een settled.

The clerk now produced the bills and laid them on the table.
Katrina pushed them over to Glory Goldie and told her to figure up
the total amount due.

It was no less than one hundred rix-dollars that they owed!

Katrina went white as a sheet. "I see that you mean to turn us out
of house and home," she said, faintly.

"Oh, no," answered Lars, "not if you pay what you owe."

"You ought to think of your own parents, Lars," Katrina reminded
him. "They, too, had their struggles before you became the son-in-law
of a rich farmer."

Katrina had to do all the talking, as Jan would not say anything;
he only sat and looked at Glory Goldie--looked and waited. To his
mind this affair was just something that had been planned for her
special benefit, that she might prove her worth.

"When you take the hut away from the poor man he's done for,"
wailed Katrina.

"I don't want to take the hut," said Lars Gunnarson, on the
defensive. "All I want is a settlement."

But Katrina was not listening. "As long as the poor man has his
home he's as good as anybody else, but the homeless man knows he's
nobody."

Jan felt that Katrina was right. The hut was built of old lumber
and stood aslant on a poor foundation. Small and cramped it
certainly was, but just the same it seemed as if all would be over
for them if they lost it. Jan, for his part, could not think for a
second it would be as bad as that. Was not his Glory Goldie there?
And could he not see how her eyes were beginning to flash fire? In
a little while she would say something or do something that would
drive these tormentors away.

"Of course you've got to have time to think it over," said the new
owner. "But bear in mind that either you move on the first of
October or you pay the storekeeper at Broby the one hundred
rix-dollars you owe him on or before that date. Besides, I must
have another hundred for the land."

Old Katrina sat wringing her toil-gnarled hands. She was so wrought
up that she talked to herself, not caring who heard her.

"How can I go to church and how can I be seen among people when I'm
so poor I haven't even a hut to live in?"

Jan was thinking of something else. He called to mind all the
beautiful memories associated with the hut. It was here, near the
table, the midwife had laid the child in his arms. It was over
there, in the doorway, he had stood when the sun peeped out through
the clouds to name the little girl. The hut was one w