t all alone with Oline.

He thinks, as he walks, of the first time he had come that way. Time
has passed, the two last years had been long; there had been much that
was good at Sellanraa, and a deal that was not--eyah, _Herregud_! And
now here was another man clearing ground in the wilds. Isak knew the
place well; it was one of the kindlier spots he had noted himself on
his way up, but he had gone on farther. It was nearer the village,
certainly, but the timber was not so good; the ground was less hilly,
but a poorer soil; easy to work on the surface, but hard to deal with
farther down. That fellow Brede would find it took more than a mere
turning over of the soil to made a field that would bear. And why
hadn't he built out a shed from the end of the hayloft for carts and
implements? Isak noticed that a cart had been left standing out in the
yard, uncovered, in the open.

He got through his business with the shoemaker, and, Fru Geissler
having left the place, he sold his cheeses to the man at the store. In
the evening, he starts out for home. The frost is getting harder now,
and it is good, firm going, but Isak trudges heavily for all that. Who
could say when Geissler would be back, now that his wife had gone;
maybe he would not be coming at all? Inger was far away, and time was
getting on....

He does not look in at Brede's on the way back; on the contrary, he
goes a long way round, keeping away from the place. He does not care
to stop and talk to folk, only trudge on. Brede's cart is still out in
the open--does he mean to leave it there? Well, 'tis his own affair.
Isak himself had a cart of his own now, and a shed to house it, but
none the happier for that. His home is but half a thing; it had been a
home once, but now only half a thing.

It is full day by the time he gets within sight of his own place up on
the hillside, and it cheers him somewhat, weary and exhausted as he is
after forty-eight hours on the road. The house and buildings, there
they stand, smoke curling up from the chimney; both the little ones
are out, and come down to meet him as he appears. He goes into the
house, and finds a couple of Lapps sitting down. Oline starts up in
surprise: "What, you back already!" She is making coffee on the stove.
Coffee? _Coffee_!

Isak has noticed the same thing before. When Os-Anders or any of the
other Lapps have been there, Oline makes coffee in Inger's little pot
for a long time after. She does it while Isa