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Updated: June 16, 2025
Baard saw him; he had grown pale and thin; he wore the same clothes as in former days when the brothers were constant companions, but now they were old and patched. During the sermon Anders kept his eyes fixed on the priest, and Baard thought he looked good and kind; he remembered their childhood and what a good boy Anders had been.
It sank into his books, it thrust itself beneath every word the school-master spoke, it lurked in the school-room when all was still. It caused him to be obedient and reverent, and to have an easier apprehension as it were of everything that was taught him. The history ran thus: The school-master's name was Baard, and he once had a brother whose name was Anders.
When the watch had been run up to twenty dollars, it seemed to Baard that his brother was not acting rightly, and he continued to bid until he got it almost up to thirty; as Anders kept on, it struck Baard that his brother could not remember how kind he had always been to him, nor that he was the elder of the two, and the watch went up to over thirty dollars. Anders still kept on.
The horse was saddled, but Baard paused with his hand on its back, uncertain whether to ride away or no. Now many people came out, among them Anders, who when he saw his brother standing beside the saddled horse, not knowing what Baard was reflecting on, shouted out to him: "Thank you for the watch, Baard! You will not see it run the day your brother treads on your heels."
Now, Baard expected Anders to let him have the watch, and Anders expected the same of Baard; each bid in his turn to put the other to the test, and they looked hard at each other while bidding.
No one could prove anything against Baard, but suspicion rested on him. Less than ever, now, did he feel able to approach his brother. Anders had thought of Baard when the barn was burned, but had spoken of it to no one.
The young Icelander's hot temper soon brewed trouble. Sickness kept him from going with Thorolf to the house of Björn the Yeoman, whose daughter, Aasgard, he was to marry; but he soon got well and went on a visit to Baard, a steward of the king. As fortune decreed he met there King Erik and Queen Gunhild. Egil was not the man to play the courtier and his hot blood was under little control.
Baard concluded by producing the lump of gold he always carried about him, and it now became manifest to the brothers that in all these years neither had known a happy day. Anders did not say much, for he was not able to do so, but Baard watched by his bed as long as he was ill. "Now I am perfectly well," said Anders one morning on waking.
Still worse was it with Baard; although he did not drink, he was scarcely to be recognized by those who had known him before. Late one evening a poor woman entered the little room Baard rented, and begged him to accompany her a short distance. He knew her: it was his brother's wife.
"I wish to offer you help, Anders; things are going badly for you." "I am faring as you meant I should, Baard! Go, I am not sure that I can control myself." "You mistake, Anders; I repent" "Go, Baard, or God be merciful to us both!" Baard fell back a few steps, and with quivering voice he murmured, "If you want the watch you shall have it."
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