lf!"

But there was many a long year yet before it _did_ come to that; but one
autumn, when his son Bernt was sixteen, Elias knew he could manage it,
so he took his whole family with him in his boat to Ranen,[5] to
exchange his _Sexaering_ for a _Femboering_. The only person left at home
was a little Finn girl, whom they had taken into service some few years
before, and who had only lately been confirmed.

Now there was a boat, a little _Femboering_, for four men and a boy, that
Elias just then had his eye upon--a boat which the best boat-builder in
the place had finished and tarred over that very autumn. Elias had a
very good notion of what a boat should be, and it seemed to him that he
had never seen a _Femboering_ so well built _below_ the water-line.
_Above_ the water-line, indeed, it looked only middling, so that, to one
of less experience than himself, the boat would have seemed rather a
heavy goer than otherwise, and anything but a smart craft.

Now the boat-master knew all this just as well as Elias. He said he
thought it would be the swiftest sailer in Ranen, but that Elias should
have it cheap, all the same, if only he would promise one thing, and
that was, to make no alteration whatever in the boat, nay, not so much
as adding a fresh coat of tar. Only when Elias had expressly given his
word upon it did he get the boat.

But "yon laddie"[6] who had taught the boat-master how to build his
boats so cunningly _below_ the water-line--_above_ the water-line he had
had to use his native wits, and they were scant enough--must surely have
been there beforehand, and bidden him both sell it cheaply, so that
Elias might get it, and stipulate besides that the boat should not be
looked at too closely. In this way it escaped the usual tarring fore and
aft.

Elias now thought about sailing home, but went first into the town,
provided himself and family with provisions against Christmas, and
indulged in a little nip of brandy besides. Glad as he was over the
day's bargain, he, and his wife too, took an extra drop in their e'en,
and their son Bernt had a taste of it too.

After that they sailed off homewards in their new boat. There was no
other ballast in the boat but himself, his old woman, the children, and
the Christmas provisions. His son Bernt sat by the main-sheet; his wife,
helped by her next eldest son, held the sail-ropes; Elias himself sat at
the rudder, while the two younger brothers of twelve and fourteen we