And then she handed him, as a specimen, one of his own lefser, which she had filled with butter and syrup herself, and let him taste it. And he tasted it, and ate and ate till the syrup ran down both corners of his mouth. Such good greasy lefser he had never tasted before.
Then the general dealer gave them a bit of his mind.
He was as red as a turkey-cock; and out of the shop-door they went head first—some three yards and some four, according as he got a good grip of them; and old Thore, who had steered the big fembøring, both for him and his father, was discharged.
But Kjel, the herdsman, had hid himself out of the way up on the threshing-floor whilst the row was going on, and the general dealer was shrieking and bellowing his worst in the yard below. And he stood there and peeped through the little window. Then he saw his mistress, who hadn’t been out of bed for nine weeks, hobble forward and stare out of her bedroom window.
She took on terribly, and cried and wrung her thin hands when she saw their old foreman told to go to the devil, and shamble off with his cap in his hand as if he were deranged.
But she dared not so much as shout a word of comfort after him, for there stood Toad, big and broad, in the storehouse door, with a platter of mölje in her hand, and shook her fist after him.
Then Kjel was like to have wept too. … That stout Toad should not grease herself shiny with mölje fat much longer in their house, or he’d know the reason why, thought Kjel.
And from thenceforth Kjel kept a strict watch upon her. There were lots of things going on that he couldn’t make out at all.
Towards springtime, when they put the mast into the large new yacht which was to take the first trading voyage to Bergen, the general dealer was so glad that he was running up and down from the bridge to the house the whole day. He had never imagined that the yacht would have turned out so fine and stately.
And when they had the tackle and the shrouds all ready, and were hoisting away at the yards, he spun round on his heel and snapped his fingers—“That lass Toad should go with him to Bergen,” said he. … “She had never seen the town, poor thing! while as for mother, she had been there three times already.”
But it seemed to Kjel that he saw more in this than other people saw.
As for Toad, when she heard she was to go to Bergen, she regularly turned the house upside down. There was nothing good enough for her in the whole shop; there was not a shelf that she didn’t ransack to find the finery and frippery that glittered most.
And in the evening, when the others had lain them down to rest, she strolled over to the storehouse with a light.
But Kjel, who was a very light sleeper, was up and after her in an instant, and peeped at her through the crack in the door.
There he saw her cutting up the victuals and putting one titbit aside after the other, lefser and sweet-cakes and bacon and collared-beef, into the large chest which she had hidden behind the herring barrels. And on this, the last evening before their departure for Bergen, she had filled her provision-chest so full that she had to sit upon it, with all her huge heavy weight, to press it down.
But the lock wouldn’t catch; she had filled the chest too full, so she had to get up and stamp backwards on the lid till it regularly thundered; and sure enough she forced it down at last.
But the heel she stamped down upon it with was much more like the hoof of a horse than the foot of a human being, thought Kjel.
Then she carried the chest to the wagon that it might be smuggled on board without anyone seeing it. After that she went into the stable and unloosed the horse. But then there was a pretty to do in the stable!
The horse knew that there was witchcraft afoot, and would not allow itself to be inspanned. Toad dragged and dragged, and the horse shied and kicked. At last the wench used her back-legs, just as a mare does.
Such sport as that no human eye should have ever seen.
And straight off to the general dealer rushed Kjel, and got him to come out with him.
There in the moonshine that wench, Toad, and the dun horse were flinging out at each other as if for a wager, so that their hoofs dashed against the framework of the stable-door. Their long legs flew in turn over the stable walls, and the sparks scattered about in showers.
Then the general dealer grew all of a shiver and staggered about. Blood flew from his nose, and Kjel had to help him into the kitchen and duck his head in the sink. That night the general dealer didn’t go to bed at all; but he walked up and down and stamped till the floor regularly thundered. And it was scarcely light next morning when he sent off Kjel with a dollar in his fist to old Thore the foreman. And he sent in the same way to all the boat people down by the shore.
Thore was told to put on his holiday clothes
