“I heard a someone calling last night,” says she.
“She’s out of her senses,” says Axel, whispering.
“Nay, out of my senses that I’m not. Like someone calling it was. From the woods, or maybe from the stream up yonder. Strange to hear—as it might be a bit of a child crying out. Was that Barbro went out?”
“Ay,” says Axel. “Sick of your nonsense, and no wonder.”
“Nonsense, you call it, and out of my senses, and all? Ah, but not so far as you’d like to think,” says Oline. “Nay, ’tis not the Almighty’s will and decree I should come before the Throne and before the Lamb as yet, with all I know of goings-on here at Maaneland. I’ll be up and about again, never fear; but you’d better be fetching a doctor, Axel, ’tis quicker that way. What about that cow you were going to give me?”
“Cow? What cow?”
“That cow you promised me. Was it Bordelin, maybe?”
“You’re talking wild,” says Axel.
“You know how you promised me a cow the day I saved your life.”
“Nay, that I never knew.”
At that Oline lifts up her head and looks at him. Grey and bald she is, a head standing up on a long, scraggy neck—ugly as a witch, as an ogress out of a story. And Axel starts at the sight, and fumbles with a hand behind his back for the latch of the door.
“Ho,” says Oline, “so you’re that sort! Ay, well—say no more of it now. I can live without the cow from this day forth, and never a word I’ll say nor breathe of it again. But well that you’ve shown what sort and manner of man you are this day; I know it now. Ay, and I’ll know it another time.”
But Oline, she died that night—some time in the night; anyway, she was cold next morning when they came in.
Oline—an aged creature. Born and died. …
’Twas no sorrow to Axel nor Barbro to bury her, and be quit of her forever; there was less to be on their guard against now, they could be at rest. Barbro is having trouble with her teeth again; save for that, all is well. But that everlasting woollen muffler over her face, and shifting it aside every time there’s a word to say—’twas plaguy and troublesome enough, and all this toothache is something of a mystery to Axel. He has noticed, certainly, that she chews her food in a careful sort of way, but there’s not a tooth missing in her head.
“Didn’t you get new teeth?” he asks.
“Ay, so I did.”
“And are they aching, too?”
“Ah, you with your nonsense!” says Barbro irritably, for all that Axel has asked innocently enough. And in her bitterness she lets out what is the matter. “You can see how ’tis with me, surely?”
How ’twas with her? Axel looks closer, and fancies she is stouter than need be.
“Why, you can’t be—’tis surely not another child again?” says he.
“Why, you know it is,” says she.
Axel stares foolishly at her. Slow of thought as he is, he sits there counting for a bit: one week, two weeks, getting on the third week. …
“Nay, how I should know. …” says he.
But Barbro is losing all patience with this debate, and bursts out, crying aloud, crying like a deeply injured creature: “Nay, you can take and bury me, too, in the ground, and then you’ll be rid of me.”
Strange, what odd things a woman can find to cry for!
Axel had never a thought of, burying her in the ground; he is a thick-skinned fellow, looking mainly to what is useful; a pathway carpeted with flowers is beyond his needs.
“Then you’ll not be fit to work in the fields this summer?” says he.
“Not work?” says Barbro, all terrified again. And then—strange what odd things a woman can find to smile for! Axel, taking it that way, sent a flow of hysterical joy through Barbro, and she burst out: “I’ll work for two! Oh, you wait and see, Axel; I’ll do all you set me to, and more beyond. Wear myself to the bone, I will, and be thankful, if only you’ll put up with me so!”
More tears and smiles and tenderness after that. Only the two of them in the wilds, none to disturb them; open doors and a humming of flies in the summer heat. All so tender and willing was Barbro; ay, he might do as he pleased with her, and she was willing.
After sunset he stands harnessing up to the mowing-machine; there’s a bit he can still get done ready for tomorrow. Barbro comes hurrying out, as if she’s something important, and says:
“Axel, how ever could you think of getting one home from America? She couldn’t get here before winter, and what use of her then?” And that was something had just come into her head, and she must come running out with it as if ’twas something needful.
But ’twas no way needful; Axel had seen from the first that taking Barbro would mean getting help for all the year. No swaying and swinging with Axel, no thinking with his head among the stars. Now he’s a woman of his own to look after the place, he can keep on the telegraph business for a bit. ’Tis a deal of money in the year, and good to reckon with as long as he’s barely enough for his needs from the land, and little to sell. All sound and working well; all good reality. And little to fear from Brede about the telegraph line, seeing he’s son-in-law to Brede now.
Ay, things are looking well, looking grand with Axel now.
XI
And time goes on; winter is passed; spring comes again.
Isak has to go down to the village one day—and why not? What for? “Nay, I don’t know,” says he. But he gets the cart cleaned up all fine, puts in the seat, and drives off, and a deal of victuals and such
