He is away a moment, and comes back dressed, and with his father's
food basket over his shoulder. As they go out, there is their father
standing outside. "So you're going all that way, seems?" says Isak.
"Ay," answered Eleseus; "but I'll be coming back again."
"I'll not be keeping you now--there's little time," mumbles the old
man, and turns away. "Good luck," he croaks out in a strange voice,
and goes off all hurriedly.
The two brothers walk down the road; a little way gone, they sit down
to eat; Eleseus is hungry, can hardly eat enough. 'Tis a fine spring
night, and the black grouse at play on the hilltops; the homely sound
makes the emigrant lose courage for a moment. "'Tis a fine night,"
says he. "You better turn back now, Sivert," says he.
"H'm," says Sivert, and goes on with him.
They pass by Storborg, by Breidablik, and the sound follows them all
the way from the hills here and there; 'tis no military music like
in the towns, nay, but voices--a proclamation: Spring has come. Then
suddenly the first chirp of a bird is heard from a treetop, waking
others, and a calling and answering on every side; more than a song,
it is a hymn of praise.
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