Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 12, 2025
A travelling merchant, one of the kind that goes about with a huge pack on his back, had found his way to the Ashdales, and on seeing Glory Goldie in all the glow and freshness of her youth he had taken from his pack a piece of dress goods which he tried to induce her parents to buy for her. The cloth was a changeable red, of a texture almost like satin and as costly as it was beautiful.
It looked as if it had been washed by many rains, and had seen rough handling, for it was both scratched and broken at the edges. All the folk from the Ashdales suddenly caught their breath. For then they knew it was not a Där Nol that lay in this coffin! And they also knew that it was not for the sake of some stranger of exalted rank that so many people had come out to church.
Jan had thought the selfsame things himself, and he understood of course that Glory Goldie could not settle down in the Ashdales when she had a whole kingdom to rule over. "The chances are that the Empress will return to Portugallia," he replied. "Then you will accompany her, I suppose?" said one of the little misses. Jan would rather the young lady had not questioned him regarding that matter.
But it was with Prästberg as with the trolls whether they wanted to help or hinder they only wrought mischief. The first Sunday after Midsummer Day there was a grand party at the seine-maker's to which every one in the Ashdales had been invited. The old man and his daughter-in-law were in the habit of entertaining the whole countryside on this day of each year.
At short intervals he sensed an odour, as of something burning, that stuck in his nostrils. That odour did not come from any cook stove in the Ashdales! It was a salutation from the great stake of pine needles, and moss, and brushwood that sizzled and burned many miles away.
It was plain that she had struggled desperately for she was covered with mud clear to her horns, and round about her the green moss-tufts had been torn up. She had bellowed so loud that Jan thought every one in Ashdales must have heard her, yet no one but himself had come up to the marsh. He did not tarry a second, but ran straight to the farm for help.
They all felt that some dire misfortune would soon fall upon those who lived there. When the tension was becoming unbearable the door opened once more and a man who was seldom seen in the Ashdales came in. The instant this man entered it became as still in the hut as on a winter night in the forest, and every one's eyes save Jan's alone turned toward him.
"This is the sort of amusement one can afford to indulge in down here, in the Ashdales." "I have thought," continued Jan, emboldened by the encouragement, "that maybe the story didn't end with the old lady giving Glory Goldie the ten rix-dollars. Perhaps she also invited the girl to come to see her?" "Maybe she did," said the seine-maker. "Maybe she's so rich that she owns a whole stone house?"
Then the boat pulled out and Katrina and Jan had to go home by themselves, and the moment they were inside the hut Jan cast himself down on the bed so weary and disheartened that he did not know how he would ever be able to get up again. The Ashdales folk who had seen the father and mother return from the pier without Glory Goldie were greatly concerned.
He had heard that the old man had been invited to a drinking bout at a fisherman's but here in the Ashdales, but so far he had not seen him go by. "I suppose he has had the good sense to stay at home," said Katrina. It grew colder and colder. The corners of the house creaked as if the freezing wind were knocking to be let in.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking