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"Stop your threshing, Jan!" she said, "so that I can tell you what I dreamed about you last night." "You'd better come some other time, Ingeborg," Jan suggested. "If Lars Gunnarson hears that I'm resting from my work he'll be sure to come over to see what's up." "I'll be as quick as quick can be.
Not that Glory Goldie had written them to say she was coming, for indeed she had not! It was only that Jan had figured out that it could not be otherwise. This was the first of October, the day the money must be paid to Lars Gunnarson, so of course Glory Goldie would come. He had not expected her home earlier.
But Lars Gunnarson, since coming to the farm, had made it a point to assert his authority. He would no more take back an order once given than would his father-in-law. "Go into mother at once!" he commanded. "Can't you understand that she must get the bed ready so we'll have some place to put him when we come back with him?" Then of course Jan was obliged to go inside and notify the mistress.
"It would hardly be worth your while to go to the bother of moving something you'll not be able to keep." "Well, I never!" gasped Katrina. "Then you really do mean to lay hands on our property?" Lars Gunnarson made a gesture of protest. No, of course he did not want to put a lien on the house, not he! Had he not already told them as much?
Beside him sat Lars Gunnarson, enlightening him as to who had moved away from the district within the year, and who had married. Jan having answered all questions correctly and promptly, the pastor turned to Lars and put a query to him in a low tone of voice. "It was not as serious as it appeared," said Lars. "I took it out of him. He works at Falla every day now, as he has always done."
When the old man told his son that Lars Gunnarson was not likely to come to the party this year, the latter was very much disappointed. "But it's no fault of mine," Ol' Bengsta declared. "Lars isn't exactly my kind, but all the same, on your account, I went down to Falla yesterday and invited him." "Maybe he's weary of these parties," said the son. "Oh, no," returned Ol' Bengtsa.
"The fact is," he began, "a couple of days ago I received a communication from a person who calls herself Glory Goldie Sunnycastle, daughter of Jan of Ruffluck, in which she says she left home some months ago to try to earn two-hundred rix-dollars, which sum her parents have to pay to Lars Gunnarson of Falla on the first day of October in order to obtain full rights of ownership to the land on which their hut stands."
The satisfaction which he now felt was not lessened when on his homecoming the next day, he learned that Jan of Ruffluck had again put on his working clothes, and gone back to his digging. "We must never remind him of his madness," Lars Gunnarson warned his people, "then perhaps his reason will be spared to him. Anyhow, he has never had more than he needs."
On arriving, the first person Jan came upon was Lars Gunnarson, the husband of Eric's eldest daughter and prospective master of Falla, which he was destined to take over upon the decease of the present owner. When Lars Gunnarson had received his instructions he ordered Jan to go straight to the house and tell the mistress of what had occurred; then he was to call the hired boy.
Lars Gunnarson, who had been sitting with head devoutly bowed, arose at once. Crossing the floor on tiptoes, so as not to disturb the meeting, he went over to his mother-in-law, placed his arm around her, and led her up to the table.
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