s quicker than a hundred
scythes. And what haven't you got, Isak, with all your means and
riches! Priest, our way, he's got a new plough with two handles; but
what's he, compared with you, and I'd tell him so to his face."

"Sivert here'll show you the machine; he's better at working her than
his father," said Isak, and went out.

Isak went out. There is an auction to be held at Breidablik that noon,
and he is going; there's but just time to get there now. Not that Isak
any longer thinks of buying the place, but the auction--it is the
first auction held there in the wilds, and it would be strange not to
go.

He gets down as far as Maaneland and sees Barbro, and would pass by
with only a greeting, but Barbro calls to him and asks if he is going
down. "Ay," said Isak, making to go on again. It is her home that is
being sold, and that is why he answers shortly.

"You going to the sale?" she asks.

"To the sale? Well, I was only going down a bit. What you've done with
Axel?"

"Axel? Nay, I don't know. He's gone down to sale. Doubt he'll be
seeing his chance to pick up something for nothing, like the rest."

Heavy to look at was Barbro now--ay, and sharp and bitter-tongued!

The auction has begun; Isak hears the Lensmand calling out, and sees a
crowd of people. Coming nearer, he does not know them all; there are
some from other villages, but Brede is fussing about, in his best
finery, and chattering in his old way. "_Goddag_, Isak. So you're
doing me the honour to come and see my auction sale. Thanks, thanks.
Ay, we've been neighbours and friends these many years now, and never
an ill word between us." Brede grows pathetic. "Ay, 'tis strange to
think of leaving a place where you've lived and toiled and grown fond
of. But what's a man to do when it's fated so to be?"

"Maybe 'twill be better for you after," says Isak comfortingly.

"Why," says Brede, grasping at it himself, "to tell the truth, I think
it will. I'm not regretting it, not a bit. I won't say I've made a
fortune on the place here, but that's to come, maybe; and the young
ones getting older and leaving the nest--ay, 'tis true the wife's got
another on the way; but for all that...." And suddenly Brede tells his
news straight out: "I've given up the telegraph business."

"What?" asks Isak.

"I've given up that telegraph."

"Given up the telegraph?"

"Ay, from new year to be. What was the good of it, anyway? And
supposing I was out on business, or d