ime, however, he failed to notice a huge log that
was coming toward him with a rush. It caught him in the side just
below the armpit. It was a terrific blow, for the log was hurled
against him with a violent force that sent him staggering in the
water. Yet he kept a tight grip on the boat hook until he reached
the bank. When he again stood on firm ground, he hardly dared touch
his body, for he felt that his chest had been crushed. Then his
mouth suddenly filled with blood. "It's all up with you, Ingmar!"
he thought, and sank down on the bank, for he could not go a step
farther. The little children whom he had rescued gave the alarm,
and soon people came running down to the bank, and Big Ingmar was
carried home.

The pastor was called in, and he remained at the Ingmar Farm the
whole afternoon. On his way home, he stopped at the schoolmaster's.
He had experienced things in the course of the day which he felt
the need of telling to some one who would understand.

Storm and Mother Stina were deeply grieved, for they had already
heard that Ingmar Ingmarsson was dead. The clergyman, on the other
hand, looked almost radiant as he stepped into the schoolmaster's
kitchen.

Immediately Storm asked the pastor if he had been in time.

"Yes," he said, "but on this occasion I was not needed."

"Weren't you?" said Mother Stina.

"No," answered the pastor with a mysterious smile. "He would have
got on just as well without me. Sometimes it is very hard to sit by
a deathbed," he added.

"It is indeed," nodded the schoolmaster.

"Particularly when the one who is passing from among us happens to
be the best man in your parish."

"Just so."

"But things can also be quite different from what one had imagined."

For a moment the pastor sat quietly gazing into space; his eyes
looked clearer than usual behind the spectacles.

"Have you, Strong, or you, Mother Stina, ever heard of the
wonderful thing that once happened to Big Ingmar when he was a
young man?" he asked.

The schoolmaster said that he had heard many wonderful things about
him.

"Why, of course; but this is the most wonderful of all! I never
knew of it myself until to-day. Big Ingmar had a good friend who
has always lived in a little cabin on his estate," the pastor
continued.

"Yes, I know," said the schoolmaster. "He is also named Ingmar;
folks call him Strong Ingmar by way of distinction."

"True," said the pastor; "his father named him Ingmar in honour of