And then his mother must needs come out on the door-slab and hiccup again and say, "God bless you!" and give him something. "Take this--and you're not to thank him, he says you're not to. And don't forget to write; write often." Two hundred _Kroner_. Eleseus looked down the field: his father was furiously at work driving a tethering-peg into the ground; he seemed to find it a difficult matter, for all that the ground was soft enough. The brothers set off down the road; they came to Maaneland, and there stood Barbro in the doorway and called to them to come up. "You going away again, Eleseus? Nay, then, you must come in and take a cup of coffee at least." They go into the hut, and Eleseus is no longer a prey to the pangs of love, nor wishful to jump out of windows and take poison; nay, he spreads his light spring overcoat across his knees, taking care to lay it so the silver plate is to be seen; then he wipes his hair with his handkerchief, and observes delicately: "Beautiful day, isn't it--simply classic!" Barbro too is self-possessed enough; she plays with a silver ring on one hand and a gold ring on the other--ay, true enough, if she hasn't got a gold ring too--and she wears an apron reaching from neck to feet, as if to say she is not spoiled as to her figure, whoever else may be that way. And when the coffee is ready and her guests are drinking, she sews a little to begin with on a white cloth, and then does a little crochet-work with a collar of some sort, and so with all manner of maidenly tasks. Barbro is not put out by their visit, and all the better; they can talk naturally, and Eleseus can be all on the surface again, young and witty as he pleases. "What have you done with Axel?" asks Sivert. "Oh, he's about the place somewhere," she answers, pulling herself up. "And so we'll not be seeing you this way any more, I doubt?" she asks Eleseus. "It's hardly probable," says he. "Ay, 'tis no place for one as is used to the town. I only wish I could go along with you." "You don't mean that, I know." "Don't mean it? Oh, I've known what it is to live in town, and what it's like here; and I've been in a bigger town than you, for that matter--and shouldn't I miss it?" "I didn't mean that way," says Eleseus hastily. "After you being in Bergen itself and all." Strange, how impatient she was, after all! "I only know that if it wasn't for having the papers to read, I'd not stay here another day," says she. "But what about Axel, then, and all the rest?--'twas that I was thinking." "As for Axel, 'tis no business of mine. And what about yourself--I doubt there'll be some one waiting for you in town?"