felt that Jan was as much out of place
counting eggs, as a red stag would be if harnessed to a plow. She, at
least, understood the rebellious, unhappy look on his handsome face.
When the ling fishing was near at hand, she said to Peter: "There is
one thing that is thy duty, and that is to give Jan the charge of a
boat. He is for the sea, and it is not well that so good a sailor
should go out of the family."

"I have no mind to do that. Jan will do well one day, and he will do
as ill as can be the next. I will not trust a boat with him."

"It seems to me that where thou could trust Margaret, thou might well
trust nineteen feet of keel, and fifty fathom of long lines."

Peter answered her not, and Thora kept silence also. But at the end,
when he had smoked his pipe, and was lifting the Bible for the evening
exercise, he said: "Thou shalt have thy way, wife; Jan shall have a
boat, but thou wilt see evil will come of it."

"Thou wert always good, Peter, and in this thing I am thinking of more
than fish. There is sorrow in Margaret's house. A mother can feel
that."

"Now, then, meddle thou not in the matter. Every man loves in his own
way. Whatever there is between Jan and Margaret is a thing by itself.
But I will speak about the boat in the morning."

Peter kept his word, and kept it without smallness or grudging. He
still liked Jan. If there were trouble between him and Margaret he
regarded it as the natural initiation to married life. Norse women
were all high-spirited and wished to rule; and he would have despised
Jan if he had suspected him of giving way to Margaret's stubborn
self-will. Though she was his own daughter, he did not wish to see her
setting an example of wifely supremacy.

So he called Jan pleasantly and said, "I have saved for thee 'The Fair
Margaret.' Wilt thou sail her this season, Jan? She is the best boat I
have, as thou well knows. Fourteen hundred hooks she is to carry, and
thou can hire six men to go with thee."

It made Peter's eyes feel misty to see the instantaneous change in
Jan's face. He could not speak his thanks, but he looked them; and
Peter felt troubled, and said, almost querulously, "There, that will
do, son Jan; go now, and hire the men thou wants."

"First of all, I should like Snorro."

Peter hesitated, but he would not tithe his kindness, and he frankly
answered, "Well, then, thou shalt have Snorro--though it will go hard
with me, wanting him."

"But we will make it go