former farm. With the hut went a
bit of marsh, and a few acres of poor land, which had never been
under the plow. He bought a few sheep and poultry, put up an
outhouse of peat and reeds taken from the marsh--and settled himself
in. He dug peat and sold it, and when there was a good catch of
herrings, would go down to the nearest fishing hamlet with his
wheelbarrow and buy a load, taking them from hut to hut. He
preferred to barter them, taking in exchange old metal, rags and
bones, etc. It was the trade of his race he took up again, and
although he had never practised it before, he fell into it quite
easily. One day he took home a big bony horse, which he had got
cheap, because no-one else had any use for it; another day he
brought Soerine home. Everything went well for him.

He had met Soerine at some gathering down in one of the fishing huts,
and they quickly made a match of it. She was tired of her place and
he of being alone; so they threw in their lot together.

He was out the whole day long, and often at night too. When the
fishing season was in full swing, he would leave home at one or two
o'clock in the night, to be at the hamlet when the first boats came
in. On these occasions Soerine stayed up to see that he did not
oversleep himself. This irregular life came as naturally to her as
to him, and she was a great help to him. So now once more he had a
wife, and one who could work too. He possessed a horse, which had no
equal in all the land--and a farm! It was not what could be called
an estate, the house was built of hay, mud and sticks; people would
point laughingly at it as they passed. Lars Peter alone was thankful
for it.

He was a satisfied being--rather too much so, thought Soerine. She
was of a different nature, always straining forward, and pushing him
along so that her position might be bettered. She was an ambitious
woman. When he was away, she managed everything; and the first
summer helped him to build a proper outhouse, of old beams and
bricks, which she made herself by drying clay in the sun. "Now we've
a place for the animals just like other people," said she, when it
was finished. But her voice showed that she was not satisfied.

At times Lars Peter Hansen would suggest that they ought to take
Granny and Ditte to live with them. "They're so lonely and dull,"
said he, "and the Lord only knows where they get food from."

But this Soerine would not hear of. "We've enough to do without
them,"