Norway -- Fiction; Norwegian fiction -- Translations into English
After breakfast, which I share with the two of them, getting quantities
of coffee with it, Olga gets herself up in her new skirt and her knitted
kerchief and the jacket. Eh, that wonderful jacket; lasting at the edge
all round, and two rows of buttons of the same, and the neck and sleeves
trimmed with braid. But little Olga could not fill it out. Nothing near
it! The child is all odd corners and angles, like a young calf.
“Couldn't we just take it in a bit at the sides?” I ask. “There's plenty
of time.”
But mother and daughter exchange glances, plainly saying, 'tis Sunday,
and no using needle or knife that day. I understand them well enough,
for I would have thought exactly the same myself in my childhood. So
I try to find a way out by a little free-thinking: 'tis another matter
when it's a machine that does the work; no more than when an innocent
cart comes rumbling down the road, as it may any Sunday.
But no; this is beyond them. And anyhow, the jacket must give her room
to grow; in a couple of years it would fit her nicely.
I thought about for something I could slip into Olga's hand as she went;
but I've nothing, so I gave her a silver Krone. And straightway she
gives her hand in thanks, and shows the coin to her mother, and whispers
she will give it to her sister at church. Her eyes are simply glowing
with joy at the thought. And her mother, hardly less moved herself,
answers yes, perhaps she ought....
Olga goes off to church in her long jacket; goes shambling down the hill
with her feet turning in and out any odd way. A sweet and heartening
thing to see....
Hersæt now; was that a big place?
Yes, a fine big place.
I sit for a while blinking sleepy eyes and making excursions in
etymology. Hersæt might mean _Herresæte_. [Footnote: Manor.] Or possibly
some _herse_ [Footnote: Local chieftain in ancient times.] might have
held sway there. And the _herse's_ daughter was the proudest maiden for
far around, and the Jarl himself comes to ask her hand. And the year
after she bears him a son, who becomes king....
In a word, I would go to Hersæt. Seeing it was all the same where I
went, I would go there. Possibly I might get work at the Lensmand's,
or there was always the chance of something turning up; at any rate, I
should see new people. And having thus decided upon Hersæt, I felt I had
a purpose before me.
The good woman gives me leave to lie down on her bed, for I am drowsy
and stupid for lack of sleep. A fine blue spider clambers slowly up the
wall, and I lie watching it till I fall asleep.
After a couple of hours I wake suddenly, feeling rested and fresh. The
woman was cooking the dinner. I pack up my sack, pay her for my stay,
and end up by saying I'd like to make an exchange; my sewing-machine for
Olga's picture there.
The woman incredulous as ever.
Never mind, say I; if she was content, why, so was I. The picture was of
value; I knew what I was doing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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