■ ■ ■ ■ ■nsſºº ****
„ ， ، ، ، ، ،º :*（
ſººſ ’, ſ.º. º.s. ， ' '''
ſ*)（?：\ſ*）~
º ， º،► ► ► ►** • ** ***
8 & +
| ， ، ، ، ، ، ، ،--~~ ：∞
№ë-e-vaea ∞ -
§. … eatae:::::::：:：:：::：:::!... *
، ، ، ، ، ، ، ، ،- aes，∞s »， «ºº■ ■ ■ ■ºsť ºſº ººº !* * * -
！\, , , , ， ， ，±±，±，±，±，±，±，±，±，±yaş eſ; * & ***º, ， ， ， ， t-，
·, , ， , ， ， , ， ; * *ſae : • • • • ! ***** º ，,,）. №siºs y eſº，•ş, sººººººººae
| • • • • • ••• • •'; ¿№ſsae??șºse， gº ſº± &
· Ķī£; £raeſ！?！?;:
ſi , «»， « ºz. ***ſaeſe 44 ****** ：
º £¡ ¿ º ºe ---- · ！ -،
…：…..… - * * … ：} + ... - į º º · …ſae;$ sºº∞ √∞- sew. ; ） ► ► ►►| . "
- ！ a º §;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;§:::：:：::::::::::::Aa，
： ſae ſa， ſeº∞∞∞ſ.Ä∞ ∞
× ź„（...） sº ºſsº#:::::::::::::#ffffffffff;ſaeſaeae:pºſſºſ• •：
- ！（（（ --... （ nºwº º， ſºº§ 3， os ºſa štºſwºwe： sººſ：��ſ， ſº tºgaeae::：:::::
, ， , ， ， ， , • • • **** （*）（$*$£§:*（?:≡ºſsº ***
„ ، ، ، ، ، ، * * * * *ſ é a eſ №， , ， ， ; *?，1, # *******ſa syłkºwe”
* *« ， ， ， s žº§ ø §∞ſº
،
Œ œ ·
✉ ₪
s ：
، ، ، * e * * *
، ،
§ ¶ • ¡ ¿
. . . ， sa №ºr zº zº º :
- -· «ºº
∞ √
„ ， ، ، ، ، ، ، ،
. , ، ، ، ، ، ، ، ، ،
, ， ， ， , ， ， , e º ººº ！
（, , ）, -ae）. 4°
ſ'， ` ） …esºsa，
ſ ºr º ، ،： m.
* ��ſ e a º º
： „… ， -ſ) oººoº º
--wae ae« ， »«，
| , ، ، ، ، ،stº º
} •.er • I
· I., ， ） » zºº. '
a se es sºº · a n s * * * *
ģ..）, « ſº ſº ººº |×ſ
„… Zo zº ººº...） s. , ، ، ، ، ، ، ،ſº
ſae ae º t. ��s ••• • ºº , ！
& *
№
ſe ， ， ， º º
,, .e … • • • • ” ’ ） $. （， , ， ºwº º
s - aſ 1 : & . f .& ***
a , ， ， ， ， º º
ºb） • • • •
" #► ، ]] |-Y∞∞∞
... • • • • • • • ¶ | 4
· -∞ √° s√≠√∞º 5 .
*************
، ، ،
， ，,ase - （ c ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥）;
！ ！!！！！！！！！！！！!！！！
！
ą . , *




THE BARQUE FUTURE;
OB,
LIFE IN THE FAIR NORTH.
BY
JONAS LIE.
TRANSLATED BY MIRS. OLE BULL.
CHIO A G O :
S. C. G. R. I.G. G. S AND COMPANY.
1879. :*
CopyRIGHT, 1879,
By S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY.
* 27 (2ſº
2.3%.9%
A 22-4-
//?
YKNIGHT & LEONARE) ,
O





PREFACE.
“THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE,” of Jonas Lie, was so
favorably received by the press and public, that I
have but one regret in presenting “The Barque
Future,”— that it puts in so late an appearance.
Constant travel has prevented regular work; but
two summers having been spent in Norway, I trust
the present translation will do better justice to the
original than did my first attempt.
“Den Fremsynte ” (The Man of Second-Sight)
will follow the present volume. -
I have again to acknowledge with gratitude the
kind assistance of Professor R. B. ANDERSON, of the
University of Wisconsin, by whom the verses in this
story have been translated.
SARA. C. BULL.
NEW YORK, January 7, 1879.
THE BARQUE FUTURE.
*-*-m-ms-s-s-smº.
CHAPTER I.
--~ THE WIRECK.
T was after one of the terrific November storms of
1807 — a marked year in the youthful reminis-
cence of many an old seaman — that the barque Fu-
ture, one snowy winter day, lay drifting, a mastless
wreck, outside the coast of Finmark. The bulwarks
were broken in, and she lay keeled on one side half
filled with water.
The barque belonged to one of the Copenhagen
companies owning warehouses in Warangerfjord, and
was bound for Kollefjord. Outside of Throndhjem .
harbor, being overtaken by a land-storm, she had
been compelled to put to sea, and for days the ocean
had surged about the Future in mountains of foam
and breakers as high as her cross-trees. Down in the
trough of the sea she lay, the four green wave-walls
about her, and a bit of gray storm-sky above her for a
roof, until the crest of a wave again lifted her crew
up to the dreary outlook of her surroundings. Her
captain had been struck by the boom one night: he
5
6 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
lay unconscious, struggling with death, and the ves-
sel — defenseless and without a commander, as she
lay with her timbers creaking in the breakers—
sprang a leak in several places. On the fourth day,
when the storm had lulled somewhat, and they be-
lieved they had glimpses of land, the crew, who found
that they were unable longer to keep her free from
water with the pumps, resolved, if possible, to save
themselves by taking to the life-boat and gaining
Some spot on the coast.
The sick captain had already been lowered into the
boat, and there remained on board only his little child
and wife. She had as yet been unable to overcome
her fright at the dangerous descent, when a threaten-
ing breaker compelled those below to push off.
Shortly after, the boat sank before her very eyes.
It was the second day after the loss of the life-boat
that the wreck lay drifting in a thick, heavy snow-
storm, off that desolate northern rock-coast. The
storm had calmed, leaving only the ground-swell.
On the cabin stairs, under the hatches, sat a death-
ly pale, fair-haired woman, with a child in her lap,
which she, in a half-unconscious doze, rocked to and
fro, and now and then, with a nervous pressure, con-
vulsively clasped to her breast.
She was young, and, before death set his seal upon
her, must have been handsome; at least this was in-
dicated by her large, deep eyes, which, feebly ques-
THE WEECK. 7
tioning, with the remnant of her life-force, she raised
to a young man who just then pressed past her up
the stairs, with a brownish-red wallet in his hand.
It was a pocket-book, the property of the company
and of her husband, which the latter was to have
used to trade with in Kollefjord. Just before, she
had dreamed that an ugly old man, in heavy clothes,
stood above her in the Snow-covered round-house,
looking down upon her as if deliberating what to do,
now and then raising an ax, which lay beside him,
and then, irresolutely, dropping it. He saw that she
was dying. * *
Meanwhile there was a third person farther for-
ward on deck, completely absorbed in what he was
doing. He was past middle age, a sea Finn, the
only inhabitant of the small remote island called
Low-isle. He had piled a sail, a boat-hook, a copper
kettle, with some other things which he had found on
deck, in a heap over by the remaining bulwarks, and
came aft just at the moment that the young man de-
livered the pocket-book to the elder one. A greedy
look passed over the Finn's face, but this expression
immediately changed to one of terror, his eye had
fallen upon the young woman as she sat with her
child on the cabin stairs.
While the two others went down into the hold and
set to work scuttling the ship, which was half filled
with water, the sea Finn was behaving most strangely
8 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
on deck. He turned about every time he approached
the round-house, but nevertheless returned to it again
and again. He busied himself for some time with his
pile of things, but they were soon stowed in the boat.
As he judged they were nearly through with the
chopping below, his gait became more uncertain, his
turns shorter and shorter, and he walked almost on
tiptoe. Thus it continued, with some interruptions,
for an hour—perhaps an hour and a half; but when
the chopping finally began to slacken, the Finn's
small, wrinkled, yellow face was pale, and covered
with beads of perspiration. He had surely worked
harder during this time than the two below in the
hold. With a sudden determination he now strode
aft to the hatchway. There sat the young woman,
half buried in snow, with staring eyes, but the child
still lived. The mother held it in her lap, as before,
under her cloak, and she still clasped it in her folded
but now stiffened arms.
Isak took it carefully up in his two large, cal-
loused hands, and stood for a time evidently puzzled
with his prize: he looked about as if at his wits' end;
but, as it was evident that no help was to be expected
of any one there, with his burden still in his hands
he carefully seated himself on the deck — then, with
some difficulty, drew off one of his heavy sea-
boots, put the child into it, and carried it by the
straps, hopping on his stocking-foot across the slop-
THE WEECK. 9
ing deck to the rail where his boat lay. With his
burden still in his hand he carefully descended, laid
the sea-boot in the stern, back of the rear seat, throw-
ing his coarse woolen jacket over it, and then sat
waiting for the two others to come.
It was not until after the boat was pushed off that
the latter observed what Isak had finally rescued from
the vessel, and the look of the elder was anything
but mild ; but there sat Isak, stout and broad-shoul-
dered, over in the stern,-- besides, the thing was done
now. The two others in the boat were Corporal
Stuwitz and his son. As to the former, we can only
say that he had once belonged to the garrison at Ward
Island, but had been dismissed for acts of violence,
dishonesty and drunkenness. They still repeat sto-
ries, which he told when drunk, of a character to
make one’s hair stand on end, about how he and
others had behaved when he was field sergeant,
from which position he had probably also been de-
graded,—and how he had fought in the German war.
Since his discharge he made his living by acting as
interpreter for the Russians, who lay along the coast
bartering their wares, and he also traded a little on
his own account. It was on a trip with the sea Finn,
which was to extend beyond Busse Sound, where a
Russian vessel was lying, that they had observed the
wreck out at sea.
On the way home the Finn was very thoughtful.
10 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
He was a widower, and, after his wife's death, had
taken charge of the family of his drowned brother,
which he faithfully helped to support. It was already
so hard for them to obtain bread, was it right for
him to assume another trust? Nor did he expect his
brother's widow to wear a happy face, whose pro-
pensity it was to take everything at the hardest.
Next, the chief question was as to the wreck. If he
obtained a small share of the money, it might per-
haps recompense him, once for all, for the mainte-
nance of the child; but then it also occurred to him
that thereby he would be implicated more than he
cared to be in what had transpired, therefore he said
nothing about it. To possess one’s self of “floating
goods” without an owner, was a thing at which no
man at that time would scruple. But these goods
were not floating goods such as oars, nets and the
like, but taken from a wreck, and their seizure de-
served, and would receive, said the corporal, severe
punishment from the authorities, since the vessel had
been scuttled. It would need care to prevent the
whole thing from becoming known, and ending with
imprisonment at Ward Island.
The corporal was evidently displeased that the
child had been rescued, and spoke much of Isak’s
keeping it well hidden. But if, through his fault,
anything should be discovered about the vessel, which
it was to be hoped now lay safe at the bottom of the
THE WRECK. 11
sea, he and his son could always save themselves, as
no one had seen them in the boat, nor had they any
stolen property from the wreck which could prove
suspicious; the wallet, which was empty, he now said,
he had thrown into the sea, and at worst, he added,
threateningly, “three would have to answer for scut-
tling her.”
Isak sat on the alert in the darkness; he was not
free from the thought that the two others in the
boat were ready to rid themselves of everything
which could witness against them. In Buse Sound
they rowed up alongside of Wassilieff’s sloop, which
lay there, and there separated; but the last thing
Stuwitz significantly said was: “Beware of Ward
Island, Isak.”
He was unspeakably relieved to be rid of them;
it was as if a heavy burden of sin had left the boat.
When, shortly after, he carefully felt in the darkness,
from his seat at the rudder, for the sea-boot behind
him, and then anxiously fumbled under his jacket
to know if the child still breathed, he felt conscious
of having done a good deed. Alone, he sat and
thought of his wife, now resting under the wooden
cross in the churchyard; Kirstine had always wished
for children,_ now he had found in this little one a
treasure for his old days. When he came home, all
transpired as Isak had foreseen. Although his
brother’s widow omitted nothing in her care for the
12 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
child, still it was evident that it was no welcome
inmate, and at first she talked, more than Isak liked,
about going to the sheriff and advertising, so that
it might in any event be cared for by the sum pro-
vided by the district for the poor. On the shawl in
which the child, perhaps two years old, was wrapped
they found a breastpin fastening it, and on its linen
the name Marina, embroidered. When the widow
learned that the breastpin was gold, and perhaps
worth ten dollars, she spoke in milder tones of going.
to the sheriff; they would also be obliged to adver-
tise the canvas, which already lay upon the floor cut
out for a new boat-sail, and she would have to give
up the good coffee kettle, upon which she had set
her heart. g
Six weeks after, they heard, to their alarm, that
the sheriff and lensmand * had made searching in-
quiries on all sides concerning the wreck. It was
rumored, also, to Isak’s consternation, that Corporal
Stuwitz and the captain and crew of the Russian
Wassilieff’s sloop were to be tried. Now, for the first
time, he confided to his brother’s wife all that had
happened, so that she perceived there was but one
thing to be done, namely, to keep the child quietly
with them. Isak came to the conclusion that the
wreck, though scuttled, had not sunk, but must have
drifted into Finmark sea and there been visited again
* County officer.
THE WEECE. 13
by Wassilieff and Stuwitz, who had gone on board the
sloop.
The barque Future, which was due at that time
in Kollefjord with a cargo from Copenhagen, was
discovered drifting out at sea, a wreck, and Wassilieff’s
coaster had been seen alongside her off Nordkyn.
When the authorities reached the vessel, they
found her entirely stripped and scuttled, so that
there was only the written deposition to be made,
and to bury a young woman frozen to death, who,
according to news received later from Denmark,
proved to be the captain’s wife.
One report, among the many circulating about
the matter, was to the effect that Stuwitz’s large
boat, with Wassilieff’s crew, had, the week previous,
plied night and day between land and the wreck;
that the mountain Finn, Jakob Nutto, for eighty of
Charles the Ninth's bright silver dollars—the so-called
receipt dollars, which the Finns are accustomed to
bury — had undertaken to care for the goods up in
the country until a more favorable time for the di-
vision of them. To make his innocence clear, the
Russian very soon after ran into Kollefjord with his
coaster, which, as God and every man — the authori-
ties included — could see, had a full cargo of ex-
changed fish and Russian wheat from Archangel.
At the legal investigation, the few imaginary Norse
witnesses disappeared in a remarkable manner. The
14 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Russian crew, who had participated, denied every-
thing, and old Jakob Nutto, who was a heathen, de-
clared gladly with all his men, on false oath, that
during the trading season they had bartered in skins
and reindeer with Stuwitz, eastward in Hopseids-
fjord. Afterward, in the tent, there was the usual
baptism, as is their custom when the Finns wish to
free themselves from the effect of an oath, or other
Christian ordinance.
The Finn was right in so far that Stuwitz’s son
had been in at Hopseid and traded in skins for his
father with the Finn’s brother, Mathis; but this hap-
pened at least a week later, and was quite another
affair. A Kven from the skerries, who had boldly
said that he had something to testify to, was mur-
dered on his way to the trial. There were many and
various reports among the common people concerning
what he had to testify. He was said to have been
fishing near the Russian coaster, which lay concealed
back of a projecting cliff, near land, and among other
things saw that the Russian paid the mountain Finn
bright silver dollars on the deck; also, that Stuwitz's
son was on board her.
They were unable to save the wreck, as a north-
easterly storm sent it southward again, and it was
supposed that it must have sunk to the bottom of
the sea.
A three-masted vessel cannot go under without
THE WEECK. 15
the results being felt in wide circles. One of these
results was that the young chamber-counselor, To-
bias Storm, in Copenhagen, who, as an officer under
the government, collected some of the revenue funds
of the custom-house, became bankrupt and a de-
faulter. As a partner in the manufactory at Kolle-
fjord, he had ventured too much money in the vessel
which his brother commanded, and he went, the fol-
lowing year, partly as a public precaution, up to
Finmark, to endeavor, if possible, to save enough to
shield himself from the worst consequences of his
embezzlement. He did not succeed. But when the
public debt, by the aid of friends, was paid, by draw-
ing on the future from a legacy of which he received
the interest, he was, on account of the peculiar cir-
cumstances, dismissed from service, but was still gra-
ciously allowed to wear his uniform. He lived after-
ward at Kollefjord, with Brogelmann, as bookkeeper,
who took him on account of former connections with
his family.
It was during these years that Brogelmann gained
so largely by trading in Varangerfjord. The manu-
factories north were offered for sale at that time by
the Copenhagen companies, and he was secretly
negotiating with several of them.
The depreciation of money in 1813 to 1816 made
many poor, but Brogelmann thereby became very
rich. He had bought two of the best factories on
16 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
credit, and now, according to the law, all debts over
the whole kingdom could be lawfully settled by
paying two skillings on every specie dollar. Brogel-
mann made haste to settle at this propitious time,
and during the immediate years following made many
brilliant successes, until age and other circumstances
caused him gradually to withdraw from business.
His authorized confidant during the latter years
was young Stuwitz, of whose person we have above
given the reader a glance.
The father, several years after the previously-men-
tioned incident of the wreck, died in reduced cir-
cumstances, and the son then came as clerk to Bro-
gelmann. Here he showed so great a business talent
and aptness that the direction of the northern trade
in Kollefjord was soon committed to him alone when
Brogelmann himself was in the interior at the other
important trading posts. By conduct to which his
employer too readily closed his eyes, Stuwitz had,
before he was thirty years old, earned in those dis-
tricts the name of “The Finns' Plague.”
The year after Stuwitz had come into Brogel-
mann’s business, it curiously enough happened that
they came on the track of some of the notes which
had disappeared with the sunk three-master, the
numbers had at the time been carefully advertised
in the papers.
Investigation showed that the notes must have
THE WEECK. 17
come down to Bergen through one of Brogelmann’s
yearly payments for goods.
This at the time occasioned much talk and ex-
citement up there.
When the sheriff made inquiries about the matter,
young Stuwitz cleverly told him that there came
notes from all parts and of all sorts into their money-
drawer, so that there could be neither any trace or
certainty of any especial one; he promised, however,
for the future to keep a watchful eye on the matter.
When these things were talked about over at Lov-
isle, Isak readily understood that it was some of
the money from the wreck, which Stuwitz had sought
to give out; and with a certain pleasure he thought
that the latter would perhaps be obliged to gnash
his teeth inwardly, since he would be unable to make
use of the rest of it.
The person not satisfied with this result was poor
Tobias Storm. He had for a moment fired up with his
old force, and pressed Stuwitz rather closely, but his
position forbade his making more ado about the matter.
Tobias Storm was a widower; with the ship he
had lost his only near relatives, his brother and
wife; he had given his note on his homestead, and
therewith his whole fortune. He now seemed to be
blunted in feeling and to have withdrawn into his shell.
When he was not busy with his work he was
usually walking back and forth smoking his pipe.
1%
18 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
His only confidant seemed to be the watchdog, which
gladly came to him and laid its large black head on
his knee while he sat on the steps puffing the smoke
into the air. There was, perhaps, a silent speech in
the smoke which the dog understood, for its eyes
were constantly fixed upon his face.
When Storm saw Stuwitz approach he usually
left. He could not endure him, but dared not, on
the other hand, really show his dislike.
After dinner he often walked with his hands be-
hind him up a steep mountain slope, which was called
the pulpit, and from which there was an extended
view out to sea. He would usually stand there for a
time, looking, with a heavy heart, across the wide
churchyard where the three-master and his fortune
were buried.
One day — during the first year that he came to
the house — he met a man who was still more sor-
rowful and heavy-hearted than himself—a tall young
fisherman, by name Lars, or “Big Lars,” as they
called him, and he was apparently on the point of
taking his own life. -
Storm dissuaded him from his purpose, and in-
duced him to accompany him home. The man's
speech and ways were somewhat unbalanced, but as
he was, with the exception of short periods, useful at
his post, Storm persuaded Brogelmann to take him
into his employ. ſº
CHAIPTER II.
FLIGHT.
Bhoºmass lived in a small, poor way; he
had always had too much to occupy him to
think of building a new house, and was besides more
comfortable in the old one, where fortune had always
favored him. He kept, however, what they would
call in Norland a good, hospitable house, and thither,
on account of his business connections, came many
sorts of people. Brogelmann himself, especially in
his advanced years, after he was less occupied with
his private affairs, was a good-natured and pleasant
IIläIl.
His only daughter, Regina, had for several years
been in Bergen. -
On her return, she assumed control of everything
concerning the interior management of the house, as
a matter of course, but at the same time was care-
ful that all orders were given, as before, by her old,
weak mother.
Regina was, in her way, rather good-looking, al-
though her face was commanding and severe in out-
line, and under its black curls reminded one some-
what of an ancestral portrait, and she was always
19
20 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
neatly dressed while at her everyday household duties.
There was undeniably something very powerful in
her nature, therefore all submitted to her; but this
strength was not agreeable, and was one of the rea-
sons, probably, why, although over thirty, she was
still unmarried. Those who in her eyes might have
found favor felt that Hymen’s (in this case literally
golden) chains would not merely be figurative, but
they would risk a veritable yoke—her will; while
others quickly understood that they were either not
sufficiently rich or not distinguished enough. While
in Bergen, where she had in various ways made con-
siderable sensation as the rich Brogelmann’s daughter,
she had actually reported that her grandfather was
Von Brogelmann, and that she therefore was of noble
blood; concerning her grandfather, and his removal
north, she said nothing more. All were, however,
united in the belief that her nature, with all her
vanity, was a genuine one, but that she was in too
great a degree her friend’s friend, and her enemy’s
foe. t
Regina had at an early period of her life, when
in her seventeenth year, experienced a real love
affair, she was then not fully grown, and her slight
figure, thin face and brown, sharp eyes were not at
all attractive. A handsome, black-haired Danish
- pilot, who every year was for some weeks at Kolle-
fjord, had subdued her heart and also flirted a little
FLIGHT. 21
with her; but when it came to the point, he did
not care “to serve as second mate.” -
When Regina felt that by these words he had
made merry at her expense, she fell into a serious
illness, and was for many years, until she went to
Bergen, very reserved. There, as we have said, her
ambition was uppermost ; but in accordance with her
nature, in this, as in everything else, she drew too
strong a bow.
At that time a son of the sheriff Heggelund was
staying at the house. He was a student, and had
passed his second examination, but, as it appeared,
permitted the years to pass without further pursuing
the student’s path, and his father had therefore sent
him to his friend Brogelmann to learn business.
By this nothing was gained, for the student lacked
the necessary stability and interest, and spent his
time in fishing and sailing. He was a tall, thin,
fair-haired fellow, with a large, crooked nose, which
lent a certain air of distinction to his face. He was
treated with the greatest consideration by everybody
in the house, almost as a guest. Many predicted
that in the end he and the daughter would make a
match: it was believed that Regina desired it, and
therefore it would have to be so. .
At such a trading-post, in those times, there were
often one or more foolish persons, considered as a
kind of clowns, who were permitted to do preposterous
22 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
things, give silly replies, or play all sorts of practical
jokes. Especially was the steaming drinking-bout on
Christmas a real trial to such a man, who, after having
been the butt of the whole evening, at last became
drunk, and often awakened in the strangest attire.
The poor foolish Big Lars, who, as we said before,
had come into Brogelmann’s service, began gradually
to play this sad role. His odd manners and increas-
ing insensibility to his surroundings invited the others
to try their wits on him. In the beginning it was
so much the more interesting, as they did not feel
quite sure how far it was safe to venture with this
strong man. It was apparent, however, that the
prospect of a glass of brandy might urge things on
still more, and at Christmas he would go about in a
paper hat, with bare breast and wooden sword. He
created great amusement when, with his heavy, pale
features, and his dead, introspective look, he stood
at the end of the table and made grimaces over his
glass before he drank, or when he repeated the per-
formance sitting on the great oil-barrel, which they
had induced him to bear in to the table as an evi-
dence of his strength, and which he afterward again
threw up on his shoulder and returned to the store-
house.
There was continuous laughter for a whole year
after Big Lars and Per Plads managed to be cap-
sized on a dead calm sea on a summer's day.
FLIGHT. 23
Long-legged Anders Hind, at the lensmand's, who,
because of his height, went by the name of Giraffe,
had one day, when these two were about to go out
fishing, coaxed them into the warehouse; he had
there induced them to wager which could drink the
most brandy. They drank measure after measure to
an astonishing number, and then staggered down to
the boat, but were soon tired of rowing. As they
lay sleeping in the fierce sun, they gradually drifted
with the light breeze and stream far out to sea.
At last, in the afternoon, Per Plads awoke, looked
about, but could see nothing but the blue sea
on all sides. He roused his comrade, who, in his
sleepy stupor, was not less out of his head than
the other, and took the unlucky resolution to climb
up the mast that he might see land. The small
boat was not capable of bearing Big Lars’ heavy
weight above; it whipped over, and they both got
a cold bath, which they certainly needed.
There they sat in the calm, still day, and floated
on the upturned boat for several hours, until an-
other boat came and helped them to right their own
and empty it. This story of Big Lars' shipwreck
was repeated far and near.
After the daughter of the house came home, and
a finer style prevailed in everything, Big Lars' role
was more confined ; he was not permitted, even at
Christmas, to enter the family-room, and the jests
24 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Q.
were carried on mostly down in the servants' hall.
Thither Jon Zachariasen came into service when
he was twenty years old. He neither advanced nor
lost ground during the seven years he was there,
nor was he concerned about it either, until the slen-
der Marina, from Low Island, came there to work.
She was then nearly eighteen, and Jon twenty-
seven, but her merry, fine manners and good-hearted
smile charmed others in the house besides himself.
Jon was a strong, manly fellow, with clear, gray
eyes that one might trust, and a handsome but seri-
ous face. He was given the management of a boat,
was clever both in rowing and sailing, and besides
well remembered every place where he had once been,
so that he was always taken as captain. Though
not talkative, in his quiet way he and Marina soon
became good friends. On account of her good man-
ners and appearance—and perhaps, also, through
Stuwitz’ quiet influence — she had the prospect of
being advanced to housemaid when she had served
her second year in the kitchen. Every morning and
evening she found the water-tubs out on the porch
filled, and all the wood carried into the kitchen ;
and she had also let Jon know that she was very
thankful to him. But nothing occurred between
them until Christmas-time of the second year that
she had served in the house.
On Christmas day and evening the family and
FLIGHT. 25
servants ate, according to the old Norland custom,
in the same room, and on Christmas evening a curi-
ous scene was usually enacted : Six or eight men,
in their sea-coats and leather breeches, came as if
straight from the sea, bearing between them, to the
kitchen, a halibut, which, notwithstanding its size,
was always disproportionate to the great exertions
which it appeared to cause those bearing it, for they
laid the fish down every moment to rest themselves.
Halibut and veal are the standard Christmas dishes
in all good Norland houses, and, according to the
old custom, it was the men's duty to obtain the fish,
while the calf was provided by the milkmaid. Mean-
while, as it is far from probable that a large hali-
but will swallow a hook on Christmas-eve, it must,
as well as the fatted calf, be provided in advance.
Between men and maids there is carried on, for some
time before Christmas, an unusually eager strife to
frustrate each other in this. If they succeeded in
stealing the calf, the milkmaid was obliged to pass
Christmas-eve, in shame and disgrace, on the roof
of the barn; or, if the halibut were missing, the
boatmen were compelled to bestride the ridge of the
boat-house. And so much is thought of this, that
the milkmaid, on the previous Christmas, when she
lost the calf, felt that her own and the stable’s honor
were compromised to such a degree that the mistress
had great trouble in persuading her to remain longer
2
26 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
in their service, though she had escaped the igno-
miny of being placed on the roof of the stable.
Previous to the present Christmas-eve, the strife
waged hot; but Marina had lighted upon such a bril-
liant idea that the maids were almost presuming in
their security. She had put the calf in a chest, and
hidden it in a small boat which hung under the roof
of the boat-house.
Wherever else the men might look, it would not
readily occur to them to search on their own ground.
Unfortunately, the noon before Christmas Jon
missed the key to the boat-house, which the milk-
maid, contrary to Marina's advice, had kept, that she
might feel entirely safe. Jon Soon guessed that the
key, which always stood in the door, had been taken
away intentionally, and at dark Marina saw him open
the door with a crowbar.
Good advice was now dear.
When Jon had quite disappeared in the dark boat-
house, the quick-witted Marina hurried in after him
unobserved, if possible to get possession of the Christ-
mas chest and take it out before Jon, who was ap-
parently seeking it, should find it.
Jon fumbled and felt everywhere; he was as fa-
miliar with the interior, where he daily worked, as
with his own chest. He once thought he touched
something that moved off, and a moment after a
measuring-pole fell down. In the corner, between
FLIGHT. 27
the large ten-oared boat and the wall, his outstretched
hand felt a warm cheek, and now Marina was caught,
as well as the chest, with which she had hoped to steal
out. He held, at first with a tight grip, the hand
which grasped the handle of the chest, but after, when
he had recognized Marina, relaxed his hold. He felt
her warm breath upon his face, and his heart beat
harder and harder, right up, in his throat, so that he
could not say a word; the hand was so inexpressibly
nice that he could not think of letting it go, neither
did it try to get away. At last he said, Softly, and
abruptly :
“Since it is you, Marina, you can do what you will
with the chest. I shall not say a word.”
With a whispered “Thank you, Jon ; I know
well I can depend upon you,” she tried now to glide
past him, but between the large boat and the wall
the space was too narrow. Then Jon put his arms
about her, and said:
“Yes, even to the churchyard, Marina | *
Their cheeks touched each other for an instant,
whereupon Marina suddenly tore herself loose, and
ran up to the house.
Christmas-eve began, as usual, with religious ex-
ercises.
Old Brogelmann took out his horn spectacles and
read a chapter from the Bible, and also a Christmas
hymn, and that evening was ever afterward marked
28 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
in Jon’s remembrance as the most solemn and happy
of his life.
On the student's account, the Christmas-tree, with
the presents for all the servants, was in the parlor.
Jon got a porcelain pipe, with a woman’s face on it,
and three silver dollars wrapped in paper; Marina, a
large, fine shawl. By chance, they both advanced at
once to thank the master and mistress, and the manly
Jon was unusually awkward, and Marina unnaturally
red.
Not less bright in Jon’s memory ever after were
the days following Christmas. To Erick Spillemand's
fiddle and Per Plad’s clarionet, in the servants’ hall,
he danced the polka as gaily as if he had received
both house and land.
The boys and girls played games, and it fell about
naturally enough that they two paired off when they
played “slip the sloop.” They went round singing:
Now shall the yacht off to Bergen go,
What can we now as a cargo show?
Hight the man Irresolute from Rakinstad,
Hight the woman Tvorre-Marit Ligeglad.*
They had a daughter so fair and kind,
Where shall she this year a husband find?
Now shall the yacht off to Bergen bound,
For as a cargo we've our daughter found;
Rickety was the yacht so small from Villansstead,
Sail there was none, but a skirt was there instead;
Th’ mast, it was a twirling-stick turned upside down,
Th’ helm—you will find it ere you get to town.
* Twirlingstick-Marit Don’t Care.
FLIGHT. 29
Fresh now the winds south to Bergen blow,
Husband, dear, mine, the way do you know?
Steer, then, your yacht by the skerries all;
Keep where it's shallowest your boat so small,
Turn so the wind ever blows from behind,
Thus you'll be sure that your way you'll find.
Speeded the yacht then to Bergen in,
On the deck sat his daughter, the fairest queen;
Bright as the sun she on the city shone,—
Scores and scores of merchants bowed to her alone;
Merchant the proudest in Bergen town,
He shall this year for her own be found.
At the end of the last verse, those standing oppo-
site paired off.
Only one evening was Jon gloomy, because he
suspected that the student was down in the servants'
hall, on Marina's account. Contrary to his accus-
tomed good humor, his eyes grew wilder, and he
surely would have acted rashly by carrying out his
plan of pushing the student out the door, and himself
from his situation, had not Marina chosen him for a
partner, and quieted him by whispering that he must
remember “what was best for both of them.”
The same evening, out on the porch, Jon took
her promise for life, and sealed it with a warm kiss.
When, on the twentieth day of the festivities, Christ-
mas was to be danced out, Jón led the “long dance”
So well that it was for a long time talked about.
In a long line, some of the foremost, dressed as
Christmas gºats, led the company through the rooms,
with the spillemand (fiddler) at their head. In the par-
30 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
lor, they passed before Brogelmann, his wife and daugh-
ter, who, with several guests, according to custom, re-
ceived their burlesque greetings. The “long dance”
ended out in the court-yard, where, as a rule, the
last in line are violently thrown in turning. This
depends much on the participants' power and dex-
terity. This time it was the student who, in exuber-
ant mirth, had caught hold at the end of the line,
and was thrown into the snow-bank.
It was not long, however, before Jon found his
happiness somewhat insecure, and his existence al-
most a hell.
Not only the salesman, Thor Stuwitz, who was
past thirty, but the student, also, now began to set
their traps for Marina. Stuwitz forced upon her
presents of all sorts, which she dared not refuse, but
of which she honestly told her furious but somewhat
discouraged lover. They both felt that a greedy
hawk circled above their love, and that they were
battling with a storm which would trouble a larger
craft than theirs to weather. The worst was, she
noticed that the salesman was helped by those home
at Lov Island. Neither Jon nor Marina possessed
anything, they must both exert themselves, and
Jon must still work hard for several years. These
plans could only too easily be destroyed by those
inimical to them. It only needed an evil report to
the master and mistress.
FLIGHT. 31
Jon was at this time very silent and reserved.
One evening, when he was unusually sad, she made *
him so happy that his broad face glowed. Amid
tears of indignation, she excitedly proposed that on
their wedding-day they should collect all the ker-
chiefs and presents she was obliged to accept, tie
them up in a knot with a stone, and sink them in
the fjord, she had, she said, shed salt tears enough
over them. -
One Sunday afternoon, toward spring, as Jon Sat
in the door of the boat-house, near the windlass, mus.
ing over his pipe, Marina, quite pale, came to him.
She told him that while the others in the forenoon
were absent at church,-Jon had himself rowed the
church-boat, the salesman had declared his love for
her, which she had rejected on the spot. The big
one-eyed fellow, so powerful with their master and
mistress, had at last taken this occasion to lay his
heart at her feet. His desire was that they should
be secretly engaged for a year, and that they then
should move to Olsvaag, where he had the prospect
of buying the shop and adjacent fishing accessories
at a low price when it was put up at auction. In
the eagerness of his love, he blurted out that he had
laid aside more than any one knew, and the coming
year, he flattered himself, would not make him any
the poorer.
His astonishment at the poor servant-girl’s abrupt
32 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
refusal of his brilliant offer was written on his face,
and he grew to have the look of a wild animal as
he gazed upon her. But as she stood there modestly,
with her hands folded over her white Sunday apron,
and flushed with the fear of the moment, he could
read so true and simple a “No,” that he perceived
there was nothing more to be said for the present.
A little later he again came to the servants’ hall,
when Marina sat alone, and with great unction and
decision explained to her how honorable his offer
was for her, and how it would gladden her poor old
father; she was, besides, indebted to him for helping
her on in the service and favor of that great house.
When her quiet bearing and ready replies meanwhile
gave him the same impression as before, his varnished
good nature was suddenly swept from his face. The
girl felt her knees tremble as he fixed his look upon
her, as if surprised that such a little thing, whom he
could, if he would, crush under his boot-heel, dared
to oppose him. Quite contrary to his customary slow
manner, he violently and angrily lifted the latch,
turning at the door to say, with a threatening look,
that he understood very well that the student had
put flies into her head, but that he would know
how to put a stop to improper conduct in that
house. A worthy girl would not forfeit a good fu-
ture when it was offered her, and she ought besides
(he said, slowly and significantly,) to think well before
FLIGHT. 33
she made him her enemy. With these words, which
signified that he should still wait for her to consider
the matter, he closed the door after him.
These were not pleasant tidings for Jon, and it
grew still darker when Marina, a few days after, was
called into the parlor and given warning of dismissal
in the fall.
The crisis had now come, and good advice was dear.
The salesman hoped that she, pressed by need,
would at last yield, and Jon Zachariasen puffed furi-
ously at his porcelain pipe, with its portrait of a fine
lady, which, despite its very different features, and
the fine dress of a princess, he fancied resembled
Marina. They had the same slender throat, and as
both had light hair, the happy illusion was complete,
and a great comfort to Jon. In his lonely hours he
sat and puffed the smoke about his Marina's face,
and fancied that he talked with her as he speculated
on what he should do. -
His plans were at last formed. Late one night,
after all were in bed, he imparted them to the real
Marina out in the wood-shed, and the following day
found him, in his brown wadmel Sunday clothes, and
glazed hat in hand, in the office of old Brogelmann.
He would pray “his father” to release him imme-
diately, and give him the promise of his good will
on leaving his service, as he had now something to
do on his own account.
34 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Brogelmann was, as we have said, a kind man,
and Jon Zachariasen received his permission, with a
good recommendation and a balance of twenty-one
species, as well as an old leaky twelve-oared boat,
considered worthless as it lay on the strand, and the
tattered sails in the boat-house, which Jon begged
“his father” to give him as a small present, in con-
sideration of the seven years he had served him.
Big Lars also asked to be dismissed from service
the same day. He had, after his own fashion, at-
tached himself to Jon, who was the only person
who did not mock him.
Jon spent the next fourteen days of the spring
in repairing his boat; and then he and Big Lars
started early one morning, before any one was up.
Jon had with him some fishing tackle, besides the
few tools and sea-clothes which he owned,—among
them a saw and axe, as well as a box of nails and
provisions for a long absence. As the strong, dark-
haired fellow, in his pointed red cap and sea-clothes,
came out into the bay, which lay calm, rippled here
and there by the morning breeze, the sun rose over
the mountain, and cast its light upon a girl who
stood on the landing. It was a bright omen for
their coming life.
Those were empty and desolate days for Marina.
Jon was absent, and the salesman lay in wait for
her, as for a bird he now hoped to ensnare. The
FLIGHT.’ 35
student’s courtship was really fortunate for the lovers,
as through him the salesman’s misguided attention
was led away from Jon, whom he entirely disre-
garded. Stuwitz, for that matter, would willingly
have trusted him to carry his love-letters if he had
been at home. --
Five months after, late in the autumn, Jon and
Big Lars came sailing before a brisk breeze one day
with a boat full laden with dried fish. In his sailor
dress Jon walked, dragging a large fresh codfish, which
he held by the gills, after him into the shop, where,
according to custom, he threw the fish upon the
counter, and asked for a dram in exchange, and later
for an estimate on the fish he had in his boat. He
promised very soon to bring more fish which still lay
drying on the flakes at home. He needed ready
money to buy a new boat, among other things, as
the one he sailed with, he gaily said, was only fit
for those who could “ tread water.” On that account,
also, some of his fish had been wet on the way, and
lessened in value.
Later in the evening he succeeded in speaking
with Marina, who greeted him, laughing and crying
at the same time, as she told him that she had seen
him land, and from that moment had scarcely known
what she was about, but in many things had done
her work quite wrong.
As soon as she had talked with Jon, and heard
36 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
how good their prospects were, her face resumed the
Same peaceful, happy look it had lacked during all
the sorrow and doubt which she had suffered for so
long a time.
During the next fortnight Jon came with two
full boat-loads of fish. When he had delivered all
his cargo he was paid fifty specie dollars, twenty of
which went at once to buy a better boat.
One morning the two went, dressed in their best
clothes, to the office, and told Brogelmann how it
all stood, that they were betrothed, and thought of
marrying that same fall,—as soon as the priest could
bid the banns,— but that they were afraid of the
salesman, who, on becoming informed of their inten-
tions, would put hindrances in their way in Marina's
home. Brogelmann sat and reflected for some time,
but gave them no answer, only charging them, as
he dismissed them, to be very careful, as their plan
was not known or suspected by any one; and from
this advice they took hope.
The next day he sent Jon with a sealed letter
to the sheriff, which contained a request for a mar-
riage license. Two days later, he himself went to
the priest's house, and the next Sunday—it was the
very day before the fall moving-day—much to the
surprise of all, more especially to Stuwitz, they were
married in church, and thence went straight south,
in their boat, to their new home on Skorpen. But
FLIGHT. 37
from that hour they had Stuwitz's unceasing hatred
and persecution, both because of the unusual beauty
and comeliness of the girl, and because his security
from the consequences of a possible discovery of the
facts concerning Marina's birth was at stake.
It was Jon’s secret that he had once discovered a
beautiful little fishing-ground south of Skorpen, on one
of his expeditions to Low Island, and he remembered
seeing the remains of a shipwreck not far from there.
In his leisure moments, when he was weighing the
pros and the cons of his case, he united the two
facts in his head, and, with the aid of Big Lars, had
that summer managed to build a little hut on Skor-
pen, close to the fishing-ground.
It was late in the autumn, on their wedding-day,
when the two and Big Lars, having with them the
little they owned, and some Christmas food which
they found in the boat, well knowing whence it came,
sailed away south to their new home.
Midway on the fjord, the first day, something hap-
pened which Big Lars puzzled his brains about for
many years. Marina gave Jon a bundle, which they
first opened,—so that Lars plainly saw several silk
handkerchiefs, and afterward tied it up again tight
with a heavy stone in the knot. They then took it,
each with one hand, and dropped it over the side of
the boat, with much laughter and delight.
As Big Lars was apparently racking his brains
38 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
over what had happened, Jon told him, with apparent
gravity, that it was only Thor Stuwitz and a student
from Christiania, who had gone to the bottom with a
stone tied to their necks,—a witticism which Marina's
Smiling face showed she keenly appreciated, but which
left Lars no wiser than before.
As a conclusion to his meditations, he asked Ma-
rina, who sat in the stern with Jon, to hand him the
beer-mug. He then raised his heavy person in the
boat, and drank a health to both of them, wishing
them “smooth sailing in all waters.”
It came to pass, as had been predicted, in that
Brogelmann’s daughter, not long after, was betrothed
to the student Heggelund.
Old Brogelmann now withdrew more than ever
from his business in the north. A few years before
his death he bought his son-in-law a trading-post far-
ther south, in M
tion, he gave him his full power of attorney to con-
duct his business, and to be the real managing head
of the firm. This was a moral obligation which
Heggelund sustained to his prudent father-in-law,
living with the latter his whole life through, under
a sort of secret supervision, which was oppressive
enough to him; but he lacked character, and, as his
condition evidenced later, also the necessary insight
Sound. As his marriage por-
into his own business affairs, to cast it off.
CHAPTER III.
SALVATION FISHING-GROUND.
YEAR had passed since Brogelmann’s time,
and his daughter, married to Heggelund, now
Sound.
Jon Zachariasen and his wife had gained a step
presided over her large house down at M
in life. They had trudged on patiently through good
and ill, and now had several children. Jon’s cabin
lay on the brow of the cliff over the sea, at the en-
trance of a mountain ravine which traversed the nar-
rowest part of the rocky island Skorpen. If the
mountain, in the early morning of time, had been fis-
sured a few feet deeper, the crevice would have formed
a natural canal between the sea and the small sound
inside which separated Skorpen from the mainland.
The stream bears the name of “The Corners,” because
it winds itself in capricious turns among the many
rocks and holms, so that from below one cannot see
the outlet into the bay, and the mountain is for a long
distance up clothed with friendly grass-plots and folif-
erous trees. Sea-birds build their nests on all the
Small islets in the intricate channel, where the water
is always clear and still for their young to dive about
in. In such a spot a shot is reluctantly fired, and
te 39
40 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
therefore the eider-ducks had made their nests in
quiet security under the very steps and walls of Jon
Zachariasen's house, in his boat-house and sheds. The
birds, eider-ducks, red-legged oyster-catchers, herons,
black guillemots, gulls and cormorants, with and with-
out cause, would many times a day fly suddenly into
the air together and fill the place with a fearful screech-
ing and cawing. On account of the fishing-ground
outside, Jon had been forced to leave the more shel-
tered spot and place his house on the open side,
scarcely a rifle-shot from the white, billowing sea.
He had chosen the spot for his nest with the same
instinct that the sea-birds choose theirs: he would
avoid two powerful enemies — the northwest storm
and the snow-fogs which, in winter, accompany it.
The wind would carry the snow over that side of the
glen under which the house lay; thus the road, even
in the worst weather, was always passable to the sea
in the lee of the mountain-wall. The small, sloping
patch of earth about it had been laboriously borne
hither from other parts of the island, and it could
readily be seen that the house, as it stood there with
its back wall aslant, leaning against the mountain,
was the remnant of an old ship's cabin, with enlarge-
ments added as there was need. Under the sloping
roof, with its golden dandelions, the small, green port-
holes projected like a pair of eyes half blinded by the
splashings of the sea, deep sunk under a brow over-
SALVATION FISHING-GROUND. 41
grown with hair, and the path, which ascended from
the moss-grown landing-place up over the stones to
the house, might remind one of a gangway. Directly
under, on the shore, stood the gray boat-house, with
its roof covered with birch-bark and heavy stones out-
side to protect it from the storm.
On account of the part it had played in their lives,
Jon and Marina called their fishing-ground “Salva-
tion,”—a name which it still bears on official sea-charts.
A chart-maker or seaman, who, on a stormy night,
measures thereon with his compass to keep a proper
distance from the dangerous reefs, would listen surely
with an incredulous smile to the declaration that the
vessel, which, to judge by the name of the place, had
once upon a time been saved here from shipwreck,
was so airy a thing as two young people's barque
of love.
And yet, perhaps, with the various remarkable
names given to the innumerable points, rocks and
islands along our coast, are connected many affecting
stories, even less credible, of the unobserved peasant
life about us. That gray promontory, whose name
will never be washed away, still stands as a monu-
ment of this long-forgotten circumstance; as with
many others in the saga of that race whose foot-
prints remain, and will always remain, upon our
weather-beaten coast.
The “Salvation” grounds, which consisted of
2%
42 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
three shoals of varying depths, lying in line one
after the other, was but a five-miles’ row. From the
house, those who were at home (and these were now
Marina and her three surviving children, a boy and
girl our Heavenly Father had taken to Himself) could
see the boat, when the father and Big Lars, as usual
morning and evening, lay out there fishing, drawing
in the lines, or cleaning fish on the skerry, whose
low ridge otherwise was usually covered with great
gulls and other sea-birds, sitting in rows watching
for the refuse from the codfish.
In summer, Marina and the children were some-
times with them, for amusement; but during the
first years of their marriage, while they were still
very poor, the young Marina had been obliged,
while Jon lay sick the half of two successive years,
and Stuwitz refused them credit, to fill the second
place in the boat, and in sea-clothes to go splash-
ing about in all sorts of weather. Marina's favorite
place, on summer evenings, was in the open door.
When the sun set, in its unspeakable glory, in the
great gold and purple sea, it seemed as if Jon was
half in heaven. She was wont to seat herself on the
threshold on Such evenings, softly singing to herself,
with her knitting or other work in hand, while the
children played on the steps before her.
Her daily anxiety was for the sudden squalls
from the black clefts of the great mountain on
SALVATION FISHING-GROUND. 43
the mainland,-for the greedy whirlpools, and the
deceptive shoals, which would often shift without
warning on the calmest day. And then there were
Jon's hard trips at Christmas-time, with his dried
fish, to the trader in Sorstrommen. There was a
harder sea thither than to Heggelund, in M-
Sound; but unless forced, they would not apply there
since the year when Stuwitz had refused them credit
at the shop. Stuwitz also sorted the fish unjustly
and lowered the price.
In the boat, which Jon and Big Lars rowed, there
was now nearly always a third person, who, small as
he was, already did service in baiting the hooks.
He was the delight of the house, this curly,
golden-haired, lively little Morten. Always merry,
whistling and willing, he had ever something on
hand,-small fish-dams, bird-snares, and many rare
things which he himself invented. Skorp Island, with
its strange winding entrance over shallows and be-
tween the holms, together with its fishing-ground
outside at sea, was his world. He guessed to a dot
where the flounders lay when he was out to spear
them; knew every sea-bird’s habits and ways, and
knew each one among them which had been hatched
upon the skerry, and which later every year came in
to its old nest, to depart later in the summer, taking
its young flock with it. When the birds of passage
came, bound for Finmark, many rare fowl lighted on
44 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the rocks, among which the fighting reeves seemed
to him the most remarkable, and he pondered much
over the land whence these came. The song-swan
was there also, which he insisted was the most beauti-
ful of all birds.
He was eleven years old the first time he went to
church at Sandeid and saw the peasants assembled.
He noticed many things. The church had three en-
trances, through which one company after another
moved slowly in and seated themselves in rank and
file back of each other, just like the sea-birds on the
skerry at home, the dark menfolk on the one side,
and the light womenfolk, with linen hoods or ker-
chiefs, on the other side. He was almost certain,
when the codfish came, the whole flock would sud-
denly fly up, screeching, as at home. But later, he
had an eye only for the stately Mrs. Heggelund, who,
in her silk dress, with a heavy gold chain about her
neck, sat just below the pulpit, and held a little girl
upon her lap, who laughed and pointed her finger at
him. When he came home he received, for the first
time in his life, a serious punishment. He had erected
a pulpit of stone, and got his two sisters to act as
congregation, while he baptized the lamb and the pig,
and mimicked the priest. A warm box of the ear
from his father's heavy hand put a stop suddenly to
the solemnity, and subsequently he received a severe
whipping.
SALVATION FISHING-GROUND. 45
It often happened in summer that Morten, accom-
panied by Big Lars alone, went to the fishing-ground
to draw the lines, or to fish. The giant usually kept
silence, while Morten, in his father's large woolen
jacket, and red pointed cap on his head, wondered
in secret over many things, and counted the Norland
ships which, in summer and autumn, sailed slowly
past, with large, broad sail, and cargo of fish stowed
high up against the mast. He had already at an
early age begun to read, with Marina for a teacher.
The first letters he learned were the big broken
ones carved in relief on the beam nearest the roof
in their smoked, narrow room ; there still remained
traces of tarnished gilding on some of them. The
end of the beam was broken off, but collectively the
letters formed the word “Future,” and Marina told
him that the future lay in God’s own hand. He was
now studying the catechism, and often lay in the
stern of the boat and read his lesson, with his fish-
line fastened to the oar-pin, a thing he was not
permitted to do when his father was along.
One lovely midsummer night they were out on
the fishing-ground. At sunset, twelve of the clock,
the midnight orb lay, after a glorious, brilliant de-
scent, like a spent red ball on the western horizon,
while the great swells rolled violet as far out as the
eye could see. A little after, the sun kindled again
with a glory of straight-shooting rays, followed by the
46 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
morning red, which raised cloud-pillars of gold be.
tween sea and sky. The flame-like waves licked the
boat, in which the two silent fishers sat mirrored in
the water below; at the same moment Big Lars drew
in a beautiful red perch.
When he had taken it in over the gunwales, he
suddenly asked Morten if it was written in his book
that this sort of red fish was best liked by mermen.
Morten started, and was obliged to acknowledge
that this was not affirmed in the catechism, so far
as he had read. Lars explained to him that the eyes
were always sprung from the head when it came up,
because the mer-king pressed the life out of it as
soon as it bit the hook.
In this way the ice was broken, once for all, for
a long series of communications of this sort, always
ending in the marvelous. . As they lay out on the
fishing-ground, Summer evenings, and drew in the
golden-red brown codfish, or now and then a ling
or halibut, Morten learned much that he had not
heard of before. Lars taught him that every sort of
fish had its king, or leader, which it was a bad omen
to catch. There were salmon, coalfish and mackerel
kings, with crowns on their heads, and the king of
the codfish. The latter was not so dangerous, for it
was often taken. Out of respect, it was never split
open down the belly, but down the back; it was
delivered “round,” and the head and entrails allowed
SALVATION FISHING-GROUND. 47
Pºw
in weight. There was also a sea-monster, called the
kragen, which was as large as a whole island, and
which sometimes, in calm weather, came to the sur-
face of the water, and the surf broke about it as
against a rock. Experienced people could tell if the
boat and lines were lying over it; fish were always
plenty there, but when it became threatening they
were obliged to row. Lars declared solemnly that he
had often been out after it, up in Finmark Sea.
Morten pondered much over this; he thought they
might catch the kragen if they would put out a great
chain from the mountain, with a ship's anchor for a
hook, and suitable bait on it.
At this time a rumor had long been in circula-
tion, over all Norland, that a remarkable new ship
would show herself there. It would go without sail,
with only smoke and wheel; and one summer it was
seen steaming past Skorp Island. Some time after,
Morten made a wheel-boat which he could drive by
a lever, but the father’s old twelve-oared boat, which
had been taken for this purpose, went much better
with the oars than with this machine, which was only
for Sunday amusement. Marina was quite proud of
the invention, but Jon thought less of it because of
people's criticism, and there was no speed in it either.
CHAPTER TV.
FINN CORNER.
ON ZACHARIASEN'S nearest neighbor lived
on Finn Point, down at Finn Corner. The inac-
cessible, wooded interior of Skorp Island is penetrated
by a narrow but deep sound nearly opposite the
naked, black mountain-wall on the mainland. On a
promontory which Skorp Island forms here, and
which is called Finn Point, stood, at that time, only
a single hut, built by a Kven. The steep, grass-grown
bank on that spot was, moreover, the only place in
the sound where a house could have been built.
There lived the Kven in his little mud hut. Some
branches formed the framework of the roof, which
blackened the wall of the cliff behind with its smoke;
and döwn on the strand lay a couple of cross-bars,
which served to hold the boats. His wife was a Finn-
Lapp, and when in Summer her people, on their yearly *
removal to and from Sweden, swam their reindeer
across the sound to graze on the island, they crossed
the strand close under the Kven’s hut, and up over
the steep paths which led into the island’s high flats
in its interior. The place being fitted by nature to
their needs, the neighborhood of the Kven's home was
48
FINN CORNER. 49
a prescriptive resting-place for the Finns, who, during
the time they remained on Skorp Island, raised their
six or eight journeying tents. This plot of ground,
therefore, from time immemorial, has borne the name
of the Finn's Corner, probably because of the winding
stream in the vicinity. The custom of resting here
was kept up even after the hut was deserted and the
place otherwise rebuilt.
The Kven, a strong, active fellow with light hair
and blue eyes, could not, on the whole, thrive in
his life with the Finns, from whom he had taken his §
wife. On one of his trips with them he had found
this convenient spot for settling himself permanently,
or, as they say in Norland, become a “husbandman.”
In summer, there was good home fishing, and in
winter he rowed to the great fishery. The patches
of earth about the house supplied a few potatoes, and
fed some sheep and a cow. They also stripped the
branches of the trees up on the slope, and his wife
in winter cut the sea-weed off the rocks for the cow.
As often as their parents came, they also gladly left,
as thanks for their abode, a reindeer for meat, some
skins for winter wear and shoes, some dried quarters
of reindeer, a little linen thread, and other things
which they thought might be of use in the house.
The summer day when their Finn dog “Musti”
(i.e. black), with its pointed ears, suddenly rushed
frantically up the height whining, and then back to
- 3
50 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the hut, running to and fro on the top, and standing
still for a time barking in wild frenzy, was also a
holiday for the family, but a double one for the
Finn's daughter, who silently suffered with longing
for her own people.
When they were seen coming down from Mork-
nas cliff, on the other side of the sound, the Kven
at once set out with his boat to fetch them over;
and for fear of his swimming out and frightening the
deer prematurely, they were obliged to hold Musti,
who, mad with joy, helped his comrade “Sjorris,”
and the other Finn dogs, to drive the deer across the
strand. And in the embrace and answering greet-
ing, “God give,” with which the Kven’s wife, in
Finnish custom, made her parents welcome to the
house, lay a whole year's longing for home. First
they unloaded the large bucks, which, led by the old
Finn himself, his wife and eldest daughter, carried
the tents and chattels, and the baskets, in which a
couple of grandchildren lay, wrapped in skins, sleep-
ing or eating, as comfortable and warm as any noble-
man’s child in its cradle. The crippled little old
great-grandfather, over one hundred years old, whose
rheumy eyes were blind, and who had lived during
“seven kings' reign,” was led into the Kven’s hut,
and given the seat of honor, which he seldom left
during the whole time, except on a bright day to
rock himself in the sun. He would stroke his grand-
FINN corn ER. 51
daughter's face with his hands, and always inquire
immediately after the news. He was, as a few old
Finns still were at that time, unconverted, and would
die in his forefathers' faith. When they came one
year without him, they told that he had died, and
at his request had been wrapped in birch-bark, and
buried under his upturned sled in a heap of stones
on a mountain waste.
An hour after the leaders, came the entire herd,
in three divisions, guarded by the daughters and
Sons-in-law and servants, surrounded by a crowd of
dogs, which sprang and jumped down the strand,
now swimming out after an animal, now shaking the
water off, earnest in their duty of keeping the deer
together.
For this summer month the Kven’s wife was again
a Finn girl in her parent's tent, and Musti a Finn
dog. She was happy in teaching her daughters all
a Finnish woman’s duty.
The Kven looked quietly on. He was fond of
his wife, whose mild disposition was the opposite of
his own. He knew that it was her nature, and that
it must have vent.
The old bucks, now free, grazed without watch-
ers on the height, while the rest of the flock, more
quiet, kept together below, feeding on the patches of
moss lower down on the plain, and always instinct-
ively snuffing the wind. Down on the wooded
52 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
slopes, where the rank fern grass in many spots
concealed the body of the deer, they could be seen
only on days when the sea-fog wrapped the mountain-
tops in their fleecy-gray, impenetrable cloud-caps.
Then they met there the Swarming, screeching sea-
gulls, flying inland from the storm and fog.
But sooner or later — always sooner than they
expected—came the parting-day, which the daugh-
ter, living only in the present, like all her people,
put off all thought of as long as possible. The deer
were first brought together, and the next day crossed
the sound following the boat, back of which the bell-
deer swam, held with cords by the old Finn, while
the heads of the rest of the flock in a long line
emerged from the water like branches of trees.
And now they must say farewell. There was a
tearful embrace for every one,—the old parents last.
The Kven’s wife laid her eldest daughter and the
little one, born to her after many years, on her par-
ent's breast, with the Finnish words of leave-taking,
“Peace be with you,” tremblingly and almost de-
spairingly uttered on her part. She scarcely spoke
for two or three days after, or until she was fairly
established again in her old mode of life.
The Kven bore with her patiently; for he knew
by experience that the poignancy of her grief would
soon wear off, and she would talk gaily of all that
had happened, and would happen the following year.
FINN CORNER. 53
In January, a few days before he was to leave
her to spend the gloomy winter without him, her
grief violently broke forth afresh.
The night before her husband went off to the
fishing-ground she slept very uneasily. She dreamed
that her dead great-grandfather stood by her bed,
and said that she was to go home again to her own
people. Then she seemed to follow him down to
the boat-landing, and there lay a coffin without a
lid, half full of water, tossing on the beach. He
said it was the boat in which they were to cross
the sound. When in her terror she tried to reach
her husband, whom she saw standing sorrowful in
the doorway, with their youngest daughter in his
arms, the old man seized her by the arm so violently
that she awoke with a scream.
The stolid Kven is seldom superstitious, like the
Finns and Norlanders, and when she told the dream
to her husband he said that it was only a mare (a
nightmare); but in her own mind she felt sure that
it was a warning.
One cold winter day in March, the Kven’s wife
and her fourteen-year-old daughter, Lyma, went out
to one of the islands in the bay to collect sea-weed.
Only another daughter, five years old, and the dog
were left at home. While they were busy cutting
the sea-weed the mother happened to look up, and she
saw their boat slowly drifting away with the current.
54 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
It must have loosed itself from the slippery stone to
which it had been fastened.
For some time, sea-weed in one hand and knife
in the other, she stood petrified, gazing after the
boat. Then it became gradually evident to her that
they must face death just outside their own door,
within call of both child and dog, for there was no
mortal to help them.
So it went on until next morning. The half.
grown daughter spread her clothes over her mother,
who, in a stupor, and half covered with snow, lay
behind a rock on a bed of sea-weed, where they
had both spent the night trying to keep each other
warm. She was about to venture across the narrow
sound with the ebb tide,- and in the worst case
she could but perish in the attempt, when Marina
was seen rowing around the point in her little boat.
Like thousands of Norland women in the fishing
season, Marina remained at home with the children
while Jon and Big Lars were down in Lofoten, and
during those two or three months she had many
wakeful hours at night. During this night she fancied
she heard in the distance the howl of a dog, and could
not rid herself of the thought that something had
gone wrong at Finn Corner.
As soon as it was light she went over to the top
of a hill, on the other side of the island, where she
could see the Kven’s house. She saw distinctly,
FINN CORNER. 55
against the snow, the black dog, which was running
restlessly to and fro. This strengthened her forebod-
ings, and she started out at once in the little boat
which lay on the shore, and came in time. But
the mother was seized with a violent nervous fever,
through which Marina nursed her faithfully, and she
died two days after her husband came back from the
fisheries.
When Mathis Nutto's family returned to Skorpen,
the next summer, they met sorrow instead of joy.
It was arranged that the oldest daughter, Lyma,
should go with her grandparents; and a couple of
years after, the Kven married one of Nutto's other
daughters, “so that he might have a woman to look
after the house.”
The children of Jon Zachariasen and the Kven,
who now had two more by his second wife, looked
forward with equal delight to the month in summer
when Mathis Nutto's tents were pitched on the beach.
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were special holi-
days to them, for then the reindeer were brought
down to be milked.
After the warm summer day the sun was already
beginning to redden the mountain side, when the
first marching horns were seen outlined on the clear
sky, high up on the cliff. Soon after, two deer were
seen approaching. Then came a brown, moving mass
of deer, with the peculiar crackling sound of a hun.
56 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
dred hoofs, in a broad, steady stream through the
leafy thickets on the mountain-side. Around them
gamboled the barking dogs, amid encouraging or
angry cries from the keepers, gradually filling the
still evening air with shouts, noise and laughter from
great and small, all in a feverish bustle. The under-
sized people, with their soft language, square galloon-
trimmed summer caps, and their particolored, open-
breasted woolen dresses, edged with bright blue, red,
yellow or green,_suiting the strong summer light of
the north quite as well as similar gay colors do the
south, formed a peculiarly lively scene, and the
children felt as if they were in fairyland. -
At last, after some chasing, the reindeer were
brought down into the inclosure where they were to
be milked. Some of them lay quietly resting, while
others stood butting one another playfully with their
horns. The men threw their never-failing, lasso-like
leather cords, made of strips of reindeer skin, over the
heads of the struggling, terrified deer, which, after a
short contest, were led in and tied to the nearest
milking stake. Here, in the sunshine, stood the tall,
black-eyed Lyma, in her red cap with its gold band,
warm and eager at her work, and laughing at her
lover’s efforts. He was the broad-shouldered, pleas-
ant-faced Isak Pelto, who owned nine hundred rein-
deer, and she was to marry him next winter at Kar-
asuando, in Sweden, his winter home.
FINN CORNER. 57
Lyma always brought some small presents to Jon’s
children. She was particularly friendly with Morten,
the oldest, and had been so ever since the year that
she was saved from the rock and Marina nursed her
mother so tenderly. First she must pet her deer and
give it salt, and then milk it into her own little
bowl, while Morten stood beside her and drank the
rich, delicious milk, as good as cream.
Two hours after, all was completed, and the same
picturesque scene was repeated, but the shadows fell
longer in the thickets on the hill, and the deer hur.
ried up the mountain to their wonted resting-place on
the cliff— only the cries of men and barking of dogs
were heard in the distance in the quiet evening.
Afterward, great and small, the servants as well,
assembled in the twilight for another hour, to hear
stories and adventures. Mathis Nutto, who sat on a
log outside the tent, would take flint and steel from
his blue neckerchief, arranged to hold them, and strike
fire in his short, black pipe. He blew thick puffs
of smoke into the evening air, while old Silla sat
nodding with age, and told stories; now and then,
when she forgot herself and began to hum softly,
they had to rouse her.
One of the young men, Eddis by name, was consti-
tuted jester, and always led the merriment. Some
evenings they had joiken (short improvised songs),
Sometimes in honor of a special person, but often
58 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
also satirical. They sat squatting about in a circle,
and sang in chorus.
Then Morten heard about Silver Sara, who went
about on the mountain with a silver belt underneath
her cloak. She had a runic-box, and could “weave
charms.” This and many other stories fascinated the
boy, and life in Finn Corner always seemed like a
fairy-tale to him.
The ever-busy Stuwitz had been casting longing
eyes on Finn Corner, he considering it a singularly
fine situation to establish a trading-post. It united, in
a rare degree, all the requisite conditions—a good.
harbor and a fishing-ground just outside, besides af.
fording a fine opportunity to unite all the Finnish
trade from the mainland, by traffic with the people
passing on their way to and from the fisheries.
The two families living on Skorpen had thus a
common enemy to fight.
Stuwitz felt that, by fair means or foul, he must
get rid of the present inhabitants, who occupied the
best spots on the island. But this was no easy mat-
ter, for many interests were here combined. He met
with stubborn resistance in Finn Corner. The Kven
was supported by Finns, who would not give up, for
any price, their ancestral resting-place and summer
pasture on Skorpen. Both Jon and Marina, who loved
their home and fishing-ground, evasively replied that
FINN CORNER. 59
they were determined to stay as long as the Kven re-
mained in Finn Corner, for the money that was of
fered them would not last long, and then they would
have to begin anew in another place. -
Stuwitz's next attempt was to buy the whole isl-
land; but this failed, because it was church property
and consecrated ground.
And now began, on his part, a series of persecu-
tions, such as a rich merchant could, in those days,
only too easily inaugurate against a poor man. He
bought up Jon’s debt for an outfit for the fisheries,
and levied an execution upon it. By the time the
sheriff's officers had entered the house and made a
levy and list of everything, the sum, with all the
many costs added, was doubled, and they had nothing
to look forward to but an auction sale.
Soon after came a summons both to them and to
the Kven at Finn Corner, to answer for some fish-nets
which had been spoiled for Stuwitz's boatmen down
in Stam Sound, and which the men in Jon’s boat and
her comrade boat, rowed by the Kven, were accused
of cutting off and carrying away.
The truth of the matter was that one day, the win-
ter before, they had cut part of a net bearing the
mark of Heggelund on the floats; but it was abso-
lutely necessary, as it often is at Sea, and they had
taken none of the net on board. Now Stuwitz's men
insisted that they had recognized a lot of ordinary
60 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
rope tied around the tiller in Jon’s boat. In such
cases, there are often to be found plenty of witnesses
to testify — not to the truth, but as others wish, until
it becomes serious and they are compelled to take
Oaths.
The whole thing would have been dropped, and
would never have been carried so far as to accuse
people of stealing, if Stuwitz had not been trying just
then, with all his might, to drive them away from
Skorpen. But Jon swore secretly that, even were
he left as destitute as the first day he came there,
he would not be driven either from his home or fish-
ing-ground, and Marina agreed with him. She said,
bravely, that help would come from Him who was
stronger than Stuwitz.
Heggelund was as ignorant of this matter as of all
else which concerned his business affairs: this and all
other matters were wholly controlled by Stuwitz.
&
CHAPTER V.
THE SEA FINN ISAR.
HE Sea Finn Isak, of Low Island, had never been
quiet in his mind since the night he had parted
from Corporal Stuwitz and his son in Busse Sound.
He perceived more and more, as the years advanced,
that by concealing the girl he had committed a far
greater sin, both against his conscience and the law,
than the one he had once feared punishment for,
namely, theft of the wrecked goods, and the prospect,
if the matter came up, of being undeservedly made
a party to the scuttling of the ship. He could not,
when it came to the point, prove what he knew
about Stuwitz; the latter needed only, as his father
had said, defiantly to deny it all. But Stuwitz had
sufficient evidence, in Marina herself, against him.
This, too, Stuwitz, on several occasions when they
met later, had given him to understand.
Isak had helped to influence Marina, at the time
that Stuwitz made her an offer of marriage at Bro-
gelmann’s, because of his fear; it seemed to him that
all danger would then be at an end. That Stuwitz
might have similar motives did not occur to him
with any clearness. He lived as under a constantly
61
62 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
threatening storm, which clouded all happiness for
him in this life, and gradually, as he grew weaker,
made him anxious also for the life to come. But
Stuwitz, the author of all this fear and heaviness, he
hated with all his heart, most deeply and profoundly,
with a sentiment which constantly increased with his
inability to retaliate.
Isak was now both old and weak; but he took
to his bed only when forced, for then his conscience
troubled him more. One fall he was laid up longer
than usual, and believed that he would not get well
again. He was then very much troubled, and sent
word to Marina that she must come before it was
too late, for it seemed that he could not again rally.
It was a long way northward, but there was a good
wind, and Marina set out immediately, accompanied
by Big Lars and Morten, while Jon remained at home
with the house.
When she arrived, Isak was a little better. Many
things were talked over between them at his bed-
side, and it was then disclosed that he was not her
real father. He could neither live nor die in peace,
he said, before he had received her forgiveness, and -
would confess to the priest when it was probable
his end was near. But she must promise him,
both for his own and his widowed sister’s sake, who
shared in the transaction, not to reveal the fact to
any human being, not even to her husband, (a clever
TEIE SEA FINN ISAK. 63
fellow, with whom he had so long been a companion
at the oars,) until he closed his eyes in death. The
breastpin that had fastened the shawl he now took
from a box and gave her.
Marina was quite overcome. When he prayed
for her forgiveness, she replied that it was so easy,
God be praised, to give him that, and her full heart’s
thanks besides; for otherwise she would not have
been rescued from the wreck, or found Jon, who was
more to her than all the riches of earth. There-
upon she went over and caressed her foster-mother,
who now, old and bent, sat weeping on the hearth.
When in the boat, on her homeward journey, Ma-
rina sat filled with manifold meditations; she some-
times gazed reflectively for a long time at Morten, as
if he were concerned with her thoughts. In old
Isak’s story, much of which she could not make fully
clear, there was one point which Sorely troubled her;
it was as if she there discerned a gleam of light—
why had Stuwitz wished to marry her at Brogel-
mann's' Had he feared discovery, or did he think
to win something by it? Marina felt a little san-
guine.
It weighed upon her, when she returned home,
that she had so solemnly promised not to take Jon
into the matter before her foster-father’s death.
As for old Isak, after he had lightened his heart
by confession he became stronger than he had known
64 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
himself for a long time. Stuwitz might do what he
would; he now felt that our Lord, at all events, would
not be shut out from his room.
Several years before, a mountain Finn, Mathis
Nutto, had once complained to him of being very
unfortunate. He had, as was the custom at that time
among the Finns, buried his money on the moun-
tain, in a stone heap near a holy spot — an altar, -
and, among the rest, four hundred rix dollars in pa-
per money. They were spoiled by lying, and he
had then gone to Tromso to change them at the
merchants’ for silver, but heard there—as often hap-
pened with the Finns — that they had long since
been called in. He had, he said, come by them in
trading with Stuwitz, for skins and reindeer, many
years before. Isak, at that time, hinted nothing to
Mathis of what he thought about the money.
Now, when it was reported how Stuwitz was per-
secuting the people on Skorp Island, and had be-
come inimical to the Nutto family, who had a rein-
deer pasturage there, this circumstance again occurred
to Isak, and a way seemed to open for him to strike
Stuwitz so that he might not suspect where the blow
came from. Mathis Nutto always spent the summer
on the mainland, and when Isak once passed the
Finn's tent, apparently on business, he introduced
the matter.
The Finn's eyes lighted when Isak told him there
THE SEA FINN ISAK. * 65
was a chance to get back his money again, if he, once
for all, would give his promise and oath not to
mention his name in connection with the matter,
under any circumstance. Without minutely going
into detail, Isak then confided to him that Stuwitz
would not like to have this money come before the
officials’ eyes. He should go straight to him him-
self and demand the exchange; if he refused, he
should immediately threaten him with going to the
sheriff, “as he knew very well the money was marked
by the authorities.” For this advice Isak asked noth-
ing but his silence.
After they had separated, Mathis sat on a log, as
was his custom, rubbing his cap to and fro on his
head, nodding and laughing to himself in heartfelt
admiration at Isak’s sharpness. Yes, the more he
thought it over, the better and surer seemed to him
the weapon Isak had placed in his hand, and it oc-
curred to him to use it a bit farther than Isak had
thought, to restrain Stuwitz from pursuing them
further at Finn Corner. He only needed, after the
exchange, to give Stuwitz to understand that he had
still some of the notes in reserve for use, in case the
former should in future trouble him or his.
But Isak could get no rest until he had been to
Dean Muller and lightened his heart by confession.
He went to him, for the latter had gained the confi-
dence of the peasants as no other priest had. Late or
3%
(36 * THE BARQUE FUTURE.
early, in all sorts of weather, or on untraveled roads,
one might meet the handsome, white-haired Dean, out
on his quiet, richly-blessed mission. In winter, one
usually met him in a home-made sled of Finnish
fashion, somewhat like a pulk (Finnish sledge). What
Isak acknowledged to him during his secret confes-
sion awakened in no slight degree the Dean’s atten-
tion. He was a good friend of Heggelund's, and
had often met Stuwitz there, whose person had never
pleased him. There was a disagreeable secretiveness
in the man’s manner, which, now that he had had this
glimpse into his life's history, he thought explained
itself.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SUMMER ASSIZES. BIG L.A.R.S.
Twice in the year, when the general court of
assizes for business and taxation was held at Heg-
gelund’s house down in M Sound, great ceremony
prevailed, and the peasants assembled from the whole
country around. The fjords outside swarmed with
boats full of Norlanders, in their pointed red woolen
caps, who came thronging the bay from all parts. The
mooring-places at the quay were soon all taken, and
the beach gradually filled clear across with rows of
stranded boats. Turned on one side, with their sail
for a wall in front, many served as improvised tents,
giving shelter for the night, while the coffee-kettles
steamed before them all day. Groups of chatting men
were always forming near the fireplaces built among %.
the rocks. The Norlanders in their glazed hats and
new, dark blue wadmel jackets, which stained their
hands and wristbands, formed the principal part of
the crowd; there were the large Kvens, dressed partly
in Norland and partly in Finnish costume; also a few
Finns. Among the latter was a strikingly well-formed
young Finn woman, in her handsome holiday summer
dress of green stuff, bordered with yellow galloon, and
67 e
68 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
a gold band about her red cap. A string of glass
beads crossed her handsome silk breastpiece, and about
her waist was a broad, richly-chased silver belt, from
which hung her knife and her sewing utensils. Sus-
pended by a cord about her shoulders she bore a bas-
ket ornamented with beads, in which her child lay.
It was Lyma and her relatives, who had come to the
court on account of the Kvens' suit, having been sum-
moned as a witness.
The rich Russian Wassilieff was also there, with two
ordinary Russians in his train. He came on account
of a deposition that was to be taken in reference to
one of his vessels, which had been wrecked, and was
Heggelund’s guest. In their long kaftans and high
turbans they moved about among the motley crowd,
from which snatches of Norse, Finnish, Kvenish and
Russian, blending, formed a veritable lingua franca
in their ears.
There were two landings in the place, one for the
peasants, leading to the shop and the warehouse, where
Stuwitz, all-powerful in business matters, resided, and
the other intended for guests, from which the path
led up to the garden, whose white lattice gate always
stood open. -
When the tall, spare, crooked-nosed Heggelund, in
black coat and stiff white neckcloth, big bright meer-
schaum pipe in hand, escorted a judge or sheriff, who
for the occasion was always dressed in glittering uni-
THE SUMMER ASSIZES
BIG LARS. 69
form, up the path to the house, the people, as was
the custom, stood with bared heads; and also when
the authorities went, twice a day, from the house to
the court-room to execute the law. As the district
attorney, on this occasion, was led up amid the sa-
lutes and raising of flags, the ponderous Wassilieff-
whose white waving beard covered his face so closely
that little but his brow, eyes and sharp aquiline nose
could be seen, suddenly dropped before him like a
falling tree. The old starower—as they called the faith-
ful Russians of the elder church — kissed the high au-
thority’s feet, after the Russian fashion,-a sign of honor
which the attorney strove to avoid as well as he could.
At this time there was free hospitality all the day
through in Heggelund’s house. At the festive din-
ner-table sat magistrates, attorneys, clerks, the Dean,
the minister and other guests, both numerous and
from many places.
After their coffee, the authorities returned again
to the court-room, where the witnesses were waiting,
and the bailiff’s clerks were collecting the taxes. One
or more cases were heard, and then the court was de-
clared closed for the day; for they had had a tedious
and busy forenoon. Then came supper, and the card-
tables were set out with toddy, ready-filled pipes, al-
lumettes and ivory counters, and they sat and played
until the chief magistrates retired to their rooms, leav-
ing the rest of the party to their own pleasure.
7() THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Now and then the sheriff was obliged to go out
and arrest one or more of the crowd who were dis-
orderly or fighting, and put them in the temporary
jail. It was said, one evening in the parlor, that Big
Lars had gone crazy, and tried to attack the Russian
Wassilieff. His madness had passed over, but, for
Safety’s sake, the sheriff sent him away.
Next morning, when the busy session of the court
was about to begin, players were still sitting at a
couple of the card-tables. The clerk — one of those
strange, rarely-gifted, tireless men, who are gradually
dying out — went without difficulty from the card-
table to his desk in the court-room below. He had
not closed his eyes the whole night, but, ever on the
alert, kept his pen going while one case followed the
other without cessation through the busy morning
and late into the afternoon.
The case of Jon Zachariasen and the Kven was
fixed for the last day. Morten, who accompanied his
father, had seen a great deal during the two previ-
ous days, and spent much time with Lyma and the
family of Mathis Nutto, his old Finnish friend. He
was still so inexperienced and young that the glories
of the shop dazzled his eyes. He did not enter, for
the one-eyed Stuwitz, with two assistants, were busy
back and forth inside. But greater happiness than
to be such a clerk — if there were only no Stuwitz
there — he could not imagine.
THE SUMMER ASSIZES — BIG LARS. 71
He was not present when Big Lars was arrested,
but looked on when he was put into the boat to be
taken home, and was permitted to throw him his
father's tobacco-box as a farewell greeting.
The third day the case of the Kven and Jon
Zachariasen came up for trial.
Jon was called first, and then the Kven. They
were both advised to confess and their punishment
should be lighter. Among the crowd, not far behind
his father, could be seen Morten’s bright, now fright-
ened face; and directly opposite Jon, on the bench
next the jurymen, sat Stuwitz, leaning forward, with
his hands clasped about his knees, listening atten
tively. To the exhortation for confession, Jon replied
that he was an honest man, and ventured to add, with
a long look at Stuwitz, that it would be well if every
one present could say the same with truth. Stuwitz
noticed the glance, which he evaded for a moment,
and read in it that he must beware of the fellow.
Now came the witnesses, one by one. During
their evidence the sweat streamed down Jon’s brown
face. Now and then he glanced sharply at Stuwitz,
who, either intentionally or accidentally, never looked
his way. At his side stood the Kven, silent and de-
fiant. None of the witnesses had heard anything
themselves, but each had been told by some other
person, whom they sometimes named.
The last witness was a pale man, on whom Stu-
72 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
witz constantly fixed his eyes silently and almost
threateningly. He declared, faintly and indistinctly,
that he had recognized the rope in Jon’s boat by a
mark on the float. They were on the point of taking
down this important piece of evidence, when Morten,
who had the whole time been breathlessly listening,
unconsciously cried out:
“Father! the boat-rope is fastened to the grapnel,
so they can see it; it is the one we got in Sorstrom.”
Then he ran out down to the boat, hauled up the
grapnel, and took the rope to the court-room.
When it was shown in court, the witness, ap-
parently bewildered by Stuwitz’s angry looks, and no
longer able to follow his directions, acknowledged
that the rope was the same that he had spoken of;
but it bore none of the mentioned marks, nor any
sign of its ever having belonged to a net.
The sheriff beckoned Morten to him, and, as all
would have done, stroked his yellow hair, and praised
him for having shown himself such a clever boy, and
finally gave him a new silver dollar.
As Stuwitz named other witnesses, the case was
adjourned, to be held after Christmas, just before the
fishing season, at the sheriff’s office.
During the afternoon, Stuwitz, who was then alone
in the shop, had a visit from old Mathis Nutto. He
took an old wallet, full of bank bills, from his breast
pocket, and picking out one of the bills, asked Stu-
THE SUMMER ASSIZES- BIG LARS. 73
witz to change it for him, meanwhile firmly hold-
ing the wallet in both hands, and refusing to approach
the counter, upon which he had placed the bill.
Stuwitz said that the bill was too old, and long since
had been taken up by the bank; but cold drops of
perspiration ran down his face, and he looked Strange-
ly pale when he thus replied.
The Finn now, in a louder voice and more threat-
eningly, said significantly, that if he desired everything
to go smoothly he had better be good enough to
change all the bills. When Stuwitz tried suddenly
to lock the shop door, the Finn quickly stepped in
his way. Stuwitz then disappeared into his count-
ing-room, and soon returned with a package of blue
and yellow notes, which he slowly counted out on
the desk, in exchange for those in the pocket-book.
But some of the notes, that Stuwitz eagerly sought
to obtain, the Finn kept, hastily thrusting them into
his bosom again and hurrying out.
It was afterward reported in Skorp Island that the
case against the Kven was recalled. No one could
suspect that this was Mathis Nutto's work; but Jon
felt it to be a great injustice that he should be left
alone to bear the blame.
For days after what had occurred at the summer
court, Big Tars was fidgety and feverishly restless.
He moved about filled with heavy thoughts, and as
4
74 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
if wearied of life. He would come home in the even-
ing from the fishing-grounds without having thrown
out his lines, and it was difficult to keep track of
him. &
One day, when Morten was out fishing with him,
they saw what is rarely seen in those parts— a Rus-
sian sloop.
Big Lars was again suddenly attacked with a fit
of madness. It was terrible to see him ; and when
he drew his knife, Morten thought that his life was
threatened, and held the seat up before him for pro-
tection ; but Lars only meant to cut loose the line
that held them. The giant then took the oars, and
rowed so fast, with long, steady strokes, straight
ahead, that the oars bent like willow saplings, and
the prow of the little boat was almost buried in the
sea. His bloodshot eyes gazed fixedly out from the
big pale face, set round with a thin grizzly-gray
beard. At last the great beads of perspiration broke
out on his forehead, and soon after he slackened his
rowing, as if relieved. They had come so near that
they could see that the boat was painted blue, and
could distinguish people on board her.
The giant sat for a long time still, leaning over
his oars. At last he heaved a heavy sigh, and looked
at Morten, who, quite pale, sat in the stern. There
was an expression of strange emotion on the strong
face; and when Morten looked at him sympathet-
THE SUMMER ASSIZES — BIG LARS. 75
ically, he yielded to the need he felt of speaking out,
although the young boy was scarcely old enough to
be his confidant.
“It was at the time,” he said, “when Russians not
only came to the towns of Finmark as now, but also
traded for rye meal and dried fish along the coast,
and there often lay a lodje (Russian vessel) in every
COVé.
“At a certain place, behind a promontory in the in-
terior of Varangerfjord, lived a Finnish widow. She
had a daughter as beautiful as “God’s sun.’” Here
he paused, and repeated, softly, in broken tones,
“beautiful as God’s sun.”
“In a cot not two miles off lived a fellow who
possessed only his two arms, but with them he could,
when he would, row as far as any three men, or keep
a twelve-oared boat against a head-wind. The two
loved each other.
“Then a Russian vessel came into the bay, and the
captain —his name was Wassilieff— saw that the
widow’s daughter was beautiful. But when he could
get her in no other way, he offered the mother seven
bags of rye meal and some Russian crash in exchange
for her daughter, and agreed to marry her in Russia.
“One day after, when they had raised anchor and
lay ready to sail, the mother and daughter were in-
vited to an entertainment on board, in the cabin.
Shortly after, the lodje, with her sails all spread on
76 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
her three masts, glided before a gentle breeze out of
the Sound. -
“When the mother sat alone in the boat, which
was laden with sacks of rye meal and crash, the boy,
who stood on the land, suspected something was
wrong. He took an iron bar with him in his boat,
and knew what he would do with it if the captain of
the lodje did not get his dues.
“He rowed and rowed — they were younger and
stronger strokes than those he took to-day. He kept
on through the whole day and the light night, too;
he could not feel his arms, which had long been
numb, but only rowed while the heavy vessel kept
steadily ahead. Once he saw her on deck, with her
arms out, as if she cried to him in anguish, but then
some one came from behind and violently pushed her
down into the cabin again.
“With the rising sun came the morning breeze,
and gave the lodje full speed. Then his rowing was
of no avail; but the boy Sat, as now, upon his oars,
looking after her until the vessel’s sails disappeared
beyond the horizon. For the daughter’s sake he did
not kill the mother, as he had intended to do on the
way home. He could work no more, and thought of
putting an end to himself, but the Counselor, who
for his good heart had lost all his money, saved him,
and got him into service at Brogelmann’s. -
“But two years after, a crazy woman, with a little
THE SUMMER ASSIZES — BIG LARS. 77
child on her arm, came on foot over the mountains
from Russia. She had wandered long. Once she
came home to her mother without the child. Then
she lay sick and in delirium, and when the boy spoke
with her she begged him, with a strange smile, to
keep on rowing and he would yet reach her. The
same night she wandered away over the mountains
again in her madness. *
“And now,” concluded Big Lars, with a weary
sigh, “I believe I have rowed as long as I can l’”
He could bear up no longer; ever more despond-
ent in mind, and less coherent in action, he took an
old leaky boat one day, after a land-storm, when the
sea was calm, and rowed out to the fishing-ground,
where he sat alone fishing. Suddenly those on land
saw the ground-swell rush like a mighty white-crested
sea-wall, and a little after break in foam, thundering
along the strand.
Later in the afternoon the floating remains of the
boat were washed up on the beach, but the body of
Big Lars was never found.
CHAPTER VII.
THE BREASTPIN.
ARINA was now a middle-aged woman, and
her hair slightly sprinkled with gray. But,
though browned from exposure, and no longer lithe,
a stranger would have been struck by her good fea-
tures and something out of the common in her figure,
and would have thought that she must have been
exceedingly handsome in her youth.
Jon, from being on in years, and perhaps, also,
from the unfortunate effect of his warm cap, was some-
what bald. The strong face, with its gray eyes, was
marked and weather-beaten as the skerry covered
with sea-weed, which the waves wash and the winds
bite. His broad-shouldered form was bent, and he
had the slouching gait which the Norland sailors
acquire in a life spent constantly in a boat.
One day, when Marina and the children were out
in the bright summer weather to fetch the hay from
another part of the island, Jon was searching the
large chest, where Marina's wedding-clothes also lay,
for some money he had put away in one corner. As
he felt across the bottom for a silver piece which had
concealed itself between the clothes, he found, to his
78
THE BREASTPIN. 79
astonishment, in the bridal cap, a bit of folded paper,
and in it a gold breastpin. Holding it to the light,
he read the initials T. S., and it occurred to him
soon after that the name could be none other than
Thor Stuwitz, who, before their marriage, had been
so devoted to Marina.
The morning's sun shone warmly in at the open
door, across the floor, upon the red-flowered chest,
and fell full upon Marina's painted initials, as Jon,
alone in the house, sat there, upon the edge of the
chest, in deep thought, with the breastpin before him.
He sat thus for an hour, and then another; his face
grew darker and darker, and at last became ashen
gray. He remembered their struggle to come together
in youth, and how he had trusted her as his God,
and their secret jubilee out on the fjord, after their
return from church, when they sunk the presents to
the bottom, and now, after all these years, that he
should find that there had been a lie between them
Jon Sat that day by the chest, and felt a part of
his life’s glory depart from him : he had not, then,
possessed her heart fully and entirely. For a time
he thought of speaking to her straight out about
the matter, but after he had pondered over it his
courage failed him, and at last he wrapped the orna-
ment again in the old paper and put it in its place
under the bridal cap.
Through the whole autumn he was gloomy and
80 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
silent, and Marina often secretly wondered what the
trouble was with him.
In midwinter Jon was on his way to the traders'
to sell their dried fish and buy his Christmas stores.
He was heavy at heart; for, dark as it was on all
sides, there was but little possibility of his gaining,
at that time, his accustomed credit for his expensive
outfit for the winter fisheries in February.
Since the day he sat on Marina's bridal chest all
things had not been so easy for him to bear as be-
fore. Morten was among the crew of five men in
the boat, Jon being captain, as usual. On start-
ing out, they had cast their nets in the sound and
drawn up a large shark, which had swallowed a cod
that had caught the bait just before.
Big Lars had once said that this betokened bad
weather, and his words were to be verified. -
During the forenoon squall after squall came down
from the mountains, increasing in violence, and it was
necessary to hoist or lower the sails incessantly.
The sailing was particularly dangerous through the
day, because the wind steadily moved eastward off
shore. They were obliged, in spite of the heavy
waves, to tack against the wind, with one gunwale
under water, if they were to avoid the open sea and
certain death. It was impossible to gain the lee of
the shore again.
The first and no slight sacrifice demanded was for
THE BREASTPIN. 81
each owner to throw half his fish overboard. The
chill air caused the spray to form an ever-increasing
sheet of ice over the boat, and it thereby became
heavier and more unmanageable. An added danger
appeared for a time as they came into a thick frost-
fog, which made them uncertain of their course. Jon,
therefore, stopped tacking and gave out her sail, think-
ing there was a possibility of their reaching Fuglo,
or at least of clearing the fog, which latter they for-
tunately succeeded in doing. But the sea drenched
everything, and the gale was so icy cold that they
could not count upon the boat, with her weight of
ice, being able to keep afloat through the night.
Morten, who had lynx eyes, insisted that he had
twice seen white breakers in the distance, right in
the tack of the sail, and shortly after the others also
thought they, too, saw them. It might, perhaps, be
Fuglo, but Jon, in his secret heart, thought it ten
times more likely to be breakers seething about some
reefs at sea.
The storm now suddenly veered to the northwest,
with squalls, so that a heavy swell kept breaking
astern of them, with full, fair wind. Now and then
a close fog came on ; heavy seas often washed both
in and out of the boat; the scoop was in constant
use, and the man at the prow had wet work. They
had now gotten their reckoning, and would be able to
gain Finholm —a deep-sea fishery belonging to Heg-
82 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
gelund, where there was a trading-post in the fish-
ing season. - -
Outside the shoals which Morten had seen, and
where the foamy breakers were suddenly dashed high
in air with the dark storm-waves, like smoking chim-
neys, they saw an upturned boat, with three men on
her keel beckoning for help. They could not hear
their cries against the wind. The foremost man in
Jon's boat was ready with a line, which he cast just
as a heavy sea brought them near. Unfortunately,
only the hindermost caught it and was drawn on
board, while the two others were in danger of being
driven onto the shoals.
Then Jon turned the rudder, and gave the word
of command, “About ship,” to the consternation of
those with him, who were, however, obliged to shift
the sail according to the rudder. They thought he
had no right to risk heading her against the wind.
The boat lurched, and the sea washed over her.
When he had her sufficiently about he let her fall
off again. He had determined to run his heavy, icy
boat straight over the keel of the other, and stand
his chance of colliding. He not only risked losing
his rudder, but of being cut through as well.
Jon chose his moment in a masterly way. Just
as his own boat rose and the other sank down in
the trough of the waves, he sent his ten-oared craft
straight over the keel, from which the unfortunate
THE BREASTPIN. 83
men were taken on board, one on each side. Then
they steered for Tenholm, and hoped to reach the
port there for the night. One of the men was almost
lifeless, while the two others lay in the bottom of
the boat utterly exhausted. It was night when they
at last discovered Tenholm. Outside the locked har-
bor there were, as is often the case in such places,
several small reefs which birds inhabit; but during
a storm the birds remain inside, covering all the cliffs
like a living carpet. Jon vainly sought the entrance
in the darkness; on every side he met the white
breakers, and was obliged to keep off, the storm
changing to the east again with a cold wind, and
increasing in violence.
For a couple of hours they had thus tacked out-
side the reefs, in a struggle of life and death; then
Jon felt that the craft, heavy with ice and nearly
ready to sink as it was, left them no longer any
choice. They must let her turn about, and steer
straight on in the name of the Lord. The boat
fell off, more sail was spread, and in she went at a
whistling speed among the breakers, which soon
dinned and thundered about them like a cataract.
Shortly after, the boat, borne on the crest of a mighty
wave, dashed on the beach with such force that the
mast Snapped down at the thwart.
Jon cast the grapnel successfully, lashed the cable
firmly about the stern-knee, and sprang on shore just
84 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
as the wave receded, grasping the rope with one hand
and Morten around the waist with the other. When
the wave had spent itself, all the men stood on the
beach, and drew the boat up far enough to escape
the full force of the next sea.
They soon discovered that it was not Tenholm
itself, but a rock lying outside, upon which they had
landed. Now and then they fancied they saw a light
from the trading-post within.
The storm was so violent on the reef that it was
impossible to stand upright in the wind, and the
spray dashed over it constantly. They succeeded at
last in turning the boat over for a shelter, with the
sail before the opening like the wall of a tent. They
warmed themselves by lying close together, while
one of the castaways, in whose stiff limbs they could
discover no sign of life, was laid outside.
Morten muttered in his sleep occasionally, while
Jon lay nearest the sail to keep him warmer. In the
early part of the night, spite of his weariness, Jon
had disturbing thoughts as he lay listening to the ever-
increasing storm. If they had not reached land, they
would have gone down outside; but here on the reef
they were in danger of freezing to death. He thought
bitterly, how hard the Lord could make it for a poor
man, and what a sorrowful Christmas-eve Marina
would have, even if he reached home; for they would
lack food, and their boy might also be poorly.
THE BREASTPIN. 85
In his restlessness he lifted the sail to look out
on the night. During the cold easterly gale the
flickering starlight made it dazzlingly clear, which is
peculiar to the winter sky of those northern regions.
His eyes fastened upon a single golden star, large
and brilliant, and shining more brightly than any
of its mates. Morten lay muttering, half audibly, the
words of a psalm which Marina had taught the chil-
dren one Christmas, and Jon now repeated it silently
to himself. It comforted him to lie and gaze at the
clear light. Soon after, the sail dropped from his
relaxed fingers, and he slept.
In the little trading-post that night, behind the
barred shutters of the shop, sat old Stuwitz (as he
was now commonly called,) making up his private
accounts by the light of a tallow candle in a rusty
candlestick. He was wont to sit up for a couple
of nights every year in this way, when he went out
to Tenholm before Christmas, to put the shop in
order for the winter fisheries. It seemed to be less
convenient for him to do this at home in Heggelund's
house, and he always took it for night work.
That night he entered upon the debit side of his
yearly account the sum he had been coerced to change
for the mountain Finn. He sat with his elbows on
the table, resting his big round head on his clenched
hands, and his brownish red wig had slipped down
over his blind eye. Certain things were passing in
86 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
review before his mind, and the tone of several short
gutturals indicated that they were dark, unpleasant
reminiscences which he still feared, rather than re-
pented. His thoughts went back many years, clear
up to the Finmark sea, where, like birds of ill omen,
they settled awhile upon a sinking wreck. Stuwitz
considered his difference with the Finn, who, by his
repeated and persevering requisitions, had changed,
in his estimation, to something more than a mere
money-pump, for, so long as he retained any of the
bills, he possessed proof which, even though the mat-
ter was so far back in its connection, might still be
both serious and dangerons for him, if anything were
really brought to light.
For many years, having steadily increased his for-
tune, Stuwitz felt himself to be on the safe credit
side of life; his greatest passion was the secret knowl-
edge that he was very rich, while his principal, Heg-
gelund, with his lavish hospitality, would, in some
years, perhaps, own nothing but his own skin. He
had been creditor so many years, that he had long
since forgotten the opposite position ; in his eyes, a
debtor had no rights.
Now, in his dispute for Finn Corner, which was
undeniably worth a struggle, he had raised a weapon
against himself which, if his luck should turn, might
hurl him even lower down than to this despised round
of the ladder. He was unspeakably troubled by this
THE BREASTPIN. 87
risk, which at last presented itself to his clear head
as a position so serious that his whole credit side
was overbalanced by it.
While the storm whistled and beat about the win-
dow-shutters, now and then shaking the one-story
building, Stuwitz sat pondering in the barred shop.
The unusual influences of the night, perhaps, made
him linger more than was his wont in these con-
templations. His thoughts dwelt for a moment upon
the time when, notwithstanding his full thirty-five
years, he desired to marry the handsome Marina at
Brogelmann's. The remembrance still stung him;
but it soon gave way to the dark reflections which
revolved about the Finn. He looked up an instant,
as if listening—he seemed to hear shouts of distress;
but they were not repeated, and, on such a night, no
one could be saved. Shortly after, he was engrossed
in his accounts, which he finished toward morning
with a brilliant score—his ever-growing secret. As
was his wont after such occupation,--which was, in
fact, his yearly Christmas feast,--Stuwitz tried now to
feel satisfied. He rose and paced the narrow floor
to and fro, but soon seated himself again. Against
the balance score was seen by him — at first faintly,
afterward more distinctly — an interrogation point,
which at last buried itself in the figures as a worm
does in a nut. The man who lay down in the bed
under the counter did not once feel a sensation of
88 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
happiness, his sleep was disturbed, and he dreamed,
amid the shocks of the storm, that something was
wrong with the foundations of the house, which he
sought in vain to have righted.
At nightfall the next day, Jon, with his beard
frozen fast to his shirt, and an almost lifeless man
on his back, came into the steaming-room, already
partly filled by the crews of two other boats, which
had also taken refuge on the islet. The rest of the
men followed, more or less benumbed, bearing a dead
body which was outside in the shed. The third of the
rescued men was Heggelund's nephew, who had come
some years before to the district, and was on his way
out to the island with a provision of goods, which he
was to trade out during the fishing season. He was
now taken to his own room in the shop, and was soon
perspiring in bed from the effects of a dose of brandy.
His companions undressed, hung their clothes over
a pole near the fire to dry, and were soon dead asleep
in the bunks. Some of the others were, meanwhile,
out in the cold warehouse, working over the half.
drowned man, and others sat about on the benches
in the little room, scarcely able to see each other for
the steam, eating from their boxes, or smoking leaf
tobacco. Later in the evening, when the man had
come to life, a merry fellow began to play on a har-
monica, which he had bought for Christmas; but
fatigue soon enforced its rights.
THE BREASTEPIN. 89
While the train-oil lamp dimly gleamed through
the steam in the warm shop, where all slept the sleep
of the weary, in bunks ranged around the walls, the
storm continued its giant-like struggle without, where
many were fighting in deadly peril.
Next day, when the sea was again navigable, after
the forty-eight hours' storm, there was abundant proof
of its disasters. A boat was seen outside, in the
morning, circling about in a peculiar way. There
were two men remaining from a crew of five, both
exhausted, and rowing on the same side. One of
them sank down as they approached the boat. Three
others were dead. They had ridden out the storm
that winter night by holding fast to their nets. On
an unmanned keel, which floated in later in the day,
they found five knives, and one broken off. It is
customary to hold fast by one’s tolle-knife, so that
it was evident what had happened here.
As one of the rescued men was a relative of his
principal, Stuwitz offered Jon credit at the shop; and
said, also, that it was possible his case might be with-
drawn from trial. Jon, pressed by need as he was,
could hardly accept these offers from the hand of his
deadly enemy; but there was something in Stuwitz's
tone—probably intentional—which insinuatéd that
. Jon would scarcely have ventured the rescue if he had
not seen a good speculation in it.
Jon therefore replied, shortly and gruftly, that what
4%
90 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
he had done was not done for the sake of money,
and Stuwitz could neither give nor take from him
the opprobrium of thief—that depended upon the
authorities. With this he got himself ready and
sailed for Sorstrom, where, contrary to his expecta-
tion, he obtained all the credit necessary for his
winter outfit. The reason of this Jon did not learn,
but the cause lay in a little envelope which young
Andreas Heggelund, who had overheard his talk
with Stuwitz, sent thither by one of the men in
Jon's own boat. -
When they reached home on Christmas-eve, they
found Marina had suffered the greatest anxiety and
suspense on account of the violent storm.
She was greatly delighted that Jon had got credit
at Sorstrom, and also at his account of the rescue of
the two capsized men. When she heard that he had
been in at Stuwitz's, she crossed herself. She had
herself to impart to him the intelligence of Isak
Lovo's death, which they both felt keenly. But later
on in the evening, after the Christmas candle was lit,
and Marina told him what her foster-father had con-
fessed to her, which she was now at liberty to repeat,
and took the breastpin from her bridal cap, he drew
her suddenly down upon his lap; she saw, to her sur-
prise, that his eyes were wet. Her usually composed
Jon was in such a state of emotion that she was
frightened for a moment.
THE BREASTEPIN. 91
Morten could not understand what made his father
so radiantly happy, but Marinas soon managed to dis-
cover. He brought out his fiddle and played his only
polka, while the children, Morten first, as the eldest,
danced in turn with their mother, in a space they
could scarcely turn around in. The fire crackled on
the hearth, where the Christmas supper was cooking;
the good things were served, and the Christmas can-
dle, a single one, which Marina had herself dipped,
— was duly admired as it stood on the table. It cast
no brilliant rays upon the small, dark window panes,
but angels, celebrating that night with mortals, surely
saw the light gleaming from the poor, low room on
the mountain side out at Sea.
That February, Morten went out to the great fish-
eries with his father for the first time. They worked
half a ten-oared boat in company with a nephew of
dead Isak Lovo, and had a passable haul.
In order to impress upon his memory the course,
the lights, and the sea-marks, no fisherman ever omits
telling his son the histories and folk witticisms which
attach themselves to these, and which, once pointed
out, seldom escape the mind of a Norland boy. That
winter they went down as far as Rodo and the “Seven
Sisters,” in Helgeland. On the way home they passed
underneath the “old watchman.” in Lofoten, who can
be seen up in a mountain fissure with his face toward
99 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the northeast, and his legs astride the sail-yard, the
light shining between them.
When they came home at Easter, Jon told Marina
that Morten had shown himself much more capable
than the ordinary “young Scion,”—as they call a boy
the first year he goes to the fisheries, and he had
still two or three years as a sea-gull (another term
for a boy). -
The incident of Jon’s having rescued Andreas
Heggelund that stormy day, by sending his femboring
(ten-oared boat) straight over the capsized boat, had
by that time reached many distant places. It was a
venture which forced admiration even from those who
would assert that such a thing had been heard of be-
fore. The little thick sheriff Ravn, with his official
air, went about for two whole years, “considering,” as
he said, whether he should recommend Jon’s name for
a medal; when he at last determined to do so, he
found that the affair was of too long standing.
This event had been a topic of much considera-
tion in the Heggelund family. It had awakened a
certain amount of attention outside, and to evince
their gratitude was not only natural, but also, in some
respects, a point of honor with them. Jon refused
all offers of money, and it was then decided that An-
dreas Heggelund should go and offer Morten a place
in the shop, with the promise of promotion if he
deserved it.
THE BREASTPIN. 93
Jon and Marina felt that they ought not to reject
this offer; but when Andreas Heggelund insisted
upon Morten’s returning with him at once, Marina
expressed her wish that he should be left for a short
time to take leave of his home. The truth was that
she wanted to make him some new clothes, as she
told Jon, that the boy might not appear too shabby
when he presented himself in that fine house.
The next fortnight there was a rush of work in
the little room. Jon’s Sunday clothes were made
over for Morten, and each garment in its new form
was admired by his younger brothers and sisters,
whose attention was divided between their mother,
as tailoress, and the shoemaker, who had been sent
for from Skorp Sound, and now sat stitching upon
the new shoes. Jon had long since prepared the
leather, and they knew the shoes would be uncom-
monly water-tight.
While she sewed, Marina was irresolute in her
thoughts about confiding to Morten the discoveries
they had made concerning her birth. Morten, in his
new relation, ought not to be ignorant of the sus-
picion she felt, that Stuwitz perhaps had a life account
to settle with her. Back of all this, an undefined
thought that her son might possibly gain some new
light on the matter, invisible from Skorpen, influenced
her.
After repeated consultations with Jon, Morten was
94 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
taken into confidence on the day before his depart-
ure, while out with his mother — he was to cross
over with a neighbor. She also gave him many ad-
monitions about his behavior there, how he should
bow, and not sit down when the mistress was in the
room, and other rules of conduct which might prove
useful.
When she accompanied him down to the boat,
she wept bitterly. Jon said less; he only took the
Solemn promise from his son that he would never
get drunk, and would always be an honest fellow,
no matter how hard it might be.
CHAPTER VIII.
AT HEGGELUND’S.
MAN Y stories circulated among the peasants con-
cerning Gjo Heggelund’s “boundless wealth.”
He was said to have, down in the bank at Trond-
hjem, as many tens of thousands of dollars standing in
rows as he owned church shares and fisheries; and
every year, when the church tithes were paid, it was
said that his attic was filled with silver coins.
In his great white house, with its many small-
paned windows, and the green-trellised garden in
front, in which stood his flagstaff, with a battery of
brass cannon at its foot, every man knew he was wel-
come, and the only difficulty was in being released
from his pressing hospitality.
At Christmas, the house was the self-constituted
center of festivity for all, who were on Sundays clad
in frock coats, in the district. The festivities continu-
ing for twenty days, and often longer, visits were os-
tensibly made to Marcus Heggelund, but really to his
wife, who, more than fifty years old, and with her
elegant gray puffs of hair, instead of the former
black ones, presided over the hospitalities of her
home, and not a little over the district as well.
All were unanimous that a more comfortable house,
95 -
96 THE BARQUE FUTURE. *
or more friendly people than the Heggelunds, could
not be imagined.
Mrs. Heggelund was, in her way, a strict dis-
ciplinarian ; she felt a somewhat ostentatious pride
in her great thrift, which kept her army of servants
always busy. The beds were all supplied at home,
and the feather-beds filled with the finest eider-down
from her husband’s own breeding-grounds. A loaded
table stood nearly all the day in the dining-room, and
the house and servants’ hall were each in charge of
a housekeeper.
The rooms, which at that time were considered
remarkable, would not satisfy the demands of the
present. They were rather low, with whitewashed
beams running across, bent by the weight of the
roof, and many names might have been read scratched
upon the small window-panes by the rings or brooches
of the guests, a list more entertaining than orna-
mental.
It was generally said that when there was no com-
pany in the house, Heggelund himself suffered in-
tense depression, but strangers would not notice this.
In his liberal charity and hospitality, Marcus Heg-
gelund united two especially Norland characteristics,
which could not fail to make him beloved by the
people. The district felt itself in a manner honor-
ably represented by his house.
The story was told also of his anger when the
AT HEGGELUND's. 97
steamship Constitution came up to Norland for the
first time, and steamed directly past his trading-post,
where all was prepared for a festive reception of cap-
tain and passengers with flags and salutes. The guest-
chambers were in order, and all in readiness for at
least a three days’ visit.
From the day when the steamer's course proved
so inconsistent with all good Norland customs and
hospitality, Heggelund was always of the decided
opinion that a steamer would only frighten the fish
away from the grounds. He insisted, also, that he
would agree to sail down the “great marvel” with
his best ten-oared boat, in a good three-reefed breeze.
This piece of bravado was actually carried out the
next summer, on a favorable occasion. For a stretch
of twenty-one miles, from K– Cape to Andholm,
inside the rocks, where he knew the stream better
than the captain, he and his nephew, Andreas, sailed
before a spanking breeze, leaving the Constitution far
in the rear. But the beating of a steamship by a
Norland boat was considered a patriotic victory by
both high and low, and Marcus Heggelund’s name
was sounded with greater popular fame than ever.
Elias Rost, who lived near by on a little spot
called Andersvig, and who built the boat, also gained
great credit far and wide, and Heggelund sent him a
silver mug.
Long, lame Elias Rost, with his cushioned crutch
5 -
98 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
and quaint brass tobacco-box, which could be used
both for a square and a carpenter’s rule, was quite a
notable man for one in his position. He had carried
on boat-building and carpenter work about the coun-
try for nearly thirty years, and was considered a mas-
ter of his trades. Like many people there since
Peder Das' time, he wrote songs, both sacred and
secular, which were printed in Bergen, and bought
by the Norland sailors when down there selling their
fish. He spoke with a sharp and dreaded tongue
against those he disliked, but it was well known that
he did not mean all he said, after having relieved his
feelings. He was godfather to half the parish, and
always had plenty of news to relate, so that both
old and young were delighted whenever he was ex-
pected at the farm.
Heggelund’s two small daughters were his eager
listeners as he stood at work down in the boat-house,
and told them all manner of stories. He had some
peculiar ideas of his own, which they craftily sought
to draw from him, and afterward repeated for the
amusement of those at home. It was especially con-
cerning Bible doctrine, for Elias was a diligent reader
of that holy book. He was considered a very intelli-
gent man, and was much attached to the Heggelund
family.
When Elias Rost heard, down in the boat-house,
that Heggelund had beaten the Constitution with
AT HEGGELUND's. 99
his ten-oared boat, he sat lost in thought for a long
time, twirling his snuff-box in his fingers. As he
resumed work he said: “Well, I believe modern
notions will win for all that ; but they must look
well to the currents, too !”
Since Brogelmann's death, Counselor Tobias
Storm had lived a lonely life for some years, on a
pleasant farm, where he lodged very cheaply. When
not out on his lonely wanderings by the sea, he usu-
ally sat at a table under the small, high window,
reading or lost in mournful reflections. The discov-
ery of the bills in Bergen struck him as much stronger
proof against Stuwitz than it did the authorities, and
he could never rid himself of the idea that there
were still unrevealed mysteries concerning the wreck.
This sentiment gradually left its impress on his
face in a quiet, introspective look, which made him
appear more obtuse to his surroundings than he really
was, and gave him a strange distrait manner.
In the neighborhood he was considered a singu-
lar person, whom it was difficult to understand. As
he was seen in uniform and came from the far north,
the peasants inferred that he was one of those per-
Sons from Copenhagen whom the people believe are
“doomed” to walk the beach. Being too distinguish-
ed for ordinary punishment, they are sentenced by the
king to walk, at certain hours of the day, up and
down the beach at Warangerfjord.
{Gr
º
:
C
:
.
:
:
©
‘.
:
:
1()() THE BARQUE FUTURE.
His need for occupation, or perhaps the feeling
that he must try to rid himself of the one thought
which constantly haunted him, induced him to en-
deavor to create other interests, and laid the founda-
tion of his love for reading. He busied himself, also,
with a mechanical invention — a machine for raising
Small articles from the bottom of the sea; it was
lowered by a rope, but he did not succeed with it.
He once wrote about it to Heggelund, and this was
the means of his becoming an inmate of their home,
as Mrs. Heggelund welcomed her old friend. He
went by the name of Counselor, from his old title
of Counselor of the Exchequer, but he was generally
called “Uncle Tobias” by the members of the family.
The lonely old man usually sat in his chamber.
Now and then one of the little girls would come to
him with her affairs. He had read with them, and
thus a confidential understanding had been gradually
established between them and him.
Edel was his especial favorite. She must always
run up and confide to Uncle Tobias whatever she had
at heart; and this habit continued after she had grown
up. When she sometimes happened to mention Stu-
witz, his mood always changed, and she tried to
guard herself in this.
Uncle Tobias knew much of what was going
on in the house, which she thought he had not
noticed, and she often wondered about it. When
* tº
© • *e
nº º
tº º
& & ©
º
& &
sº
:
gº
tº
:
:
;
AT HEGGELUND's. 101
she came from the office, and her father had been
down-hearted, he always asked how he was, and
whether Stuwitz had been there. She did not under-
stand that he could read her face.
One afternoon in June our seventeen-year-old Mor-
ten stood on Heggelund’s landing, equipped in his
new glazed hat, new blue woolen jacket, his father's
watch, and the brass chain outside his vest. He
had thanked the men in the boat for their good com-
pany, and was now somewhat doubtful and perplexed
as to how he ought to direct his steps, whether
through the garden to the house, or by the nearer
right-hand road leading to Stuwitz in the shop.
His mother's silk kerchief gave the otherwise
countrified-looking boy, who stood gazing about him
in uncertainty, quite the air of a sailor. He had ap-
parently grown rapidly, and this fact had evidently
been duly considered in the make of his clothes, but
the blue-eyed determined face, though boyish still,
was not one to long retain a look of uncertainty or
indecision. It surprised him only that his mother,
who had thought of so many things in advance,
should not have fallen upon this, the very first diffi-
culty. His action was determined with a sharp turn,
such as he was wont to make in directing the boat,
for the shop and Stuwitz were the first shoal he wished
to steer clear of. But at the garden gate he paused
I ()2 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
again; it was not to be denied that he could hear
the beating of his heart. Merry shouts of laughter
sounded from within. He listened a moment, and
then resolutely entered.
Morten came just at the right moment. A dark-
haired, over-grown, slender young girl, with blind-
folded eyes, from which she was evidently trying to -
peep, came running at full speed across the lawn
straight toward him, and laughing, grasped him by
his jacket collar. She called him Andreas, and would
not let him loose before he had taken off her blinder.
A moment after, several others sprang from behind
the hedges and formed a ring around them, dancing
“Cut the Oats,” amid much merriment. Had Morten
had time, he might possibly have thought that his
mother had not provided him against this emergency
either; but now, standing in the midst of the circle,
and held fast by the young girl, he was far too busy
to think. When, after some effort, the maiden at
last succeeded in freeing herself from the blinder,
she was apparently, on her part, not pleasantly sur-
prised. There was a look of wounded pride in her
face, and she was evidently ready to cry.
The offended look she gave Morten, while the
others only redoubled their merriment, made him
blush scarlet. He turned quickly to go, when a
familiar voice a little distance off shouted:
“Why, it's Morten, our new clerk.”
AT HEGGELUND's. 103
It was Andreas Heggelund, who now came Saun-
tering up from his hiding-place behind the hedge.
Without giving further heed to the game, he drew
Morten toward the house to pay his respects to
Heggelund and his wife.
They were entertaining a large company. While
the elders sat in the parlor a part of the younger
folks were romping in the garden. Edel, the young-
est daughter of the house, was blindfolded, and An-
dreas had hit upon the joke of all hiding them-
selves.
Hat in hand, and led by his friend, Morten passed
through two rooms filled with guests—part of them
chatting, others playing cards — into a smaller one,
where Mrs. Heggelund was seated on a sofa, by the
side of another lady. As they approached, Andreas
pressed his hand significantly, and whispered:
“Bow low, real low !”
And Morten made the long, low, scraping bow
which his mother had taught him, bending so low
that his hair fell over his eyes, first before one lady
and then the other, who was the wife of the district
judge, and in many respects the rival of Mrs. Heg-
gelund. -
“This is Morten Skorpen, who has come to be
our shop-boy,” explained Andreas, somewhat low,
and stammering a little. By his aunt's glance he
discovered that this same Morten did not, for that
104 THE BARQUE FUTURE,
moment at least, interest everybody as warmly as
himself. -
The mistress looked critically at Morten for a
moment, as if surprised at the interruption.
He, on his side, had, during his bashful reverence,
admired at close proximity, in his simple-hearted way,
the heavy gold chain and silk dress, which he had
seen before, at a distance, in church.
“My dear, would not this matter more nearly
concern Stuwitz, or the housekeeper? She will show
the young man to his room.”
Morten attempted another bow, but it was not
so low as the first. Then Mrs. Heggelund asked,
as if it had just occurred to her:
“Is your father's name Jon?”
“Yes—thank you!” Morten felt that his “yes”
was somewhat curt, and accordingly ventured an ad-
dition.
“He who so bravely saved Andreas!—Yes, but
then your name is Morten Jonsen. We will call
you Jonsen. The other name, whatever it was, does
not sound well.” -
With these words she nodded more graciously on
dismissing him. Morten bowed and followed his
companion, who mumbled something about style, and
found a chance on the way out to drown his dis-
comfiture in a glass of punch, which he snatched
from a table. They found Heggelund sitting at a
AT HEGGELUND’s. 105
card-table, where Morten also recognized Dean Mul-
ler. His nephew made shorter work of it here, say-
ing, somewhat ironically:
“Uncle, may I present an individual whose name,
two moments since, was Morten Skorpen, but who
has been rechristened Hr. Jonsen?”
His uncle was too much absorbed in his game to
give attention for the moment; he only caught some-
thing about a christening, and said:
“What say you, Andreas? Is there to be a
christening 2"
“There has already been one, uncle.”
“Where?”
“Just now, in aunt's room; the child is pretty
well grown. He is Morten Skorpen, who, for the
future, is to be called Jonsen.”
Heggelund took Morten cordially by the hand,
and said that he remembered his parents well. With
these words he smiled peculiarly as he dealt the
cards; he was probably thinking of what occurred
at that time.
The Dean, meanwhile, with his glasses pushed up
over his brow, half turned in his chair and sat look-
ing attentively at Morten. At last he asked, as if
puzzling about something:
“Your mother’s name is Marina?”
Morten assenting, he broke off the conversation and
gave his attention to cards. But that other thoughts
106 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
were passing through Dean Muller's head, was evi-
denced by his wild playing. It was to him that Isak
Lovo, on his death-bed, had confessed the secret of
Marina's birth. He had often pondered over it in
his own mind, being bound to secrecy, and it struck
him now that her son was in the way of rising from
his humble position. Morten interested him, and later
in the evening, when they rose from the card-table,
he went to the corner, where the boy had been mod-
estly standing since Andreas left him, and talked
with him of his home and prospects. Morten felt
that he had happened upon a kind friend, and deso-
late as he felt himself to be amid all these strange
people, this feeling had an excellent effect upon him.
Morten's round with Andreas stopped on coming
to a little man in blue uniform, with gold cord about
the collar, who sat alone with his pipe in a rocking-
chair. It was Uncle Tobias, or, as he was also called,
the Counselor. He seemed too deep in his own medi-
tations to take special notice of the presentation,--
at least Morten could discover no signs of interest.
Andreas Heggelund, who was used to his manner,
seemed fully satisfied, and bade Morten stay there
until he returned. Here in the corner, which, in
spite of the noisy company, was quiet and deserted,
Morten had little else to do but watch Uncle Tobias
as he sat nodding over his pipe. There were con-
tradictions about the man which Morten was unable
AT HEGGELUND’s. 107
to understand. His uniform was new and handsome,
and his hair black and glossy as a youth's, Morten
had no notion of a wig, while his face was old and
closely wrinkled. In spite of his respect, he could
not help thinking that it must be pure imbecility
which gave the gray eyes that fixed, staring look
into vacancy. He did not draw a single puff of
smoke the whole time, and this gave the always
thoughtful Morten a good idea: he took flint, steel
and tinder from his pocket, and struck fire as care-
fully as he could in the hollow of his hand. With
a respectful bow, he laid the burning tinder in the
pipe, whose stopper he ventured to open. The old
man understood his good intention and puffed at it,
mumbling his thanks over the mouthpiece; and,
for a moment lifting his eyes to Morten, life came
Suddenly into his face as he gazed. At last he asked:
“What's your name?”
“Morten, from Skorpen.”
“Hm 1–hm 1–remarkable!” And after a couple
of “hm, hm’s” he sat nodding over his pipe as be-
fore, forgetting to smoke; but Morten noticed that the
old man’s eyes gave long side-glances at him and he
suspected that possibly he was not so stupid after
all,—a suspicion which was confirmed later, while
living at the house, for he found that the old man,
when he would, both heard and saw.
A moment after, young Edel came with a glass
108 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
&
of punch, which she said she had prepared on pur-
pose for her uncle. She tapped him lovingly on the
shoulder and asked how he was getting on, and if
Andreas had not been with him. It seemed that
she was very happy in him, and he in her.
Morten drew modestly to one side, and was for-
tunate enough not to be noticed.
She reached him the glass, saying:
“Drink it now, Uncle Tobias, or you will forget
it, you know. I will tell you a funny story up in
your room.”
When she had gone, Morten struck a light for
him again, which seemed to gratify the old man;
he even reached out his pipe himself for a repetition
of the favor.
In the course of an hour Edel came back to ac-
company him to his room. As she took him under
the arm to lead him up, he turned his head and gave
a friendly nod to Morten. She then noticed him
for the first time, and bowed, flushing slightly as she
did so. Morten did not doubt that her funny story
was about his adventure in the garden, and it an-
noyed him not a little.
At the supper table, Andreas, who was now very
merry and gay, was attentive to him, and straight-
way after bade him go to bed in his own room. He
himself came up very late.
Morten felt the day might have been better.
AT HEGGELUND's. 109
^
While sleeping in his soft bed, many confused im-
pressions glided through his mind: the dark-haired
girl held him fast in the garden, and then looked
haughtily offended; Fru Heggelund, with her gold
chain, sat on the sofa and tossed her head, calling him
first “an affair which concerned Stuwitz,” and then
more graciously “Jonsen”; but the handsome, gray-
haired Dean took him so kindly by the hand at last
that his heart felt it, and he dreamed about his home
on Skorpen.
CHAPTER IX.
BEHIND THE COUNTER.
HEN Morten dressed himself early the next
morning, in the comfortable little attic cham-
ber, Andreas still slept soundly next to the wall.
Right opposite his window, across the sound, stood
the steep verdure-clad mountain in the glow of the
morning sun, which, after a little, crept down the -
masts of the two yachts that lay moored without the
landing. g
No one was stirring about at the shop in the
early gray of the morning.
Out on the calm waters of the sound, metallic-
green to its very depths from the reflection of the
leafy mountain, a couple of peasants were rowing
their boats with sparkling oars. Midway a yacht with
flapping sail appeared, which had vainly waited for
the morning breeze, and was now being towed by the
CI’éW. *
To Morten’s surprise, young Heggelund’s clothes
were thrown about in disorder. His watch still hung
in his vest, and one of his boots lay near Morten’s
bed, while the other was jammed against the door,
as if violently thrown or kicked there. After placing
110
JBIEHINID THE COUNTER. 111
the things on a chair, and putting the watch on the
small table near the bed, he went downstairs. The
mistress's words about his “concerning Stuwitz,”
and other impressions of the previous day, had de-
cided him to present himself to the latter as soon as
the shop opened. He thought how much he might
have escaped if he had at first taken the road from
the landing he least liked.
After some fumbling about, he found his way down
to the hall, and took the path through the garden.
At the spot where he had made an entrance, so un-
lucky in his own estimation, Morten nodded to him-
self, and called to mind that here the young miss
had looked upon him for a moment as if she had
soiled her hands by contact with the peasant-boy,
and hurried down to the shop, where he knew he
was in his proper place.
As he approached, the landing-boy, with whom
he saw Stuwitz speaking, was just opening the shop
door.
Morten went straight to Stuwitz, who stood in a
greasy coat, with his wig in one hand and a blue
checked pocket-handkerchief in the other, with which
he was wiping his face, after helping the man to roll
a large barrel upon the platform at the door.
Morten took off his hat and bowed to old Stuwitz
as he had been taught.
“Good day!—what do you want?” exclaimed Stu-
112 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
witz, harshly, while his one dull eye with the white
spot in the pupil quivered slightly.
“I am Morten, from Skorpen, whom they have
offered a place here !”
“Ah — indeed!” he said, in a peculiar, changed
tone. I thought you were going to stay up at the
house with the fine people; it is very common down
here, I can tell you.”
Morten felt that the smiling face and soft voice
boded him no good; he could only dispute them by
deeds, and asked modestly:
“Is the oil-barrel to go into the shop 8"
“It isn’t oil, it’s syrup,” was the surly reply.
But Morten, uncowed, continued:
“Is the syrup-barrel to go in 4’”
“Hm—yes!”
“Can I do it 8 °
“To be sure; but first take that new jacket off;
we are not so fine down here.”
Morten did so, and thus made a lucky spring into
the day’s work, for they were busy enough later
in the shop, as it was Saturday, and they had many
CustomerS.
While Stuwitz, constantly occupied, was now down
at the warehouse, or on board one of the yachts
under lading, again in the counting-room, or stood
bargaining with people, Morten and two other clerks
were busily occupied at the counter, and later in the
BEHINID THE COUNTER. 113
day, Andreas Heggelund also came in to help. The
variety of wares which peasants fetch — fish and liv-
ers, new boats, skin bed-covers, down to such small
things as berries in wooden boxes, must all be chaf.
fered about in detail, and payment made in goods
from the shop. A chosen few of “old acquaintance”
were invited by the first clerk into the warehouse
near by, and pressed with a glass of liquor, of a bet-
ter sort than the mixture which Stuwitz always super-
intended the making of, and sold as wine.
But Morten soon perceived that this was prompted
by other motives than those expressed in the friendly
words and special greetings to their families at home;
and he remembered with a peculiar feeling that his
father had several times returned from Sorstrom with
similar greetings.
He had managed to learn the prices of certain cur-
rent wares, and his knowledge increased every hour.
He felt very grand in his new position behind the
counter, especially when he cut the knot after tying
a package, took a handful of raisins out, or put the
scoop into the sugar-drawer for some acquaintance of
his, and the weights in the scale he balanced to a hair.
They importuned him to lower the price, but he
declared seriously that it was absolutely impossible for
them to sell cheaper. He afterward ventured an ex-
pression which he caught from the first clerk, and
which sounded to him in the highest degree business-
5%
114 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
like, to “warrant” some certain breastpins and
rings in a glass case, which, as they glistened on the
cotton, seemed no less beautiful to him than to the
admiring girl on the other side of the counter. But
he said nothing about the fine blue English flies,
which he knew to be fragile, from his own experi-
ence out on the fishing-ground,-only tried in a quiet
way to advance the stronger white ones.
Breakfast was sent down to the clerks, and in the
hurry they were obliged to spell each other for the
twelve o’clock dinner, in a corner room up at the
house, which was separate from the other dining-
room where the guests were now taking breakfast.
But to Morten even this short interruption seemed
too long, and had he not been ashamed, he would
gladly have gone without his dinner in order to re-
main below in the shop.
Later, he was charged to hail a coaster from the
landing and board her with a message to the captain
from Stuwitz; and as he stood in the stern of the
boat with the steering oar, while the boatmen rowed,
and afterward turned respectfully to make it easier
for the “clerk’” to gain the ladder, he felt more sen-
sibly than ever, if possible, his position in the world.
He took it with an assumed matter-of-fact air, like
one who has much to do, and little time for unneces-
sary talk, but thanked the man for a service just as
he would have done before.
BEHIND THE COUNTER, 115
Chance would have it that Morten, almost fever-
ishly absorbed in his new occupation, should also on
that day get a foretaste of another side of his new life.
A poor peasant, whom a long protracted illness had
made destitute, presented himself to Stuwitz, and, in
consideration for his many years’ trade and honest
payment, asked for seventy-two pounds of flour on
credit. He had been there the week previous and
pleaded in vain. Now he had with him his wife, who
looked no less wretched than himself. The man de-
clared in a choked voice that they had not a handful
of meal in the house for their seven children. Stu-
witz curtly and harshly recommended them to the
poor-box. But Morten was much moved by the
sight, remembering the sorrowful time at home of
which his mother had told him, when his father lay
for a long time ill, and Stuwitz had likewise refused
them credit. He was just on the point of cutting a
string under his vest, and giving his only silver coin,
which he had brought from home — an eight-cent
piece, with an imprint of the king's face, and a hole
in it, “which would still the blood,” and carried luck
with it — when Andreas Heggelund, pale with anger,
leaped over the counter and bade them go with him
up to the house. Stuwitz turned his back, but cast
looks of inexpressible scorn after him. An hour later
the two passed the shop with several bundles, sup-
plied, it seemed, beyond all their expectations.
116 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Later in the afternoon, Andreas returned to the
shop again and requested powder, as they were to
fire a salute from the battery by the flagstaff in honor
of the Judge's departure. He always superintended
this matter, and wanted Morten to join him ; but
Morten had sufficiently learned the rules of the house
no longer to follow Andreas Heggelund through thick
and thin, amiable and agreeable though he seemed to
him; and strange to say; he had the strongest aver-
sion to leaving the shop, even for a moment. He
continued actively busy in it until the last customer
was disposed of and the shop finally closed in the
evening. In the late, bright night the landing was
again deserted by men and boats, the last one was
just rowing across—the big keys were turned in the
warehouse doors, and the landing-boy was still put-
ting things in order here and there. º
He ate supper with the two clerks, and slept i
the same room with the younger one. But this time
Morten’s satisfaction with his day was of a different
character. He had now obtained his most ardent
wish, to become a clerk; nor had he imagined that
it could be half so pleasant, and for a long time he
could not sleep, thinking of the shop, and longing
for Monday, when he should resume work again.
On Sunday it seemed as if a seven-day sleep had
fallen upon the house. Except a few more of the
BEHIND THE COUNTER. 117
men-servants, who appeared with hair still wet from
combing, in Sunday clothes, with one or two watch-
chains displayed outside their vests, and holiday pipes
in their mouths, but few were up before the church-
boat was ready at the landing; and no haste was
made, as the priest would willingly wait his service
a little, when necessary, for the Heggelund family.
Morten had seen Edel in the garden two hours be-
fore, with her friend the Judge’s daughter, a few years
older than herself, who had remained for a visit;
and he noticed also that Andreas, in his shirt-sleeves,
sat in the attic window, apparently watching them
intently.
The Sunday breakfast and dinner were eaten with
the family in the parlor; but as each person came
to the morning meal according to inclination, it hap-
pened that Morten and his comrades ate alone. He
heard Andreas in the next room laughing with the
young ladies, and fearing they might come in, he
hurriedly finished his meal.
Some time after, all the family and the two clerks
went down to the great boat, in which five of the
men-servants, dressed in their best, were already
seated at their oars, and their jackets lay beside
them on the seats. The other domestics, who had
waited at the landing, then stepped in. As the flag-
decked boat was rowed from the landing, he saw
Edel and her friend making a shelter of their parasols,
118 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
probably the better to protect themselves from Hr.
Andreas, who sat close beside them.
Old Stuwitz was also dressed for Sunday, in his
own peculiar fashion, in coarse home-made clothes,
from which the legs of his greased boots protruded,
an ill-fitting crumpled shirt-front, which disappeared
in his thick woolen neckcloth, and again projected
askew against his ears in two sharp-pointed “pari-
cides.”” He looked solemnly morose, and in his old-
fashioned, low-crowned silk hat, with his fists in his
pea-jacket pockets, from one of which a checked cot-
ton handkerchief protruded, he took, as usual, his
lonely Sabbath walk into the country. On his return
from his walk, the clerks said, it was his habit to
go into the warehouse, where he stayed till dinner-
time, and then it was wise to keep out of his way,
for he was always sulky.
Morten was now as good as alone in the house,
and could look about the rooms more at his ease.
He came across Jomfru Dyring, the old housekeeper,
to whom he gave his parents’ greetings, and at last
became so friendly with her that she offered him an
extra bite from the pantry, for it might be a long
time before they returned from church, and “young
folks must have their food.” Morten had no sus-
* Paricides=standing collars; so called because a father once had his eyes
put out by the points of his son's collar, when hastening to welcome him home
with a kiss.
BEHIND THE COUNTER. 119
picion that this was not the old woman’s habitual
way of speaking.
Jomfru Dyring, with her false black curls and
pale, thin, severe face, trimly set around by a lace
cap, was the untiring police of the house, of whom
all were afraid. Her suspicious, searching eyes, under
their drooping lids, watched like a falcon's for every-
thing that related to the order of the house or the
servants, and she always pounced down when one
least expected it.
Mrs. Heggelund, to whom the neat, precise Jomfru
Dyring was indispensable, and in whose presence she
wisely retired into the background, would never see
a fault in her, but always took her part without
question. On this point Stuwitz, even, had no influ-
ence, though otherwise he was secretly all powerful.
The stairs of the great house were her cape finis-
terrae. The shop, warehouse, and all that concerned
them, did not exist for her, and their absolute master,
Stuwitz, was equally invisible to her when he was
inside the house. One might have noticed that she
always kept on his blind side. No one had ever
seen the two exchange a word, but Stuwitz mum-
bled, often in no friendly way, when she brushed past
him. She could never find time to go to church, as
she had so much to attend to at home. She liked
to add sharply that “they would some time have to
carry her there.”
120 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Luckily for Morten, he knew nothing of this in
advance, or he would scarcely have talked so con-
fidingly and frankly with this dreaded personage.
With no suspicion of danger, he had penetrated the
hedge of bitterness on which others scratched them-
selves, and behind which she really felt like some
lonely bird. His lively, trustful way fell like a sud-
den sunbeam into an old dark, damp garden, long
closed, and from that day forth she was always much
interested in him. The fact that her enemy, Stuwitz,
had opposed his coming, and persecuted his parents,
increased, no doubt, her interest in him. Whatever
her mood might be — and it was always more or less
stern — she had ever a mild face for Morten, and,
what was later of great service to him, always a clever
word at the right time in his defense.
Morten also went on board the sloop, with whose
captain he had become acquainted the previous day,
and with whom he sat chatting for some time in the
cabin in an unusually interesting talk about the won-
ders of a Bergen trip. The strong tobacco with
which he had been treated, and which he smoked
manfully at first, began to have an effect meanwhile,
and he took leave and went on shore before the ex-
citing theme was nearly exhausted.
The church-boat returned later on in the after-
noon, and, as usual on church Sundays, when the
BEHIND THE COUNTER. 121
weather was fine, the minister’s whole family, with
other guests, returned with them.
Little Counselor Storm, in his uniform, occupied
a prominent place at the dinner-table. Fru Heg-
gelund used him as a decoration. Beside him sat his
friend Edel, always ready to hand him what he
wanted. To Morten’s astonishment, Stuwitz filled
quite a subordinate position in the house. He was
seated at the lower end of the table, Scarcely spoke
a word during the meal, rose from the table, bowed,
and left before the rest had finished, and with few
exceptions behaved thus during the first year that
Morten was in the house; afterward he kept house
for himself.
During dinner the atmosphere was somewhat op-
pressive.
Hr. Andreas, who disregarded all rules, had, on
the return home, committed various sins. The tall,
pale daughter of the Judge sat with two roses in her
cheeks, evidently not caused by pleasure alone, and
the mistress preserved an unusually solemn, church
face, and remarked, not at all in connection with the
general conversation, that the minister had delighted
them all by his edifying discourse. She was re-
minded of one person who had, unfortunately, just
the faults mentioned. “God grant he may only
take it to heart l’” she sighed, looking as if anything
else was more probable.
6
122 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
A sort of affirmative growl was heard from the
other end of the table. It came from Stuwitz, who
had just risen and was passing out. He had not
been to church, but hated the young man in ques-
tion too heartily to withstand adding his assent.
“Yes, God grant it, dear aunt,” said Andreas,
who had free speech in the house, casting anything
but a friendly glance at the door through which
Stuwitz had just disappeared; “but the greasy old
animal is too old to change his ways now ; neither
will he ever go to church.” He assumed, with an
innocent air, the belief that his aunt referred to Stu-
witz.
But later he received a severe reprimand from
his aunt—and a ten-dollar bill from his uncle.
In the evening, Edel spoke a few words with Mor-
ten. She inquired if he liked being in the shop,
and why he had not accompanied them to church.
To the first question Morten answered yes, and
to the second, that no one had invited him to go.
She looked at him somewhat doubtfully, as if won-
dering what he meant by this, and asked suddenly,
approaching him sympathetically:
“You did not expect your parents at church''
“No ; – then I should have begged permission.”
The young girl turned away, smiling faintly, to
go upstairs with Uncle Tobias. In her chamber, she
BEHIND THE COUNTER. - 123
said, as if replying to the thoughts she had had while
climbing the stairs:
“That young clerk must be very proud.”
Morten, on his side, thought that she had a very
lovely expression in her eyes when she asked about
his parents, but afterward her glance was a little
offensive;—she was evidently very like her mother.
CHAPTER X.
BEHIND THE COUNTER — continued.
ORTEN'S unusual talents and straightforward
ways made him trusted; so it happened, after
the first two years, that his advice was asked con-
cerning things outside his sphere, though by Stuwitz
always in an ironical tone. He had discovered the
young man’s chief weakness, a good share of vanity
and reliance on his own powers.
Stuwitz’s connection with the house was a very
remarkable one. The stoutly built man with the
almost brutal face shrank into insignificance when
in the presence of Heggelund and his wife, while
his importance expanded again just as noticeably in
the shop.
He apparently felt uncomfortable, oppressed and
powerless when with the family, as if conscious that
he was not in the presence of friendly powers, except
when with the mistress; for, besides Jomfru Dyring,
Uncle Tobias’s quiet manner revealed this in many
ways. When Heggelund addressed him, it was often-
est in a hard, constrained way, otherwise not habitual
with him. He would call Stuwitz to him with a care-
less motion of his pipe, as he sat on the Sofa, and
124
BEHINID THE COUNTER. 125
Stuwitz would stand before him almost in the atti-
tude of a menial; or, with a patronizing air, would
tap him on the shoulder, with a “My dear Stuwitz,
will you do me the favor?” and turn about as if the
reply were self-evident. Old Stuwitz, on his part,
would bow most respectfully; but when down in the
warehouse again, he would walk about for hours,
with his hands thrust deep in his pockets, grumbling
Or whistling, and his one gray eye shooting darts at
the house above, while the other, weak and Scarred,
quivered with excitement. Now and then he would
kick, as at something invisible, to demolish it with
his foot.
When Morten had come to feel at home in the
house, he found that there was a difference of opinion
between Heggelund and his wife as to the treatment
of Stuwitz; for she sought—quite contrary to her
nature — to make amends for her husband’s manner
by various kindnesses. It was a tender point, on
which she could not influence her husband.
For the rest, old Stuwitz was not entirely destitute
of all good qualities, and he could be extremely
obliging to any one who pleased him. One must,
however, make it evident that he “sided with the
warehouse.”
He had also, when he chose, a real talent for
tormenting his subordinates, and was unwearied in
this role toward Morten. He did this in a peculiar
126 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
premeditated manner, difficult to combat, but which
caused every little fault to be dilated upon as a
silent proof of how untrustworthy the boy really was.
When Stuwitz was offended,—and with his inhuman,
bitter nature, this happened on the most incredible
grounds,--he swallowed his discomfiture instantly;
but one might rest assured that, though hidden, it
was not forgotten.
One autumn, on their return from the semi-annual
market in Bergen, where Morten had hitherto accom-
panied them, the current price of the year for fish
was mentioned at table by Stuwitz. He spoke of
its being so miserably low, at which Morten inno-
cently mentioned several people whom he knew had
obtained higher rates than those of the official price-
list given by Bergen merchants. Heggelund turned
very white, but said nothing. From that time on,
when Stuwitz could not prevent Morten's trips to
Bergen, he kept him as far as possible outside of all
business matters there.
Next year, before starting for Bergen, Morten sug-
gested to Heggelund that by rigging a pulley they
might dispense with half the crew of fourteen men then
necessary to hoist the heavy square sail. Heggelund
thought well of the idea, and began to feel a certain
pride in being the first in Norland to introduce the
new reform in their boat service. But he ran aground
on Stuwitz, who took the proposition very ill, especially
BEHIND THE COUNTER. 127
as connected with Morten, saying that he had himself
both years and experience enough to understand the
thing far better than a presumptuous, big-mouthed
youngster who was ever blowing about his projects.
Men enough were needed, in his opinion, both for
towing the boat in calm weather, and for restowing
the fish if they found they had chosen the wrong
side of the upper deck when they got out at sea, and
for handling the fish in Bergen. And “new-fangled
notions” should not, he said, looking at Morten, and
striking a cask till it rang again, be introduced into
the business so long as he managed it. -
He stood in the warehouse — his own domain —
when he made this reply; and so it rested, although
the reform has since been introduced in Norland.
But from that day Heggelund felt a greater respect
for Morten, and resolved that he should receive a
thorough business education, seeing in him a possible
card to play against the human being he most hated
upon earth —Thor Stuwitz.
The minister’s son, who had passed a brilliant
examination in Christiania, had already given Morten
instruction on Sundays, but Heggelund now desired
that he should have lessons twice a week; he could
not, he said, send a perfectly ignorant peasant-boy
straight into a large counting-house, and his wife was
entirely of his opinion.
Edel was a peculiar girl, and it was hard for
128 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Morten to understand her. He could not tell whether
she liked or disliked him, but rather inclined to the
latter belief. Her face was neither regular nor what
one would call girlishly pretty; her features were too
marked for that. Although more womanly, they re-
minded one of her mother, and her hair was, withal,
quite brown. There was a contrast between her
slight, overgrown figure, which made her look taller
than she really was, and the remarkably heavy, dark
hair which indicated a rich, vigorous nature.
She was her father's favorite, and had from child.
hood spent much time in his office, where she both
played and sewed; and thus learning to divine his
face, she gradually became his secret confidant in
things which were not quite clear to her, and too
burdensome for her child-nature; — he could not live
without her. Thus growing up between the pressure
of her mother's strong will and her father's, in secret,
often disheartened moods, she acquired an unnatural
reserve for a young girl, which often conveyed an
impression of restraint which repulsed Morten. Her
elder, fair sister Hansine, on the contrary, was good-
natured and approachable.
When on a visit to her friend Julie Schultz, Edel,
they said, could be very bright and lively; but at
home he had little evidence of this, and what he
saw, moreover, pleased him still less, for her wit was
accidentally directed against himself.
|BEHIND THE COUNTER. 129
With his good memory he had picked up many
foreign words from the conversation of others, which
were singularly pleasing to his ear, and he often used
them in conversation. Edel had observed this, and
more frequently talked with him, interlarding her
speech with all the strange words she could hit
upon. Morten took this for a time in good faith, but
when he came to a realization of her intent he felt
Sorely hurt. From that day on he used no foreign
words.
If during this period Morten felt himself repulsed
in many ways, there were two points on which he
was fast grounded—his personal attachment for Heg-
gelund and his friendship for his nephew Andreas.
Heggelund's sister felt very content when her
brother became interested in her son, who, after his
unsuccessful attempt at the Latin school, had made a
trial in a shop at Trondhjem. Heggelund paid his
debts and took him along to Norland to give him a
chance in his business there.
Andreas was a great comfort to the household;
he hated Stuwitz, and received money from his uncle
for it; could do miracles of work on a busy day
down at the warehouse, but rested quietly on his
laurels for a week after, during which he scarcely
entered it. He rescued people when in deadly peril;
was handy on board the sloop on its Bergen trips, and
clever in many ways, but he could never remember
130 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the price-list, and had no further business efficiency.
He used, later, to refer people to Morten, but there
was an occasional despondency in his tone. He saw
that the latter, in spite of his birth and his peasant
garb, conquered with sure strides all that he, with
his talent for learning, had spent many years in ac-
quiring.
Morten, on the other hand, was especially attracted
to Andreas by the constant proofs he gave of a good
heart; if without money, as was usually the case,
although he received frequent supplies from his uncle,
he would take off the very clothes from his back to
give a poor man. He had a certain easy assurance
of manner which Morten could not sufficiently admire.
Difficulties did not seem to exist for him, only he was
so provokingly unfortunate on the occasions when he
had something of unusual importance to accomplish;
in ordinary daily affairs, which could be performed with
a single effort, a brilliant inspiration, or an energetic
bound, he never failed. He was ever finely dressed,
was tall and slender, and his fine mustache became
his handsome, somewhat delicate face so well. In
youthful friendship such impressions have almost the
same prominence as in love. YHis cleverness, evinced
by the many plans in which he was so fertile, greatly
dazzled Morten in the beginning. Later, when he
was better able to determine their value, he could
discern in them one of the great lacks which would
R.E.H.INIO THE COUNTER. 131
make Andreas less fit for practical life. But his
friendship suffered no diminution; it increased rather
in the same degree that he was obliged to bear with
other frailties of his character.
Andreas Heggelund’s courage for the future had
hitherto been unlimited; he had only been checked
by bad luck. Now, after two years' association with
Morten, he had gradually come to a clearer percep-
tion of the qualifications necessary to business suc-
cess, and his self-confidence in this respect had re-
ceived a severe blow. He was in bad humor, and
pondered over his fitness for something else rather
than trade; he needed only to hit upon the right
thing. \ Had he acknowledged that he really lacked
the chief qualification for distinction in any work, he
would probably have given himself over to despair
at first, but perhaps have gained all the more for it
later. Now he chose only to shift the focus to suit
his inconstant nature, and thereby see the ever-bril-
liant horizon through a differently colored glass.
One day he confided to his uncle that he had no
talent whatever for trade, but had long felt a desire
to go to college and take a degree.
He had read much of what was required at school
in Trondhjem, and would now only need to review
it with the minister’s son.
For the first weeks he was warmly in earnest, and
made an advance which surprised even his teacher.
132 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
But gradually his efforts weakened; he neglected his
recitations one by one, and at last almost entirely
relinquished them. His family began to consider
this undertaking lost in his old instability, when
Morten came to his friend’s assistance. He offered
to sit up three evenings in the week, after shop hours,
and read aloud to him. Andreas, who felt that this
would be less fatiguing and insure regularity, ac-
cepted the offer. It would be so pleasant, he said,
to sit and smoke while Morten read.
They made good progress for several weeks, but
then Andreas began to drop behind. He invented
many excuses: now it was too early to leave the
others; now he would fill a couple of hours in his
room in chatting about his prospects as a lawyer;
now he declared straight out that he was not going
to read that evening.
One evening, Morten, in all simplicity, used an
expression which urged him on in his reading with
the speed of a harpooned whale, for two or three
months. He only said in a tone of hopeless dis-
couragement, “All the others will again say that you
can’t do anything.”
Morten saw that his pride was wounded, but not
that Andreas had involuntarily read this judgment
in his own eyes; he was more sensitive to Morten’s
opinion than he would have acknowledged, and felt
secretly humiliated.
BEHIND THE COUNTER. 133
For two days he was in a very gloomy state of
mind. Pale and sick, he lay upon his bed upstairs.
At last he confessed to his anxious friend that he
had written a love-letter to the Judge’s daughter,
Julie, who had frequently visited the house, her last
visit being on Christmas; he had loved her ever
since he first saw her, on her coming to his uncle's
home. “And now,” he said, tragically, raising him-
self in bed, “the matter is out. The attorney has
a position,--I have none; and she answered as her
father dictated.” He did not know why he should
read and work,+ it was all the same to him now.
His face was as black as night as he said this.
Morten felt exceedingly troubled about his friend,
but at the last words he pricked up his ears. He
must not be permitted to go on in this way, at all
events. So he pressed him blindly with the old
spurs:
“The Judge's daughter probably thought like the
rest—that you would never amount to anything.”
Indeed?” said Andreas, slowly, with deep morti-
fication. After nursing his bitter thoughts for some
time, he added: *
“But she, at least, should have thought other-
wise of me.”
Morten was bravely silent, although the speaker
evidently expected a word confirming his last re-
mark.
134 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Then Andreas sprang to his feet and said, reso-
lutely: -
“We will read this evening, Morten.”
Pale Julie Schultz came, as before, on a visit. At
first there was a little embarrassment on both sides.
Andreas was solemnly unhappy, of course, a condi-
tion explicable alone to Julie, and she often a little
flushed. But he soon came out of this annoying
state, and there was the same joking and merriment
as before.
She had evidently confided this affair to her
younger friend, Edel, which Morten considered pure
perfidy, nor did it raise Edel in his estimation.
After all, he thought, angrily, these fine ladies pos-
sessed but little real feeling. Andreas outweighed
both of them,-they were not worthy of him.
One day Edel was to cross the sound, on a visit
to their neighbors, an old skipper and his wife, in
good circumstances, whom she and her sister often
went to see,_and as no one else was about, Morten
offered to row her over. On their return, she pro-
posed to fish, as there happened to be lines and bait
in the boat. So she fished, and Morten kept the boat
steady with the oars.
They sat quite silent. Edel had repeatedly felt
a “bite,” and Morten had renewed her bait. All at
once she began to pull eagerly—she had caught a
codfish. When it came up, and Morten had taken
BEHINID THE COUNTER. 135
it off the hook, she took it from his hand, and asked,
mirthfully, as she turned its head toward him :
“Who does it look like?”
Morten could not tell.
“Can’t you see, nor guess? He who has taken
his degree,_ the minister’s son. It has exactly his
broad mouth and learned eyes, which look as if they
had no eyelids.”
Morten was compelled to laugh, for there really
was some resemblance. But it seemed as if Edel
immediately wished her words unsaid. Shortly after
she remarked, for the sake of saying something :
“You must have spent many days in this way
out on the open sea.”
“Oh, yes; many times alone, but my father or
Some one else was usually with me; and at one time
I used to go with my mother, but I was small then.”
There was something sympathetic in this, Mor-
ten’s reply, and she said:
“Yes, I suppose you had many troubles in your
childhood.” -
“Not we children, but father and mother have had
much sorrow; they always managed to keep most
of it from us, but later we suspected many things.”
He could not understand why these words should
strike her so, but she at once fell to thinking, and
looked very sorrowful, and almost stricken. At last
she said, as if in connection with her thoughts:
136 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
“Your mother must be a noble woman ”
Although Edel’s face, as we have said, was not
the type which Morten thought most beautiful, he
now saw that at certain moments she could be alto-
gether charming. Her eyes, which were sparkling
brown when she laughed over the fish, could become
quite black under the dark eyelashes; and the way
in which she sat, with the line in her hands, red
with the salt water, was also singularly fascinating.
When he rowed her to the landing, she sat gaz-
ing reflectively almost straight at him, and he felt
slightly hurt in the thought that to her he was only
a rowing-machine, named Morten Jonsen.
The news that Norway had obtained her own
trade-flag from King Oscar, instead of the old yellow
one, ran like fire through dry grass all over the land.
The steamer Prince Gustav brought the word, with
booming guns, to the Norland and Finnish stopping-
places on her route, creating a great sensation. Nor-
land sloops should no longer ply to Bergen with
the yellow flag, but float their own national colors
from the stern; and the change was made on all
the flagstaffs.
There was to be a celebration, in honor of the
event, at Heggelund’s house, and the speeches were
to be made on the mound under the flagstaff, and
salutes fired. After many consultations back and
BEHIND THE COUNTER. 137
forth between the great men of the district, the
order of speeches, among other things, was determined,
with a show of extreme modesty and reciprocal flat-
tery, all parties still feeling that therein lay inflam-
mable material enough for offense.
The celebration was to take place after midsum-
mer, on the return of the sloops from Bergen ; and,
as the day approached, Andreas Heggelund was ac-
tivity itself. When he learned from his aunt that
his rival, the attorney, was to speak on the occa-
sion, he was not in very good humor, and Morten
understood that something unusual was the matter
with him, for at evening he kept up a constant walk-
ing to and fro in his chamber.
He let slip that he was also preparing a speech,
but was in despair because he did not know what it
should be about. Now he thought of one subject,
now of another; if he only knew what theme the
attorney would choose !—“and it takes courage, too,
Morten | ?”
The day dawned : rows of boats filled with guests
crossed the sound. The sloops and boats out in the
bay were decorated with flags, and Andreas and his
assistants were keeping the cannon warm in the
garden. He had been pale and restless all day.
Morten was very grave, he had never seen such a
festival. -
The garden was crowded, and around the speaker's
6%
138 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
stand stood young ladies in white, with ribbons the
color of the flag. The national hymn was played
on horns, and the Judge made the address for the
King. Then came “Sons of Norway,” and the
speech of the day for the men who had fought for
their Fatherland’s rights.
The beautiful sentiments stirred Morten deeply;
when the cannon thundered, it was as if he no longer
felt the earth beneath his feet.
Then Heggelund gave the toast for “Norland’s
future under the new flag,”
and, though the speech
was short, his words were received with endless
cheers, and glasses were thrown high in air. It
was the first time Morten had seen the land of
poesy painted in words; he did not receive them
lightly, but as literal truth. He must have a breath-
ing spell, so he begged to assist Andreas at the
cannons. From that moment they were handled with
such precision and calmness that he might have been
taken for a phlegmatic Dutchman.
The attorney rose and made a speech in honor
of woman—woman as mother, (here he bowed com-
plaisantly to Fru Heggelund,) as daughter, as bride,
and thereby won special applause from the young
ladies. -
Andreas could not bear this, and before he him-
self knew it, he was, no less to Fru Heggelund’s sur-
* Patriotic song.
* BEHIND THE COUNTER. 139
prise than his own, up on the platform. Morten
stood anxiously interested in his behalf. Andreas,
in his heat, had begun by half objecting to the
former speaker's treatment of his theme. He had
worked himself into the same train of thought, and
must now advance something which would consider-
ably improve upon it. But Andreas was at home
in just such a position. The happy idea came to
him of not speaking about woman in general, but
about the Norland woman in particular — the poor
wife who works and waits for the return of her hus-
band in his fishing-boat, as of the rich one expect-
ing her husband in his sloop from market. He de-
scribed a hospitable Norland housewife, sketching
clearly enough his dignified aunt, and then a blue-
eyed maiden, fair and pure as the snow, that was
Julie Schultz.
Happily enough he concluded at the right mo-
ment, and this home toast gained great applause.
Andreas stepped down, flushed with emotion; the
ladies gathered eagerly about him. The attorney
was entirely vanquished, and it was difficult for Julie
Schultz to conceal the tears in her eyes.
The next to grasp his hand was Morten. He
only said, “Thank l’” and returned again to the
cannon; it seemed to him that in his speech An-
dreas had also named his own mother out on Skorpen.
The feast was continued with much merriment
140 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
and joy, and then followed a couple of days’ ground-
swell of sociability inside the house.
Heggelund and his wife were not a little proud
that the best speech of the day had been made by
their nephew, the Judge himself had expressed his
surprise at the young man’s talent.
§
&=s*-*
Andreas Heggelund’s unwonted energy had gradu-
ally brought him the respect of both his uncle and
aunt; the latter laying great stress on a remark of
student Sem, to the effect that he had a remarkably
good head, and it was a pity that he had lost so
many years in trifling. Now they thought his talent
quite as marked for books as he was unfit for all else,
and his stock rose one hundred per cent at home.
He was sent in grand style by steamer to Christi-
ania, as the half-adopted son of the house, although
one of their sloops was to leave at the same time
for Bergen.
With the help of a private tutor, Andreas took a
degree. That he was now the genius of the family
was a settled matter. Distance also did its share to
increase his glory. Fru Heggelund saw him in imag-
ination as a future judge in Norland, and Heggelund
after a time began to view his nephew through the
same spectacles.
CHAPTER XI.
THE DEPARTURE.
ORTEN had experienced not a little during the
years he had lived with Heggelund. Through
his intercourse with Andreas and the society of the
house, in which he had come to mingle gradually, as
Heggelund wished it, he had, not alone in an external
sense, imbibed much of the refinement which pre-
vailed there. Many of his former ideas had under-
gone a change, and instead of the embarrassed uncer-
tainty from which he first suffered every time he
stepped into the parlor, his bearing had won a certain
charm, which proceeded from the unassuming natural-
ness of his manners. He was still the same person
whom Heggelund had helped on — he had not even
changed his peasant garb ; but still he felt a certain
self-esteem which did not fail to make its impress.
He had a small regular salary, of which he always
sent the half to his parents, from whom he heard
whenever opportunity offered, as well as on sermon
Sundays. He had been to Bergen often with the
sloops, and seen much which confirmed the opinion he
had brought from home concerning Stuwitz; he was
now quite positive that he was defrauding Heggelund.
- 141
142 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
He sought at one time to give his master the nec-
essary proofs of this. The strangely evasive though
friendly manner in which Heggelund received him
taught Morten to remain passive and silent in these
matters for the future. Still it was, and continued
to be, a riddle to him why his principal would not
see this; he was boiling over with indignation.
Repeated unfavorable rumors concerning Morten's
Bergen trips reached his home; they were whispered
about until they finally came to Heggelund. It was
rumored that during the market season he and his
comrades lived not only a merry but a dissolute life,
and that he also squandered his money.
The truth was, that Morten was a great favorite,
and received many invitations out, and on such occa-
sions was frequently one of the merriest. On one of
his first trips he had also, as was generally known,
gone on board with a black eye, and this black eye
was now brought up as a proof against him.
Morten knew nothing of all this; but he noticed
several times that Fru Heggelund received him coldly
on his return. At last Jomfru Dyring took him aside
and told him how matters stood. She was sure of
his innocence, and had taken the trouble to defend
him with Fru Heggelund; but now she learned that
the reports originated with Stuwitz' favorite, the cap-
tain, against whom she wished to warn him.
When excesses, in the ordinary acceptation of the
THE DEPARTURE. 143
term, were hinted at, Morten flushed; but when the
squandering of money was mentioned, he turned away
suddenly, with a look which frightened her, and went
straight to Heggelund’s office. His tone was modest,
but there was something in his bearing which forbade
refusal. He took out his little pocket-book, in which,
business like, he had noted all his expenditures, and
next, thanks to his faithful memory, enumerated the
names of those who had invited him on his last two
visits in Bergen. There was but one scamp in the
house, he concluded in a louder tone, and that was
Stuwitz, he had for the moment forgotten the cap-
tain; and now that he had given his opinion, Heg-
gelund could dismiss him if it so pleased him.
There was a certain dangerous clear-headedness in
the speech of the pale young man which impressed
Heggelund, who, astonished, had not sought to inter-
rupt him all this time. When he had finished, Heg-
gelund assured him, in a cordial and fatherly manner,
that the unlimited trust he had always entertained
for him was not in the least shaken ; but, he con-
cluded, it is time, I see, you were separated from
Stuwitz, and you shall go to Bergen this fall. Certain
lines in Morten’s face indicated that his apparent
calmness was somewhat shaken by this friendly re-
sponse. He was evidently seeking a suitable reply
amid his strong emotions; but Heggelund appeared
not to notice it, and only repeated, as Morten bowed
144 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
himself out, that it was high time he should go to
Bergen.
Fortunately, Stuwitz was not at home that day;
for otherwise Morten would surely have insulted the
latter, instead of going up to Heggelund.
This incident cleared the atmosphere of the house
for him in many respects. Fru Heggelund’s anger
at all the impositions practiced upon the young man
was not slight. The following days she asked in a
kindly manner after his parents, and Jomfru Dyring
was required to look over his outfit for the journey.
The housekeeper's face shone like the sun after a
storm has cleared away.
This affair made a deep impression upon Edel.
She could not deny that she had been watching for
faults in him. Andreas, who was so lovable, had
plenty of them. But latterly these reports had come
in such numbers from Bergen that she instinctively
divined their exaggeration, and took his part. Under
her quiet manner she concealed not a little of her
mother's strong likes and dislikes for persons. The
possibility of a deeper feeling for this peasant-boy,
whom her father had taken into his house, lay natu-
rally outside the very shadow of her thoughts. When
she heard from her father how boldly Morten had
risked his situation, she comprehended to the full
the manliness of his action.
Before Morten's departure for Bergen, something
THE DEPARTURE. 145
happened which awakened the thought that Heggel-
und must be suffering deep trouble.
On going through the hall, one forenoon, as he
passed Heggelund's office he saw the door stood ajar,
as if some one had entered and forgotten to close it.
Heggelund sat inside, at his desk,+ but so distressed
a face Morten had not seen in his whole lifetime,
leaning against Edel, with a look of despair, while
she stood stroking his brow and clasping his hand.
Morten passed, as if unconscious, but Edel raised her
eyes at the moment and caught his glance; a fright-
ened look passed over her face at the surprise, and
he heard the door close soon after. Morten felt that
he had caught a glimpse of the true condition of
the house; there was some hidden sorrow ; and he
now began to understand the expression which he
had often seen on Edel’s face,—the same which had
once struck his notice in the boat.
The same day she was walking in the garden,
still lost in thought, while her sister, Hansine, chatted
by her side; and later, when he saw her handsome
dark head bending over her sewing behind the win-
dow-pane, because of all that he had learned he felt
keenly desolate, though in fact he knew nothing.
He now discovered how unspeakably attached he
was to the whole family, even to the mistress.
At the tea-table, not a look of Edel’s betrayed
that anything unusual had transpired. After she had
7 &
146 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
gone upstairs with Uncle Tobias, she came down to
Morten in the outside entrance, and, laying her hand
a moment upon his arm, looked him earnestly in the
face and said, half under her breath, that she depended
upon his never mentioning what he had seen that
day. “Father was greatly disturbed about some-
thing.”
“Never! Froken” Edel,” he replied; but this
“never” was spoken in such a way that Edel at
once felt relieved.
Although several years younger, she looked at him
for a moment in surprise, as though he were some in-
comprehensible, great child, who did not know what
he was saying. She understood he had desired to
lay his attached heart at the feet of the whole family,
but now felt that she herself held it in her hand.
She spoke a few words and returned to the parlor,
but later thought to herself that she had been some-
what too bold.
From that time Edel was unusually attentive and
kind to Morten. He did not suspect her real motive,
but would have preferred it to have been as before,
for he felt involuntarily that the distance between
them was only increased thereby. He could not
cease thinking of her, late and early, and was heavy-
hearted instead of glad at his approaching departure.
It was the evening previous to his leaving, at an
* Miss.
THE DEPARTURE. 147
early hour of the morning, for Bergen. He had
taken his leave of the whole family, who had gone
to their chambers at the usual hour. He was now
alone in the parlor. It was quite late, and the last
pale ray of the midnight sun fell without warmth
upon the opposite wall. He was sitting over Edel’s
open workbox, and utterly absorbed, when he sud-
denly heard Jomfru Dyring's voice b hind him. Her
police instinct had caused her to pounce down as
usual, when least expected, and she said, somewhat
ironically, but kindly:
“So you’re sitting there, taking leave, Jonsen l’”
Being surprised in the act, he felt also the need
of a confidant. His eyes fell, and he said only:
“Yes, Jomfru Dyring !”
“You must try to forget such fancies, Jonsen,
they will bring you no good.”
“I cannot, Jomfru Dyring !”
The housekeeper felt a sincere concern for her
favorite; she understood that this was more than jest.
She must comfort him, and said:
“Yes, yes, Morten Jonsen, no one knows what the
future may bring !”
“The future,” repeated Morten slowly to himself—
and he thought of the beam in his parents’ home,
on which he had first learned to read those words,-
“that lies in God’s hands,” he added involuntarily,
148 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
using his mother's words, and wept whilst his friend
stood there beside him. *-
Jomfru Dyring had no inclination for sleep that
night, and remained up until the sloop glided out
of the sound, two hours later, in the gray dawn. To
her surprise she found Edel standing in the office
window.
“Are you here, Froken Edel ?”
“Yes, I could not sleep,” she replied; and then,
after standing there a little time, they separated.
That same year it was reported that Heggelund
had taken an unusually large loan, to secure which
his property had been mortgaged. This awakened
great surprise and discussion, and some individuals
even ventured to question the solvency of his so
notorious fortune.
CHAPTER XII.
IN BERGEN.
UHLENWAD, of Bergen, to whom Morten
had gone, carried on a large trade in Norland,
and had an extensive connection abroad on the con-
tinent, where he shipped his fish. Many Norlanders
from Helgeland, and far north in Finmark, were
written down as debtors in the ledgers of his office,
on the Dutch quay. -
During the two market seasons, many sloops, trad-
ing there, anchored as far inside the harbor as pos-
sible, just outside his place. There was the greatest
activity at such times on the quay, when the fish
were weighed and sent off, while all day long crowds
of Norlanders passed in and out of the rooms, deliver-
ing their merchandise; paying a little on their old
accounts, and receiving the balance in cash, was the
customary method of transacting business.
Old Muhlenwad himself lived in High street, in
a white, gable-roofed house of the old Dutch style,
which stood inclosed by its neighbors in the row,
like a soldier in the ranks. He was in every way a
man of the old school, and belonged to the German
families who attended the Dutch church. He was
. c. 149
150 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
strictly religious, observing all the forms; a moneyed
and business man from top to toe, and conceived the
Lord to be essentially the most prompt and promi-
nent business man of the universe. The God with
whom he kept an account was also just as parsi-
monious and narrow as himself, and was especially
jealous of his dues, allowing no omission of the
grace at table, and morning and evening prayer, or
the morning sermon and reading of the scriptures
at home on the seventh day. -
With his broad-brimmed hat, brown coat and
heavy, brown gold-headed cane, with its kid cap,
always to be seen at his post, he was one of the
queer characters of the old Bourse. That his name
was as good as gold everybody knew, and also that
he was against all the improvements which began
to appear in the younger business community, and
not least in the matter of a new exchange, which
they were beginning to agitate. His wife, who died
early, and who had not had too comfortable a time
in this life, but whose grave was marked by a
great monument in the churchyard, had borne him
a son, by name Wollert, whose only freedom in youth
had been in school-days, whose fear was still his
father, and who, after a short stay in Hamburg, had
now returned a complete fop, in which personifica-
tion he always avoided his father's attention by the
most ingenious devices; but he had now and then
IN BERGEN. 151
been accidentally surprised therein; a doleful court-
martial had taken place, in which his father's brown
stick played its part, and he would then sit a pris-
oner in the office or the parlor closet at home.
In this joyless house the boy lived, watched by
his two old maiden aunts, Muhlenwad's sisters,
who always joined the council of war held to judge
his conduct, and his only freedom was in summer,
when the family lived at their little country-place
in Kongshavn and he was at the office in town.
Although it was the busy season, and there was
enough to do at the office, he always felt more relieved
and free from the home espionage. His aunts each
took in turn their week in town, in order to superin-
tend the meals for the Norland people, the same aunt
presiding on Sundays, when a company was made
for these persons, always seated beside Muhlenwad,
in a high yellow-leather chair, while red wine, not
of the very best quality, was served with the barley
broth and steak. He always managed to get a little
breathing spell at such times.
Although obliged to accompany his father and
aunts to the German church, and to remain inside
the house nearly all the Sunday, still he knew that
in the evening, when the old people had gone to
bed, he could take his turn with his comrades. One
winter night one of the aunts, on her rounds with a
light, found his room empty, and a ladder standing
152 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
under the window. When he returned, later in the
evening, and lighted his candle, there sat a council
of war in night-caps. His fright was great, but his
quick sight soon made him aware that the “old
man’’ was not present, and he took his measures
accordingly. He said aloud, as he strode to the win-
dow as if to cast himself out:
“Now you look on while I cut short my life l’”
The result was that his frightened aunts, from
that day forth, outside the old man's knowledge,
helped him to a “proper amount of liberty,” and
gave him pocket-money, as well, to enjoy it.
Young Wollert, meantime, had had money in his
pockets before his aunts assisted him. He borrowed
from his uncle Daniel, who was a miser and lived
alone in a house in the garden below. The latter's
parsimony was the occasion of many a familiar story
in the town, and it was known that he scarcely al-
lowed himself dry bread. He considered that he
had been defrauded in his inheritance by his brother,
the merchant, and he hated him deeply. When his
nephew told him how he fared at home he always
sympathized with him, and once, when he complained
that he never had any money, he offered to give him
loans until he should come of age and could dispose
of his mother's legacy. Wollert gave his uncle a
receipt each time, with twenty-four per cent interest,
thus having a bank of his own. He was obliged,
HN BERGEN. 153
also, to bind himself to watch and discover who
stole the currants from the garden or cast stones at
the windows. The small boys were hard upon the
usurer. When the latter, with a loaf of bread tucked
under his blue overcoat, which fell to his feet, and
his cotton umbrella in hand, walked up the street,
toward evening, to his garden gate, they often fol-
lowed him on all sides, calling him nicknames.
In the beginning, Morten had a hard enough time
of it at Muhlenwad's, and discovered in many ways
that Stuwitz’s arm reached even there; for among
his large Norland dealings Muhlenwad had all Heg-
gelund’s trade as well, and entertained the greatest
respect for Stuwitz, whom, in a series of years, he had
learned to regard as the real manager of the business,
and, in consequence of a hint from him, received Mor-
ten Jonsen with a prejudice, as a mere favorite of Heg-
gelund's, and a sort of visionary as well. He must
have a regard for the wish of so extensive a patron,
but “the fellow himself naturally was not worth a
pipe of tobacco”; and when Muhlenwad had once
fixed upon an idea it took considerable to shake it.
Morten filled a sort of subordinate middle place,
for which he had little taste, part of the time help-
ing the lad at the landing, and part of the time
working in the office. Most of his time was spent
down at the jib, on the landing, in daily drudgery;
but he gradually won Muhlenwad's reluctant acknowl-
154 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
edgment by the promptness and order which entered
into everything he was responsible for.
At market time, when the fish were to be assorted,
he displayed such judgment in the matter as to sur-
prise his employer; it was the fruit of his thorough
experience in these things.
Muhlenwad, readily perceiving the benefit he might
derive from this, offered him the management of the
quay, and the position of head man. Morten thanked
him for his offer, but, to Muhlenwad's regret, replied,
No, he wished to go through the counting-house,
and, as this was not according to his master's desire,
Morten was again in disfavor.
During the latter part of his stay at Heggelund’s,
he had learned the rudiments of the German lan-
guage form the minister's son, and with the assist-
ance of a German clerk, whom he knew and associated
with, had worked at it in all his leisure hours, and
especially on Sundays, ever since he came to Bergen.
After a year and a half he had advanced sufficiently
to both read and write the language. Morten desired
to get on in the world.
Wollert Muhlenwad, who was, in fact, a good-
hearted, companionable fellow, would hardly have led
his present dandy life, or worn his tight trousers, and
sported gold eye-glasses, which he removed whenever
he really wanted to see anything, if the pressure and
confinement of his home had not made him look
IN BERGEN. 155
upon unbounded freedom in too dazzling a light.
He often talked with Morten, and seemed to enjoy
his company exceedingly ; it was, perhaps, the good
fortune of the latter that the young gentleman did
not consider him polished and refined enough to in-
troduce among his friends. On Sundays he would
often sit for hours in Morten’s little room, down on
the landing, spinning yarns.
He observed once that Morten sat writing a Ger-
man letter, and heard, to his astonishment, that he
knew the language, and something of bookkeeping
as well, having learned the latter by himself.
This young gentleman, Wollert, hated the office,
and everything appertaining to it, as strongly as Mor-
ten liked it. It was not long before he proposed to
the latter to write his German correspondence, which
he would only have to copy afterward and deliver
to the “old man.” Morten felt that this was not
quite right, but eased his conscience by refusing to
receive the offered compensation for his work, which
would fill up all his time on Sundays.
In this way, Wollert led a free and easy life, and
gained the decided commendation of his father, who
told his aunts that his letters read as if written by an
old, experienced merchant, and were likewise so short,
concise and clear;-‘‘Wollert might amount to some-
thing after all !” He received a gold watch on his
156 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
birthday, and ventured to wear his gold glasses openly,
but used them less frequently.
Then came an unhappy discovery one day, when
Wollert delivered a whole package of correspondence
to his father. Among them lay two letters, written
in a fine, ready hand, which Wollert, in his haste,
had forgotten to take out.
When the “old man’ came upon the first of these,
—a long, well expressed letter, Wollert, who sat on
the other side of the desk, waiting to superscribe and
mail them, saw something was out of the way.
The “old man” sat for a long time silently gazing
upon the letter; took it up and laid it down again
with a look on his small, sharp face as if he had a
false bill before him. One moment he glanced wildly
at the corner where his heavy cane stood, with the
old kid cap over its gold head, and Wollert shud-
dered; but then he commenced reading the letter
over again, and in different places nodded slowly
with bitter appreciation, as if giving due acknowl-
edgment of how well and cleverly it was written. At
last he exclaimed:
“No!— I might have known you couldn’t write
like this ' Come here with your cursed eye-glasses,
Wollert, 12%
Wollert meekly handed them over the desk, and
the “old man” twisted them and crushed the glass
under his foot.
IN BERGEN. 157
“Who has written for you?”
Wollert evaded the question by saying that it was
only those two letters; but a glance from the “old
man * toward his cane made him suddenly truthful,
and he replied:
“Jonsen.”
“Jonsen l—Jonsen here? — Indeed!”
It was a long “indeed,” which signified a great
deal, and was finally followed by an inquiry:
“What has he taken for it?”
“He wouldn’t take anything.”
“Then I’ll tell you what he wants,” broke out
the “old man” angrily, as if he again thought of the
cane,—“he wants what you don’t, although you are
the son of a thorough business man; he wants to
learn something, I tell you, and you will never
amount to his little finger!”
Thereupon he opened the door and told one of
the clerks sitting there to call Jonsen up.
Muhlenwad sat reflecting for a time, and Wollert
thought it dreadfully stifling in the little office. The
trouble was that the “old man” was reluctant to Say
openly that he knew his son had deceived him.
When Morten came, he only asked, showing him
the two letters:
“You wrote these ?”
(6 Yes.”
“How did you learn to do this '''
158 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
When the young man had briefly explained, Muh-
lenwad said, in a tone that sounded as if he were
reading from a book, he had taken advantage of the
time to repress his feelings:
“From to-morrow, henceforth, you will have a full
clerkship and salary in my office, and the contents
of my son’s letters must be first shown to you for
approbation before they are placed on my desk.”
With this he nodded, and Morten left; but old
Muhlenwad sat gazing at the door after him. At last
he said, almost mildly:
“Yes, if you could only make such a fellow, Wol-
lert! — he has metal that will amount to something;
but your poor father has no prospect of such a result,”
he sighed; and Wollert left, glad to be free at that
price. º
The next year Morten corresponded in French,
also, and was more and more trusted in Muhlen-
wad's office. It was known that all orders must pass
through his hands, else Muhlenwad was never at rest
about the correspondence. His salary was raised, and
he could now live like other young men in his posi-
tion. Educated in Muhlenwad's school, money began
to have a value in his eyes which was not natural to
him. He only heard men valued according to their
fortunes, and all his comrades dreamt of sometime
becoming a matadore on exchange. Muhlenwad's old
IN BERGEN. 159
broad-brimmed hat was venerated by their young eyes
almost as a crown.
Thus Morten Jonsen was in a fair way of becoming
“a business man from top to toe.” He affected this
with a certain dash of assurance, and for his age had
too self-sufficient a manner to be pleasing, though in
certain ways it made him respected. His manly,
open face, and a certain hearty way, hidden under
, the business shell, commanded unusual confidence.
In the houses which he had gradually found op-
portunity to enter he had met with many young
ladies, but it seemed as if his senses were not open
to that side of life. -
He came to be looked upon as a young man too
devoted to business to have an eye or ear for any-
thing else. Little did they suspect that in his lonely
hours he could summon an image before him, in com-
parison to which all others looked lifeless in his
eyes; at times, indeed, he himself felt afraid of being
utterly absorbed by it.
Edel Heggelund had spent a year down in Trond-
hjem, and as the daughter of the rich Heggelund,
and also, perhaps, on her own account, had been much
fêted. Morten had, with much difficulty, learned all
about this, and felt a great relief when he heard that
she had returned to Norland.
Her return home was occasioned by the sad event
of her mother's unexpected death.
160 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
According to his promise, Morten had occasionally
written to Heggelund, and always received, in re-
Sponse, a short, pleasant reply. On one occasion the
answer was written for her father by Edel, who very
kindly told him all about themselves, Uncle Tobias,
Andreas (down in Christiania), and Jomfru Dyring;
and at last came news from his parents out at Skor-
pen. He perceived that she could not have obtained
this without much effort, as they lived so far away; .
and this oft-perused letter became his treasure.
Morten Jonsen now had a special reason to feel
himself of importance at Muhlenwad’s, for the latter
had made several thousands, that winter, by a specu-
lation which he had pointed out.
One day Muhlenwad was looking very serious in
his office. He had received the intelligence that Heg-
gelund, of Norland, was as good as ruined. The
trading-post had passed into Stuwitz’s hands, with
whom the office would, in future, alone have to deal.
His interests were fortunately assured by Stuwitz's
precaution. “I have always suspected it,” he added,
“from the life which that man led. Now he barely
owns the house he lives in, with its contents, and a
small property further up in the fjord. The rest was
disposed of at a forced sale by the creditors. It is
hard to go through such trouble.”
Morten Jonsen, deathly pale, stood listening, and
IN BERGEN. 161
could not, during the remaining business hours, col-
lect his thoughts for work. One might as well have
told him that a mountain had been overthrown as
Heggelund’s house, where he had lived so many years
with the impression that its foundations were built on
riches, and he felt a most bitter sorrow. It had been
a home to him, and he shared profoundly the morti-
fication and grief which had befallen it. He felt
more and more positive that Stuwitz was the cause
and originator; it was clear as day that through all
these years he had been enriching himself, ruining
his master, and now, at last, had crowned his infa-
mous work. Had he met Stuwitz at the time, he
would undoubtedly have attacked him, blind to every
other consideration but revenge.
He was not the same when in the office; he dis-
patched his work in quick time, and often left before
it closed. In the evening, he took long, lonely walks
on the road toward Sandvig, and sat up very late.
After the first sorrow, a thought dawned upon
him which so stirred his blood that it was not easy
for him to sleep. This was the possibility of winning
Edel Heggelund under these altered circumstances.
There was no slight difference in his train of
thought previously and at present. When he left
Heggelund's, he felt that birth and education raised
a dividing wall between them,-now it was, rather,
a lack of fortune which parted them.
7%
162 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
And since the pecuniary ruin of her father's house,
his soul discovered a gleam of possibility on this point.
At first this was but a dream, which constantly filled
his thoughts, and always concluded with his return,
after some great business speculations, as a rich man,
his wooing Edel Heggelund, and raising the fallen
house. Gradually, however, the realities of the situa-
tion began to intrude themselves in these dreams,
and, although the conclusion was always the same,
in that he always identified Edel Heggelund with
the house, it was not so with the plans which were
to take him there. On his lonely wanderings over
the Sandvig road, a cape, with a small, fine bay, in
the neighborhood of his home, began, little after little,
to present itself to his inner sight; he was established
there; traveled about far and near on business; saw
crowds of people, and an ever-increasing traffic, and at
last brought Edel Heggelund a bride to the beauti-
ful house which he had built. Each evening a new
touch was added to the picture.
Stuwitz's former notion of establishing a trading-
post on Finn Point, down at Finn corner, had re-
curred to Morten. And gradually, as he pictured it
to himself, and pondered over it, it ever appeared
more practicable and tempting. He felt there would
be difficulties, but, with a somewhat youthful arro-
gance perhaps, he also realized his own talents,
back of his enterprise he caught a glimpse of Edel.
IN BERGEN. 163
Muhlenwad's astonishment was great when Mor-
ten, one day, resigned his clerkship, and, without
going into details, declared his intention of establish-
ing a small business for himself in the far north.
He thought his confidential clerk must have lost his
wits, to speak mildly, and offered many arguments
to dissuade him from his purpose.
When he found this was of no avail, he granted
him a prudent credit for a beginning. Morten him-
self had a capital of several hundred dollars.
No less surprised was Heggelund, to whom he felt
he ought to write of the step he was about to take, as
the former had always taken an active interest in his
behalf. The tone of his letter was not unqualifiedly
happy. He only gave, as his principal reason, that
he longed to return to Norland, and expressed a some-
what self-confident trust that he should do a good
business there. But the conclusion of the letter was
even more inappropriate. After expressing his heart-
felt gratitude, he concluded, somewhat clumsily, by
expressing the hope that he might sometime be fortu-
nate enough to attain a position which would enable
him to return the kindness he had received at Heg-
gelund's hands.
This vibrated, though in different ways, sensitive
cords in both father and daughter.
Heggelund gave vent to this hidden sensitiveness
in the fretful remark that he had not the slightest
164 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
conception how a beginner, without capital, could
come up there and, as a matter of course, establish
himself on the first and best point for business.
Edel had had her quiet dreams in reference to
Morten Jonsen. As will be remembered, she had
already discovered his love for her while he was liv-
ing with them ; but she was first awakened to a con-
Sciousness of her own feelings by his departure—
on the night she met Jomfru Dyring in the upper
hall. Since then this sentiment had grown clearer
and clearer, and she had, so to say, lived her real
life in it.
Her instinct led her to suspect now that she her-
self played a part in his sudden and remarkable de-
cision, and she had for a moment flushed with joy at
the thought. In her inmost soul she had long felt
conscious that, if circumstances had permitted, she
could have stretched out her hand to him over every
consideration that caused their lives to differ in out-
ward conditions; for she understood that this was the
sole reason why he had refrained from ever attempt-
ing an effort to win her. But she had also put to
his account a lack of faith in her, personally, which
she believed had raised the barrier between them.
Now, from what had transpired in her home, their
relation was evidently so changed as to inspire in
him a hope, on which he had taken a decided resolu-
tion.
IN BERGEN. 165
But that which had changed all this was the fact
that Edel had now become a poor girl.
While in the office, during her childhood, Edel
had felt an early consciousness of her father's being
burdened by a sorrow which he endeavored to con-
ceal, and, although the precise character of this trouble
was never clear to her, she gradually came to know
that Stuwitz was the cause of his suffering.
With the accounts, which he would sign without
comment for Stuwitz, would come his gloomy moods,
and then she would stand beside his desk, or sit upon
his knee. This seemed to relieve him, and she un-
derstood that she was to say nothing of this to her
mother.
It was such a scene—but at that time one of such
overwhelming sorrow as to frighten her—which Mor-
ten Jonsen had inadvertently witnessed shortly before
he left for Bergen. -
The cause of it was the above-mentioned loan,
which he was forced to take up, and which awakened
so much gossip.
Pride was at that time a family weakness of the
Heggelunds. When the auction was taking place in
the house, and their property and business was knocked
down to Stuwitz, she had looked down from her win-
dow upon the people crowding the place below, and
felt that their house, in that very hour, sank.
The letter awakened bitterness in her soul, and she
166 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
felt herself personally underrated in a matter wherein
a proud woman may be most deeply wounded,—by
a lack of confidence in the full nobility of her love.
So long as she was herself the superior, she could,
in a way, bear it; it was not so manifest then, and
her manner at that time might, perhaps, have caused
it; but now that she was poor—not for all the world!
CHAPTER XIII.
RETURN HOME.
N his return north, Morten Jonsen had many
matters to look after in the vicinity of his home.
Various preparations and purchases of goods were to
be made, and he was obliged, before going home, to
make several digressive trips.
He had no errand at Heggelund’s, for he did not
wish to trade with Stuwitz. But when he had come
in the vicinity, the desire of again seeing Edel irre-
sistibly seized upon him. The reasons for not going
there, which had hitherto been so evident to him,
and the weightiest of which was, that he would not
willingly return as one who had made no further
advance in the world than when he left their house,_
gave way more and more to the tempting thought
of again being in her presence. As he struggled
with himself, another gradually presented itself which
determined him. He felt an oppression and fear at
meeting her; for how would she look at him, and
what would her welcome be? Perhaps her look
would tell him that he had cherished only a sense-
less dream. In short, he felt at last that he must go
there for the sake of the hope he lived in. In his
167
168 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
present despondent mood, he felt that he was but
going there to see the bursting of the whole bubble.
He loitered all the day under many pretenses, and
did not arrive until late in the evening, after bed-
time.
Jomfru Dyring was going her accustomed night
rounds. She was near dropping the candle from her
hand when she unexpectedly met Morten in the hall,
hanging up his traveling-coat.
By the light of a single candle in the parlor, of
which he had so many lively reminiscences, she gave
him a forlorn description of the situation.
Stuwitz, in his little red house down on the strand,
was now master of the place; he had had a mortgage
on the trading-post itself, even. He was the same
old man, and lived in his miserly way as before, with
his dog and clerk lying in the front room at night,
for he always believed he was in danger of house-
breakers; but since the death of the mistress he had
taken on a much grander air. Without consulting
Heggelund, he had recently taken one of his out-
houses, which he insisted belonged to him, for his
goods.
“Yes, things are in a bad way,” she concluded,
giving vent to an outburst of sorrow, “and dear
Edel, she is now a poor girl. It was fortunate that
her sister married well, for she would not have had
the strength to bear all this.”
RETURN HOME. 169
She sat there neat as ever in her freshly-fluted
nightcap ; but she sorely needed to relieve her an-
guished heart, and meanwhile she involuntarily stroked
both fluting and curls. -
“Can you remember, Jomfru Dyring,” said Mor-
ten, in a peculiarly serious tone, “the last evening
we sat together in this room, when you pointed me
to the future?”
Jomfru Dyring's face did not look as if she gath-
ered much hope from the word.
“Now I will confide something to you, Jomfru
Dyring,” he continued after a short pause, “all that
I strive and have striven for is only with the intention
of sometime winning Edel.”
Jomfru Dyring looked with surprise upon the
young man. Her tardy thoughts needed time to
collect themselves, and she regarded him meanwhile
with changeful looks. His was a manly form, which
could well inspire confidence. Her face pronounced
this decision, while, speaking as if to herself, she said,
“We must trust to the future.”
His old confidant gave her good opinion extreme
prominence, for her, when she conducted him to the
guest-chamber, which Morten, after many refusals,
at last accepted, because he saw it would give her
pleasure.
Morten was up early the following morning, and
down in the sitting-room below, carefully dressed,
8
170 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
before any of the family entered. He was pale, and
a cold perspiration stood on his brow, while Jomfru
Dyring, with now and then a word, bustled in and
out in her preparations for breakfast. She had pur-
posely not disclosed his arrival, and wished it to be
a surprise. -
The door opened, and Edel stepped lightly into
the room. She had not seen him at first, as he bowed,
and cried, suddenly arrested in her surprise:
“Morten 1–Welcome back, Hr. Jonsen l’” She
corrected herself an instant after, but a sudden gleam
of joy shot from her eyes which she could not help
any more than the flush which still suffused her face.
Some words were exchanged amid mutual embarrass-
ment, which neither of them could recall later, and
the conversation continued quite formal until Heg-
gelund appeared with a few questions about his jour-
ney and on general topics.
But Jomfru Dyring noticed that neither of them
ate during breakfast,-she had her own prognostica-
tions and ideas on the subject.
He felt his reception a friendly one, although little
by little the memory of his letter caused a more re-
served tone in both Edel and her father. He also
thought it rather singular that neither of them asked a
word about his plans, while Heggelund, in a friendly
way, took it for granted that he would stop some
time with them.
RETURN HOME, 171
Heggelund had grown noticeably old and bent
under the adversity which had befallen him, and Edel
seemed wholly devoted to the care of him. He was
sickly on some days, and did not leave his office,
which was also his sleeping-room. Then Edel was
with him nearly the whole day, reading or keeping
him company, and seeking to dissipate his dark, de-
spondent mood.
In this lonely life Edel often had the oppressed
feeling of an encaged bird, a longing for the world
often strongly possessed her; but she always sought
then to comfort herself by the thought of the duty
she had to perform at home. After Morten Jonsen
had written that he was to return to Norland, these
thoughts no longer haunted her; her home life had
suddenly acquired a completeness and interest for her.
Morten felt a sad, vivid sense of the changes which
had taken place. The same busy activity prevailed
as before, for down at the shop and the landing every-
thing went on in the old grooves; he saw Stuwitz
and the rest passing in and out of the warehouse, and
the harbor was all activity. But up at the great
house everything seemed extinct, and only two serv-
ant girls, and now and then a beggar, were to be seen
out in the courtyard. Marked retrenchments had
been made in the household service, and the shop-
people were now provided for by Stuwitz.
At noon, Heggelund, Edel, old Uncle Tobias, Jom-
172 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
fru Dyring and himself sat around a very small table
—a great change from former days. Uncle Tobias
was apparently revived by Morten’s arrival, but he
assiduously avoided all allusion to the home affairs.
He was put in good humor, and chuckled inwardly in
his peculiar manner when Morten, after dinner, when
they were alone, came over to his rocking-chair and
playfully lighted his pipe, in the same manner as on
his first evening at the house.
Uncle Tobias well remembered it, and afterward
requested to know about his interests, and what affairs
he was about to undertake, which Morten told him
briefly.
“Smart boy!—smart boy!” said Uncle Tobias, as
he gave his pipe to be lighted again. -
He sat reflecting for a time, and then exclaimed,
somewhat unexpectedly: -
“Hm. Edel is a handsome girl, Morten Jonsen l’”
Morten could not deny this, but avoided a talk on
the subject.
During the afternoon, Jomfru Dyring told him
about Fru Heggelund’s death, two years before.
“Yes,” she said, sighing deeply, “she heard that
which caused her death.”
“It was about New-Year, and the mistress was
stronger than she had been for a long time. One day
she stood in the green-room, outside the office, sorting
the linen in the clothes-press, they were expecting
RETURN HOME. 173
guests the following day. Stuwitz and her husband
were looking over the accounts inside, as they always
did at that time of the year. I could hear underneath
that they were talking in loud tones—Heggelund
especially,– but Stuwitz replied curtly and gruffly.
Then, poor thing, she heard how affairs stood, for it
was at that time that the trading-post was mort-
gaged. After Stuwitz left, she was in with Heg-
gelund for a long time, and the wretched man re-
mained the whole day in his locked office. The
mistress was very pale when she called me to her at
noon. She had been sitting alone on the sofa in
the cabinet. I had several times looked in, as I had
many things to ask her about, but did not dare to
disturb her. When I then came, she began to give
me explicit directions about the bed and table linen,
and all the finer things, which she always cared for
personally, as well as the necessary orders about one
of her poor sick people, whom she always nursed her-
self, as you know.”
Jomfru Dyring's emotion forced her to stop for
a moment, and her tears flowed as she continued:
“Then she gave me the big chased ring of keys
which she always wore in her belt. ‘You must
take them, Jomfru Dyring,” she said, ‘for I am sick
and must go to bed, and God knows if I shall ever
leave it again.' I made no objection, for her man-
ner was so solemn. She looked as calm and proud
174. THE BARQUE FUTURE.
as ever, but there was something in her eyes and
face as she gave me her orders which made my heart
heavy the whole night. She looked around the room
for an instant before going upstairs to bed. Then
she lay four days without speaking a word. The
last morning she pointed out the key to the cupboard
containing the sheets she wished to be laid out in,
and gave me her gold watch, which lay on her night-
table. She mentioned Edel and Hansine several
times. When the household folk were to come in
to receive her farewell, she whispered, and indicated
as she was wont, with a commanding gesture of the
hand, that she would not see Stuwitz.
“With her white hair against the pillow, she lay
in her bed like a queen in state, while the servants
and the old, poor people softly passed through the
room. Dean Muller was with her, and then Heg-
gelund was permitted to take her hand,- she had
heard him weeping behind the curtains of her bed.
I held her as she drew her last breath, and,” con-
cluded Jomfru Dyring, in her emotion, “she was
worthy to be queen, so great an honor was it to have
her for a mistress, and she was as true as gold to
those in whom she had once placed confidence.”
Morten took this to heart. He thought of all
the sorrow which had visited this once happy home,
and of Edel, who had borne all this on her young
shoulders.
RETURN HOME. 175
Edel had undeniably improved in appearance dur-
ing these years, and that not only in Morten Jonsen’s
partial eyes. The heavy, rich hair, and dark eyes,
lent her perhaps rather dark complexion a peculiar
beauty, and the pose of her head gave her bearing
a special charm. Adversity, and an inner and not
unruffled life, had impressed upon her face a soulful
and mature expression of mental growth and char-
acter unusual in so young a girl. There was in it,
perhaps inherited from her mother, a little too much
self-will.
Morten Jonsen appeared anything else than the
confident, composed wooer her angry fancy had de-
picted, and whom she would have met with all her
offended pride. The fact that he now sought her
neighborhood contradicted all the charges she had
made against him on that score, and her secretly
impetuous nature felt a repentant need of almost
asking his pardon for the wrong she had done him
in her heart.
The slight reserve which she had assumed after
her first encounter gave way on the following days
to more straightforward, natural relations. She was
one of those natures who have a wall about them,
and are therefore necessarily a little reserved. But,
nevertheless, there were certain obstructions in their
path.
Unaccustomed as she was to the world’s opinion,
176 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the young girl was pained and hurt by what she felt
he might be secretly thinking about their changed
home. A natural bearing in her, or a happy word
on his part, would have dissipated this; but Morten
was not sufficiently bold for that.
Therefore, those things which touched both more
nearly never came to be mentioned. Morten had
the feeling that she deliberately avoided all mention
of his future plans, and would not himself broach
the matter; still it was not long before these two
young people, who daily carried on a rather forced
conversation, felt pretty sure of each other's feelings.
They always came down into the parlor a good
while before the others, at breakfast, and they often
chanced to meet in the sitting-room when no others
were present. As a matter of course, this was purely
accidental on both sides, and she was always very
much absorbed in her occupation; but this being
alone together had a peculiar intoxication for them.
One afternoon she had gone to see Elias Rost, who
was sick, and Morten had promised to call for her.
They walked in the lovely moonlight, which silvered
mountain and bay, but neither of them had spoken
a word the whole distance. When they parted in
the hall, he said, suddenly:
“I shall soon go out to try my fortune, Miss
Edel !”
Morten had spent a week with them, on Heggel-
RETURN HOME. 177
und’s invitation, and must now leave, on account of
his business.
Every evening he had lain awake far into the
night, rehearsing all that had transpired during the
day; but the last two nights he had been wakeful
for another reason. He felt mightily tempted to
speak out at once his love for her, and had, at one
time, as good as, determined upon it; but then the
thoughts which had for the past few days been
quieted so remarkably again presented themselves—
his old pride, felt in the presence of the family to whom
he had come as a peasant-boy. He saw, in an ever-
stronger light, the humility of such a step, so long
as he had not first won his right to it, in the eyes
of the world, by an acquired position in life. What
would her father think? And Edel, what would she
herself think of such an empty-handed suitor, who
only offered her a few dubious prospects which no
one could have faith in.
At last it was clear, and he decided that if any
one on earth were to stand in such a position, at
any rate his name should not be Morten Jonsen.
In the morning he told them, more decidedly than
Edel had expected, that he intended to leave before
Il OOIl.
During the forenoon they were alone in the par-
lor. Morten spoke, for the first time, about his plans.
There was a peculiar tone in his voice which made
178 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Edel tremble as she sat and sewed. She had replied
in monosyllables. To one of his remarks she hap-
pened, for the sake of saying something, to ask:
“But why did you leave Bergen?”
“Because, Miss Edel,” he said, as if he would at
last give his heart vent, “I could not bear to live
so far away from —from —”
The young girl bent her flushed face low down
over her work. She awaited the very word he had
on his lips, the little word “you,”—and bowed in-
voluntarily, as does every woman, the moment she
perceives the decisive shot from Cupid’s bow.
Though so near it, Morten Jonsen did not utter
that word. He held fast to his previous resolution,
and concluded the sentence faintly:
“From Norland.” -
There was an oppressive silence, and then a few
indifferent words, on her part, but her face changed
expression. She had confidently expected his declara-
tion, felt that it was coming, and that he had evaded it.
As Morten sat in the boat, rowing out of the bay,
he felt a presentiment of good fortune. He had the
assurance of being loved, and the plans which he now
longed to put into execution, as soon as possible, had
gained a new rose light.
But he wondered a little that Edel had not no-
ticed his last greeting from the quay, which had been
directed especially to her.
RETURN HOME. 179
That evening the young maiden shed bitter tears
in private. She was pained and mortified that she
had been led into going further to meet him than
her pride could now bear. For she perceived that
it was as she first thought—he would not come until
he could stand before her commanding a position
worthy the consideration of her father and herself.
If empty-handed, his plans in reference to herself
would change, and she was valued no higher than to
let the matter depend upon whether he made a lucky
speculation or not.
“Well, Morten Jonsen,” she said to herself, an-
grily, “become rich, very rich, and you shall receive
your answer l’”
Jomfru Dyring unconsciously made the sting more
piercing. She had felt that all was not as she de-
sired it to be, and one day exclaimed, as by chance,
to help her favorite:
“Look you, miss, he is a man to be depended upon,
—he'll make a future for himself ”
How Edel hated the word “future,” used in this
sense !
Morten’s reason for hurrying his departure was,
that he still hoped to be able to meet the Nutto
family during their accustomed summer sojourn out
on Skorpen. *
When, after a seven years' absence, he landed at
180 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the steps beneath his parents' house, on the mountain
slope, he had a strange, startled feeling that it was
much smaller than he had remembered it. The broad,
sun-burnished surface of the sea, the great mountain
behind on the mainland, which now stood a bluish
crimson in the evening sun, and all the surroundings,
possessed a mighty beauty, which he again looked upon
with emotion,--it was the picture of his childhood;
only, in his fancy, the home cabin had filled a larger
Space.
He had kept his boat close to the shore, that he
might surprise them with his arrival, and wondered
if a flock of sheep, which he had seen on a moun-
tain-knoll, belonged to them at home.
Now he saw his mother sitting, as was her wont
on summer evenings, out on the door-step, with her
knitting-needles and ball of yarn in her lap. In a
few springs he took the steep steps and stood Sud-
denly before her on the threshold. It was an in-
stant before she believed her own eyes and embraced
her son, and still longer before she was herself again,
from the strong, sudden joy.
His father was out on a fishing expedition, and
would not be home for a week, - but he saw a
pretty seventeen-year-old, fair-haired girl, who greeted
him with wondering queries in her eyes, and was at
first somewhat shy. It was his little sister Christine,
who had grown up, and was the living image of her
RETURN HOME. 181
mother when she was young, only not quite so tall,
—and he learned that Eilert, his brother, was doing
well with a merchant in the north.
During the evening, his mother several times
looked critically at him ; but he appeared so happy
and content that she was satisfied.
As they sat alone together on the stone door-step,
far into the evening, he told her that he had given up
his place in Bergen—which caused her to clasp her
hands,-and enlarged upon his plans for establishing
a trading-post down at Finn Corner. He intended
to begin the matter, the Sooner the better, while the
Finns were still on the island, and, later, to accom-
pany them across to Karasuando, in Sweden, in order
to make his contemplated connections.
So soon as a boat, with all sorts of current wares
— coffee, sugars, tobacco, etc., which he expected to
follow him, should arrive, he intended to begin in a
way that would not startle them. In the beginning
he would use an upturned boat, on land, for a shop.
But the most important point was to induce the Kven
and Nutto families to give consent, and relinquish
their claim to the ground on Finn Point.
Marina listened to her son in silence,—she could
not criticise his plans; but one point puzzled her,
namely, his reason for all this, when he had so good
a position in Bergen.
He knew his mother's thoughts by her face, and
182 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
in the quiet, dusky evening he confided to her breast
all his love for Edel Heggelund.
She at once understood all, and entered with all
her heart into her son’s enterprise, only she hinted,
Smilingly, that he might have put his journey to
better and more satisfactory account when at Heg-
gelund's lately. When her son enlarged upon his
reasons, she made no reply; as his mother, she shared
his pride, but felt readily enough that, in Edel’s place,
she would be of another opinion.
She needed the whole night to get this passably
clear in her brain, and scarcely slept. She perceived
that her assistance might be of great importance in
the beginning, in winning a way for her son with
the Finns. Already, on the following afternoon, she
sat chatting familiarly of past and present down in
Mathis Nutto's tent, over a cup of coffee made of
beans which “her son had brought home with him.”
It so happened that they spoke of the days when
the Kven's daughter, Lyma, and Morten had been
such good friends, and the Kven and Mathis again
brought to mind how Marina had rescued Lyma and
her mother, the Kven’s first wife, and Nutto's daugh-
ter, from the skerry.
Another day, during a similar visit, she mentioned,
accidentally as it were, that her son had a boat-load
of wares with which he intended to trade; but she
hinted that it was not so easy for a beginner any-
RETURN HOME.
where in those parts, so long as Stuwitz was hanging
over them all like a hawk. -
She hit a truth here which she knew went home
to them, on account of their old enmity to the latter,
and also because it was a fact, for Stuwitz was known
to be always on the watch against all competitors,
and to avail himself of every measure to ruin them.
She had that day a package of presents which Mathis
was to take to Sweden to Lyma from Morten, and
for his trouble he received a half-plug of tobacco.
Marina readily won these people, and in this she
showed herself both delicate and clever.
When Jon Zachariasen came home, he found, to
his almost dismayed astonishment, that his son had
returned, and was about opening a trade from his
improvised shop under the upturned boat down on
the ground near the Kven’s tents. A number of
Finns had already put in an appearance to barter
and trade, and on the strand lay a couple of boat-
crews whom the report had brought thither from the
mainland.
Jon did not express to his son, at any length, his
opinion of the step he had taken, or as to what he had
before him in carrying out his undertaking. But to
Marina he did not conceal his displeasure, and said
that the little he had, which was a surety, he was
only casting away for that of which no one could tell
what it would amount to ; his son was now grown,

THE BARQUE FUTURE.
and knew more than his simple father, so he must
look to himself for advice. Then she confided to
him his reason for this, which she knew, and it soft-
ened him somewhat; but he thought that if this fine
miss would not take Morten in his present position,
she was not worth pursuing. His mind was turned
against her for having led Morten astray, and he
was frequently a bit querulous toward Marina, because
he felt that she thought otherwise. He once ex-
claimed that there was “too much self-pride in it all
to be right.”
The prices Morten bid Mathis Nutto for his skins
in exchange for goods the following summer pleased
the latter so greatly that one day, of his own accord,
he asked him to accompany them across to Karasuando,
where he promised him any quantity of skins.
During this time, Morten had many doubts which
he did not confide to his parents. There were many
lacks in his new outfit; soon one commodity gave
out and then another, whereas trade ought to keep
its even way, so that customers may not be offended
for lack of supply, or acquire mistrust. The sloop
with which he had expected a new stock from Trond-
hjem came alongside Skorpen at the last moment,
when in despair he thought that a couple of days
would find him compelled to let the people go be-
cause the shop was empty.
He had assured himself of the Kven’s relinquish-


RETURN HOME.
ment of Finn Point for the consideration of a yearly
rent and other profits, if he also won the consent
of Mathis Nutto and his sons.
The autumn was advanced, and the Finns were
already on their tedious march high up in the Norse
mountain-peaks near the boundary line, when his
brother Eilert one day, to his unspeakable relief, made .
his appearance, and took charge of matters at Finn
Corner.
He was ready to leave the very next day. He
filled a knapsack with some goods from the shop,
mirrors, handkerchiefs, etc., suitable for presents
when he should arrive at his destination, crossed the
sound that afternoon, and had already made a good
piece of the journey across the mainland.
8%

CHAPTER XIV.
THE FINLAND JOURNEY — SILVER SARA.
FTER a couple of days' hard foot-travel, he found
himself a guest in Mathis Nutto's tent. He
had but little money with him, as most of it was
needed for the business of the shop, and he hoped
to be home again about Christmas-time, in order to
arrange for supplies.
As to the undertaking he had before him, he
hoped to win a support in Mathis Nutto, and Lyma's
husband as well, no less an influential person in Kara-
stiando. If these two families sold him their skins,
many would follow their example, and Finn Corner
would become a trade-point.
The march with the twelve hundred reindeer, the
motley crowd, large and small, composing the four
households of the Nutto family, proceeded, in a hazy,
wet atmosphere, through the greater part of the val-
ley on the Norse side, and gradually passed on over
the lonely mountain wastes.
Out on the endless sea of rock, the Lapp takes
his way, with his remarkable instinct for piloting
himself by old landmarks familiar from his child-
hood, guided by the moss which always grows on

186
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 187
the south side of the rocks, and by the stars. “North
Needle,” “The Virgin Group,” “The Bows,” and
“The Ship,” are his names for the North Star, the
Pleiades, the Great Bear and Orion. With the morn-
ing and evening stars, these form the blinking points
on his blue chart of the heavens.
Among the wave-formations of the gray moun-
tain, there is sometimes, on its top, one or another
peculiarly-shaped boulder, which, from the many horns
strewed about the spot, one can see has been the ob-
ject of the Finn’s worship. Such an one, which they
silently passed, received, also unseen by Morten, in
all secrecy, its tribute from Mathis Nutto, who, though
a Christian, did not desire to be in disfavor with the
God of the Lapps by departing from the customs of
his fathers.
An old, gray-haired woman, who had joined the
company up in the valley, and who was most fantastic-
ally clothed with all sorts of pendants in brass and sil-
ver—under her fur she wore a broad silver belt, knelt
for a long time, making her grimaces more openly,
before the stone, which, according to the old heathen
doctrine, she, as a woman, ought not to approach.
She was known as “Silver Sara.” She was half a
wanderer in habit, and considered a prophetess, who
was mistress of all arts, wherefore her advice was
secretly asked by many, and she was generally feared.
The march kept straight on across the mountain
188 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
pasture. They were anxious to find for the animals
moss which had not been grazed for the last ten
OI’ fifteen years-for this is the length of time re-
quired for the regrowth of the moss, and on every
such patch they would gladly halt for several days.
Now and then, quite unexpectedly, a deep valley
would open, invisible until they reached its very edge
—a gigantic fissure in the lofty mountain’s plain.
Below this stood the dwarf birches in among the
ferns and brakes; the grassy slopes, with the clouds
of fog, broke by the midday sun, overhanging them,
while their loftier sisters beneath, in the calm, clear,
autumnal day, mirrored their golden-leaf crowns in the
still, bright water, whose surface was only ruffled by
the spring of a fish, or the wing of a mountain bird
flying low across it, frightened by the noise and shouts
of the approaching train, or the rifle of the Finn,
which reëchoed among the hills.
At this late season of the year, the Lapps' migra-
tion across the mountains was usually rendered dis-
mal and hard by frequent snow-fog. They willingly
encounter this, that the snow as early as possible may
spread its warm covering over the moss-fields before
the hoar-frost covers them with so thick a sheet of
ice that the shovel-formed hoof of the reindeer, which
throws the snow to one side, is unable to break
through with its fore-feet and paw up the moss for
itself and young.
*.
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 189
On this occasion, unfortunately, the signs seemed
to predict such weather. The hitherto mild, though
cloudy, atmosphere changed, and the clear, golden-
purple days were followed by still, cold nights, which
spread a sparkling, starry dome, with but a faint rim
of aurora, over the endless mountain-waste, across
which the tents were now moved in forced diurnal
marches. The degree of cold at night was indicated
by the moss-hollows, which the black-frost covered
with an ever-thicker coating of ice, and with the heavy
rime, which gave a thousand glittering tints to the
stones and threads of the moss. The evening and
morning red fills the greater part of the day with
rare, gold-tipped clouds, at this season of the year,
and lends a peculiar arctic coloring to everything.
Beneath, in the mountain valleys, the birches sparkled
in the faint, slanting rays of the midday sun. On
their white branches were only left a remnant of their
golden leaves as the reindeer snapped at them when
their masters pushed their way through, or a fright-
ened ptarmigan flew up.
In these doubtful days, Mathis Nutto's spirits
were at a low ebb, and Silver Sara’s charms for the
moment were not in favor, for he believed that either
she had secretly marked him out for the anger of
the “Stable Sprite,” or some other mountain-spirit,
or that she was perverse and unwilling to “change
the weather.” In his need for sympathy, he told
190 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Morten, one day, that his dead wife could “control
the weather,” and trace the road, in mist or snow-
fog, whenever the best of the mountain Finns stood
in doubt.
Silver Sara looked almost witch-like in her wild-
ness as she walked along in her broad fur cloak, with
her gray locks around her yellow, sunken face. Her
eyes burned like two coals, and she supported her bent
figure on a staff. -
She kept aloof from the others, and would sing and
mumble to herself for hours. Probably she felt what
was demanded of her, and that her credit was endan-
gered.
Morten could not determine whether she regarded
him with friendly eyes or not. The first day she said,
kindly, that he was so fine and fair, and that she read
good fortune in his face; but she now kept herself at
a distance, and from one of Mathis Nutto's sons-in-law
he heard that she had mumbled something about the
strange man’s being no advantage to the journey. He
suspected that he risked being held responsible for the
black frost, if the weather did not change.
One afternoon she suddenly began to make remark-
able grimaces before Mathis Nutto's tent door. She
had out her enchanted box, and predicted a change
in the weather soon, and therewith was very enraged
against Mathis, insisting that he had slighted some
mountain sprite. A number of ceremonies were enact-
THE FINI, AN ID JOURNEY. 191
ed in Mathis's tent that evening, at which neither the
occupants of the other tents nor Morten Jonsen were
present; and thereupon there was singing and drink-
ing of brandy by one and all of the family, in the
principal tent, until bedtime. The brandy did not
fail to affect the different persons sitting in a half.
circle about the fire; they were very merry, and
Morten had the impression that they were celebrating
a festival, the real significance of which they would
not explain.
During all this time, old Mathis sat, a little with-
drawn from the rest, in his accustomed place near the
fire, puffing away at his short stump of a pipe. What
an artful cleverness lay in that genuine Finnish face,
with its broad, low brow, oblique, brown eyes, high
cheek bones and pointed chin
At supper, besides reindeer meat and the usual
victuals, extra dishes and delicacies were served, pre-
pared by the daughters-in-law.
Silver Sara’s stock had evidently risen again since
she predicted a change of weather. Meantime, the
prospect was not favorable, as the following day was
as cold and clear as those previous had been.
Silver Sara was irritable and restless, while the
other faces openly wore a look of anxious suspense.
Later on in the day she seemed more quiet and
confident again. In the evening, when the folk who
remained from watching the deer were encamped
192 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
about the fire, chatting, Mathis happened to mention
Big Lars, whom he had known out on Skorpen; and
Morten then spoke of how he had lived with his par-
ents at home, and been the comrade of his childhood.
At last he told, by their request, the details of his
death. -
It was strange to see Silver Sara then, who had
been leaning on her staff in the shadow, behind the
others, involuntarily advance, step by step, nearer to
the speaker, and stand, breathlessly listening. She
stood so long after he had finished.
Morten could not rid himself of the impression
which this made upon him.
During the night, he lay awake for a time. The
lamp, filled with reindeer fat, with a rush for a wick,
burned dimly, hung from the rafter above the half.
extinguished fire, where the clothes and shoes were
hung to dry, and in whose warm ashes one or more
of the tired dogs now faintly barked in their sleep.
. The usual dense smoke had lifted to the top of the
tent. The members of the family, except the two
near him, who were within the rays of light, lay fur-
ther back in the gloom, on their several beds of rein-
deer-skins, spread over bundles of faggots, which
formed the floor.
Then it seemed to him that he saw a shadow rise
from that part of the tent where Silver Sara’s bed
lay, and vanish in the circle of sleepers, until it again
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. . 193
appeared near the foot of his own bed. There it
remained lying, for a time, like a being fallen pros-
trate to the earth. He thought he heard low, Sup-
pressed sighs, whereupon the shadow again arose and
glided back into the darkness.
This mysterious conduct on the part of Silver Sara,
—for it could be no one else, set his imagination
to work in the lonely hours of the night.
In his dreams, her form assumed the most remark-
able shapes. It grew colossal, and stood in the center
of a circle, where the others lay laughing and singing,
and with wild gestures and flowing hair “conjured
up a storm.” A tempest howled about her form while
she threatened with her staff, at the same time call-
ing upon her. Finnish divinities.
He was wakened by a great noise and many
shouts; —it was as if his dream had become a reality,
for he felt a cold wind whistling about him in the
darkness. --
A snow-storm had blown up during the night,
and had torn away one side of the tent. Its violence
forced Mathis Nutto to remove his tents into the lee
of the mountain-cliff, where the deer, of their own
accord, had also sought refuge through the snow.
There they were snow-bound for two dark days, dur-
ing which the storm-gusts now raised and now swept
away huge drifts of snow.
Silver Sara's power was again confirmed by this
9
194 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
event, for, as the change in the weather had come
unexpectedly, and just after her prediction, no one
doubted that she had caused it. She received their
many evidences of acknowledgment with a reserved
dignity. That she was able to read certain signs
unknown to others, or feel the changes of the atmos-
phere in her rheumatic limbs, was now the prosaic
interpretation of Morten Jonsen, which, however, he
wisely kept to himself.
What impressed him much more was Silver Sara’s
noticeable friendliness toward himself ever since the
evening he had talked about Big Lars. There was an
almost humble attachment in her bearing. She would
sit of an evening near the fire and grease his Lapland
boots, which suitable foot-covering Norsemen gladly
avail themselves of also on such trips, and fill them
with fresh dry grass. One evening he secretly ob-
served her as she sat near the fire at this work.
He discovered that she raised the finished shoes to
her lips before setting them away. This incompre-
hensible conduct on her part puzzled him not a little;
but he also noted that her friendship was of great
value to him among the Finns.
They had now crossed the great mountain-wastes,
and gradually reached the lower ridges over on the
Swedish side, where the lakes begin, and the barren
character of the moss-grown moors is softened. The
thinly-frozen bogs would not yet bear the deer, and
3)
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 195
the train therefore kept as near the ridge as possible.
The picturesque summer dress, with the tolle-knife
hanging from the handsome belt, had been changed,
in the cold and snow of the mountain, for the red-
bordered, fur-edged cloaks and the square fur hats
trimmed in the same fashion, which could be com-
fortably turned down over the ears. The Lapp now
wore a peculiar kind of snow-shoes, one short and
the other long, and warm fleeced overshoes.
It was winter, and the snow lay deep when they
at last reached the Lapp village, where a few huts,
partly occupied, stood grouped together, with the
Snow tramped down around them ; and the hearths
were lighted in their own four huts, only the snow-
laden peaks of which could be seen.
The Finns were now for some months permanently
settled again, while the deer were watched further up
on the mountain-wastes, where they sought the moss
under the snow.
In these quiet winter months the mountain Lapp
makes himself comfortable. He pays great heed to
cleanliness: bathing the feet is the duty of the
women, according to old custom.
Christenings, confirmations and weddings take
place at this time down at the distant church, a good
day's journey off, and these festivities are carried on
amid renewed associations of the several families.
Lyma's astonishment was great at seeing her old
196 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
friend again. The heart of the Finn lies near the
lip, and she never ceased wondering that he had
become such a strong, handsome man. He, on his
part, found that the years had told somewhat upon
the handsome Lyma. Five children had been born
to her since that time; the youngest was now to be
baptized. But the dark eyes, in which all the warmth
of a Finn heart glowed, and the childlike, winning
ways, were still hers. This was apparent in all her
eager inquiries after Marina, her unrestrained happi-
ness over his presents, and her merry laughter at
reminiscences of the old days, which she gradually
revived. -
Her husband, Isak Pelto, laughed with her; his
wife's happiness seemed to impart itself to him, and
he would not yield until Morten had assented to move
from Mathis Nutto's hut to his own.
The following days he spoke to Lyma of the object
of his trip, and at last also of his plan concerning a
trading-post down at Finn Corner. He told her that
his future was dependent on his success in this, and
begged her to help him so far as she was able.
Lyma's face wore an anxious look, as if she had
not the heart to speak out her real meaning. She
well remembered all the dissensions with Stuwitz on
this account, and how stiff Mathis Nutto had been.
Her husband had not been favorable to the matter
either; “but one can persuade him now,” she added,
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 197
Smiling somewhat roguishly. After all, Silver Sara,
whose favor for him she had heard him relate with
wonder, was perhaps the one who could best help him.
It was doubtful, however, whether they ought to trust
her; she had been the soul of the former resistance
to Stuwitz. Lyma finally earnestly advised him to
keep silence as to his intentions, until she had sounded
further, and had had time to win her husband over
to his interest.
Meanwhile he traded for valuable skins of the
silver bear, silver fox, ermine, etc., in no insignificant
quantities, not only with Mathis Nutto, his sons and
Isak Pelto, but with other Finns also, and felt that
he was in a fair way to gain both their confidence and
favor. It was agreed that one of Mathis’ sons should
bring the skins down in the spring to a certain place
in the Norse valley, whence he could fetch them.
What he bought of others he intended to take with
him. His greatest anxiety now was that so much
time had passed: it was already nearing Christmas,
and the shop was probably out of goods. The hard
choice was before him, of either returning home
without having effected his purpose, and with his
business half done, or of letting the shop-trade go
to ruin. With a heavy heart he chose the latter.
On week-days the men amused themselves by
driving in sledges to various — sometimes distant —
Finn towns, in “search of stray deer,” as they usually
198 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
said. But often this was only a pretext for a com-
fortable chat and a treat of brandy and coffee.
On such trips, now with one and now with another,
Morten was fortunate in making acquaintances, and
concluding a series of trades; but here, too, difficul-
ties appeared, concerning which Silver Sara one day in-
formed him that they originated with a couple of buy-
ers who were enraged at the high prices he offered.
He had promised Lyma to stand godfather to her
son the first baptismal Sunday. She had named the
child Martin’” for him and his mother.
After church there was a sort of market also.
Up to Saturday, many companies—group after
group—of Finns, in sledges, passed down across the
snow-decked valleys to the church. While under
way, the Finn balances his sledge with his body,
now and then supporting himself against the crust
by one of his deerskin-mittened hands. If the pacing
deer becomes tired and impatient, it sometimes turns
upon its master, who, quick as lightning, casts his
sledge over himself, while the raging animal belabors
the bottom with its horns and fore-feet. As soon
as the attack is over, the Lapp gayly rights the sledge
again and continues his way until he deems it time
to exchange the draught-deer for the pack-deer, which
follows behind fastened by a rope.
From the side valleys other church-goers gradu-
* Martin for Morten and Marina.
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 199
ally appeared, falling into line behind the crowd,
wending their way across the white country in their
red caps like a long, bright-colored, variegated cord,
now disappearing among the birches, now visible
again on the hills along the river. Down on the
frozen stream, - the Lapp's own royal road, when
cataracts do not forbid his driving, the train was
constantly augmented.
When they halted on a holm in one of the snow-
covered lakes, late in the afternoon, the greater part
of the church congregation had assembled. After
some disturbance, because a couple of the party had
driven their deer across a drag-line, order was re-
stored. The snow-shoes, which lay on the provision
sledges, were thrust as stakes into the snow. The
draught animals were tied to these, and white moss
strewed before them, while they stood scraping in
the snow for more. The women took out reindeer
meat, tongue, cheese, and other such things, from the
sledges, while the brandy-flasks appeared from the
breast-pockets of the men, where they had been put
by for the severe cold. -
It is a solemn sight to see all this host, in the
clear, cold afternoon, out on the barren Snow-holms,
when they uncover their heads, in Finn-Lapp custom,
and kneel in prayer before meal-time. Morten felt as
if he were in a church larger than any he had ever
yet entered.
200 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Later they were merry enough, and broke up after
some hours' time, when the moon had already risen.
A couple of deer had slipped loose, and had first to
be caught. When its master moves in search after
it, the line, suddenly thrown, darts like a black shadow
across the snow. The animal feels the rope about
its horns and rises on its hind-legs while the Lapp
draws him toward him. The angry animal’s fore-
feet strike at last upon its master's thick coat-collar,
which he has turned up, and which, when it is made
of thick bear-skin, scarcely lets him feel the blows.
They had expected to reach the church huts at
two or three o’clock in the morning; but a thick
fog, which overtook them on one of the larger lakes,
compelled the line to make another halt, as they
found they had been traveling in a circle for an
hour, and had returned to their old trail.
The wooden church’ lies on the bank of a river,
with an outlook over the valley, which is full of
gravelly knolls, left by the stream, and there is a
small birch-grove in the churchyard. The north side
of the minister's house-wall is exposed to the weather,
and in winter is usually buried in drifts to the peak
of the gable, while windows and doors are kept par-
tially free by shoveling away the Snow. There was a
noisy stir in the church huts that Sunday forenoon,
which ceased only when the service began and the
crowd streamed into church. With the exception of
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 201
the minister's family, who sat on the bench near the
pulpit, beside the sheriff and the sacristan in half
Finnish garb, the congregation consisted almost en-
tirely of mountain Finns, who very devoutly listened
to the sermon. Lyma's child was baptized with sev-
eral other little ones, and then a marriage service
was performed.
The ceremony was in accordance with Swedish
custom : a couple of young men holding a silk ker-
chief— the pell — over the bride, who stood in her
handsome Finn dress, with a crown on her head,
while the groom had a white Scarf bound across his
breast and around his wrist.
In red-bordered jacket, with white bear-skin col-
lar, and glass beads adorning her breast, a trimmed
helm-shaped hat, from which red ribbons fluttered,
and with fine little white Finnish boots turned up at
the toes, and handsome tasseled ribbons around her
ankles. Thus was the bride dressed, and, as she came
flying on her skees (snow-shoes) down to church with
her staff in hand and her face freshened by the wind,
she was a real beauty.
Down at the church huts, meanwhile, noisy scenes
were taking place, caused by earnestly-expressed opin-
ions concerning a “holy priest,” and, perhaps, no less
by the secret sale of brandy by the dealer, in spite
of the day, and the danger he ran of being punished
for Sabbath-breaking.
202 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Acquaintances met with the half embrace, and
customary greeting of “burist, burist,” offering the
bottle. There were two groups, the one standing
about a long-bearded Russian merchant from the east,
the other around a confidential clerk from Gamvik, in
the interior, who, ready for his departure, stood in
Finn cloak and Norse fur cap, concluding bargains for
his principal.
A third person, who attracted Morten’s attention
more than the other two, was a tall, brutal-looking
fellow in a fur cap and woolen coat reaching nearly to
his feet, and, for the rest, dressed like a Swedish peas-
ant. He was a merchant, living seventy miles south-
ward, and who, until strangers had latterly begun to
force their way into the market, had virtually controlled
the entire fur trade in these parts. He was the per-
son whom Silver Sara had previously pointed out to
Morten as his maligner in the Finn town above, and
felt, by many things, that his person that day, in
a marked degree, was the object of the other’s ac-
tive hostility. The man, who usually stood with a
brandy-bottle in his hand, filling the glasses of a
group of his customers, had twice passed him, and
each time, apparently without design, roughly pushed
against him in his haste without offering an apology.
From the circle surrounding him, Morten now
and then, as he passed by, heard snatches of sentences
which were not agreeable to him, since he perceived
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 203
that they referred to himself, and they were received
by these bystanders with peels of laughter.
Lyma, from her position further back, had caught
the situation. She hurried over to him and bade
him come with them, as they were all ready to start.
Morten begged them to wait for him a quarter of
an hour, as he would then have concluded his last
trade for the day. He looked so composed that she
was reassured, but her anxiety was renewed when
she saw him slowly saunter in among the unfriendly
groups, and then, as though nothing had happened,
commence to bargain for a couple of skins. He half
turned his back upon the Swedish tradesman, who,
as before, stood with his olden-time brandy-bottle in
hand talking, though in a somewhat lower voice, and
no longer about him. When he heard the high price
which Morten Jonsen now paid in cash — the very
last that he possessed—he could not refrain from an
angry, scornful exclamation. But that very moment
Morten’s face was close to his, with such a look in
his eyes that the man involuntarily moved a step or
two back. Morten laid his hand upon his shoulder
and said coldly:
“You have pushed me roughly aside twice to-day,
and both times forgotten to ask pardon; it was your
intention, then?”
The man seemed to hesitate a little — he was a
tall, heavy fellow, but there was something in Mor-
204 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
ten's bearing which compelled him to lower his eyes
and declare that he had not thought of offending
him.
“I thought so,” said Morten, mildly; “but it could
do no harm to satisfy myself.”
He had gained his object—to face the man amid
his own troops, and he bade one of them, whom
he had just seen laughing, to carry the skins over
to the sledge for him.
They began the journey home immediately, and
at the baptism of Isak Pelto's child, Morten finally
broached the subject of a trading-post at Finn Corner.
This important affair, after much consideration back
and forth, at last fell out to his satisfaction, he bind-
ing himself to respect the right of way for the deer,
which they had had from earlier times. A paper
was made out and signed by the parties concerned.
This fortunate conclusion was brought about chief-
ly, perhaps, by Mathis Nutto, he having looked upon
Morten as Stuwitz’s enemy.
Two days after this had been concluded, Lyma, one
morning, bound his shoes on his feet, according to
the Finnish custom of hospitality, and, weeping,
wished him, from her tent door, “God’s peace.”
Her husband was to accompany him to a Finn
town further north in the country, where he intended
to make his last purchases, and get the rest of the
skins which he was to take with him over the mount-
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 205
ain. There he met Silver Sara again, who during
the winter wandered about in all the Finn settle-
ments.
He soon discovered that the sentiment was not so
favorable to him, with the exception of the man to
whose hospitality Isak Pelto had recommended him,
and who also at once sold him his stock of skins.
He found the people strikingly surly. They were
evidently prejudiced against him, and probably by the
Swedish merchant. They had heard that he had
traded for the possession of the Finn ground belong-
ing to the Nutto family, and taken a deed of it; and
this information had excited considerable irritation.
Notwithstanding this difficult state of affairs, Morten
determined to remain until his business was con-
cluded.
Once, on opening one of his carefully-wrapped
packages, he found a number of bare spots on the
skins, and on close inspection discovered small bits
of a dried; probably an eating, plant strewed among
them. A blue vein swelled on his broad brow as he
silently lifted and spread out package after package
on the snow, to see how far the damage had extended,
as well as to purify them. Fortunately, very few of
the costly furs were spoiled. He thought best to say
nothing about this; but his suspicion was awakened
against the man in the neighboring tent, a short,
square-built Finn with hard features, who had daily
206 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
access to the tent, and who had but little power to
conceal his unfriendly sentiments. His name was
Josias Umek, and he was a sort of buyer for the
Swedish merchant among the Finns in those parts.
He was free with the brandy at that time in his tent,
and made many exciting speeches, in which the pre-
viously mentioned information was made use of
The circumstance which had first awakened Mor-
ten's suspicion against him occurred the very day after
his arrival, when this man had offered himself as a
guide to the nearest settlements. As they were driv-
ing an unruly animal through a closely-grown alder
grove, while at full speed the sledge suddenly whirled
on to an open place filled with loose ice. By his
presence of mind he escaped the apparently fatal
situation, but was badly hurt. The lines that drew
the sledge were half cut off, and could not bear the
weight when the sledge swerved. On his return,
Silver Sara earnestly warned him against trusting
himself to any other guide than the sons of the man
whose guest he was, and in whose tent he lived.
The discovery of this tampering with the skins
was a severe trial to Morten Jonsen’s self-control;
but his judgment told him that an open break would
only serve his enemies, and his proper course was to
keep silent. He remarked that his host often sat
lost in thought during this time, and was usually
at home, while his two sons, on the contrary, were
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 207
generally absent. Their manner toward him was
somewhat evasive and reserved.
One afternoon there was an unusual stir in front
of the tents. The deer had been gathered together
to select some stray animals, about which there
was question,- among the thousands, every mountain
Finn knows his own animals.
Their jackets, white with frost, in the bitter cold,
lay thrown upon the snow, while their owners, in
woolen shirts, open at the breast, flushed and heated,
were searching about among the restless animals with
their leather reins over their shoulders.
As Morten Jonsen stood outside the tent door,
viewing the scene, the lash of a leather thong, in the
end of which there was probably a lead bullet, hit
from behind so sharply on the tent-pole, near his
head, that the tree split. He felt a sharp pressure
of the air on his eye, as if a ball had whizzed past.
Josias Umek passed by just then, swinging the
line anew over his head, as if he were absorbed in
practicing a cast with it and had not noticed him,
but his passionate eye and bearing lacked altogether
the look of innocence.
Morten’s anger at this unwarranted attack left
him no time for self-control. With a spring, he set
upon the offender, who had no chance to ward him
off. Morten felt a certain relief in at last having
open war. -
208 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
For a moment his opponent, by his heavy fall,
saw thousands of stars twinkling confusedly before
his eyes, while the others stood idly by, not think-
ing of interference. Morten needed that minute for
breath and reflection. Suddenly he let him loose
and returned to the tent, when he told them that
Josias had attempted to hit him, and pointed out to
them the mark of the blow on the pole.
A gathering ensued. They shouted to each other,
and seemed to sympathize with Josias, who, threat-
ening and complaining over this attack, withdrew to
his hut, -he had felt his enemy’s hand, and did not
care for another encounter.
Now that the rupture had, unfortunately, taken
place, and their enmity become an open one, Morten
perceived that his stay was anything but safe. The
face of his host showed that he, also, was seriously
alarmed. What might befall him on the lonely, law-
less mountain he had already sufficient evidence of,
and danger might lurk behind every snow-drift. On
the other hand, he would not, except in extreme
necessity, lose his hardly-won goods. He sat for a
time considering the matter. It might be just as
hazardous to fly as to remain, and, at all events, he
would win nothing if he permitted his enemies to
suspect that he was frightened. He therefore made
a tour of the huts soon after, and chatted with the
family in the evening as if nothing had happened;
THE FINLAND Journey. 209
they seemed to be greatly embarrassed. At heart,
Morten did not feel his life secure on the approach
of night, but he apparently slept as peacefully as
usual; — in truth, he lay pondering over some out-
let, or way of escape, until sleep overpowered him.
An hour after those who were to watch the deer
the latter half of the night had dragged themselves
out, he was awakened by a hand carefully touching
him upon the shoulder. He was wide awake in an
instant, and ready for that which he felt in his blood
— danger. It was his host, Jens Ibmel, who whis-
pered to him to dress himself. Outside, the deer stood
ready, with his skins on the sledge, and one to ac-
company him over the mountains. It was no longer
comfortable for him there, said Jens Ibmel, seriously,
and it was best that he should leave before anyone
thought he had the intention of doing so.
Morten felt that the whole family were awake, but
that none of them, on account of the other Finns,
would venture to be his companion, or have any share
in his flight, whilst their hospitality, on the other hand,
obliged them to endeavor to prevent any harm from
befalling him.
He now heard that a paper was the especial cause
of their vengeance,—the one which he had made out
with Mathis Nutto, and in which these people, who
had no interest in Finn Corner, believed themselves
to be insulted. He took a secret cordial farewell of
9%
210 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
his host, who had lent him two sledges for his goods
and provisions, as well as the necessary number of
exchange deer. He saw, to his surprise, that it was
Silver Sara who was to guide him. She was already
seated in her sledge with her dog by her side,
and he learned afterward that it was she who had
urged Jens Ibmel to bring about his departure so
hurriedly.
A cut of the whip, a spring into the sledge, and
they took leave of the Finn town, wending their way
across the ridge in the cold, clear night. The great
round moon, with its blue starry background, seemed
to hurry them along the high ridges, while the auro-
ra's electric flashes of red, green, violet and blue
flame-belts, with its, in these regions, marvelous tones
of color, for a moment vanished, and then again shot
out over the heavens like a red billowy sea. The
tongues of fire seemed at times almost to lick the
snow-hills, and all the white, moonlit landscape was
for a time without shadow.
In this interval, when it was so light that one
could almost see a pin on the surface of the snow,
Silver Sara’s sledge and deer stood out in peculiar
isolation before him. The natural surroundings, so
grand in themselves, gradually grew into a most
mysterious and awful silence, from which his senses
found relief when the moon’s shadows became again
visible, and the outlines of the picture assumed their
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 211
natural proportions. He half felt that he was trav-
eling alone at midnight, following a witch.
In the mystic light of the aurora, the Finn be-
lieves himself in the presence of departed spirits. He
knows that the light permits itself to approach near
the snow-hills if he waves a white sheet, and that it
will vanish at certain sounds; and on such wonderful
nights he sees the underground people with their
herds of deer with gleaming horns, flying before the
aurora, which pursues them with its tongues of fire.
Their journey continued in unbroken speed across
the interior toward the mountain, with Silver Sara’s
dog unweariedly barking in advance and guiding them
the entire night and until the noon of the next day,
when they took a short rest at a deserted hut to thaw
Some reindeer meat. From her face and few words
he judged that she feared Josias Umek and his
comrades would perhaps have started in pursuit of
them in the morning. The lading deer were changed,
and they hurried on during the afternoon and evening
until, at a late hour, they at last stopped at another
deserted hut. *
Here they gave the animals and themselves some
hours of rest, when toward morning they were again
on their way. It was only after two and a half days'
journey, on reaching the mountain-waste, that Silver
Sara made longer halts, and she then seemed to feel
more secure. She said that it was a six-days’ journey
212 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
over to the place, in the Norse valley, where he
would himself know the way and she might leave
him.
One evening they were overtaken on the waste
by a furious snow-storm. For a time Silver Sara
laboriously sought the position of the moss on the
stones, and other signs to indicate the path, but was
at last obliged to give up as lost, and stop. Her
proceedings meantime sustained his courage. She
quietly placed the sledges and animals together, and
put all in order for them to be snowed in. They
were obliged to spell each other in turning their
skees in the sides of the drift in order to make a
breathing-hole in their warm snow-chambers.
The storm raged the following day also. He
noticed that Silver Sara often fell to pondering, and
it seemed as if the old woman had something on
her heart. Hers was a face which, despite its shriv-
eled shell and its usual bitter look, might well have
been beautiful in her youth, – at any rate this oc-
curred to him when looking at her once, while he
was in secret wondering what could have induced
this remarkable woman, in her manner so harsh, to
make such sacrifices for him. t
She must have read something of this wonder in
his face, for soon after, in the dusk, she began in a
low tone to talk with him. She sat with her face in
her hands, and Morten soon found that she was speak-
THE EINLAND JOURNEY. 213
ing of Big Lars, and seeking to give vent to her
heart’s sorrow, to him. It was a thick shell, hardened
by the growth of years, which now, amid a con-
stantly growing emotion, until her voice became al-
most inaudible, burst under the hidden bitterness
and misery of a despairing heart.
She was the Kven maiden whom Big Lars had
loved, and who had been enticed on board Wassilieff’s
sloop, “now over twenty years since,” she said,
“and God has let me live longer than I desired.”
“Wassilieff had promised to take me for his wife,
but he did not keep his promise. When, later, I
wandered home on foot, over the mountain from Rus-
sia, with my child on my back, wolves and bears
might have taken me and welcome, so indifferent was
I to life; for I thought it impossible for me to come
again to Lars, though my whole soul drew me thither.
Aimless I wandered, as in a fog, and of the whole, re-
member only that I nourished myself with cloud-
berries, and got milk for the child at the huts, after
I had no more for it myself. Down in the inclosed
fields near Olsvaag, which old Corporal Stuwitz owned
at that time, his son came across me. I became their
servant, and was as obedient to him as a dog. He
said I ought to be glad when my child died; I buried
it on the mountain. Since then I have heard it many
times crying up in the fields.
“When Stuwitz went to Brogelmann, in Kolle-
214 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
fjord, he placed me at service with the mountain Finn,
Jakob Nutto, brother of Mathis. He had many deal-
ings with him—not all of them good, for Jakob had
helped care for the goods from a vessel which they
had plundered at sea. There was a trial about it
at court, and I could have told what would not have
pleased them about where the goods were hidden.
Stuwitz relied on me, for he knew I was obedient
in everything, and I helped him to exchange for silver
round about, both in the South and north, the rix-
dollar notes which he had hidden under a plank in the
floor over in Olsvaag.
“One summer I went to my mother's and lay sick
there. She told me that Stuwitz had helped Wassilieff
at the time that they got me on board the sloop.
Then Lars came in one day and spoke to me, and
looked so pityingly on me, but I could not answer
him, and replied only in my delirium. During the
night I fled, going to Olsvaag, a day's journey dis-
tant.
“I felt that I, a poor down-trodden worm, could
avenge myself, and the next time Stuwitz came to
Olsvaag, his silver money was gone. I knew it cut
him sorely, but he dared not make inquiries concerning
it. I went to Jakob Nutto one day with the paper
money, saying I had questioned the spirits over in
the mountain. From that day I was called Silver
Sara, and they believed more and more that I could
THE FINLAND JOURNEY. 215
perform wonders. I let them retain their belief in
me, and many times believed in it myself- because I
hated God and all mankind, and thought the evil
spirits were with me. Since those days I have wan-
dered over all Finmark, and a stranger's roof has
always sheltered me. I was only careful to avoid
going where I knew Lars was. I see him often in
dreams, and he has always asked me what I have
done to the child; but last night he asked me if I
were not soon coming home from Russia.”
When Morten now, with deep earnestness, told
what Lars had said, that he expected to meet her in
a better place,—she fell to thinking, and later she
sat bowed over and weeping violently, but without
speaking.
The next morning they started on as usual, only
she was silent the whole day. Morten thought he
recognized one spot again; they were driving past
the votive stone to which Mathis Nutto in all secrecy
had offered his tribute. This human-like head now
stood with a snow-crest beetling from its brow, and
with bluish-green icicles hanging as a beard. It
rested there alone like the mysterious sphynx of the
mountain-waste.
Silver Sara made a momentary halt and sat still in
her sledge, as if she fought with some internal force,
but suddenly struck the deer with her reins, and the
spot soon lay far behind them. The journey continued
:
:
te
&
• * * ©
& tºl,
:
:
.
:
:
tº
e tº
© tº wº
216 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
still another day, with a rest at night. The next fore-
noon they came to a slope from which a view opened
across and down the valley on the Norse side, and here
they made a halt. She strewed moss for his deer, and
pointed out to him decided landmarks across to the
nearest settlement; for they were to separate here.
Morten in vain sought to induce her to receive com-
pensation,-all he could do was to thank the old
woman. She already stood in her sledge, when she
again came to him, leaning upon her staff, and with
wet eyes, and as if hesitating a little, asked:
“Do you think the minister in K—vaag,” — she
meant Dean Muller — “would admit a sinner like me
to the communion ?”
When Morten seriously answered yes, her old face
brightened with so soulful an expression, that he felt
he had unexpectedly had the good fortune to repay
her for the journey.
Morten Jonsen now drove on alone. As he sat in
his sledge and thought over the trip, it seemed to him
as though he had experienced an enchantment. All
his knowledge concerning Stuwitz gradually collected
in his thoughts like a storm-cloud. After some re-
flection, his practical judgment told him that all these
half-discernible threads would not form a legal charge
against him. What he had learned of his mother's
birth came only from a single and now dead witness,
her foster-father — the old sea Finn, Isak Lovo; and
TEIE FINLAND JOURNEY. 217
Silver Sara’s information concerning the bank notes,
which could scarcely be any but those stolen from
the wreck, was, after all, an old detached story, whose
connection could now only be verified in the guilty
conscience of old Stuwitz himself. There was some-
thing deeply bitter to him in the thought.
He had always been too fully absorbed in the pur-
pose of making a future for himself, to have felt any
temptation to make it the object of his life to trace out
the possibilities of the past, although they had, in a
way, been a spur to him. They troubled him less
as with a restless mind he now hurried on to retrieve
what he could from the loss he must have suffered
by the closing of the shop, and his mind was soon
wholly filled with plans concerning this matter.
As with an oppressed heart, one forenoon in winter,
he crossed the sound with the Kven, he would not
question those who rowed him. It was February, -
just the beginning of the fishing season, and he won-
dered not a little — but did not venture to take hope
therefrom — at the number of people standing about,
and the ten-oared boats at the landing. In a few
springs he took the path from the boat-landing to
the shop, and saw a large frame addition, in which
his brother Eilert stood busily trading with a knot
of peasant fishermen, who were crowding each other
about the space in front of the counter, and his
father was just carrying a package over to the shop.
10
218 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Eilert saw him first. His face flushed, but he
appeared quite unconcerned as he continued with
the customers before him.
In the glance Morten received from him lay the
assurance that all must be in order, and the ware-
house seemed to be well supplied ; on the way home
his father solved the riddle for him. When the shop
was nearly empty, at Christmas-time, they had been
in great doubt as to what they should do; but Eilert
had one day resolved to collect all his ready cash and
take a sloop going south to Trondhjem. He had paid
the merchant there in his brother’s name, ordered new
goods, and by his prompt payment received new and
ample credit, so that they were now more than sup-
plied for the fishing season. Morten perceived that
he had a good confidential clerk already in his brother,
and was deeply thankful to him.
On reaching home, he related to his parents the
result of his trip, which had been fortunate in every
respect, but all traces of doubt vanished from the
face of Jon Zachariasen only when he showed him
the deed of the ground. His face brightened, and
Marina seated herself quietly beside him. The two
old people now caught a glimpse of a future which
they — as life had taught them to look upon every-
thing at the hardest— had not ventured to set their
hopes upon.
CHAPTER XIV.
ANDREAS.
W HILE Morten Jonsen, aided by the advan-
tageous situation of his trading-post, in the
course of the following two years is making one
fortunate hit after another, followed by the praise
and renown which the world gladly gives to those
who are successful, and becomes an important per-
Sonage in the district, we will go back a little and
inform the reader about Andreas Heggelund.
Down in Christiania, Andreas had everywhere
passed as the adopted son of Heggelund. He was
liberally supplied with money, and among the stu-
dents went by the name of “rich Heggelund.” His
good-hearted, lively manners, the fact that he was
always ready to lend to his friends, and always free
and noble in all his actions, soon brought a circle
of comrades about him. He passed for a good fel-
low, was a sort of lion in the college societies of
students, constantly attended the theatre, and busied
himself, as did all the circle about him, in polite
literature. He was invited to balls and parties, and
was constantly engaged.
The enthusiasm for work, which during the latter
219
220 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
part of his stay at home had animated him, gradu-
ally disappeared again, – it was essentially a loan
from his energetic friend, Morten, while his impres-
sionable nature was under the influence of the latter’s
example and personality,+ at all events his reading
progressed very slowly.
Andreas' letters were at that time the delight of
Heggelund and his wife, although they always con-
cluded with a demand for money. Heggelund gen-
erally read the latest to the good friends who visited
them ; indeed, he now and then —with the letter in
his pocket —called upon the Judge, where he would,
apparently without premeditation, read it, and in
the latter's daughter, Julie, would find a very eager
listener. They had gotten the impression, from all
sorts of university stories, that the life was one of
“study,” and an examination, after a certain number
of years, would result as a matter of necessity.
Then came Fru Heggelund’s death, which he felt
deeply, and from that time his letters from home
were never cheerful, in spite of the easy tone in
which his uncle always wrote to him. Now and then
his remittances came much later than he expected,
which, to his surprise, led him to suspect that it
might not be so easy for his uncle to provide them.
This fact did not cause Andreas any real embarrass-
ment, for he was clever at making debts, and re-
ceived good credit on his uncle’s name.
ANDREAS. 221
He had too clear a head, however, not to have his
suspicions, at times, that everything was not as it
should be at home; but, with his too easy nature,
readily diverted by pleasure, he would not long dwell
upon such reflections, notwithstanding that some of
Edel's later letters might well have caused. him to
do so.
The news of the auction, and the general state of
affairs at home, therefore came upon him as a com-
plete surprise. It fairly stunned him. He felt at
once that his prospects in life were materially dark-
ened, and in his extreme way abandoned himself al-
most to despair. His sanguine nature soon raised a
ladder of bright hopes again. From various good
friends he got a loan, large enough, with economy,
to continue his course in Christiania for a year, at
least. During this time he developed a remarkable
energy, and immediately resumed his reading with
great assiduity. His nature, always requiring a spur,
had received one in these recent and unexpected cir-
cumstances.
It wakened no little sensation in the world of
students when it was reported that rich Heggelund
had begun to read with no less than two tutors.
He passed his examination successfully, and went
home to his uncle's house the same summer, where
he remained for a time. At home, although as lova-
ble as before, he was a more self-sufficient and opin-
222 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
ionated gentleman than when he left them. He
gladly passed for an authority, but marked, to his
discomfiture, that Edel did not absolutely bow in
blind submission to his opinions. Though their rela-
tion was most friendly, still he found that her tone
was sometimes a little sarcastic, which gave rise to
slight collisions, and caused Andreas, at such times,
to keep silence, and feel a bit offended. His remarks
indicated a self-important consciousness of the enno-
bling effect of an academic culture —“that alone
which made a man a gentleman in our land,” he
said. Edel never disputed directly with him, but he
could not tolerate the manner in which she replied,
or, more properly speaking, oftenest did not reply.
He could not tell whether she was angry or making
fun of him.
He had several times visited Morten Jonsen, and
been received with all the old, glowing friendship;
but, occupied as the latter always was with his busi-
ness, there was no opportunity for the intercourse
which he had anticipated. -
Morten had already erected, on Finn Point, a
large warehouse, and some out-houses, buildings
made necessary by the constantly increasing business,
—while a small, one-storied house, with large win-
dow-panes, and in modern style, contained only à.
single half-lighted room for his own use. He was
busy early and late, and had but little time to give
ANDREAS. 223
to his friend. Andreas noticed that, without fail, he
always asked incidentally after Edel, and he soon
discovered that with this theme he could retain him
inside as long as he pleased. He felt somewhat un-
comfortable at this interest, although it was not pre-
cisely clear, even to himself, that it was disagreeable
to him, and he would always turn the conversation.
In spite of all his love affairs since the time when
Julie Schultz was his star, Andreas, in the usual mod-
est way of cousins, had always felt a secret assurance
of the first right to his cousin, and now that he had
seen her matured, and — what he was not blind to
— a remarkably handsome woman of her type, she
had, more than all his former loves, for the very last
time, so he thought himself, at any rate — become
the object of his desires. He could only feel anxious
and hurt at the discovery he felt he had made con-
cerning his friend’s feelings, and his remarks about
the importance of an academic training, as well as
the vexation he displayed, were connected therewith.
On the different occasions that Morten and Edel
had met abroad, recently, these conclusions seemed
anything but probable. Andreas had, at first, taken
pains to tell them at home what a man Morten Jon-
sen was going to make, and pictured this with his
accustomed animation. Later, he was markedly silent
concerning him. On Edel these depictions had pro-
duced a curious effect, and when she now met Morten
224 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
there was a friendly chill in her bearing toward him.
He felt, with keen bitterness, that she was another
person to him.
Once Andreas and she were on a visit to Dean
Muller, and Morten Jonsen came hither, also, on an
errand. He had just made a fortunate business hit,
which had awakened attention, and this was spoken
of by the Dean’s family with warm appreciation,
while he was there. The face which his eyes invol-
untarily fell upon looked indifferent, meantime, and
he thought he discovered a certain scornful or con-
temptuous expression about her lips. He grew pale,
but apparently took no notice, and hurried his de-
parture, only on taking leave he was very cold in
his manner.
He had determined to confide what he had learned
of his mother's birth, and more recently about the
notes from Silver Sara, to his old fatherly friend, the
Dean, who had always shown interest and sympathy
for him. He desired his advice as to how he ought
to act in reference to Stuwitz, for the conduct of the
latter toward him, as his rival in the district, had
vexed him in many ways of late, and had awakened
the desire, in one way or another, to make this man’s
true character generally known. 8.
The Dean listened quietly in his study to all that
Morten had to tell him. He knew himself still more
from the confessions of Isak Lovo and Silver Sara,
ANDREAS. 225
but his lips were sealed by his pledge of secrecy.
Nevertheless, he could give that advice which seemed
to him best with a free conscience. Except what he
had direct proof of would, he said, be considered by
the people as the fruit of a rival's jealousy; and if
it was only for revenge on Stuwitz, then he must
remember that revenge belongs to another. “This
saying is now confirmed by my long experience,”
he concluded — “ that no one rides so fast that our
Lord will not sometime overtake him And believe
me, young man, he will also overtake Stuwitz, even
if our eye shall not see it.” -
The result was that Morten Jonsen gave up his
plans of revenge, though, in the bitterness of his
heart, he was none the less desirous of combat.
He went home and sought to imagine everything
except the truth in regard to Edel. Was the cause
of her changed conduct the fact that Andreas had
returned ?–he had jealously remarked that she was
always very confidential with him. Or did all that
which he had accomplished seem insignificant to her ?
Others thought it remarkable enough. He would, at
all events, show her that he could achieve still greater
ends; and from now on he avoided meeting Andreas.
His mother saw by many things that he bore a
heavy heart, and Jon Sometimes shook his head, be-
cause it seemed to him that his son began to risk too
much on one venture in his business. He said to
226 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
Marina that he was tempting the Lord, but so long
as all went on successfully, nothing was to be said.
Once, after meeting Edel Heggelund, Morten re-
turned home doubly bitter, and his mother, in a few
broken words, gained his secret. Marina could readily
enter into his desire to show this fine miss what he
could accomplish, but Jon considered it an effort of
vanity. He was the one in whose heart Edel stood
at the lowest estimate, for he saw that she was the
occasion of his son's going so unwarrantably and
foolishly on to destruction; but he said nothing to
his wife, he was himself afraid to look into the
future.
One evening Andreas sat up late. He wrote and
tore up, and re-wrote, a love-letter to his cousin.
He had written three before in his life, and his honor
demanded that this last should differ from the rest.
His courage would not admit of a personal demand
for an answer—therefore, he had always made court
by letter.
The next afternoon he sent his note by a messen-
ger, while he absented himself on a boating trip until
late at night.
The following days he was ashen-gray with de-
Spair, Edel, in a short postScript, had said him nay
in so cousinly and friendly a manner, and hoped that
he would always, as before, remain her good cousin.
ANDREAS. 227
One twilight hour, at a later period, he discovered,
however, that his real love had been his first one —
for the Judge's daughter, Julie.
“Cousins are too nearly related.” To his shame,
and more than shame, he had scarcely thought of her
in all this time.
CHAPTER XV.
FINN POINT.
TUWITZ had watched Morten Jonsen’s success
in Finn Corner with great offense. He looked
upon it as a direct robbery of himself, and was doubly
angry to see the place occupied by Morten. Finn
Corner was not only a pearl in itself, but the com-
petition from that quarter affected his own trade very
considerably.
He was an active enemy, and in his progress Mor-
ten had felt this in many ways. When he heard, one
fall, that Morten had overspeculated on a large deliv-
ery of fish, he looked triumphant. He remarked to
his shop people that he had always expected just this
from that “wonder-worker” who had made so much
breeze; and he mumbled to himself, no less pleased,
when he heard that Morten had been obliged to go
to Jackmann, down in Storvaag, and raise a large sum
on his trading-post. -
Stuwitz had a connection of many years’ standing
with this man, and some time after took a trip to
his place.
Morten was very angry when, late and near the
time of payment, he was advised by Jackmann that
Stuwitz was now his creditor.
228
FINN POINT. 229
He had given his note to pay the amount in in-
stallments, but in case of failure in any one of these,
as the terms usually are in such agreements, the entire
principal should become due.
That Stuwitz, against the custom, would take ad-
vantage of this severe power, Morten Jonsen was
well assured ; but he well knew, also, that he had a
yacht with a cargo of fish on the way to Bergen, and
thus money in prospect. For, however much he
might prefer to do otherwise, he would now pay the
full amount.
He had, to his father's great anxiety, latterly be-
gun to risk everything on one card, and the expedi-
tion of the sloop, whose cargo was almost entirely at
his own risk, and in which the greater part of what
he now possessed was involved, was again such a
venture, for at that time there was no insurance, but
the profit would cover the entire loss of the previous
years.
Jon Zachariasen happened to be out on a trip for
his son when he heard the news that the sloop had
been wrecked down near Alster, in Northfjord. He
perceived the seriousness of the matter, and went im-
mediately to gain full and complete assurance at the
spot whence the information had come on the pre-
vious day. Unfortunately, he found it to be all true,
and that only a small part of the cargo had been
saved.
230 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
He was gloomy as he journeyed home, for he felt
that his son was at fault, but he would himself be
the person to bring him the intelligence; it was,
he thought, better that his father should come with
it than a stranger.
That evening Jon sat alone with his son a long
time, while he, pale, paced the floor back and forth.
There came no chiding word from his mouth, but
now and then a comforting one. He finally hit upon
the plan of going to Jackmann, who had a mortgage
on the place, and gaining delay and a new lease of
time, “so that all might still be well.”
When the son, with a dark look, told him that
his creditor was no longer Jackmann, but Stuwitz,
it grew black for Jon also, but he said only :
“Our Lord can help you even in that, also.”
When he came home to Marina the two old peo-
ple sorrowed together; but Jon was unusually mild.
“Every one has his rock to clear,” he said, apologet-
ically, “and Morten’s misfortune has been that fine
miss.”
Morten was obliged to let payment-day go by,
and attended to his daily business with a heavy heart.
Late in the summer he had been fortunate enough
to collect together sufficient money to cover the in-
stallment due, and had sent the sum to Stuwitz; but
the latter, notwithstanding, demanded payment in full.
He had already taken the first legal steps, and the
FINN POINT, 231
news spread like wildfire that Finn Point would soon
be put up at auction. It was easy to comprehend that
Stuwitz meant to gain the trading-post for himself.
His last resource, though hard for his pride, was
to go in to Stuwitz, and by personal persuasion try
to obtain a delay, if possible, until the next spring.
It was hard and humiliating, but the trial must be
made, for else he risked that which was worse than
the loss of Finn Point, of coming into the position
of not being able to give every man his due. It
pained him, meanwhile, that Heggelund, as, naturally,
everybody else who was cognizant of his position,
would be able to guess the meaning of his visit to
Stuwitz. They had followed his misfortune with
heartfelt sympathy. Andreas had thereby lost his
old resentment. Edel had once replied somewhat
sharply when the opinion was expressed that Morten
Jonsen’s loss was partly his own fault, and Heg-
gelund went about complaining to himself, half aloud,
that that “handsome young man” should have fallen
into Stuwitz’s claws in so shabby a manner. Uncle
Tobias looked sad also, and the house was, so to say,
filled with sympathy for Morten Jonsen.
Against those who said that it was predicted that
he would be bankrupt, they held to the opinion that
the whole affair was Surely a passing embarrassment.
The visit, postponed to rather a late hour, at last
was made. He would not have the self-accusation
232 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
of not having done what he could to save the situ-
ation; his determination was taken. If Stuwitz would
not be persuaded,—and this was only too probable,
—he would, so soon as he could arrange his affairs,
go to America. All that which had been the aim .
of his life had been overthrown, and he felt a bitter
consciousness of the complete ruin.
Andreas was not with the Heggelunds at the time;
but Heggelund himself, who had seen Morten come,
met him down on the road, and in the heartiest man-
ner invited him home. Morten, who understood that
the former readily enough suspected his errand, thought
it manliest to speak straight out:
“I am,” he said, in rather a faint voice, “going
to Stuwitz, in order, if possible, to save Finn Point.”
Heggelund with a face of anger looked down toward
Stuwitz's house, and thereupon said earnestly, as he
pressed his hand, as if to retain him :
“But promise me, Jonsen, that you will come up
to us, whether it go well or not with that fellow,
it is still your old home.” Heggelund’s words and
manner had evinced a deep-felt sympathy, and he
promised, although he had previously intended to
leave at once.
Stuwitz sat in his little narrow room in the shop,
busy noting in one of his account-books, when Morten
Jonsen arrived. He mumbled a little on seeing him,
but continued uninterruptedly with his work, and did
FINN POINT. 233
not ask him to sit down; neither was there a place,
except in a chair by his side. Morten knew from
old times, the expression of that face; it foreboded no
good. At last it pleased Stuwitz to look up and say,
shortly :
“I understand that you have come to pay me.”
“No,” replied Morten, “I came, unfortunately, to
ask you for more time.”
“So –ah !” said Stuwitz, drawling, and apparently
relieved, taking up his work again: “you have still
until the auction-day for payment.”
There was something unspeakably oppressive in
Stuwitz’s reply; he scarcely concealed his hope of soon
owning Finn Point.
With great calmness, Morten, notwithstanding,
urged the reasonableness of his demand; the install-
ment due had been paid, and he declared his willing-
ness to pay down two installments for one, or to pay
the whole amount in the spring.
A shrug of the shoulders and an angry concluding
growl, as he continued to write in his account-book,
was the only answer.
Morten then remarked warmly that his former
creditor, Jackmann, after the acknowledged custom,
would not have demanded the full payment of the
debt.
“No,” said Stuwitz, suddenly rising, and with the
flat of his hand striking somewhat to the detriment of
10%
234 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
the desk to conclude the talk, “His name is Stuwitz,
and not Jackmann, and I hope you will mark the dif-
ference l’” He looked ugly and angry, there was no
doubt that he would show him the door.
Morten saw that he was inaccessible to every ar-
gument, and felt his last hope sink with this actual
humility to Stuwitz. He had done all he could in the
matter, and he felt almost relieved, for he had a burning
desire, for once in his life, to tell the truth without
compromise to this man who now set his foot on his
neck. Instead of leaving, after this offensive conclu-
sion, he seated himself, to Stuwitz’s astonishment,
- quite coolly on the edge of his bed.
What now passed between these two cannot be re-
peated in full.
Morten, so to say, slowly carved up Stuwitz's youth-
ful life joint by joint. He omitted nothing which he
knew, and with icy irony showed up his connection
with Heggelund. Over Stuwitz's face came an inde-
scribable craven fear; its tame, creeping expression re-
minded one of a wild animal anxiously prowling about
in a wolf’s den, in which it has unexpectedly fallen.
This gave place for a moment to a paroxysm of anger,
during which he looked as if he would use violence.
But a look of Morten’s made him seat himself again.
The mirror which was held up to him reflected
meantime a picture which Stuwitz himself at last
found exaggerated and unjust; and now he became
FINN POINT. 235
himself once more, for in the beginning he had laid
morally under the weight of fear caused by all the
reminiscences which so suddenly overwhelmed his
conscience.
Morten Jonsen had come upon him heavily, but
had forgotten only how fragmentary and free from
danger his knowledge was, legally.
Whilst the pupil of his one weak eye quivered,
Stuwitz said, with a teasing, patronizing smile:
“God protect us!—I only want my lawful right to
Finn Point—and will have it, too. But wherever your
respected mother came from is truly more than I can
tell you, if she is not written in the church records
like other people.”
Morten’s face was pale with emotion; he looked
Stuwitz right in the eye without being able to utter a
word. At last he exclaimed, “Scoundrel !” and went
to the door.
Stuwitz followed, and said scornfully as he passed
Out:
“You can also obtain justice Only go to law
with all the nonsense you have spoken here, my
good Morten Jonsen But you must seek for good
witnesses, you know, else you will be punished as
a slanderer.” -
Morten still heard an ironical friendly “farewell”
follow him.
When, after a long, lonely walk, he came, as he
236 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
promised, up to Heggelund's, his face still wore a
trace of the excitement he had undergone.
He told them briefly that there was no more
chance for Finn Point. He had thought so before,
he said composedly, and therefore now resolved to
go to America.
That which caused his straightforwardness was his
pride,-for Edel was in the room, but it was easy
to see that the matter weighed heavily upon him,
he was very silent the whole evening.
Edel was pouring the tea when he spoke of
America, and the cup trembled in her hand. He
saw her pale, reserved sympathy, and felt, with a cer-
tain pain, that she had never been so dear to him
as now. There was something in her manner of al- -
most acknowledgment that she was at fault.
When he sat so still, it was not, as the others
thought, Finn Point on which he dwelt, but that
she who stood before his soul was lost to him.
Heggelund and Uncle Tobias had, as was their
wont, gone early to bed, and he was for a time alone
in the room ; he sat and toyed with a breastpin
which he held in his hand. A little after, Edel
came down again. She was pale and serious.
As if he replied to what he suspected she had in
her thoughts, he said with a sigh :
“Yes, I am going to America—I have nothing
more to work for here !”
FINN POINT. 237
“Finn Point is not all of life,” she objected, with-
out, however, looking at him.
“No, Miss Edel,” he exclaimed, overwhelmed by
his emotion; “but you are my life l—for you Í have
worked,— of you I have thought.” He had risen,
and was standing near her. And now he added, with
a sad look, “I shall perhaps not see you again in this
world, and pray you to keep a thing which is very
dear to me—my mother's breastpin, I would be so
glad to have you wear it.”
He was going to give her the pin, but the hand
which received it trembled, and he read in her face
and the lowered eyes, which immediately filled with
tears as she looked into his, that she also loved him.
He forgot all, and drew her to him; but a little after
he drew back again, and said slowly, looking at her:
“But the future ?” sº
“That we will build together,” whispered Edel,
and placed her hand confidingly in his.
When Jomfru Dyring looked in at the door, later,
the two happy young people sat near the window in
the pale moonlight.
In the morning, Edel was in her father's room
earlier than usual. She had a remarkable number
of things to right and set in order; then she sud-
denly went to him and put her arms about his neck,
so that he must ask what made her so happy, and
she told him all. He received the news with as
238 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
great pleasure as if Morten Jonsen had just won,
instead of lost, Finn Point; and it was decided
that the engagement should be made known the
next time he returned. That Jomfru Dyring sus-
pected all, Edel was quite assured.
It was just at the time of the summer when the
Finns used to stop at Skorpen, and the news that Finn
Point was about to be put up at auction by Stuwitz
had also reached them. Mathis Nutto had grown
exceedingly morose thereat, for he saw his interests
placed in serious danger again.
When Morten came home, several stood at the
Point who sought quietly to read the result of his trip
by his looks, and among them was Mathis Nutto.
But the latter could gather from his face only a fortu-
nate issue to his journey. He asked Marina, however,
the following day. She looked discouraged, and he
then learned how it had gone.
The Finn came again several times, and Marina
remarked that he repeatedly and carefully asked the
connection of the matter. The last time he came
to borrow their twelve-oared boat for a trip of several
days, but he did not tell them where he was going.
In his tent at home he had for a time been very
thoughtful, and at evening Sat puffing away vigorously
at his pipe. -
One morning, as Stuwitz, according to his custom,
was on his way down to open the shop, the old Finn
FINN PoſNT. 239
stood there waiting for him. He suspected that some-
thing disagreeable was about to happen, and, to avoid
witnesses, sent the wharf boy down to the warehouse.
He sought to conceal his pleasure when the Finn said
that he had come to exchange the rest of the old notes,
and he feverishly grasped a package which he brought
from his office. He was to possess the notes at last, for
which he had felt a horror in his blood so many years.
Mathis meantime delayed drawing out his pocket-
book, and now first came out with his own demands.
He would have a paper and conditions that no auction
should be held at Finn Point for the debt there;—
the Finn said that the old decision between them was
that Finn Point should be left in peace.
For a good while Stuwitz gave no answer; he was
red in the face, anger and fear contended in it. These
notes, now in his fear, presented themselves as weapons
in the hand of Morten Jonsen, and he felt that he must
pay for them whatever might be demanded.
Stuwitz tempted him in vain with several personal
offers, but Mathis was unyielding, and Stuwitz finally
acquiesced, as he said, by writing the declaration
demanded, which he composed as a letter to Martin
Jonsen. The Finn was apparently not yet satis-
fied,—he desired that some one at Heggelund’s
should first read it, that he might be sure of the
COntents.
Stuwitz now seated himself with remarkable humil-
240 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
ity to write another letter; his hands trembled, and he
stopped several times as if he thought of the possibility
of escaping. The Finn meantime looked on, blink-
ing; he enjoyed the triumph of having caught him.
After some time Mathis came down to the shop
again, where Stuwitz anxiously sat and waited, for he
had feared that the Finn would not keep his word;
and then the latter honestly produced the notes, but,
sure enough, he persisted that each of the rix dollars
was worth a specie dollar ($1.20) in the new notes,
and Stuwitz was obliged to satisfy him.
That day Andreas sat in the parlor talking with
his cousin. Edel was very bright, and apparently quite
of his mind in the old dispute that the real culture of
the land was only possessed by the students. She had,
to be sure, said something which he did not know
whether to take as a joke or not. He twirled his
handsome black moustache for a moment, but her
guileless look put him at ease. She remarked, as
if confirming his opinion :
“Yes, I well remember how glad we all were when
you became a gentleman, Andreas”; but quickly cor-
rected herself by —“when you took your examination,
Andreas.”
At that moment word came in that a mountain
Finn stood outside in the hall and wished to speak
with Andreas. It was old Mathis Nutto, whom he
had known by sight in former days. The Finn stood
EINN POINT. 241
with a paper in his hand, which he asked him to read;
—he wished to hear if the contents were right.
Andreas had scarcely read it when he rushed into
the room with the news that Morten Jonsen was saved
after all;-here was black and white for it, he said,
and was rushing up to his uncle in the same hurry.
Then he saw, to his surprise, that Edel grew pale,
and stretched out her hand to look at the paper.
After having read it through twice, and then again,
she looked gloriously happy upon him and said, as if
with a sudden feeling of thankfulness:
“Since you have brought me this news, Andreas,
you shall be the first to know that Morten Jonsen and
I are engaged,—still he is not a gentleman, Andreas l’”
she added, somewhat roguishly; but her eyes were full of
tears, and she went herself with the paper to her father.
The Finn had no time to be honored, and was
obliged to go down to the shop immediately to Stu-
witz, he only desired to hear the paper read.
Mathis Nutto returned much pleased. He pulled
up to Jon Zachariasen's landing and gave the letter to
Marina, telling her the contents. It was a return, he
he said, as he hurried on, for the rescue of his daughter
and her child from the skerry; “but,” he shouted
back, as a last word, “if you lose the paper your son
will lose Finn Point l’”
Marina also hurried down to the Point, and came
there quite out of breath.
11
CHAPTER XVI.
OLD STORIES.
TUWITZ, after his conduct toward Heggelund,
was looked upon with disfavor through the dis-
trict. Whether it was to change public opinion in his
favor, or because he really thought to quiet his con-
science by “good deeds,” or in part both, he had at all
events gone to the court that fall for the purpose of
making his will, in which some money, at his death,
was to go as a legacy for the benefit of the com-
munity.
During the evening the interest of the court was
excited by an incident which was related concerning
the “old Counselor” at Heggelund’s. By the wreck
of a vessel north in Finmark, in his younger days,
his brother, who sailed the ship, together with his wife
and their only child, were wrecked. The authorities
had at the time instituted many inquiries concerning
the vessel, about the fate of which there was some
suspicion. In an ornament which the trader Morten
Jonsen had presented his lady-love, Miss Heggelund,
he now recognized the same breastpin which he had
himself presented his brother's wife. It was remark-
242
OLID STORIES. 243
able that this pin should really have been found on
the clothes of a child saved from a wreck, and this
child was Morten Jonsen’s mother.
The persons concerned were known, and it awakened
a peculiar sensation to think of such a romance trans-
piring in their immediate vicinity. One of the com-
pany present reminded them of similar incidents
occurring some years earlier; but the interest for
these was more remote, and the conversation soon
turned back again to all sorts of surmises and con-
jectures upon the matter.
Dean Muller sat silent, listening during the con-
versation, now and then drying his face with his hand-
kerchief. Suddenly he said, in a strikingly solemn
voice, turning to Stuwitz, who had taken no part in
the conversation: *
“I always pray for those who do not dare ac-
knowledge what they carry on their conscience, for
they, I know, have the worst of it in this world !”
Stuwitz became quite ashy in the face, and soon
after disappeared.
The recognition of the breastpin happened in this
wise: Edel had one Sunday, in the way which she
was wont to speak with Uncle Tobias, shown him
the new breastpin she wore. She looked from it
to him, and was astonished at his behavior. He
turned the ornament in his hand, gazed at and
scrutinized it in every way, and at last, by sliding a
244 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
plate aside, which she had not known of, a little
lock of hair was discovered. The old man seemed
to be utterly overwhelmed, and sat for a long time
lost in thought. -
It was — he at last said, so choked with emotion
that he could scarcely utter a word — the same breast-
pin which he had once given his brother's wife. The
lock was his brother's hair; he had, as he remem-
bered, himself engraved his initials “T. St.” on the
inside of the plate.
Now came explanations, in which Edel told him
what she had come to know about the pin, and then
she left the old man — as he apparently desired it —
to sit alone with it.
When she came to him again later, he said in his
broken way:
“Remarkable!—remarkable ! I always thought
that Morten Jonsen reminded me so of my brother—
so light, and especially the eyes—and the same out-
spoken manners — and they always said that my
brother had developed in his growth just what I
lacked.”
Later in the evening, he said with animation:
“I shall be glad to be at the wedding, Edel !—if
I am well enough ; and now you must write all about
it to your lover, and I will add a few lines to my
niece.” He laid a peculiar stress upon the word by
which he designated Marina. “She or her children
OLD STORIES. - 245
shall some time inherit my part of the legacy,” he
remarked the day after.
No one would disturb the old man by explaining
to him how slight legal proof they had in the matter.
To speak of “his relatives” seemed from this time
to be the favorite topic of Uncle Tobias.
In his later years, Stuwitz became crippled on one
side, and disagreeable stories of his uncleanliness and
hatred of mankind were told. *
When Dean Muller was called to his lonely bed,
he saw that our Master had already long since “over-
taken º’ the man.
CHAPTER XVII.
CONCLUSION.
HAT Edel and Morten should have been en-
gaged at the time when everything looked im-
possible, and hedged in with difficulties for his son,
had had the effect of raising her in Jon’s eyes; at all
events, he did not speak of her longer to Marina as
the “fine miss.” But he still felt some compunction.
A wife was needed, surely, down at Finn Point; but
as to the advantage that a daughter of the gentleman
Heggelund would be in directing affairs, he had great
doubt. In his ill-humor he was on the point of de-
ciding that since she had caused so much misfortune
while outside, it was impossible to say what would
not come when she was in the house ! She would,
naturally, have everything in the style to which she
had been accustomed.
Jon and Marina had latterly, on pressing invita-
tions, been several times on a visit at Heggelund's.
They always came in their Sunday best, and insisted
upon returning again in the afternoon,_ they had a
remarkable tact in preserving their amour propre.
But there was no less finesse hidden under the man-
ner in which Edel was able to influence her lover's
246
CONCLUSION. 247
father. It seemed as if she divined his thoughts
concerning her. -
|Morten and Edel felt a new consciousness of hav-
ing let the years slip past them, and that they must
make amends therefor. If they were united in any-
thing, it was that they would thereafter build their
future together, so far as it lay in their power. In
the beginning they would not find it easy, for they
must make great sacrifices to pay Stuwitz; but it
was fortunate that Finn Point was in so good a posi-
tion that this could be done. He desired that she
should go home with him as his wife that same
spring, but Edel had said, in Jon’s presence, that
she needed more time; and when Morten, some-
what surprised, asked, “For what?” she replied:
“Do you think, then, I am going in state with
you to Finn Point? There are many things in such
a household which I need to learn, if I am to be of
any use to you.”
Jon thought she talked more sensibly than Mor-
ten. But the son had his way in appointing the
wedding for midsummer, after the first trip of the
sloops to Bergen.
Edel had gradually won over Jon to such a degree
that the latter signified his belief that the cause of
all the mishaps at Finn Point was on account of her
absence. “Morten would never have been so rash
with her near him,” he remarked to Marina; “and
248 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
she is not the person to have permitted such things.
She is a sensible girl.”
It was a glorious summer day out at Skorpen.
The sea outside was a fine blue in the sun. The
mountains far and near—the great Storberg among
those nearest—glittered in the varied azure tints and
tones of the summer haze, and the narrow clefts and
valleys were truly warm mines of compressed sun,
which suddenly, as by magic, brought out a surprising
vegetation from every plot of earth. The spring had
been unusually late that year, but in a few days had
broken forth with such power that the ridges of snow in
the valleys were lifted by the upspringing fresh grass.
Jon Zachariasen's little cabin, out by the sea, was
in unusual splendor. The yard in front was care-
fully cultivated ; old green panes of glass were no
longer to be seen, and it looked quite festive, with
its birch branches at the door; the dandelions and
short, bunchy grass on the turf roof, in whose one
corner a small, leafy, dwarf birch flourished, like a
picture of the owner's own weather-beaten life,
seemed a little strange in this unwonted splendor.
There was no one at home, and the door was closed,
but through the even, clear window-panes the sun
shone in its loveliness, making two round, yellow
frames just upon the old beam inside, and illumi-
nated the first and last of the letters.
CONCLUSION. 249
Jon and Marina, with their children, were absent
at their son’s wedding, which had been celebrated
two days previous at Heggelund's, and they were
expected home with the bridal pair that day.
There were not many guests at the wedding, as
they had determined to make no outlay, but that it
should be quiet and simple. Jomfru Dyring, however,
who was beaming and grand that day, as if a ray of
her house-mother's spirit rested upon her, had not
been able to keep fully to this decision. She was
now the woman representative of the house, which
was to be the home of her old age, and could not
find it consistent with its dignity if the table had
displayed fewer dishes now than when the sister was
married.
But happiness in the true signification of the word
had reigned. The old beam had also been present
at the feast. Dean Muller had lifted his glass in its
honor. -
“On a sprung, sea-beaten timber,” he said, “which
had lain in a wreck and been overgrown with slimy
weeds, God had written upon the wall of a little
cabin the promise of a future which had been won-
derfully fulfilled. After a hard battle in life, she
who, once a helpless child, was stranded upon it,
was now an honored and happy mother, and read
its characters painted upon the stern of her son’s
new sloop.” Turning to Uncle Tobias, he concluded:
250 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
“This old man, whose lost family have been his sor-
row and longing, is not the one least happy in our
midst; for it is the highest earthly blessing of the
aged man when it is granted him to see a future
in his posterity. But the reason for the birth of this
beam in a new ship is, that our Lord has guided
it.”
To this toast Jon Zachariasen, in his simple, coun-
try fashion, gave an “Amen.”
Into the bay at Skorpen that fine day sailed a
couple of gay ten-oared boats, which were received
with salutes from several places along shore.
In the first boat sat the bride and bridegroom
with his parents, Jon Zachariasen and Marina, as well
as Uncle Tobias, and on the seat near them Elias
Rost, who had insisted upon rowing the couple. An-
dreas Heggelund was also with them. In the other
boat, among others, Morten’s brother Eilert and his
handsome sister Christine were noticeable.
Beside the buildings on Finn Point, which per-
tained to the business, there stood higher up on the
hill a one-storied building with large clear window-
panes. It was still finished and furnished only on
one side; but what they did not have could come.
Back of all stood the mountain with its fringe of
deciduous trees. The Finns had that year, as usual,
driven their deer up to the ridge.
CONCLUSION. 251
The large, newly-painted warehouse came suddenly
into view at the turn of the Point, and just outside the
bay lay Morten Jonsen’s yacht, “The Future,” and
saluted with its flags.
Then Elias Rost dropped his sail; those in the
other boat did the same, and glided toward them.
Elias Rost drew a long piece of paper from the
breast-pocket of his jacket. Marking the measure of
the verse with his foot, he read a poem to the bridal
couple. It was written in large characters, with im-
posing black letters at the commencement of each
verse, and was as follows:
A large Smack at full sail is a beautiful sight,
As it plows through the sea when the wind is “just right,”
And the man at the helm looks before him.
Yes, when land-points and capes fast as arrows past spin,
Then rejoice must the fishermen sitting therein,
Though the billows dash drenchingly o'er him.
Yes, a smack on the sea is so little a shell,
While the billows dash o'er it like mount and like dell,
And the breakers and storm it is breasting.
There is rowing, though seamen full weary may be ;
There is sailing, though gunwale is touching the sea—
How it speeds without easing or resting !
But a yacht with full sails is a glorious sight,
When it speeds to the town loaded half the mast's height,
With the fruits of the long winter's rowing ;
When it anchoring flags in the bay it has sought,
Since all things have home into safety been brought,
And of wealth there is plenty now flowing.
252 THE BARQUE FUTURE.
And in each little home, where a hearthfire did burn,
There was also a flame in the heart that did yearn
For work, and was happy in toiling.
And the fisher who strives, with his wife who trows
His parish and land to a safe future, rows
While the breakers around him are boiling.
A large Smack at full sail comes as brisk as a bee ;
It bears a young couple back home o'er the sea,
And how well the clear water reflects it !
But his boat has been tested where breakers do roar,
And the captain on board has been tested still more —
With care and with skill he protects it.
Then joy be with Finnaze, with bridegroom and bride—
If you always look out to keep God on your side,
The future will crown you with glory. -
May the yacht ev'ry year bring in wealth to your shore ;
That which now is begun, may it grow more and more,
And make a beautiful story !
The beam still remains in the little cabin, where
the two old people live, with no desire of moving.
Jon Zachariasen and Marina enjoy there a peaceful
old age.
Morten Jonsen on Finn Point is called one of the
cleverest and most substantial business-men in the
far north, and his place, now much more extended,
is visited by the steamers regularly. There live a
happy couple with several children, and Edel has
the reputation of being an excellent housewife.
Now and then Andreas Heggelund comes to them
on a visit, and he is treated with all the attention
possible. He will scarcely become “Judge,” but is
CONCI,USION. 253
unusually successful as a lawyer. Morten Jonsen
cherishes his old weakness for him, and no mean pro-
portion of Andreas' business is due to his influence.
In the beginning, Andreas went every year to
Tromso, where he enjoyed appearing in his old fop-
pish manner, but there he met Julie Schultz oftener,
and it resulted in their marriage. He is fully per-
suaded that she is his first and only love, and his wife
believes it; — but she, nevertheless, lets him go to
Tromso only when absolutely necessary.
BOOKS IFPUBLISHED BY
S. C. GRIGGS & COMPANY.,
CIEHIC-A-G-O.
ANDERSON — AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY CO-
LUMBUS. A historical Sketch of the Discovery of America
by the Norsemen in the Ioth century. By Prof. R. B. ANDER-
son. With an Appendix on the Historical, Literary and Scien-
tific value of the Scandinavian Languages. I2mo, cloth, $1.
“A valuable addition to American history.”—Notes and Queries, London.
ANDERSON.—NORSE MYTHOLOGY; or, the Religion of
our Forefathers. Containing all the Myths of the Eddas
carefully systematized and interpreted; with an Introduction,
Vocabulary and Index. By R. B. ANDERSON, Prof. of Scandi-
navian Languages in the University of Wisconsin. Crown 8vo,
cloth, $2.50; cloth, gilt edges, $3; half calf, $4.50.
“Prof. Anderson’s work is incomparably superior to the already existing
books of this order.”—Scriòner's Monthly.
“The exposition, analysis and interpretation of the Norse Mythology leave
nothing to be desired. The whole structure and framework of the system are
here; and, in addition to this, copious literal translations from the Eddas and
Sagas show the reader something of the literary form in which the system found
permanent record. Occasionally entire songs or poems are presented, and, at
every point where they could be of service, illustrative extracts accompany the
elucidations of the text.”—Afg/eton's journal.
ANDERSON – VIKINC, TALES OF THE NORTH. The
Sagas of Thorstein, Viking's son, and Fridthjof the Bold. Trans.
lated from the Icelandic by Prof. R. B. ANDERSON; also TEG-
NER'S FRIDTH JOFS SAGA, translated by GEORGE STE-
PHENs. In one volume, 12mo, cloth, $2.
“Prof. Anderson's book is a very valuable and important one.”—The Nation.
“A charming book it is. Your work is in every way cleverly done. These
quaintly delightful sagas ought to charm many thousands of readers, and your
translation is of the best.”—Prof. Willard Fiske, Cornell University.
BURRis–THE TRINITY. By Rev. F. H. Burris. With an
Introduction by Jose PH HAVEN, D.D., LL.D. 12mo, clo., $1.50.
“One of the most unique, sincere and thorough discussions of the subject of
the Trinity which we have ever seen.”—Azazerican Wesleyan, New York.
CAREW-TANCLED. A Novel. By RACHEL CAREw. Square
I6mo, cloth, $1.
A beautiful and sparkling tale of an Alpine watering place.
“The flirtation which gives its title to this very bright little novel is one of
the oddest, funniest and most original affairs we ever read of. We have en-
joyed a very hearty laugh over the situation.”—Inter-Ocean.
B& IBooks will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price.
PUBLICATIONS OF S. C. GRIGGS dº CO., CHICAGO.
cone — TWO YEARS IN CALL FORNIA. By M. CoNE.
With fifteen fine Illustrations, a map of California, and a plan of
the Yosemite Valley. I2mo, cloth, $1.50.
A thoroughly reliable book for tourists and settlers.
“It abounds in information practical in character, and is stored with facts
which will be new to the vast majority of our people. . . . No romance is
more interesting, and no description of the book can do justice to it. Every
page deserves to be read and studied.”—Albany Ezening 90ternal. -
DEMENT—INGERSOLL, BEECHER AND DOCMA; or a
Few Simple Truths and their Logical Deductions, in which the
Positions of Mr. Ingersoll and Mr. Beecher are Considered. By
R. S. DEMENT. I2mo, cloth, $1.
“Mr. Dement's trenchant diction is well matched by his potent logic. He
has written an earnest, honest, hearty and healthy book for the times.”—The
Standard, Chicago.
FAWCETT– GOLD AND DEBT. An American Hand-Book
of Finance, with over Eighty Tables and Diagrams. By W. L.
FAwcETT. 12mo, cloth, $1.75.
“Of interest to the general reader, and quite invaluable to the banker and
man of public life. . . . To those who want a handy volume of reference upon
these important subjects, we can recommend this work.”—The Banker and
Tradesmazz, Boston.
“As a full and very complete collection of monetary statistics this work has
never been equaled or even approached. It is a storehouse of facts.”—The
Philadelphia Press.
FOSTER – PRE-HISTORIC RACES OF THE UNITED
STATES. By J. W. FostER, LL.D. Crown 8vo. Illustrated.
Cloth, $3; half-calf, gilt top, $5; full calf, gilt edges, $6.50.
“It is full of interest from beginning to end.”—Popular Science Monthly.
“This book is literally crowded with astonishing and valuable facts.”—Bos-
foºt Post.
“One of the best and clearest accounts we have seen of those grand monu-
ments of a forgotten race.”—The Saturday Rezyżew, London.
FORESTIER – ECHOES FROM M IST-LAND; or, The
Nibelunger Lay revealed to Lovers of Romance and
Chivalry. By AUBER FORESTIER, 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“The simplicity and directness of the ancient chronicle are admirably pre-
served in the version, and the work forms a unique addition to our store of
sterling fiction.”—New Yoxº Home gournal.
“The Introduction traces the history of the legend, and its connection with
the Indian myths and Norse legends, besides giving a large amount of infor-
mation with respect to the Pagan mythology of our Teutonic ancestors.”—
Boston Ezrezzing Traze/Zer.
“The great epic poem of those early days of chivalry and knightly valor, the
Nibelungen Lay, is opened to us in a rehearsal of the weird and fascinating
story in clear and flowing English.”—Lutheran Quarterly Review.
PUBL/CATIONS OF S. C. GRZGGS dº CO., CHICAGO.
HOL COMB-FRIDTH JOF's SAGA. A Norse Romance. By
EsAIAs TEGNáR, Bishop of Wexio. Translated from the Swedish
by THOMAS A. E. and MARTHA A. LYON HOLCOMB. 12mo,
ºth, $1.50. s
“The translation is exceedingly well done. . . . This is not the first
attempt to reproduce Tegnér's famous work in English, but we believe it to be
quite the most successful.”—Harger's Magazine.
“No one can peruse this noble poem without arising therefrom with a loftier
idea of human bravery and a better conception of human love.”—Inter-Ocean,
Chicago.
“Wherever one opens the poem he is sure to light upon passages of exquisite
beauty. Longfellow styles it the noblest poetic contribution which Sweden has
yet made to the literary history of the world.”—Charch 3 ournal, New York.
HUDSON-LAW FOR THE CLERCY. A compilation of the
Statutes of the States of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minne-
sota, Ohio and Wisconsin, relating to the duties of Clergymen in
the solemnization of Marriage, the organization of Churches and
Religious Societies, and the protection of Religious Meetings
and Assemblies; with notes and practical forms, embracing a
collation of the Common Law of Marriage. By SANFORD A.
HUDSON. 16mo, cloth, $1.
“It contains what every preacher should have. It is a safe guide in securing
deeds and titles to property, to churches, etc.”—Religious Telescope, Dayton.
“Every Western minister should have it. Its value to those for whom it is
especially designed must be apparent at a glance.”—The Standard, Chicago.
JONES.–THE MYTH OF STONE IDOL. An Indian Love
Legend of Dakota. By WILLIAM P. Jon Es, A.M. I vol. Small
4to, handsomely bound, $1.
“We read it through, beguiled by its melodious lines and the pathos of its
simple tale. Its descriptions are fine pictures.”—Zion's Herald, Boston.
KIPPAX—CHURCHYARD L ITERATURE. A choice collec-
tion of American Epitaphs, with remarks on Monumental In-
scriptions and the Obsequies of various nations. By JOHN R.
KIPPAX, LL.D. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“A collection remarkable for quaintness and eccentricity.”—N. Y. Daily
Tribune.
“A volume both instructive and amusing, which will amply repay perusal.”—
AW. P. Gražic.
LIE-THE PILOT AND HIS WIFE. A Norse Love Story.
By JonAs LIE. Translated by MRs. OLE BULL. cloth, $1.50.
“Most absorbingly interesting. . . . In realism, picturesqueness and psy-
chological insight, ‘The Pilot and His Wife' leaves very little to be desired.
Every one of the dramatis personae is boldly conceived and elaborated with great
skill. We have none of the stale repetitions of the usual well-worn characters
of fiction, which is indeed no mean praise. . . . A delightful and enter-
taining book.”—Scriòner's Monthly.
PUBLICATIONS OF S. C. GRIGGS & CO., CHICAGO.
- MATHEWS-CETTING ON IN THE WORLD ; or, Hints:
on Success in Life. By WILLIAM MATHEws, LL.D.
I Vol. 12mo, cloth, $2; the same, gilt edges, $2.50; half calf,
gilt top, $3.50; full calf, gilt edges, $5.
“As a work of art, it is a gem. As a counselor, it speaks the wisdom of the
ages. As a teacher, it illustrates the true philosophy of life by the experience
of eminent men of every class and calling. It warns by the story of signal fail-
ures, and encourages by the record of triumphs that seemed impossible. It is a
book of facts and not of theories. The men who have succeeded in life are laid
under tribute and made to divulge the secret of their success. They give vastly
more than ‘ hints’— they make a revelation.”—Christian Era, Boston.
MATHEWS-THE GREAT CONVERSERS, and other
Essays. By WILLIAM MATHEws, LL.D. 12mo, cloth, $1.75.
“These pages are crammed with interesting facts about literary men and
literary work.”—New York Ezrening Mail.
“One will make the acquaintance of more authors in the course of a single
one of his essays than are probably to be met with in the same limited space
anywhere else in the whole realm of our literature.”—Chicago Tribune.
MATHEws—words, THEIR Use AND ABuse. By
WILLIAM MATHEws, LL.D. 12mo, cloth, $2.
“We heartily recommend the work as rich in valuable suggestions to those
who desire to cultivate accuracy in speaking and writing.”—The Lutheran
Quarterly Rezyżew.
“It can be read with profit by every intelligent student of the English lan-
guage.”— The International Review, New York.
MATHEWs – Hours witH MEN AND Books. By
WILLIAM MATHEws, LL.D.. I vol. 12mo, cloth, $2.
“The elder Disraeli has certainly found a worthy successor in the present
writer.”—New York Triâune.
“A rare entrepot of information conveyed in a style at once easy, lucid and
elegant. Any one desirous of cultivating an acquaintance with the leading
thinkers and actors of all ages, and to have in a compendious form intelligent
opinions on their lives and works, will find herein the result of deep research
and sound reflection.”—Sheffield Post, England.
MATHEWS.–MoMDAY-CHATS. By C. A. SAINTE-BEUvE.
With an Introductory Essay on his life and writings by the
translator, WILLIAM MATHEws, LL.D. 12mo, cloth, $2.
“The translation is excellent throughout.”——New York Ezrening Post.
“No essays of the kind in modern literature are superior, if equal, to these
masterly portraitures, in which philosophy and elegance are happily combined.”
—Boston Daily Globe.
“It is not too much to say that the ‘Introductory Essay’ is one of the best
pieces of literary criticism in American literature.”—Utica Morning Herald.
“To the man of letters this book will be a delight; to the general reader a
charming recreation; to the student a model of taste and culture.”—Boston
Christian Register.
PUBLICATIONS OF S. C. GRZGGS dº CO., CHICAGO.
MATHEws—or ATORY AND or ATORs. By WILLIAM
MATHEws, LL.D. 1 vol. 12mo, cloth, $2.
MILLER—WHAT TOMIMY DID. By EMILY HUNTINGTON
MILLER. Illustrated. I6mo, paper covers, 50 cents; cloth, $1.
“If there is any other way in which fifty cents will purchase as much sus-
tained and healthful amusement as is offered by this little book we should be
glad to know it.”—%hn Haāčerton, in the Christian Union.
“We laughed all the evening over the many funny things Tommy said and
did. . . . We will warrant that no one, young or old, will lay it down until
read through.”—Northern Christian Advocate.
MISHAPS OF MR. EZEKIEL PELTER. Illustrated. $1.50.
“Immensely amusing.”—Boston Commonwealth.
“If it be your desire ‘to laugh and grow fat,' you will find The Mishaps of
Ezekiel Pelter a great help.”—American Christian Review, Cincinnati.
ROBERT-RULES OF ORDER, for Deliberative Assem-
blies. By MAJOR HENRY M. ROBERT, Corps of Engineers,
U. S. A. Pocket size. Cloth, 75 cents.
“Robert's Rules of Order is a capital little book. I have given it a very
critical examination. . . . For general use and application, I regard it the
best book extant.”—Bſon. 9ames W. Husted, Speaker of the Wew York State
Legislature.
“It is just such a guide as is needed by all presiding officers. . . . The table
of rules relating to motions, and the cross references, which enable any one to
find almost instantly anything in the book, give it almost inestimable value.” –
AVezw York Christian Adzºocate.
SMITH-PATMOS; or, The Kingdom and the Patience.
By J. A. SMITH, D.D., Editor of The Standard. Cloth, $1.25.
“No one can read the nine chapters which this volume contains without
receiving a new inspiration to faithful service in the cause of Christ.”—Zion's
Adzºocate. f
TAYLoR-BETWEEN THE GATES. By BENJ. F. TAYLoR,
Author of “The World on Wheels,” etc. etc. 12mo, cloth. Il-
lustrated. $1.50.
“The light, feathery sketches in this volume glitter with all the colors of the
rainbow. and sparkle with the reflection of the morning dew. The reader of
imagination and taste will delight in the subtle alchemy which transmutes gold
into beauty, and changes the facts of common life into ideal visions. Mr.
Taylor detects the enchantments of poetry in the most prosaic experiences, and
the dusty highways of life are refreshed with the waters of Siloam, and bloom
with the flowers of paradise.”—New York Tribune.
“A series of verbal photographs of California characters and scenery that are
exceedingly graphic, poetic and entertaining. . . . Picturesque and romantic
in style, yet altogether accurate in fact.”—Episcopal Register, Philadelphia.
“Lively as a novel and accurate as a guide book.”—Philadelphia Press.
PUBLICATIONS OF S. C. GRIGGS 4: CO., CHICAGO.
TAYLOR-IN cAMP AND FIELD. By BENJ. F. Taylor.
12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“Each of these sketches is a gem in itself. One may search the annals of
war from Tacitus to Kinglake and not find anything finer.”—Inter-Ocean.
“The description of Hooker's battle ‘above the clouds” is one of the grand-
est pieces of word-painting in the English language.”—Peoria Transcript.
TAYLOR – OLD-TIME PICTURES AND SHEAVES OF
RHYME. By BENJ. F. TAYLOR. Illustrated, small quarto,
silk cloth, price $1.50; the same, full gilt edges and side, $1.75.
“I do not know of any one who so well reproduces the home scenes of long
ago.”—90%zt G. Whittier.
TAYLOR – THE WORLD ON WHEELS, and Other
Sketches. By BENJ. F. TAYLOR. Illustrated. 12mo, clo., $1.50.
“One of the most elegant, as well as pungent and rich, specimens of wit and
humor extant.”—New Porã. Illustrated Weekly,
“Brings you very near to nature and life in their pleasantest moods wherever
you may happen to be.”—E. P. W.2%2e, Esq., in the Boston Globe.
“Few equal Mr. Taylor as a word painter. He fascinates with his artistic
touches, and exhilarates with his sparkling humor, and subdues with his sweet
pathos. His sentences glisten like gems in the sunlight.”—Albany $ournal.
TAYLoR-Sonds of YESTERDAY. By BENJ. F. Taylor.
Beautifully illustrated. Octavo, with handsomely ornamented
cover in black and gold. Full gilt edges, $3; morocco, $6.
“The volume is magnificently gotten up. . . . There is a simplicity, a ten-
derness and a pathos, intermingled always with a quiet humor, about his writ-
ings which is inexpressibly charming. Some of his earlier poems have become
classic, and many of those in the present volume are destined to as wide a
popularity as Longfellow’s ‘Village Blacksmith' or Whittier’s ‘Maud Müller.’”
—Boston Transcript.
WALKER – PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVA-
TION. By J. B. WALKER, D.D. With an Introductory Essay
by CALVIN E. Stow E, D.D. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“We think it more likely to lodge an impression in the human conscience in
favor of the divine authority of Christianity than any other work of the modern
press.”—Bondon Ezrangelical Magazine, England.
WALKER—THE DocTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT;
or, Philosophy of the Divine Operation in the Re-
demption of Man, being volume second of “Philosophy of
the Plan of Salvation.” By Rev. JAMEs B. WALKER, D.D.
12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“Every minister and teacher should arm himself with strong weapons by
perusing the arguments of this book.”—Methodist Recorder, Pittsburg.
“Of unanswerable force and extraordinary interest.”—Wew Pork Ezrangelist.
PUBLICATIONS OF S. C. GRAEGGS & CO., CA/CAGO.
TEXT-BOOKS — RETAIL PRICES.
BACON — A MANUAL OF CESTURE. With Ioo Figures,
embracing a complete System of Notation, with the Principles of
Interpretation, and Selections for Practice. By Prof. A. M.
BACON. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“The work comprehends all that is valuable upon the subject of gesture.”—
R. L. Cumnocé, Professor of Elocution, Northwestern Unizersity.
BOISE – FIRST LESSONS IN CREEK. Adapted to Good-
win's, to Hadley's Larger and Smaller Greek Grammars, and
intended as an Introduction to Xenophon's Anabasis. By JAMES
R. BoISE, Ph.D. 12mo, half leather, $1.25.
“It is an admirable guide to the learner, and will teach the inexperienced
teacher how to teach in the best way. I like the book better than any other
manual for beginners I have seen, and I have seen most, and used several differ-
ent ones in teaching.”—Prof. H. F. Fisk, Morthwestern Unizersity, IZZ.
BOISE — HOMER'S IL AD. The First Six Books of Homer’s
Iliad; with Explanatory Notes, intended for beginners in the
Epic dialect; accompanied with numerous References to Good-
win's, to Hadley's Greek Grammar, to Kühner's Larger Greek
Grammar and Goodwin’s Moods and Tenses. By J. R. BOISE,
Ph.D. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“Incomparably superior to any other edition of Homer ever published in this
country.”—M. L. D'Ooge, Ph.D., Professor of Greek, Unizersity of Michigan.
Boise – EXERCISES IN cREEK SYNTAX. Being Exer.
cises in some of the more difficult Principles of Greek Syntax;
with References to the Grammars of Crosby, Curtius, Goodwin,
Hadley, Koch and Kühner. A Sequel to “Jones's Exercises in
Greek Prose Composition,” and intended for the First Year in
College. By JAMEs R. BOISE, Ph.D. 12mo, half leather, $1.50.
“‘ Prof. Jones's Exercises' and “Dr. Boise's Exercises in Greek Syntax” are
a vast improvement upon ........ ’s books on Prose Composition. I like much
the principles upon which they are constructed. . . . The two works taken
together constitute an apparatus which is unsurpassed, or rather, if I mistake
not, unequaled, for the acquisition of a thorough and familiar acquaintance
with Greek forms.”—Henry M. Baird, Ph.D., Proy of Greek Language and
I.iterature, Unizersity of the City of Wew York.
BOISE & FREEMAN – SELECTIONS FRON VARIOUS
CREEK AUTHORS. For the First Year in College; with
Explanatory Notes and References to Goodwin’s Greek Gram-
mar, and to Hadley's Larger and Smaller Grammars. By JAMEs
R. BoISE, Ph.D., and J. C. FREEMAN, M.A. 12mo, cloth, $2.
‘‘I found the book so admirable in the matter selected, in the soundness and
accuracy of the annotations, and in the unusual excellence of the press-work,
that I could not do otherwise than urge its adoption, and my high opinion of
the book has been corroborated by daily use.”—A. H. Buck, A.M., Prof. of
Greek, Boston University. -
PUBLICATIONS OF S. C. GR/GGS 4: CO., CA/CAGO.
D’OOCE – DEMOST HENES ON THE CROWN. With Ex-
tracts from the Oration of Æschines against Ctesiphon, and
Explanatory Notes. By M. L. D'OoGE, Ph.D., Professor of
Greek, University of Michigan. 12mo, cloth, $1.75.
“I have examined it again and again, and am better satisfied with it than
any other text-book on The Crown I have seen. I shall therefore use it in
preference to all others.”—Prof. R. B. Poungman, La Fayette College.
JONES – EXERCISES IN CREEK PROSE COMPOSI-
TION. With References to Hadley's, Goodwin’s and Taylor's-
Kühner's Greek Grammars, and a full English-Greek Vocabu-
lary. By Prof. ELISHA JoWEs, Univ. of Michigan. 12mo, $1.
“No better exercises can be found for classes in Greek Prose Composition,
whether in college or the preparatory school.”—From Edward Worth, L.A.D.,
Professor of Greek, Hamilton College, AW. P.
Jon ES-FIRST LESSoNS IN LATIN. Adapted to the
Latin Grammars of Allen & Greenough, Andrews & Stoddard,
Bartholomew, Bullions & Morris, Gildersleeve and Harkness,
and prepared as an Introduction to Caesar’s Commentaries on the
Gallic War. By ELISHA JoWEs, Professor in the University of
Michigan. 12mo, cloth, $1.50.
“I do not know of a better drill book for classical schools to prepare the way
for the reading of Caesar and to lay the foundation of a very thorough and accu-
rate scholarship in Latin.”—Prof. E. P. Crowell, Amherst College.
PETERSON – NORWEC. IAN-DANISH CRAMMAR AND
READER. With a Vocabulary, designed for American Stu-
dents of the Norwegian-Danish language. By Prof. C. I. P.
PETERSON, 12mo, cloth, $1.25.
“I rejoice to see the door opened to American students to the treasures of
Norwegian letters, and in so attractive a manner as in Mr. Peterson's book.”—
F. Sewell, President of Urðama. Unizersity.
STEVENS — SELECT ORATIONS OF LYSIAS. With In-
troductions and Explanatory Notes. By W. A. STEvENs, Pro-
fessor of Greek, Denison University, Ohio. I2mo, cloth, $1.50.
“A valuable contribution to our college text-books and ought to be most cor-
dially welcomed.”—W. W. Goodwin, Ph.D., Prof. of Greek, Harvard College.
THOMPSON – FIRST LATIN BOOK. Introductory to Cae-
sar's Commentaries. By D. G. THOMPson, A.M. 12mo, $1.50.
“The plan is thoroughly excellent, the execution of it in all points admira-
ble.”—Thomas Chase, Professor of Philology, Hazerford College.
ZUR BRUCKE – CERMAN WITHOUT GRAMMAR OR
DICTIONARY; According to the Pestalozzian method of
teaching by Object Lessons. I2mo, cloth back, 50 cents.
“By far the best method to enable pupils to acquire familiarity with a lan-
guage and readiness in speaking it.”—Boston Commonwealth.
|-·****** ~ ~*– .-- ... --
（~~~~ -...-..-..-...） ---------~--~~~~ ~~~~
|
GAN
||| MICH!
3 9015 03007
||||
&
*...***
\
ſaevae vº vrae
！'， r'n'， y''，
•ēš, * * * * *

--！-
¿¿.*，… •• • • • •* • ***:））?'
！！！！!！!！！www: w: ? " . " ---- ----
*qaeza
******...; ~
•*…*…- ****
∞∞∞&${-¿¿.*
¿¿.***š， ** ******¿¿ {}№x，laerffºrºſº，，，，ſæſºwą·
§§§Ķſ.##############№rwºłºwºſº），ſae¿¿.*sae?"****-Mae'r·ſº...:.，，，.，:.，,，.,:.，…|-
·¿¿.*¿¿.*§§§§§§§ſſº§§§§§§§：ſſä -|-№šķī£（; ， ;º ，
ſae}（£（;&###### *（）;§§§2）aeſºſyº（aeae ¿¿. №ſſae
¿?）（?:%28ſ%ſ，%s，%;ſ::（±（√（√≠√¶√&### - ---- - -::::：::：::.ae
ºšĂ，ſ， šaš,kº ſºrgºſ）■■■■***： :· |-*£X®aeſt;· -
‘’’. ，,，,，.，: ·¿?, ¿saer， sº·！ſº º· ·№aei>$$4，ț¢rſºſae- -----|--
º， ， ， ，·';******¿¿.·№gas， si: „',…，∞,∞∞∞∞• §§§ șeș;&#ffff;ſ№ ſº ſe fºi- ·saesºš，∞'，
&=&ț¢ £4.|-* * .· : . . .· § （3）· ºffſ）: ‘№ºi！?！?！***！, §. 7- ， ，ſ., &，&##~##ºff· §§4-seſſ䧧§§§ſą:** ，ſą;ſaei/***********）:
------ ·- · -- a + · ·， ， ， ， ， , , ， ;"- ·ſae sººv zº : ****w ** ， ， ， ， … .:：:::::::：::::::：：::::::::::::::º， ， ，#####ſae ·*№.№vº，****
- ·|（.） 。。 。、。· •· · ; , ; ******** · * （ ）-ºſºț¢ © ®* *（ ， ！ſºr.«*****• №nºſ， w tºſpºſſº *ſae§！- --★،żaeſſae·
·' （ .， ， ， ！· · · · · · * ： * '' · §.…. ：）·· ， : , ſ.4* **· ¿¿.******）¿?ſae;· ·:：:：·
· - kº* * · · ·· ----.-^-^-----، ،ſ-wrwg ·ſa ſºrº ***（~}，| ºrºszłº ºsſ№ſ eſſãº，¿№.ș，
----- -* .∞ √~·- ∞： ··（）、、、、、、、、、、、。sº ſºº
· ·----------- 3 * * * . |-¿wa* ###：;};ſ
* * · · ·· ， ， ºſae... . . .- wwww * * * * * * * */، ،
§3-
ſſſſſſſ，**:'， ,| . "-
·---- 3. №ſſae º și - -·|-·|-· ·-- - ·* * *， ****
- -！* „ ， ！·）;*， ***-*** *** ·
-:-4 **********
ſae·
· · · *· $（'#:№，
.* # ： ****************
¿?， ¿T）
¿<！--***#！***！ºſº*****
******
■■■ ■ ■ ■
* *ț¢， * * &##！****:
***（№rae， vº vºº ºº..ººº... “
~º ，
№s ſae ſae
ſaeae-wºº º
§ ſuºſiº， ºs e º
: „ ， ！--->· ·' .
----- ·• -- , ， , , ，
- ----|[...） ： • • • • • • • • • • •
----· · · *- . .， ... • &#s · · · · · *-ſ.-- · ·
*
！ "
….*
·ſj
º ſi
, ， ， + ， ' « ' •
· · · -
, , ; ， * * · *
| ， ، ، ***
…, ！
| rº º
„4,4 + 3 ** * * ·
， ， ， ， *spae ！， （*****
sa ： · * *
kaſ sae sººs
· · · * * *
， ， , ， ， ， ， * ·
， }s { */， ，
（C-ſpeaae-ſºsºrº eºſ::：::::），
saeae: nºw; sººſ º ſº：|-- ·ºº:: ``}lae · --
→· № ſe，§§§ wę， ſkºrº • •-· · --
- ' * * * · · ***-Laev ， ſº 8º 8 *****
| , ، ، ، ، ، ، ، ، ، ،
• … • …
， ， ， ， ）:！！！ Ǻx * ， ， ， ，· · * * * *-∞*
- ！,，， ,，,*º :*- ---- -…
·È， sºwº: º ºſ
* ……..… " …，~...，****
！ 2 ！wr aes，| ** ***
-#ffae
... ſae … *•**