The Great Hunger ...............................................................................................................................................1

For sheer havoc, there is no gale like a good northwester, when it roars in, through the long winter evenings,

driving the spindrift before it between the rocky walls of the fjord. It churns the water to a froth of rushing

wave crests, while the boats along the beach are flung in somersaults up to the doors of the grey fisher huts,

and solid old barn gangways are lifted and sent flying like unwieldy birds over the fields. "Mercy on us!" cry

the maids, for it is milkingtime, and they have to fight their way on hands and knees across the yard to the

cowshed, dragging a lantern that WILL go out and a milkpail that WON'T be held. And "Lord preserve us!"

mutter the old wives seated round the stove within doorsand their thoughts are far away in the north with

But on a calm spring day, the fjord just steals in smooth and shining by ness and bay. And at low water there

is a whole wonderland of strange little islands, sandbanks, and weedfringed rocks left high and dry, with

clear pools between, where bare legged urchins splash about, and tiny flatfish as big as a halfpenny dart

away to every side. The air is filled with a smell of salt seawater and warm, wet beachwaste, and the

seapie, see sawing about on a big stone in the water, lifts his red beak cheerily sunwards and pipes: "Kluip,

On just such a day, two boys of fourteen or thereabouts came hurrying out from one of the fishermen's huts

down towards the beach. Boys are never so busy as when they are up to some piece of mischief, and

evidently the pair had business of this sort in hand. Peer Troen, fairhaired and sallowfaced, was pushing a

wheelbarrow; his companion, Martin Bruvold, a dark youth with freckles, carried a tub. And both talked

Peer Troen was, of course, the ringleader. That he always was: the forest fire of last year was laid at his door.

And now he had made it clear to some of his friends that boys had just as much right to lay out deepsea

lines as men. All through the winter they had been kept at grownup work, cutting peat and carrying wood;

why should they be left now to fool about with the inshore fishing, and bring home nothing better than

flounders and coalfish and silly codlings? The big deepsea line they were forbidden to touchthat was

sobut the Lofoten fishery was at its height, and none of the men would be back till it was over. So the boys

had baited up the line on the sly down at the boathouse the day before, and laid it out across the deepest part

Now the thing about a deepsea line is that it may bring to the surface fish so big and so fearsome that the

like has never been seen before. Yesterday, however, there had been trouble of a different sort. To their

dismay, the boys had found that they had not sinkers enough to weight the shore end of the line; and it looked

as if they might have to give up the whole thing. But Peer, ever ready, had hit on the novel idea of making

one end fast to the trunk of a small fir growing at the outermost point of the ness, and carrying the line from

there out over the open fjord. Then a stone at the farther end, and with the magic words, "Fie, fish!" it was

paid out overboard, vanishing into the green depths. The deed was done. True, there were a couple of hooks

dangling in midair at the shore end, between the tree and the water, and, while they might serve to catch an

eider duck, or a guillemot, if any one should chance to come rowing past in the dark and get hung upwhy,

the boys might find they had made a human catch. No wonder, then, that they whispered eagerly and hurried

This was the third member of the crew, a lanky youth with whitish eyebrows and a foolish face. He

stammered, and made a queer noise when he laughed: "Cheeheehee." Twice he had been turned down in

the confirmation classes; after all, what was the use of learning lessons out of a book when nobody ever had

Together they ran the boat down to the water's edge, got it afloat, and scrambled in, with much waving of

Klaus Brock, the son of the district doctor, was a blueeyed youngster in knickerbockers and a sailor blouse.

He was playing truant, no doubtKlaus had his lessons at home with a private tutorand would certainly

"Hurry up," called Peer, getting out an oar. Klaus clambered in, and the whitestraked fouroar surged across

the bay, rocking a little as the boys pulled out of stroke. Martin was rowing at the bow, his eyes fixed on

Peer, who sat in the stern in command with his eyes dancing, full of great things to be done. Martin, poor

fellow, was half afraid already; he never could understand why Peer, who was to be a parson when he grew

up, was always hitting upon things to do that were evidently sinful in the sight of the Lord.

Peer was a town boy, who had been put out to board with a fisherman in the village. His mother had been no

better than she should be, so people said, but she was dead now, and the father at any rate must be a rich

gentleman, for he sent the boy a present of ten whole crowns every Christmas, so that Peer always had money

in his pocket. Naturally, then, he was looked up to by the other boys, and took the lead in all things as a

The boat moved on past the grey rocks, the beach and the huts above it growing blue and faint in the distance.

Up among the distant hills a red wooden farmhouse on its white foundation wall stood out clear.

Here was the ness at last, and there stood the fir. Peer climbed up and loosed the end of the line, while the

others leaned over the side, watching the cord where it vanished in the depths. What would it bring to light

The boat was headed straight out across the fjord, and the long line with its trailing hooks hauled in and

coiled up neatly in the bottom of a shallow tub. Peer's heart was beating. There came a tugthe firstand

the faint shimmer of a fish deep down in the water. Pooh! only a big cod. Peer heaved it in with a careless

swing over the gunwale. Next came a linga deep water fish at any rate this time. Then a tusk, and another,

and another; these would please the women, being good eating, and perhaps make them hold their tongues

when the men came home. Now the line jerks heavily; what is coming? A grey shadow comes in sight. "Here

with the gaff!" cries Peer, and Peter throws it across to him. "What is it, what is it?" shriek the other three.

"Steady! don't upset the boat; a catfish." A stroke of the gaff over the side, and a clumsy grey body is heaved

into the boat, where it rolls about, hissing and biting at the bottomboards and baler, the splinters crackling

But Peer was hauling in again. They were nearly halfway across the fjord by now, and the line came up

from mysterious depths, which no fisherman had ever sounded. The strain on Peer began to show in his

looks; the others sat watching his face. "Is the line heavy?" asked Klaus. "Keep still, can't you?" put in

Martin, glancing along the slanting line to where it vanished far below. Peer was still hauling. A sense of

something uncanny seemed to be thrilling up into his hands from the deep sea. The feel of the line was

strange. There was no great weight, not even the clean tugtug of an ordinary fish; it was as if a giant hand

were pulling gently, very gently, to draw him overboard and down into the depths. Then suddenly a violent

"Sit down in the boat," shouted Peer. And with the true fisherman's sense of discipline they obeyed.

Peer was gripping the line firmly with one hand, the other clutching one of the thwarts. "Have we another

"Cut the line, and row for your lives!" wailed the doctor's son. Strange he should be such a coward at sea, a

Once more Peer was jerked almost overboard. He thought of the forest fire the year beforeit would never

do to have another such mishap on his shoulders. Suppose the great monster did come up and capsize

themthey were ever so far from land. What a to do there would be if they were all drowned, and it came

out that it was his fault. Involuntarily he felt for his knife to cut the linethen thrust it back again, and went

Here it comesa great shadow heaving up through the water. The huge beast flings itself round, sending a

flurry of bubbles to the surface. And there!a gleam of white; a row of great white teeth on the underside.

Aha! now he knows what it is! The Greenland shark is the fiercest monster of the northern seas, quite able to

The brute was wallowing on the surface now, the water boiling around him. His tail lashed the sea to foam, a

big, pointed head showed up, squirming under the hook. "Now!" cried Peer, and two gaffs struck at the same

moment, the boat heeled over, letting in a rush of water, and Klaus, dropping his oars, sprang into the bow,

Next second a heavy body, big as a grown man, was heaved in over the gunwale, and two boys were all but

shot out the other way. And now the fun began. The boys loosed their hold of the gaffs, and sprang apart to

give the creature room. There it lay raging, the great black beast of prey, with its sharp threatening snout and

wicked red eyes ablaze. The strong tail lashed out, hurling oars and balers overboard, the long teeth snapped

at the bottomboards and thwarts. Now and again it would leap high up in the air, only to fall back again,

writhing furiously, hissing and spitting and frothing at the mouth, its red eyes glaring from one to another of

Meanwhile, Martin Bruvold was in terror that the shark would smash the boat to pieces. He drew his knife

and took a step forwarda flash in the air, and the steel went in deep between the back fins, sending up a

spurt of blood. "Look out!" cried the others, but Martin had already sprung back out of reach of the black tail.

And now the dance of death began anew. The knife was fixed to the grip in the creature's back; one gaff had

buried its hook between the eyes, and another hung on the flankthe wooden shafts were flung this way and

And now HIS knife flashed out and sent a stream of blood spouting from between the shoulders, but the blow

cost him his footholdand in a moment the two bodies were rolling over and over together in the bottom of

"Oh, Lord Jesus!" shrieked Klaus, clinging to the stempost. "She'll kill him! She'll kill him!"

Peer was half up now, on his knees, but as he reached out a hand to grasp the side, the brute's jaws seized on

his arm. The boy's face was contorted with painanother moment and the sharp teeth would have bitten

through, when, swift as thought, Peter Ronningen dropped his oars and sent his knife straight in between the

beast's eyes. The blade pierced through to the brain, and the grip of the teeth relaxed.

"Cccursed dddevil!" stammered Peter, as he scrambled back to his oars. Another moment, and Peer had

dragged himself clear and was kneeling by the forward thwart, holding the ragged sleeve of his wounded arm,

When at last they were pulling homeward, the little boat overloaded with the weight of the great carcase, all

"Where is Klaus?" asked Peerfor the doctor's son was gone from where he had sat, clinging to the stem.

There lay the big lout of fifteen, who already boasted of his love affairs, learned German, and was to be a

gentleman like his father there he lay on the bottomboards in the bow in a dead faint.

The others were frightened at first, but Peer, who was sitting washing his wounded arm, took a dipper full of

water and flung it in the unconscious one's face. The next instant Klaus had started up sitting, caught wildly

A roar of laughter went up from the rest; they dropped their oars and sat doubled up and gasping. But on the

beach, before going home, they agreed to say nothing about Klaus's fainting fit. And for weeks afterwards the

four scamps' exploit was the talk of the village, so that they felt there was not much fear of their getting the

When Peer, as quite a little fellow, had been sent to live with the old couple at Troen, he had already passed

several times from one adopted home to another, though this he did not remember. He was one of the

madcaps of the village now, but it was not long since he had been a solitary child, moping apart from the rest.

Why did people always say "Poor child!" whenever they were speaking about his real mother? Why did they

do it? Why, even Peter Ronningen, when he was angry, would stammer out: "You bababastard!" But Peer

called the pockmarked goodwife at Troen "mother" and her bandylegged husband "father," and lent the

old man a hand wherever he was wantedin the smithy or in the boats at the fishing.

His childhood was passed among folk who counted it sinful to smile, and whose minds were gloomy as the

One day, coming home from his work at the peat bog, he found the elders snuffling and sighing over their

afternoon meal. Peer wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked what was the matter.

The eldest son shoved a spoonful of porridge into his mouth, wiped his eyes, swallowed, and said: "Poor

"Aye, poor little chap," sighed the old man, thrusting his horn spoon into a crack in the wall that served as a

"Neither father nor mother now," whimpered the eldest daughter, looking over to the window.

"Ay, dearie, yes," sighed the old woman. "She's gone for sure gone to meet her Judge."

Later, as the day went on, Peer tried to cry too. The worst thing of all was that every one in the house seemed

so perfectly certain where his mother had gone to. And to heaven it certainly was not. But how could they be

Peer had seen her only once, one summer's day when she had come out to see the place. She wore a light

dress and a big straw hat, and he thought he had never seen anything so beautiful before. She made no secret

of it among the neighbours that Peer was not her only child; there was a little girl, too, named Louise, who

was with some folks away up in the inland parishes. She was in high spirits, and told risky stories and sang

songs by no means sacred. The old people shook their heads over herthe younger ones watched her with

sidelong glances. And when she left, she kissed Peer, and turned round more than once to look back at him,

flushed under her big hat, and smiling; and it seemed to Peer that she must surely be the loveliest creature in

But nownow she had gone to a place where the ungodly dwell in such frightful torment, and no hope of

salvation for her through all eternityand Peer all the while could only think of her in a light dress and a big

Then came the question: Who was to pay for the boy now? True, his baptismal certificate said that he had a

fatherhis name was Holm, and he lived in Christianiabut, from what the mother had said, it was

Never till now had Peer rightly understood that he was a stranger here, for all that he called the old couple

He lay awake night after night up in the loft, listening to the talk about him going on in the room belowthe

goodwife crying and saying: "No, no!", the others saying how hard the times were, and that Peer was quite

Then Peer would draw the skinrug up over his head. But often, when one of the elders chanced to be awake

at night, he could hear some one in the loft sobbing in his sleep. In the daytime he took up as little room as he

could at the table, and ate as little as humanly possible; but every morning he woke up in fear that today

today he would have to bid the old fostermother farewell and go out among strangers.

Then something new and unheard of plumped down into the little cottage by the fjord.

There came a registered letter with great dabs of sealingwax all over it, and a handwriting so gentlemanly as

to be almost unreadable. Every one crowded round the eldest son to see it openedand out fell five

tencrown notes. "Mercy on us!" they cried in amazement, and "Can it be for us?" The next thing was to

puzzle out what was written in the letter. And who should that turn out to be from butno other than Peer's

father, though he did not say it in so many words. "Be good to the boy," the letter said. "You will receive fifty

crowns from me every halfyear. See that he gets plenty to eat and goes dry and well shod. Faithfully your,

"Why, Peerhe'she's Your father's a captain, an officer," stammered the eldest girl, and fell back a step

"And we're to get twice as much for him as before," said the son, holding the notes fast and gazing up at the

But the old wife was thinking of something else as she folded her hands in thankfulnessnow she needn't

"Properly fed!" No need to fear for that. Peer had treacle with his porridge that very day, though it was only a

weekday. And the eldest son gave him a pair of stockings, and made him sit down and put them on then and

there; and the same night, when he went to bed, the eldest girl came and tucked him up in a new skinrug,

not quite so hairless as the old one. His father a captain! It seemed too wonderful to be true.

From that day times were changed for Peer. People looked at him with very different eyes. No one said "Poor

boy" of him now. The other boys left off calling him bad names; the grownups said he had a future before

him. "You'll see," they would say, "that father of yours will get you on; you'll be a parson yet, ay, maybe a

bishop, too." At Christmas, there came a tencrown note all for himself, to do just as he liked with. Peer

changed it into silver, so that his purse was near bursting with prosperity. No wonder he began to go about

with his nose in the air, and play the little prince and chieftain among the boys. Even Klaus Brock, the

doctor's son, made up to him, and taught him to play cards. But "You surely don't mean to go and be a

For all this, no one could say that Peer was too proud to help with the fishing, or make himself useful in the

smithy. But when the sparks flew showering from the glowing iron, he could not help seeing visions of his

ownvisions that flew out into the future. Aye, he WOULD be a priest. He might be a sinner now, and a

wild young scamp; he certainly did curse and swear like a trooper at times, if only to show the other boys that

it was all nonsense about the earth opening and swallowing you up. But a priest he would be, all the same.

None of your parsons with spectacles and a pot belly: no, but a sort of heavenly messenger with snowy white

robes and a face of glory. Perhaps some day he might even come so far that he could go down into that place

of torment where his mother lay, and bring her up again, up to salvation. And when, in autumn evenings, he

stood outside his palace, a whitehaired bishop, he would lift up his finger, and all the stars should break into

In the still summer evenings a troop of boys go climbing up the naked slopes towards the high wooded ranges

to fetch home the cows for the milking. The higher they climb, the farther and farther their sight can travel

out over the sea. And an hour or two later, as the sun goes down, here comes a long string of redflanked

cattle trailing down, with a faint jangle of bells, over the far off ridges. The boys halloo them

on"Ohoooooo!"and swing their ringed rowan staves, and spit red juice of the alder bark that they are

chewing as men chew tobacco. Far below them they see the farm lands, grey in shadow, and, beyond, the

waters of the fjord, yellow in the evening light, a mirror where red clouds and white sails and hills of liquid

blue are shining. And away out on the farthest headland, the lonely star of the coast light over the grey sea.

On such an evening Peer came down from the hills just in time to see a gentleman in a carriole turn off from

the highway and take the byroad down towards Troen. The horse balked suddenly at a small bridge, and

when the driver reined him in and gave him a cut with his whip, the beast reared, swung about, and sent the

cart fairly dancing round on its high wheels. "Oh, well, then, I'll have to walk," cried the gentleman angrily,

and, flinging the reins to the lad behind him, he jumped down. Just at this moment Peer came up.

"Here, boy," began the traveller, "just take this bag, will you? And" He broke off suddenly, took a step

The lad in the cart had driven off, and the gentleman from the city and the pale country boy with the patched

The newcomer was a man of fifty or so, but still straight and active, though his hair and closetrimmed beard

were sprinkled with grey. His eyes twinkled gaily under the brim of his black felt hat; his long overcoat was

open, showing a gold chain across his waistcoat. With a pair of gloves and an umbrella in one hand, a light

travelling bag in the other, and his beautifully polished shoesa grand gentleman, thought Peer, if ever there

"So that's how you look, my boy? Not very big for your agenearly sixteen now, aren't you? Do they give

The pair walked down together, towards the grey cottage by the fjord. Suddenly the man stopped, and looked

"Why, that wall there bulges so, I should think the whole affair would collapse soon."

Peer tried to laugh at this, but felt something like a lump in his throat. It hurt to hear fine folks talk like that of

There was a great flurry when the strange gentleman appeared in the doorway. The old wife was kneading

away at the dough for a cake, the front of her all white with flour; the old man sat with his spectacles on,

patching a shoe, and the two girls sprang up from their spinning wheels. "Well, here I am. My name's Holm,"

said the traveller, looking round and smiling. "Mercy on us! the Captain his own self," murmured the old

He was an affable gentleman, and soon set them all at their ease. He sat down in the seat of honour,

drumming with his fingers on the table, and talking easily as if quite at home. One of the girls had been in

service for a while in a Consul's family in the town, and knew the ways of gentlefolk, and she fetched a bowl

of milk and offered it with a curtsy and a: "Will the Captain please to take some milk?" "Thanks, thanks,"

said the visitor. "And what is your name, my dear? Come, there's nothing to blush about. Nicoline?

Firstrate! And you? Lusiana? That's right." He looked at the redrimmed basin, and, taking it up, all but

emptied it at a draught, then, wiping his beard, took breath. "Phu!that was good. Well, so here I am." And

he looked around the room and at each of them in turn, and smiled, and drummed with his fingers, and said,

"Well, wellwell, well," and seemed much amused with everything in general. "By the way, Nicoline," he

said suddenly, "since you're so well up in titles, I'm not 'Captain' any more now; they've sent me up this way

as LieutenantColonel, and my wife has just had a house left her in your town here, so we may be coming to

settle down in these parts. And perhaps you'd better send letters to me through a friend in future. But we can

talk about all that by and by. Well, wellwell, well." And all the time he was drumming with his fingers on

the table and smiling. Peer noticed that he wore gold sleevelinks and a fine gold stud in his broad white

And then a little packet was produced. "Hi, Peer, come and look; here's something for you." And the

"something" was nothing less than a real silver watchand Peer was quite unhappy for the moment because

he couldn't dash off at once and show it to all the other boys. "There's a father for you," said the old wife,

clapping her hands, and almost in tears. But the visitor patted her on the shoulder. "Father? father?

H'mthat's not a thing any one can be so sure about. Hahaha!" And "hahaha" echoed the old man, still

sitting with the awl in his hand. This was the sort of joke he could appreciate.

Then the visitor went out and strolled about the place, with his hands under his coat tails, and looked at the

sky, and the fjord, and murmured, "Well, wellwell, well," and Peer followed him about all the while, and

gazed at him as he might have gazed at a star. He was to sleep in a neighbour's house, where there was a

room that had a bed with sheets on it, and Peer went across with him and carried his bag. It was Martin

Bruvold's parents who were to house the traveller, and people stood round staring at the place. Martin himself

was waiting outside. "This a friend of yours, Peer? Here, then, my boy, here's something to buy a big farm

with." This time it was a fivecrown note, and Martin stood fingering it, hardly able to believe his eyes.

It was a fine thing, too, to see a grand gentleman undress. "I'll have things like that some day," thought Peer,

watching each new wonder that came out of the bag. There was a silverbacked brush, that he brushed his

hair and beard with, walking up and down in his underclothes and humming to himself. And then there was

another shirt, with red stripes round the collar, just to wear in bed. Peer nodded to himself, taking it all in.

And when the stranger was in bed he took out a flask with a silver cork, that screwed off and turned into a

cup, and had a dram for a nightcap; and then he reached for a long pipe with a beaded cord, and when it was

Peer put his hands behind him and set one foot forward. "Yeshe says soteacher does."

"Wicked! Hahaha! Wicked, did you say? So that's the way they look at things here, is it? Well, wellwell,

well! Hahaha! Hand me that matchbox, my boy. H'm!" He puffed away for a while in silence. Then,

"Halfsister, that is to say. I didn't quite know how it was myself. But I may as well tell you, my boy, that I

paid the same for you all along, the same as now. Only I sent the money by your mother, and shewell, she,

poor girl, had another one to look after, and no father to pay for it. So she made my money do for both.

Hahaha! Well, poor girl, we can't blame her for that. Anyhow, we'll have to look after that little halfsister of

Next day Peer's father went away. He stood there, ready to start, in the livingroom at Troen, stiff felt hat and

overcoat and all, and said, in a tone like the sheriff's when he gives out a public notice at the church door:

"Then I wish him to be properly dressed, like the best of the other youngsters. And there's fifty crowns for

him to give the school teacher and the parson as a parting gift." He handed over some more notes.

"Afterwards," he went on, "I mean, of course, to look after him until he can make his own way in a

respectable position. But first we must see what he has a turn for, and what he'd like to be himself. He'd better

come to town and talk it over with mebut I'll write and arrange all that after he's confirmed. Then in case

anything unexpected should happen to me, there's some money laid by for him in a savings bank account; he

can apply to a friend of mine, who knows all about it. Well, goodbye, and very many thanks!"

And the great man smiled to right and left, and shook them all by the hand, and waved his hat and was gone.

For the next few days Peer walked on air, and found it hard to keep his footing at all on the common earth.

People were for ever filling his head with talk about that savings bank accountit might be only a few

thousands of crownsbut then again, it might run up to a million. A million! and here he was, eating

herrings for dinner, and talking to Tom, Dick, and Harry just like any one else. A million crowns!

Late in the autumn came the confirmation, and the old wooden church, with its tarred walls, nestled among its

mighty treetops, sent its chimes ringing and ringing out into the blue autumn air. It seemed to Peer like

some kindly old grandmother, calling so lovingly: "Come, comeold and youngold and youngfrom

fjord and valleynorthways and southways; come, comethis day of all daysthis day of all

dayscome, come, come!" So it had stood, ringing out the chimes for one generation after another through

hundreds of years, and now it is calling to us. And the young folks are there, looking at one another in their

new clothes, and blowing their noses on clean white handkerchiefs, so carefully folded. There comes Peter

Ronningen, passed by good luck this year, but forced to turn out in a jacket borrowed from Peer, as the tailor

wasn't ready with his own new things. The boys say "howdo youdo" and try to smile like grownup

folks. One or two of them may have some little account dating from old schoolfights waiting to be

settledbut, never mindjust as well to forget old scores now. Peer caught sight of Johan Koja, who stole a

pencil from him last summer, but, after all, even that didn't seem worth making a fuss about. "Well, how've

you been getting on since last summer?" they ask each other, as they move together up the stone steps to the

big church door, through which the peal of the organ comes rolling out to meet them.

How good it seems, and how kind, the little church, where all you see bids you welcome! Through the

stainedglass windows with their tiny leaded panes falls a light so soft that even poor ugly faces seem

beautiful. The organ tones are the very light itself turned into sweet sound. On one side of the nave you can

see all the boys' heads, sleek with water; on the other the little mothers to be, in grownup dress today for

the first time, kerchief on head and hymnbook in hand, and with careful faces. And now they all sing. The

elder folks have taken their places farther back today, but they join in, looking up now and again from the

book to those young heads in front, and wondering how they will fare in life. And the young folk themselves

are thinking as they sing, "Today is the beginning of new things. Play and frolic are over and done with;

from today we're grownup." But the church and all in it seemed to say: "If ever you are in heavy trouble,

come hither to me." Just look at that altarpiece therethe woodcarvings are a whole Bible in

themselvesbut Moses with the Tables of the Law is gentle of face today; you can see he means no harm

after all. St. Peter, with the keys, pointing upwards, looks like a kind old uncle, bringing something good

home from market. And then the angels on the walls, pictured or carved in wood, have borrowed the voice of

the organ and the tones of the hymn, and they widen out the vaulted roof into the dome of heaven; while light

and song and worshippers melt together and soar upwards toward the infinite spaces.

Peer was thinking all the time: I don't care if I'm rich as rich, I WILL be a priest. And then perhaps with all

my money I can build a church that no one ever saw the like of. And the first couple I'll marry there shall be

Martin Bruvold and little sister Louiseif only he'll have her. Just wait and see!

A few days later he wrote to his father, asking if he might come into town now and go to school. A long time

passed, and then at last a letter came in a strange handwriting, and all the grown folks at Troen came

"You will possibly have learned by now from the newspapers that your benefactor, Colonel Holm, has met

his death by a fall from a horse. I must therefore request you to call on me personally at your earliest

convenience, as I have several matters to settle with you. Yours faithfully, J. Grundt, Senior Master."

Peer was cryingchiefly, it must be admitted, at the thought of having to bid goodbye to all the Troen folks

and the two cows, and the calf, and the grey cat. He might have to go right on to Christiania, no later than

tomorrowto go to school there; and when he came backwhy, very likely the old mother might not be

So all three of them were heavyhearted, when the pockmarked good wife, and the bowlegged old man,

came down with him to the pier. And soon he was standing on the deck of the fjord steamer, gazing at the

two figures growing smaller and smaller on the shore. And then one hut after another in the little hamlet

disappeared behind the nessTroen itself was gone nowand the hills and the woods where he had cut ring

staves and searched for stray cattleswiftly all known things drew away and vanished, until at last the whole

As evening fell, he saw a multitude of lights spread out on every side far ahead in the darkness. And next,

with his little wooden chest on his shoulder, he was finding his way up through the streets by the quay to a

lodginghouse for country folk, which he knew from former visits, when he had come to the town with the

Next morning, clad in his country homespun, he marched up along River Street, over the bridge, and up the

hill to the villa quarter, where he had to ask the way. At last he arrived outside a whitepainted wooden house

standing back in a garden. Here was the placethe place where his fate was to be decided. After the country

A stout servant maid in a big white apron was rattling the rings of the kitchen range into place; there was a

pleasing smell of coffee and good things to eat. Suddenly a door opened, and a figure in a dressinggown

appeareda tall redhaired man with gold spectacles astride on a long red nose, his thick hair and scrubby

sneezinghochocputputsch!wiped his nose with a large pockethandkerchief, and grumbled out:

"Ugh!this wretched cold can't get rid of it. How about my socks, Bertha, my good girl; do you think

"I've had them hung up ever since I lit the fire this morning," said the girl, tossing her head.

"But who is this young gentleman, may I ask?" The gold spectacles were turned full on Peer, who rose and

The red head seemed positively frightened at thisand the dressinggown faltered backwards, as if to find

support. He cast a hurried glance at the girl, and then beckoned with a long fore finger to Peer. "Yes, yes,

Peer found himself in a room with rows of books all round the walls, and a big writingtable in the centre.

"Sit down, my boy." The schoolmaster went and picked out a long pipe, and filled it, clearing his throat

nervously, with an occasional glance at the boy. "H'mso this is you. This is Peerh'm." He lit his pipe and

puffed a little, found himself again obliged to sneezebut at last settled down in a chair at the writingtable,

"So that's what you look like?" With a quick movement he reached for a photograph in a frame. Peer caught a

glimpse of his father in uniform. The schoolmaster lifted his spectacles, stared at the picture, then let down

his spectacles again and fell to scrutinising Peer's face. There was a silence for a while, and then he said: "Ah,

"Well, my lad, it was very suddenyour benefactor's endmost unexpected. He is to be buried today."

The schoolmaster was gazing at the window. "He informed me some time ago ofh'mof all theall the

benefits he had conferred on youh'm! And he begged me to keep an eye on you myself in case anything

happened to him. And now"the spectacles swung round towards Peer"now you are starting out in life by

"You will have to decide now what walk in life you are toer devote yourself to."

"You would perhaps like to be a fishermanlike the good people you've been brought up among?"

"No." Peer shook his head disdainfully. Was this man trying to make a fool of him?

"Oh, then I suppose it's to be America. Well, you will easily find company to go with. Such numbers are

Peer pulled himself together. "Oh, no, not that at all." Better get it out at once. "I wish to be a priest," he said,

The schoolmaster rose from his seat, holding his long pipe up in the air in one hand, and pressing his ear

"A priest," repeated Peer, but he moved behind his chair as he spoke, for it looked as if the schoolmaster

But suddenly the red face broke into a smile, exposing such an array of greenish teeth as Peer had never seen

before. Then he said in a sort of singsong, nodding: "A priest? Oh, indeed! Quite a small matter!" He rose and

wandered once or twice up and down the room, then stopped, nodded, and said in a fatherly tone to one of

He turned on Peer suddenly. "Look here, my young frienddon't you think your benefactor has been quite

"There are thousands of boys in your position who are thrown out in the world after confirmation and left to

With an effort Peer managed to get out: "It's always been what I wanted. And hefather"

The schoolmaster tottered back and sank into a chair, staring at Peer as if he thought him a quite hopeless

subject. At last he recovered so far as to say: "Look here, my lad, don't you think you might be content to call

"You are thinking, of courseyou and those who have put all this nonsense into your headof the money

"Aha! There we are! Yes, indeed. There is a savings bank accountin my care." He rose, and hunted out

from a drawer a small greencovered book. Peer could not take his eyes from it. "Here it is. The sum entered

Crash! Peer felt as if he had fallen through the floor into the cellarage. All his dreams vanished into thin

"On the day when you are in a fair way to set up independently as an artisan, a farmer, or a fishermanand

when you seem to me, to the best of my judgment, to deserve such helpthen and not till then I place this

"I am perfectly sure that I am in full agreement with the wishes of the donor in deciding that the money must

"No, pray don't go yet. Sit down. There are one or two things we must get settled at once. First of allyou

must trust me, my good boy. Do you believe that I wish you well, or do you not?"

"Then it is agreed that all these fancies about going to college and so forth must be driven out of your head

"You can see yourself that, even supposing you had the mental qualifications, such a sum, generous as it is in

"On the other hand, if you wish it, I will gladly arrange to get you an apprentice's place with a good

handicraftsman here. You would have free board there, andwell, if you should want clothes the first year

or so, I dare say we could manage that. You will be better without pocketmoney to fling about until you can

Peer sighed, and drooped as he stood. When he saw the greenbacked book locked into its drawer again, and

heard the keys rattle as they went back into a pocket under the dressinggown, he felt as if some one were

"Then there's another thing. About your name. What name have you thought of taking, my ladsurname, I

"My name is Peer Holm!" said the boy, instinctively drawing himself up as he had done when the bishop had

The schoolmaster pursed up his lips, took off his spectacles and wiped them, put them on again, and turned to

"See here, my boyhave you considered that there may be others of that name in this same place?"

"Wait a minuteand that you would occasion theseothersthe deepest pain and distress if it should

become known thatwell, how matters stand. You see, I am treating you as a grownup mana gentleman.

And I feel sure you would not wish to inflict a great sorrowa crushing blowupon a widow and her

innocent children. There, there, my boy, there's nothing to cry about. Life, my young friend, life has troubles

that must be faced. What is the name of the farm, or house, where you have lived up to now?"

"Troena very good name indeed. Then from today on you will call yourself Peer Troen."

"And if any one should ask about your father, remember that you are bound in honour and conscience not to

"Well, then, as soon as you have made up your mind, come at once and let me know. We shall be great

friends yet, you will see. You're sure you wouldn't like to try America? Well, well, come along out to the

Peer found himself a moment after sitting on a chair in the kitchen, where there was such a good smell of

coffee. "Bertha," said the schoolmaster coaxingly, "you'll find something good for breakfast for my young

friend here, won't you?" He waved a farewell with his hand, took down his socks from a string above the

When a country boy in blue homespun, with a peaked cap on his blond head, goes wandering at random

through the streets of a town, it is no particular concern of any one else. He moves along, gazing in at shop

windows, hands deep in his pockets, whistling, looking at everything around himor at nothing at all. And

yetperhaps in the head under that peaked cap it seems as if a whole little world had suddenly collapsed,

and he may be whistling hard to keep from crying in the streets for people to see. He steps aside to avoid a

cart, and runs into a man, who drops his cigar in the gutter. "Confounded country lout!" says the man angrily,

but passes on and has forgotten boy and all the next moment. But a little farther on a big dog comes dashing

out of a yard and unluckily upsets a fat old woman on the pavement, and the boy with the peaked cap, for all

That afternoon, Peer sat on one of the ramparts below the fortress, biting at a stalk of grass, and twirling the

end in his fingers. Below him lay town and fjord in the mild October sunlight; the rumble of traffic, the

noises from workshops and harbour, came up to him through the rustbrown luminous haze. There he sat,

while the sentry on the wall above marched back and forth, with his rifle on his shoulder, leftrightleft.

You may climb very high up indeed, and fall down very deep, and no such terrible harm done after all, as

long as you don't absolutely break your neck. And gradually Peer began to realise that he was still alive, after

all. It is a bad business when the world goes against you, even though you may have some one to turn to for

advice and sympathy. But when all the people round you are utter strangers, there is nothing to be done but

sit down and twirl a straw, and think things out a bit for yourself. Peer's thoughts were of a thing in a long

dressinggown that had taken his bank book and locked it up and rattled the keys at him and said "Yah!" and

deposed him from his bishopric and tried to sneeze and squeeze him into a trade, where he'd have to carry a

pressingiron all his life and be Peer Troen, Tailor. But he wouldn't have that. He sat there bracing himself

up, and trying to gather together from somewhere a thing he had never had much need of beforeto wit, a

will of his own, something to set up against the whole wide world. What was he to do now? He felt he would

like to go back to Troen first of all, and talk things over with the old father and mother; they would be sorry

for him there, and say "Poor boy," and pray for himbut after a day or two, he knew, they would begin to

glance at him at meals, and remember that there was no one to pay for him now, and that times were hard.

No, that was no refuge for him now. But what could he do, then? Clearly it was not such a simple matter to

A little later he found himself on a hillside by the Cathedral churchyard, sitting under the yellowing trees, and

wondering dreamily where his father was to be buried. What a difference between him and that schoolmaster

man! No preaching with him; no whining about what his boy might call himself or might not. Why must he

It was strange to think of that fine strong man, who had brushed his hair and beard so carefully with his

silverbacked brushto think that he was lying still in a coffin now, and would soon be covered up with

People were coming up the hill now, and passing in to the churchyard. The men wore black clothes and tall

shiny hatsbut there were some officers too, with plumes and sashes. And then a regimental bandwith its

brass instruments. Peer slipped into the churchyard with the crowd, but kept apart from the rest, and took up

his stand a little way off, beside a big monument. "It must be father's funeral," he thought to himself, and was

This, he guessed, must be the Cadet School, that came marching in, and formed up in two lines from the

mortuary chapel to the open grave. The place was nearly full of people now; there were women holding

handkerchiefs to their eyes, and an elderly lady in black went into the chapel, on the arm of a tall man in

uniform. "That must be father's wife," thought Peer, "and the young ladies there in black aremy

halfsisters, and that young lieutenantmy half brother." How strange it all was! A sound of singing came

from the chapel. And a little later six sergeants came out, carrying a coffin all heaped with flowers. "Present

arms!" And the soldiers presented, and the band played a slow march and moved off in front of the coffin,

between the two lines of soldiers. And then came a great following of mourners. The lady in black came out

again, sobbing behind her handkerchief, and hardly able to follow, though she clung to the tall officer's arm.

But in front of the pair, just behind the coffin itself, walked a tall man in splendid uniform, with gold

epaulettes, plumed hat, and sword, bearing a cushion with two jewelled stars. And the long, long train of

mourners moved slowly, gently on, and therethere by the grave, stood the priest, holding a spade.

Peer was anxious to hear what the priest would have to say about his father. Involuntarily he stole a little

A hymn was sung at the graveside, the band accompanying. Peer took off his cap. He was too taken up to

notice that one of the mourners was watching him intently, and presently left the group and came towards

him. The man wore spectacles, and a shiny tall hat, and it was not until he began to sneeze that Peer

recognised him. It was the schoolmaster, glaring at him now with a face so full of horror and fury that the

"Youyou Are you mad?" he whispered in Peer's face, clenching his black gloved hands. "What are you

doing here? Do you want to cause a catastrophe today of all days? Goget away at once, do you hear me?

Go! For heaven's sake, get away from here before any one sees." Peer turned and fled, hearing behind him as

he went a threatening "If ever you dareagain," while the voices and the band, swelling higher in the

He was far down in the town before he could stop and pull himself together. One thing was clearafter this

he could never face that schoolmaster again. All was lost. Could he even be sure that what he had done wasn't

Next day the Troen folk were sitting at their dinner when the eldest son looked out of the window and said:

"Mercy on us!" cried the goodwife, as he came in. "What is the matter, Peer? Are you ill?"

Ah, it was good that night to creep in under the old familiar skin rug once more. And the old mother sat on

the bedside and talked to him of the Lord, by way of comfort. Peer clenched his hands under the

clothessomehow he thought now of the Lord as a sort of schoolmaster in a dressinggown. Yet it was

Peer had much to put up with in the days that followedmuch tittering and whispers of "Look! there goes

the priest," as he went by. At table, he felt ashamed of every mouthful he took; he hunted for jobs as

daylabourer on distant farms so as to earn a little to help pay for his keep. And when the winter came he

would have to do as the others didhire himself out, young and small as he was, for the Lofoten fishing.

But one day after church Klaus Brock drew him aside and got him to talk things over at length. First, Klaus

told him that he himself was going awayhe was to begin in one of the mechanical workshops in town, and

go from there to the Technical College, to qualify for an engineer. And next he wanted to hear the whole truth

about what had happened to Peer that day in town. For when people went slapping their thighs and sniggering

about the young wouldbe priest that had turned out a beggar, Klaus felt he would like to give the lot of them

So the two sixteenyearold boys wandered up and down talking, and in the days to come Peer never forgot

how his old accomplice in the sharkfishing had stood by him now. "Do like me," urged Klaus. "You're a bit

of a smith already, man; go to the workshops, and read up in your spare time for the entrance exam to the

Technical. Then three years at the Collegethe eighteen hundred crowns will cover thatand there you are,

Peer shook his head; he was sure he would never dare to show his face before that schoolmaster again, much

less ask for the money in the bank. No; the whole thing was over and done with for him.

"But devil take it, man, surely you can see that this ape of a schoolmaster dare not keep you out of your

money. Let me come with you; we'll go up and tackle him together, and thenthen you'll see." And Klaus

But when January came, there was Peer in oilskins, in the foc's'le of a Lofoten fishingsmack, ploughing the

long searoad north to the fishinggrounds, in frost and snowstorms. All through that winter he lived the

fisherman's life: on land, in one of the tiny fisherbooths where a fiveman crew is packed like sardines in an

air so thick you can cut it with a knife; at sea, where in a fair wind you stand half the day doing nothing and

freezing stiff the whileand a foul wind means out oars, and row, row, row, over an endless plain of rolling

icy combers; row, row, till one's hands are lumps of bleeding flesh. Peer lived through it all, thinking now

and then, when he could think at all, how the grand gentlefolk had driven him out to this life because he was

impertinent enough to exist. And when the fourteen weeks were past, and the Lofoten boats stood into the

fjord again on a mild spring day, it was easy for Peer to reckon out his earnings, which were just nothing at

all. He had had to borrow money for his outfit and food, and he would be lucky if his boy's share was enough

A few weeks later a boy stood by the yard gate of an engineering works in the town just as the bell was

The two boys stood a moment taking stock of one another: Klaus grimyfaced and in

The manager of the factory was Klaus's uncle, and the same afternoon his nephew came into the office with a

new hand wanting to be taken on as apprentice. He had done some smithy work before, he said; and he was

The two boys went out with a feeling of having done something rather daring. And anyway, if trouble should

In a narrow alley off Sea Street lived Gorseth the jobmaster, with a household consisting of a lean and

skinny wife, two halfstarved horses, and a few ramshackle flies and sledges. The jobmaster himself was a

hulking toper with red nose and beeryyellow eyes, who spent his nights in drinking and got home in the

small hours of the morning when his wife was just about getting up. All through the morning she went about

the place scolding and storming at him for a drunken ne'erdowell, while Gorseth himself lay comfortably

When Peer arrived on the scene with his box on his shoulder, Gorseth was on his knees in the yard, greasing a

pair of leather carriageaprons, while his wife, sunkenlipped and fierceeyed, stood in the kitchen doorway,

abusing him for a profligate, a swine, and the scum of the earth. Gorseth lay there on allfours, with the sun

shining on his bald head, smearing on the grease; but every now and then he would lift his head and snarl out,

A beery nose was turned towards him, and the man dragged himself up and wiped his hands on his trousers.

"Right you are," said he, and led the way across the yard, up some stairs, and into a little room with two

panes of glass looking on to the street and a halfwindow on the yard. The room had a bed with sheets, a

couple of chairs, and a table in front of the halfwindow. Six and six a month. Agreed. Peer took it on the

spot, paid down the first month's rent, and having got rid of the man sat down on his chest and looked about

him. Many people have never a roof to their heads, but here was he, Peer, with a home of his own. Outside in

the yard the woman had begun yelping her abuse again, the horses in the stable beneath were stamping and

whinnying, but Peer had lodged in fisherbooths and peasants' quarters and was not too particular. Here he

was for the first time in a place of his own, and within its walls was master of the house and his own master.

Food was the next thing. He went out and bought in supplies, stocking his chest with plain country fare. At

dinner time he sat on the lid, as fishermen do, and made a good solid meal of flat bannocks and cold bacon.

And now he fellto at his new work. There was no question of whether it was what he wanted or not; here

was a chance of getting up in the world, and that without having to beg any one's leave. He meant to get on.

And it was not long before his dreams began to take a new shape from his new life. He stood at the bottom of

a ladder, a blacksmith's boybut up at the top sat a mighty Chief Engineer, with gold spectacles and white

waistcoat. That was where he would be one day. And if any schoolmaster came along and tried to keep him

back this timewell, just let him try it. They had turned him out of a churchyard oncehe would have his

revenge for that some day. It might take him years and years to do it, but one fine day he would be as good as

In the misty mornings, as he tramped in to his work, dinnerpail in hand, his footsteps on the plank bridge

seemed hammering out with concentrated will: "Today I shall learn something newnewnew!"

The great works down at the harbourshipyard, foundry, and machine shopswere a whole city in

themselves. And into this world of fire and smoke and glowing iron, steamhammers, racing wheels, and

bustle and noise, he was thrusting his way, intent upon one thing, to learn and learn and ever learn. There

were plenty of those by him who were content to know their way about the little corner where they

stoodbut they would never get any farther. They would end their days brokendown workmenHE

would carve his way through till he stood among the masters. He had first to put in some months' work in the

smithy, then he would be passed on to the machine shops, then to work with the carpenters and painters, and

finally in the shipyard. The whole thing would take a couple of years. But the works and all therein were

already a kind of new Bible to him; a book of books, which he must learn by heart. Only wait!

And what a place it was for new adventures! Many times a day he would find himself gazing at some new

wonder; sheer miracle and revelationyet withal no creation of God's grace, but an invention of men. Press

a button, and behold, a miracle springs to life. He would stare at the things, and the strain of understanding

them would sometimes keep him awake at night. There was something behind this, something that must

bespirit, even though it did not come from God. These engineers were priests of a sort, albeit they did not

One day he was put to riveting work on an enormous boiler, and for the first time found himself working with

a power that was not the power of his own hands. It was a tube, full of compressed air, that drove home the

rivets in quick succession with a clashing wail from the boiler that sounded all over the town. Peer's head and

ears ached with the noise, but he smiled all the same. He was used to toil himself, in weariness of body; now

he stood here master, was mind and soul and directing will. He felt it now for the first time, and it sent a thrill

But all through the long evenings he sat alone, reading, reading, and heard the horses stamping in the stable

below. And when he crept into bed, well after midnight, there was only one thing that troubled himhis

utter loneliness. Klaus Brock lived with his uncle, in a fine house, and went to parties. And he lay here all by

himself. If he were to die that very night, there would be hardly a soul to care. So utterly alone he wasin a

Sometimes it helped him a little to think of the old mother at Troen, or of the church at home, where the

vaulted roof had soared so high over the swelling organnotes, and all the faces had looked so beautiful. But

the evening prayer was no longer what it had been for him. There was no greyhaired bishop any more sitting

at the top of the ladder he was to climb. The Chief Engineer that was there now had nothing to do with Our

Lord, or with life in the world to come. He would never come so far now that he could go down into the place

of torment where his mother lay, and bring her up with him, up to salvation. And whatever power and might

he gained, he could never stand in autumn evenings and lift up his finger and make all the stars break into

Something was past and gone for Peer. It was as if he were rowing away from a coast where red clouds hung

in the sky and dream visions filled the airrowing farther and farther away, towards something quite new.

One Sunday, as he sat reading, the door opened, and Klaus Brock entered whistling, with his cap on the back

But Klaus remained standing, with his hands in his pockets and his cap on, staring about the room. "Well, I'm

blest!" he said at last. "If he hasn't stuck up a photograph of himself on his table!"

"Not their own photos, you ass! If anybody sees that, you'll never hear the last of it."

Peer took up the photograph and flung it under the bed. "Well, it was a rubbishy thing," he muttered.

Evidently he had made a mistake. "But what about this?"pointing to a coloured picture he had nailed up on

Klaus put on his most manly air and bit off a piece of tobacco plug. "Ah! that!" he said, trying not to laugh

"Painting! Haha! that's good! Why, you silly cow, can't you see it's only an oleograph?"

"I'll take you along one day to the Art Gallery," said Klaus. "Then you can see what a real painting looks like.

"Yes," put in Peer eagerly; "hear me say a poem." And before Klaus could protest, he had begun to recite.

When he had finished, Klaus sat for a while in silence, chewing his quid. "H'm!" he said at last, "if our last

teacher, Froken Zebbelin, could have heard that English of yours, we'd have had to send for a nurse for her,

This was too much. Peer flung the book against the wall and told the other to clear out to the devil. When

"If you are to pass your entrance at the Technical you'll have to have lessonssurely you can see that. You

"Easy for you to talk about teachers! Let me tell you my pay is twopence an hour."

"I'll find you one who can take you twice a week or so in languages and history and mathematics. I daresay

some brokendown sot of a student would take you on for sevenpence a lesson. You could run to that,

Peer was quiet now and a little pensive. "Well, if I give up butter, and drink water instead of coffee"

Klaus laughed, but his eyes were moist. Hard luck that he couldn't offer to lend his comrade a few

So the summer passed. On Sundays Peer would watch the young folks setting out in the morning for the

country, to spend the whole day wandering in the fields and woods, while he sat indoors over his books. And

in the evening he would stick his head out of his two paned window that looked on to the street, and would

see the lads and girls coming back, flushed and noisy, with flowers and green boughs in their hats, crazy with

sunshine and fresh air. And still he must sit and read on. But in the autumn, when the long nights set in, he

would go for a walk through the streets before going to bed, as often as not up to the white wooden house

where the manager lived. This was Klaus's home. Lights in the windows, and often music; the happy people

that lived here knew and could do all sorts of things that could never be learned from books. No mistake: he

One day Klaus happened to mention, quite casually, where Colonel Holm's widow lived, and late one

evening Peer made his way out there, and cautiously approached the house. It was in River Street, almost

hidden in a cluster of great trees, and Peer stood there, leaning against the garden fence, trembling with some

obscure emotion. The long rows of windows on both floors were lighted up; he could hear youthful laughter

within, and then a young girl's voice singingdoubtless they were having a party. Peer turned up his collar

against the wind, and tramped back through the town to his lodging above the carter's stable.

For the lonely working boy Saturday evening is a sort of festival. He treats himself to an extra wash, gets out

his clean underclothes from his chest, and changes. And the smell of the newlywashed underclothing calls

up keenly the thought of a pockmarked old woman who sewed and patched it all, and laid it away so neatly

Now and again, when a Sunday seemed too long, Peer would drift into the nearest church. What the parson

said was all very good, no doubt, but Peer did not listen; for him there were only the hymns, the organ, the

lofty vaulted roof, the coloured windows. Here, too, the faces of the people looked otherwise than in the

street without; touched, as it were, by some reflection from all that their thoughts aspired to reach. And it was

so homelike here. Peer even felt a sort of kinship with them all, though every soul there was a total stranger.

But at last one day, to his surprise, in the middle of a hymn, a voice within him whispered suddenly: "You

And one evening Peer sat down and wrote. He took quite a lordly tone, saying that if she wanted help in any

way, she need only let him know. And if she would care to move in to town, she could come and live with

him. After which he remained, her affectionate brother, Peer Holm, engineer apprentice.

A few days later there came a letter addressed in a fine slanting hand. Louise had just been confirmed. The

farmer she was with wished to keep her on as dairymaid through the winter, but she was afraid the work

would be too heavy for her. So she was coming in to town by the boat arriving on Sunday evening. With kind

On Sunday evening he put on his blue suit and stiff felt hat, and walked down to the quay. For the first time

in his life he had some one else to look afterhe was to be a father and benefactor from now on to some one

worse off than himself. This was something new. The thought came back to him of the jolly gentleman who

had come driving down one day to Troen to look after his little son. Yes, that was the way to do things; that

was the sort of man he would be. And involuntarily he fell into something of his father's look and step, his

smile, his lavish, careless air. "Well, well well, wellwell, well," he seemed saying to himself. He might

The little green steamboat rounded the point and lay in to the quay, the gangways were run out, porters

jumped aboard, and all the passengers came bundling ashore. Peer wondered how he was to know her, this

The crowd on deck soon thinned, and people began moving off from the quay into the town.

Then Peer was aware of a young peasantgirl, with a box in one hand and a violincase in the other. She

wore a grey dress, with a black kerchief over her fair hair; her face was pale, and finely cut. It was his

mother's face; his mother as a girl of sixteen. Now she was looking about her, and now her eyes rested on

They stood for a moment, smiling and measuring each other with their eyes, and then shook hands.

Together they carried the box up through the town, and Peer was so much of a townsman already that he felt

a little ashamed to find himself walking through the streets, holding one end of a trunk, with a peasantgirl at

the other. And what a clatter her thick shoes made on the pavement! But all the time he was ashamed to feel

ashamed. Those blue arch eyes of hers, constantly glancing up at him, what were they saying? "Yes, I have

come," they said"and I've no one but you in all the worldand here I am," they kept on saying.

"Oh well; my playing's only nonsense," she laughed. And she told how the old sexton she had been living

with last had not been able to afford a new dress for her confirmation, and had given her the violin instead.

"But wasn't itdidn't you feel horrible, with the other girls standing by you all dressed up fine?"

When they came up to his room she stood for a moment looking round the place. It was hardly what she had

expected to find. And she had not been in town lodgings before, and her nose wrinkled up a little as she smelt

"Lord bless us, you may well ask!" Peer scratched his head. "There's only one bed, you see." At that they

"Right. The very thing," said he, delighted. "I've two pillows; you can have one. And two rugsanyway, you

"And then I can put on my other dress over," she said. "And maybe you'll have an old overcoat"

"But where do you get your food from?" She evidently meant to have everything cleared up at once.

Peer felt rather ashamed that he hadn't money enough to invite her to a meal at an eatinghouse then and

there. But he had to pay his teacher's fees the next day; and his storebox wanted refilling too.

"I boil the coffee on the stove there overnight," he said, "so that it's all ready in the morning. And the dry

food I keep in that box there. We'll see about some supper now." He opened the box, fished out a loaf and

some butter, and put the kettle on the stove. She helped him to clear the papers off the table, and spread the

feast on it. There was only one knife, but it was really much better fun that way than if he had had two. And

soon they were seated on their chairsthey had a chair eachhaving their first meal in their own home, he

It was settled that Louise should sleep on the floor, and they both laughed a great deal as he tucked her in

carefully so that she shouldn't feel cold. It was not till afterwards, when the lamp was out, that they noticed

that the autumn gales had set in, and there was a loud northwester howling over the housetops. And there

It seemed a strange and new thing to Peer, this really having a relation of his ownand a girl, tooa young

woman. There she lay on the floor near by him, and from now on he was responsible for what was to become

There was a pause. Then Peer brought out, rather awkwardly: "We're all alone, thenyou and I."

So Peer told her all his plans. She said nothing for a little whileno doubt she was lying thinking of the

At last she spoke. "Do you thinkdoes it cost very much to learn to be a midwife?"

"A midwifeis that what you want to be, girl?" Peer couldn't help laughing. So this was what she had been

"Do you think my hands are too big?" she ventured presentlyhe could just hear the whisper.

Peer felt a pang of pity. He had noticed already how ill the red swollen hands matched her pale clearcut

face, and he knew that in the country, when any one has small, fine hands, people call them "midwife's

"We'll manage it somehow, I daresay," said Peer, turning round to the wall. He had heard that it cost several

hundred crowns to go through the course at the midwifery school. It would be years before he could get

together anything like that sum. Poor girl, it looked as if she would have a long time to wait.

After that they fell silent. The northwester roared over the housetops, and presently brother and sister were

When Peer awoke the next morning, Louise was about already, making coffee over the little stove. Then she

opened her box, took out a yellow petticoat and hung it on a nail, placed a pair of new shoes against the wall,

lifted out some underlinen and woollen stockings, looked at them, and put them back again. The little box

As Peer was getting up: "Gracious mercy!" she cried suddenly, "what is that awful noise down in the yard?"

"Oh, that's nothing to worry about," said Peer. "It's only the jobmaster and his wife. They carry on like that

Soon they were seated once more at the little table, drinking coffee and laughing and looking at each other.

Louise had found time to do her hairthe two fair plaits hung down over her shoulders.

It was time for Peer to be off, and, warning the girl not to go too far from home and get lost, he ran down the

"She? Your sister? She's to sleep on the floorand you in the bed!" gasped Klaus.

Peer saw he had made a mistake again. "Of course I was only fooling," he hastened to say. "Of course it's

When he came home he found she had borrowed a fryingpan from the carter's wife, and had fried some

But when the girl's eyes fell on the coloured print on the wall, and she asked if it was a painting, Peer became

very grand at once. "Thata painting? Why, that's only an oleograph, silly! No, I'll take you along to the Art

Gallery one day, and show you what real paintings are like." And he sat drumming with his fingers on the

They agreed that Louise had better look out at once for some work to help things along. And at the first

eatinghouse they tried, she was taken on at once in the kitchen to wash the floor and peel potatoes.

When bedtime came he insisted on Louise taking the bed. "Of course all that was only a joke last night," he

explained. "Here in town women always have the best of everythingthat's what's called manners." As he

stretched himself on the hard floor, he had a strange new feeling. The narrow little garret seemed to have

widened out now that he had to find room in it for a guest. There was something not unpleasant even in lying

After the lamp was out he lay for a while, listening to her breathing. Then at last:

"And when you're a midwife, Froken Hagen might quite well marry a doctor, you know."

They both snuggled down under the clothes, with the sense of ease and peace that comes from sharing a room

So things went on till winter was far spent. Now that Louise, too, was a wageearner, and could help with the

expenses, they could dine luxuriously at an eatinghouse every day, if they pleased, on meatcakes at

fourpence a portion. They managed to get a bed for Peer that could be folded up during the day, and soon

learned, too, that good manners required they should hang up Louise's big woollen shawl between them as a

modest screen while they were dressing and undressing. And Louise began to drop her country speech and

One thought often came to Peer as he lay awake. "The girl is the very image of mother, that's certainwhat

if she were to go the same way? Well, no, that she shall not. You're surely man enough to see to that. Nothing

They saw but little of each other during the day, though, for they were apart from early in the morning till he

came home in the evening. And when he lectured her, and warned her to be careful and take no notice of men

who tried to speak to her, Louise only laughed. When Klaus Brock came up one day to visit them, and made

great play with his eyes while he talked to her, Peer felt much inclined to take him by the scruff of the neck

When Christmastime was near they would wander in the long evenings through the streets and look in at the

dazzlingly lit shopwindows, with their tempting, glittering show of gold and finery. Louise kept asking

continually how much he thought this thing or that costthat lace, or the cloak, or the stockings, or those

gold brooches. "Wait till you marry that doctor," Peer would say, "then you can buy all those things." So far

neither of them had an overcoat, but Peer turned up his coatcollar when he felt cold, and Louise made the

most of her thick woollen dress and a pair of good country gloves that kept her quite warm. And she had

adventured on a hat now, in place of her kerchief, and couldn't help glancing round, thinking people must

On Christmas Eve he carried up buckets of water from the yard, and she had a great scrubbingout of the

whole room. And then they in their turn had a good wash, helping each other in country fashion to scrub

Peer was enough of a townsman now to have laid in a few little presents to give his sister; but the girl, who

had not been used to such doings, had nothing for him, and wept a good deal when she realised it. They ate

cakes from the confectioner's with syrup over them, and drank chocolate, and then Louise played a

hymntune, in her best style, on her violin, and Peer read the Christmas lessons from the prayerbookit

was all just like what they used to do at Troen on Christmas Eve. And that night, after the lamp was put out,

they lay awake talking over plans for the future. They promised each other that when they had got well on in

the world, he in his line and she in hers, they would manage to live near each other, so that their children

could play together and grow up good friends. Didn't she think that was a good idea? Yes, indeed she did.

But later on in the winter, when she sat at home in the evenings waiting for himhe often worked

overtimeshe was sometimes almost afraid. There was his step on the stairs! If it was hurried and eager she

would tremble a little. For the moment he was inside the door he would burst out: "Hurrah, my girl! I've

learnt something new today, I tell you!" "Have you, Peer?" And then out would pour a torrent of talk about

motors and power and pressures and cylinders and cranes and screws, and suchlike. She would sit and listen

and smile, but of course understood not a word of it all, and as soon as Peer discovered this he would get

Then there were the long evenings when he sat at home reading, by himself or with his teacher and she had to

sit so desperately still that she hardly dared take a stitch with her needle. But one day he took it into his head

that his sister ought to be studying too; so he set her a piece of history to learn by the next evening. But time

to learn itwhere was that to come from? And then he started her writing to his dictation, to improve her

spellingand all the time she kept dropping off to sleep. She had washed so many floors and peeled so many

"Look here, my fine girl!" he would storm at her, raging up and down the room, "if you think you can get on

in the world without education, you're most infernally mistaken." He succeeded in reducing her to tearsbut

it wasn't long before her head had fallen forward on the table again and she was fast asleep. So he realised

there was nothing for it but to help her to bedas quietly as possible, so as not to wake her up.

Some way on in the spring Peer fell sick. When the doctor came, he looked round the room, sniffed, and

frowned. "Do you call this a place for human beings to live in?" he asked Louise, who had taken the day off.

He examined Peer, who lay coughing, his face a burning red. "Yes, yesjust as I expected. Inflammation of

the lungs." He glanced round the room once more. "Better get him off to the hospital at once," he said.

Louise sat there in terror at the idea that Peer was to be taken away. And then, as the doctor was going, he

looked at her more closely, and said: "You'd do well to be a bit careful yourself, my good girl. You look as if

you wanted a change to a decent room, with a little more light and air, pretty badly. Goodmorning."

Soon after he was gone the hospital ambulance arrived. Peer was carried down the stairs on a stretcher, and

the greenpainted box on wheels opened its door and swallowed him up; and they would not even let her go

The hospital was one of the good oldfashioned kind that people don't come near if they can help it, because

the walls seem to reek of the discomfort and wretchedness that reign inside. The general wardswhere the

poor folks wentwere always so overcrowded that patients with all sorts of different diseases had to be

packed into the same rooms, and often infected each other. When an operation was to be performed, things

were managed in the most cheerfully casual way: the patient was laid on a stretcher and carried across the

open yard, often in the depth of winter, and as he was always covered up with a rug, the others usually

When Peer opened his eyes, he was aware of a man in a white blouse standing by the foot of his bed. "Why, I

believe he's comingto," said the man, who seemed to be a doctor. Peer found out afterwards from a nurse

He lay there, day after day, conscious of nothing but the stabbing of a redhot iron boring through his chest

and cutting off his breathing. Some one would come every now and then and pour port wine and naphtha into

his mouth; and morning and evening he was washed carefully with warm water by gentle hands. But little by

little the room grew lighter, and his gruel began to have some taste. And at last he began to distinguish the

On his right lay a blackhaired, yellowfaced dock labourer with a broken nose. His disease, whatever it

might be, was clearly different from Peer's. He plagued the nurse with foulmouthed complaints of the food,

swearing he would report about it. On the other side lay an emaciated cobbler with a soft brown beard like the

Christ pictures, and cheeks glowing with fever. He was dying of cancer. At right angles with him lay a man

with the face and figure of a propheta Mosesall bushy white hair and beard; he was in the last stage of

consumption, and his cough was like a riveting machine. "Huh!" he would groan, "if only I could get across

to Germany there'd be a chance for me yet." Beside him was a fellow with short beard and piercing eyes, who

was a little off his head, and imagined himself a corporal of the Guards. Often at night the others would be

One man lay moaning and groaning all the time, turning from side to side of a body covered with sores. But

one day he managed to swallow some of the alcohol they used as lotion, and after that lay singing and

weeping alternately. And there was a redbearded man with glasses, a commercial traveller; he had put a

bullet into his head, but the doctors had managed to get it out again, and now he lay and praised the Lord for

It was strange to Peer to lie awake at night in this great room in the dim light of the nightlamp; it seemed as

if beings from the land of the dead were stirring in those beds round about him. But in the daytime, when

friends and relations of the patients came a visiting, Peer could hardly keep from crying. The cobbler had a

wife and a little girl who came and sat beside him, gazing at him as if they could never let him go. The

prophet, too, had a wife, who wept inconsolablyand all the rest seemed to have some one or other to care

The man on the right had a sister, who came sweeping in, gorgeous in her trailing soiled silk dress. Her shoes

were down at heel, but her hat was a wonder, with enormous plumes. "Hallo, Ugly! how goes it?" she said;

and sat down and crossed her legs. Then the pair would talk mysteriously of people with strange names: "The

Flea," "Cockroach," "The Galliot," "King Ring," and the like, evidently friends of theirs. One day she

managed to bring in a small bottle of brandy, a present from "The Hedgehog," and smuggle it under the

bedclothes. As soon as she had gone, and the coast was clear, Peer's neighbour drew out the bottle, managed

to work the cork out, and offered him a drink. "Here's luck, sonny; do you good." NoPeer would rather not.

Then followed a gurgling sound from the docker's bed, and soon he too was lying singing at the top of his

At last one day Louise came. She was wearing her neat hat, and had a little bundle in her hand, and as she

came in, looking round the room, the close air of the sickward seemed to turn her a little faint. But then she

caught sight of Peer, and smiled, and came cautiously to him, holding out her hand. She was astonished to

find him so changed. But as she sat down by his pillow she was still smiling, though her eyes were full of

"They wouldn't let me in before," she said with a sob. And then Peer learned that she had come there every

The man with the broken nose craned his head forward to get a better view of the modest young girl. And

meanwhile she was pulling out of the bundle the offering she had broughta bottle of lemonade and some

But it was a day or two later that something happened which Peer was often to remember in the days to come.

He had been dozing through the afternoon, and when he woke the lamp was lit, and a dull yellow halflight

lay over the ward. The others seemed to be sleeping; all was very quiet, only the man with the sores was

whimpering softly. Then the door opened, and Peer saw Louise glide in, softly and cautiously, with her

violincase under her arm. She did not come over to where her brother lay, but stood in the middle of the

ward, and, taking out her violin, began to play the Easter hymn: "The mighty host in white array."*

The man with the sores ceased whimpering; the patients in the beds round about opened their eyes. The

docker with the broken nose sat up in bed, and the cobbler, roused from his feverish dream, lifted himself on

his elbow and whispered: "It is the Redeemer. I knew Thou wouldst come." Then there was silence. Louise

stood there with eyes fixed on her violin, playing her simple best. The consumptive raised his head and forgot

to cough; the corporal slowly stiffened his body to attention; the commercial traveller folded his hands and

stared before him. The simple tones of the hymn seemed to be giving new life to all these unfortunates; the

light of it was in their faces. But to Peer, watching his sister as she stood there in the halflight, it seemed as

if she grew to be one with the hymn itself, and that wings to soar were given her.

When she had finished, she came softly over to his bed, stroked his forehead with her swollen hand, then

For a long time all was silent in the dismal ward, until at last the dying cobbler murmured: "I thank Thee. I

When Peer left the hospital, the doctor said he had better not begin work again at once; he should take a

holiday in the country and pick up his strength. "Easy enough for you to talk," thought Peer, and a couple of

But his ways with his sister were more considerate than before, and he searched about until he had found her

And soon Louise began to notice with delight that her hands were much less red and swollen than they had

Next winter she sat at home in the evenings while he read, and made herself a dress and cloak and trimmed a

new hat, so that Peer soon had quite an elegant young lady to walk out with. But when men turned round to

look at her as she passed, he would scowl and clench his fists. At last one day this was too much for Louise,

and she rebelled. "Now, Peer, I tell you plainly I won't go out with you if you go on like that."

"All right, my girl," he growled. "I'll look after you, though, never fear. We're not going to have mother's

"Well, but, after all, I'm a grownupgirl, and you can't prevent people looking at me, idiot!"

Klaus Brock had been entered at the Technical College that autumn, and went about now with the College

badge in his cap, and sported a walkingstick and a cigarette. He had grown into a big, broad shouldered

fellow, and walked with a little swing in his step; a thick shock of black hair fell over his forehead, and he

had a way of looking about him as if to say: "Anything the matter? All right, I'm ready!"

One evening he came in and asked Louise to go with him to the theatre. The young girl blushed red with joy,

and Peer could not refuse; but he was waiting for them outside the yard gate when they came back. On a

Sunday soon after Klaus was there again, asking her to come out for a drive. This time she did not even look

to Peer for leave, but said "yes" at once. "Just you wait," said Peer to himself. And when she came back that

Soon he could not help seeing that the girl was going about with halfshut eyes, dreaming dreams of which

she would never speak to him. And as the days went on her hands grew whiter, and she moved more lightly,

as if to the rhythm of unheard music. Always as she went about the room on her household tasks she was

crooning some song; it seemed that there was some joy in her soul that must find an outlet.

One Saturday in the late spring she had just come home, and was getting the supper, when Peer came

"I've passed my entrance exam for the Technicalhurrah! Next autumnnext autumnI'll be a student!"

"Here you aresausages, anchoviesand here's a bottle of brandy the first I ever bought in my life.

Klaus is coming up later on to have a glass of toddy. And here's cheese. We'll make things hum tonight."

Klaus came, and the two youths drank toddy and smoked and made speeches, and Louise played patriotic

When he left, Peer went with him, and as the two walked down the street, Klaus took his friend's arm, and

pointed to the pale moon riding high above the fjord, and vowed never to give him up, till he stood at the very

top of the treenever, never! Besides, he was a Socialist now, he said, and meant to raise a revolt against all

class distinctions. And LouiseLouise was the most glorious girl in all the worldand nowand

nowPeer might just as well know it sooner as laterthey were as good as engaged to be married, he and

Peer pushed him away, and stood staring at him. "Go home now, and go to bed," he said.

Next morning, as Louise lay in bedshe had asked to have her breakfast there for once in a wayshe

"Shaving! Are you so desperate to be grand today that you must scrape all your skin off? You know there's

"What can it be? You're not going courting an old widow with twelve children, are you?"

"If you want to know, I'm going to that schoolmaster fellow, and going to wring my savingsbank book out

Yes; he had been working himself up to this for a year or more, and now he was going to do it. Today he

would show what he was made ofwhether he was a snivelling child, or a man that could stand up to any

dressinggown in the world. He was shaving for the first timequite true. And the reason was that it was no

Louise stayed at home all the morning, waiting for his return. And at last she heard him on the stairs.

He laughed, wiped his forehead, and drew a greencovered book from his coatpocket. "Here we are, my

girlthere's fifty crowns a month for three years. It's going to be a bit of a pinch, with fees and books, and

living and clothes into the bargain. But we'll do it. Father was one of the right sort, I don't care what they

"'Do you suppose that youyou with your antecedentscould ever pass into the Technical College?' he

said. And I told him I HAD passed. 'Good heavens! How could you possibly qualify?' and he shifted his

glasses down his nose. And then: 'Oh, no! it's no good coming here with tales of that sort, my lad.' Well, then

I showed him the certificate, and he got much meeker. 'Really!' he said, and 'Dear me!' and all that. But I say,

"And old Dressinggown said it would never donever! But I said it seemed to me there must be room in

the world for me as well, and I'd like that bank book now, I said. 'You seem to fancy you have some legal

right to it,' he said, and got perfectly furious. Then I hinted that I'd rather ask a lawyer about it and make sure,

and at that he regularly boiled with rage and waved his arms all about. But he gave in pretty soon all the

samesaid he washed his hands of the whole thing. 'And besides,' he said, 'your name's Troen, you

knowPeer Troen.' HohohoPeer Troen! Wouldn't he like it! Tralalala!I say, let's go out and get

Peer said nothing then or after about Klaus Brock, and Klaus himself was going off home for the summer

holidays. As the summer wore on the town lay baking in the heat, reeking of drains, and the air from the

stable came up to the couple in the garret so heavy and foul that they were sometimes nearly stifled.

"I'll tell you what," said Peer one day, "we really must spend a few shillings more on house rent and get a

And Louise agreed. For till the time came for him to join the College in the autumn, Peer was obliged to stick

One morning he was just starting with a working gang down to Stenkjaer to repair some damage in the

engineroom of a big Russian grain boat, when Louise came and asked him to look at her throat. "It hurts so

Peer took a spoon and pressed down her tongue, but could not see anything wrong. "Better go and see the

But the girl made light of it. "Oh, nonsense!" she said; "it's not worth troubling about."

Peer was away for over a week, sleeping on board with the rest. When he came back, he hurried home,

suddenly thinking of Louise and her sore throat. He found the jobmaster greasing the wheels of a carriage,

while his wife leaned out of a window scolding at him. "Your sister," repeated the carter, turning round his

face with its great red lump of nose"she's gone to hospitaldiphtheria hospitalshe has. Doctor was here

over a week ago and took her off. They've been here since poking round and asking who she was and where

she belongedwell, we didn't know. And asking where you were, tooand we didn't know either. She was

Peer hastened off. It was a hot day, and the air was close and heavy. On he wentall down the whole length

of Sea Street, through the fishermen's quarter, and a good way further out round the bay. And then he saw a

cart coming towards him, an ordinary workcart, with a coffin on it. The driver sat on the cart, and another

man walked behind, hat in hand. Peer ran on, and at last came in sight of the long yellow building at the far

end of the bay. He remembered all the horrible stories he had heard about the treatment of diphtheria

patientshow their throats had to be cut open to give them air, or something burned out of them with

redhot ironsoh! When at last he had reached the high fence and rung the bell, he stood breathless and

There was a sound of steps within, a key was turned, and a porter with a red moustache and freckles about his

"LouLouise Hagen? A girl called Louise Hagen? Is it her you've come to ask about?"

"We've had no end of bother and trouble about that girl, trying to find out where she came from, and if she

had people here. But, of course, this weather, we couldn't possibly keep her any longer. Didn't you meet a

"Well, you should have come before, you know. She did ask a lot for some one called Peer. And she got the

matron to write somewherewasn't it to Levanger? Were you the fellow she was asking for? So you came at

last! Oh, wellshe died four or five days ago. And they're just gone now to bury her, in St. Mary's

Peer turned round and looked out over the bay at the town, that lay sunlit and smokewreathed beyond.

Towards the town he began to walk, but his step grew quicker and quicker, and at last he took off his cap and

ran, panting and sobbing as he went. Have I been drinking? was the thought that whirled through his brain, or

why can't I wake? What is it? What is it? And still he ran. There was no cart in sight as yet; the little streets of

the fisher quarter were all twists and turns. At last he reached Sea Street once more, and therethere far

ahead was the slowmoving cart. Almost at once it turned off to the right and disappeared, and when Peer

reached the turning, it was not to be seen. Still he ran on at haphazard. There seemed to be other people in the

streets children flying red balloons, women with baskets, men with straw hats and walkingsticks. But

Peer marked his line, and ran forward, thrusting people aside, upsetting those in his way, and dashing on

again. In King Street he came in sight of the cart once more, nearer this time. The man walking behind it with

his hat in his hand had red curling hair, and walked with a curtsying gait, giving at the knees and turning out

his toes. No doubt he made his living as mourner at funerals to which no other mourners came. As the cart

turned into the churchyard Peer came up with it, and tried to follow at a walk, but stumbled and could hardly

keep his feet. The man behind the cart looked at him. "What's the matter with you?" he asked. The driver

The cart stopped, and Peer stood by, leaning against a tree for support. A third man came uphe seemed to

be the gravediggerand he heard the three discussing how long they might have to wait for the parson. "The

time's just about up, isn't it?" said the driver, taking out his watch. "Ay, the clerk said he'd be here by now,"

Soon the priest came in sight, wearing his black robe and white ruff; there were doubtless to be other funerals

that day. Peer sank down on a bench and looked stupidly on while the coffin was lifted from the cart, carried

to the grave, and lowered down. A man with spectacles and a red nose came up with a hymnbook, and sang

something over the grave. The priest lifted the spadeand at the sound of the first spadeful of earth falling

When he looked up again, the place was deserted. The bell was ringing, and a crowd was collecting in

In the evening, when the gravedigger came to lock the gates, he had to take the young man by the shoulder

Peer rose and tried to walk, and by and by he was stumbling blindly out through the gate and down the street.

And after a time he found himself climbing a flight of stairs above a stableyard. Once in his room, he flung

The close heat of the day had broken in a downpour of rain, which drummed upon the roof above his head,

and poured in torrents through the gutters. Instinctively Peer started up: Louise was out in the rainshe

would need her cloak. He was on his feet in a moment, as if to find itthen he stopped short, and sank

He drew up his feet under him, and buried his head in his arms. His brain was full of changing, hurrying

visions, of storm and death, of human beings helpless in a universe coldly and indifferently ruled by a will

Then for the first time it was as if he lifted up his head against Heaven itself and cried: "There is no sense in

Later in the night, when he found himself mechanically folding his hands for the evening prayer he had learnt

to say as a child, he suddenly burst out laughing, and clenched his fists, and cried aloud: "No, no,

Once more it came to him that there was something in God like the schoolmasterHe took the side of those

who were well off already. "Yes, they who have parents and home and brothers and sisters and worldly

goodsthem I protect and care for. But here's a boy alone in the world, struggling and fighting his way on as

best he can from him I will take the only thing he has. That boy is nothing to any one. Let him be punished

because he is poor, and cast down to the earth, for there is none to care for him. That boy is nothing to any

His whole little world was broken to pieces. Either God did not exist at all, or He was cold and pitilessone

way of it was as bad as the other. The heavenly country dissolved into cloud and melted away, and above was

nothing but empty space. No more folding of your hands, like a fool! Walk on the earth, and lift up your

head, and defy Heaven and fate, as you defied the schoolmaster. Your mother has no need of you to save

hershe is not anywhere any more. She is deaddead and turned to clay; and more than that there is not,

Still he lay there. He would fain have slept, but seemed instead to sink into a vague faraway twilight that

rocked himrocked him on its dark and golden waves. And now he heard a soundwhat was it? A violin.

"The mighty host in white array." Louiseis it youand playing? He could see her now, out there in the

twilight. How pale she was! But still she played. And now he understood what that twilight was.

It was a world beyond the consciousness of daily lifeand that world belonged to him. "Peer, let me stay

here." And something in him answered: "Yes, you shall stay, Louise. Even though there is no God and no

immortality, you shall stay here." And then she smiled. And still she played. And it was as though he were

building a little vaulted chapel for her in defiance of Heaven and of Godas though he were ringing out with

his own hands a great eternal chime for her sake. What was happening to him? There was none to comfort

him, yet it ended, as he lay there, with his pouring out something of his innermost being, as an offering to all

that lives, to the earth and the stars, until all seemed rocking, rocking with him on the stately waves of the

psalm. He lay there with fastclosed eyes, stretching out his hands as though afraid to wake, and find it all

The twoo'clock bell at the Technical College had just begun to ring, and a stream of students appeared out

of the long straggling buildings and poured through the gate, breaking up then into little knots and groups that

It was a motley crowd of young men of all ages from seventeen to thirty or more. Students of the everlasting

type, sent here by their parents as a last resource, for"he can always be an engineer"; young sparks who

paid more attention to their toilet than their books, and hoped to "get through somehow" without troubling to

work; and stiff youths of soldierly bearing, who had been ploughed for the Army, but who likewise could

"always be engineers." There were peasantlads who had crammed themselves through their Intermediate at

a spurt, and now wore the College cap above their rough grey homespun, and dreamed of getting through in

no time, and turning into great men with starched cuffs and pince nez. There were pale young enthusiasts,

too, who would probably end as actors; and there were also quondam actors, killed by the critics, but still

sufficiently alive, it seemed, "to be engineers." And as the young fellows hurried on their gay and careless

way through the town, an older man here and there might look round after them with a smile of some

sadness. It was easy to say what fate awaited most of them. College ended, they would be scattered like birds

of passage throughout the wide world, some to fall by sunstroke in Africa, or be murdered by natives in

China, others to become mining kings in the mountains of Peru, or heads of great factories in Siberia,

thousands of miles from home and friends. The whole planet was their home. Only a few of themnot

always the shining lightswould stay at home, with a post on the State railways, to sit in an office and watch

"That's a devil of a fellow, that brother of yours that's here," said Klaus Brock to Peer one day, as they were

"Now, look here, Klaus, once for all, be good enough to stop calling him my brother. And another

thingyou're never to say a word to any one about my father having been anything but a farmer. My name's

"Do you suppose I'd give that coxcomb the triumph of thinking I want to make up to him?"

"Or that I want to make trouble for that fine family of his? No, I may find a way to take it out of him some

"Well, but, damn it, man! you can surely stand hearing what people say about him." And Klaus went on to

tell his story. Ferdinand Holm, it seemed, was the despair of his family. He had thrown up his studies at the

Military Academy, because he thought soldiers and soldiering ridiculous. Then he had made a short

experiment with theology, but found that worse still; and finally, having discovered that engineering was at

any rate an honest trade, he had come to anchor at the Technical College. "What do you say to that?" asked

"Wait a bit, the cream of the story's to come. A few weeks ago he thrashed a policeman in the streetsaid

he'd insulted a child, or something. There was a fearful scandalarrest, the policecourt, fine, and so forth.

And last winter what must he do but get engaged, formally and publicly engaged, to one of his mother's

maids. And when his mother sent the girl off behind his back, he raised the standard of revolt and left home

altogether. And now he does nothing but breathe fire and slaughter against the upper classes and all their

"Well, I think it's confoundedly plucky of him, anyhow," said Klaus. "And for my part I shall get to know

him if I can. He's read an awful lot, they say, and has a damned clever head on his shoulders."

On his very first day at the College, Peer had learned who Ferdinand Holm was, and had studied him with

interest. He was a tall, straightbuilt fellow with reddishblond hair and freckled face, and wore a dark

tortoiseshell pincenez. He did not wear the usual College cap, but a stiff grey felt hat, and he looked about

"Wait!" thought Peer to himself"wait, my fine fellow! Yes, you were there, no doubt, when they turned me

out of the churchyard that day. But all that won't help you here. You may have got the start of me at first, and

But one morning, out in the quadrangle, he noticed that Ferdinand Holm in his turn was looking at him, in

fact was putting his glasses straight to get a better view of himand Peer turned round at once and walked

Ferdinand, however, had been put into a higher class almost at once, on the strength of his matriculation.

Also he was going in for a different branch of the workroads and railway construction so that it was

But one afternoon, soon after Christmas, Peer was standing at work in the big designingroom, when he

"I wanted to make your acquaintance," said Holm, and when Klaus had introduced them, he held out a large

white hand with a red seal ring on the first finger. "We're namesakes, I understand, and Brock here tells me

"Yes. My father was a plain country farmer," said Peer, and at once felt annoyed with himself for the ring of

"Well, the best is good enough," said the other with a smile. "I say, though, has the firstterm class gone as

far as this in projection drawing? Excuse my asking. You see, we had a good deal of this sort of thing at the

Thought Peer: "Oh, you'd like to give me a little good advice, would you, if you dared?" Aloud he said: "No,

the drawing was on the blackboardthe senior class left it thereand I thought I'd like to see what I could

The other sent him a sidelong glance. Then he nodded, said, "Good byehope we shall meet again," and

walked off, his boots creaking slightly as he went. His easy manners, his gait, the tone of his voice, all

Days passed, and weeks. Peer soon found another object to work for than getting the better of Ferdinand

Holm. Louise's dresses hung still untouched in his room, her shoes stood under the bed; it still seemed to him

that some day she must open the door and walk in. And when he lay there alone at night, the riddle was

always with him: Where is she now?why should she have died?would he never meet her again? He saw

her always as she had stood that day playing to the sick folks in the hospital ward. But now she was dressed

in white. And it seemed quite natural now that she had wings. He heard her music tooit cradled and rocked

him. And all this came to be a little world apart, where he could take refuge for Sunday peace and devotion. It

had nothing to do with faith or religion, but it was there. And sometimes in the midst of his work in the

daytime he would divine, as in a quite separate consciousness, the tones of a fiddlebow drawn across the

strings, like reddish waves coming to him from far off, filling him with harmony, till he smiled without

Often, though, a sort of hunger would come upon him to let his being unfold in a great wide wave of organ

music in the church. But to church he never went any more. He would stride by a church door with a kind of

defiance. It might indeed be an Almighty Will that had taken Louise from him, but if so he did not mean to

give thanks to such a Will or bow down before it. It was as though he had in view a coming reckoninghis

reckoning with something far out in eternityand he must see to it that when that time came he could feel

On Sunday mornings, when the church bells began to ring, he would turn hastily to his books, as if to find

peace in them. Knowledge knowledgecould it stay his hunger for the music of the hymn? When he had

first started work at the shops, he had often and often stood wideeyed before some miraclenow he was

gathering the power to work miracles himself. And so he read and read, and drank in all that he could draw

from teacher or book, and thought and thought things out for himself. Fixed lessons and set tasks were all

well enough, but Peer was for ever looking farther; for him there were questions and more questions, riddles

and new riddles always new, always farther and farther on, towards the unknown. He had made as yet but

one step forward in physics, mathematics, chemistry; he divined that there were worlds still before him, and

he must hasten on, on, on. Would the day ever come when he should reach the end? What is knowledge?

What use do men make of all that they have learned? Look at the teachers, who knew so much were they

greater, richer, brighter beings than the rest? Could much study bring a man so far that some night he could

lift up a finger and make the stars themselves break into song? Best drive ahead, at any rate. But, again, could

knowledge lead on to that ecstasy of the Sunday psalm, that makes all riddles clear, that bears a man upwards

in nameless happiness, in which his soul expands till it can enfold the infinite spaces? Well, at any rate the

One day that spring, when the trees in the city avenues were beginning to bud, Klaus Brock and Ferdinand

Holm were sitting in a cafe in North Street. "There goes your friend," said Ferdinand; and looking from the

window they saw Peer Holm passing the post office on the other side of the road. His clothes were shabby,

his shoes had not been cleaned, he walked slowly, his fair head with its College cap bent forward, but seemed

"Look thereI suppose that's a type of carriage he's never seen before. Why, he has got the driver to stop"

"I wouldn't mind betting he'll crawl in between the wheels to find out whatever he's after," laughed Klaus,

"He looks pale and fagged out," said Ferdinand, shifting his glasses. "I suppose his people aren't very well

Klaus opened his eyes and looked at the other. "He's not overburdened with cash, I fancy."

They drank off their beer, and sat smoking and talking of other things, until Ferdinand remarked casually:

Klaus was by no means anxious to go into Peer's family affairs, and answered brieflyNo, he thought not.

"I'm afraid I'm boring you with questions, but the fact is the fellow interests me rather. There is something in

his face, somethingarresting. Even the way he walkswhere is it I've seen some one walk like that

"Works!" repeated Klaus. "He'll ruin his health before long, the way he goes on grinding. I believe he's got an

"I ran across him last Sunday, up among the hills. He was out studying geology, if you please. And if there's a

lecture anywhere about anythingwhether it's astronomy or a French poetyou can safely swear he'll be

sitting there, taking notes. You can't compete with a fellow like that! He'll run across a new name

somewhereAristotle, for instance. It's something new, and off he must go to the library to look it up. And

then he'll lie awake for nights after, stuffing his head with translations from the Greek. How the deuce can

any one keep up with a man who goes at things that way? There's one thing, though, that he knows nothing

"Well, wine and women, we'll sayand fun in general. One thing he isn't, by Jove!and that's YOUNG."

"Perhaps he's not been able to afford that sort of thing," said Ferdinand, with something like a sigh.

The two sat on for some time, and every now and then, when Klaus was off his guard, Ferdinand would slip

in another little question about Peer. And by the time they had finished their second glass, Klaus had admitted

Klaus flushed uncomfortably at this. "Nobodynonobody knows much about him," he stammered. "I'd

tell you if I knew, hanged if I wouldn't. No one has an idea who it was. Hehe's very likely in America."

"You're always mighty mysterious when you get on the subject of his family, I've noticed," said Ferdinand

A few days later Peer was sitting alone in his room above the stables, when he heard a step on the stairs, the

Peer rose involuntarily and grasped at the back of his chair as if to steady himself. If this young coxcomb had

comefrom the schoolmaster, for instanceor to take away his namewhy, he'd just throw him

"I thought I'd like to look you up, and see where you lived," began the visitor, laying down his hat and taking

a seat. "I've taken you unawares, I see. Sorry to disturb you. But the fact is there's something I wanted to

"Oh, is there?" and Peer sat down as far as conveniently possible from the other.

"I've noticed, even in the few times we've happened to meet, that you don't like me. Well, you know, that's a

"I want to be friends with you, that's all. You probably know a good deal more about me than I do about you,

but that need not matter. Hullodo you always drum with your fingers on the table like that? Hahaha!

"I rather envy you, you know, living as you do. When you come to be a millionaire, you'll have an effective

background for your millions. And then, you must know a great deal more about life than we do; and the

knowledge that comes out of books must have quite another spiritual value for you than for the rest of us,

who've been stuffed mechanically with 'lessons' and 'education' and so forth since we were kids. And now

"Yes," said Peer. His face added pretty clearly, "And what concern is it of yours?"

"Well, it does seem to me that the modern technician is a priest in his wayor no, perhaps I should rather

call him a descendant of old Prometheus. Quite a respectable ancestry, too, don't you think? But has it ever

struck you that with every victory over nature won by the human spirit, a fragment of their omnipotence is

wrested from the hands of the gods? I always feel as if we were using fire and steel, mechanical energy and

human thought, as weapons of revolt against the Heavenly tyranny. The day will come when we shall no

longer need to pray. The hour will strike when the Heavenly potentates will be forced to capitulate, and in

their turn bend the knee to us. What do you think yourself? Jehovah doesn't like engineersthat's MY

"Sounds very well," said Peer briefly. But he had to admit to himself that the other had put into words

"Of course for the present we two must be content with smaller things," Ferdinand went on. "And I don't

mind admitting that laying out a bit of road, or a bit of railway, or bridging a ditch or so, isn't work that

appeals to me tremendously. But if a man can get out into the wide world, there are things enough to be done

that give him plenty of chance to develop what's in himif there happens to be anything. I used to envy the

great soldiers, who went about to the ends of the earth, conquering wild tribes and founding empires,

organising and civilising where they went. But in our day an engineer can find big jobs too, once he gets out

in the worlddraining thousands of square miles of swamp, or regulating the Nile, or linking two oceans

together. That's the sort of thing I'm going to take a hand in some day. As soon as I've finished here, I'm off.

And we'll leave it to the engineers to come, say in a couple of hundred years or so, to start in arranging tourist

"I havethanks all the same." Ferdinand took out his cigarcase, and when Peer had declined the offered

"I'm a regular Spartan, as a rule, but they've just finished dividing up my father's estate, so I'm in funds for the

moment, and why shouldn't we have a little dinner to celebrate? If you want to change, I can wait

Peer was more and more perplexed. Was there something behind all this? Or was the fellow simply an

astonishingly good sort? Giving it up at last, he changed his collar and put on his best suit and went.

For the first time in his life he found himself in a firstclass restaurant, with small tables covered with

snowwhite tablecloths, flowers in vases, napkins folded sugarloaf shape, cutglass bowls, and coloured

wineglasses. Ferdinand seemed thoroughly at home, and treated his companion with a friendly politeness.

And during the meal he managed to make the talk turn most of the time on Peer's childhood and early days.

When they had come to the coffee and cigars, Ferdinand leaned across the table towards him, and said: "Look

"And, after all, who knows that there mayn't be some sort of connection? Come, now, don't look like that! I

only want you to look on me as your good friend, and to come to me if ever there's anything I can do. We

needn't live in each other's pockets, of course, when other people are bybut we must take in Klaus Brock

Peer felt a strong impulse to run away. Did the other know everything? If so, why didn't he speak straight

As the two walked home in the clear light of the spring evening, Ferdinand took his companion's arm, and

said: "I don't know if you've heard that I'm not on good terms with my people at home. But the very first time

I saw you, I had a sort of feeling that we two belonged together. Somehow you seemed to remind me so of

well, to tell the truth, of my father. And he, let me tell you, was a gallant gentleman"

But the next few days were an exciting time for Peer. He could not quite make out how much Ferdinand

knew, and nothing on earth would have induced him to say anything more himself. And the other asked no

questions, but was just a firstrate comrade, behaving as if they had been friends for years. He did not even

ask Peer any more about his childhood, and never again referred to his own family. Peer was always

reminding himself to be on his guard, but could not help feeling glad all the same whenever they were to

He was invited one evening, with Klaus, to a wineparty at Ferdinand's lodging, and found himself in a

handsomely furnished room, with pictures on the walls, and photographs of his host's parents. There was one

of his father as a young man, in uniform; another of his grandfather, who had been a Judge of the Supreme

Court. "It's very good of you to be so interested in my people," said Ferdinand with a smile. Klaus Brock

looked from one to the other, wondering to himself how things really stood between the two.

The summer vacation came round, and the students prepared to break up and go their various ways. Klaus

was to go home. And one day Ferdinand came to Peer and said: "Look here, old man. I want you to do me a

great favour. I'd arranged to go to the seaside this summer, but I've a chance of going up to the hills, too.

Well, I can't be in two places at oncecouldn't you take on one of them for me? Of course I'd pay all

expenses." "No, thank you!" said Peer, with a laugh. But when Klaus Brock came just before leaving and

said: "See here, Peer. Don't you think you and I might club together and put a marble slab overLouise's

grave?", Peer was touched, and clapped him on the shoulder. "What a good old fellow you are, Klaus," he

Later in the summer Peer set out alone on a tramp through the country, and whenever he saw a chance, he

would go up to one of the farms and say: "Would you like to have a good map of the farm? It'll cost ten

crowns and my lodging while I'm at it." It made a very pleasant holiday for him, and he came home with a

His second year at the school was much like the first. He plodded along at his work. And now and then his

two friends would come and drag him off for an evening's jollification. But after he had been racketing about

with the others, singing and shouting through the sleeping townand at last was alone and in his bed in the

darkness, another and a very different life began for him, face to face with his innermost self. Where are you

heading for, Peer? What are you aiming at in all your labours? And he would try to answer devoutly, as at

evening prayers: Where? Why, of course, I am going to be a great engineer. And then? I will be one of the

Sons of Prometheus, that head the revolt against the tyranny of Heaven. And then? I will help to raise the

great ladder on which men can climb alofthigher and higher, up towards the light, and the spirit, and

mastery over nature. And then? Live happily, marry and have children, and a rich and beautiful home. And

then? Oh, well, one fine day, of course, one must grow old and die. And then? And then? Aye, what then?

At these times he found a shadowy comfort in taking refuge in the world where Louise stoodplaying, as he

always saw herand cradling himself on the smooth red billows of her music. But why was it that here most

Ferdinand finished his College course, and went out, as he had said, into the great world, and Klaus went with

him. And so throughout his third year Peer was mostly to be seen alone, always with books under his arm,

Just as he was getting ready to go up for his final examination, a letter from Ferdinand arrived, written from

Egypt. "Come over here, young fellow," he wrote. "We have got good billets at last with a big British

firmBrown Bros., of Londona firm that's building railways in Canada, bridges in India, harbour works

in Argentina, and canals and barrages here in Egypt. We can get you a nice little post as draughtsman to

But Peer did not go at once. He stayed on another year at the College, as assistant to the lecturer on

mechanics, while himself going through the road and railway construction course, as his halfbrother had

As the year went on the letters from his two comrades became more and more pressing and tempting. "Out

here," wrote Klaus, "the engineer is a missionary, proclaimer, not Jehovah, but the power and culture of

Europe. You're bound to take a hand in that, my boy. There's work worthy of a great general waiting for you

At last, one autumn day, when the woods stood yellow all around the town, Peer drove away from his home

with a big new travellingtrunk strapped to the driver's seat. He had been up to the churchyard before

starting, with a little bunch of flowers for Louise's grave. Who could say if he would ever see it again?

At the station he stood for a moment looking back over the old city with its cathedral, and the ancient

fortress, where the sentry was pacing back and forth against the skyline. Was this the end of his youth?

Louisethe room above the stablesthe hospital, the lazarette, the College. . . . And there lay the fjord, and

far out somewhere on the coast there stood no doubt a little grey fisher hut, where a pockmarked goodwife

and her bowlegged goodman had perhaps even now received the parcel of coffee and tobacco sent them as a

Some years had passeda good many yearsand once more summer had come, and June. A passenger

steamer, bound from Antwerp to Christiania, was ploughing her way one evening over a sea so motionlessly

calm that it seemed a single vast mirror filled with a sky of grey and pinktinged clouds. There were plenty

of passengers on board, and no one felt inclined for bed; it was so warm, so beautiful on deck. Some artists,

on their way home from Paris or Munich, cast about for amusements to pass the time; some ordered wine,

others had unearthed a concertina, and very soon, no one knew how, a dance was in full swing. "No, my

dear," said one or two cautious mothers to their girls, "certainly not." But before long the mothers were

dancing themselves. Then there was a doctor in spectacles, who stood up on a barrel and made a speech; and

presently two of the artists caught hold of the greybearded captain and chaired him round the deck. The

night was so clear, the skies so ruddily beautiful, the air so soft, and out here on the open sea all hearts were

"Who's that woodenfaced beggar over there that's too high and mighty for a little fun?" asked Storaker the

"That fellow? Oh, he's the one that was so infernally instructive at dinner, when we were talking about

"So it is, by Jove! Schoolmaster abroad, I should think. When we got on to Athens and Greek sculpture he

"I heard him this morning holding forth to the doctor on Assyriology. No wonder he doesn't dance!"

The passenger they were speaking of was a man of middle height, between thirty and forty apparently, who

lay stretched in a deck chair a little way off. He was dressed in grey throughout, from his travellingcap to

the spats above his brown shoes. His face was sallow, and the short brown beard was flecked with grey. But

his eyes had gay little gleams in them as they followed the dancers. It was Peer Holm.

As he sat there watching, it annoyed him to feel that he could not let himself go like the others. But it was so

long since he had mixed with his own countrymen, that he felt insecure of his footing and almost like a

foreigner among them. Besides, in a few hours now they should sight the skerries on the Norwegian coast;

and the thought awoke in him a strange excitementit was a moment he had dreamed of many and many a

After a while stillness fell on the decks around him, and he too went below, but lay down in his cabin without

undressing. He thought of the time when he had passed that way on the outward voyage, poor and unknown,

and had watched the last island of his native land sink below the searim. Much had happened since then

A little after two in the morning he came on deck again, but stood still in astonishment at finding that the

vessel was now boring her way through a thick woolly fog. The devil! thought he, beginning to tramp up and

down the deck impatiently. It seemed that his great moment was to be lostspoiled for him! But suddenly he

What was that? Far out in the depths of the woolly fog a glowing spot appeared; the grey mass around grew

alive, began to move, to redden, to thin out as if it were streaming up in flames. Ah! now he knew! It was the

globe of the sun, rising out of the sea. On board, every point where the night's moisture had lodged began to

shine in gold. Each moment it grew clearer and lighter, and the eye reached farther. And before he could take

in what was happening, the grey darkness had rolled itself up into mounds, into mountains, that grew buoyant

and floated aloft and melted away. And there, all revealed, lay the fresh bright morning, with a clear

It was time now to get out his fieldglasses. For a long time he stood motionless, gazing intently through

There! Was it his fancy? No, there far ahead he can see clearly now a darker strip between sky and sea. It's

Peer felt a sudden catch in his breath; he could hardly stand still, but he stopped again and again in his walk

to look once more at the faroff strip of grey. And now there were seabirds too, with long necks and

And now the steamer is ploughing in among the skerries, and a world of rocks and islets unfolds on every

side. There is the first red fisherhut. And then the entrance to Christiansand, between wooded hills and

islands, where white cottages shine out, each with its patch of green grassland and its flagstaff before it.

Peer watched it all, drinking it in like nourishment. How good it all tastedhe felt it would be long before he

Then came the voyage up along the coast, all through a day of brilliant sunshine and a luminous night. He

saw the blue sounds with swarms of white gulls hovering above them, the little coast towns with their long

whitepainted wooden houses, and flowers in the windows. He had never passed this way before, and yet

something in him seemed to nod and say: "I know myself again here." All the way up the Christiania Fjord

there was the scent of leaves and meadows; big farms stood by the shore shining in the sun. This was what a

great farm looked like. He nodded again. So warm and fruitful it all seemed, and dear to him as

homethough he knew that, after all, he would be little better than a tourist in his own country. There was

no one waiting for him, no one to take him in. Still, some day things might be very different.

As the ship drew alongside the quay at Christiania, the other passengers lined the rail, friends and relations

came aboard, there were tears and laughter and kisses and embraces. Peer lifted his hat as he passed down the

gangway, but no one had time to notice him just now. And when he had found a hotel porter to look after his

The light nights made it difficult to sleephe had actually forgotten that it was light all night long. And this

was a capital cityyet so touchingly small, it seemed but a few steps wherever he went. These were his

countrymen, but he knew no one among them; there was no one to greet him. Still, he thought again, some

At last, one day as he stood looking at the window of a bookseller's shop, he heard a voice behind him:

"Why, bless me! surely it's Peer Holm!" It was one of his fellowstudents at the Technical College, Reidar

Langberg, pale and thin now as ever. He had been a shining light at the College, but nownow he looked

"I? Oh, don't talk about me." And as they walked down the street together, Langberg poured out his tale, of

how times were desperately bad, and conditions at home here simply strangled a man. He had started ten or

twelve years ago as a draughtsman in the offices of the State Railways, and was still there, with a growing

familyand "such paysuch pay, my dear fellow!" He threw up his eyes and clasped his hands

"Look here," said Peer, interrupting him. "Where is the best place in Christiania to go and have a good time

Peer arrived in good time, and engaged a table on a verandah. Langberg made his appearance shortly after,

dressed in his well saved Sunday bestfaded frockcoat, light trousers bagged at the knees, and a straw hat

"It's a pleasure to have someone to talk to again," said Peer. "For the last year or so I've been knocking about

"Oh, of course, I remember now. It was in the papers. Building a railway for King Menelik, weren't you?"

"Oh, yes. But the last eighteen months or so I've been idling running about to theatres and museums and so

forth. I began at Athens and finished up with London. I remember one day sitting on the steps of the

Parthenon declaiming the Antigoneand a moment with some meaning in it seemed to have come at last."

"But, dash it, man, you're surely not comparing such trifles with a thing like the great Nile Barrage? You

were on that for some years, weren't you? Do let's hear something about that. Up by the first cataract, wasn't

it? And hadn't you enormous quarries there on the spot? You see, even sitting at home here, I haven't quite

lost touch. But yougood Lord! what things you must have seen! Fancy living atwhat was the name of

"Assuan," answered Peer indifferently, looking out over the gardens, where more and more visitors kept

"They say the barrage is as great a miracle as the Pyramids. How many sluicegates are there againa

"Two hundred and sixteen," said Peer. "Look!" he broke off. "Do you know those girls over there?" He

nodded towards a party of girls in light dresses who were sitting down at a table close by.

Langberg shook his head. He was greedy for news from the great world without, which he had never had the

"I've often wondered," he went on, "how you managed to come to the front so in that sort of workrailways

and barrages, and so forth when, your original line was mechanical engineering. Of course you did do an

"What do you say to a glass of champagne?" said Peer. "How do you like it? Sweet or dry?"

"Why, is there any difference? I really didn't know. But when one's a millionaire, of course . . ."

"Oh! I heard you were. Didn't you invent a new motorpump that drove all the other types out of the field?

And besidesthat Abyssinian railway. Oh well, well!" he sighed, "it's a good thing somebody's lucky. The

rest of us shouldn't complain. But how about the other twoKlaus Brock and Ferdinand Holm? What are

"Klaus is looking after the Khedive's estates at Edfina. Agriculture by steam power; his own railway lines to

bring in the produce, and so on. Yes, Klaus has ended up in a nice little place of his own. His district's bigger

"Good heavens!" Langberg nearly fell off his chair. "And Ferdinand Holm; what about him?"

"Oh, he's got bigger things on hand. Went nosing about the Libyan desert, and found that considerable tracts

of it have waterveins only a few yards beneath the surface. If so, of course, it's only a question of proper

Peer looked out over the fjord, and went on: "Last year he managed at last to get the Khedive interested, and

they've started a joint stock company now, with a capital of some millions. Ferdinand is chief engineer."

"His pay is two hundred thousand francs a year," said Peer, not without some fear that his companion might

It took Langberg some time to get his breath again. At last he asked, with a sidelong glance:

Peer smiled as he sat looking out over the garden. Lifting his glass, "Your good health," he said, for all

"America? Yes, a few years back, when I was with Brown Bros., they sent me over one time to buy plant.

"No, no, of course not. I was only thinkingyou went about there, I daresay, and saw all the wonderful

"My dear fellow, if you only knew how deadly sick I am of miracles of science! What I'm longing for is a

"What? What do you say?" Langberg bounced in his chair. "Haha ha! You're the same old man, I can see."

"I'm perfectly serious," said Peer, lifting his glass towards the other. "Come. Here's to our old days together!"

"Ayethanks, a thousand thanksto our old days together!Ah, delicious! Well, then, I suppose you've

fallen in love away down there in the land of the barbarians? Haven't you? Hahaha!"

"A fellah will sit all night long outside his hut and gaze up at the stars and give himself time to dream. And a

merchant prince in Vienna will dictate business letters in his automobile as he's driving to the theatre, and

write telegrams as he sits in the stalls. One fine day he'll be sitting in his private box with a telephone at one

ear and listening to the opera with the other. That's what the miracles of science are doing for us. Awe

"And you talk like thata man that's helped to harness the Nile, and has built railways through the desert?"

Peer shrugged his shoulders, and offered the other a cigar from his case. A waiter appeared with coffee.

"Lord! What I'd like to know is, where mankind are making for, that they're in such a hurry."

"That the Nile Barrage has doubled the production of corn in Egypt created the possibilities of life for

"My good fellow, do you really think there aren't enough fools on this earth already? Have we too little

wailing and misery and discontent and classhatred as it is? Why must we go about to double it?"

"But hang it all, manwhat about European culture? Surely you felt yourself a sort of missionary of

"The spread of European civilisation in the East simply means that half a dozen big financiers in London or

Paris take a fancy to a certain strip of Africa or Asia. They press a button, and out come all the ministers and

"Culture! One wheel begets ten new ones. Brrrrr! And the ten again another hundred. Brrrrrrrmore

speed, more competition and all for what? For culture? No, my friend, for money. Missionary! I tell you,

as long as Western Europe with all its wonders of modern science and its Christianity and its political reforms

hasn't turned out a better type of humanity than the mean ruck of men we have nowwe'd do best to stay at

home and hold our counfounded jaw. Here's ourselves!" and Peer emptied his glass.

This was a sad hearing for poor Langberg. For he had been used to comfort himself in his daily round with

the thought that even he, in his modest sphere, was doing his share in the great work of civilising the world.

At last he leaned back, watching the smoke from his cigar, and smiling a little.

"I remember a young fellow at the College," he said, "who used to talk a good deal about Prometheus, and

the grand work of liberating humanity, by stealing new and ever new fire from Olympus."

"That was meyes," said Peer with a laugh. "As a matter of fact, I was only quoting Ferdinand Holm."

"It strikes me that fire and steel are rapidly turning men into beasts. Machinery is killing more and more of

"Christian as much as you like. But don't you think it might soon be time we found something better to

worship than an ascetic on a cross? Are we to keep on for ever singing Hallelujah because we've saved our

"Neither do I. But it's all the same; for anyhow no such thing as religious feeling exists any longer.

Machinery is killing our longings for eternity, too. Ask the good people in the great cities. They spend

Langberg sat for a while watching the other attentively. Peer sat smoking slowly; his face was flushed with

the wine, but from time to time his eyes halfclosed, and his thoughts seemed to be wandering in other fields

"And what do you think of doing now you are home again?" asked his companion at last.

Peer opened his eyes. "Doing? Oh, I don't know. Look about me first of all. Then perhaps I may find a

The gardens were full now of people in light summer dress, and in the luminous evening a constant ripple of

laughter and gay voices came up to them. Peer looked curiously at the crowd, all strangers to him, and asked

his companion the names of some of the people. Langberg pointed out one or two celebritiesa Cabinet

Minister sitting near by, a famous explorer a little farther off. "But I don't know them personally," he added.

"How beautiful it is here!" said Peer, looking out once more at the yellow shimmer of light above the fjord.

He sat in the train on his way upcountry, and from the carriage window watched farms and meadows and

treelined roads slide past. Where was he going? He did not know himself. Why should not a man start off at

haphazard, and get out when the mood takes him? At last he was able to travel through his own country

without having to think of halfpennies. He could let the days pass over his head without care or trouble, and

There is Mjosen, the broad lake with the rich farmlands and long wooded ridges on either side. He had never

been here before, yet it seemed as if something in him nodded a recognition to it all. Once more he sat

drinking in the rich, fruitful landscapethe wooded hills, the fields and meadows seemed to spread

But later in the day the landscape narrowed and they were in Gudbrandsdalen, where the sunburned farms are

set on green slopes between the river and the mountains. Peer's head was full of pictures from abroad, from

the desert sands with their scorched palmtrees to the canals of Venice. But herehe nodded again. Here he

was at home, though he had never seen the place before; just this it was which had been calling to him all

At last on a sudden he gathered up his traps and got out, without the least idea even of the name of the station.

A meal at the hotel, a knapsack on his back, and hey!there before him lies the road, up into the hills.

Alone? What matter, when there are endless things that greet him from every side with "Welcome home!"

The road is steep, the air grows lighter, the homesteads smaller. At last the huts look like little

matchboxesfrom the valley, no doubt, it must seem as if the people up here were living among the clouds.

But many and many a youth must have followed this road in the evenings, going up to court his Mari or his

Kari at the saeterhut, the same road and the same errand one generation after another. To Peer it seemed as

if all those lads now bore him companyaye, as if he discovered in himself something of wanton youth that

Puh! His coat must come off and his cap go into the knapsack. Now, as the valley sinks and sinks farther

beneath him, the view across it widens farther and farther out over the uplands beyond. Brown hills and blue,

ridges livid or mossygrey in the setting sun, rising and falling wave behind wave, and beyond all a great

snowfield, like a sea of white breakers foaming against the sky. But surely he had seen all this before?

Ah! now he knew; it was the Lofoten Sea over againwith its white foamcrested combers and longdrawn,

heavybreathing swella rolling ocean turned to rock. Peer halted a moment leaning on his stick, and his

eyes halfclosed. Could he not feel that same oceanswell rising and sinking in his own being? Did not the

same waves surge through the centuries, carrying the generations away with them upon great wanderings?

And in daily life the wave rolls us along in the old familiar rhythm, and not one in ten thousand lifts his head

above it to ask: whither and why! Even now just such a little wave has hold of him, taking himwhither and

why? Well, the coming days might show; meanwhile, there beyond was the sea of stone rolling its eternal

But what is that far off in the northeast? three sisters in white shawls, lifting their heads to heaventhat

must be Rondane. And see how the evening sun is kindling the white peaks to purple and gold.

Puh!only one more hill now, and here is the top at last. And there ahead lie the great uplands, with marsh

and mound and gleaming tarns. Ah, what a relief! What wonder that his step grows lighter and quicker?

Before he knows it he is singing aloud in mere gaiety of heart. Ah, dear God, what if after all it were not too

A saeter. A little hut, standing on a patch of green, with split stick fence and a long cowhouse of rough

planksit must be a saeter! And listenisn't that a girl singing? Peer slipped softly through the gate and

stood listening against the wall of the byre. "Shap, shap, shap," went the streams of milk against the pail. It

"Shap, shap, shap!" went the milk once more in the pailand suddenly Peer joined in:

The milking stopped, a cowbell tinkled as the cow turned her inquiring face, and a girl's lightbrown head of

hair was thrust out of the doorwaysoon followed by the girl herself, slender, eighteen, redcheeked, fresh

The girl looked at him for a moment, then cast a glance at her own clothesas women will when they see a

Here was a job that Peer could help with. He took off his knapsack, washed his hands, and was soon seated

on a stool in the close sweet air of the shed, milking busily. Then he fetched water, and chopped some wood

for the fire, the girl gazing at him all the time, no doubt wondering who this crazy person could be. When the

porridge stood ready on the table, he insisted on her sitting down close to him and sharing the meal. They ate

a little, and then laughed a little, and then chatted, and then ate and then laughed again. When he asked what

he had to pay, the girl said: "Whatever you like"and he gave her two crowns and then bent her head back

and kissed her lips. "What's the man up to?" he heard her gasp behind him as he passed out; when he had

gone a good way and turned to look back, there she was in the doorway, shading her eyes and watching him.

Whither away now? Well, he was pretty sure to reach some other inhabited place before night. This, he felt,

It was nearly midnight when he stood by the shore of a broad mountain lake, beneath a snowflecked

hillside. Here were a couple of saeters, and across the lake, on a wooded island, stood a small frame house

that looked like some city people's summer cottage. And seeover the lake, that still mirrored the evening

red, a boat appeared moving towards the island, and two white sleeved girls sat at the oars, singing as they

In the saeterhut stood an enormously fat woman, with a rope round her middle, evidently ready to go to bed.

Could she put him up for the night? Why, yes, she supposed soand she rolled off into another room. And

soon he was lying in a tiny chamber, in a bed with a mountainous mattress and a quilt. There was a fresh

smell from the juniper twigs strewed about the newlywashed floor, and the cheeses, which stood in rows all

round the shelflined walls. Ah! he had slept in many places and fashionsat sea in a Lofoten boat; on the

swaying back of a camel; in tents out in the moonlit desert; and in palaces of the Arabian Nights, where

dwarfs fanned him with palmleaves to drive away the heat, and called him pasha. But here, at last, he had

found a place where it was good to be. And he closed his eyes, and lay listening to the murmur of a little

Late in the forenoon of the next day he was awakened by the entry of the old woman with coffee. Then a

plunge into the bluegreen water of the mountain lake, a short swim, and back to find grilled trout and

Yes, said the old woman, if he could get along with the sort of victuals she could cook, he might stay here a

So Peer stays on and goes fishing. He catches little; but time goes leisurely here, and the summer lies soft and

warm over the brown and blue hillsides. He has soon learned that a merchant named Uthoug, from Ringeby,

is living in the house on the island, with his wife and daughter. And what of it?

Often he would lie in his boat, smoking his pipe, and giving himself up to quiet dreams that came and passed.

A young girl in a white boat, moving over red waters in the eveninga secret meeting on an islandno one

The sun goes down, there come sounds of cowbells nearing the saeters, the musical cries and calls of the

saetergirls, the lowing of the cattle. The mountains stand silent in the distance, their snowclad tops grown

golden; the stream slides rippling by, murmuring on through the luminous nights.

He had gone out for a long tramp at random over the hills, making his way by compass, and noting landmarks

to guide him back. Here was a marsh covered with cloudberriesthe taste brought back his own childhood.

He wandered on up a palebrown ridge flecked with red heatherand what was that ahead? Smoke? He

made towards it. Yes, it was smoke. A ptarmigan fluttered out in front of him, with a brood of tiny youngsters

at her heelsLord, what a shave!he stopped short to avoid treading on them. The smoke meant someone

He topped the last mound, and there was the fire just below. Two girls jumped to their feet; there was a bright

coffeekettle on the fire, and on the mosscovered ground close by bread and butter and sandwiches laid out

Peer stopped short in surprise. The girls gazed at him for a moment, and he at them, all three with a hesitating

At last Peer lifted his hat and asked the way to Rustad saeter. It took them some time to explain this, and then

they asked him the time. He told them exactly to the minute, and then showed them his watch so that they

might see for themselves. All this took more time. Meanwhile, they had inspected each other, and found no

reason to part company just yet. One of the girls was tall, slender of figure, with a warmcoloured oval face

and dark brown hair. Her eyebrows were thick and met above the nose, delightful to look at. She wore a blue

serge dress, with the skirt kilted up a little, leaving her ankles visible. The other was a blonde, smaller of

stature, and with a melancholy face, though she smiled constantly. "Oh," she said suddenly, "have you a

"Oh yes!" Peer was just moving off, but gladly seized the opportunity to stay a while.

"Let me try," said Peer. As luck would have it, he managed to cut himself a little, and the two girls tumbled

over each other to tie up the wound. It ended, of course, with their asking him to join their coffeeparty.

"My name's only MorkThea Mork. My father is a lawyer, and we have a little cottage farther up the lake,"

Peer was about to introduce himself, when the dark girl interrupted: "Oh, we know you already," she said.

"We've seen you out rowing on the lake so often. And we had to find out who you were. We have a good pair

". . . and then, yesterday, we sent one of the maids over reconnoitring, to make inquiries and bring us a full

It was a cheery little feast. Ah! how young they were, these two girls, and how they laughed at a joke, and

what quantities of bread and butter and coffee they all three disposed of! Merle now and again would give

their companion a sidelong glance, while Thea laughed at all the wild things her friend said, and scolded her,

And now the sun was nearing the shoulder of a hill far in the west, and evening was falling. They packed up

their things, and Peer was loaded up with a big bag of cloudberries on his back, and a tin pail to carry in his

hand. "Give him some more," said Merle. "It'll do him good to work for a change."

"Here you are," said the girl, and slid the handle of a basket into his other hand.

Then they set out down the hill. Merle sang and yodelled as they went; then Peer sang, and then they all three

sang together. And when they came to a heathertussock or a puddle, they did not trouble to go round, but

They passed the saeter and went on down to the water's edge, and Peer proposed to row them home. And so

they rowed across. And the whole time they sat talking and laughing together as if they had known each other

The boat touched land just below the cottage, and a broad shouldered man with a grey beard and a straw hat

came down to meet them. "Oh, father, are you back again?" cried Merle, and, springing ashore, she flung her

arms round his neck. The two exchanged some whispered words, and the father glanced at Peer. Then, taking

off his hat, he came towards him and said politely, "It was very kind of you to help the girls down."

"I hear we are neighbours," said Uthoug. "We're just going to have tea, so if you have nothing better to do,

Outside the cottage stood a greyhaired lady with a pale face, wearing spectacles. She had a thick white

woollen shawl over her shoulders, but even so she seemed to feel cold. "Welcome," she said, and Peer

There were two small low rooms with an open fireplace in the one, and in it there stood a table ready laid.

But from the moment Merle entered the house, she took command of everything, and whisked in and out.

Soon there was the sound of fish cooking in the kitchen, and a moment later she came in with a plate full of

"You'll find salt and pepper and vinegar and oil on the table there, and that's all we possess in the way of

condiments. But it must be a real Arabian salad all the same, if you please!" And out she went again, while

"I hope you will excuse my daughter," said Fru Uthoug, turning her pale face towards him and looking

Uthoug himself walked up and down the room, chatting to Peer and asking a great many questions about

conditions in Egypt. He knew something about the Mahdi, and General Gordon, and Khartoum, and the

strained relations between the Khedive and the Sultan. He was evidently a diligent reader of the newspapers,

and Peer gathered that he was a Radical, and a man of some weight in his party. And he looked as if there

was plenty of fire smouldering under his reddish eyelids: "A bad man to fall out with," thought Peer.

They sat down to supper, and Peer noticed that Fru Uthoug grew less pale and anxious as her daughter

laughed and joked and chattered. There even came a slight glow at last into the faded cheeks; the eyes behind

the spectacles seemed to shine with a light borrowed from her daughter's. But her husband seemed not to

notice anything, and tried all the time to go on talking about the Mahdi and the Khedive and the Sultan.

So for the first time for many years Peer sat down to table in a Norwegian homeand how good it was!

After the meal, a mandolin was brought out, and they sat round the fire in the great fireplace and had some

music. Until at last Merle rose and said: "Now, mother, it's time you went to bed."

"Yes, dear," came the answer submissively, and Fru Uthoug said goodnight, and Merle led her off.

Peer had risen to take leave, when Merle came in again. "Why," she said, "you're surely not going off before

But when the two had taken their places in the boat and were just about to start up the lake, Merle came

Half an hour later, having seen the young girl safely ashore at her father's place, Merle and Peer were alone,

rowing back through the still night over the waters of the lake, golden in the light and dark blue in the

shadows. Merle leaned back in the stern, silent, trailing a small branch along the surface of the water behind.

The girl lifted her head and looked round. "Yes," she answered, and Peer fancied her voice had taken a new

It was past midnight. Heights and woods and saeters lay lifeless in the soft suffused reddish light. The

laketrout were not rising any more, but now and again the screech of a cockptarmigan could be heard

"I leave everything to chance, Froken Uthoug. It just happened so. It's all so homelike here, wherever one

"But haven't you been to see your peopleyour father and mother since you came home?"

"But near relationssurely you must have a brother or sister somewhere in the world?"

She looked at him searchingly, as if trying to see whether he spoke in earnest. Then she said:

A sudden flush came to the girl's face, and she shook her head. "It's foolish of me to sit here and tell you all

this. But you see that was why we wanted so much to find out about you when you came. And it gives me a

"I? Why do you think? Oh, well, yes. One can come by most things, you know, if one has to have them."

She turned her head and looked towards the shore. "Some day perhapsif we should come to be

Peer bent to his oars and rowed on. The stillness of the night drew them nearer and nearer together, and made

"What mysterious creature is this I have come upon?" thought Peer. She might be about oneor

twoandtwenty. She sat there with bowed head, and in this soft glow the oval face had a strange light of

dreams upon it. But suddenly her glance came back and rested on him again, and then she smiled, and he saw

"I spent a winter in Berlin, once, and a few months in South Germany. I played the violin a little, you see; and

She was silent for a little, then at last she said: "I suppose you are sure to know about it some day, so I may

"And when she's at home myhigh spirits are needed to help her to be more or less herself."

He felt an impulse to rise and go to the girl, and take her head between his hands. But she looked up, with a

melancholy smile; their eyes met in a long look, and she forgot to withdraw her glance.

"I must go ashore now," she repeated; and her voice, though still gentle, was not to be gainsaid.

At last Peer was alone, rowing back to his saeter. As he rowed he watched the girl going slowly up towards

the cottage. When she reached the door she turned for the first time and waved to him. Then she stood for a

moment looking after him, and then opened the door and disappeared. He gazed at the door some time longer,

The sun's rim was showing now above the distant ranges in the east, and the white peaks in the north and

west kindled in the morning glow. Peer laid in his oars again, and rested, with his elbows on his knees and his

How could those peaks stand round so aloof and indifferent, and leave him here disconsolate and alone?

What was it, this new rushing in his ears; this new rhythm of his pulse? He lay back at last in the bottom of

the boat, with hands clasped behind his head, and let boat and all things drift.

And when the glare of the rising sun came slanting into the boat and beat dazzlingly in his face, he only

Now she is lying asleep over there, the morning streaming red through her windowof whom is she

Have you ever seen such eyebrows before? To press one's lips to themto take her head between one's hand

. . . and so it is to save your mother that you give up your own dreams, and to warm her soul that you keep

Day spreads over the heavens, kindling all the nightclouds, great and small, to gold and scarlet. And here he

Ah! till now your mind has been so filled with cold mechanics, with calculations, with steel and fire. More

and more knowledge, ever more striving to understand all things, to know all, to master all. But meanwhile,

the tones of the hymn died within you, and the hunger for that which lies beyond all things grew ever fiercer

and fiercer. You thought it was Norway that you neededand now you are here. But is it enough?

There is nothing that can be likened to the first day of love. All your learning, your travel, and deeds and

dreamsall has been nothing but dry firewood that you have dragged and heaped together. And now has

come a spark, and the whole heap blazes up, casting its red glow over earth and heaven, and you stretch out

your cold hands, and warm them, and shiver with joy that a new bliss has come upon the earth.

And all that you could not understandthe relation between the spark of eternity in your soul and the Power

above, and the whole of endless spacehas all of a sudden become so clear that you lie here trembling with

You have but to take her by the hand, and "Here are we two," you say to the powers of life and death. "Here

is she and here am I we two"and you send the anthem rolling alofta strain from little Louise's

fiddlebow mingling with itnot to the vaultings of any church, but into endless space itself. And Thou,

Power above, now I understand Thee. How could I ever take seriously a Power that sat on high playing with

Sin and Gracebut now I see Thee, not the bloodthirsty Jehovah, but a goldenhaired youth, the Light itself.

We two worship Thee; not with a wail of prayer, but with a great anthem, that has the WorldAll in it. All

our powers, our knowledge, our dreamsall are there. And each has its own instrument, its own voice in the

mighty chorus. The dawn reddening over the hills is with us. The goat grazing on that northern hillside,

dazzled with sungold when it turns its head to the east it is with us, too. The waking birds are with us. A

frog, crawling up out of a puddle and stopping to wonder at the morning it is there. Even the little insect

with diamonds on its wings and the grassblade with its pearl of dew, trying to mirror as much of the sky

as it canit is there, it is there, it is there. We are standing amid Love's first day, and there is no more talk of

grace or doubt or faith or need of aid; only a rushing sound of music rising to heaven from all the golden

The saeters were beginning to wake. Musical cries came echoing as the saetergirls chid on the cattle, that

moved slowly up to the northern heights, with lowings and tinkling of bells. But Peer lay still where he

wasand presently the dairymaid at the saeter caught sight of what seemed an empty boat drifting on the

The dairymaid was down by the waterside now, calling across toward the boat. And at last she saw a man sit

"Mercy on us!" she cried. "Lord be thanked that you're there. And you haven't been in the whole blessed

A goat with a broken leg, set in splints, had been left to stray at will about the cattlepens and in and out of

the house, while its legbones were setting. Peer must needs pick up the creature and carry it round for a

while in his arms, though it at once began chewing at his beard. When he sat down to the breakfasttable, he

found something so touching in the look of the cream and butter, the bread and the coffee, that it seemed a

man would need a heart of stone to be willing to eat such things. And when the old woman said he really

ought to get some food into him, he sprang up and embraced her, as far as his arms would go round. "Nice

carryings on!" she cried, struggling to free herself. But when he went so far as to imprint a sounding kiss on

her forehead, she fetched him a mighty push. "Lord!" she said, "if the gomeril hasn't gone clean out of his

Ringeby lay on the shore of a great lake; and was one of those busy commercial towns which have sprung up

in the last fifty years from a nucleus consisting of a sawmill and a flourmill by the side of a waterfall. Now

quite a number of modern factories had spread upwards along the river, and the place was a town with some

four thousand inhabitants, with a church of its own, a monster of a school building, and numbers of yellow

workmen's dwellings scattered about at random in every direction. Otherwise Ringeby was much like any

other little town. There were two lawyers, who fought for scraps of legal business, and the editors of two

local papers, who were constantly at loggerheads before the Conciliation Board. There was a temperance

lodge and Workers' Union and a chapel and a picture palace. And every Sunday afternoon the good citizens

of Ringeby walked out along the fjord, with their wives on their arms. On these occasions most of the men

wore frock coats and grey felt hats; but Enebak, the tanner, being hunchbacked, preferred a tall silk hat, as

On Saturday evenings, when twilight began to fall, the younger men would meet at the corner outside

"Have you heard the latest news?" asked Lovli, the bank cashier, of his friend the telegraphist, who came up.

"Oh, well, the old man will want an engineer if he's to get the new timbermills into his clutches."

"From Egypt. A Muhammadan, I daresay. Brown as a coffeeberry, and rolling in money."

The girl addressed turned aside and joined them. "Oh, the same piece of news that's all over the town, I

"Sh!" whispered the telegraphist. Peer Holm was just coming out of the Grand Hotel, dressed in a grey suit,

and with a dark coat over his arm. He was trying to get a newlylit cigar to draw, as he walked with a light

elastic step past the group at the corner. A little farther up the street he encountered Merle, and took her arm,

and the two walked off together, the young people at the corner watching them as they went.

"He wanted to be married immediately, I believe," said Froken Bull, "but I suppose they'll have to wait till the

Lorentz D. Uthoug's long, yellowpainted wooden house stood facing the market square; the office and the

big ironmonger's shop were on the ground floor, and the family lived in the upper storeys. "That's where he

lives," people would say. Or "There he goes," as the broad, greybearded man passed down the street. Was

he such a big man, then? He could hardly be called really rich, though he had a sawmill and a

machineshop and a flourmill, and owned a country place some way out of the town. But there was

something of the chieftain, something of the prophet, about him. He hated priests. He read deep philosophical

works, forbade his family to go to church, and had been visited by Bjornson himself. It was good to have him

on your side; to have him against you was fatal you might just as well clear out of the town altogether. He

had a finger in everything that went on; it was as if he owned the whole town. He had been known to meet a

youth he had never spoken to before in the street and accost him with a peremptory "Understand me, young

man; you will marry that girl." Yet for all this, Lorentz Uthoug was not altogether content. True, he was head

and shoulders above all the Ringeby folks, but what he really wanted was to be the biggest man in a place a

And now that he had found a soninlaw, he seemed as it were to be walking quietly round this stranger

from the great world, taking his measure, and asking in his thoughts: "Who are you at bottom? What have

you seen? What have you read? Are you progressive or reactionary? Have you any proper respect for what I

have accomplished here, or are you going about laughing in your sleeve and calling me a whale among the

Every morning when Peer woke in his room at the hotel he rubbed his eyes. On the table beside his bed stood

a photograph of a young girl. What? Is it really you, Peer, that have found someone to stand close to you at

last? Someone in the world who cares about you. When you have a cold, there'll be people to come round and

be anxious about you, and ask how you are getting on. And this to happen to you!

He dined at the Uthougs' every day, and there were always flowers beside his plate. Often there would be

some little surprisea silver spoon or fork, or a napkinring with his initials on. It was like gathering the

first straws to make his new nest. And the pale woman with the spectacles looked kindly at him, as if to say:

"Well, we haven't been to see Aunt Marit at Bruseth yet. We really ought to go, you know. I'll take you there

Peer found these ceremonial visits to his new relatives quite amusing; he went round, as it were, collecting

"Butmy dear girl, have you been crying?" he asked suddenly, taking her head in his hands.

"Oh, it's nothing. Comelet's go now." And she thrust him gently away as he tried to kiss her. But the next

moment she dropped into a chair, and sat looking thoughtfully at him through halfclosed eyes, nodding her

head very slightly. She seemed to be asking herself: "Who is this man? What is this I am taking on me? A

"She's so afraid you're going to carry me off into the wide world at a moment's notice."

The girl drew up one side of her mouth in a smile, and her eyelids almost closed. "And what about me, then?

"And I, who am crazy to stay at home!" said Peer with a laugh. "How delicious it will be to have a house and

"Oh! how stupid you are today. If you only knew what it means, to throw away the best years of one's youth

in a hole like this! And besidesI could have done something worth while in music"

"Why, then, let's go abroad, by all means," said Peer, wrinkling up his forehead as if to laugh.

"Oh, nonsense! you know it's quite impossible to go off and leave mother now. But you certainly came at a

very critical time. For anyway I was longing and longing just then for someone to come and carry me off."

"Aha! so I was only a sort of ticket for the tour." He stepped over and pinched her nose.

"Oh! you'd better be careful. I haven't really promised yet to have you, you know."

She clapped her hands together. "Why, what shameless impudence! After my saying No, No, No, for days

together. I won't, I won't, I won'tI said it ever so many times. And you said it didn't matterfor YOU

WOULD. Yes, you took me most unfairly off my guard; but now look out for yourself."

The next moment she flung her arms round his neck. But when he tried to kiss her, she pushed him away

Soon they were walking arminarm along the country road, on their way to Aunt Marit at Bruseth. It was

September, and all about the wooded hills stood yellow, and the cornfields were golden and the rowan berries

And when they came to a gate they sat down in the grass by the wayside. Below them was the town, with its

many roofs and chimneys standing out against the shining lake, that lay framed in broad stretches of farm and

"Well, you seemother's father was a clergyman. And whenwhen father forbade her to go to church, she

obeyed him. But she couldn't sleep after that. She feltas if she had sold her soul."

"Said it was hysteria. But, hysteria or not, mother couldn't sleep. And at last they had to take her away to a

"And when she came back from there she was so changed, one would hardly have known her. And father

gave way a littlemore than he ever used to doand said: 'Well, well, I suppose you must go to church if

you wish, but you mustn't mind if I don't go with you.' And so one Sunday she took my hand and we went

together, but as we reached the church door, and heard the organ playing inside, she turned back. 'Noit's

Merle sighed. "The worst of it is she sees so many evil things compassing her about. She says the only thing

to do is to laugh them away. But she can't laugh herself. And so I have to. But when I go away from heroh!

"Tell me, Peer"she looked up with her onesided smile"who is rightmother or father?"

"Yes. But it's so hopelessso impossible to come to any sort of certainty. What do you think? Tell me what

They sat there alone in the golden autumn day, her head pressed against his shoulder. Why should he play the

"Dear Merle, I know, of course, no more than you do. There was a time when I saw God standing with a rod

in one hand and a sugar cake in the otherjust punishment and rewards to all eternity. Then I thrust Him

from me, because He seemed to me so unjustand at last He vanished, melting into the solar systems on

high, and all the infinitesimal growths here on the earth below. What was my life, what were my dreams, my

joy or sorrow, to these? Where was I making for? Ever and always there was something in me saying: He IS!

But where? Somewhere beyond and behind the things you know it is there He is. And so I determined to

know more things, more and more and moreand what wiser was I? A steamhammer crushes my skull one

dayand what has become of my part in progress and culture and science? Am I as much of an accident as a

fly on an ant? Do I mean no more? Do I vanish and leave as little trace? Answer me that, little Merlewhat

The girl sat motionless, breathing softly, with closed eyes. Then she began to smileand her lips were full

Bruseth was a large farm lying high above the town, with its garden and avenues and long verandahs round

the white dwellinghouse. And what a view out over the lake and the country far around! The two stood for a

Merle's aunther father's sisterwas a widow, rich and a notable manager, but capricious to a degree,

capable of being generous one day and grasping the next. It was the sorrow of her life that she had no

She came sailing into the room where the two young people were waiting, and Peer saw her coming towards

them, a tall, fullbosomed woman with grey hair and florid colour. Oho! here's an aunt for you with a

vengeance, he thought. She pulled off a blue apron she was wearing and appeared dressed in a black woollen

"So you thought you'd come over at last," she said. "Actually remembered my existence, after all, did you,

Merle?" She turned towards Peer, and stood examining him, with her hands on her hips. "So that's what you

look like, is it, Peer? And you're the man that was to catch Merle? Well, you see I call you Peer at once, even

Wine was brought in, and Aunt Marit of Bruseth lifted a congratulatory glass toward the pair with the

"You'll fight, of course. But don't overdo it, that's all. And mark my words, Peer Holm, if you aren't good to

her, I'll come round one fine day and warm your ears for you. Your healths, children!"

The two went homewards arminarm, dancing down the hillsides, and singing gaily as they went. But

suddenly, when they were still some way from the town, Merle stopped and pointed. "There," she

A solitary woman was walking slowly in the twilight over a wide field of stubble, looking around her. It was

as if she were lingering here to search out the meaning of somethingof many things. From time to time she

would glance up at the sky, or at the town below, or at people passing on the road, and then she would nod

her head. How infinitely far off she seemed, how utterly a stranger to all the noisy doings of men! What was

"Let us go on," whispered Merle, drawing him with her. And the young girl suddenly began to sing, loudly,

as if in an overflow of spirits; and Peer guessed that it was for her mother's sake. Perhaps the lonely woman

One Sunday morning Merle drove up to the hotel in a light cart with a big brown horse; Peer came out and

climbed in, leaving the reins to her. They were going out along the fjord to look at her father's big estate

It is the end of September. The sun is still warm, but the waters of the lake are grey and all the fields are

reaped. Here and there a strip of yellowing potatostalks lies waiting to be dug up. Up on the hillsides horses

tethered for grazing stand nodding their heads slowly, as if they knew that it was Sunday. And a faint mist

left by the damps of the night floats about here and there over the broad landscape.

They passed through a wood, and came on the other side to an avenue of old ash trees, that turned up from

the road and ran uphill to a big house where a flag was flying. The great white dwellinghouse stood high, as

if to look out far over the world; the red farm buildings enclosed the wide courtyard on three sides, and

below were gardens and broad lands, sloping down towards the lake. Something like an estate!

Next moment the horse turned in to the avenue, and Peer caught involuntarily at the reins. "Hei!

Peer stared at her face and let go the reins. "What? What? You don't mean to say your father owns that place

A few minutes later they were strolling through the great, low ceiled rooms. The whole house was empty

now, the farmbailiff living in the servants' quarters. Peer grew more and more enthusiastic. Here, in these

great rooms, there had been festive gatherings enough in the days of the old Governors, where cavaliers in

uniform or with elegant shirtfrills and golden spurs had kissed the hands of ladies in sweeping silk robes.

Old mahogany, pot pourri, convivial song, wit, gracePeer saw it all in his mind's eye, and again and again

They passed out into the old neglected garden with its grassgrown paths and wellfilled carpponds and

tumbledown pavilions. Peer rushed about it in all directions. Here, too, there had been fetes, with coloured

lamps festooned around, and couples whispering in the shade of every bush. "Merle, did you say your father

"Yes, that's what it will come to, I expect," she answered. "The place doesn't pay, he says, when he can't live

"Good Lord! I might have guessed it! An idiot asylumto be sure." He tramped about, fairly jumping with

She threw back her head and looked at him. "I ask you, Merle. Will you come and live here?"

"Look, Merle, just look at it all. That long balcony there, with the doric columnsnothing shoddy about

"But it'll cost a great deal, Peer." There was some reluctance in her voice. Was she thinking of her violin?

"The place was sold by auction, and he got it cheap. Fifty thousand crowns, I think it was."

Peer strode off towards the house again. "We'll buy it. It's the very place to make into a home. . . . Horses,

Merle followed him more slowly. "But, Peer, remember you've just taken over father's machineshops in

"Pooh!" said Peer scornfully. "Do you think I can't manage to run that village smithy and live here too! Come

It was useless to try to resist. He dragged her from room to room, furnishing as he went along. "This room

here is the diningroom and that's the big receptionroom; this will be the studythat's a boudoir for you.

Merle gasped for breath. He had got so far by this time that the furnishing was complete and they were

installed. They had a governess already, and he was giving parties too. Here was the ballroom. He slipped an

arm round her waist and danced round the room with her, till she was carried away by his enthusiasm, and

stood flushed and beaming, while all she had dreamed of finding some day out in the wide world seemed

suddenly to unfold around her here in these empty rooms. Was this really to be her home? She stopped to

Late that evening Peer sat at the hotel with a notebook, working the thing out. He had bought Loreng; his

fatherinlaw had been reasonable, and had let him have the place, lands and woods and all, for the

ridiculous price he had paid himself. There was a mortgage of thirty thousand crowns on the estate. Well, that

might stand as it was, for the bulk of Peer's money was tied up in Ferdinand Holm's company.

A few days after he carried Merle off to the capital, leaving the carpenters and painters hard at work at

One day he was sitting alone at the hotel in ChristianiaMerle was out shoppingwhen there was a very

"Come in," called Peer. And in walked a middlesized man, of thirty or more, dressed in a black frockcoat

with a large patterned vest, and his dark hair carefully combed over a bald patch on the crown. He had a red,

cheery face; his eyes were of the brightest blue, and the whole man breathed and shone with good humour.

"Just come across from Manchesterbeastly voyage. Thanks, thanks I'll find a seat." He sat down, and

Peer sent for some wine, and in half an hour the two were firm allies. Uthoug junior's lifestory to date was

quickly told. He had run away from home because his father had refused to let him go on the stagehad

found on trial that in these days there weren't enough theatres to go roundthen had set up in business for

himself, and now had a general agency for the sale of English tweeds. "Freedom, freedom," was his idea;

"lots of elbowroom room to turn about inwithout with your leave or by your leave to father or anyone!

A week later the street outside Lorentz D. Uthoug's house in Ringeby was densely crowded with people, all

gazing up at the long rows of lighted windows. There was feasting tonight in the great man's house. About

midnight a carriage drove up to the door. "That's the bridegroom's," whispered a bystander. "He got those

The street door opened, and a white figure, thickly cloaked, appeared on the steps. "The bride!" whispered the

crowd. Then a slender man in a dark overcoat and silk hat. "The bridegroom!" And as the pair passed out,

"Hiphiphip" went the voice of the general agent for English tweeds, and the hurrahs came with a will.

The carriage moved off, and Peer sat, with his arm round his bride, driving his horses at a sharp trot out along

the fjord. Out towards his home, towards his palace, towards a new and untried future.

A little shaggy, greybearded old man stood chopping and sawing in the woodshed at Loreng. He had been

there longer than anyone could remember. One master left, another took his placewhat was that to the little

man? Didn't the one need firewoodand didn't the other need firewood just the same? In the evening he

crept up to his den in the loft of the servants' wing; at mealtimes he sat himself down in the last seat at the

kitchentable, and it seemed to him that there was always food to be had. Nowadays the master's name was

Holman engineer he wasand the little man blinked at him with his eyes, and went on chopping in the

shed. If they came and told him he was not wanted and must gowhy, thank heaven, he was stone deaf, as

everyone knew. Thud, thud, went his axe in the shed; and the others about the place were so used to it that

In the kitchen of the big house two girls stood by the window peeping out into the garden and giggling.

"There he is again," said Laura. "Sh! don't laugh so loud. There! now he's stopping again!"

"He's whistling to a bird," said Oliana. "Or talking to himself perhaps. Do you think he's quite right in his

It was no less a person than the master of Loreng himself whose proceedings struck them as so comic.

Peer it was, wandering about in the great neglected garden, with his hands in the pockets of his

knickerbockers and his cap on the back of his head, stopping here and there, and moving on again as the

fancy took him. Sometimes he would hum a snatch of a song, and again fall to whistling; here he would pick

up a twig and look at it, or again it might be a bird, or perhaps an old neglected apple tree that seemed worth

stopping to talk to. The best of it was that these were his own lands and his own woods that lay there in the

rusty October sunshine. Was all that nothing? And the hill over on the farther shore, standing on its head in

the dark lake mirror, clothed in a whole world of colouryellow leaves and green leaves, and light red and

dark red, and golden and bloodred patches, with the dark green of the pines between. His eyes had all this to

rest on. Did he really live here? What abundant fruitfulness all around him! What a sky, so wide, so golden

that it seemed to ring again. The potatostalks lay uprooted, scattered on the fields; the corn was safely

housed. And here he stood. He seemed again to be drawing in nourishment from all he saw, drinking it

greedily. The empty places in his mind were filled; the sight of the rich soft landscape worked on his being,

"What next?" he mimicked in his thoughts, and started again tramping up and down the garden paths. What

nextwhat next? Could he not afford now to take his timeto rest a little? Every man must have an end in

viewmust strive to reach this goal or that. And what was his object now? What was it he had so toiled for,

from those hard years in the loft above the stable even until now? What was it? Often it seemed as if

everything were going smoothly, going of itself; as if one day, surely, he would find his part in a great, happy

worldharmony. But had he not already found it? What more would he have? Of course he had found it.

But is this all, then? What is there behind and beyond? Hush! have done with questioning. Look at the beauty

He hurried up to the house, and init might help matters if he could take his wife in his arms; perhaps get

Merle was in the pantry, with a big apron on, ranging jars of preserves on the shelves.

"Here, dearest little wife," cried Peer, throwing his arms about her, "what do you say to a little run?"

"Now? Do you suppose a housewife has nothing better to do than gad about? Uf! my hair! you'll make it

Peer took her arm and led her over to a window looking out on the lake. "There, dearest! Isn't it lovely here?"

"Yes, and you never answer. And you've never once yet run and thrown your arms round my neck and said

how happy you were. And it's never yet come to pass that you've given me a single kiss of your own accord."

"I should think not, when you steal such a lot." And she pushed him aside, and slipped under his arm, and ran

out of the room. "I must go in and see mother again today," she said as she went.

"Huit! Of course!" He paced up and down the room, his step growing more and more impatient. "In to

motherin to mother! Always and everlastingly mother and mother and nothing else. Huit!" and he began to

Merle put her head in at the door. "Peerhave you such a terrible lot of spare time?"

"Well, yes and no. I'm busy enough looking about in every corner here for something or another. But I can't

find it, and I don't even know exactly what it is. Oh well, yesI have plenty of time to spare."

"Well, there's the dairywoman in the cowhouse, and the groom in the stables, and the bailiff to worry the

"Don't I go in twice a daycycle over to see how things are going? But with Rode for managerthat

"He's got to go on running along the line of rails he's used to nothing else for it, my darling. And four or

"Oh, Peer, you shouldn't laugh at ita thing that father took so much pains to set going!"

"And YOU shouldn't go worrying me to get to work again in earnest, Merle. You shouldn't really. One of

these days I might discover that there's no way to be happy in the world but to drag a plough and look straight

ahead and forget that there's anything else in existence. It may come to that one daybut give me a little

Merle, busying herself again in her pantry, glanced out of the window and saw him disappear into the stables.

At first she had gone with him when he wandered about like this, touching and feeling all his possessions. In

the cattlestalls, it might be, stroking and patting, getting himself covered with hairs, and chattering away in

childish glee. "Look, Merlethis cow is mine, child! Dagros her name isand she's mine. We have forty of

them and they're all mine. And that nag therewhat a sight he is! We have eight of them. They're mine.

Yours too, of course. But you don't care a bit about it. You haven't even hugged any of them yet. But when a

man's been as poor as I've beenand suddenly wakened up one day and found he owned all this No, wait

a minute, Merlecome and kiss old Brownie." She knew the ritual nowhe could go over it all again and

again, and each time with the same happy wonder. Was it odious of her that she was beginning to find it a

little comic? And how did it come about that often, when she might be filled with the deepest longing for

him, and he burst in upon her boisterously, hungry for her caresses, she would grow suddenly cold, and put

Perhaps it was because he was so much the stronger, so overwhelming in his effect on her that she had to

keep a tight hold on herself to avoid being swept clean away and losing her identity. At one moment they

might be sitting in the lamplight, chatting easily together, and so near in heart and mind; and the next it would

be overhe would suddenly have started up and be pacing up and down the room, delivering a sort of

lecture. Merleisn't it marvellous, the spiritual life of plants? And then would come a torrent of talk about

strange plantgrowths in the north and in the south, plants whose names she had never even heardtheir

struggle for existence, their loves and longings, their heroism in disease, the divine marvel of their death.

Their inventions, their wisdom, aye, their religious senseis it not marvellous, Merle? From this it was only

a step to the earth's strata, fossils, crystalsa fresh lecture. And finally he would sum up the whole into one

great harmony of development, from the primary celllife to the laws of gravitation that rule the courses of

the stars. Was it not marvellous? One common rhythm beating through the universea symphony of

But she could only draw back and put him gently aside. It was as if he came with all his storedup

knowledgehis lore of plants and fossils, crystals and starsand poured it all out in a caress. She could

almost have cried out for help. And after hurrying her through the wonders of the universe in this fashion, he

would suddenly catch her up in his arms, and whirl her off in a passionate intoxication of the senses till she

woke at last like a castaway on an island, hardly knowing where or what she was. She laughed, but she could

have found it in her heart to weep. Could this be love? In this strong man, whose life till now had been all

study and work, the storedup feeling burst vehemently forth, now that it had found an outlet. But why did it

When Peer came in from the stables, humming a tune, he found her in the sittingroom, dressed in a dark

She let her eyes linger on him for a moment, and then came up and threw her arms round his neck.

"Why, that's the very thing. The new horse I bought yesterday from Captain Myhre should be here any

"Yes. Hang itI must get some riding. I had to handle Arab horses for years. But we'll try this one in the gig

Merle was still standing with her arms round his neck, and now she pressed her warm rich lips to his, close

and closer. It was at such moments that she loved himwhen he stood trembling with a joy unexpected, that

took him unawares. She too trembled, with a blissful thrill through soul and body; for once and at last it was

A little later they stood on the balcony looking over the courtyard, when a bearded farmhand came up with a

big lightmaned chestnut horse prancing in a halter. The beast stood still in the middle of the yard, flung up

"Put him into the gig," called Peer to the stableboy who had come out to take the horse.

The man touched his cap. "Horse has never been driven before, sir, I was to say."

Merle glanced at him. But they were both dressed to go out when the chestnut came dancing up before the

door with the gig. The white hoofs pawed impatiently, the head was high in the air, and the eyes flashed

firehe wasn't used to having shafts pressing on his sides and wheels rumbling just behind him. Peer lit a

"Just to show him I'm not excited," said Peer. No sooner had they taken their seats in the gig than the beast

began to snort and rear, but the long lash flicked out over its neck, and a minute later they were tearing off in

Winter cameand a real winter it was. Peer moved about from one window to another, calling all the time to

Merle to come and look. He had been away so longthe winter of Eastern Norway was all new to him.

Looklook! A world of whitea frozen white tranquillitywoods, plains, lakes all in white, a fairytale

in sunlight, a dreamland at night under the great bright moon. There was a ringing of sleighbells out on the

lake, and up in the snow powdered forest; the frost stood thick on the horses' manes and the men's beards

were hung with icicles. And in the middle of the night loud reports of splitting ice would come from the

Driving's worth while in weather like thiscome, Merle. The new stallion from Gudbrandsdal wants

breaking inwe'll take him. Hallo! and away they go in their furs, swinging out over the frozen lake,

whirling on to the bare glassy ice, where they skid and come near capsizing, and Merle screamsbut they

get on to snow, and hoofs and runners grip again. None of your gallopingtrot now, trot! And Peer cracks

his whip. The black, longmaned Gudbrandsdaler lifts his head and trots out. And the evening comes, and

under the wide and starry sky they dash up again to LorengLoreng that lies there lighting them home with

Or they would go out on ski over the hills to the woodmen's huts in the forest, and make a blazing fire in the

big chimney and drink steaming coffee. Then home again through one of those pale winter evenings with a

violet twilight over woods and fields and lake, over white snow and blue. Far away on the brown hillside in

the west stands a farmhouse, with all its windows flaming with the reflection from a golden cloud. Here they

come rushing, the wind of their passing shaking the snow from the pines; on, on, over deeprutted

woodcutters' roads, over stumps and stonesfalling, bruising themselves, burying their faces deep in the

snow, but dragging themselves up again, smiling to each other and rushing on again. Then, reaching home

red and dripping, they lean the ski up against the wall, and stamp the snow off their boots.

"Merle," said Peer, picking the ice from his beard, "we must have a bottle of Burgundy at dinner tonight."

"Someonefrom outside? Can't we two have a little jollification all to ourselves?"

A showerbatha change of underclotheshow delicious! Andan idea! He'll appear at dinner in evening

dress, just for a surprise. But as he entered the room he stopped short. For there stood Merle herself in

evening dressa dress of dark red velvet, with his locket round her neck and the big plaits of hair rolled into

a generous knot low on her neck. Flowers on the tablethe wine set to warmthe finest glass, the best

silverptarmiganhow splendid! They lift their glasses filled with the red wine and drink to each other.

The frozen winter landscape still lingered in their thoughts, but the sun had warmed their souls; they laughed

and jested, held each other's hands long, and sat smiling at each other in long silences.

"Or fifty years hence. It comes to the same thing." He pressed her hand and his eyes half closed.

Then he fell to talking of his Egyptian experiences. He had once spent a month's holiday in visiting ruined

cities with Maspero, the great Maspero himself, going with him to Luxor, to Karnak, with its great avenues of

sphinxes, to El Amarna and Shubra. They had looked on ancient cities of temples and king's mausoleums,

where men thousands of years dead lay as if lost in thought, with eyes wide open, ready at any moment to rise

and call out: Slave, is the bath ready? There in the middle of a cornfield rises an obelisk. You ask what it

isit is all that is left of a royal city. There, too, a hundred thousand years ago maybe, young couples have

sat together, drinking to each other in wine, revelling in all the delights of loveand where are they now?

"When that journey was over, Merle, I began to think that it was not mere slime of the Nile that fertilised the

fields; it was the mouldered bodies of the dead. I rode over dust that had been human fingers, lips that had

clung in kisses. Millions and millions of men and women have lived on those riverbanks, and what has

become of them now? Geology. And I thought of the millions of prayers wailed out there to the sun and stars,

to stone idols in the temples, to crocodiles and snakes and the river itself, the sacred river. And the air,

Merlethe air received them, and vibrated for a secondand that was all. And even so our prayers go up, to

this very day. We press our warm lips to a cold stone, and think to leave an impression. Skaal!"

But Merle did not touch her glass; she sat still, with her eyes on the yellow lampshade. She had not yet given

up all her dreams of going forth and conquering the world with her musicand he sat there rolling out

eternity itself before her, while he and she herself, her parents, all, all became as chaff blown before the wind

"What, won't you drink with me? Well, wellthen I must pledge you by myself. Skaal!"

And being well started on his travellers' tales he went on with them, but now in a more cheerful vein, so that

she found it possible to smile. He told of the great lakeswamps, with their legions of birds, ibis, pelicans,

swans, flamingos, herons, and storksa world of long beaks and curved breasts and stiltlike legs and

shrieking and beating of wings. Most wonderful of all it was to stand and watch and be left behind when the

birds of passage flew northward in their thousands in the spring. My love to Norway, he would say, as they

passed. And in the autumn to see them return, grey goose, starling, wagtail, and all the rest. "How goes it now

at home?" he would thinkand "Next time I'll go with you," he would promise himself year after year.

He leaned back, flushed and in happy mood, lit a cigarette and told of his greatest triumph out there; it was

after he had finished his work at the cataracts, and had started again with a branch of the English firm in

Alexandria. One morning in walked the Chief and said: "Now, gentlemen, here's a chance for a man that has

the stuff in him to win his spurswho's ready?" And half a score of voices answered "I." "Well, here's the

King of Abyssinia suddenly finds he must be in the fashion and have a railwaycouple of hundred miles of

itwhat do you say to that?" "Splendid," we cried in chorus. "Well, but we've got to compete with Germans,

and Swiss, and Americansand we've got to win." "Of course"a louder chorus still. "Now, I'm going to

take two men and give them a free hand. They'll go up there and survey and lay out lines, and work out the

whole project thoroughly, both from the technical and the financial sideand a project that's better and

cheaper than the opposition ones. Eight months' work for a good man, but I must have it done in four. Take

along assistants and equipmentall you needand a thousand pounds premium to the man who puts it

Merle smiled her onesided smile, and looked at him through her long lashes. She knew it had been the

Peer flung away his cigarette. "First an expedition up the Nile, then a caravan journey, camels and mules and

assistants and provisions and instruments and tents and quinineheaps of quinine. Have you any idea, I

wonder, what a job like that means? The line was to run through forests and tunnels, over swamps and

torrents and chasms, and everything had to be planned and estimated at top speedmaterial, labour, time,

cost and all. It was all very well to provide for the proper spans and girders for a viaduct, and estimate for

thoroughly sound work in casting and erectingbut even then it would be no good if the Germans could

come along and say their bridge looked handsomer than ours. It was a job that would take a good man eight

months, and I had to get it done in four. There are just twelve hours in a day, it's truebut then there are

twelve more hours in the night. Fever? Well, yes. And sunstrokeyes, both men and beasts went down with

that. Maps got washed out by the rain. I lost my best assistant by snakebite. But such things didn't count as

hindrances, they couldn't be allowed to delay the work. If I lost a man, it simply meant so much more work

for me. After a couple of months a blacksmith's hammer started thumping in the back of my head, and when I

closed my eyes for a couple of hours at night, little fiery snakes went wriggling about in my brain. Tired out?

When I looked in the glass, my eyes were just two red balls in my head. But when the four months were up, I

Peer lit another cigarette. "No," he saidthe cigarette seemed to draw rather badly"I won. And that's how

"Here's the champagne," said Merle. And as the wine foamed in the glasses, she rose and drank to him. She

said nothing, only looked at him with eyes half veiled, and smiled. But a wave of fire went through him from

It was rarely that she played, though he had often begged her to. Since they had been married she had seemed

loth to touch her violin, feeling perhaps some vague fear that it would disturb her peace and awaken old

Peer sat on the sofa, leaning forward with his head in his hands, listening. And there she stood, at the

musicstand, in her red dress, flushed and warm, and shining in the yellow lamplight, playing.

Then suddenly the thought of her mother came to her, and she went to the telephone. "Motherare you

there, mother? Oh, we've had such a glorious day." And the girl ran on, as if trying to light up her mother's

A little later Peer lay in bed, while Merle flitted about the room, lingering over her toilet.

He watched her as she stood in her long white gown before the toilettable with the little greenshaded

lamps, doing her hair for the night in a long plait. Neither of them spoke. He could see her face in the glass,

and saw that her eyes were watching him, with a soft, mysterious glancethe scent of her hair seemed to fill

She turned round towards him and smiled. And he lay still, beckoning her towards him with shining eyes. All

that had passed that eveningtheir outing, and the homeward journey in the violet dusk, their little feast, and

his story, the wineall had turned to love in their hearts, and shone out now in their smile.

It may be that some touch of the cold breath of the eternities was still in their minds, the remembrance of the

millions on millions that die, the flight of the aeons towards endless darkness; yet in spite of all, the minutes

now to come, their warm embrace, held a whole world of bliss, that outweighed all, and made Peer, as he

lay there, long to send out a hymn of praise into the universe, because it was so wonderful to live.

He began to understand why she lingered and took so long. It was a sign that she wanted to surprise him, that

her heart was kind. And her light breathing seemed even now to fill the room with love.

Outside in the night the lakeice, splitting into new crevices, sent up loud reports; and the winter sky above

For the next few years Peer managed his estate and his workshop, without giving too much of his time to

either. He had his bailiff and his worksmanager, and the work went on well enough in its accustomed

grooves. If anyone had asked him what he actually did himself all the time, he would have found it hard to

answer. He seemed to be going round gathering up something not clearly defined. There was something

wantingsomething missed that now had to be made good. It was not knowledge now, but lifelife in his

native land, the life of youth, that he reached out to grasp. The youth in him, that had never had free play in

There were festive gatherings at Loreng. Long rows of sleighs drove in the winter evenings up from the town

and back again. Tables were spread and decked with glass and flowers, the rooms were brightly lit, and the

wine was good. And sometimes in the long moonlit nights respectable citizens would be awakened by noisy

mirth in the streets of the little town, and, going to the window in their nightshirts, would see sleighs come

galloping down, with a jangle of bells, full of laughing, singing young people, returning from some excursion

far up in the hills, where there had been feasting and dancing. Here a young lawyernewly married and

something of a privileged buffoonwas sitting on the lap of somebody else's wife, playing a concertina, and

singing at the top of his voice. "Some of that Loreng man's doings again," people would say. "The place has

never been the same since he came here." And they would get back to bed again, shaking their heads and

Peer drove out, too, on occasion, to parties at the big country houses round, where they would play cards all

night and have champagne sent up to their rooms next morning, the hosts being men who knew how to do

things in style. This was glorious. Not mathematics or religion any morewhat he needed now was to

assimilate something of the country life of his native land. He was not going to be a stranger in his own

country. He wanted to take firm root and be able to feel, like others, that he had a spot in the world where he

Then came the sunny day in June when he stood by Merle's bed, and she lay there smiling faintly her

"Of course her name's to be Louise," said Merle, turning the tiny red face towards her breast.

This came as a fresh surprise. She had been planning it for weeks perhaps, and now it took him unawares like

He made a faint attempt at a joke. "Oh well, I never have any say in my own house. I suppose you must have

it your own way." He stroked her forehead; and when she saw how deeply moved he was, she smiled up at

On one of the first days of the hayharvest, Peer lay out on a sunny hillside with his head resting on a

haycock, watching his people at work. The mowing machine was buzzing down by the lake, the spreader at

work on the hillslopes, the horses straining in front, the men sitting behind driving. The whole landscape lay

around him breathing summer and fruitfulness. And he himself lay there sunk in his own restful quiet.

A woman in a light dress and a yellow straw hat came down the field road, pushing a child's cart before her.

It was Merle, and Merle was looking round her, and humming as she came. Since the birth of her child her

mind was at peace; it was clear that she was scarcely dreaming now of conquering the world with her

musicthere was a tiny being in the little cart that claimed all her dreams. Never before had her skin been so

dazzling, her smile so red; it was as if her youth now first blossomed out in all its fullness; her eyes seemed

After a while Peer went down and drove the mowing machine himself. He felt as if he must get to work

But suddenly he stopped, got down, and began to walk round the machine and examine it closely. His face

was all alert now, his eyes keen and piercing. He stared at the mechanism of the blades, and stood awhile

What was this? A happy idea was beginning to work in his mind. Vague only as yetthere was still time to

Warm mild days and luminous nights. Sometimes he could not sleep for thinking how delicious it was to lie

On one such night he got up and dressed. A few minutes later there was a trampling of hoofs in the

stableyard and the chestnut stallion appeared, with Peer leading him. He swung himself into the saddle, and

Where was he going? Nowhere. It was a change, to be up at an unusual hour and see the day break on a July

He trotted along at an easy pace, rising lightly in the stirrups, and enjoying the pleasant warmth the rider

feels. All was quiet around him, the homesteads still asleep. The sky was a pearly white, with here and there a

few golden clouds, reflected in the lake below. And the broad meadows still spread their manycoloured

flowercarpet abroad; there was a scent in the air of leaf and meadowgrass and pine, he drew in deep

He turned into the byroad up the hill, dismounting now and again to open a gate; past farms and little

cottages, ever higher and higher, till at last he reached the topmost ridge, and halted in a clearing. The

chestnut threw up his head and sniffed the air; horse and rider were wet with the dewdrip from the trees, that

were now just flushing in the first glow of the coming sun. Far below was the lake, reflecting sky and hills

and farmsteads, all asleep. And there in the east were the red flamesthe sunthe day.

The horse pawed impatiently at the ground, eager to go on, but Peer held him back. He sat there gazing under

the brim of his helmet at the sunrise, and felt a wave of strange feeling passing through his mind.

It seemed to him impossible that he should ever reach a higher pitch of sheer delight in life. He was still

young and strong; all the organs of his body worked together in happy harmony. No cares to weigh upon his

mind, no crushing responsibilities; the future lying calm and clear in the light of day, free from dizzy dreams.

His hunger after knowledge was appeased; he felt that what he had learned and seen and gathered was

The great human type of which you dreamedhave you succeeded in giving it life in yourself?

You know what is common knowledge about the progress of humanity; its struggle towards higher forms, its

You know something of the life of plants; the nest of a bird is a mystery before which you could kneel in

worship. A rock shows you the marks of a glacier that scraped over it thousands of years ago, and looking on

it you have a glimpse of the gigantic workings of the solar system. And on autumn evenings you look up at

the stars, and the light and the death and the dizzy abysses of space above you send a solemn thrill through

And this has become a part of yourself. The joy of life for you is to grasp all you can compass of the universe,

Have you as yet raised one steppingstone upon which other men can climb and say: Now we can see farther

If the world one day came to be peopled with none but supermen what profit in that, as long as they must

Ah, this sense of exile, of religious homelessness! How many times have you and Merle lain clasping each

other's hands, your thoughts wandering together hand in hand, seeking over earth or among the stars for some

being to whom you might send up a prayer; no slavish begging cry for grace and favour, but a jubilant

But the ascetic on the cross is a God for the sick and aged. What of us others? When shall the modern man,

strong, scientifically schooled, find a temple for the sacred music, the anthem of eternity in his soul?

The sun rose up from behind a distant hillcrest, scattering gold over the million spires of the pineforest.

Peer bent forward, with redgleaming dewdrops on his hand and his white sleeve, and patted the neck of his

It was two o'clock. The fires of morning were lit in the clouds and in all the waters over the earth. The dew in

And he dashed off down the grassgrown forest paths, the chestnut snorting as he galloped.

"Hei, Merle; We're going to have distinguished visitorswhere in the world have you got to!" Peer hurried

through the rooms with an open telegram in his hand, and at last came upon his wife in the nursery. "Oh, is it

"Yesbut you shout so, I could hear you all through the house. Who is it that's coming?"

"Ferdinand Holm and Klaus Brock. Coming to the christening after all. Great Caesar!what do you say to

Merle was pale, and her cheeks a little sunken. Two years more had passed, and she had her second child now

"Yes; but isn't it splendid of them to set off and come all that way, just because I asked them? By Jove, we

And sure enough the whole place was soon turned upsidedown cartloads of sand coming in for the

garden walks and the courtyard, and painters hard at work repainting the houses. And poor Merle knew very

well that there would be serious trouble if anything should be amiss with the entertainment indoors.

At last came the hot August day when the flags were hoisted in honour of the expected guests. Once more the

hum of mowing machines and hayrakes came from the hillslopes, and the air was so still that the columns

of smoke from the chimneys of the town rose straight into the air. Peer had risen early, to have a last look

round, inspecting everything critically, from the summer dress Merle was to wear down to the horses in the

stable, groomed till their coats shone again. Merle understood. He had been a fisher boy beside the

welldressed son of the doctor, and something meaner yet in relation to the distinguished Holm family. And

there was still so much of the boy in him that he wanted to show now at his very best.

A crowd of inquisitive idlers had gathered down on the steamboat landing when the boat swung in and lay by

the pier. The pair of bays in the Loreng carriage stood tossing their heads and twitching and stamping as the

flies tormented them; but at last they got their passengers and were given their heads, setting off with a wild

bound or two that scattered those who had pressed too near. But in the carriage they could see the two

strangers and the engineer, all three laughing and gesticulating, and talking all at once. And in a few moments

they vanished in a cloud of dust, whirling away beside the calm waters of the fjord.

Some way behind them a cart followed, driven by one of the stable boys from Loreng, and loaded with big

brassbound leather trunks and a huge chest, apparently of wood, but evidently containing something

Merle had finished dressing, and stood looking at herself in the glass. The light summer dress was pretty, she

thought, and the red bows at neck and waist sat to her satisfaction. Then came the roll of wheels outside, and

"Here they are," cried Peer, jumping down. "This is Ferdinand Pasha, GovernorGeneral of the new

Kingdom of Saharaand this is His Highness the Khedive's chief pipecleaner and bodyeunuch."

A tall, stooping man with white hair and a cleanshaven, driedup face advanced towards Merle. It was

"Why, this is quite a baronial seat you have here," he added, looking round and settling his pincenez.

His companion was a round, plump gentleman, with a little black goatee beard and dark eyes that blinked

continually. But his smile was full of mirth, and the grip of his hand felt true. So this was Klaus Brock.

Peer led his two friends in through the rooms, showing them the view from the various windows. Klaus broke

into a laugh at last, and turned to Merle: "He's just the same as ever," he said"a little stouter, to be

sureit's clear you've been treating him well, madam." And he bowed and kissed her hand.

There was hock and seltzer ready for themthis was Merle's idea, as suitable for a hot dayand when the

two visitors had each drunk off a couple of glasses, with an: "Ah! delicious!", Peer came behind her, stroked

"By the way," exclaimed Ferdinand Holm suddenly, "I must send off a telegram. May I use the telephone a

"There he goescan't contain himself any longer!" burst out Klaus Brock with a laugh. "He's had the

telegraph wires going hard all the way across Europebut you might let us get inside and sit down before

When the two had left the room, Klaus turned to Merle with a smile. "Well, wellso I'm really in the

presence of Peer's wifehis wife in flesh and blood. And this is what she looks like! That fellow always had

all the luck." And he took her hand again and kissed it. Merle drew it away and blushed.

"I? Well, yes and no. I did marry a Greek girl once, but she ran away. Just my luck." And he blinked his eyes

"He, dear ladyhewhy, saving your presence, I have an idea there's a select little harem attached to that

An hour later the visitors came down from their rooms after a wash and a change of clothes, and after a light

luncheon Peer carried them off to show them round the place. He had added a number of new buildings, and

had broken new land. The farm had forty cows when he came, now he had over sixty. "Of course, all this is a

mere nothing for fellows like you, who bring your harvest home in railway trains," he said. "But, you see, I

have my home here." And he waved his hand towards the house and the farmstead round.

Later they drove over in the light trap to look at the workshop, and here he made no excuses for its being

small. He showed off the little foundry as if it had been a worldfamous seat of industry, and maintained his

serious air while his companions glanced sideways at him, trying hard not to smile.

The workmen touched their caps respectfully, and sent curious glances at the strangers.

"Quite a treat to see things on the Norwegian scale again," Ferdinand Holm couldn't resist saying at last.

"Yes, isn't it charming!" cried Peer, putting on an air of ingenuous delight. "This is just the size a foundry

Ferdinand Holm and Brock exchanged glances. But next moment Peer led them through into a sideroom,

"Now look out," said Klaus. "This is the holy of holies, you'll see. He's hard at it working out some new

Peer drew aside a couple of tarpaulins, and showed them a mowing machine of the ordinary type, and beside

"It's not quite finished yet," he said. "But I've solved the main problem. The old single knifeblade principle

was clumsy; dragged, you know. But with two bladesa pair of shears, so to speak it'll work much

quicker." And he gave them a little lecture, showing how much simpler his mechanism was, and how much

"The patent ought to be worth a million," said Ferdinand Holm, slowly, looking out of the window.

"Of course the main thing is, to make the work easier and cheaper for the farmers," said Peer, with a rather

Dinner that evening was a festive meal. When the liqueur brandy went round, Klaus greeted it with

enthusiasm. "Why, here's an old friend, as I live! Real Lysholmer!well, well; and so you're still in the land

of the living? You remember the days when we were boys together?" He lifted the little glass and watched

the light play in the pale spirit. And the three old friends drank together, singing "The first full glass," and

then "The second little nip," with the proper ceremonial observances, just as they had done in the old days, at

The talk went merrily, one good story calling up another. But Merle could not help noticing the steely gleam

The talk fell on new doings in Egypt, and as Peer heard more and more of these, it seemed to her that his look

changed. His glance, too, seemed to have that glint of steel, there was something strange and absent in his

face; was he feeling, perhaps, that wife and children were but a drag on a man, after all? He seemed like an

"There's a nice little job waiting for you, by the way," said Ferdinand Holm, lifting his glass to Peer.

"You're no good under any one. You belong on top." Ferdinand illustrated his words with a downward and an

upward pointing of the finger. "The harnessing of the Tigris and Euphrates will have to be taken in hand. It's

"The plan's simply lying waiting for the right man. It will be carried out, it may be next year, it may be in ten

All looked at Peer; Merle fastened her eyes on him, too. But he laughed. "Now, what on earth would be the

satisfaction to me of binding in bands those two ancient and honourable rivers?"

"Well, in the first place, it would mean an increase of many millions of bushels in the corn production of the

"Or regular lines of communication over hundreds of thousands of square miles of the most fertile country on

"Ah!" Ferdinand Holm lifted his glass to Merle. "Tell me, dear lady, how does it feel to be married to an

"Yes, your husband's an anachronism. He might, if he chose, be one of the kings, the prophets, who lead the

van in the fight for civilisation. But he will not; he despises his own powers, and one day he will start a

Merle laughed, and lifted her glass, but hesitatingly, and with a sideglance towards Peer.

"He sits ravelling out his life into a multitude of golden threads," went on Ferdinand with a bow, his steely

"It is wrong. It is wasting his immortal soul. A man has no right to ravel out his life, even though the threads

are of gold. A man's days of personal happiness are forgottenhis work endures. And your husband in

particularwhy the deuce should HE be so happy? The worldevolution uses us inexorably, either for light

Merle glanced again at her husband. Peer laughed, but then suddenly compressed his lips and looked down at

Then the nurse came in with little Louise, to say goodnight, and the child was handed round from one to the

other. But when the little fairhaired girl came to Ferdinand Holm, he seemed loth to touch her, and Merle

read his glance at Peer as meaning: "Here is another of the bonds you've tied yourself up with."

"Excuse me," he said suddenly, looking at his watch, "I'm afraid I must ask for the use of the telephone again.

Pardon me, Fru Holm." And he rose and left the room. Klaus looked at the others and shook his head. "That

man would simply expire if he couldn't send a telegram once an hour," he said with a laugh.

Coffee was served out on the balcony, and the men sat and smoked. It was a dusky twilight of early autumn;

the hills were dark blue now and distant; there was a scent of hay and garden flowers. After a while Merle

rose and said goodnight. And in her thoughts, when she found herself alone in her bedroom, she hardly

knew whether to be displeased or not. These strange men were drawing Peer far away from all that had been

his chief delight since she had known him. But it was interesting to see how different his manner was towards

the two friends. Klaus Brock he could jest and laugh with, but with Ferdinand Holm he seemed always on his

guard, ready to assert himself, and whenever he contradicted him it was always with a certain deference.

The great yellow disc of the moon came up over the hills in the east, drawing a broad pillar of gold across the

dark water. And the three comrades on the balcony sat watching it for a while in silence.

"So you're really going to go on idling here?" asked Ferdinand at last, sipping his liqueur.

"Well, I gather you're going round here simply being happy from morning to night. I call that idling."

"Of course, you're very unhappy in reality. Everyone is, as long as he's neglecting his powers and aptitudes."

"Very many thanks," said Peer, with a laugh. Klaus sat up in his chair, a little anxious as to what was coming.

Ferdinand was still looking out over the lake. "You seem to despise your own tradeas engineer?"

"Why, I feel the lack of some touch of beauty in our ceaseless craving to create something new, something

new, always something new. More gold, more speed, more foodare these things not all we are driving at?"

"My dear fellow, gold means freedom. And food means life. And speed carries us over the dead moments.

"And what good will it do to double their numbers? Two thousand million machinemade soulsis that

"But hang it all, man," put in Klaus Brock eagerly, "think of our dear Norway at least. Surely you don't think

it would be a misfortune if our population increased so far that the world could recognise our existence."

"I am loth to see all Norway polluted with factories and proletariat armies. Why the devil can't we be left in

"The steel will not have it," said Ferdinand Holm, as if speaking to the pillar of moonlight on the water.

Ferdinand went on undisturbed: "The steel will not have peace. And the fire will not. And Prometheus will

not. The human spirit has still too many steps to climb before it reaches the top. Peace? No, my friendthere

Peer smiled, and lit a new cigar. Ferdinand Holm leaned back in his chair and went on, addressing himself

apparently to the moon. "Tigris and EuphratesIndus and Gangesand all the rest of this planetregulate

and cultivate the whole, and what is it after all? It's only a question of a few years. It is only a humble

beginning. In a couple of centuries or so there will be nothing left to occupy us any more on this little globe

"Gain? Do you imagine there will ever be any 'thus far and no farther' for the spirit of man? Half a million

years hence, all the solar systems we know of now will be regulated and ordered by the human spirit. There

will be difficulties, of course. Interplanetary wars will arise, planetary patriotism, groups of planetary powers

in alliances and coalitions against other groups. Little worlds will be subjugated by the bigger ones, and so

on. Is there anything in all this to grow dizzy over? Great heavenscan anyone doubt that man must go on

conquering and to conquer for millions of years to come? The worldwill goes its way. We cannot resist.

Nobody asks whether we are happy. The will that works towards the infinite asks only whom it can use for its

"You! Are you still going about feeling your own pulse and wanting to live for ever? My dear fellow, YOU

don't exist. There is just one person on our sidethe worldwill. And that includes us all. That's what I mean

by 'we.' And we are working towards the day when we can make God respect us in good earnest. The spirit of

man will hold a Day of Judgment, and settle accounts with Olympus with the riddle, the almighty power

beyond. It will be a great reckoning. And mark my wordsthat is the one single religious idea that lives and

works in each and every one of usthe thing that makes us hold up our heads and walk upright, forgetting

Suddenly he looked at his watch. "Excuse me a moment. If the telegraph office is open . . ." and he rose and

When he returned, Klaus and Peer were talking of the home of their boyhood and their early days together.

"Oh yesthat shark. Let me seeyou were a hero, weren't you, and beat it to death with your bare

fistswasn't that it?" And then "Cut the line, cut the line, and row for your lives," he mimicked, and burst

"Oh, shut up now and don't be so witty," said Klaus. "But tell me, have you ever been back there since you

Peer told him that he had been to the village last year. His old fosterparents were dead, and Peter Ronningen

too; but Martin Bruvold was there still, living in a tiny cottage with eight children.

Ferdinand Holm had sat down again, and now he nodded towards the moon. "An old chum of yours? Well,

There was a little pause. "I hope you'll let me join you," went on Ferdinand, taking a note for five hundred

Peer glanced at him and took the note. "I'm delighted for poor old Martin's sake," he said, putting the note in

Klaus Brock looked from one to the other and smiled a little. The talk turned on other things for a while, and

"By the way, Peer, have you seen that advertisement of the British Carbide Company's?"

"They want tenders for the damming and harnessing of the Besna River, with its lake system and falls. That

"No," said Ferdinand sharply. "I told you beforethat job's too small for him. Peer's going to the Euphrates."

"As far as I could make out, it should be a matter of a couple of million crowns or thereabout," said Klaus.

"That's not a thing for Peer," said Ferdinand, rising and lifting his hand to hide a yawn. "Leave trifles like that

A couple of hours later, when all was silent throughout the house, Peer was still up, wandering to and fro in

soft felt slippers in the great hall. Now and again he would stop, and look out of the window. Why could he

The next morning Merle was alone in the pantry when she heard steps behind her, and turned her head. It was

"Goodmorning, madamah! so this is what you look like in morning dress. Why, morning neglige might

have been invented for you, if I may say so. You might be a Ghirlandajo. Or no, better still, Aspasia herself."

"Am I? What about Ferdinand Holm then? He has been up since sunrise, sitting over his letters and accounts.

Anything I can help you with? May I move that cheese for you?Well, well! you are strong. But there, I'm

"And since then?" Merle let her eyes rest on this flourishing gentleman, who looked as if he could never have

"Since then, dear lady?since then? Let me see. Why, at this moment I really can't remember ever having

"And, that being so, don't you think it's your plain duty, as a hospitable hostess, to grant me . . ."

"A kiss. I might as well have it now." As he took a step nearer, she looked laughingly round for a way of

"Well," said Merle, "but you must do something to make yourself useful first. Suppose you ran up that

"Delighted. Why, this is great fun!" The slight wooden ladder creaked under the weight of his solid form as

"To reach the top shelfthat's it. Now, you see that big brown jar? Carefulit's cranberries."

"SplendidI do believe we're to have cranberry preserve at dinner." By standing on tiptoe he managed to

reach and lift the heavy jar, and stood holding it, his face flushed with his exertions.

"Just stay there a moment and hold it carefully; I have to fetch something." And she hurried out.

Klaus stood at the top of the ladder, holding the heavy jar. He looked round. What was he to do with it? He

waited for Merle to returnbut she did not appear. Someone was playing the piano in the next room. Should

he call for help? He waited on, getting redder and redder in the face. And still no Merle came.

With another mighty effort he set the jar back in its place, and then climbed down the ladder and walked into

the drawingroom, very red and out of breath. In the doorway he stopped short and stared.

"I'll pay you out for this," he said, shaking a finger at her. "Just you wait and see, little lady, if I don't pay you

Peer was sitting at the writingtable in his study when Klaus came in. "I'm just sealing up the letter with the

money for Martin Bruvold," he said, setting the taper to a stick of sealing wax. "I've signed it: 'From the shark

"Yes, it was a capital idea of Ferdinand's. What d'you think the poor old fellow'll say when he opens it and

Klaus dropped into a leather armchair and leaned back comfortably. "I've been downstairs flirting a little with

Peer looked at him, and thought of the old days when the heavy built, clumsy doctor's son had run about

after the servantgirls in the town. He had still something of his old lurching walk, but intercourse with the

ladies of many lands had polished him and given lightness and ease to his manner.

"What was I going to say?" Klaus went on. "Oh yesour friend Ferdinand's a fine fellow, isn't he?"

"I felt yesterday exactly as I used to feel when we three were together in the old days. When I listen to his

talk I can't help agreeing with himand then you begin to speak, and what you say, too, seems to be just

what I've been thinking in my inmost soul. Do you think I've become shallow, Peer?"

"Well, your steam ploughs look after themselves, I suppose, and the ladies of your harem don't trouble you

"Best not say too much about that," said Klaus with a sigh, and it suddenly struck Peer that his friend's face

"No," said Klaus again. "Better not say much about that. But tell me, old fellowyou mustn't mind my

"I owe more to him than to anybody in the world. But whether he regards me as a kinsman or simply as an

object for his kindness to wreak itself on is a matter he's always left quite vague."

"It'seragain it's rather a delicate matter to touch on. I know, of course, that you're in the enviable

position of having your fortune invested in the best jointstock company in the world"

"Oh, mine's a trifle compared with yours. Have you still the whole of your money in Ferdinand's company?"

"Yes. I've been thinking of selling a few shares, by the way. As you may suppose, I've been spending a good

"You mustn't sell just now, Peer. They'reI daresay you've seen that they're downbelow par, in fact."

"Oh, only for the time being, of course. Just a temporary drop. There's sure to be another run on them soon,

and they'll go up again. But the Khedive has the controlling interest, you know, and he's rather a ticklish

customer. Ferdinand is all for extension wants to keep on buying up new landnew desert, that is.

Irrigation there's just a question of powerthat's how he looks at it. And of course the bigger the scale of the

work the cheaper the power will work out. But the Khedive's holding back. It may be just a temporary

whimmay be all right again tomorrow. But you never know. And if you think Ferdinand's the man to give

in to a cranky Khedive, you're much mistaken. His idea now is to raise all the capital he can lay hands on, and

buy him out! What do you say to that? Buy the Khedive clean out of the company. It's a large order. And if I

were you, old man, as soon as the shares go up again a bit, I'd sell out some of my holding, and put the money

into something at home here. After all, there must be plenty of quite useful things to be had here."

Peer frowned, and sat for a while looking straight before him. "No," he said at last. "As things stand between

Ferdinand Holm and mewell, if either of us goes back on the other, it's not going to be me."

The christening was a great occasion, with a houseful of guests, and a great deal of speechmaking. The host

was the youngest and gayest of the party. The birth of his son should be celebrated in true Ethiopian fashion,

The moon was hidden that evening behind thick dark clouds, but the boats full of guests glided over the black

water to the accompaniment of music and laughter. The young madcap of a lawyer was there, again sitting on

the lap of someone else's wife, and playing a concertina, till people in the farms on shore opened their

Later on the bonfires blazed up all along the lake shore and shone like great flaming suns in the water below.

The guests lay on the grass in little groups round picnic suppers, and here and there a couple wandered by

Merle and Peer stood together for a moment beside one of the bonfires. Their faces and figures were lit by the

red glow; they looked at each other and exchanged a smile. He took her hand and led her outside the circle of

light from the fire, and pointed over to their home, with all its windows glowing against the dark.

"Oh, nothingonly I have a sort of feeling, as if something had just ended and something new was to begin.

I feel like it, somehow. But I wanted to thank you, too, for all the happy times we've had."

"But Peerwhat" She got no farther, for Peer had already left her and joined a group of guests, where he

Then came the day when the two visitors were to leave. Their birthday gift to the young gentleman so lately

christened Lorentz Uthoug stood in the drawingroom; it was a bust in red granite, the height of a man, of the

Sungod Re Hormachis, brought with them by the godfathers from Alexandria. And now it sat in the

drawingroom between palms in pots, pressing its elbows against its sides and gazing with great dead eyes

Peer stood on the quay waving farewell to his old comrades as the steamer ploughed through the water,

And when he came home, he walked about the place, looking at farms and woods, at Merle and the children,

Next night he stayed up once more alone, pacing to and fro in the great hall, and looking out of the windows

Was he ravelling out his life into golden threads that vanished and were forgotten?

What was he seeking? Happiness? And beyond it? As a boy he had called it the anthem, the universal hymn.

You have drawn such nourishment as you could from joy in your home, from your marriage, your

fatherhood, nature, and the fellowmen around you here. There are unused faculties in you that hunger for

You should take up the barrage on the Besna, Peer. But could you get the contract? If you once buckleto in

earnest, no one is likely to beat youyou'll get it, sure enough. But do you really want it?

Are you not working away at a mowingmachine as it is? Better own up that you can't get on without your

old craft, after allthat you must for ever be messing and meddling with steel and fire. You can't help

All the things your eyes have been fixed on in these last years have been only golden visions in a mist. The

steel has its own will. The steel is beginning to wake in yousingingsinging bent on pressing onward.

Next morning he set off for the capital. Merle watched the carriage as it drove away, and thought to herself:

There came a card from Peer, with a brief message: "Off to inspect the ground." A fortnight later he came

home, loaded with maps and plans. "Of course I'm late for the fair, as usual," he said. "But wait a bit."

He locked himself into his room. At last Merle knew what it was like to have him at work. She could hear

him in the mornings, walking up and down and whistling. Then silencehe would be standing over his table,

busy with notes and figures. Then steps again. Now he was singingand this was a novelty to himself. It

was as if he carried in him a store of happiness, a treasure laid by of love, and the beauty of nature, and happy

hours, and now it found its way out in song. Why should he not sing over the plans for a great barrage?

Mathematics are dry work enough, but at times they can be as living visions, soaring up into the light. Peer

sang louder. Then silence again. Merle never knew now when he stopped work and came to bed. She would

fall asleep to the sound of his singing in his own room, and when she woke he would already be tramping up

and down again in there; and to her his steps seemed like the imperious tread of a great commander. He was

alight with new visions, new themes, and his voice had a lordly ring. Merle looked at him through

halfclosed eyes with a lingering glance. Once more he was new to her: she had never seen him like this.

At last the work was finished, and he sent in his tender. And now he was more restless than ever. For a week

he waited for an answer, tramping in and out of the place, going off for rides on Bijou, and coming back with

his horse dripping with sweat. An impatient man cannot possibly ride at any pace but a gallop. The days

passed; Peer was sleepless, and ate nothing. More days passed. At last he came bursting into the nursery one

morning: "Trunk call, Merle; summons to a meeting of the Company Directors. Quick's the word. Come and

Now it was Merle's turn to walk up and down in suspense. It mattered little to her in itself whether he got the

A couple of days later a telegram came: "Hurrah, wife!" And Merle danced round the room, waving the

The next day he was back home again and tramping up and down the room. "What do you think your father

"Oh, if he doesn't want to, we'll let him off. But at any rate I'll ask him first. Goodbye." And Peer drove off

In Lorentz Uthoug's big house you had to pass through the hardware shop to get to his office, which lay

behind. Peer knocked at the door, with a portfolio under his arm. Herr Uthoug had just lit the gas, and was on

the point of sitting down at his American rolltop desk, when Peer entered. The greybearded head with the

close thick hair turned towards him, darkened by the shadow from the green shade of the burner.

"You, is it?" said he. "Sit down. You've been to Christiania, I hear. And what are you busy with now?"

"And what does the thing amount to?" asked Uthoug, his face coming out of the shadow and looking at Peer

The old man laid his hairy hands on the desk and rose to his feet, staring at the other and breathing deeply.

The sum halfstunned him. Beside it he himself and his work seemed like dust in the balance. Where were all

his plans and achievements now, his greatness, his position, his authority in the town? Compared with

"Yes. I daresay it seems a trifle to you," said Peer. "Indeed, I've handled contracts myself that ran to fifty

"What? How much did you say?" Uthoug began to move restlessly about the room. He clutched his hair, and

At the same time he felt it would never do to let himself be so easily thrown off his balance. He tried to pull

"Oh!" A profit on this scale again rather startled the old man. No, he was nothing; he never had been anything

"But ifbut how can you be sure of it? Suppose you've got your figures wrong?" His head was thrust

When he broached the question of security, the old man was in the act of moving away from him across the

After a pause the old man said: "I see. Yes, I see. Butbut I'm not worth as much as that altogether."

"I can put in three hundred thousand of the four myself, in shares. And then, of course, I have the Loreng

property, and the works. But put it at a round figurewill you guarantee a hundred thousand?"

There was another pause, and then the reply came from the far end of the room to which Uthoug had drifted:

"Of course if you would rather not, I could make other arrangements. My two friends, who have just been

"No, no; you mustn't be in such a hurry. Why, you come down on a man like an avalanche. You must give

me time to think it over till tomorrow at least. And the papersat any rate, I must have a look at them."

Uthoug passed a restless and troubled night. The solid ground seemed to have failed him; his mind could find

no firm foothold. His soninlaw must be a great manhe should be the last to doubt it. But a hundred

thousandto be ventured, not in landed property, or a big trade deal, but on the success of a piece of

construction work. This was something new. It seemed fantastic suited to the great world outside perhaps,

or the future. Had he courage enough to stand in? Who could tell what accidents, what disasters might not

happen? No! He shook his head. He could not. He dared not. Butthe thing tempted him. He had always

wanted to be something more than a whale among the minnows. Should he risk it? Should he not? It meant

staking his whole fortune, his position, everything, upon the outcome of a piece of engineering that he

understood nothing whatever about. It was sheer speculation; it was gambling. No, he must say: No. Then he

was only a whale among the minnows, after all. No, he must say: Yes. Good God! He clenched his hands

together; they were clammy with sweat, and his brain was in a whirl. It was a trial, a temptation. He felt an

Next day Merle and Peer were rung up by telephone and asked to come in to dinner with the old folks.

But when they were all sitting at table, they found it impossible to keep the conversation going. Everyone

seemed shy of beginning on the subject they were all thinking about. The old man's face was grey with want

of sleep; his wife looked from one to the other through her spectacles. Peer was calm and smiling.

At last, when the claret came round, Fru Uthoug lifted her glass and drank to Peer. "Good fortune!" she said.

"We won't be the ones to stand in your way. Since you think it is all right, of course it is. And we all hope it

Merle looked at her parents; she had sat through the meal anxious and troubled, and now the tears rose into

"Thanks," said Peer, lifting his glass and drinking to his host and hostess. "Thanks," he repeated, bowing to

old Uthoug. The matter was arranged. Evidently the two old folks had talked it over together and come to an

It was settled, but all four felt as if the solid ground were rocking a little under their feet. All their future, their

A couple of days later, a day of mild October sunshine, Peer happened to go into the town, and, catching

sight of his motherin law at the window, he went off and bought some flowers, and took them up to her.

She was sitting looking out at the yellow sky in the west, and she hardly turned her head as she took the

"Ah! it isn't a good thing always to tell our thoughts," she said, and she turned her spectacled eyes so as to

"You see, Peer, there is trouble coming for you. A great deal of trouble." She nodded her head towards the

"Because all things blossom and flourish about you. Be sure that there are unseen powers enough that grudge

"I know it," she answered with a sigh, gazing out into the distance. "You have made enemies of late amongst

all those envious shadows that none can see. But they are all around us. I see them every day; I have learned

to know them, in all these years. I have fought with them. And it is well for Merle that she has learned to sing

in a house so full of shadows. God grant she may be able to sing them away from you too."

When Peer left the house he felt as if little shudders of cold were passing down his back. "Pooh!" he

exclaimed as he reached the street. "She is not right in her head." And he hurried to his carriole and drove off

"Old Rode will be pleased, anyhow," he thought. "He'll be his own master in the workshop nowthe dream

of his life. Well, everyone for himself. And the bailiff will have things all his own way at Loreng for a year or

"Peer, you're surely not going away just now? Oh, Peer, you mustn't. You won't leave me alone, Peer!"

"Merle, dear, now do be sensible. No, nodo let go, dear." He tried to disengage her hands that were clasped

"Peer, you have never been like this before. Don't you care for me any moreor the children?"

"Merle, dearest, you don't imagine that I like going. But you surely don't want me to have another big breach

But she held him fast. "And what happens to those dams up there is more to you now than what becomes of

"You will be all right, dear. The doctor and the nurse have promised to be on the spot the moment you send

word. And you managed so well before. . . . I simply cannot stay now, Merle. There's too much at stake.

There, there, goodbye! Be sure you telegraph" He kissed her over the eyes, put her gently down into a

chair, and hurried out of the room, feeling her terrified glance follow him as he went.

The April sun had cleared away the snow from the lowlands, but when Peer stepped out of the train up in

Espedal he found himself back in winterfarms and fields still covered, and ridges and peaks deep in white

dazzling snow. And soon he was sitting wrapped in his furs, driving a miserable dun pony up a sidevalley

The road was a narrow track through the snow, yellow with horse dung, and a mass of holes and ruts, worn

by his own teams that had hauled their heavy loads of cement this way all through that winter and the last, up

The steel will on. The steel cares nothing for human beings. Merle must come through it alone.

When a healthy, happy man is hampered and thwarted in a great work by annoyances and disasters, he

behaves like an Arab horse on a heavy march. At first it moves at a brisk trot, uphill and downhill, and it goes

faster and faster as its strength begins to flag. And when at last it is thoroughly out of breath and ready to

This was not the work he had once dreamed of finding. Now, as before, his hunger for eternal things seemed

ever at the side of his accomplishment, asking continually: Whither? Why? and What then?

But by degrees the difficulties had multiplied and mounted, till at last his whole mind was taken up by the

one thoughtto put it through. Good or bad in itselfhe must make a success of it. He had undertaken it,

And so he fought on. It was merely a trial of strength; a fight with material difficulties. Aye, but was that all

it was? Were there not times when he felt himself struggling with something greater, something worse? A

new motive force seemed to have come into his lifemisfortune. A power outside his own will had begun to

Your calculations may be sound, correct in every detail, and yet things may go altogether wrong.

Who could include in his calculations the chance that a perfectly sober engineer will get drunk one day and

give orders so crazy that it costs tens of thousands to repair the damage? Who could foresee that against all

probability a big vein of water would be tapped in tunnelling, and would burst out, flooding the workings and

overwhelming the workmenso that the next day a train of unpainted deal coffins goes winding out over the

More than once there had been remarks and questions in the newspapers: "Another disaster at the Besna

It was because he himself was away on a business journey and Falkman had neglected to take elementary

precautions that the big rockfall occurred in the tunnel, killing four men, and destroying the new Belgian

rockdrill, that had cost a good hundred thousand, before it had begun to work. This sort of thing was not

"Come up, boy! We must get there tonight. The flood mustn't have a chance this year to lay the blame on

And then, to cap the other misfortunes, his chief contractor for material had gone bankrupt, and now prices

had risen far above the rates he had allowed foradding fresh thousands to the extra expenditure.

But he would put the thing through, even if he lost money by it. His envious rivals who had lately begun to

run down his projects in the technical papershe would make them look foolish yet.

Well, it may be that the Promethean spirit is preparing a settling day for the universe somewhere out in

Silencepush on, push on. There may be a snowstorm any minute. Come upget along, you scarecrow.

The dun struggles on to the end of a twelvemile stage, and then the valley ends and the full blast from the

plateau meets them. Here lies the posting station, the last farm in the valley. He swings into the yard and is

Ah! here comes his own horse, the big black stallion from Gudbrandsdal. This beast's trot is a different thing

from the poor dun'sthe sleigh flies up to the door. And in a moment Peer is sitting in it again in his furs.

Ah! what a relief to have a fresh horse, and one that makes light of the load behind him. Away he goes at a

brisk trot, with lifted head and bells jingling, over the frozen lakes. Here and there on the hillslopes a grey hut

or two show outsaeters, which have lain there unchanged for perhaps a couple of thousand years. But a

new time is coming. The saeterhorns will be heard no longer, and the song of the turbines will rise in their

An icy wind is blowing; the horse throws up its head and snorts. Big snowflakes come driving on the wind,

and soon a regular snowstorm is raging, lashing the traveller's face till he gasps. First the horse's mane and

tail grow white with snow, then its whole body. The drifts grow bigger, the black has to make great bounds to

clear them. Bravo, old boy! we must get there before dark. There are brushwood brooms set out across the ice

to mark the way, but who could keep them in sight in a driving smother like this? Peer's own face is plastered

He has worked under the burning suns of Egyptand now here. But the steel will on. The wave rolls on its

If this snow should turn to rain now, it will mean a flood. And then the men will have to turn out tonight and

One more disaster, and he would hardly be able to finish within the contract time. And that once exceeded,

At last there is nothing to be seen on the way but a shapeless mass of snow struggling with bowed head

against the storm, wading deep in the loose drifts, wading seemingly at haphazardand trailing after it an

indefinable bundle of whitedead white. Behind, a human being drags along, holding on for dear life to the

At last they were groping their way in the darkness towards the shore, where the electric lights of the station

showed faintly through the snowfog. And hardly had Peer got out of the sleigh before the snow stopped

suddenly, and the dazzling electric suns shone over the place, with the workmen's barracks, the assistants'

quarters, the offices, and his own little plankbuilt house. Two of the engineers came out to meet him, and

"They want us to take back the machinist that was dismissed the other day for drunkenness."

Peer shook the snow from his fur coat, took his bag, and walked over to the building, the others following.

A couple of days later Peer was lying in bed, when the postbag was brought in. He shook the letters out over

What was this? Why did his hand tremble as he took it up? Of course it was only one of Klaus's ordinary

DEAR FRIEND,This is a hard letter to write. But I do hope you have taken my advice and got some of

your money at any rate over to Norway. Well, to be as brief as possible! Ferdinand Holm has decamped, or is

in prison, or possibly worseyou know well enough it's no good asking questions in a country like this when

a big man suddenly disappears. He had made enemies in the highest places; he was playing a dangerous

You know what it means when a business goes into liquidation out here, and no strong man on the spot to

You'll take it coolly, I know. I've lost every penny I hadbut you've still got your place over there and the

workshops. And you're the sort of fellow to make twice as much next time, or I don't know you. I hope the

P.S.Of course you'll understand that now my friend has been thrown overboard it will very likely be my

turn next. But I can't leave nowto try would rouse suspicion at once. We foreigners have some difficult

balancing to do, to escape a fall. Well, if by chance you don't hear from me again, you'll know something has

Outside, the water was streaming down the channels into the fall. Peer lay still for a while, only one knee

moving up and down beneath the clothes. He thought of his two friends. And he thought that he was now a

poor manand that the greater part of the burden of the security would fall now on old Lorentz D. Uthoug.

Clearly, Fate has other business on hand than making things easy for you, Peer. You must fight your fight out

One evening in the late autumn Merle was sitting at home waiting for her husband. He had been away for

several weeks, so it was only natural that she should make a little festivity of his return. The lamps were lit in

all the rooms, wood fires were crackling in all the stoves, the cook was busy with his favourite dishes, and

little Louise, now five years old, had on her blue velvet frock. She was sitting on the floor, nursing two dolls,

and chattering to them. "Mind you're a good girl now, Josephine. Your grandpa will be here directly." Merle

looked in through the kitchen door: "Have you brought up the claret, Bertha? That's right. You'd better put it

near the stove to warm." Then she went round all the rooms again. The two youngest children were in

It would be an hour at least before he could be here, yet she could not help listening all the time for the sound

of wheels. But she had not finished yet. She hurried up to the bathroom, turned on the hot water, undressed,

and put on an oilskin cap to keep her hair dry, and soon she was splashing about with soap and sponge. Why

not make herself as attractive as she could, even if things did look dark for them just now?

A little stream of talk went on in her brain. Strange that one's body could be so great a pleasure to another.

Here he kissed you and hereand hereand often he seemed beside himself with joy. And do you

rememberthat time? You held back and were cold often perhaps too oftenis it too late now? Ah! he

has other things to think of now. The time is gone by when you could be comfort enough to him in all

troubles. But is it quite gone by? Oh yes; last time he came home, he hardly seemed to notice that we had a

new little girl, that he had never seen before. Well, no doubt it must be so. He did not complain, and he was

calm and quiet, but his mind was full of a whole world of serious things, a world where there was no room

for wife and children. Will it be the same this evening again? Will he notice that you have dressed so

carefully to please him? Will it be a joy to him any more to feel his arms around you?

She stood in front of the big, whiteframed mirror, and looked critically at herself. No, she was no longer

young as she had been. The red in her cheeks had faded a little these last few years, and there were one or two

wrinkles that could not be hidden. But her eyebrowshe had loved to kiss them oncethey were surely

much as before. And involuntarily she bent towards the glass, and stroked the dark growth above her eyes as

She came down at last, dressed in a loose blue dress with a broad lace collar and blond lace in the wide

sleeves. And not to seem too much dressed, she had put on a redflowered apron to give herself a

It was past seven now. Louise came whimpering to her, and Merle sank down in a chair by the window, and

The sound of wheels in the night may mean the approach of fate itself. Some decision, some final word that

casts us down in a moment from wealth to ruinwho knows? Peer had been to England now, trying to come

to some arrangement with the Company. Sh!was that not wheels? She rose, trembling, and listened.

It was eight o'clock now, time for Louise to go to bed; and Merle began undressing her. Soon the child was

lying in her little white bed, with a doll on either side. "Give Papa a tiss," she babbled, "and give him my

love. And Mama, do you think he'll let me come into his bed for a bit tomorrow morning?"

"Oh yes, I'm sure he will. And now lie down and go to sleep, there's a good girl."

Merle sat down again in the room and waited. But at last she rose, put on a cloak and went out.

The town lay down there in the autumn darkness under a milkwhite mist of light. And over the black hills

all around rose a world of stars. Somewhere out there was Peer, far out maybe upon some country road, the

horse plodding on through the dark at its own will, its master sitting with bowed head, brooding.

"Help us, Thou aboveand help him most, he has had so much adversity in these last days."

But the starry vault seems icy coldit has heard the prayers of millions and millions beforethe hearts of

It was midnight when Peer drove up the hill towards his home. The sight of the great house with its brilliantly

lighted windows jarred so cruelly on his wearied mind that he involuntarily gave the horse a cut with his

He flung the reins to the stableboy who had come out with a lantern, and walked up the steps, moving

almost with a feeling of awe in this great house, as if it already belonged to someone else.

He opened the door of the drawingroomno one there, but light, light and comfort. He passed through into

the next room, and there sat Merle, alone, in an armchair, with her head resting on the arm, asleep.

A wave of warmth passed through him; he stood still, looking at her; and presently her bowed figure slowly

straightened; her pale face relaxed into a smile. Without waking her, he went on into the nursery, where the

lights were still burning. But here the lights shone only on three little ones, lying in their clean night clothes,

He went back to the diningroom; more lights, and a table laid for two, a snowy cloth and flowers, and a

"Goodevening, Merle!" They embraced, and he kissed her forehead. But she could see that his mind was

They sat down to table, and began their meal. She could read the expression of his face, his voice, his calm

But she would not question him. She would only try to show him that all things else could be endured, if only

But the time had passed when an unexpected caress from her was enough to send him wild with joy. She sat

there now trembling inwardly with suspense, wondering if he would notice herif he could find any comfort

He looked over to her with a faraway smile. "Merle," he asked, "what do you think your father is worth

altogether?" The words came like a quiet order from a captain standing on the bridge, while his ship goes

"Oh, Peer, don't think about all that tonight. Welcome home!" And she smiled and took his hand.

"Thanks," he said, and pressed her fingers; but his thoughts were still far off. And he went on eating without

"And what do you think? Louise has begun the violin. You've no idea how the little thing takes to it."

"And Asta's got another toothshe had a wretched time, poor thing, while it was coming through."

It was as if she were drawing the children up to him, to show him that at least he still had them.

He looked at her for a moment. "Merle, you ought never to have married me. It would have been better for

They went up to bed, and undressed slowly. "He hasn't noticed me yet," thought Merle.

And she laughed a little, and said, "I was sitting thinking this evening of the first day we met. I suppose you

He turned round, half undressed, and looked at her. Her lively tone fell strangely on his ears. "She does not

ask how I have got on, or how things are going," he thought. But as he went on looking at her he began at last

Ah, yes; he remembered well that faroff summer when life had been a holiday in the hills, and a girl making

coffee over a fire had smiled at him for the first time. And he remembered the first sun red night of his love

on the shining lakemirror, when his heart was filled with the rush of a great anthem to heaven and earth.

She stood there still. He had her yet. But for the first time in their lives she came to him now humbly,

An unspeakable warmth began to flow through his heavy heart. But he did not rush to embrace her and whirl

her off in a storm of passionate delight. He stood still, staring before him, and, drawing himself up, swore to

himself with fastclosed lips that he would, he WOULD trample a way through, and save things for them

The lights were put out, and soon they lay in their separate beds, breathing heavily in the dark. Peer stretched

himself out, with his face up, thinking, with closed eyes. He was hunting in the dark for some way to save his

dear ones. And Merle lay so long waiting for one caress from him that at last she had to draw out her

handkerchief and press it over her eyes, while her body shook with a noiseless sobbing.

Old Lorentz D. Uthoug rarely visited his rich sister at Bruseth, but today he had taken his weary way up

"So you've managed to find your way up here?" said Aunt Marit, throwing out her ample bosom and rubbing

"Why, yesI thought I'd like to see how you were getting on," said Uthoug, squaring his broad shoulders.

"Quite well, thanks. Having no soninlaw, I'm not likely to go bankrupt, I daresay."

"I!" Aunt Marit shifted her chair backwards, gaping. "I, did you say? Hahaha! Just tell me, how many

"He was six months behind time in finishing it, I know. But the Company agreed to halve the forfeit for delay

"I see. After you and he had mortaged every stick and rag you had in the world. Yes, indeedyou deserve a

Uthoug stroked his beard. "From a financial point of view the thing wasn't a success for him, I'll admit. But I

can show you here what the engineering people say about it in the technical papers. Here's an article with

"Well! he'd better keep his family on pictures in the papers then," said the widow, paying no attention to the

"He'll soon be on top again," said her brother, putting the papers back in his pocket. He sat there in front of

her quite unruffled. He would let people see that he was not the man to be crushed by a reverse; that there

"Soon be on top?" repeated Aunt Marit. "Has he got round you again with some nonsense?"

"He's invented a new mowing machine. It's nearly finished. And the experts say it will be worth a million."

"Ho! and you want to come over me with a tale like that?" The widow shifted her chair a little farther back.

"You must help us to carry on through this yearboth of us. If you will stand security for thirty thousand,

Aunt Marit of Bruseth slapped her knees emphatically. "I'll do nothing of the sort!"

"You'll have to do it, Marit," he said calmly. He took a pipe from his pocket and set to work to fill and light

The two sat for a while looking at each other, each on the alert for fear the other's will should prove the

stronger. They looked at each other so long that at last both smiled involuntarily.

"I suppose you've taken to going to church with your wife now?" asked the widow at last, her eyes blinking

"If I put my trust in the Lord," he said, "I might just sit down and pray and let things go to ruin. As it is, I've

The answer pleased her. The widow at Bruseth was no churchgoer herself. She thought the Lord had made a

"Now you're talking sense," said her brother, and his eyes twinkled. He knew his sister and her ways. And

Once more Peer stood in his workroom down at the foundry, wrestling with fire and steel.

A working drawing is a useful thing; an idea in one's head is all very well. But the men he employed to turn

his plans into tangible models worked slowly; why not use his own hands for what had to be done?

When the workmen arrived at the foundry in the morning there was hammering going on already in the little

room. And when they left in the evening, the master had not stopped working yet. When the good citizens of

Ringeby went to bed, they would look out of their windows and see his light still burning.

Peer had had plenty to tire him out even before he began work here. But in the old days no one had ever

asked if he felt strong enough to do this or that. And he never asked himself. Now, as before, it was a

question of getting something done, at any cost. And never before had there been so much at stake.

The wooden model of the new machine is finished already, and the castings put together. The whole thing

looks simple enough, and yetwhat a distance from the first rough implement to this thing, which seems

almost to livea thing with a brain of metal at least. Have not these wheels and axles had their parents and

ancestors their pedigree stretching back into the past? The steel has brought forth, and its descendants

again in turn, advancing always toward something finer, stronger, more efficient. And here is the last stage

reached by human invention in this particular work up to nowyet, after all, is it good enough? An invention

successful enough to bring money in to the inventorthat is not all. It must be more; it must be a

worldsuccess, a thing to make its way across the prairies, across the enormous plains of India and

Egyptthat is what is needed. Sleep? rest? food? What are such things when so much is at stake!

There was no longer that questioning in his ear: Why? Whither? What then? Useless to ponder on these

things. His horizon was narrowed down to include nothing beyond this one problem. Once he had dreamed of

a work allied to his dreams of eternity. This, certainly, was not it. What does the gain amount to, after all,

when humanity has one more machine added to it? Does it kindle a single ray of dawn the more in a human

Yet this work, such as it was, had now become his all. It must and should be all. He was fast bound to it.

When he looked up at the window, there seemed to be faces at each pane staring in. "What? Not finished

yet?" they seemed to say. "Think what it means if you fail!" Merle's face, and the children's: "Must we be

driven from Loreng, out into the cold?" The faces of old Uthoug and his wife: "Was it for this you came into

an honourable family? To bring it to ruin?" And behind them, swarming, all the town. All knew what was at

stake, and why he was toiling so. All stared at him, waiting. The Bank Manager was there toowaiting, like

One can seize one's neck in iron pincers, and say: You shall! Tired? difficulties? time too short?all that

doesn't exist. You shall! Is this thing or that impossible? Well, make it possible. It is your business to make it

He spent but little time at home now; a sofa in the workshop was his bed. Often Merle would come in with

food for him, and seeing how pale and grey and worn out he was, she did not dare to question him. She tried

to jest instead. She had trained herself long ago to be gay in a house where shadows had to be driven off with

But one day, as she was leaving, he held her back, and looked at her with a strange smile.

He stood looking at her as before, with the same faroff smile. He was looking through her into the little

world she stood for. This home, this family that he, a homeless man, had won through her, was it all to go

And as her footsteps died away, he stood a moment, moved by a sudden desire to turn to some Power above

him with a prayer that he might succeed in this work. But there was no such Power. And in the end his eyes

turned once more to the iron, the fire, his tools, and his own hands, and it was as though he sighed out a

prayer to these: "Help mehelp me, that I may save my wife and children's happiness."

Sleep? rest? weariness? He had only a year's grace. The bank would only wait a year.

Winter and spring passed, and one day in July he came home and rushed in upon Merle crying, "Tomorrow,

"It's a good thing that I had connections abroad," he went on. "There's one man coming from an English firm,

The morrow came. Merle stood looking after her husband as he drove off, his hat on the back of his head,

through the haze that followed the night's rain. But there was no time to stand trembling; they were to have

Out in the field the machine stood ready, a slender, newly painted thing. A boy was harnessing the horses.

Two men in soft hats and light overcoats came up; it was old Uthoug, and the Bank Manager. They stopped

and looked round, leaning on their sticks; the results of the day were not a matter of entire indifference to

these two gentlemen. Ah! here was the big carriage from Loreng, with the two strangers and Peer himself,

He was a little pale as he took the reins and climbed to his seat on the machine, to drive it himself through the

The horses pricked up their ears and tried to break into a gallop, the noise of the machine behind them

startling them as usual at first, but they soon settled down to a steady pace, and the steel arm bearing the

shears swept a broad swath through the meadow, where the grass stood shining after the rain.

The two strangers walked slowly in the rear, bending down now and again to look at the stubble, and see if

the shears cut clean. The tall man with the heavy beard and pincenez was the agent for John Fowler of

Leeds; the little cleanshaven one with the Jewish nose represented Harrow Co. of Philadelphia.

Now and again they called to Peer to stop, while they investigated some part of the machine.

They asked him then to try it on different ground; on an uneven slope, over little tussocks; and at last the

agent for Fowler's would have it that it should be tried on a patch of stony ground. But that would spoil the

shears? Very likely, but Fowler's would like to know exactly how the shears were affected by stones on the

At last the trials were over, and the visitors nodded thoughtfully to each other. Evidently they had come on

something new here. There were possibilities in the thing that might drive most other types out of the field,

even in the intense competition that rages all round the world in agricultural machinery.

Peer read the expression in their eyesthese coldblooded specialists had seen the vision; they had seen

Dinner was over, the visitors had left, and Merle and Peer were alone. She lifted her eyes to his inquiringly.

"Still something to put rightafter you have worked so hard all these months?" She sat down, and her hands

"It's only a small detail," he said eagerly, pacing up and down. "When the grass is wet, it sticks between the

steel fingers above the shears and accumulates there and gets in the way. It's the devil and all that I never

thought of testing it myself in wet weather. But once I've got that right, my girl, the thing will be a

Once more the machine was set up in his workshop, and he walked around it, watching, spying, thinking,

racking his brain to find the little device that should make all well. All else was finished, all was right, but he

still lacked the single happy thought, the flash of inspirationthat given, a moment's work would be enough

to give this thing of steel life, and wings with which to fly out over the wide world.

It might come at any moment, that happy thought. And he tramped round and round his machine, clenching

The last touch only, the dot upon an i, was wanting. A slight change in the shape or position of the fingers, or

He felt that he stood face to face with a difficulty that could have been easily solved had he come fresh to the

But when an Arab horse is ready to drop with fatigue, then is the time when it breaks into a gallop.

He could not wait. There were the faces at the window again, staring and asking: "Not finished yet?" Merle,

the children, Uthoug and his wife, the Bank Manager. And there were his competitors the world over.

Today he was a length ahead of them, but by tomorrow he might be left behind. Wait? Rest? No!

It was autumn now, and sleepless nights drove him to a doctor, who prescribed cold baths, perfect quiet,

sleeping draughts, iron and arsenic. Ah, yes. Peer could swallow all the prescriptionsthe one thing he could

He would sit late into the night, prostrate with exhaustion, watching the dying embers of the forge, the steel,

the tools. And innumerable sparks would begin to fly before his eyes, and masses of molten iron to creep

about like living things over walls and floor.And over by the forge was something more defined, a misty

shape, that grew in size and clearness and stood at last a bearded, naked demigod, with fire in one hand and

"I have a thing to tell you: it is vain for you to seek for any other faith than faith in the evolution of the

universe. It will do no good to pray. You may dream yourself away from the steel and the fire, but you must

offer yourself up to them at last. You are bound fast to these things. Outside them your soul is nothing. God?

happiness? yourself? eternal life for you? All these are nothing. The will of the world rolls on towards its

Peer would spring up, believing for a moment that someone was really there. But there was nothing, only the

Now and again he would go home to Loreng, but everything there seemed to pass in a mist. He could see that

Merle's eyes were red, though she sang cheerily as she went about the house. It seemed to him that she had

begged him to go to bed and rest, and he had gone to bed. It would be delicious to sleep. But in the middle of

the night it was borne in upon him that the fault lay in the shape of the shears after all, and then there was no

stopping him from getting up and hurrying in to the workshop. Winter has come round again, and he fights

his way in through a snowstorm. And in the quiet night he lights his lamp, kindles the forge fire, screws off

the blades of the shears once more. But when he has altered them and fixed them in place again, he knows at

Coffee is a good thing for keeping the brain clear. He took to making it in the workshop for himselfand at

night especially a few cups did him good. They were so satisfying too, that he felt no desire for food. And

when he came to the conclusion that the best thing would be to make each separate part of the machine over

It began to dawn upon him that Merle and his fatherinlaw and the Bank Manager had taken to lurking

about the place night and day, watching and spying to see if the work were not nearly done. Why in the

devil's name could they not leave him in peacejust one week more? In any case, the machine could not be

tried before next summer. At times the workers at the foundry would be startled by their master suddenly

rushing out from his inner room and crying fiercely: "No one is to come in here. I WILL be left in peace!"

And when he had gone in again, they would look at each other and shake their heads.

One morning Merle came down and walked through the outer shops, and knocked at the door of her

A moment after, the workmen heard a woman's shriek, and when they ran in she was bending over her

husband, who was seated on the floor, staring up at her with blank, uncomprehending eyes.

"Peer," she cried, shaking his shoulder"Peer, do you hear? Oh, for God's sakewhat is it, my darling"

One April day there was a stir in the little town of Ringeby, and a stream of people, all in their best clothes

(though it was only Wednesday), was moving out along the fjord road to Loreng. There were the two editors,

who had just settled one of their everlasting disputes, and the two lawyers, each still intent on snatching any

scraps of business that offered; there were tradesmen and artisans; and nearly everyone was wearing a long

overcoat and a grey felt hat. But the tanner had put on a high silk hat, so as to look a little taller.

Where the road left the wood most of them stopped for a moment to look up at Loreng. The great white house

seemed to have set itself high on its hill to look out far and wide over the lake and the country round. And

men talked of the great doings, the feasting and magnificence, the great house had seen in days gone by, from

the time when the place had been a Governor's residence until a few years back, when Engineer Holm was in

But today the place was up to auction, with stock and furniture, and people had walked or driven over from

far around. For the bank management felt they would not be justified in giving any longer grace, now that

Peer Holm was lying sick in hospital, and no doctor would undertake to say whether he would ever be fit to

The courtyard was soon crowded. Inside, in the great hall, the auctioneer was beginning to put up the lots

already, but most people hung back a little, as if they felt a reluctance to go in. For the air in there seemed

charged with lingering memories of splendour and hospitality, from the days when cavaliers with ruffles and

golden spurs had done homage there to ladies in sweeping silk robesdown to the last gay banquets to

which the famous engineer from Egypt had loved to gather all the gentry round in the days of his prosperity.

Most of the people stood on the steps and in the entrancehall. And now and again they would catch a

glimpse of a pale woman, dressed in black, with thick dark eyebrows, crossing the courtyard to a servant's

house or a storehouse to give some order for moving the things. It was Merle, now mistress here no longer.

Old Lorentz D. Uthoug met his sister, the mighty lady of Bruseth, on the steps. She looked at him, and there

was a gleam of derision in her narrowed eyes. But he drew himself up, and said as he passed her, "You've

nothing to be afraid of. I've settled things so that I'm not bankrupt yet. And you shall have your sharein

And he strode in, a broadshouldered, upright figure, looking calmly at all men, that all might see he was not

Late in the day the chestnut, Bijou, was put up for sale. He was led across the courtyard in a halter, and as he

came he stopped for a moment, and threw up his head, and neighed, and from the stables the other horses

neighed in answer. Was it a farewell? Did he remember the day, years ago, when he had come there first,

But by the woodshed there stood as usual a little grey old man, busy sawing and chopping, as if nothing at all

was the matter. One master left, another took his place; one needed firewood, it seemed to him, as much as

the other. And if they came and gave him noticewhy, thank the Lord, he was stone deaf. Thud, thud, the

A young man came driving up the hill, a floridfaced young man, with very blue eyes. He took off his

overcoat in the passage, revealing a long black frock coat beneath and a largepatterned waistcoat. It was

Uthoug junior, general agent for English tweeds. He had taken no part in his brotherinlaw's business

Once more a deep valley, with sunsteeped farms on the hillsides between the river and the mountainrange

One day about midsummer it was old Raastad himself that came down to meet the train, driving a

springcart, with a waggon following behind. Was he expecting visitors? the people at the station asked him.

"Maybe I am," said old Raastad, stroking his heavy beard, and he limped about looking to his horses. Was it

the folk who had taken the Courthouse? "Ay, it's likely them," said the old man.

The train came in, and a pale man, with grey hair and beard, and blue spectacles, stepped out, and he had a

wife and three children with him. "Paul Raastad?" inquired the stranger. "Ay, that's me," said the old man.

The stranger looked up at the great mountains to the north, rising dizzily into the sky. "The air ought to be

good here," said he. "Ay, the air's good enough, by all accounts," said Raastad, and began loading up the

They drove off up the hill road. The man and his wife sat in the springcart, the woman with a child in her

lap, but a boy and a girl were seated on the load in the baggagewaggon behind Raastad. "Can we see the

farm from here?" asked the woman, turning her head. "There," said the old man, pointing. And looking, they

saw a big farmstead high up on a sunny hillslope, close under the crest, and near by a long low house with a

steep slate roof, the sort of place where the district officers used to live in old days. "Is that the house we are

to live in?" she asked again. "Ay, that's it, right enough," said old Raastad, and chirruped to his horses.

The woman looked long at the farm and sighed. So this was to be their new home. They were to live here, far

from all their friends. And would it give him back his health, after all the doctors' medicines had failed?

A Lapland dog met them at the gate and barked at them; a couple of pigs came down the road, stopped and

studied the new arrivals with profound attention, then wheeled suddenly and galloped off among the houses.

The farmer's wife herself was waiting outside the Courthouse, a tall wrinkled woman with a black cap on

The house was one of large lowceiled rooms, with big stoves that would need a deal of firewood in winter.

The furniture was a mixture of every possible sort and style: a mahogany sofa, cupboards with painted roses

on the panels, chairs covered with "Old Norse" carving, and on the walls appalling pictures of foreign royal

families and of the Crucifixion. "Good Heavens!" said Merle, as they went round the rooms alone: "how shall

But just then Louise came rushing in, breathless with news. "Motherfatherthere are goats here!" And

little Lorentz came toddling in after her: "Goats, mother," he cried, stumbling over the doorstep.

The old house had stood empty and dead for years. Now it seemed to have wakened up again. Footsteps went

in and out, and the stairs creaked once more under the tread of feet, small, pattering, exploring feet, and big

feet going about on grownup errands. There was movement in every corner: a rattle of pots and pans in the

kitchen; fires blazed up, and smoke began to rise from the chimney; people passing by outside looked up at it

Peer was weak still after his illness, but he could help a little with the unpacking. It took very little, though, to

make him out of breath and giddy, and there was a sledgehammer continually thumping somewhere in the

back of his head. Supposesuppose, after all, the change here does you no good? You are at the last stage.

You've managed to borrow the money to keep you all here for a year. And then? Your wife and children?

Clothes to be carried upstairs. Yes, yesand to think it was all to end in your living on other people's

charity. Even that can't go on long. If you should be no better next summeror two years hence?what

then? For yourselfyes, there's always one way out for you. But Merle and the children? Hush, don't think

of it! Once it was your whole duty to finish a certain piece of work in a certain time. Now it is your duty to

get well again, to be as strong as a horse by next year. It is your duty. If only the sledgehammer would stop,

Merle, as she went out and in, was thinking perhaps of the same thing, but her head was full of so much

elsegetting things in order and the household set going. Food had to be bought from the local shop; and

how many litres of milk would she require in the morning? Where could she get eggs? She must go across at

once to the Raastads' and ask. So the pale woman in the dark dress walked slowly with bowed head across the

courtyard. But when she stopped to speak to people about the place, they would forget their manners and

"Father, there's a box of starlings on the wall here," said Louise as she lay in bed with her arms round Peer's

Soon Merle and Peer too lay in their strange beds, looking out at the luminous summer night.

They were shipwrecked people washed ashore here. But it was not so clear that they were saved.

Peer turned restlessly from side to side. He was so worn to skin and bone that his nerves seemed laid bare,

and he could not rest in any position. Also there were three hundred wheels whirring in his head, and striking

He had made his mark at the First Cataract, yes, and had made big sums of money out of his new pump; but

all the time there were the gnawing questions: Why? and whither? and what then? He had been Chief

Engineer and had built a railway, and could have had commissions to build more railwaysbut again the

questions: Why? and what then? Home, then, home and strike root in his native landwell, and had that

brought him rest? What was it that drove him away again? The steel, the steel and the fire.

Ah! that day when he had stepped down from the mowing machine and had been ensnared by the idea of

improving it. Why had he ever taken it up? Did he need money? No. Or was the work at a standstill? No. But

the steel would on; it had need of a man; it had taken him by the throat and said, "You shall!"

Happiness? Rest? Ah no! For, you see, a storedup mass of knowledge and experience turns one fine day into

an army of evil powers, that lash you on and on, unceasingly. You may stumble, you may fallwhat does it

matter? The steel squeezes one man dry, and then grips the next. The flame of the world has need of

Today you prospertomorrow you are cast down into a hell on earth. What matter? You are fuel for the

But I will not, I will not be swallowed up in the flame of the world, even though it be the only godhead in the

universe. I will tear myself loose, be something in and for myself. I will have an immortal soul. The

worldtransformation that progress may have wrought a thousand years hencewhat is it to me?

Your soul? Just think of all your noble feelings towards that trueborn halfbrother of yourshahaha!

"Oh yes. I'll get to sleep all right. But it's so hot." He threw off the clothes and lay breathing heavily.

"I'm sure you're lying thinking and brooding over things. Can't you do what the Swedish doctor told

Peer turns round, and everything around him is dark. But in the heart of that darkness waves arise, waves of

melody, rolling nearer, nearer. It is the sound of a hymnit is Louise standing playing, his sister Louise.

But soon Louise fades away, she fades away, and vanishes like a flame blown out. And there comes a roaring

noise, nearer and nearer, grinding, crashing, rattlingand he knows now what it is only too well: it is the

The roar of steel from ships and from railwaytrains, with their pairs of yellow evil eyes, rushing on, full of

human captives, whither? Faster, fasterdriven by competition, by the steel demon that hunts men on

without rest or respitethat hurries on the pulse of the world to fever, to hallucination, to madness.

Crashing of steel girders falling, the hum of wheels, the clash of cranes and winches and chains, the clang of

steamhammers at work all are in that roar. The fire flares up with hellish eyes in every dark corner, and

men swarm around in the red glow like evil angels. They are the slaves of steel and fire, lashed onwards,

Is this the spirit of Prometheus? Look, the will of steel is flinging men up into the air now. It is conquering

the heavens. Why? That it may rush the faster. It craves for yet more speed, quicker, quicker, dizzier yet,

Are the children of the earth grown so homeless? Do they fear to take a moment's rest? Do they dread to look

inward and see their own emptiness? Are they longing for something they have lostsome hymn, some

God? They find a bloodthirsty Jehovah, and an ascetic on the cross. What gods are these for modern men?

"Why, don't you feel already how splendid the air is? Of course you'll get well."

He twined his fingers into hers, and at last the sound of Louise's hymn came to him once more, lifting and

A little road winds in among the woods, two wheeltracks only, with a carpet of brown pineneedles

between; but there are trees and the sky, quiet and peace, so that it's a real blessing to walk there. It rises and

falls so gently, that no one need get out of breath; indeed, it seems to go along with one all the time, in mere

friendliness, whispering: "Take it easy. Take your time. Have a good rest here." And so on it goes, winding in

Peer walked here every day. He would stop and look up into the tops of the fir trees, and walk on again; then

sit down for a moment on a mossy stone; but only for a momentalways he was up again soon and moving

on, though he had nowhere to go. But at least there was peace here. He would linger watching an insect as it

crept along a fir branch, or listening to the murmur of the river in the valley far below, or breathing in the

This present life of his was one way of living. As he lay, after a sleepless night, watching the window grow

lighter with the dawn, he would think: Yet another new dayand nothing that I can do in it.

And yet he had to get up, and dress, and go down and eat. His bread had a slightly bitter taste to himit

tasted of charity and dependence, of the rich widow at Bruseth and the agent for English tweeds. And he must

remember to eat slowly, to masticate each mouthful carefully, to rest after meals, and above all not to

thinknot to think of anything in the wide world. Afterwards, he could go out and in like other people, only

that all his movements and actions were useless and meaningless in themselves; they were done only for the

How had this come to pass? He found it still impossible to grasp how such senseless things can happen and

no Providence interfere to set them right. Why should he have been so suddenly doomed to destruction?

Days, weeks and months of his best manhood oozing away into empty nothingnesswhy? Sleeplessness and

tortured nerves drove him to do things that his will disowned; he would storm at his wife and children if a

heel so much as scraped on the floor, and the remorse that followed, sometimes ending in childish tears, did

no good, for the next time the same thing, or worse, would happen again. This was the burden of his days.

But up here on the little forest track he harms no one; and no racking noises come thrusting sharp knives into

his spine. Here is a great peace; a peace that does a man good. Down on the grassy slope below stands a

tumbledown grey barn; it reminds him of an old wornout horse, lifting its head from grazing to gaze at

you a lonely forsaken creature it seemstomorrow it will sink to the ground and rise no moreyet IT

Ugh! how far he has got from Raastad. A cold sweat breaks out over his body for fear he may not have

strength to walk back again uphill. Well, pull yourself together. Rest a little. And he lies down on his back in

A stream of clean air, fresh from the snow, flows all day long down the valley; as if Jotunheim itself, where it

lies in there beneath the sky, were breathing in easy wellbeing. Peer fills his lungs again and again with long

deep draughts, drinking in the air like a saving potion. "Help me then, oh air, light, solitude! help me that I

may be whole once more and fit to work, for this is the one and only religion left me to cling to."

High above, over the two mountain ranges, a blue flood stands immovable, and in its depths eternal rest is

brooding. But is there a will there too, that is concerned with men on earth? You do not believe in it, and yet

a little prayer mounts up to it as well! Help methou too. Who? Thou that hearest. If Thou care at all for the

miserable things called men that crawl upon the earthhelp me! If I once prayed for a great work that could

stay my hunger for things eternal, I repent me now and confess that it was pride and vanity. Make me a slave,

toiling at servile tasks for food, so that Merle and the children be not taken from me. Hearest Thou?

Does anyone in heaven find comfort in seeing men tortured by blind fortune? Are my wife and my children

slaves of an unmeaning chanceand yet can smile and laugh? Answer me, if Thou hearest Thou of the

A grasshopper is shrilling in the grass about him. Suddenly he starts up sitting. A railwaytrain goes

Each morning Merle would steal a glance at her husband's face, to see if he had slept; if his eyes were dull, or

inflamed, or calm. Surely he must be better soon! Surely their stay here must do him good. She too had lost

faith in medicines, but this air, the country life, the solituderest, restsurely there must soon be some sign

Many a time she rose in the morning without having closed her eyes all night. But there were the children to

look after, the house to see to, and she had made up her mind to get on without a maid if she possibly could.

"What has taken you over to the farm so much lately?" she asked one day. "You have been sitting over there

"No; but what the devil am I to do? I can't read, because of these cursed eyes of mineand the hammering in

my head. . . . And I've counted all the farms up and down the valley now. There are fifty in all. And on the

farm here there are just twentyone houses, big and little. What the devil am I to take to next?"

Merle sighed. "It is hard," she said. "But couldn't you wait till the evening to play cardstill the children are

"Thank you very much. But what about the rest of the day? Do you know what it's like to go about from

dawn to dark feeling that every minute is wasted, and wasted for nothing? No, you can't know it. What am I

to do with myself all through one of these endless, deadly days? Drink myself drunk?"

"Firewood?" He whistled softly. "Well, that's an idea. Yeyes. Let's try chopping firewood for a change."

But as he straightened his back for a breathingspace, the whirr, whirr of Raastad's mowing machine came to

him from the hillslope near by where it was working, and he clenched his teeth as if they ached. He was

driving a mowing machine of his own invention, and it was raining continually, and the grass kept sticking,

sticking and how to put it rightput it right? It was as if blows were falling on festering wounds in his

head, making him dance with pain. Thud, thud, thud!anything to drown the whirr of that machine.

But a man may use an axe with his hands, and yet have idiotic fancies all the time bubbling and seething in

his head. The power to hold in check the vagaries of imagination may be gone. From all sides they come

creeping out in swarms, they swoop down on him like birds of preyas if in revenge for having been driven

away so often beforethey cry: here we are! He stood once more as an apprentice in the mechanical works,

riveting the plates of a gigantic boiler with a compressedair tubecling, clang! The wailing clang of the

boiler went out over the whole town. And now that same boiler is set up inside his headclingclangugh!

A cold sweat breaks out upon his body; he throws down the axe; he must gomust fly, escape

somewherewhere, he cannot tell. Faces that he hates to think of peer out at him from every corner, yapping

But it may happen, too, that help comes in the night. Things come back to a man that it is good to remember.

That timeand that other. . . . A woman thereand the one you met in such a place. There is a picture in

the Louvre, by Veronese: a young Venetian woman steps out upon the marble stairway of a palace holding a

goldenhaired boy by the hand; she is dressed in black velvet, she glows with youth and happiness. A lovers'

A shudder of pleasure passes through his weary body. Bright recollections and impressions flock towards him

like spirits of lighthe can hear the rushing sound of their wingshe calls to them for aid, and they encircle

him round; they struggle with the spirits of darkness for his soul. He has known much brightness, much

beauty in his lifesurely the bright angels are the stronger and must conquer. Ah! why had he not lived

One morning as he was getting up, he said: "Merle, I must and will hit upon something that'll send me to bed

"I'll try wheeling stones to begin with," he said. "The devil's in it if a day at that doesn't make a man sleep."

So that day and for many days he wheeled stones from some newly broken land on the hillside down to a

Calm, golden autumn days; one farm above another rising up towards the crest of the range, all set in ripe

yellow fields. One little cottage stands right on the crest against the sky itself, and it, too, has its tiny patch of

yellow corn. And an eagle sails slowly across the deep valley from peak to peak.

People passing by stared at Peer as he went about bareheaded, in his shirtsleeves, wheeling stones. "Aye,

"That's itkeep at it," a dry, hacking voice kept going in Peer's head. "It is idiocy, but you are doomed to it.

Shove hard with those skinny legs of yours; many a jade before you has had to do the same. You've got to get

some sleep tonight. Only ten months left now; and then we shall have Lucifer turning up at the cross roads

once more. Poor Merleshe's beginning to grow grey. And the poor little childrendreaming of father

beating them, maybe, they cry out so often in their sleep. Off now, trundle away. Now over with that load;

"You, that once looked down on the soulless toil for bread, you have sunk now to something far more

miserable. You are dragging at a load of sheer stupidity. You are a galleyslave, with calamity for your

He straightens himself up, wipes the sweat from his forehead, and begins heaving up stones into his barrow

How long must it last, this life in manacles? Do you remember Job? Job? Aye, doubtless Jehovah was sitting

at some jovial feast when he conceived that fantasy of a drunken brain, to let Satan loose upon a happy man.

Job? His seven sons and daughters, and his cattle, and his calves were restored unto him, but we read nothing

of any compensation made him for the jest itself. He was made to play court fool, with his boils and his

tortures and his misery, and the gods had their bit of sport gratis. Job had his actual outlay in cattle and

Prometheus! Is it you after all that are the friend of man among the gods? Have you indeed the power to free

"Father, it's dinnertime. Come along home," cries little Louise, racing down the hill with her yellow plaits

flying about her ears. But she stops cautiously a little distance offthere is no knowing what sort of temper

"Aha! that's a secret," said the girl in a teasing voice; she was beaming now, with delight at finding him

"Oh, poor papa! are you tired?" And she came up and took him by the hand. Then she slipped her arm into

hisit was just as good fun to walk up the hill on her father's arm like a grownup young lady.

Then came the frosts. And one morning the hilltops were turned into leaden grey clouds from which the snow

came sweeping down. Merle stood at the window, her face grey in the clammy light. She looked down the

valley to where the mountains closed it in; it seemed still narrower than before; one's breath came heavily,

Christmas was near, the days were all grey twilight, and there was a frost that set the walltimbers cracking.

The children went about blue with cold. When Merle scrubbed the floors, they turned into small

skatingrinks, though there might be a big fire in the stove. Peer waded and waded through deep snow to the

Old Raastad's two daughters were in the dairy making wheycheese. The door was flung open, there was a

"Are we now?" And the redhaired one and the fairhaired one both giggled, and they looked at each other

and nodded. This queer townsmanlodger of theirs never came near them that he didn't crack jokes.

"Uf!you're always at your nonsense," said the redhaired girl, stirring away at her huge, steaming

Peer went out again. The girls were hardly out of their teens, and yet their faces seemed set already and stiff

with earnestness. And whenever Peer had managed to set them laughing unawares, they seemed frightened

the next minute at having been betrayed into doing something there was no profit in.

Peer strode about in the crackling snow with his fur cap drawn down over his ears. Jotunheim itself lay there

And he? Was he to go on like this, growing hunchbacked under a burden that weighed and bowed him down

continually? Why the devil could he not shake it off, break away from it, and kick out bravely at his evil fate?

"Peer," asked Merle, standing in the kitchen, "what did you think of giving the children for a Christmas

"Oh, a palace each, and a horse to ride, of course. When you've more money than you know what to do with,

the devil take economy. And what about you, my girl? Any objection to a couple of thousand crowns' worth

"Ski?" Peer turned over the notion, whistling. "Well, why not? And a sleigh? We might manage that. But

Peer whistled again. "There's something in that. That's an idea. I'm not so handless yet that I couldn't"

He was soon hard at it. There were tools and a joiner's bench in an outhouse, and there he worked. He grew

easily tired; his feet tried constantly to take him to the door, but he forced himself to go on. Is there anything

in the notion that a man can get well by simply willing it? I will, will, will. The thought of others besides

himself began to get the upper hand of those birds of prey ravening in his head. Presents for the children,

presents that father had made himselfthe picture made light and warmth in his mind. Drive ahead then.

When it came to making the iron ribbons for the sleigh runners he had to go across to the smithy; and there

stood a cottar at work roughing horseshoes. Red glowing iron once more, and steel. The clang of hammer on

anvil seemed to tear his ears; yet it drew him on too. It was long since last he heard that sound. And there

"Might ha' been born and bred a smith," said Jens, as he watched the deft and easy hammerstrokes.

Christmas Eve came, and the grey farmpony dragged up a big wooden case to the door. Peer opened it and

carried in the thingsa whole heap of good things for Christmas from the Ringeby relations.

He bit his lips when he saw all the bags piled up on the kitchen table. There had been a time not long ago

when Merle and he had loaded up a sledge at the Loreng storehouse and driven off with Christmas gifts to all

the poor folk round. It was part of the season's fun for them. And nownow they must even be glad to

"A poor man's Christmas it'll be with a vengeanceif we're only to take presents, and haven't the least little

"I won't have it happen to us now," he said, pacing up and down. "There's that poor devil of a joiner down at

Moen, with consumption. I'm going down there with a bit of a parcel to chuck in at his door, if I have to take

your shift and the shirt off my back. You know yourself it won't be any Christmas at all, if we don't do

"Wellif you like. I'll see if we can't find something among the children's clothes that they can do without."

The end of it was that Merle levied toll on all the parcels from home, both rice and raisins and cakes, and

made up little packets of them to send round by him. That was Merle's way; let her alone and she would hit

The snow creaked and crackled underfoot as Peer went off on his errand. A starry sky and a biting wind, and

light upon light from the windows of the farms scattered over the dark hillsides. High above all, against the

sky, there was one little gleam that might be a cottage window, or might be a star.

Peer was flushed and freshened up when he came back into the warmth of the room. And a chorus of joyful

shouts was raised when Merle announced to the children: "Father's going to bath you all to night."

The sawedoff end of a barrel was the bathingtub, and Peer stood in the kitchen with his sleeves rolled up,

Mother was busy with something or other in the sittingroom. But it was a great secret, and the children were

very mysterious about it. "No, no, you mustn't go in," they said to little Asta, who went whimpering for her

And later in the evening, when the Christmastree was lit up, and the windows shone white with frost, there

were great doings all about the sitting room floor. Louise got her ski on and immediately fell on her face;

Lorentz, astride of the new sleigh, was shouting "Hi, hi!clear the course there!", and over in a corner sat

Slowly, with torturing slowness, the leadengrey winter days creep by. For two hours in the middle of the

day there is pale twilight for two hoursthen darkness again. Through the long nights the north wind

howls funeral dirgeshuuuuand piles up the snow into great drifts across the road, deep enough,

almost, to smother a sleigh and its driver. The days and nights come and go, monotonous, unchanged; the

same icy grey daylight, and never a human soul to speak to. Across the valley a great solid mountain wall

hems you in, and you gaze at it till it nearly drives you mad. If only one could bore a hole through it, and

steal a glimpse of the world beyond, or could climb up to the topmost ridge and for a moment look far round

At last one day the grey veil lifts a little. A strip of blue sky appearsand hearts grow lighter at the sight.

The snow peaks to the south turn golden. What? Is it actually the sun? And day by day now a belt of gold

grows broader, comes lower and lower on the hillside, till the highestlying farms are steeped in it and glow

red. And at last one day the red flame reaches the Courthouse, and shines in across the floor of the room

where Merle is sitting by the window patching the seat of a tiny pair of trousers.

But Louise has only looked in for a moment to beg some cake for Lorentz and herself, and be off again on her

ski to the hill slopes. "Thank you, motheryou're a darling!" And with a slice in each hand she dashes out,

If only Peer could glow with health again! But though one day they might persuade themselves that

nownow at last he had turned the cornerthe next he would be lying tossing about in misery, and it all

seemed more hopeless than ever. He had taken to the doctors' medicines againarsenic and iron and so

forthand the quiet and fresh air they had prescribed were here in plenty; would nothing do him any good?

And then? Another winter here? And living on charityah me! Merle shook her head and sighed.

"Send the children over to meall three of them, if you like," wrote Aunt Marit from Bruseth. No, thanks;

Lose her childrengive away her children to others? Was the day to come when that burden, too, would be

But schooling they must have; they must learn enough at least to fit them to make a living when they grew

up. And if their own parents could not afford them schooling, whywhy then perhaps they had no right to

Merle sewed and sewed on, lifting her head now and again, so that the sunlight fell on her face.

How the snow shonelike purple under the red flood of sunlight. After all, their troubles seemed a little

easier to bear today. It was as if something frozen in her heart were beginning to thaw.

Louise was getting on well with her violin. Perhaps one day the child might go out into the world, and win

There was a sound of hurried steps in the passage, and she started and sat in suspense. Would he come in

"Merle! I have it now. By all the gods, little woman, something's happened at last!"

"I've got it this time, Merle," he said again. "And how on earth I never hit on it beforewhen it's as simple as

"Why, you see, I was standing there chopping wood. And all the time swarms of mowing machinesnine

million of themwere going in my head, all with the grass sticking fast to the shears and clogging them up. I

was in a cold sweatI felt myself going straight to helland then, in a flasha flash of steelit came to

"Why, don't you seeall that's wanted is a small movable steel brush above the shears, to flick away the

grass and keep them clear. Hang it all, a child could see it. By Jove, little woman, it'll soon be changed times

"I'll have the machine up here, Merle. Making the brushes and fixing them on will be no trouble at allI can

"Whatyou had better try! You're just beginning to get a little better, and you want to spoil it all again!"

"I shall never get well, Merle, as long as I have that infernal machine in my head balancing between

worldsuccess and fiasco. It presses on my brain like a leaden weight, I shall never have a decent night's

sleep till I get rid of it. Oh, my great Godif times were to change some dayeven for us! Well! Do you

This time she let him take her in his arms. But when he had gone, she sat still, watching the sun sink behind

A week later, when the sun was flaming on the white roofs, the grey pony dragged a huge packingcase up to

Raastad. And the same day a noise of hammer and file at work was heard in the smithy.

What do a few sleepless nights matter now? And they are sleepless not so much from anxietyfor this time

things go wellas because of dreams. And both of them dream. They have bought back Loreng, and they

wander about through the great light rooms once more, and all is peace and happiness. All the evil days

before are as a nightmare that is past. Once more they will be young, go out on ski together, and dine together

after, and drink champagne, and look at each other with love in their eyes. Once moreand many times

A few years back he could have finished the whole business in a couple of days. But now, half an hour's work

was enough to tire him out. It is exhausting work to concentrate your thoughts upon a single point, when your

brain has long been used to play idly with stray fancies as they came. He found, too, that there were defects to

be put right in the parts he thought were complete before, and he had no assistants now, no foundry to get

castings from, he must forge out each piece with his own hands, and with sorry tools.

He began to discipline his brain, denying himself every superfluous thought. He drew dark curtains across

every window in his consciousness, save onethe machine. After half an hour's work he would go back to

bed and restjust close his eyes, and rest. This too was discipline. Again he flooded all his mind with

Was Merle fearful and anxious? At all events she said no word about the work that so absorbed him. He was

excited enough as it was. And now when he was irritable and angry with the children, she did not even look

at him reproachfully. They must bear it, both she and the childrenit would soon be all over now.

In the clear moonlight nights, when the children were in bed, the two would sometimes be seen wandering

about together. They went with their arms about each other's waists, talking loudly, laughing a great deal, and

sometimes singing. People going by on the road would hear the laughter and singing, and think to

themselves: It's either someone that's been drinking, or else that couple from the Courthouse.

But at the Hamar Agricultural Exhibition, where the machine was tried, an American competitor was found

to be just a little better. Everyone thought it a queer business; for even if the idea hadn't been directly stolen

from Peer, there could be no doubt that his machine had suggested it. The principles adopted were the same

in both cases, but in the American machine there was just enough improvement in carrying them out to make

it doubtful whether it would be any use going to law over the patent rights. And besides it's no light matter

In the mighty race, with competitors the wide world over, to produce the best machine, Peer had been on the

very point of winning. Another man had climbed upon his chariot, and then, at the last moment, jumped a

So that the achievement in itself be good, the world does not inquire too curiously whether it was honestly

And there is no use starting a jointstock company to exploit a new machine when there is a better machine

The steel had seized on Peer, and used him as a springboard. But the reward was destined for another.

Herr Uthoug Junior, Agent for English tweeds, stepped out of the train one warm day in July, and stood for a

moment on the station platform looking about him. Magnificent scenery, certainly. And this beautiful valley

was where his sister had been living for more than a year. Splendid airand yet somehow it didn't seem to

have done his brotherinlaw much good. Well, well! And the neatly dressed young gentleman set off on

foot towards Raastad, asking his way from time to time. He wanted to take them by surprise. There had been

a family council at Ringeby, and they had agreed that some definite arrangement must be made for the future

As he turned up the byroad that led to the farm, he was aware of a man in his shirtsleeves, wheeling a

barrow full of stones. What? He thoughtcould he be mistaken? Nosure enough it was Peer HolmPeer

Holm, loading up stones and wheeling them down the hill as zealously as if he were paid for every step.

The Agent was not the man for lamentations or condolences. "Hullo!" he cried. "Hard at it, aren't you?

Peer stood up straight, wiped his hands on his trousers, and came towards him. "Good heavens! how old he

has grown!" thought Uthoug to himself. But aloud he said, "Well, you do look fit. I'd hardly have known you

Merle caught sight of the pair from the kitchen window. "Why, I do believe" she exclaimed, and came

running out. It was so long since she had seen any of her people, that she forgot her dignity and in a moment

No, certainly Uthoug junior had not come with lamentations and condolences. He had a bottle of good wine

in his bag, and at supper he filled the glasses and drank with them both, and talked about theatres and variety

shows, and gave imitations of wellknown actors, till he had set the two poor harassed creatures laughing.

But he knew, too, that Merle and Peer were on tenterhooks waiting to know what the family had decided

about their future. The days of their life here had been evil and sad, but they only hoped now that they might

be able to stay on. If the help they had received up to now were taken from them, they could neither afford to

stay here nor to go elsewhere. What then could they do? No wonder they were anxious as they sat there.

After supper he went out for a stroll with Peer, while Merle waited at home in suspense. She understood that

Her brother said goodnight, and kissed her on the forehead, and patted her arm and was kindness itself. She

took him up to his room, and would have liked to sit there a while and talk to him; but she knew Peer had

waited till they were alone to tell her the news that concerned them so nearly. "Goodnight, then, Carsten,"

And then at last she and Peer were sitting alone together, at her worktable by the window.

"The thing is this, Merle. If we have courage to live at all, we must look facts in the face as they are."

"And the facts are that with my health as it now is I cannot possibly get any employment. It is certain that I

"If you can bear to stay with a miserable bungler like methat, of course, is a question."

"Yes. But it may be years, Merle, before I'm fit to work again we've got to reckon with that. And to live on

"But what are we to do, then, Peer? There seems to be no possible way for me to earn any money."

"You? Oh no, Peer. Even if you could get work as a draughtsman, you know quite well that your eyes would

There was a pause. Merle glanced at him involuntarily, as if she could hardly believe her ears. Could he be in

earnest? Was the engineer of the Nile Barrage to sink into a country blacksmith?

She sighed. But she felt she must not dishearten him. And at last she said with an effort: "It would help to

pass the time, I daresay. And perhaps you would get into the way of sleeping better." She looked out of the

"And if I do that, Merle, we can't stay on in this house. In fact a great box of a place like this is too big for us

"Yes, there's a little place for sale, with a rood or two of ground. If we had a cow and a pig, Merleand a

few fowlsand could raise a bushel or two of cornand if I could earn a few shillings a week in the

smithywe wouldn't come on the parish, at any rate. I could manage the little jobs that I'd getin fact,

Merle did not answer; her eyes were turned away, gazing fixedly out of the window.

"But there's another questionabout you, Merle. Are you willing to sink along with me into a life like that? I

shall be all right. I lived in just such a place when I was a boy. But you! Honestly, Merle, I don't think I

should ask it of you." His voice began to tremble; he pressed his lips together and his eyes avoided her face.

There was a pause. "How about the money?" she said, at last. "How will you buy the place?"

"Your brother has promised to arrange about a loan. But I say again, MerleI shall not blame you in the

least if you would rather go and live with your aunt at Bruseth. I fancy she'd be glad to have you, and the

Again there was silence for a while. Then she said: "If there are two decent rooms in the cottage, we could be

Peer waited a little. There was something in his throat that prevented speech. He understood now that it was

to be taken for granted, without words, that they should not part company. And it took him a little time to get

Merle sat facing him, but her eyes were turned to the window as before. She had still the same beautiful dark

eyebrows, but her face was faded and worn, and there were streaks of grey in her hair.

She started. "The childrenwhat about them?" Had it come at last, the thing she had gone in fear of so long?

"Aunt Marit has sent word to ask if we will let your brother take Louise over to stay with her."

"No!" Merle flung out. "No, Peer. Surely you said no at once. Surely you wouldn't let her go. You know what

"I know," he nodded. "But there's another question: in Louise's own interest, have we any right to say no?"

"Peer," she cried, springing up and wringing her hands, "you mustn't ask it of me. You don't want to do it

yourself. Surely we have not come to thatto begin sendinggiving awayno, no, no!" she moaned. "Do

"As you please, Merle," he said, rising, and forcing himself to speak calmly. "We can think it over, at any

rate, till your brother leaves tomorrow. There are two sides to the thing: one way of it may hurt us now; the

Next morning, when it was time to wake the children, Peer and Merle went into the nursery together. They

stopped by Louise's bed, and stood looking down at her. The child had grown a great deal since they came to

Raastad; she lay now with her nose buried in the pillow and the fair hair hiding her cheek. She slept so

soundly and securely. This was home to her still; she was safer with father and mother than anywhere else in

The child sat up, still half asleep, and looked wonderingly at the two faces. What was it?

"Make haste and get dressed," said Peer. "Fancy! You're going off with Uncle Carsten today, to see Aunt

The little girl was wide awake in a moment, and hopped out of bed at once to begin dressing. But there was

That morning there was much whispering among the children. The two youngest looked with wondering eyes

at their elder sister, who was going away. Little Lorentz gave her his horse as a keepsake, and Asta gave her

youngest doll. And Merle went about trying to make believe that Louise was only going on a short visit, and

By dinnertime they had packed a little trunk, and Louise, in her best dress, was rushing about saying

goodbye all round the farm, the harvesters, whom she had helped to drive in the hay, coming in for a

specially affectionate farewell. Her last visit was to Musin, the grey horse, that was grazing tethered behind

the smithy. Musin was busy cropping the turf, but he just lifted his head and looked at hershe plucked a

handful of grass, and offered it, and when he had disposed of that, she patted his muzzle, and he let her cling

"I'll be sure to write," she cried out to no one in particular, as she went back over the courtyard again.

The train moved out of the station, taking with it Uthoug junior and Louise, each waving from one of the

And Peer and Merle were left on the platform, holding their two youngest children by the hand. They could

still see a small hand with a white handkerchief waving from the carriage window. Then the last carriage

disappeared into the cutting, and the smoke and the rumble of the train were all that was left.

The four that were left behind stood still for a little while, but they seemed to have moved unconsciously

Some way up from the highroad there stands a little onestoreyed house with three small windows in a row,

a cowshed on one side of it and a smithy on the other. When smoke rises from the smithy, the neighbours

say: "The engineer must be a bit better today, since he's at it in the smithy again. If there's anything you

want done, you'd better take it to him. He doesn't charge any more than Jens up at Lia."

Merle and Peer had been living here a couple of years. Their lives had gone on together, but there had come

to be this difference between them: Merle still looked constantly at her husband's face, always hoping that he

would get better, while he himself had no longer any hope. Even when the thump, thumping in his head was

quiet for a time, there was generally some trouble somewhere to keep him on the rack, only he did not talk

about it any more. He looked at his wife's face, and thought to himself: "She is changing more and more; and

it is you that are to blame. You have poured out your own misery on her day and night. It is time now you

tried to make some amends." So had begun a struggle to keep silence, to endure, if possible to laugh, even

when he could have found it in his heart to weep. It was difficult enough, especially at first, but each victory

gained brought with it a certain satisfaction which strengthened him to take up the struggle again.

In this way, too, he learned to look on his fate more calmly. His humour grew lighter; it was as if he drew

himself up and looked misfortune in the eyes, saying: "Yes, I know I am defenceless, and you can plunge me

deeper and deeper yet; but for all that, if I choose to laugh you cannot hinder me."

How much easier all things seemed, now that he looked no longer for any good to come to him, and urged no

claims against anyone either in heaven or on earth. But when he was tired out with his work at the forge,

there was a satisfaction in saying to his wife: "No, Merle, didn't I tell you I wouldn't have you carrying the

water up? Give me the bucket." "You?you look fit for it, don't you?" "Hang it all, am I a man, or am I not?

Get back to your kitchen that's the place for a woman." So he carried water, and his mood was the brighter

for it, though he might feel at times as if his back were breaking. And sometimes, "I'm feeling lazy, today,

Merle," he would say. "If you don't mind I'll stay in bed a bit longer." And she understood. She knew from

experience that these were the days when his nightmare headache was upon him, and that it was to spare her

They had a cow now, and a pig and some fowls. It was not exactly on the same scale as at Loreng, but it had

the advantage that he could manage it all himself. Last year they had raised so many potatoes that they had

been able to sell a few bushels. They did not buy eggs any morethey sold them. Peer carried them down

himself to the local dealer, sold them at market price, and bought things they might need with the money.

Why not? Merle did not think it beneath her to wash and scrub and do the cooking. True enough, things had

been different with them once, but it was only Merle now who ever had moments of dreaming that the old

days might come back. Otherwise, for both him and her it was as if they had been washed ashore on a barren

It would happen once in a while that a mowing machine of the new American type would be sent in by some

farmer to the smithy for repairs. When this happened, Peer would shut his lips close, with a queer expression,

look at the machine for a moment, and swallow something in his throat. The man who had stolen this thing

from him and bettered it by a hairsbreadth was doubtless a millionaire by now on the strength of it.

It cost him something of an effort to take these repairs in hand, but he bowed his head and set to. Merle, poor

At times, too, he would turn from the anvil and the darkness within and come out into the doorway for a

breath of air; and here he would look out upon the daythe great broad empty day.

A man with a sledgehammer in his hands instinctively looks up at the heavens. He has inherited that instinct

from his great ancestor, who brought down fire and thought to men, and taught them to rebel against God.

Peer looked at the sky, and at the clouds, sweeping across it in a meaningless turmoil. Rebellion against

But then all the injustice, the manifold iniquity! Who is to sit in judgment on it at the great day?

What? Think of the millions of all kinds of martyrs, who died under the bloodiest torments, yet innocent as

But there must be a whole worldfull of victims of injustice, whose souls flit restlessly around, because they

died under a weight of undeserved shamebecause they lost a battle in which the right was theirsbecause

they suffered and strove for truth, but went down because falsehood was the stronger. Truth? Right? Is there

no one, then, who will one day give peace to the dead in their graves and set things in their right places? Is

The world rolls on its way. Fate is blind, and God smiles while Satan works his will upon Job.

Hold your peace and grip your sledgehammer, idiot. If ever your conscience should embrace the universe,

that day the horror of it would strike you dead. Remember that you are a vertebrate animal, and it is by

But there began to dawn in him a strange longing to be united to all those unfortunates whom fate had blindly

crushed; to gather them together, not to a common lamentation, but to a common victory. Not for vengeance,

but for a song of praise. Behold, Thou eternal Omnipotence, how we requite Thy crueltywe praise life: see

A temple, a temple for the modern spirit of man, hungry for eternitynot for the babbling of prayers, but for

a hymn from man's munificent heart sent pealing up to heaven. Will it come will it one day be built?

One evening Peer came home from the postoffice apparently in high spirits. "Hi, Merle, I've got a letter

Merle glanced at Lorentz, who had instinctively come close to her, and was looking at his father.

That evening, after the children had gone to bed, the father and mother sat up talking together in a low voice.

And Merle had to admit that her husband was right. It would be selfish of them to keep the boy here, when he

Suppose he stayed and worked here under his father and learned to be a smith? The blacksmith's day is

And what schooling could he get away here in the country? Aunt Marit offered to send him to a good

But when they went with the boy to see him off at the station, the mother's handkerchief was at her eyes all

And when they came home she had to lie down in bed, while Peer went about the place, humming to himself,

"Nono," he laughed a little oddly. "The less said about that the better, perhaps."

But the next day it was Peer who said he felt lazy again and would lie still a bit. Merle looked at him and

And the time went on. They worked hard and constantly to make both ends meet without help, and they were

content to take things as they came. When the big dairy was started close by, he made a good deal of money

setting up the plant, but he was not above sharpening a drill for the roadgangs either. He was often to be

seen going down to the country store in a sleeved waistcoat with a knapsack on his back. He carried his head

high, the closetrimmed beard was shading over into white, his face often had the strained look that comes

from sleeplessness, but his step was light, and he still had a joke for the girls whom he met.

In summer, the neighbours would often see them shutting up the house and starting off up the hill with

knapsack and coffeekettle and with little Asta trotting between them. They were gone, it might be, to try and

recapture some memory of old days, with coffee in the open air by a picnic fire.

In the autumn, when the great fields yellowed all the hillsides, Peer and Merle had a little plot of their own

that showed golden too. The dimensions of things had shrunk not a little for these two. A bushel of corn was

much to them now. It hit them hard if their potatopatch yielded a couple of measures less than they had

reckoned on. But the housewives from the farms near by would often look in on Merle to see how bright and

clean she kept her little house; and now that she had no one to help her, she found time herself to teach the

But one habit had grown upon her. She would stand long and long by the window looking down the valley to

where the hills closed it in. It was as if she were looking constantly for something to come in sight, something

that should bring them better days. It was a kind of Sunday for her to stand there and look and wait.

For the convenience of readers a few points in which Norwegian pronunciation differs from English are noted

The vowels a, e, and i in the middle of words are pronounced much as in Italian.

The unit of currency in Norway is the crown (krone), which in normal conditions is worth something over

thirteen pence, so that about eighteen crowns go to the pound sterling. Thus Peer Holm's fortune in the

Savings Bank represented about L100 in English money, and a million crowns is equivalent to about

To avoid encumbering the reader unnecessarily with the details of Norwegian currency, small amounts have