +heard weeping near the table. Arne looked up: it was the mother. + +"Now I am sure you will not leave me, Arne," said she, approaching him. +She wept freely, but it did her good, she said. + + * * * * * + +When Arne and Eli walked home together in the bright summer evening, they +did not talk much about their new-born happiness. They let Nature +herself take the lead in the conversation,--so quiet, bright, and grand, +she seemed, as she accompanied them. But it was on his way back to +Kampen from this their first summer-night's walk, with his face turned +toward the rising sun, that he laid the foundations of a poem, which he +was then in no frame of mind to construct, but which, later, when it was +finished, became for a while his daily song. It ran thus:-- + + "I hoped to become something great one day; + I thought it would be when I got away. + Each thought that my bosom entered + On far-off journeys was centred. + A maiden then into my eyes did look; + My rovings soon lost their pleasure. + The loftiest aim my heart can brook + Is her to proclaim my treasure. + + "I hoped to become something great one day; + I thought it would be when I got away. + To meet with the great in learning + Intensely my heart was yearning. + She taught me, she did, for she spoke a word: + 'The best gift of God's bestowing + Is not to be called a distinguished lord, + But ever a _man_ to be growing.' + + "I hoped to become something great one day; + I thought it would be when I got away. + My home seemed so cold, neglected, + I felt like a stranger suspected. + When her I discovered, then love I did see + In every glance that found me; + Wherever I turned friends waited for me, + And life became new around me." + +There came afterwards many a summer evening walk, followed by many a +song. One of these must be recorded:-- + + "The cause of this all is beyond my knowing; + No storm there has been and no floods have been flowing. + A sparkling and glittering brook, it would seem, + Has poured itself into the broader stream + Which constantly growing seeks the ocean. + + "There is something we can from our lives not sever; + In need it is near and forsakes us never,-- + A power that draws, a loving breast, + Which sadness, shyness, and all unrest + Can gather in peace in a bridal present. + + "Could I but by spirits through life be attended, + As pure as the thought which has now me befriended! + The ordering spirit of God it was. + He ruleth the world with sacred laws. + Toward goodness eternal I am progressing." + +But perhaps none of them better expressed his fervent gratitude than the +following:-- + + "The power that gave me my little song + Has caused that as rain has been my sadness, + And that as sunshine has been my gladness, + The spring-time wants of my soul along. + Whate'er betided + It did no harm; + My song all guided + To love so warm. + + "The power that gave me my little song + Has given me friendship for all that's yearning. + For freedom's blessings my blood is burning; + The foe I am of every wrong. + I sought my station, + Spite every storm, + And found salvation + In love so warm. + + "The power that gave me my little song + Must make me able to sing the others, + And now and then to make glad my brothers + Whom I may meet in the worldly throng,-- + For there was never + A sweeter charm + Than singing ever + In love so warm." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +It was late in the autumn; the harvesters were at work housing the +grain. The day was clear, it had rained during the night; and in the +morning, therefore, the air was as mild as in summer-time. It was a +Saturday, and yet many boats were making their way across Black Water +toward the church; the men, in their shirt sleeves, were rowing; the +women sat in the stern, with light-colored kerchiefs on their heads. A +still greater number of boats were steering over to Boeen, in order to +move away from there later in grand procession, for on this day Baard +Boeen gave a wedding for his daughter Eli and Arne Nils' son Kampen. + +All the doors were open; people were going in and out; children, with +pieces of cake in their hands, stood about the yard, afraid of their new +clothes, and looking shyly at one another; an old woman sat upon the +store-house steps alone,--it was Margit Kampen. She wore a large silver +ring, with several small rings fastened to the upper silver plate; now +and then she looked at it; Nils had given it to her the day of their +wedding and she had never worn it since. + +The man who presided at the feast, and the two young groomsmen, the +priest's son and Eli's brother, went about in the two or three rooms, +offering refreshments to the wedding guests as they arrived to be +present on this great occasion. Up-stairs in Eli's room were the bride, +the priest's wife, and Mathilde,--the last-named had come from town for +the sole purpose of decking the bride; this the girls had promised each +other from their childhood. Arne--wearing a broadcloth suit, with +close-fitting roundabout and with a collar that Eli had made--stood in +one of the down-stairs rooms by the window on which Eli had written +"Arne." + +Outside in the passage two persons met as they came each from some duty +of the day. One of them was on his way from the landing-place, where he +had been helping to put the church boats in order; he wore a black +broadcloth roundabout, with blue wadmal trousers, whose dye rubbed off, +so that his hands were blue; his white collar looked well with his fair +face and long light hair; his high forehead was calm; about the mouth +played a smile. It was Baard. She whom he met in the passage was just +coming from the kitchen. She was dressed for church, was tall and +slender, and walked with a firm though hurried step through the door. +When she met Baard she paused, and her mouth drew up to one side. It was +Birgit, his wife. Each had something to say, but it only found +expression through both standing still. Baard was the most embarrassed +of the two; he smiled more and more, but it was his embarrassment that +came to his aid, forcing him to start up-stairs without further delay. +"Perhaps you will come too," he said, as he passed, and Birgit +followed him. Up-stairs in the garret they were entirely alone; yet +Baard locked the door after them, and he was a long time about it. When +finally he turned, Birgit stood by the window gazing out; it was in +order to avoid looking into the room. Baard brought forth a small flask +from his breast pocket and a little silver cup. He wanted to pour out +some wine for his wife, but she would not have any, although he assured +her that it was wine that had been sent from the parsonage. Then he +drank himself, but paused several times to offer the cup to her. He +corked the flask, put both it and the cup away in his breast-pocket +again, and sat down on a chest. It very evidently pained him that his +wife would not drink with him. + +He breathed heavily several times. Birgit stood leaning with one hand +against the window frame. Baard had something to say, but now it seemed +even harder to speak than before. + +"Birgit!" said he, "I dare say you are thinking of the same to-day that +I am." + +Then he heard her move from one side of the window to the other, and +again she leaned her head on her arm. + +"Oh, yes; you know who I mean. He it was who parted us two. I thought it +would not go beyond the wedding, but it has lasted much longer." + +He heard her sigh, he saw her again change her place; but he did not see +her face. He himself was struggling so hard that he had to wipe his face +with his jacket sleeve. After a long conflict he began again: "To-day a +son of his, well-educated and handsome, becomes one of us, and to him we +have given our only daughter. Now, how would it be, Birgit, if we two +were to have our wedding to-day?" + +His voice trembled, and he cleared his throat. Birgit, who had raised +her head, now leaned it on her arm again, but said nothing. Baard waited +for some time; he heard her breathe, but he got no answer,--and he had +nothing further to say himself either. He looked up and grew very pale; +for she did not even turn her head. Then he rose. + +At the same moment there was a gentle knock at the door, and a soft +voice asked, "Are you coming, mother?" It was Eli. There was something +in the tone that made Baard involuntarily pause and glance at Birgit. +Birgit also raised her head; she looked towards the door, and her eyes +fell on Baard's pale face. "Are you coming, mother?" was once more asked +from without. + +"Yes, I am coming now!" said Birgit, in a broken voice, as she firmly +crossed the floor to where Baard stood, gave him her hand, and burst +into the most passionate weeping. The two hands met, they were both +toil-worn now, but they clasped as firmly as though they had been +seeking each other for twenty years. They still clung together as they +went toward the door, and when a while later the bridal procession was +passing down to the landing-place, and Arne gave his hand to Eli to take +the lead, Baard, seeing it, took his wife by the hand, contrary to all +custom, and followed them, smiling contentedly. + +Behind them, Margit Kampen walked alone, as was her wont. + +Baard was in high spirits that day; he sat talking with the rowers. One +of these who kept looking up at the mountains remarked, that it was +strange that even such a steep rock could be clad. + +"It must, whether it would or no," said Baard, and his eyes wandered +all along the procession until they rested on the bridal pair and his +wife. "Who could have foretold this twenty years ago?" said he. + + + + +EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES. + + + + +THE RAILROAD AND THE CHURCHYARD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Knud Aakre belonged to an old family in the parish, where it had always +been renowned for its intelligence and its devotion to the public +welfare. His father had worked his way up to the priesthood, but had +died early, and as the widow came from a peasant stock, the children +were brought up as peasants. Knud had, therefore, received only the +education afforded by the public schools of his day; but his father's +library had early inspired him with a love of knowledge. This was +further stimulated by his friend Henrik Wergeland, who frequently +visited him, sent him books, seeds, and much valuable counsel. Following +some of the latter, Knud early founded a club, which in the beginning +had a very miscellaneous object, for instance: "to give the members +practice in debating and to study the constitution," but which later was +turned into a practical agricultural society for the entire bailiwick. +According to Wergeland's advice, he also founded a parish library, +giving his father's books as its first endowment. A suggestion from the +same quarter led him to start a Sunday-school on his gard, for those who +might wish to learn writing, arithmetic, and history. All this drew +attention to him, so that he was elected member of the parish board of +supervisors, of which he soon became chairman. In this capacity, he took +a deep interest in the schools, which he brought into a remarkably good +condition. + +Knud Aakre was a short man, brisk in his movements, with small, restless +eyes and very disorderly hair. He had large lips, which were in constant +motion, and a row of splendid teeth which always seemed to be working +with them, for they glistened while his words were snapped out, crisp +and clear, crackling like sparks from a great fire. + +Foremost among the many he had helped to gain an education was his +neighbor Lars Hoegstad. Lars was not much younger than Knud, but he had +developed more slowly. Knud liked to talk about what he read and +thought, and he found in Lars, whose manner was quiet and grave, a good +listener, who by degrees grew to be a man of excellent judgment. The +relations between them soon became such that Knud was never willing to +take any important step without first consulting Lars Hoegstad, and the +matter on hand was thus likely to gain some practical amendment. So Knud +drew his neighbor into the board of supervisors, and gradually into +everything in which he himself took part. They always drove together to +the meetings of the board, where Lars never spoke; but on the way back +and forth Knud learned his opinions. The two were looked upon as +inseparable. + + * * * * * + +One fine autumn day the board of supervisors convened to consider, among +other things, a proposal from the bailiff to sell the parish grain +magazine and with the proceeds establish a small savings-bank. Knud +Aakre, the chairman, would undoubtedly have approved this measure had he +relied on his unbiased judgment. But he was prejudiced, partly because +the proposal came from the bailiff, whom Wergeland did not like, and who +was consequently no favorite of Knud's either, and partly because the +grain magazine had been built by his influential paternal grandfather +and by him presented to the parish. Indeed, Knud was rather inclined to +view the proposition as a personal insult, therefore he had not spoken +of it to any one, not even to Lars, and the latter never entered on a +topic that had not first been set afloat by some one else. + +As chairman, Knud Aakre read the proposal without adding any comments; +but, as was his wont, his eyes sought Lars, who usually sat or stood a +little aside, holding a straw between his teeth,--he always had one when +he took part in a conversation; he either used it as a tooth-pick, or he +let it hang loosely in one corner of his mouth, turning it more rapidly +or more slowly, according to the mood he was in. To his surprise Knud +saw that the straw was moving very fast. + +"Do you think we should agree to this?" he asked, quickly. + +Lars answered, dryly,-- + +"Yes, I do." + +The whole board, feeling that Knud held quite a different opinion, +looked in astonishment at Lars, but the latter said no more, nor was he +further questioned. Knud turned to another matter, as though nothing had +transpired. Not until the close of the meeting did he resume the +subject, and then asked, with apparent indifference, if it would not be +well to send the proposal back to the bailiff for further consideration, +as it certainly did not meet the views of the people, for the parish +valued the grain magazine. No one replied. Knud asked whether he should +enter the resolution in the register, the measure did not seem to be a +wise one. + +"Against one vote," added Lars. + +"Against two," cried another, promptly. + +"Against three," came from a third; and before the chairman could +realize what was taking place, a majority had voted in favor of the +proposal. + +Knud was so surprised that he forgot to offer any opposition. He +recorded the proceedings and read, in a low voice: "The measure is +recommended,--adjourned." + +His face was fiery red as he rose and put up the minute-book; but he +determined to bring forward the question once more at the meeting of +the representatives. Out in the yard, he put his horse to the wagon, and +Lars came and took his seat at his side. They discussed various topics +on their way home, but not the one they had nearest at heart. + +The next day Knud's wife sought Lars's wife to inquire if there was +anything wrong between the two men, for Knud had acted so strangely when +he came home. A short distance above the gard buildings she met Lars's +wife, who was on her way to ask the same question, for her husband, too, +had been out of sorts the day before. Lars's wife was a quiet, bashful +person, somewhat cowed, not by harsh words, but by silence, for Lars +never spoke to her unless she had done something amiss, or he feared +that she might do wrong. Knud Aakre's wife, on the other hand, talked +more with her husband, and particularly about the board, for lately it +had taken his thoughts, work, and affection away from her and the +children. She was as jealous of it as of a woman; she wept at night over +the board and quarreled with her husband about it during the day. But +for that very reason she could say nothing about it now when for once he +had returned home unhappy; for she immediately became more wretched than +he, and for her life she could not rest until she had discovered what +was the matter. Consequently, when Lars's wife could not give her the +desired information, she had to go out in the parish to seek it. Here +she obtained it, and of course was at once of her husband's opinion; +she found Lars incomprehensible, not to say wicked. When, however, she +let her husband perceive this, she felt that as yet there was no breach +between Lars and him; that, on the contrary, he clung warmly to him. + +The representatives met. Lars Hoegstad drove over to Aakre in the +morning; Knud came out of the house and took his seat beside him. They +exchanged the usual greetings, spoke perhaps rather less than was their +wont on the way, and not of the proposal. All the members of the board +were present; some, too, had found their way in as spectators, which +Knud did not like, for it showed that there was a stir in town about the +matter. Lars was armed with his straw, and he stood by the stove warming +himself, for the autumn was beginning to be cold. The chairman read the +proposal, in a subdued, cautious manner, remarking when he was through, +that it must be remembered this came from the bailiff, who was not apt +to be very felicitous in his propositions. The building, it was well +known, was a gift, and it is not customary to part with gifts, least of +all when there is no need of doing so. + +Lars, who never before had spoken at the meetings, now took the floor, +to the astonishment of all. His voice trembled, but whether it did so +out of regard for Knud, or from anxiety lest his own cause should be +lost, shall remain unsaid. But his arguments were good and clear, and +full of a logic and confidence which had scarcely been heard at these +meetings before. And when he had gone over all the ground, he added, in +conclusion:-- + +"What does it matter if the proposal does come from the bailiff? This +affects the question as little as who erected the building, or in what +way it came into the public possession." + +Knud Aakre had grown very red in the face (he blushed easily), and he +shifted uneasily from side to side, as was his wont when he was +impatient, but none the less did he exert himself to be circumspect and +to speak in a low voice. There were savings-banks enough in the country, +he thought, and quite near at hand, he might almost say _too_ near. But +if, after all, it was deemed expedient to have one, there were surely +other ways of reaching it than those leading over the gifts of the dead +and the love of the living. His voice was a little unsteady when he said +this, but quickly recovered as he proceeded to speak of the grain +magazine in itself, and to show what its advantages were. + +Lars answered him thoroughly on the last point, and then added,-- + +"However, one thing and another lead me to doubt whether this parish is +managed for the sake of the living or the dead; furthermore, whether it +is the love and hatred of a single family which controls matters here, +or the good of the whole." + +Knud answered quickly,-- + +"I do not know whether he who has just spoken has been least benefited +by this family,--both by the dead and by him who now lives." + +The first shot was aimed at the fact that Knud's powerful grandfather +had saved the gard for Lars's paternal grandfather, when the latter, on +his part, was absent on a little excursion to the penitentiary. + +The straw which long had been in brisk motion, suddenly became still. + +"It is not my way to keep talking everywhere about myself and my +family," said Lars, then turned again with calm superiority to the +subject under discussion, briefly reviewing all the points with one +definite object. Knud had to admit to himself that he had never viewed +the matter from such a broad standpoint; involuntarily he raised his +eyes and looked at Lars, who stood before him, tall, heavily built, with +clearness on the vigorous brow and in the deep eyes. The lips were +tightly compressed, the straw still played in the corner of his mouth; +all the surrounding lines indicated vigor. He kept his hands behind him, +and stood rigidly erect, while his voice was as deep and as hollow as +if it proceeded from the depths of the earth. For the first time in his +life Knud saw him as he was, and in his inmost soul he was afraid of +him; for this man must always have been his superior. He had taken all +Knud himself knew and could impart; he had rejected the tares and +retained what had produced this strong, hidden growth. + +He had been fostered and loved by Knud, but had now become a giant who +hated Knud deeply, terribly. Knud could not explain to himself why, but +as he looked at Lars he instinctively felt this to be so, and all else +becoming swallowed up in this thought he started up, exclaiming,-- + +"But Lars! Lars! what in Heaven's name is the matter with you?" His +agitation overcame him,--"you, whom I have--you who have"-- + +Powerless to utter another word, he sat down; but in his effort to gain +the mastery over the emotion he deemed Lars unworthy of seeing, he +brought his fist down with violence on the table, while his eyes flashed +beneath his stiff, disorderly hair, which always hung over them. Lars +acted as if he had not been interrupted, and turning toward the others +he asked if this was to be the decisive blow; for if such were the case +there was no need for further remarks. + +This calmness was more than Knud could endure. + +"What is it that has come among us?" cried he. "We who have, until +to-day, been actuated by love and zeal alone, are now stirred up against +each other, as though goaded on by some evil spirit," and he cast a +fiery glance at Lars, who replied,-- + +"It must be you yourself who bring in this spirit, Knud; for I have kept +strictly to the matter before us. But you never can see the advantage of +anything you do not want yourself; now we shall learn what becomes of +the love and the zeal when once this matter is decided as we wish." + +"Have I then illy served the interests of the parish?" + +There was no reply. This grieved Knud, and he continued,-- + +"I really did persuade myself that I had accomplished various +things--various things which have been of advantage to the parish; but +perhaps I have deceived myself." + +He was again overcome by his feelings; for his was a fiery nature, ever +variable in its moods, and the breach with Lars pained him so deeply +that he could scarcely control himself. Lars answered,-- + +"Yes, I know you appropriate the credit for all that is done here, and +if one should judge by the amount of speaking at these meetings, you +certainly have accomplished the most." + +"Is that the way of it?" shouted Knud, looking sharply at Lars. "It is +you who deserve the entire honor?" + +"Since we must finally talk about ourselves," said Lars, "I am free to +admit that every question has been carefully considered by both of us +before it was introduced here." + +Here little Knud Aakre regained his ready speech:-- + +"Take the honor, in God's name; I am quite able to live without it; +there are other things that are harder to lose!" + +Involuntarily Lars evaded his gaze, but said, as he set the straw in +very rapid motion,-- + +"If I were to express _my_ opinion, I should say that there is not very +much to take credit for. No doubt the priest and the school-masters are +content with what has been done; but certainly the common people say +that up to the present time the taxes of this parish have grown heavier +and heavier." + +Here arose a murmur in the crowd, and the people grew very restless. +Lars continued,-- + +"Finally, to-day we have a matter brought before us that might make the +parish some little amends for all it has paid out; this is perhaps the +reason why it encounters such opposition. This is a question which +concerns the parish; it is for the welfare of all; it is our duty to +protect it from becoming a mere family matter." + +People exchanged glances, and spoke in half-audible tones; one of them +remarked, as he rose to go for his dinner-pail, that these were the +truest words he had heard in these meetings for many years. Now all rose +from their seats, the conversation became general, and Knud Aakre, who +alone remained sitting, felt that all was lost, fearfully lost, and made +no further effort to save it. The truth was, he possessed something of +the temperament attributed to Frenchmen: he was very good at a first, +second, or even third attack, but poor at self-defense, for his +sensibilities overwhelmed his thoughts. + +He was unable to comprehend this, nor could he sit still any longer, and +so resigning his place to the vice-chairman, he left. The others could +not refrain from a smile. + +He had come to the meeting in company with Lars, but went home alone, +although the way was long. It was a cold autumn day, the forest was +jagged and bare, the meadow gray-yellow, frost was beginning here and +there to remain on the road-side. Disappointment is a terrible +companion. Knud felt so small, so desolate, as he walked along; but Lars +appeared everywhere before him, towering up to the sky, in the dusk of +the evening, like a giant. It vexed him to think it was his own fault +that this had been the decisive battle; he had staked too much on one +single little issue. But surprise, pain, anger, had mastered him; they +still burned, tingled, moaned, and stormed within him. He heard the +rumbling of cart-wheels behind him; it was Lars driving his superb horse +past him, in a brisk trot, making the hard road resound like distant +thunder. Knud watched the broad-shouldered form that sat erect in the +cart, while the horse, eager for home, sped onward, without any effort +on the part of Lars, who merely gave him a loose rein. It was but a +picture of this man's power: he was driving onward to the goal! Knud +felt himself cast out of his cart, to stagger on alone in the chill +autumn air. + +In his home at Aakre Knud's wife was waiting for him. She knew that a +battle was inevitable; she had never in her life trusted Lars, and now +she was positively afraid of him. It had been no comfort to her that he +and her husband had driven away together; it would not have consoled her +had they returned in the same way. But darkness had fallen and they had +not come. She stood in the doorway, gazing out on the road in front of +the house; she walked down the hill and back again, but no cart +appeared. + +Finally she hears a rattling on the hard road, her heart throbs as the +wheels go round, she clings to the casement, peering out into the night; +the cart draws near; only one is in it; she recognizes Lars, who sees +and recognizes her, but drives past without stopping. Now she became +thoroughly alarmed. Her limbs gave way under her, she tottered in and +sank down on the bench by the window. The children gathered anxiously +about her, the youngest one asked for papa; she never spoke with them +but of him. He had such a noble disposition, and this was what made her +love him; but now his heart was not with his family, it was engrossed in +all sorts of business which brought him only unhappiness, and +consequently they were all unhappy. + +If only no misfortune had befallen him! Knud was so hot-tempered. Why +had Lars come home alone? Why did he not stop? Should she run after him, +or down the road after her husband? She was in an agony of distress, and +the children pressed around her, asking what was the matter. But this +she would not tell them, so rising she said they must eat supper alone, +then got everything ready and helped them. All the while she kept +glancing out on the road. He did not come. She undressed the children +and put them to bed, and the youngest repeated the evening prayer while +she bowed over him. She herself prayed with such fervor in the words +which the infant lips so soothingly uttered that she did not heed the +steps outside. + +Knud stood upon the threshold, gazing at his little company at prayer. +The mother drew herself up; all the children shouted: "Papa!" but he +seated himself at once, and said, softly: + +"Oh, let him say it once more!" + +The mother turned again to the bedside, that he, meanwhile, should not +see her face, for it would have seemed like intruding on his grief +before he felt the need of revealing it. The little one folded its hands +over its breast, all the rest did likewise, and it repeated,-- + + "I, a little child, pray Heaven + That my sins may be forgiven, + With time I'll larger, wiser grow, + And my father and mother joy shall know, + If only Thou, dearest, dearest Lord, + Will help me to keep Thy precious word! + And now to our Heavenly Father's merciful keeping + Our souls let us trust while we're sleeping." + +What peace now fell upon the room! Not a minute had elapsed ere all the +children were sleeping as in the arms of God; but the mother moved +softly away and placed supper before the father, who was, however, +unable to eat. But after he had gone to bed, he said,-- + +"Henceforth I shall be at home." + +And his wife lay at his side trembling with joy which she dared not +betray; and she thanked God for all that had happened, for whatever it +might be it had resulted in good! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +In the course of a year Lars had become chairman of the parish board of +supervisors, president of the savings-bank, and leading commissioner in +the court of reconciliation; in short, he held every office to which his +election had been possible. In the board of supervisors for the amt +(county) he was silent during the first year, but the second year he +created the same sensation when he spoke as in the parish board; for +here, too, coming forward in opposition to him who had previously been +the guiding power, he became victorious over the entire rank and file +and was from that time himself the leader. From this his path led him to +the storthing (parliament), where his fame had preceded him, and where +consequently there was no lack of challenges. But here, although steady +and firm, he always remained retiring. He did not care for power except +where he was well known, nor would he endanger his leadership at home by +a possible defeat abroad. + +For he had a pleasant life at home. When he stood by the church wall on +Sundays, and the congregation walked slowly past, saluting him and +stealing side glances at him, and one after another paused in order to +exchange a few words with him,--then truly it might be said that he +controlled the entire parish with a straw, for of course this hung in +the corner of his mouth. + +He deserved his honors. The road leading to the church, he had opened; +the new church they were standing beside, he had built; this and much +more was the fruit of the savings-bank which he had founded and now +managed himself. For its resources were further made fruitful, and the +parish was constantly held up as an example to all others of +self-management and good order. + +Knud Aakre had entirely withdrawn from the field, although at first he +attended a few of the meetings of the board, because he had promised +himself that he would continue to offer his services, even if it were +not altogether pleasing to his pride. In the first proposal he had made, +he became so greatly perplexed by Lars, who insisted upon having it +represented in all its details, that, somewhat hurt, he said: "When +Columbus discovered America he did not have it divided into parishes and +deaneries; this came gradually;" whereupon Lars, in his reply, compared +the discovery of America with Knud's proposal,--it so happened that this +treated of stable improvements,--and afterwards Knud was known by no +other name in the board than "Discovery of America." So Knud thought +that as his usefulness had ceased, so too had his obligations to work, +and he refused to accept further reelections. + +But he continued to be industrious; and in order that he might still +have a field for usefulness, he enlarged his Sunday-school, and placed +it, by means of small contributions from the attendants, in +communication with the mission cause, of which he soon became the centre +and leader in his own and the surrounding counties. Thereupon Lars +Hoegstad remarked, that if ever Knud undertook to collect money for any +purpose, he must know beforehand that it was to do good thousands of +miles from home. + +There was, be it observed, no more strife between them. To be sure, they +no longer associated with each other, but they bowed and spoke when they +met. Knud always felt a little pain at the mere thought of Lars, but +strove to suppress it, and persuade himself that matters could not have +been otherwise. At a large wedding-party, many years afterward, where +both were present and both were in good spirits, Knud mounted a chair +and proposed a toast for the chairman of the parish board, and the +first representative their amt had sent to the storthing! He spoke until +he became deeply moved, and, as usual, expressed himself in an +exceedingly handsome way. Every one thought it was honorably done, and +Lars came up to him, and his gaze was unsteady as he said that for much +of what he knew and was he was indebted to him. + +At the next election of the board of supervisors Knud was again made +chairman! + +But had Lars Hoegstad foreseen what now followed, he would certainly not +have used his influence for this. "Every event happens in its own time," +says an old proverb, and just as Knud Aakre again entered the board, the +best men of the parish were threatened with ruin, as the result of a +speculation craze which had long been raging, but which now first began +to demand its victims. It was said that Lars Hoegstad was the cause of +this great disaster, for he had taught the parish to speculate. This +penny fever had originated in the parish board of supervisors, for the +board itself was the greatest speculator of all. Every one down to the +laboring youth of twenty years desired in his transactions to make ten +dollars out of one; a beginning of extreme avarice in the efforts to +hoard, was followed by an excessive extravagance, and as all minds were +bent only on money, there had at the same time developed a spirit of +suspicion, of intolerance, of caviling, which resulted in lawsuits and +hatred. This also was due to the example of the board, it was said, for +among the first things Lars had done as chairman was to sue the +venerable old priest for holding doubtful titles. The priest had lost, +but had also immediately resigned. At that time some had praised, some +censured this suit; but it had proved a bad example. Now came the +consequences of Lars's management, in the form of loss to every single +man of property in the parish, consequently public opinion underwent a +sharp change! The opposing force, too, soon found a leader, for Knud +Aakre had come into the board, introduced there by Lars himself! + +The struggle began forthwith. All those youths to whom Knud in his time +had given instructions, were now grown up and were the most enlightened +men in the parish, thoroughly at home in all its transactions and public +affairs. It was against these men that Lars now had to contend, and they +had borne him a grudge from their childhood up. When of an evening after +one of these stormy proceedings he stood on the steps in front of his +house, gazing over the parish, he could hear a sound as of distant +rumbling thunder rising toward him from the large gards, now lying in +the storm. He knew that the day they met their ruin, the savings-bank +and himself would be overthrown, and all his long efforts would +culminate in imprecations heaped on his head. + +In these days of conflict and despair, a party of railroad +commissioners, who were to survey the route for a new road, made their +appearance one evening at Hoegstad, the first gard at the entrance to the +parish. In the course of conversation during the evening, Lars learned +that there was a question whether the road should run through this +valley or another parallel to it. + +Like a flash of lightning it darted through his mind that if he could +succeed in having it laid here, all property would rise in value, and +not only would he himself be saved but his fame would be transmitted to +the latest posterity! He could not sleep that night, for his eyes were +dazzled by a glowing light, and sometimes he could even hear the sound +of the cars. The next day he went himself with the commissioners while +they examined the locality; his horse took them, and to his gard they +returned. The next day they drove through the other valley; he was still +with them, and he drove them back again to his house. They found a +brilliant illumination at Hoegstad; the first men of the parish had been +invited to be present at a magnificent party given in honor of the +commissioners; it lasted until morning. But to no avail, for the nearer +they came to a final issue, the more plainly it appeared that the road +could not pass through this locality without undue expense. The entrance +to the valley lay through a narrow gorge, and just as it swung into the +parish, the swollen river swung in also, so that the railroad would +either have to take the same curve along the mountain that the highway +now made, thus running at a needlessly high altitude and crossing the +river twice, or it would have to run straight forward, and thus through +the old, now unused churchyard. Now the church had but recently been +removed, and it was not long since the last burial had taken place +there. + +If it only depended on a bit of old churchyard, thought Lars, whether or +not this great blessing came into the parish, then he must use his name +and his energy for the removal of this obstacle! He at once set forth on +a visit to the priest and the dean, and furthermore to the diocese +council; he talked and he negotiated, for he was armed with all possible +facts concerning the immense advantage of the railroad on one hand, and +the sentiments of the parish on the other, and actually succeeded in +winning all parties. It was promised him that by a removal of part of +the bodies to the new churchyard the objections might be considered set +aside, and the royal permission obtained for the churchyard to be taken +for the line of railroad. It was told him that nothing was now needed +but for him to set the question afloat in the board of supervisors. + +The parish had grown as excited as himself: the spirit of speculation +which for many years had been the only one prevailing in the parish, now +became madly jubilant. There was nothing spoken or thought of but Lars's +journey and its possible results. When he returned with the most +magnificent promises, they made much of him; songs were sung in his +praise; indeed, if at that time the largest gards had gone to +destruction, one after another, no one would have paid the slightest +attention to it: the speculation craze had given way to the railroad +craze. + +The board of supervisors assembled: there was presented for approval a +respectful petition, that the old churchyard might be appropriated as +the route of the railroad. This was unanimously adopted; there was even +mention of giving Lars a vote of thanks and a coffee-pot in the form of +a locomotive. But it was finally thought best to wait until the whole +plan was carried into execution. The petition came back from the diocese +council, with a demand for a list of all bodies that would have to be +removed. The priest made out such a list, but instead of sending it +direct, he had his own reasons for sending it through the parish board. +One of the members carried it to the next meeting. Here it fell to the +lot of Lars, as chairman, to open the envelope and read the list. + +Now it chanced that the first body to be disinterred was that of Lars's +own grandfather! A little shudder ran through the assembly! Lars himself +was startled, but nevertheless continued to read. Then it furthermore +chanced that the second body was that of Knud Aakre's grandfather, for +these two men had died within a short time of each other. Knud Aakre +sprang from his seat; Lars paused; every one looked up in consternation, +for old Knud Aakre had been the benefactor of the parish and its best +beloved man, time out of mind. There was a dead silence, which lasted +for some minutes. At last Lars cleared his throat and went on reading. +But the further he proceeded the worse the matter grew; for the nearer +they came to their own time, the dearer were the dead. When he had +finished, Knud Aakre asked quietly whether the others did not agree +with him in thinking that the air about them was filled with spirits. +It was just beginning to grow dark in the room, and although they were +mature men and were sitting in numbers together, they could not refrain +from feeling alarmed. Lars produced a bundle of matches from his pocket +and struck a light, dryly remarking, that this was no more than they +knew beforehand. + +"Yes, it is," said Knud pacing the floor, "it is more than I knew +before. Now I begin to think that even railroads can be purchased too +dearly." + +These words sent a quiver through the audience, and observing that they +had better further consider the matter, Knud made a motion to that +effect. + +"In the excitement which had prevailed," he said, "the benefit likely to +be derived from the road had been overestimated. Even if the railroad +did not pass through this parish, there would have to be stations at +both ends of the valley; true, it would always be a little more +troublesome to drive to them than to a station right in our midst; yet +the difficulty would not be so very great that it would be necessary +because of it to violate the repose of the dead." + +Knud was one of those who when his thoughts were once in rapid motion +could present the most convincing arguments; a moment before what he now +said had not occurred to his mind, nevertheless it struck home to all. +Lars felt the danger of his position, and concluding that it was best to +be cautious, apparently acquiesced in Knud's proposition to reconsider. +Such emotions are always worse in the beginning, he thought; it is +wisest to temporize with them. + +But he had miscalculated. In ever increasing waves the dread of touching +the dead of their own families swept over the inhabitants of the parish; +what none of them had thought of as long as the matter existed merely in +the abstract, now became a serious question when it was brought home to +themselves. The women especially were excited, and the road near the +court-house was black with people the day of the next meeting. It was a +warm summer day, the windows were removed, and there were as many +without the house as within. All felt that a great battle was about to +be fought. + +Lars came driving up with his handsome horse, and was greeted by all; he +looked calmly and confidently around, not seeming to be surprised at +anything. He took a seat near the window, found his straw, and a +suspicion of a smile played over his keen face as he saw Knud Aakre rise +to his feet to act as spokesman for all the dead in the old Hoegstad +churchyard. + +But Knud Aakre did not begin with the churchyard. He began with an +accurate exposition of how greatly the profits likely to accrue from +having the railroad run through the parish had been overestimated in all +this turmoil. He had positive proofs for every statement he made, for he +had calculated the distance of each gard from the nearest station, and +finally he asked,-- + +"Why has there been so much ado about this railroad, if not in behalf of +the parish?" + +This he could easily explain to them. There were those who had +occasioned so great a disturbance that a still greater one was required +to conceal it. Moreover, there were those who in the first outburst of +excitement could sell their gards and belongings to strangers who were +foolish enough to purchase. It was a shameful speculation which not only +the living but the dead must serve to promote! + +The effect of his address was very considerable. But Lars had once for +all resolved to preserve his composure let come what would. He replied, +therefore, with a smile, that he had been under the impression that Knud +himself was eager for the railroad, and certainly no one would accuse +him of having any knowledge of speculation. (Here followed a little +laugh.) Knud had not evinced the slightest objection to the removal of +the bodies of common people for the sake of the railroad; but when his +own grandfather's body was in question then it suddenly affected the +welfare of the whole community! He said no more, but looked with a faint +smile at Knud, as did also several others. Meanwhile, Knud Aakre +surprised both him and them by replying:-- + +"I confess it; I did not comprehend the matter until it touched my own +family feelings; it is possible that this may be a shame, but it would +have been a far greater one not to have realized it at last--as is the +case with Lars! Never," he concluded, "could this raillery have been +more out of place; for to people with common decency the whole affair is +absolutely revolting." + +"This feeling is something that has come up quite recently," replied +Lars, "we may therefore hope that it will soon pass over again. May it +not perhaps help the matter a little to think what the priest, dean, +diocese council, engineers, and government will all say if we first +unanimously set the ball in motion, then come and beg to have it +stopped? If we first are jubilant and sing songs, then weep and deliver +funeral orations? If they do not say that we have gone mad in this +parish, they must at all events say that we have acted rather strangely +of late." + +"Yes, God knows, they may well think so!" replied Knud. "We have, +indeed, acted very strangely of late, and it is high time for us to mend +our ways. Things have come to a serious pass when we can each disinter +his own grandfather to make way for a railroad; when we can disturb the +resting-place of the dead in order that our own burdens may the more +easily be carried. For is not this rooting in our churchyard in order to +make it yield us food the same thing? What is buried there in the name +of Jesus, we take up in Moloch's name--this is but little better than +eating the bones of our ancestors." + +"Such is the course of nature," said Lars, dryly. + +"Yes, of plants and of animals." + +"And are not we animals?" + +"We are, but also the children of the living God, who have buried our +dead in faith in Him: it is He who shall rouse them and not we." + +"Oh, you are talking idly! Are we not obliged to have the graves dug up +at any rate, when their turn comes? What harm is there in having it +happen a few years earlier?" + +"I will tell you. What was born of them still draws the breath of life; +what they built up yet remains; what they loved, taught, and suffered +for, lives about us and within us; and should we not allow them to rest +in peace?" + +"Your warmth shows me that you are thinking of your own grandfather +again," replied Lars, "and I must say it seems to me high time the +parish should be rid of _him_. He monopolized too much space while he +lived; and so it is scarcely worth while to have him lie in the way now +that he is dead. Should his corpse prevent a blessing to this parish +that would extend through a hundred generations, we may truly say that +of all who have been born here, _he_ has done us the greatest harm." + +Knud Aakre tossed back his disorderly hair, his eyes flashed, his whole +person looked like a bent steel spring. + +"How much of a blessing what you are speaking about may be, I have +already shown. It has the same character as all the other blessings with +which you have supplied the parish, namely, a doubtful one. It is true, +you have provided us with a new church, but you have also filled it with +a new spirit,--and it is not that of love. True, you have furnished us +with new roads, but also with new roads to destruction, as is now +plainly manifest in the misfortunes of many. True, you have diminished +our public taxes, but you have increased our private ones; lawsuits, +promissory notes, and bankruptcies are no fruitful gifts to a community. +And _you_ dare dishonor in his grave the man whom the whole parish +blesses? You dare assert that he lies in our way; aye, no doubt he does +lie in your way, this is plain enough now, for his grave will be the +cause of your downfall! The spirit which has reigned over you, and until +to-day over us all, was not born to rule but to enter into servitude. +The churchyard will surely be allowed to remain in peace; but to-day it +shall have one grave added to it, namely, that of your popularity which +is now to be buried there." + +Lars Hoegstad rose, white as a sheet; his lips parted, but he was unable +to utter a word, and the straw fell. After three or four vain efforts +to find it again and recover his powers of speech, he burst forth like a +volcano with,-- + +"And so these are the thanks I get for all my toil and drudgery! If such +a woman-preacher is to be allowed to rule--why, then, may the devil be +your chairman if ever I set my foot here again! I have kept things +together until this day, and after me your trash will fall into a +thousand pieces, but let it tumble down now--here is the register!" And +he flung it on the table. "Shame on such an assembly of old women and +brats!" Here he struck the table with great violence. "Shame on the +whole parish that it can see a man rewarded as I am now." + +He brought down his fist once more with such force that the great +court-house table shook, and the inkstand with its entire contents +tumbled to the floor, marking for all future generations the spot where +Lars Hoegstad fell in spite of all his prudence, his long rule, and his +patience. + +He rushed to the door and in a few moments had left the place. The +entire assembly remained motionless; for the might of his voice and of +his wrath had frightened them, until Knud Aakre, remembering the taunt +he had received at the time of _his_ fall, with beaming countenance and +imitating Lars's voice, exclaimed:-- + +"Is _this_ to be the decisive blow in the matter?" + +The whole assembly burst into peals of merriment at these words! The +solemn meeting ended in laughter, talk, and high glee; only a few left +the place, those remaining behind called for drink to add to their food, +and a night of thunder succeeded a day of lightning. Every one felt as +happy and independent as of yore, ere the commanding spirit of Lars had +cowed their souls into dumb obedience. They drank toasts to their +freedom; they sang, indeed, finally they danced, Knud Aakre and the +vice-chairman taking the lead and all the rest following, while boys and +girls joined in, and the young folks outside shouted "Hurrah!" for such +a jollification they had never before seen! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Lars moved about in the large rooms at Hoegstad, without speaking a +word. His wife, who loved him, but always in fear and trembling, dared +not come into his presence. The management of the gard and of the house +might be carried on as best it could, while on the other hand there kept +growing a multitude of letters, which passed back and forth between +Hoegstad and the parish, and Hoegstad and the post-office; for Lars had +claims against the parish board, and these not being satisfied he +prosecuted; against the savings-bank, which were also unsatisfied, and +so resulted in another suit. He took offense at expressions in the +letters he received and went to law again, now against the chairman of +the parish board, now against the president of the savings-bank. At the +same time there were dreadful articles in the newspapers, which report +attributed to him, and which were the cause of great dissension in the +parish, inciting neighbor against neighbor. Sometimes he was absent +whole weeks, no one knew where, and when he returned he lived as +secluded as before. At church he had not been seen after the great scene +at the representatives' meeting. + +Then one Saturday evening the priest brought tidings that the railroad +was to run through the parish after all, and across the old churchyard! +It struck like lightning into every home. The unanimous opposition of +the parish board had been in vain, Lars Hoegstad's influence had been +stronger. This was the meaning of his journeys, this was his work! +Involuntary admiration of the man and his stubborn persistence tended to +suppress the dissatisfaction of the people at their own defeat, and the +more they discussed the matter the more reconciled they became; for a +fact accomplished always contains within itself reasons why it is so, +which gradually force themselves upon us after there is no longer +possibility of change. The people assembled about the church the next +day, and they could not help laughing as they met one another. And just +as the whole congregation, young and old, men and women, aye, even +children, were all talking about Lars Hoegstad, his ability, his rigorous +will, his immense influence, he himself with his whole household came +driving up in four conveyances, one after the other. It was two years +since his last visit there! He alighted and passed through the crowd, +while all, as by one impulse, unhesitatingly greeted him, but he did not +deign to bestow a glance on either side, nor to return a single +salutation. His little wife, pale as death, followed him. Inside of the +church, the astonishment grew to such a pitch that as one after another +caught sight of him they stopped singing and only stared at him. Knud +Aakre, who sat in his pew in front of Lars, noticed that there was +something the matter, and as he perceived nothing remarkable in front of +him, he turned round. He saw Lars bowed over his hymn-book, searching +for the place. + +He had not seen him since that evening at the meeting, and such a +complete change he had not believed possible. For this was no victor! +The thin, soft hair was thinner than ever, the face was haggard and +emaciated, the eyes hollow and bloodshot, the giant neck had dwindled +into wrinkles and cords. Knud comprehended at a glance what this man had +gone through; he was seized with a feeling of strong sympathy, indeed, +he felt something of the old love stirring within his breast. He prayed +for Lars to his God, and made a resolute vow that he would seek him +after service; but Lars had started on ahead. Knud resolved to call on +him that evening. His wife, however, held him back. + +"Lars is one of those," said she, "who can scarcely bear a debt of +gratitude: keep away from him until he has an opportunity to do you some +favor, and then perhaps he will come to you!" + +But he did not come. He appeared now and then at church, but nowhere +else, and he associated with no one. On the other hand, he now devoted +himself to his gard and other business with the passionate zeal of one +who had determined to make amends in one year for the neglect of many; +and, indeed, there were those who said that this was imperative. + +Railroad operations in the valley began very soon. As the line was to go +directly past Lars's gard, he tore down the portion of his house that +faced the road, in order to build a large and handsome balcony, for he +was determined that his gard should attract attention. This work was +just being done when the temporary rails for the conveyance of gravel +and timber to the road were laid and a small locomotive was sent to the +spot. It was a beautiful autumn evening that the first gravel car was to +pass over the road. Lars stood on his front steps, to hear the first +signal and to see the first column of smoke; all the people of the gard +were gathered about him. He gazed over the parish, illumined by the +setting sun, and he felt that he would be remembered as long as a train +should come roaring through this fertile valley. A sense of forgiveness +glided into his soul. He looked toward the churchyard, a part of which +still remained, with crosses bowed down to the ground, but a part of it +was now the railroad. He was just endeavoring to define his own feeling +when the first signal whistled, and presently the train came slowly +working its way along, attended by a cloud of smoke, mingled with +sparks, for the locomotive was fed with pine wood. The wind blew toward +the house so that those standing without were soon enveloped in a dense +smoke, but as this cleared away Lars saw the train working its way down +through the valley like a strong will. + +He was content, and entered his house like one who has come from a long +day's work. The image of his grandfather stood before him at this +moment. This grandfather had raised the family from poverty to +prosperity; true, a portion of his honor as a citizen was consumed in +the act, but he had advanced nevertheless! His faults were the +prevailing ones of his time: they were based on the uncertain boundary +lines of the moral conceptions of his day. Every age has its uncertain +moral distinctions and its victims to the endeavor to define them +properly. + +Honor be to him in his grave, for he had suffered and toiled! Peace be +with him! It must be good to rest in the end. But he was not allowed to +rest because of his grandson's vast ambition; his ashes were thrown up +with the stones and the gravel. Nonsense! he would only smile that his +grandson's work passed over his head. + +Amid thoughts like these Lars had undressed and gone to bed. Once more +his grandfather's image glided before him. It was sterner now than the +first time. Weariness enfeebles us, and Lars began to reproach himself. +But he defended himself also. What did his grandfather want? Surely he +ought to be satisfied now, for the family honor was proclaimed in loud +tones above his grave. Who else had such a monument? And yet what is +this? These two monstrous eyes of fire and this hissing, roaring sound +belong no longer to the locomotive, for they turn away from the railroad +track. And from the churchyard straight toward the house comes an +immense procession. The eyes of fire are his grandfather's, and the long +line of followers are all the dead. The train advances steadily toward +the gard, roaring, crackling, flashing. The windows blaze in the +reflection of the dead men's eyes. Lars made a mighty effort to control +himself, for this was a dream, unquestionably but a dream. Only wait +until I am awake! There, now I am awake. Come on, poor ghosts! + +And lo! they really did come from the churchyard, overthrowing road, +rails, locomotive and train, so that these fell with a mighty crash to +the ground, and the green sod appeared in their stead, dotted with +graves and crosses as before. Like mighty champions they advanced, and +the hymn, "Let the dead repose in peace!" preceded them. Lars knew it; +for through all these years it had been sighing within his soul, and now +it had become his requiem; for this was death and death's visions. The +cold sweat started out over his whole body, for nearer and nearer--and +behold, on the window pane! there they are now, and he heard some one +speak his name. Overpowered with dread he struggled to scream; for he +was being strangled, a cold hand was clinching his throat and he +regained his voice in an agonized: "Help me!" and awoke. The window had +been broken in from the outside; the pieces flew all about his head. He +sprang up. A man stood at the window, surrounded by smoke and flames. + +"The gard is on fire, Lars! We will help you out!" + +It was Knud Aakre. + +When Lars regained his consciousness, he was lying outside in a bleak +wind, which chilled his limbs. There was not a soul with him; he saw the +flaming gard to the left; around him his cattle were grazing and making +their voices heard; the sheep were huddled together in a frightened +flock; the household goods were scattered about, and when he looked +again he saw some one sitting on a knoll close by, weeping. It was his +wife. He called her by name. She started. + +"The Lord Jesus be praised that you are alive!" cried she, coming +forward and seating herself, or rather throwing herself down in front of +him. "O God! O God! We surely have had enough of this railroad now!" + +"The railroad?" asked he, but ere the words had escaped his lips, a +clear comprehension of the case passed like a shudder over him; for, of +course, sparks from the locomotive that had fallen among the shavings of +the new side wall had been the cause of the fire. Lars sat there +brooding in silence; his wife, not daring to utter another word, began +to search for his clothes; for what she had spread over him, as he lay +senseless, had fallen off. He accepted her attentions in silence, but as +she knelt before him to cover his feet, he laid his hand on her head. +Falling forward she buried her face in his lap and wept aloud. There +were many who eyed her curiously. But Lars understood her and said,-- + +"You are the only friend I have." + +Even though it had cost the gard to hear these words, it mattered not to +her; she felt so happy that she gained courage, and rising up and +looking humbly into her husband's face, she said,-- + +"Because there is no one else who understands you." + +Then a hard heart melted, and tears rolled down the man's cheeks as he +clung to his wife's hand. + +Now he talked to her as to his own soul. Now too she opened to him her +mind. They also talked about how all this had happened, or rather he +listened while she told about it. Knud Aakre had been the first to see +the fire, had roused his people, sent the girls out over his parish, +while he had hastened himself with men and horses to the scene of the +conflagration, where all were sleeping. He had engineered the +extinguishing of the flames and the rescuing of the household goods, and +had himself dragged Lars from the burning room, and carried him to the +left side of the house from where the wind was blowing and had laid him +out here in the churchyard. + +And while they were talking of this, some one came driving rapidly up +the road and turned into the churchyard, where he alighted. It was Knud, +who had been home after his church-cart,--the one in which they had so +many times ridden together to and from the meetings of the parish board. +Now he requested Lars to get in and ride home with him. They grasped +each other by the hand, the one sitting, the other standing. + +"Come with me now," said Knud. + +Without a word of reply, Lars rose. Side by side they walked to the +cart. Lars was helped in; Knud sat down beside him. What they talked +about as they drove along, or afterwards in the little chamber at Aakre, +where they remained together until late in the morning, has never been +known. But from that day they were inseparable as before. + +As soon as misfortune overtakes a man, every one learns what he is +worth. And so the parish undertook to rebuild Lars Hoegstad's houses, and +to make them larger and handsomer than any others in the valley. He was +reelected chairman, but with Knud Aakre at his side; he never again +failed to take counsel of Knud's intelligence and heart--and from that +day forth nothing went to ruin. + + + + +THROND. + + +There was once a man named Alf, who had raised great expectations among +his fellow-parishioners because he excelled most of them both in the +work he accomplished and in the advice he gave. Now when this man was +thirty years old, he went to live up the mountain and cleared a piece of +land for farming, about fourteen miles from any settlement. Many people +wondered how he could endure thus depending on himself for +companionship, but they were still more astonished when, a few years +later, a young girl from the valley, and one, too, who had been the +gayest of the gay at all the social gatherings and dances of the parish, +was willing to share his solitude. + +This couple were called "the people in the wood," and the man was known +by the name "Alf in the wood." People viewed him with inquisitive eyes +when they met him at church or at work, because they did not understand +him; but neither did he take the trouble to give them any explanation of +his conduct. His wife was only seen in the parish twice, and on one of +these occasions it was to present a child for baptism. + +This child was a son, and he was called Thrond. When he grew larger his +parents often talked about needing help, and as they could not afford to +take a full-grown servant, they hired what they called "a half:" they +brought into their house a girl of fourteen, who took care of the boy +while the father and mother were busy in the field. + +This girl was not the brightest person in the world, and the boy soon +observed that his mother's words were easy to comprehend, but that it +was hard to get at the meaning of what Ragnhild said. He never talked +much with his father, and he was rather afraid of him, for the house had +to be kept very quiet when he was at home. + +One Christmas Eve--they were burning two candles on the table, and the +father was drinking from a white flask--the father took the boy up in +his arms and set him on his lap, looked him sternly in the eyes and +exclaimed,-- + +"Ugh, boy!" Then he added more gently: "Why, you are not so much afraid. +Would you have the courage to listen to a story?" + +The boy made no reply, but he looked full in his father's face. His +father then told him about a man from Vaage, whose name was Blessom. +This man was in Copenhagen for the purpose of getting the king's verdict +in a law-suit he was engaged in, and he was detained so long that +Christmas Eve overtook him there. Blessom was greatly annoyed at this, +and as he was sauntering about the streets fancying himself at home, he +saw a very large man, in a white, short coat, walking in front of him. + +"How fast you are walking!" said Blessom. + +"I have a long distance to go in order to get home this evening," +replied the man. + +"Where are you going?" + +"To Vaage," answered the man, and walked on. + +"Why, that is very nice," said Blessom, "for that is where I was going, +too." + +"Well, then, you may ride with me, if you will stand on the runners of +my sledge," answered the man, and turned into a side street where his +horse was standing. + +He mounted his seat and looked over his shoulder at Blessom, who was +just getting on the runners. + +"You had better hold fast," said the stranger. + +Blessom did as he was told, and it was well he did, for their journey +was evidently not by land. + +"It seems to me that you are driving on the water," cried Blessom. + +"I am," said the man, and the spray whirled about them. + +But after a while it seemed to Blessom their course no longer lay on the +water. + +"It seems to me we are moving through the air," said he. + +"Yes, so we are," replied the stranger. + +But when they had gone still farther, Blessom thought he recognized the +parish they were driving through. + +"Is not this Vaage?" cried he. + +"Yes, now we are there," replied the stranger, and it seemed to Blessom +that they had gone pretty fast. + +"Thank you for the good ride," said he. + +"Thanks to yourself," replied the man, and added, as he whipped up his +horse, "Now you had better not look after me." + +"No, indeed," thought Blessom, and started over the hills for home. + +But just then so loud and terrible a crash was heard behind him that it +seemed as if the whole mountain must be tumbling down, and a bright +light was shed over the surrounding landscape; he looked round and +beheld the stranger in the white coat driving through the crackling +flames into the open mountain, which was yawning wide to receive him, +like some huge gate. Blessom felt somewhat strange in regard to his +traveling companion; and thought he would look in another direction; but +as he had turned his head so it remained, and never more could Blessom +get it straight again. + +The boy had never heard anything to equal this in all his life. He dared +not ask his father for more, but early the next morning he asked his +mother if she knew any stories. Yes, of course she did; but hers were +chiefly about princesses who were in captivity for seven years, until +the right prince came along. The boy believed that everything he heard +or read about took place close around him. + +He was about eight years old when the first stranger entered their door +one winter evening. He had black hair, and this was something Thrond had +never seen before. The stranger saluted them with a short +"Good-evening!" and came forward. Thrond grew frightened and sat down on +a cricket by the hearth. The mother asked the man to take a seat on the +bench along the wall; he did so, and then the mother could examine his +face more closely. + +"Dear me! is not this Knud the fiddler?" cried she. + +"Yes, to be sure it is. It has been a long time since I played at your +wedding." + +"Oh, yes; it is quite a while now. Have you been on a long journey?" + +"I have been playing for Christmas, on the other side of the mountain. +But half way down the slope I began to feel very badly, and I was +obliged to come in here to rest." + +The mother brought forward food for him; he sat down to the table, but +did not say "in the name of Jesus," as the boy had been accustomed to +hear. When he had finished eating, he got up from the table, and said,-- + +"Now I feel very comfortable; let me rest a little while." + +And he was allowed to rest on Thrond's bed. + +For Thrond a bed was made on the floor. As the boy lay there, he felt +cold on the side that was turned away from the fire, and that was the +left side. He discovered that it was because this side was exposed to +the chill night air; for he was lying out in the wood. How came he in +the wood? He got up and looked about him, and saw that there was fire +burning a long distance off, and that he was actually alone in the wood. +He longed to go home to the fire; but could not stir from the spot. Then +a great fear overcame him; for wild beasts might be roaming about, +trolls and ghosts might appear to him; he must get home to the fire; +but he could not stir from the spot. Then his terror grew, he strove +with all his might to gain self-control, and was at last able to cry, +"Mother," and then he awoke. + +"Dear child, you have had bad dreams," said she, and took him up. + +A shudder ran through him, and he glanced round. The stranger was gone, +and he dared not inquire after him. + +His mother appeared in her black dress, and started for the parish. She +came home with two new strangers, who also had black hair and who wore +flat caps. They did not say "in the name of Jesus," when they ate, and +they talked in low tones with the father. Afterward the latter and they +went into the barn, and came out again with a large box, which the men +carried between them. They placed it on a sled, and said farewell. Then +the mother said:-- + +"Wait a little, and take with you the smaller box he brought here with +him." + +And she went in to get it. But one of the men said,-- + +"_He_ can have that," and he pointed at Thrond. + +"Use it as well as _he_ who is now lying _here_," added the other +stranger, pointing at the large box. + +Then they both laughed and went on. Thrond looked at the little box +which thus came into his possession. + +"What is there in it?" asked he. + +"Carry it in and find out," said the mother. + +He did as he was told, but his mother helped him open it. Then a great +joy lighted up his face; for he saw something very light and fine lying +there. + +"Take it up," said his mother. + +He put just one finger down on it, but quickly drew it back again, in +great alarm. + +"It cries," said he. + +"Have courage," said his mother, and he grasped it with his whole hand +and drew it forth from the box. + +He weighed it and turned it round, he laughed and felt of it. + +"Dear me! what is it?" asked he, for it was as light as a toy. + +"It is a fiddle." + +This was the way that Thrond Alfson got his first violin. + +The father could play a little, and he taught the boy how to handle the +instrument; the mother could sing the tunes she remembered from her +dancing days, and these the boy learned, but soon began to make new ones +for himself. He played all the time he was not at his books; he played +until his father once told him he was fading away before his eyes. All +the boy had read and heard until that time was put into the fiddle. The +tender, delicate string was his mother; the one that lay close beside +it, and always accompanied his mother, was Ragnhild. The coarse string, +which he seldom ventured to play on, was his father. But of the last +solemn string he was half afraid, and he gave no name to it. When he +played a wrong note on the E string, it was the cat; but when he took a +wrong note on his father's string, it was the ox. The bow was Blessom, +who drove from Copenhagen to Vaage in one night. And every tune he +played represented something. The one containing the long solemn tones +was his mother in her black dress. The one that jerked and skipped was +like Moses, who stuttered and smote the rock with his staff. The one +that had to be played quietly, with the bow moving lightly over the +strings, was the hulder in yonder fog, calling together her cattle, +where no one but herself could see. + +But the music wafted him onward over the mountains, and a great yearning +took possession of his soul. One day when his father told about a little +boy who had been playing at the fair and who had earned a great deal of +money, Thrond waited for his mother in the kitchen and asked her softly +if he could not go to the fair and play for people. + +"Who ever heard of such a thing!" said his mother; but she immediately +spoke to his father about it. + +"He will get out into the world soon enough," answered the father; and +he spoke in such a way that the mother did not ask again. + +Shortly after this, the father and mother were talking at table about +some new settlers who had recently moved up on the mountain and were +about to be married. They had no fiddler for the wedding, the father +said. + +"Could not I be the fiddler?" whispered the boy, when he was alone in +the kitchen once more with his mother. + +"What, a little boy like you?" said she; but she went out to the barn +where his father was and told him about it. + +"He has never been in the parish," she added, "he has never seen a +church." + +"I should not think you would ask about such things," said Alf; but +neither did he say anything more, and so the mother thought she had +permission. Consequently she went over to the new settlers and offered +the boy's services. + +"The way he plays," said she, "no little boy has ever played before;" +and the boy was to be allowed to come. + +What joy there was at home! Thrond played from morning until evening and +practiced new tunes; at night he dreamed about them: they bore him far +over the hills, away to foreign lands, as though he were afloat on +sailing clouds. His mother made a new suit of clothes for him; but his +father would not take part in what was going on. + +The last night he did not sleep, but thought out a new tune about the +church which he had never seen. He was up early in the morning, and so +was his mother, in order to get him his breakfast, but he could not eat. +He put on his new clothes and took his fiddle in his hand, and it seemed +to him as though a bright light were glowing before his eyes. His mother +accompanied him out on the flag-stone, and stood watching him as he +ascended the slopes;--it was the first time he had left home. + +His father got quietly out of bed and walked to the window; he stood +there following the boy with his eyes until he heard the mother out on +the flag-stone, then he went back to bed and was lying down when she +came in. + +She kept stirring about him, as if she wanted to relieve her mind of +something. And finally it came out:-- + +"I really think I must walk down to the church and see how things are +going." + +He made no reply, and therefore she considered the matter settled, +dressed herself and started. + + * * * * * + +It was a glorious, sunny day, the boy walked rapidly onward; he listened +to the song of the birds and saw the sun glittering among the foliage, +while he proceeded on his way, with his fiddle under his arm. And when +he reached the bride's house, he was still so occupied with his own +thoughts, that he observed neither the bridal splendor nor the +procession; he merely asked if they were about to start, and learned +that they were. He walked on in advance with his fiddle, and he played +the whole morning into it, and the tones he produced resounded through +the trees. + +"Will we soon see the church?" he asked over his shoulder. + +For a long time he received only "No" for an answer, but at last some +one said: + +"As soon as you reach that crag yonder, you will see it." + +He threw his newest tune into the fiddle, the bow danced on the strings, +and he kept his eyes fixed intently before him. There lay the parish +right in front of him! + +The first thing he saw was a little light mist, curling like smoke on +the opposite mountain side. His eyes wandered over the green meadow and +the large houses, with windows which glistened beneath the scorching +rays of the sun, like the glacier on a winter's day. The houses kept +increasing in size, the windows in number, and here on one side of him +lay the enormous red house, in front of which horses were tied; little +children were playing on a hill, dogs were sitting watching them. But +everywhere there penetrated a long, heavy tone, that shook him from head +to foot, and everything he saw seemed to vibrate with that tone. Then +suddenly he saw a large, straight house, with a tall, glittering staff +reaching up to the skies. And below, a hundred windows blazed, so that +the house seemed to be enveloped in flames. This must be the church, the +boy thought, and the music must come from it! Round about stood a vast +multitude of people, and they all looked alike! He put them forthwith +into relations with the church, and thus acquired a respect mingled with +awe for the smallest child he saw. + +"Now I must play," thought Thrond, and tried to do so. + +But what was this? The fiddle had no longer any sound in it. There must +be some defect in the strings; he examined, but could find none. + +"Then it must be because I do not press on hard enough," and he drew his +bow with a firmer hand; but the fiddle seemed as if it were cracked. + +He changed the tune that was meant to represent the church into another, +but with equally bad results; no music was produced, only squeaking and +wailing. He felt the cold sweat start out over his face, he thought of +all these wise people who were standing here and perhaps laughing him to +scorn, this boy who at home could play so beautifully but who here +failed to bring out a single tone! + +"Thank God that mother is not here to see my shame!" said he softly to +himself, as he played among the people; but lo! there she stood, in her +black dress, and she shrank farther and farther away. + +At that moment he beheld far up on the spire, the black-haired man who +had given him the fiddle. "Give it back to me," he now shouted, laughing +and stretching out his arms, and the spire went up and down with him, up +and down. But the boy took the fiddle under one arm, screaming, "You +shall not have it!" and turning, ran away from the people, beyond the +houses, onward through meadow and field, until his strength forsook him, +and then sank to the ground. + +There he lay for a long time, with his face toward the earth, and when +finally he looked round he saw and heard only God's infinite blue sky +that floated above him, with its everlasting sough. This was so terrible +to him that he had to turn his face to the ground again. When he raised +his head once more his eyes fell on his fiddle, which lay at his side. + +"This is all your fault!" shouted the boy, and seized the instrument +with the intention of dashing it to pieces, but hesitated as he looked +at it. + +"We have had many a happy hour together," said he, then paused. +Presently he said: "The strings must be severed, for they are +worthless." And he took out a knife and cut. "Oh!" cried the E string, +in a short, pained tone. The boy cut. "Oh!" wailed the next; but the boy +cut. "Oh!" said the third, mournfully; and he paused at the fourth. A +sharp pain seized him; that fourth string, to which he never dared give +a name, he did not cut. Now a feeling came over him that it was not the +fault of the strings that he was unable to play, and just then he saw +his mother walking slowly up the slope toward where he was lying, that +she might take him home with her. A greater fright than ever overcame +him; he held the fiddle by the severed strings, sprang to his feet, and +shouted down to her,-- + +"No, mother! I will not go home again until I can play what I have seen +to-day." + + + + +A DANGEROUS WOOING. + + +When Aslaug had become a grown-up girl, there was not much peace to be +had at Huseby; for there the finest boys in the parish quarreled and +fought night after night. It was worst of all on Saturday nights; but +then old Knud Huseby never went to bed without keeping his leather +breeches on, nor without having a birch stick by his bedside. + +"If I have a daughter, I shall look after her, too," said old Huseby. + +Thore Naeset was only a houseman's son; nevertheless there were those who +said that he was the one who came oftenest to see the gardman's daughter +at Huseby. Old Knud did not like this, and declared also that it was not +true, "for he had never seen him there." But people smiled slyly among +themselves, and thought that had he searched in the corners of the room +instead of fighting with all those who were making a noise and uproar in +the middle of the floor, he would have found Thore. + +Spring came and Aslaug went to the saeter with the cattle. Then, when +the day was warm down in the valley, and the mountain rose cool above +the haze, and when the bells tinkled, the shepherd dog barked, and +Aslaug sang and blew the loor on the mountain side, then the hearts of +the young fellows who were at work down on the meadow would ache, and +the first Saturday night they all started up to the mountain saeter, one +faster than the other. But still more rapidly did they come down again, +for behind the door at the saeter there stood one who received each of +them as he came, and gave him so sound a whipping that he forever +afterward remembered the threat that followed it,-- + +"Come again another time and you shall have some more." + +According to what these young fellows knew, there was only one in the +parish who could use his fists in this way, and that was Thore Naeset. +And these rich gardmen's sons thought it was a shame that this +houseman's son should cut them all out at the Huseby saeter. + +So thought, also, old Knud, when the matter reached his ears, and said, +moreover, that if there was nobody else who could tackle Thore, then he +and his sons would try it. Knud, it is true, was growing old, but +although he was nearly sixty, he would at times have a wrestle or two +with his eldest son, when it was too dull for him at some party or +other. + +Up to the Huseby saeter there was but one road, and that led straight +through the gard. The next Saturday evening, as Thore was going to the +saeter, and was stealing on his tiptoes across the yard, a man rushed +right at his breast as he came near the barn. + +"What do you want of me?" said Thore, and knocked his assailant flat on +the ground. + +"That you shall soon find out," said another fellow from behind, giving +Thore a blow on the back of the head. This was the brother of the former +assailant. + +"Here comes the third," said old Knud, rushing forward to join the fray. + +The danger made Thore stronger. He was as limber as a willow and his +blows left their marks. He dodged from one side to the other. Where the +blows fell he was not, and where his opponents least expected blows from +him, they got them. He was, however, at last completely beaten; but old +Knud frequently said afterwards that a stouter fellow he had scarcely +ever tackled. The fight was continued until blood flowed, but then +Huseby cried,-- + +"Stop!" and added, "If you can manage to get by the Huseby wolf and his +cubs next Saturday night, the girl shall be yours." + +Thore dragged himself homeward as best he could; and as soon as he got +home he went to bed. + +At Huseby there was much talk about the fight; but everybody said,-- + +"What did he want there?" + +There was one, however, who did not say so, and that was Aslaug. She had +expected Thore that Saturday night, and when she heard what had taken +place between him and her father, she sat down and had a good cry, +saying to herself,-- + +"If I cannot have Thore, there will never be another happy day for me in +this world." + +Thore had to keep his bed all day Sunday; and Monday, too, he felt that +he must do the same. Tuesday came, and it was such a beautiful day. It +had rained during the night. The mountain was wet and green. The +fragrance of the leaves was wafted in through the open window; down the +mountain sides came the sound of the cow-bells, and some one was heard +singing up in the glen. Had it not been for his mother, who was sitting +in the room, Thore would have wept from impatient vexation. + +Wednesday came and still Thore was in bed; but on Thursday he began to +wonder whether he could not get well by Saturday; and on Friday he rose. +He remembered well the words Aslaug's father had spoken: "If you can +manage to get by the Huseby wolf and his cubs next Saturday, the girl +shall be yours." He looked over toward the Huseby saeter again and again. +"I cannot get more than another thrashing," thought Thore. + +Up to the Huseby saeter there was but one road, as before stated; but a +clever fellow might manage to get there, even if he did not take the +beaten track. If he rowed out on the fjord below, and past the little +tongue of land yonder, and thus reached the other side of the mountain, +he might contrive to climb it, though it was so steep that a goat could +scarcely venture there--and a goat is not very apt to be timid in +climbing the mountains, you know. + +Saturday came, and Thore stayed without doors all day long. The sunlight +played upon the foliage, and every now and then an alluring song was +heard from the mountains. As evening drew near, and the mist was +stealing up the slope, he was still sitting outside of the door. He +looked up the mountain, and all was still. He looked over toward the +Huseby gard. Then he pushed out his boat and rowed round the point of +land. + +Up at the saeter sat Aslaug, through with her day's work. She was +thinking that Thore would not come this evening, but that there would +come all the more in his stead. Presently she let loose the dog, but +told no one whither she was going. She seated herself where she could +look down into the valley; but a dense fog was rising, and, moreover, +she felt little disposed to look down that way, for everything reminded +her of what had occurred. So she moved, and without thinking what she +was doing, she happened to go over to the other side of the mountain, +and there she sat down and gazed out over the sea. There was so much +peace in this far-reaching sea-view! + +Then she felt like singing. She chose a song with long notes, and the +music sounded far into the still night. She felt gladdened by it, and so +she sang another verse. But then it seemed to her as if some one +answered her from the glen far below. "Dear me, what can that be?" +thought Aslaug. She went forward to the brink of the precipice, and +threw her arms around a slender birch, which hung trembling over the +steep. She looked down but saw nothing. The fjord lay silent and calm. +Not even a bird ruffled its smooth surface. Aslaug sat down and began +singing again. Then she was sure that some one responded with the same +tune and nearer than the first time. "It must be somebody, after all." +Aslaug sprang up and bent out over the brink of the steep; and there, +down at the foot of a rocky wall, she saw a boat moored, and it was so +far down that it appeared like a tiny shell. She looked a little farther +up, and her eyes fell on a red cap, and under the cap she saw a young +man, who was working his way up the almost perpendicular side of the +mountain. "Dear me, who can that be?" asked Aslaug, as she let go of the +birch and sprang far back. + +She dared not answer her own question, for she knew very well who it +was. She threw herself down on the greensward and took hold of the grass +with both hands, as though it were _she_ who must not let go her hold. +But the grass came up by the roots. + +She cried aloud and prayed God to help Thore. But then it struck her +that this conduct of Thore's was really tempting God, and therefore no +help could be expected. + +"Just this once!" she implored. + +And she threw her arms around the dog, as if it were Thore she were +keeping from loosing his hold. She rolled over the grass with him, and +the moments seemed years. But then the dog tore himself away. "Bow-bow," +he barked over the brink of the steep and wagged his tail. "Bow-wow," he +barked at Aslaug, and threw his forepaws up on her. "Bow-wow," over the +precipice again; and a red cap appeared over the brow of the mountain +and Thore lay in her arms. + +Now when old Knud Huseby heard of this, he made a very sensible remark, +for he said,-- + +"That boy is worth having; the girl shall be his." + + + + +THE BEAR HUNTER. + + +A worse boy to tell lies than the priest's oldest son could scarcely be +found in the whole parish; he was also a very good reader; there was no +lack on that score, and what he read the peasants were glad to hear, but +when it was something they were well pleased with, he would make up more +of the same kind, as much as he thought they wanted. His own stories +were mostly about strong men and about love. + +Soon the priest noticed that the threshing up in the barn was being done +in a more and more lazy manner; he went to see what the matter was, and +behold it was Thorvald, who stood there telling stories. Soon the +quantity of wood brought home from the forest became wonderfully small; +he went to see what the trouble was, and there stood Thorvald again, +telling stories. There must be an end to this, thought the priest; and +he sent the boy to the nearest school. + +Only peasant children attended this school, but the priest thought it +would be too expensive to keep a private tutor for this one boy. But +Thorvald had not been a week among the scholars, before one of his +schoolmates came in pale as a corpse, and said he had met some of the +underground folk coming along the road. Another boy, still paler, +followed, and said that he had actually seen a man without a head +walking about and moving the boats down by the landing-place. And what +was worst of all, little Knud Pladsen and his young sister, one evening, +as they were returning home from school, came running back, almost out +of their senses, crying, and declaring that they had heard the bear up +near the parsonage; nay, little Marit had even seen his gray eyes +sparkle. But now the school-master got terribly angry, struck the table +with his ferule, and asked what the deuce--God pardon me my wicked +sin--had gotten into the school-children. + +"One is growing more crazy than the other," said he. "There lurks a +hulder in every bush; there sits a merman under every boat; the bear is +out in midwinter! Have you no more faith in your God or in your +catechism," quoth he, "or do you believe in all kinds of deviltry, and +in all the terrible powers of darkness, and in bears roaming about in +the middle of winter?" + +But then he calmed down somewhat after a while, and asked little Marit +whether she really did not dare to go home. The child sobbed and cried, +and declared that it was utterly impossible. The school-master then said +that Thorvald, who was the eldest of those remaining, should go with her +through the wood. + +"No, he has seen the bear himself," cried Marit; "it was he who told us +about it." + +Thorvald shrank within himself, where he was sitting, especially when +the school-master looked at him and drew the ferule affectionately +through his left hand. + +"Have you seen the bear?" he asked, quietly. + +"Well, at any rate, I know," said Thorvald, "that our overseer found a +bear's den up in the priest's wood, the day he was out ptarmigan +shooting." + +"But have you seen the bear yourself?" + +"It was not one, it was two large ones, and perhaps there were two +smaller ones besides, as the old ones generally have their last year's +cubs and this year's, too, with them." + +"But have _you_ seen them?" reiterated the school-master, still more +mildly, as he kept drawing the ferule between his fingers. + +Thorvald was silent for a moment. + +"I saw the bear that Lars, the hunter, felled last year, at any rate." + +Then the school-master came a step nearer, and asked, so pleasantly that +the boy became frightened,-- + +"Have you seen the bears up in the parsonage wood, I ask?" + +Thorvald did not say another word. + +"Perhaps your memory did not serve you quite right this time?" said the +school-master, taking the boy by the jacket collar and striking his own +side with the ferule. + +Thorvald did not say a word; the other children dared not look that way. +Then the school-master said earnestly,-- + +"It is wicked for a priest's son to tell lies, and still more wicked to +teach the poor peasant children to do such things." + +And so the boy escaped for that time. + +But the next day at school (the teacher had been called up to the +priest's and the children were left to themselves) Marit was the first +one to ask Thorvald to tell her something about the bear again. + +"But you get so frightened," said he. + +"Oh, I think I will have to stand it," said she, and moved closer to her +brother. + +"Ah, now you had better believe it will be shot!" said Thorvald, and +nodded his head. "There has come a fellow to the parish who is able to +shoot it. No sooner had Lars, the hunter, heard about the bear's den up +in the parsonage wood, than he came running through seven whole parishes +with a rifle as heavy as the upper mill-stone, and as long as from here +to Hans Volden, who sits yonder." + +"Mercy!" cried all the children. + +"As long?" repeated Thorvald; "yes, it is certainly as long as from here +to yonder bench." + +"Have you seen it?" asked Ole Boeen. + +"Have I seen it, do you say? Why, I have been helping to clean it, and +that is what Lars will not allow everybody to do, let me tell you. Of +course _I_ could not lift it, but that made no difference; I only +cleaned the lock, and that is not the easiest work, I can tell you." + +"People say that gun of Lars's has taken to missing its mark of late," +said Hans Volden, leaning back, with both his feet on the desk. "Ever +since that time when Lars shot, up at Osmark, at a bear that was asleep, +it misses fire twice and misses the mark the third time." + +"Yes, ever since he shot at a bear that was asleep," chimed in the +girls. + +"The fool!" added the boys. + +"There is only one way in which this difficulty with the rifle can be +remedied," said Ole Boeen, "and that is to thrust a living snake down its +barrel." + +"Yes, we all know that," said the girls. They wanted to hear something +new. + +"It is now winter, and snakes are not to be found, and so Lars cannot +depend very much upon his rifle," said Hans Volden, thoughtfully. + +"He wants Niels Boeen along with him, does he not?" asked Thorvald. + +"Yes," said the boy from Boeen's, who was, of course, best posted in +regard to this; "but Niels will get permission neither from his mother +nor from his sister. His father certainly died from the wrestle he had +with the bear up at the saeter last year, and now they have no one but +Niels." + +"Is it so dangerous, then?" asked a little boy. + +"Dangerous?" cried Thorvald. "The bear has as much sense as ten men, and +as much strength as twelve." + +"Yes, we know that," said the girls once more. They were bent on hearing +something new. + +"But Niels is like his father; I dare say he will go along," continued +Thorvald. + +"Of course he will go along," said Ole Boeen; "this morning early, before +any one was stirring over yonder at our gard, I saw Niels Boeen, Lars the +hunter, and one man more, going up the mountain with their rifles. I +should not be surprised if they were going to the parsonage wood." + +"Was it early?" asked the children, in concert. + +"Very early! I was up before mother, and started the fire." + +"Did Lars have the long rifle?" asked Hans. + +"That I do not know, but the one he had was as long as from here to the +chair." + +"Oh, what a story!" said Thorvald. + +"Why, you said so yourself," answered Ole. + +"No, the long rifle which I saw, he will scarcely use any more." + +"Well, this one was, at all events, as long--as long--as from here, +nearly over to the chair." + +"Ah! perhaps he had it with him then after all." + +"Just think," said Marit, "now they are up among the bears." + +"And at this very moment they may be in a fight," said Thorvald. + +Then followed a deep, nay, almost solemn silence. + +"I think I will go," said Thorvald, taking his cap. + +"Yes! yes! then you will find out something," shouted all the rest, and +they became full of life again. + +"But the school-master?" said he, and stopped. + +"Nonsense! you are the priest's son," said Ole Boeen. + +"Yes, if the school-master touches me with a finger!" said Thorvald, +with a significant nod, in the midst of the deep silence of the rest. + +"Will you hit him back?" asked they, eagerly. + +"Who knows?" said Thorvald, nodding, and went away. + +They thought it best to study while he was gone, but none of them were +able to do so,--they had to keep talking about the bear. They began +guessing how the affair would turn out. Hans bet with Ole that Lars's +rifle had missed fire, and that the bear had sprung at him. Little Knud +Pladsen thought they had all fared badly, and the girls took his side. +But there came Thorvald. + +"Let us go," said he, as he pulled open the door, so excited that he +could scarcely speak. + +"But the school-master?" asked some of the children. + +"The deuce take the school-master! The bear! The bear!" cried Thorvald, +and could say no more. + +"Is it shot?" asked one, very softly, and the others dared not draw +their breath. + +Thorvald sat panting for a while, finally he got up, mounted one of the +benches, swung his cap, and shouted,-- + +"Let us go, I say. I will take all the responsibility." + +"But where shall we go?" asked Hans. + +"The largest bear has been borne down, the others still remain. Niels +Boeen has been badly hurt, because Lars's rifle missed its mark, and the +bears rushed straight at them. The boy who went with them saved himself +only by throwing himself flat on the ground, and pretending to be dead, +and the bear did not touch him. As soon as Lars and Niels had killed +their bear, they shot his also. Hurrah!" + +"Hurrah!" shouted all, both girls and boys, and up from their seats, and +out through the door, they sprang, and off they ran over field and wood +to Boeen, as though there was no such thing as a school-master in the +whole world. + +The girls soon complained that they were not able to keep up, but the +boys took them by the hand and away they all rushed. + +"Take care not to touch it!" said Thorvald; "it sometimes happens that +the bears become alive again." + +"Is that so?" asked Marit. + +"Yes, and they appear in a new form, so have a care!" + +And they kept running. + +"Lars shot the largest one ten times before it fell," he began again. + +"Just think! ten times!" + +And they kept running. + +"And Niels stabbed it eighteen times with his knife before it fell!" + +"Mercy! what a bear!" + +And the children ran so that the sweat poured down from their faces. + +Finally they reached the place. Ole Boeen pushed the door open and got in +first. + +"Have a care!" cried Hans after him. + +Marit and a little girl that Thorvald and Hans had led between them, +were the next ones, and then came Thorvald, who did not go far forward, +but remained standing where he could observe the whole scene. + +"See the blood!" said he to Hans. + +The others hardly knew whether they should venture in just yet. + +"Do you see it?" asked a girl of a boy, who stood by her side in the +door. + +"Yes, it is as large as the captain's large horse," answered he, and +went on talking to her. It was bound with iron chains, he said, and had +even broken the one that had been put about its fore-legs. He could see +distinctly that it was alive, and the blood was flowing from it like a +waterfall. + +Of course, this was not true; but they forgot that when they caught +sight of the bear, the rifle, and Niels, who sat there with bandaged +wounds after the fight with the bear, and when they heard old Lars the +hunter tell how all had happened. So eagerly, and with so much interest +did they look and listen, that they did not observe that some one came +behind them who also began to tell his story, and that in the following +manner:-- + +"I will teach you to leave the school without my permission, that I +will!" + +A cry of fright arose from the whole crowd, and out through the door, +through the veranda, and out into the yard they ran. Soon they appeared +like a lot of black balls, rolling one by one, over the snow-white +field, and when the school-master on his old legs followed them to the +school-house, he could hear the children reading from afar off; they +read until the walls fairly rattled. + +Aye, that was a glorious day, the day when the bear-hunter came home! It +began in sunshine and ended in rain, but such days are usually the best +growing days. + + + + +THE FATHER. + + +The man whose story is here to be told was the wealthiest and most +influential person in his parish; his name was Thord Oeveraas. He +appeared in the priest's study one day, tall and earnest. + +"I have gotten a son," said he, "and I wish to present him for baptism." + +"What shall his name be?" + +"Finn,--after my father." + +"And the sponsors?" + +They were mentioned, and proved to be the best men and women of Thord's +relations in the parish. + +"Is there anything else?" inquired the priest, and looked up. + +The peasant hesitated a little. + +"I should like very much to have him baptized by himself," said he, +finally. + +"That is to say on a week-day?" + +"Next Saturday, at twelve o'clock noon." + +"Is there anything else?" inquired the priest. + +"There is nothing else;" and the peasant twirled his cap, as though he +were about to go. + +Then the priest rose. "There is yet this, however," said he, and walking +toward Thord, he took him by the hand and looked gravely into his eyes: +"God grant that the child may become a blessing to you!" + +One day sixteen years later, Thord stood once more in the priest's +study. + +"Really, you carry your age astonishingly well, Thord," said the priest; +for he saw no change whatever in the man. + +"That is because I have no troubles," replied Thord. + +To this the priest said nothing, but after a while he asked: "What is +your pleasure this evening?" + +"I have come this evening about that son of mine who is to be confirmed +to-morrow." + +"He is a bright boy." + +"I did not wish to pay the priest until I heard what number the boy +would have when he takes his place in church to-morrow." + +"He will stand number one." + +"So I have heard; and here are ten dollars for the priest." + +"Is there anything else I can do for you?" inquired the priest, fixing +his eyes on Thord. + +"There is nothing else." + +Thord went out. + +Eight years more rolled by, and then one day a noise was heard outside +of the priest's study, for many men were approaching, and at their head +was Thord, who entered first. + +The priest looked up and recognized him. + +"You come well attended this evening, Thord," said he. + +"I am here to request that the bans may be published for my son: he is +about to marry Karen Storliden, daughter of Gudmund, who stands here +beside me." + +"Why, that is the richest girl in the parish." + +"So they say," replied the peasant, stroking back his hair with one +hand. + +The priest sat a while as if in deep thought, then entered the names in +his book, without making any comments, and the men wrote their +signatures underneath. Thord laid three dollars on the table. + +"One is all I am to have," said the priest. + +"I know that very well; but he is my only child, I want to do it +handsomely." + +The priest took the money. + +"This is now the third time, Thord, that you have come here on your +son's account." + +"But now I am through with him," said Thord, and folding up his +pocket-book he said farewell and walked away. + +The men slowly followed him. + +A fortnight later, the father and son were rowing across the lake, one +calm, still day, to Storliden to make arrangements for the wedding. + +"This thwart is not secure," said the son, and stood up to straighten +the seat on which he was sitting. + +At the same moment the board he was standing on slipped from under him; +he threw out his arms, uttered a shriek, and fell overboard. + +"Take hold of the oar!" shouted the father, springing to his feet and +holding out the oar. + +But when the son had made a couple of efforts he grew stiff. + +"Wait a moment!" cried the father, and began to row toward his son. + +Then the son rolled over on his back, gave his father one long look, and +sank. + +Thord could scarcely believe it; he held the boat still, and stared at +the spot where his son had gone down, as though he must surely come to +the surface again. There rose some bubbles, then some more, and finally +one large one that burst; and the lake lay there as smooth and bright as +a mirror again. + +For three days and three nights people saw the father rowing round and +round the spot, without taking either food or sleep; he was dragging the +lake for the body of his son. And toward morning of the third day he +found it, and carried it in his arms up over the hills to his gard. + +It might have been about a year from that day, when the priest, late one +autumn evening, heard some one in the passage outside of the door, +carefully trying to find the latch. The priest opened the door, and in +walked a tall, thin man, with bowed form and white hair. The priest +looked long at him before he recognized him. It was Thord. + +"Are you out walking so late?" said the priest, and stood still in +front of him. + +"Ah, yes! it is late," said Thord, and took a seat. + +The priest sat down also, as though waiting. A long, long silence +followed. At last Thord said,-- + +"I have something with me that I should like to give to the poor; I want +it to be in vested as a legacy in my son's name." + +He rose, laid some money on the table, and sat down again. The priest +counted it. + +"It is a great deal of money," said he. + +"It is half the price of my gard. I sold it to-day." + +The priest sat long in silence. At last he asked, but gently,-- + +"What do you propose to do now, Thord?" + +"Something better." + +They sat there for a while, Thord with downcast eyes, the priest with +his eyes fixed on Thord. Presently the priest said, slowly and +softly,-- + +"I think your son has at last brought you a true blessing." + +"Yes, I think so myself," said Thord, looking up, while two big tears +coursed slowly down his cheeks. + + + + +THE EAGLE'S NEST. + + +The Endregards was the name of a small solitary parish, surrounded by +lofty mountains. It lay in a flat and fertile valley, and was +intersected by a broad river that flowed down from the mountains. This +river emptied into a lake, which was situated close by the parish, and +presented a fine view of the surrounding country. + +Up the Endre-Lake the man had come rowing, who had first cleared this +valley; his name was Endre, and it was his descendants who dwelt here. +Some said he had fled hither on account of a murder he had committed, +and that was why his family were so dark; others said this was on +account of the mountains, which shut out the sun at five o'clock of a +midsummer afternoon. + +Over this parish there hung an eagle's nest. It was built on a cliff far +up the mountains; all could see the mother eagle alight in her nest, but +no one could reach it. The male eagle went sailing over the parish, now +swooping down after a lamb, now after a kid; once he had also taken a +little child and borne it away; therefore there was no safety in the +parish as long as the eagle had a nest in this mountain. There was a +tradition among the people, that in old times there were two brothers +who had climbed up to the nest and torn it down; but nowadays there was +no one who was able to reach it. + +Whenever two met at the Endregards, they talked about the eagle's nest, +and looked up. Every one knew, when the eagles reappeared in the new +year, where they had swooped down and done mischief, and who had last +endeavored to reach the nest. The youth of the place, from early +boyhood, practiced climbing mountains and trees, wrestling and +scuffling, in order that one day they might reach the cliff and demolish +the nest, as those two brothers had done. + +At the time of which this story tells, the best boy at the Endregards +was named Leif, and he was not of the Endre family. He had curly hair +and small eyes, was clever in all play, and was fond of the fair sex. He +early said of himself, that one day he would reach the eagle's nest; but +old people remarked that he should not have said so aloud. + +This annoyed him, and even before he had reached his prime he made the +ascent. It was one bright Sunday forenoon, early in the summer; the +young eagles must be just about hatched. A vast multitude of people had +gathered together at the foot of the mountain to behold the feat; the +old people advising him against attempting it, the young ones urging him +on. + +But he hearkened only to his own desires, and waiting until the mother +eagle left her nest, he gave one spring into the air, and hung in a tree +several yards from the ground. The tree grew in a cleft in the rock, and +from this cleft he began to climb upward. Small stones loosened under +his feet, earth and gravel came rolling down, otherwise all was still, +save for the stream flowing behind, with its suppressed, ceaseless +murmur. Soon he had reached a point where the mountain began to project; +here he hung long by one hand, while his foot groped for a sure +resting-place, for he could not see. Many, especially women, turned +away, saying he would never have done this had he had parents living. He +found footing at last, however sought again, now with the hand, now with +the foot, failed, slipped, then hung fast again. They who stood below +could hear one another breathing. + +Suddenly there rose to her feet, a tall, young girl, who had been +sitting on a stone apart from the rest; it was said that she had been +betrothed to Leif from early childhood, although he was not of her +kindred. Stretching out her arms she called aloud: "Leif, Leif, why do +you do this?" Every eye was turned on her. Her father, who was standing +close by, gave her a stern look, but she heeded him not. "Come down +again, Leif," she cried; "I love you, and there is nothing to be gained +up there!" + +They could see that he was considering; he hesitated a moment or two, +and then started onward. For a long time all went well, for he was +sure-footed and had a strong grip; but after a while it seemed as if he +were growing weary, for he often paused. Presently a little stone came +rolling down as a harbinger, and every one who stood there had to watch +its course to the bottom. Some could endure it no longer, and went away. +The girl alone still stood on the stone, and wringing her hands +continued to gaze upward. + +Once more Leif took hold with one hand but it slipped; she saw this +distinctly; then he tried the other; it slipped also. "Leif!" she +shouted, so loud that her voice rang through the mountains, and all the +others chimed in with her. "He is slipping!" they cried, and stretched +up their hands to him, both men and women. He was indeed slipping, +carrying with him sand, stones, and earth; slipping, continually +slipping, ever faster and faster. The people turned away, and then they +heard a rustling and scraping in the mountain behind them, after which, +something fell with a heavy thud, like a great piece of wet earth. + +When they could look round again, he was lying there crushed and +mutilated beyond recognition. The girl had fallen down on the stone, and +her father took her up in his arms and bore her away. + +The youths who had taken the most pains to incite Leif to the perilous +ascent now dared not lend a hand to pick him up; some were even unable +to look at him. So the old people had to go forward. The eldest of them, +as he took hold of the body, said: "It is very sad, but," he added, +casting a look upward, "it is, after all, well that something hangs so +high that it cannot be reached by every one." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] To this there will also be found in the Album a melody by Halfdan +Kjerulf. + +[2] The top of a hill is called in Norwegian "Kamp," and the houseman's +place took its name from its situation. + +[3] A popular dance in two-fourths time, described in this chapter. + +[4] Translated by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[5] A popular dance, in three-fourths time. + +[6] A Dane, the most noted psalmist of Scandinavia. + +[7] Auber Forestier's translation. + +[8] Translated by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[9] Auber Forestier's translation. + +[10] Adapted to the metre of the original from the translation of +Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[11] Adapted to the metre of the original, from the translation of +Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[12] Translated by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[13] A kind of road-sulky used by travelers in Norway. + +[14] Important announcements are made to the people in front of the +church after service. + +[15] The chief magistrate of an amt or county. + +[16] Bailiff. + +[17] Auber Forestier's translation. + +[18] Translated by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[19] The hulder dwells in forests and mountains, appears like a +beautiful woman, and usually wears a blue petticoat and a white hood. +She has a long tail, which she tries to conceal when she is among +people. She is fond of cattle. + +[20] Translated by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[21] Shooting or flinging steel over the head of hulders, trolls, etc., +makes the witchery vanish. Thus also a piece of steel laid in the cradle +prevents hulders from exchanging little children for their own. + +[22] A kind of long snow-shoe. + +[23] Adapted to the metre of the original from the translation of +Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[24] The peasants call the priest father. + +[25] Auber Forestier's translation. + +[26] Peasants wear an under-garment high in the neck with long sleeves. + +[27] Adapted to the original metre from the translation of Augusta +Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[28] Translated by Augusta Plesner and S. Rugeley-Powers. + +[29] The Norse word _datter_ means daughter. + + + * * * * * + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + +38 typos have been silently corrected. The vast majority of these are +caused by the apparent failure of a letter or punctuation mark to print +correctly, leaving a gap in the text. + +Both "childlike" and "child-like", "roadside" and "road-side" were used +in this text. + +On p. 238, the phrasing "articles in the newspapers, which report +attributed to him," does not make sense, but there is no obvious +amendment. No change has been made. + +Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + +A Table of Contents has been added. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Arne: Early Tales and Sketches, by +Bjornstjerne Bjornson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARNE: EARLY TALES AND SKETCHES *** + +***** This file should be named 39744.txt or 39744.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/4/39744/ + +Produced by Charlene Taylor, Margo Romberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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