rry it.

Mother Stina was as astounded as if some one had struck her in the
face; and went back to her seat. She knew, of course, that no one
nowadays reads these old Bibles, with their obsolete and antiquated
language, but just the same it seemed strange that Karin would want
to sell it.

It was perhaps the very Bible the old housewife was reading when
they came and told her that her husband, the great-grandfather of
young Ingmar, had been killed by a bear. Everything that Mother
Stina saw had something to tell her. The old silver buckles lying
on the table had been taken from the trolls in Mount Klack by an
Ingmar Ingmarsson. In the rickety chaise over yonder the Ingmar
Ingmarsson who had lived during her childhood had driven to church.
She remembered that every time he had passed by her and her mother
on their way to church, the mother had nudged her and said: "Now
you must curtsy, Stina, fox here comes Ingmar Ingmarsson."

She used to wonder why it was that her mother always wanted her to
curtsy to Ingmar Ingmarsson; she had never been so particular when
it came to the judge or the bailiff.

Afterward she was told that when her mother was a little girl and
went to church with her mother, the latter had always nudged her
and said: 'Now you must curtsy, Stina, for here comes Ingmar
Ingmarsson."

"God knows," sighed Mother Stina, "it's not only because I had
expected that Gertrude would some day have been mistress here that
I grieve, but it seems to me as if the whole parish were done for."

Just then the pastor came along, looking solemn and depressed. He
did not stop an instant, but went straight to the house. Mother
Stina surmised that he had come to plead Ingmar's cause with Karin
and Halvor.

Shortly after, the manager of the sawmills at Bergsana arrived, and
also judge Persson. The manager, who was there in the interest of
the corporation, straightway went inside, but Sven Persson walked
about in the yard for a while and looked at the things. Presently
he stopped in front of a little old man with a big beard, who was
sitting on the same pile of boards as Mother Stina.

"I don't suppose you happen to know, Strong Ingmar, whether Ingmar
Ingmarsson has decided to buy the timber I offered him?"

"He says no," the old man answered, "but I shouldn't be surprised
if he were to change his mind soon." At the same time he winked and
jerked his thumb in the direction of Mother Stina, thus cautioning
Sven Persso