Growth of the Soil

ars pa

gain over the hills. By the route they were taking now, the line would be carried a little above the house, and a straight roa

between two lines through the valleys on either side. They'll

said

y-five Daler a ye

. "And what am I

s it comes up. They'll set up a little machine thing in the house here, to hang on the wall, tha

"I could do it all rig

ave to be for the whole yea

d summer and autumn I've my work on th

e, and then put an astonishing question, as

e money?"

day by working on the land tha

, you see-'tis the land I'm here for. I've many souls and more bea

find some one else,

tried to explain. "'Tis this way," he said, "I've a horse and five cows, besides the bull. I've twen

ourse," said th

when I've to run away all times in the bu

wn below you, Brede Olsen; he'll be glad to take it." He turned

that he was stiff-necked and unreasonable in

k? Sixteen goats? There's no

Oline looked at him agai

een goats

sly towards the strangers, as i

w a tuft of his beard between

nd his men wen

ce, just to show that he was ready to say something if he pleased. But he said nothing. That was his strength of soul. What, did he not know the number of his goats as he knew the fingers on his hands-was the woman mad? Could one of the beasts be missing, when he knew every one of them personally and talked to them every day-his goats that were sixte

le of the room, saying nothing. "H'm," he said. "H

d Oline gently. "But you'd bett

but one good grip. He could do it. He did not do it, but said boldly, making for the door: "I'll say no more j

!" he ca

with their eyes about them. He found them under the floor of the barn; they had crept in as far as they could

least be two to share the guilt, and the pair of them had crept in under the floor with their find. Oh, that stump of pencil-it was an event in their lives, a wonder! They found shavings and covered them all over with signs; the pencil, they discovered, made blue marks with one end and red with the other, and they took it in turns to use. When their father called ou

s settled to a quieter beat; it was hea

here yesterday,"

es

place down below.

es

a goat

the boys.

a goat with her

What

, he counted the goats once over-there were sixteen. He counted them

e creature, couldn't she count as far as sixteen? He asked her

teen?" she ask

A

well,

e to count

goats are there, why, then, thank Heaven, you can't say O

bout further counting of the stock at all. After all, Oline was not as bad as she might have been; she kept house for him after a fashion, and looked to his cattle; she was

here were more birds up on the hillside; even the crows had come. And most wonderful of all, the summer before, seagulls had appeared, seagulls coming all the way up from the coast to settle on the fields there in the wilderness. Isak's farm was known far and wide to all w

ve they come for

ea," said their father. Oh, a grand a

give them any manner of higher education; the Catechism and Bible history lay quietly on the shelf with the cheeses. Isak apparently thought it better for men to grow up without book-knowledge, from the way he dealt with his boys. They were a joy and a blessing to him, the two; many a time he

ads for all that when they were washed, which happened now and again; little

know about the w

t the gout, or feel giddy, or what. But never hit out at a fly, for 'twill only make him worse-remember that, boys! The horsefly he's a differ

s he die?" a

m stiffens, and he

ane; remember that, boys! Now and again, Isak would go too far, and grow mysterious; one Friday he declared that it was harder for a camel to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a human being to thread the eye of a needle. Another time, telling them of the glory of the angels, he explained that angels had stars set in their heels instead of hob-nails. Good and simple teaching, well fitted for settlers in the wilds; the schoolmaster in the village would have laughed at it all, but Isak's boys found good use for it in their inner life. They were trained and taught for their own little world, and what could be better? In the autumn, when animals were to

, and now it was ne

rl was big, and was called Leopoldine, after the day she was born, the 15th November. She knew all sorts

not so learned but that he had to get it read for him down in the village, by the man at the sto

could read writing, but he did not speak so much as a word to her directly. When he had finished, he said: "There now, Eleseus, and you, Sivert, 'tis your mother herself has written

grand thing,

spicions as to Isak's reading? It was no easy matter to get at what Oline really thought, wh

me, boys, you shall learn to w

ove to dry; shifted a pot, shifted the clothes again, an

re," she said at last. "I do think you might

id Isak. It

w I've bought a little now and ag

ng nonsense, of course. He was not angry with her, no; but, slow of thought as he

paper of coffee, was it? Why not a pound?

brother Nils, he gets coffee; down

. Not a drop of milk on

ead writing as pat as a cockroach running, you ought to k

ature!"

n and was not to be s

f so be I may dare t

will, 'tis a

ed everything of sorts. And beads

hat ma

hank me a little for all the way

d Isak. It

since 'twas my modest doin

re staring. Had he heard aright? Oline sat there looking as if she

ness and grew fat on it-why had he not wrung her neck the first year? So he thought, tryi

ld be any missing there. Isak knows very well that there is a sheep missing; he has known that a long time; why should he let it appear otherwise? It was this way. Oline had tricked him nicely once before, saying one of the goats was gone, though all the goats were there as they should be; he had made a great f

if she should happen to be outside. And he says many hard things about Oline-says them out loud; how that she uses a new method of her own in feeding sheep, a method that simply makes them vanish-h

nd. He walks so fast that his shirt stands out like a very angry shirt behind him. But Oline as like as not has noticed something, look

ith that ewe with the

" she

w. What have you done with them? She always had two. Y

nd her legs seem to melt away under her-she might fall and hurt herself. Her head is busy all t

etly. "And what do I do with them, I should like to

st what you

l, with what you give me, Isak, that I should have to steal more? Bu

done with the sheep?

I never have more guilt to answer for! What's all this about a ewe and

!" said Isak,

nd you've not enough. How should I know what sheep, and what two lambs, you're trying to get out of me now? You should be thanking the Lord for His mercies from gener

t woman

. "Idiot, lump of rubbish that I was! But it's not too late yet; just wait, let her go to the cowshed if she likes. It wouldn't be