the necessaries of life, ay, absolutely all.

Even Eleseus was not reduced to misery because the stream of gold was
flowing elsewhere; the worst of it was that in his first exaltation he
had bought great stocks of goods that were now unsaleable. Well, they
could stay there for the time being; it looked well, at any rate, to
have plenty of wares in a store.

No, a man of the wilds did not lose his head. The air was not less
healthy now than before; there were folk enough to admire new clothes;
there was no need of diamonds. Wine was a thing he knew from the feast
at Cana. A man of the wild was not put out by the thought of great
things he could not get; art, newspapers, luxuries, politics, and
such-like were worth just what folk were willing to pay for them,
no more. Growth of the soil was something different, a thing to be
procured at any cost; the only source, the origin of all. A dull and
desolate existence? Nay, least of all. A man had everything; his
powers above, his dreams, his loves, his wealth of superstition.
Sivert, walking one evening by the river, stops on a sudden; there on
the water are a pair of ducks, male and female. They have sighted him;
they are aware of man, and afraid; one of them says something, utters
a little sound, a melody in three tones, and the other answers
with the same. Then they rise, whirl off like two little wheels a
stone's-throw up the river, and settle again. Then, as before, one
speaks and the other answers; the same speech as at first, but mark a
new delight: _it is set two octaves higher_! Sivert stands looking at
the birds, looking past them, far into a dream.

A sound had floated through him, a sweetness, and left him standing
there with a delicate; thin recollection of something wild and
splendid, something he had known before, and forgotten again. He walks
home in silence, says no word of it, makes no boast of it, 'twas not
for worldly speech. And it was but Sivert from Sellanraa, went out one
evening, young and ordinary as he was, and met with this.

It was not the only thing he met with--there were more adventures
beside. Another thing which happened was that Jensine left Sellanraa.
And that made Sivert not a little perturbed in his mind.

Ay, it came to that: Jensine would leave, if you please; she wished it
so. Oh, Jensine was not one of your common sort, none could say that.
Sivert had once offered to drive her back home at once, and on that
occasion she had cried,