Part 19 (1/2)
”Os-Anders?” Oline has to set down the buckets and fold her hands.”
May I never have more guilt to answer for! What's all this about a ewe and lambs you're talking of? Is it the goat you mean, with the flat ears?”
”You creature!” said Isak, turning away.
”Well, if you're not a miracle, Isak, I will say.... Here you've all you could wish for every sort, and a heavenly host of sheep and goats and all in your own shed, and 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 generation to generation, that you should. 'Tis but this summer and a bit of a way to next winter, and you've the lambing season once more, and three times as many again.”
Oh, that woman Oline!
Isak went off grumbling like a bear. ”Fool I was not to murder her the first day!” he thought, calling himself all manner of names. ”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 wise to do anything tonight, but tomorrow ... ay, tomorrow morning's the time. Three sheep lost and gone! And coffee, did she say!”
Chapter X
Next day was fated to bring a great event. There came a visitor to the farm--Geissler came. It was not yet summer on the moors, but Geissler paid no heed to the state of the ground; he came on foot, in rich high boots with broad, s.h.i.+ny tops; yellow gloves, too, he wore, and was elegant to see; a man from the village carried his things.
He had come, as a matter of fact, to buy a piece of Isak's land, up in the hills--a copper mine. And what about the price? Also, by the way, he had a message from Inger--good girl, every one liked her; he had been in Trondhjem, and seen her. ”Isak, you've put in some work here.”
”Ay, I dare say And you've seen Inger?”
”What's that you've got over there? Built a mill of your own, have you? grind your own corn? Excellent. And you've turned up a good bit of ground since I was here last.”
”Is she well?”
”Eh? Oh, your wife!--yes, she's well and fit. Let's go in the next room. I'll tell you all about it.”
”'Tis not in order,” put in Oline. Oline had her own reasons for not wis.h.i.+ng them to go in. They went into the little room nevertheless, and closed the door. Oline stood in the kitchen and could hear nothing.
Geissler sat down, slapped his knee with a powerful hand, and there he was--master of Isak's fate.
”You haven't sold that copper tract yet?” he asked.
”No.”
”Good. I'll buy it myself. Yes, I've seen Inger and some other people too. She'll be out before long, if I'm not greatly mistaken--the case has been submitted to the King.”
”The King?”
”The King, yes. I went in to have a talk with your wife--they managed it for me, of course, no difficulty about that--and we had a long talk. 'Well, Inger, how are you getting on? Nicely, what?' 'Why, I've no cause to complain.'' Like to be home again?' 'Ay, I'll not say no.'
'And so you shall before very long,' said I. And I'll tell you this much, Isak, she's a good girl, is Inger. No blubbering, not so much as a tear, but smiling and laughing ... they've fixed up that trouble with her mouth, by the way--operation--sewed it up again. 'Good-bye, then,' said I. 'You won't be here very long, I'll promise you that.'
”Then I went to the Governor--he saw me, of course, no difficulty about that. 'You've a woman here,' said I,' that ought to be out of the place, and back in her home--Inger Sellanraa.' 'Inger?' said he; 'why, yes. She's a good sort--I wish we could keep her for twenty years,' said he. 'Well, you won't,' said I. 'She's been here too long already.' 'Too long?' says he. 'Do you know what she's in for?' 'I know all about it,' says I, 'being Lensmand in the district.' 'Oh,'
says he, 'won't you sit down?' Quite the proper thing to say, of course. 'Why,' says the Governor then, 'we do what we can for her here, and her little girl too. So she's from your part of the country, is she? We've helped her to get a sewing-machine of her own; she's gone through the workshops right to the top, and we've taught her a deal--weaving, household work, dyeing, cutting out. Been here too long, you say?' Well, I'd got my answer ready for that all right, but it could wait, so I only said her case had been badly muddled, and had to be taken up again; now, after the revision of the criminal code, she'd probably have been acquitted altogether. And I told him about the hare. 'A hare?' says the Governor. 'A hare,' says I. 'And the child was born with a hare-lip.' 'Oh,' says he, smiling, 'I see. And you think they ought to have made more allowance for that?' 'They didn't make any at all,' said I, 'for it wasn't mentioned.' 'Well, I dare say it's not so bad, after all.' 'Bad enough for her, anyway.'
'Do you believe a hare can work miracles, then?' says he. 'As to that,' said I, 'whether a hare can work miracles or not's a matter I won't discuss just now. The question is, what effect the _sight_ of a hare might have on a woman with her disfigurement, in her condition.'
Well, he thought over that for a bit. 'H'm,' says he at last. 'Maybe, maybe. Anyhow, we're not concerned with that here. All we have to do is to take over the people they send us; not to revise their sentences. And according to her sentence, Inger's not yet finished her time.'
”Well, then, I started on what I wanted to say all along. 'There was a serious oversight made in bringing her here to begin with,' said I.
'An oversight?' 'Yes. In the first place, she ought never to have been sent across the country at all in the state she was in.' He looks at me stiffly. 'No, that's perfectly true,' says he. 'But it's nothing to do with us here, you know.' 'And in the second place,' said I, 'she ought certainly not to have been in the prison for full two months without any notice taken of her condition by the authorities here.'
That put him out, I could see; he said nothing for quite a while. 'Are you instructed to act on her behalf?' says he at last. 'Yes, I am,'