r-time there was a great deal of talking and fuss about this
affair. Every one had heard how Nikolai had threatened Olaves, and
Olaves, as a precaution, found witnesses for his words.

"He looked as if he could use the sledge-hammer to something besides
forging bolts, that fellow, if he could do it without witnesses!"

They might talk as much as they liked for all that Nikolai cared; he did
his work, and never heard that Haegberg had anything to complain of. He
was prepared for a disappointment now.

There was one thing, though, that he would do before he gave in--go
straight to Haegberg and speak out, and then the master could give his
testimony as to which he wanted, if Mrs. Ellingsen asked him.

The final answer from Mrs. Ellingsen was delayed week after week: at
last it was two months.

What could the old woman mean? The whole smithy wondered--she must have
a foreman by the autumn.

At last, one morning it appeared in the shape of a message.

* * * * *

It was drawing on towards evening one broiling hot summer day. In both
floors of the grey wooden house in which Mrs. Holman lived, the
small-paned windows stood open, drinking in the slight coolness there
was in the air, while the dwellers within went about their occupations
more or less lightly clothed. A faint breath only now and again stirred
the half transparent curtains, or the white clothes hanging on lines
across the yard.

At the window on the ground floor just above the entrance to the cellar,
stood a slender, dark-eyed young girl with turned-up sleeves, busy at
the water tap under which she had a wash-tub full of clothes. Her head
could be seen now above, now below the short blind, cooled and refreshed
by the cold rush of water.

Suddenly she stopped in surprise.

Nikolai entered with his flat cap pushed triumphantly on one side.

"The world's right enough, I can tell you, Silla. The only thing is to
see that everything is properly in order from the very beginning. He who
hasn't got a father, must be his own father, you know!"

"But Nikolai! Did you know mother was out?"

"Pooh! What is there that I don't know! My mother told me just now that
it was one of the washing days at Antonisens. But you see, Silla, it's
beginning to get late, and--if you'd like to know--I've been invited
to-day to be foreman at Mrs. Ellingsen's. That'll be only ten dollars a
month more!"

"Foreman? Is it true, Nikolai?" She retreated