... "Go in and get something to
eat," he said to Sivert.
"Aren't you coming, then?"
"No."
A little while after, Inger came out and stood humbly on the door-slab
and said:
"If you'd think of yourself a little--and come in and have a bite to
eat."
Isak grumbled at that and said "H'm." But it was so strange a thing
of late for Inger to be humble in any way, that his stubbornness was
shaken.
"If you could manage to set a couple of teeth in my rake, I could get
on again with the hay," said she. Ay, she came to her husband, the
master of the place, to ask for something, and was grateful that he
did not turn scornfully away.
"You've worked enough," said he, "raking and carting and all."
"No, 'tis not enough."
"I've no time, anyway, to mend rakes now. You can see there's rain
coming soon."
And Isak went off to his work.
It was all meant to save her, no doubt; for the couple of minutes it
would have taken to mend the rake would have been more than tenfold
repaid by letting Inger work on. Anyhow, Inger came out with her rake
as it was, and fell to haymaking with a will; Sivert came up with the
horse and haycart, and all went at it, sweating at the work, and
the hay was got in.
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