another child ... well, well.... And little Leopoldine going to school
several times a year down at Breidablik--that left them with no little
ones about the place now--besides which, Leopoldine herself was grown
up now.

Some days passed, and Isak resolutely threw away a whole
week-end--from Saturday evening till Monday morning--on a trip down to
the village. He would not say what he was going for when he set out,
but on his return, he brought with him a girl. "This is Jensine," he
said. "Come to help."

"'Tis all your nonsense," said Inger, "I've no need of help at all."

Isak answered that she did need a help--just now.

Need or not--it was a kind and generous thought of his; Inger was
abashed and grateful. The new girl was a daughter of the blacksmith,
and she was to stay with them for the present; through the summer,
anyhow, and then they would see.

"And I've sent a telegram," said Isak, "after him Eleseus."

This fairly startled Inger; startled the mother. A telegram? Did he
mean to upset her completely with his thoughtfulness? It had been
her great sorrow of late that boy Eleseus was away in town--in the
evil-minded town; she had written to him about God, and likewise
explained to him how his father here was beginning to sink under
the work, and the place getting bigger all the time; little Sivert
couldn't manage it all by himself, and besides, he was to have money
after his uncle one day--all this she had written, and sent him the
money for his journey once for all. But Eleseus was a man-about-town
now, and had no sort of longing for a peasant's life; he answered
something about what was he to do anyway if he did come home? Work on
a farm and throw away all the knowledge and learning he had gained?
"In point of fact,"--that was how he put it,--"I've no desire to come
back now. And if you could send me some stuff for underclothes, it
would save me getting the things on credit." So he wrote. And yes, his
mother sent him stuff--sent him remarkable quantities of stuff from
time to time for underclothes. But when she was converted, and got
religion, the scales fell from her eyes, and she understood that
Eleseus was selling the stuff and spending the money on other things.

His father saw it too. He never spoke of it; he knew that Eleseus was
his mother's darling, and how she cried over him and shook her head;
but one piece of finely woven stuff went after another the same
way, and he knew it was more than any