Part 6 (1/2)

But Isak only sniffed. ”Rain?--not a bit of it. Don't know what you're talking about.”

”Ah, it's no good pretending,” said Inger.

Isak was pretending--ay, that was it. Rain it was, sure enough, and a good heavy shower--but as soon as it had rained enough to spoil Isak's lichen, it stopped. The sky was blue. ”What did I say,” said Isak, stiff-necked and hard.

The shower made no difference to the potato crop, and days came and went; the sky was blue. Isak set to work on his timber sledge, worked hard at it, and bowed his heart, and planed away humbly at runners and shafts. Eyah, _Herregud_! Ay, the days came and went, and the child grew. Inger churned and made cheeses; there was no serious danger; folk that had their wits about them and could work need not die for the sake of one bad year. Moreover, after nine weeks, there came a regular blessing of rain, rain all one day and night, and sixteen hours of it pouring as hard as it could. If it had come but two weeks back, Isak would have said, ”It's too late now!” As it was, he said to Inger, ”You see, that'll save some of the potatoes.”

”Ay,” said Inger hopefully. ”It'll save the lot, you'll see.”

And now things were looking better. Rain every day; good, thorough showers. Everything looking green again, as by a miracle. The potatoes were flowering still, worse than before, and with big berries growing out at the tops, which was not as it should be; but none could say what might be at the roots--Isak had not ventured to look. Then one day Inger went out and found over a score of little potatoes under one plant. ”And they've five weeks more to grow in,” said Inger. Oh, that Inger, always trying to comfort and speak hopefully through her hare-lip. It was not pretty to hear when she spoke, for a sort of hissing, like steam from a leaky valve, but a comfort all the same out in the wilds. And a happy and cheerful soul she was at all times.

”I wish you could manage to make another bed,” she said to Isak one day.

”Ho!” said he.

”Why, there's no hurry, but still....”

They started getting in the potatoes, and finished by Michaelmas, as the custom is. It was a middling year--a good year; once again it was seen that potatoes didn't care so much about the weather, but grew up all the same, and could stand a deal. A middling year--a good year ... well, not perhaps, if they worked it out exactly, but that they couldn't do this year. A Lapp had pa.s.sed that way one day and said how fine their potatoes were up there; it was much worse, he said, down in the village.

And now Isak had a few weeks more to work the ground before the frost set in. The cattle were out, grazing where they pleased; it was good to work with them about, and hear the bells, though it did take some of his time now and again. There was the bull, mischievous beast, would take to b.u.t.ting at the lichen stacks; and as for the goats, they were high and low and everywhere, even to the roof of the hut.

Troubles great and small.

One day Isak heard a sudden shout; Inger stood on the door-slab with the child in her arms, pointing over to the bull and the pretty little cow Silverhorns--they were making love. Isak threw down his pick and raced over to the pair, but it was too late, by the look of it. The mischief was done. ”Oh, the little rascal, she's all too young--half a year too soon, a child!” Isak got her into the hut, but it was too late.

”Well, well,” says Inger, ”'tis none so bad after all, in a way; if she'd waited, we'd have had both of them bearing at the same time.”

Oh, that Inger; not so bright as some, maybe, yet, for all that, she may well have known what she was about when she let the pair loose together that morning.

Winter came, Inger carding and spinning, Isak driving down with loads of wood; fine dry wood and good going; all his debts paid off and settled; horse and cart, plough and harrow his very own. He drove down with Inger's goats' milk cheeses, and brought back woollen thread, a loom, shuttles and beam and all; brought back flour and provisions, more planks, and boards and nails; one day he brought home a lamp.

”As true as I'm here I won't believe it,” says Inger. But she had long had in her mind about a lamp for all that. They lit it the same evening, and were in paradise; little Eleseus he thought, no doubt, it was the sun. ”Look how he stares all wondering like,” said Isak. And now Inger could spin of an evening by lamplight.

He brought up linen for s.h.i.+rts, and new hide shoes for Inger. She had asked for some dye-stuffs, too, for the wool, and he brought them.

Then one day he came back with a clock. With what?--A clock. This was too much for Inger; she was overwhelmed and could not say a word. Isak hung it up on the wall, and set it at a guess, wound it up, and let it strike. The child turned its eyes at the sound and then looked at its mother. ”Ay, you may wonder,” said Inger, and took the child to her, not a little touched herself. Of all good things, here in a lonely place, there was nothing could be better than a clock to go all the dark winter through, and strike so prettily at the hours.

When the last load was carted down, Isak turned woodman once more, felling and stacking, building his streets, his town of wood-piles for next winter. He was getting farther and farther from the homestead now, there was a great broad stretch of hillside all ready for tillage. He would not cut close any more, but simply throw the biggest trees with dry tops.

He knew well enough, of course, what Inger had been thinking of when she asked for another bed; best to hurry up and get it ready. One dark evening he came home from the woods, and sure enough, Inger had got it over--another boy--and was lying down. That Inger! Only that very morning she had tried to get him to go down to the village again: ”'Tis time the horse had something to do,” says she. ”Eating his head off all day.”

”I've no time for such-like nonsense,” said Isak shortly, and went out. Now he understood; she had wanted to get him out of the way. And why? Surely 'twas as well to have him about the house.

”Why can't you ever tell a man what's coming?” said he.

”You make a bed for yourself and sleep in the little room,” said Inger.

As for that, it was not only a bedstead to make; there must be bedclothes to spread. They had but one skin rug, and there would be no getting another till next autumn, when there were wethers to kill--and even then two skins would not make a blanket. Isak had a hard time, with cold at nights, for a while; he tried burying himself in the hay under the rock-shelter, tried to bed down for himself with the cows.

Isak was homeless. Well for him that it was May; soon June would be in; July....

A wonderful deal they had managed, out there in the wilderness; house for themselves and housing for the cattle, and ground cleared and cultivated, all in three years. Isak was building again--what was he building now? A new shed, a lean-to, jutting out from the house. The whole place rang with the noise as he hammered in his eight-inch nails. Inger came out now and again and said it was trying for the little ones.

”Ay, the little ones--go in and talk to them then, sing a bit.