to brag
about, as the rest of you were a dull lot."

"You were going to tell me about a dream," Jan reminded her.

"In a minute--a minute! You mustn't be afraid. I understand--
understand: hard master now at Falla--hard master. But don't be
uneasy, for you'll not be scolded on my account. There's no danger
of that when you're with a sensible person like me."

Jan would have liked to hear what she dreamed about him, for
confident as he was of the ultimate realization of his great
expectations, he nevertheless sought assurances from all quarters.
But now Mad Ingeborg was wandering along her own thought-road and
at such times it was not easy to stop her. She went very close to
Jan, then, bending over him, her eyes shut tight, her head shaking,
the words came pouring out of her mouth.

"Don't be so scared. Do you suppose I'd be standing here talking to
you while you're threshing at Falla if I didn't know the master had
gone up to the forest and the mistress was down at the village
selling butter. 'Always keep them in mind,' says the catechism. I
know enough for that and take good care not to come round when they
can see me."

"Get out of the way, Ingeborg! Otherwise the flail might hit you."

"Think how you boys used to beat me when we were children!" she
rattled on. "Even now I have to take thrashings. But when it came
to catechism examinations, I could beat you all. 'No one can catch
Ingeborg napping,' the dean used to say. 'She always knows her
lessons.' And I'm good friends with the little misses at Loevdala
Manor. I recite the catechism for them both questions and answers--
from beginning to end. And what a memory I've got! I know the whole
Bible by heart and the hymn book, too, and all the dean's sermons.
Shall I recite something for you, or would you rather hear me sing?"

Jan said nothing whatever, but went to threshing again. Ingeborg,
undaunted, seated herself on a sheaf of straw and struck up a chant
of some twenty stanzas, then she repeated a couple of chapters from
the Bible, whereupon she got up and went out. Jan thought she had
gone for good, but in a little while she reappeared in the doorway
of the barn.

"Hold still!" she whispered. "Hold still! Now we'll say nothing but
what we were going to say. Only be still--still!"

Then up went her forefinger. Now she held her body rigid and her
eyes open. "No other thoughts, no other thoughts!" she said. "We'll
keep to the subject. Only hush your poundin