United States or Puerto Rico ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Immediately after there was a noise as of some one striking a table with his fist, and the manager of the Company was heard to shout: "I bid forty thousand, and more than that Karin and Halvor are not likely to get." Mother Stina, who had turned as white as a sheet, got up and went back to the yard.
Mother Stina turned to Gabriel, saying: "I suppose there's no chance of Ingmar getting the farm?" "The bidding has gone far beyond his figure by now," Gabriel replied. "The innkeeper from Karmsund is said to have offered thirty-two thousand, and the Company's bid has been raised to thirty-five.
Just then a maid came out with a huge Bible, which, with its thick leather bindings and its brass clasps and mountings, was so heavy that she could hardly carry it. Mother Stina was as astounded as if some one had struck her in the face; and went back to her seat.
"So Karin has really ventured out to-day?" said Mother Stina, drawing up the pastor's chair for her. "Yes," she answered. "It's easy walking now that the frost has set in." "There has been a hard frost during the night," the schoolmaster put in. This was followed by a dead silence, which lasted several minutes.
"Spinning and weaving, shaping and sewing," said Friedel, coming near to let the housewife examine the texture. "Close woven, even threaded, smooth tinted! Ah, Stina, thou didst learn something! Thou wert not quite spoilt by the housefather's books and carvings."
"Unless my eyes deceive me, that's Karin, daughter of Ingmar!" said Mother Stina. "It's Karin all right," Tims Halvor confirmed. He said nothing more, but turned away from the window and glanced around the room, as if trying to discover some way of escape; but in a moment he quietly went back to his seat.
The children had enough to do to watch 'Pappa' Mikko's face and listen to the wonderful tales, and Mother Stina was busy with some sewing she couldn't spin because the noise of the wheel would have drowned Father Mikko's voice. 'Now that we have brought Lemminkainen back from the Death-river, the old man said, 'we will see what Wainamoinen was doing all this while. So he began as follows:
"Thanks, sir; but, indeed, I may not take it," said Christina, turning crimson, and drawing back. "So!" he exclaimed, in amaze; then bethinking himself, "They are no townsfolk of yours, but Constance cowards." "Take it, take it, Stina, or you will anger my father," added Ermentrude. "No, lady, I thank the barons both, but it were sin in me," said Christina, with trembling voice.
They talked of going to a regular dance the next Saturday evening, and asked the schoolmaster and Mother Stina what they thought about it. "If you will do your dancing at Strong Ingmar's, I give my consent," said Mother Stina; "for there you will meet only respectable folk." Then Storm also made it conditional.
Mother Stina thought of all the old Ingmarssons whose feet had trod the yard. She seemed to see them coming home from their work in the evening, and gathering around the hearth, tall and somewhat bent, always afraid of intruding themselves, or of accepting more than they felt was their due. And she thought of the industry and honesty which had always been practised on this farm.
Word Of The Day