ll be too late!"

Surely this could never have been said for the son's benefit. The
father was no doubt thinking aloud, as is the habit of old people.

Anyhow, the son thought he would try to make the old man talk about
something else. So he said:

"How is the man who went crazy last year getting on?"

"Oh, you mean Jan of Ruffluck! Well, he has been in his right mind
since last fall. He'll not be at the party, either. He's only a
poor crofter like myself; so him you'll not miss, of course."

This was true enough. However, the son was so glad of an excuse to
speak of some one other than Lars Gunnarson, that he asked with
genuine concern what was wrong with Jan of Ruffluck.

"Oh, he's just sick from pining for a daughter who went away about
two years ago, and who never writes to him."

"The girl who went wrong?"

"So you knew about it, eh? But it isn't because of that he's
grieving himself to death. It is the awful hardness and lack of
love that he can't bear up under."

This forced colloquy was becoming intolerable. It made the son feel
all the more uncomfortable.

"I'm going over to the stone farthest out," he said. "I see a lot
of fish splashing round it."

By that move he was out of earshot of his father, and there was no
further conversation between them for the remainder of the
forenoon. But go where he would, he felt that the dim, lustreless
eyes of the old man were following him. And this time he was
actually glad when the guests arrived.

The dinner was served out of doors. When Ol' Bengtsa had taken his
place at the board he tried to cast off all worry and anxiety. When
acting as host at a party, so much of the Ol' Bengtsa of bygone
days came to the fore it was easy to guess what manner of man he
had once been.

No one from Falla was present. But it was plain that Lars Gunnarson
was in every one's thoughts; which was not surprising since this
was the day he had been warned to look out for. Now of course Ol'
Bengtsa's son had to listen to further talk about the catechetical
meeting at Falla, and he heard more about the pastor's extraordinary
dissertation on the duties of children toward their parents than
he cared to hear. However, he said nothing; but Ol' Bengtsa must
have noticed that he was beginning to be bored, for he turned to
him with the remark:

"What do you say to all this, Nils? I suppose you're sitting there
thinking to yourself it's very strange Our Lord hasn't written a
commandm