And, anyway, the horse was only in the
rowens.
Eleseus had got it over at last.
And then his mother must needs come out on the door-slab and hiccup
again and say, "God bless you!" and give him something. "Take
this--and you're not to thank him, he says you're not to. And don't
forget to write; write often."
Two hundred _Kroner_.
Eleseus looked down the field: his father was furiously at work
driving a tethering-peg into the ground; he seemed to find it a
difficult matter, for all that the ground was soft enough.
The brothers set off down the road; they came to Maaneland, and there
stood Barbro in the doorway and called to them to come up.
"You going away again, Eleseus? Nay, then, you must come in and take a
cup of coffee at least."
They go into the hut, and Eleseus is no longer a prey to the pangs
of love, nor wishful to jump out of windows and take poison; nay, he
spreads his light spring overcoat across his knees, taking care to lay
it so the silver plate is to be seen; then he wipes his hair with
his handkerchief, and observes delicately: "Beautiful day, isn't
it--simply classic!"
Barbro too is self-possessed enough; she plays with a silver ring on
one hand and a gold ring on the other--ay, true enough, if she hasn't
got a gold ring too--and she wears an apron reaching from neck to
feet, as if to say she is not spoiled as to her figure, whoever else
may be that way.
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