But Grindhusen looks at me suspiciously, thinking it is only that I will not say. “Ay, well, 'tis all the same to me,” he says. “I was only asking.” To please him, I try to guess a wage. “I dare say he'll give me a couple of Kroner a day, or perhaps three, d'you think?” “Ay, dare say you may,” he answers enviously. “Two Kroner's all I get, and I'm an old hand at the work.” Then fancying, perhaps, I may go telling of his grumbling, he starts off in praise of Engineer Lassen, saying what a splendid fellow he is in every way. “He'll do what's fair by me, that I know. Trust him for that! Why, he's been as good as a father to me, and that's the truth!” It sounds quaint, indeed, to hear Grindhusen, half his teeth gone with age, talking of the young engineer as a father. I felt pretty sure I could find out a good deal about my new employer from this quarter, but I did not ask. “He didn't say anything about me coming down into town?” asked Grindhusen. “No.” “He sends up for me now and again, and when I get there, it's not for anything particular--only wants to have a bit of a chat with me, that's all. Ay, a fine fellow is the engineer!” It is getting late. Grindhusen yawns again, creeps into the hut and lies down. * * * * * Next morning we cleared the jam. “Come up with me my way a bit,” says Grindhusen. And I went. After an hour's walking, we sighted the fields and buildings of a hill farm up among the trees. And suddenly I recollect the sheep Grindhusen had found. “Was it up this way you found that sheep?” I ask. Grindhusen looks at me. “Here? No, that was ever so far away--right over toward Trovatn.” “But Trovatn's only in the next parish, isn't it?” “Yes, that's what I say. It's ever so far away from here.” But now Grindhusen does not care to have my company farther; he stops, and thanks me for coming up so far. I might just as well go up to the farm with him, and I say so; but Grindhusen, it seems, is not going up to the farm at all--he never did. And I'd just have an easy day back into town, starting now. So I turned and went back the way I had come. VI It was no sort of work this for a man; I was not satisfied. Nothing but walk, walk up and down the river, clearing a few logs here and there, and then on again. And after each trip, back to my lodging-house in the town. All this time I had but one man to talk to--the boots or porter at the hotel where the engineer was staying. He was a burly fellow, with huge fists, and eyes like a child's. He had fallen down and hurt his head as a youngster, he said, and never got on in life beyond hauling things and carrying heavy loads. I had a talk with him now and again, but found no one else to talk to in the town. That little town!