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
here, to lie in the heather, with an arm for a pillow.
Fredrik talks of Breidablik, how 'tis but little he's got done there
yet awhile.
"Nay," says Isak, "'tis none so little already, I saw when I was down
that way."
This was praise from the oldest among them, the giant himself, and
Fredrik might well be pleased.
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