Short stories, Swedish -- Translations into English; Sweden -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Anna Stina had not returned home on the Sunday evening, for down at the
Parsonage the Pastor's wife had been taken very ill, and Anna Stina, who
was accustomed to nurse sick people, had stayed to sit up with her. The
whole night she had heard the Pastor's wife raving about Ingrid's having
appeared to her; but that the old woman had not believed. And when she
returned home the next day and found Ingrid, the old woman would at once
have gone down to the Parsonage again to tell them that it was not a
ghost they had seen; but when she had suggested this to Ingrid, it had
affected her so much that she dared not do it. It was as if the little
life which burnt in her would be extinguished, just as the flame of a
candle is put out by too strong a draught. She could have died as easily
as a little bird in its cage. Death was prowling around her. There was
nothing to be done but to nurse her very tenderly and deal very gently
with her if her life was to be preserved.
The old woman hardly knew what to think of Ingrid. Perhaps she was a
ghost; there seemed to be so little life in her. She quite gave up
trying to talk her to reason. There was nothing else for it but giving
in to her wishes that no one should hear anything about her being alive.
And then the old woman tried to arrange everything as wisely as
possible. She had a sister who was housekeeper on a large estate in
Dalarne, and she made up her mind to take Ingrid to her, and persuade
her sister, Stafva, to give the girl a situation at the Manor House.
Ingrid would have to be content with being simply a servant. There was
nothing else for it.
They were now on their way to the Manor House. Anna Stina knew the
country so well that they were not obliged to go by the highroad, but
could follow the lonely forest paths. But they had also undergone much
hardship. Their shoes were worn and in pieces, their skirts soiled and
frayed at the bottom, and a branch had torn a long rent in Ingrid's
sleeve.
On the evening of the fourth day they came to a hill from which they
could look down into a deep valley. In the valley was a lake, and near
the edge of the lake was a high, rocky island, upon which stood a large
white building. When Anna Stina saw the house, she said it was called
Munkhyttan, and that it was there her sister lived.
They made themselves as tidy as they could on the hillside. They
arranged the handkerchiefs which they wore on their heads, dried their
shoes with moss, and washed themselves in a forest stream, and Anna
Stina tried to make a fold in Ingrid's sleeve so that the rent could not
be seen.
The old woman sighed when she looked at Ingrid, and quite lost courage.
It was not only that she looked so strange in the clothes she had
borrowed from Anna Stina, and which did not at all fit her, but her
sister Stafva would never take her into her service, she looked so
wretched and pitiful. It was like engaging a breath of wind. The girl
could be of no more use than a sick butterfly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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