all on weekdays--Lord He knows
what can be she's so set on remembering to the minute."

Says Sivert: "Did Aronsen say anything about a man named Geissler?"

"Ay. Said something about he'd be wanting to sell some land he'd
got. And Aronsen was wild about it, he was--'fellow that used to be
Lensmand and got turned out,' he said, and 'like as not without so
much as a five _Krone_ in his books, and ought to be shot!' 'Ay, but
wait a bit,' says I, 'and maybe he'll sell after all.' 'Nay,' says
Aronsen, 'don't you believe it. I'm a business man,' says he, 'and
I know--when one party puts up a price of two hundred and fifty
thousand, and the other offers twenty-five thousand, there's too big a
difference; there'll be no deal ever come out of that. Well, let 'em
go their own way, and see what comes of it,' says he. 'I only wish I'd
never set my foot in this hole, and a poor thing it's been for me and
mine.' Then I asked him if he didn't think of selling out himself.
'Ay,' says he, 'that's just what I'm thinking of. This bit of
bogland,' says he, 'a hole and a desert--I'm not making a single
_Krone_ the whole day now,' says he."

They laughed at Aronsen, and had no pity for him at all.

"Think he'll sell out?" asks Isak.

"Well, he did speak of it. And he's got rid of the lad he had already.
Ay, a curious man, a queer sort of man, that Aronsen, 'tis sure. Sends
away his lad could be working on the place getting in winter fuel and
carting hay with that horse of his, but keeps on his storeman--chief
clerk, he calls him. 'Tis true enough, as he says, not selling so much
as a _Krone_ all day, for he's no stock in the place at all. And what
does he want with a chief clerk, then? I doubt it'll be just by way of
looking grand and making a show, must have a man there to stand at a
desk and write up things in books. Ha ha ha! ay, looks like he's just
a little bit touched that way, is Aronsen."

The three men worked till noon, ate food from their baskets, and
talked a while. They had matters of their own to talk over, matters of
good and ill to folk on the land; no trifles, to them, but things to
be discussed warily; they are clear-minded folk, their nerves unworn,
and not flying out where they should not. It is the autumn season now,
a silence in the woods all round; the hills are there, the sun is
there, and at evening the moon and the stars will come; all regular
and certain, full of kindliness, an embrace. Men have time to rest