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Morten laughed. "Oh, no! You're always ready to start on a journey. All my life I've been ready for a tour round the world at an hour's notice!" He walked to and fro, rubbing his hands. "Ah, now I shall drink the sunshine let myself be baked through and through! I think it'll be good for my chest to hop over a winter." "How far are you going?" asked Ellen, with shining eyes.
Like all wise rulers, who feel that they ought to mark the epoch of their arrival at power with certain merciful actions, Morten had given permission to Per Karl to drive the hearse with the old blacks, which were, however, condemned to be shot on the following day. The old coachman had got them into "funeral trim," as he said, and for three days had groomed them incessantly.
Morten sat upon a chair looking crestfallen. "Thank goodness, I'm not married!" he said. "I really begin to be sorry for you, Pelle." It was evident that he was enjoying being looked after. "Yes, now you can see what a domestic affliction I have to bear," Pelle answered gravely. Ellen let them talk.
When Pelle sprang down from the cart, Morten came up and held out his hand. "You are strong, Pelle!" he said quietly. "Where have you come from?" exclaimed Pelle in glad surprise. "I came by the steamer this afternoon, and went straight up to the works. Brun told me what had happened and that you were here. It must have been a threatening meeting!
The work would be distributed according to the various capacities of the men, and they would choose one from their midst who would superintend the whole. In this way the problem could be solved every man would receive the full profit of his work. When he had thoroughly thought out his plan, he went to Morten. "They've already put that into practice!" cried Morten, and he pulled out a book.
But Ellen was familiar with the remoteness that came into his eyes at such times, and she knew how to dispel it with a kiss. One day he met Morten in the street. Pelle was delighted, but there was a sceptical expression in Morten's eyes. "Why don't you ever come to see me now?" asked Pelle. "I often long to see you, but I can't well get away from home."
When all the household else had gone to sleep the two brothers crept out, and went to a field where several days before they had buried the body of a man of about Niel's age, size, and general appearance. But Morten was the stronger, and Niels had to do as he was ordered. They carried the body back with them into the house.
But he loves to join in the singing when the men and women go homeward with closely-twined arms, and he and Morten follow them, they too with their arms about each other.
"I can't imagine how any one can have the heart to rob the dead; they are really the poorest of us all." "I'm glad to hear you say that!" exclaimed Pelle. "A month ago you thought the dead were the only ones who were well off." "You're a rock!" said Morten, smiling and putting his hands on the other's shoulders. "If everything else were to change, we should always know where you were to be found."
Hiorth's family had been for a long time in the service of the State, a fact of which he was not a little proud; and after his daughter's marriage with Morten Garman, who was one of the most eligible young men of the district, his somewhat sensitive feelings began to revolt against the self-satisfaction which the Garman family seemed to have inherited with their solid prosperity.
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