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And when Saturday came round Sivert suddenly wanted to go down to the village. "What you want to go down village again for now?" said his father in displeasure. "Wearing boots to rags...." Oh, Isak was more bitter than need be; he knew well enough that Sivert was going to the post. "Going to church," says Sivert.
Had he really, besides his neglected farm and his fishery, the heap of money and means folk generally thought? No one could say for certain. And apart from that, Uncle Sivert himself was an obstinate man; he insisted that little Sivert should come to stay with him. It was a point of honour with him, this last; he should take little Sivert and look after him, as the engineer had done with Eleseus.
"Ho, very well then!" said Inger in an offended tone. "There's Sivert what does he get by way of pocket-money?" Inger answered: "You've never been in a town, and so you don't know these things. Sivert's no need of pocket-money. And talking of money, Sivert ought to be none so badly off when his Uncle Sivert dies." "You don't know." "Ay, but I do know."
Father and sons all stare at it; something must be wrong. Eleseus stands holding the instructions. "Here's a bolt or something," says Sivert, picking up a thing from the grass. "Ho, that's all right, then," says his father, as if that was all that was needed to set everything in order. "I was just looking for that bolt."
And, look you, he had by now smoked the last of the tobacco he had brought with him from town; ordinarily, that would have been enough to make a clerk go about banging doors and expressing himself emphatically upon many points; but no, Eleseus only grew the steadier for it firmer and more upright; a man indeed. Even Sivert, the jester, could not put him out of countenance.
Os-Anders the Lapp, coming by with his dog, brought news that folk in the village had cut their corn already, for fodder. "'Tis a poor look out," said Inger, "when it comes to that." "Ay. But they've the herring. A fine haul, 'tis said. Your Uncle Sivert, he's going to build a country house." "Why, he was none so badly off before." "That's true. And like to be the same with you, for all it seems."
Then he talked to little Leopoldine, and then, noticing the drawings on the walls, asked straight out who had done that. "Was it you?" he asked, turning to Sivert. The man felt, perhaps, he owed something for Inger's hospitality, and praised the drawings just to please her. Inger, on her part, explained the matter as it was: it was her boys had made the drawings both of them.
Off hurries Geissler to Sivert once more: "That's right keep at it didn't I say he was a sturdy sort? Follow these stakes, you understand, where I've marked out. If you come up against heavy boulders, or rock, then turn aside and go round, but keep the level the same depth; you see what I mean?" Then back to Isak again: "That's one finished good! But we shall want more half a dozen, perhaps.
Isak kept Sivert away from the building work now, and left him idle and this he did with a purpose, that Geissler might find the lad ready at any time if he wanted to go exploring with him in the hills. But Isak might have saved himself the trouble; Geissler had given up the idea, or perhaps forgotten all about it. What he did was to get Inger to pack him up some food, and set off down the road.
But you have to learn to steer it, you'll see." But little Sivert he was of another mind, and said nothing about pens; he wanted to ride in the cart; just to sit up on the seat before the horse was put in, and drive like that, driving ever so fast in a cart without a horse. And it was all his doing that father let them both sit up and ride with him a long way down the road.
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