One of Life's Slaves

ay too. With the exception of one solitary figure, it was black and empty. Outside the door a row of

fter the lawful bank holiday is called "blue Monday";

furious as a Berserk. There were no respectable men and apprentices to be had no

rday. That's how it is: one goes on the spree, and another pinches and is so stingy about his money, that he would willingly lay his soul in the fire for it. The fe

o had entered H?gberg's smithy again t

two men sauntering ove

one's men. He only went up himself and took one of the crowbars out of the forge; and when the two cu

reproaches, and when in silence he flung the crowbar down, and began sharpe

ing up all night, one with a swollen eye, another with a plaster across his nose. Their voices were hoarse, and they

being spoken over the whole smithy. By that time most of the work had be

Day and Midsummer Eve, or it was the general relief at the departure of the master, one man began suddenly to sing, a couple more to yawn and st

e hinge on his probation work than all their Midsummer Eve outings, and

od-stacks and old house-walls that they had burnt, and their d

r rang ab

and seen so many bonfires,[3] both there and on th

on Midsummer Eve to burn large bonfires,

a fellow

er went

flowed down the hill as good as free. Veyergang's son had given the girls at the factory an old boat from Maridal Lake

er rang

stood, anxious and uncertain, listening, and now and again g

off the soot, a

ning pint of milk, when at the gate she met Nikolai. He said he had se

lai!" she said, holding out the can by the handle towa

Grefsen

ow; tell me, ho

ere. But I can't understand how yo

er night. She went to eat St. John's porridge with aunt out at Asker, and I was to stay at home, and iron; but at nine o'clock, I said good-bye and went my way. Oh Nikolai!"-she cl

ave it

t, Nikolai, you won't tell. It was

dee

w, Nikolai, that it was no less a person than young Veyergang! There was a Midsummer party

eated them to p

'Her with the bla

s spoken to yo

ll that my name is Silla. I meet hi

he were bringing down a hamm

ckoned a krone too much in the pass-book, he

d this with something that was meant for laughter. "The cook is v

grown so pretty and elegant, and almost taller since he had seen

expression was one of

see round you! How many of them, I should like to know, will ever come to be the wife of an honest working-man? They manage to dance a few times, and then it's all o

ing of, Nikolai? Do

y the whole month at my probation work, and then let you go up there among that

this tone, downcast and dispirited, her slender f

go wrong, it would have been still easier for you to be twisted by them, for I was strong, you see; but you were weak, and had always to creep like a cat among lies and difficulties. And so-so-I thought

trength of his square-set figure, while he waited for her answer. He gazed at her bent

hen-then it might be that you could get away from the factory dirt and the ordering at home both at once, and be a real smith's wife, Silla. You've never had any one to take care of you as I've done, you know; a

p of your pretty little black head at the room door! In spite of having always been treated like a dog, and worse than that-like a thief, it would all be nothing at all, if that was

been better left unsaid; for, from standing melted and overcome, w

who has never danced, a regular queer bird, that's first been kept in a cage by her mother, and then by--" her voice quiver

f me?-of

me and want to help her, Nikolai. That's right! That's right! Only keep me in! Oh yes, you and m

ry bitterly in

g. You've got some one else to comfort y

up to him, and laid her arm

she said, looking full and ardently into his eyes;

, Silla, you shall

hard every time I've been an errand, and I've always been gone so long. But when I sit darning and patching of an evening, I som

me. She'll have to give in like smoke, if I come on

ew budding leaves, and the sun glittered on the windows here and there? Was he intoxicated, or was it the evening that had taken an extra Midsummer carous

ot at all so unreasonable, even if the lock did sometimes get out of order; and

ou get inside, and so there must be police and ma

thing was rose-colour. The fact that he and the world were becoming reconciled showed in shining characters over

tance in the case was that he never dared make Silla a present of anything, neither handkerchiefs nor anyt

uring part of the town. He carried his hammer and pincers, and an iron plate or a lock in his hand; he must look as if

e cluster of houses where Silla walked several times a day. But what he found more difficult to put up with was, that on those occasions when he was fortunate, she was wa

e was neither old enough nor wise enough to understand what she was getting mixed up in, and what a fine gentleman meant who nod

st come ou

one week's earnings to another, until he had mad

forgot himself in thoughts abou