United States or Sri Lanka ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I will do my best; but oh! uncle, so work with him that he may bring me back again." "This from thee, Stina!" exclaimed her aunt; "from thee who art sick for fear of a lanzknecht!" "The saints will be with me, and you will pray for me," said Christina, still trembling. "I tell thee, child, thou knowst not what these vile dens are. Heaven forfend thou shouldst!" exclaimed her aunt.
But now it had grown quite late, nearly nine o'clock, and so they all ate their supper and then Erik and Father Mikko sat smoking and talking while Mother Stina and the little ones went into the other room to bed, for Erik had actually two rooms in his house, and it isn't every Finnish country cabin that has that, you know.
Then came another pause, after which Karin continued: "This is not only the question of his attending school, but I would also like to ask whether you and Mother Stina would let the boy come here to live." The schoolmaster and his wife looked at each other in astonishment, but neither of them was prepared to answer. "I fear our quarters are rather close," said Storm, presently.
The schoolmaster and his wife thought, with the pastor, that it was a beautiful death. All three of them sat profoundly silent for a long while. "But what could Strong Ingmar have meant," asked Mother Stina abruptly, "when he spoke of the pilgrimage?" The pastor looked up, somewhat perplexed. "I don't know," he replied.
All the reproaches which she had meant to heap upon Karin stuck in her throat. There was an air of lofty dignity about Karin that disarmed people; therefore, no one had the courage to upbraid her. When they were on the broad step in front of the porch, Mother Stina tapped Karin on the shoulder. "Have you noticed who is standing over there?" she asked, and pointed to Ingmar.
"It is what one loves most that one must first and foremost sacrifice to the Lord," said Karin. "Folks think it strange " Mother Stina began, but Karin cut her short. "The Lord, too, would think it strange if we held back anything we had offered in His Name." Mother Stina bit her lip. She could not bring herself to say anything further.
Then he would have to give up all thought of marrying Gertrude in the fall, as had been planned. It might even be necessary for him to go elsewhere, to seek employment. When Mother Stina thought of this, she did not feel very pleasantly disposed toward Karin and Halvor. "I hope to goodness that Karin won't come up and speak to me!" she muttered to herself.
And the third sang sadly 'Consolation! Consolation! never ending all his life long for the comfort of the broken-hearted mother. Mother Stina looked at little Mimi very solemnly when this story was ended, as if she wondered whether she herself would ever need to take to heart the warning of Aino's mother. But no one said anything, and Father Mikko continued on with the next story.
There they sat, the more ripely-developed youth of the town, in rows up in the rooms of the Veyergang firm's great factory, and minded the whirring shuttles, balls and rollers Swedish Lena, and Stina, and Kristofa, and Kalla, and Josefa and Gunda, and all the rest of them. Had any one asked them about their parents, they would now and then have been hard put to it for an answer.
When Mother Stina was all ready to start, she opened the door to the schoolroom, and nodded a good-bye to her husband. Storm was then telling the children the story of the destruction of the great city of Nineveh, and the look on his face was so stern and threatening that the poor youngsters were almost frightened to death.
Word Of The Day