Wanderers Part 34

"Come back up into the wood," he urged again and again.

"Oh, it's impossible!" she answered. "And then it's all wet with the dew."

But the Captain was full of pa.s.sionate words--full and frothing over.

"Oh, I used to think I didn't care much about eyes! Blue eyes--huh! Grey eyes--huh! Eyes any sort of colour--huh! But then you came with those brown eyes of yours...."

"They are brown, yes...."

"You burn me with them; you--you roast me up!"

"To tell the truth, you're not the first that's said nice things about my eyes. My husband now...."

"Ah, but what about me!" cries the Captain. "I tell you, Frue, if I'd only met you twenty years ago, I wouldn't have answered for my reason.

Come; there's no dew to speak of up in the wood."

"We'd better go indoors, I think," she suggests.

"Go in? There's not a corner anywhere indoors where we can be alone."

"Oh, we'll find somewhere!" she says.

"Well, anyhow, we must have an end of it to-night," says the Captain decisively.

And they go.

I asked myself: was it to warn anybody I had thrown that empty bottle?

At three in the morning I heard Nils go out to feed the horses. At four he knocked to rouse me out of bed. I did not grudge him the honour of being first up, though I could have called him earlier myself, any hour of that night indeed, for I had not slept. 'Tis easy enough to go without sleep a night or two in this light, fine air; it does not make for drowsiness.

Nils sets out for the fields, driving a new team. He has looked over the visitors' horses, and chosen Elisabet's. Good country-breds, heavy in the leg.

II

More visitors arrive, and the house-party goes on. We farm-hands are busy measuring, ploughing, and sowing; some of the fields are sprouting green already after our work--a joy to see.

But we've difficulties here and there, and that with Captain Falkenberg himself. "He's lost all thought and care for his own good," says Nils.

And indeed an evil spirit must have got hold of him; he was half-drunk most of the time, and seemed to think of little else beyond playing the genial host. For nearly a week past, he and his guests had played upside down with day and night. But what with the noise and rioting after dark the beasts in stable and shed could get no rest; the maids, too, were kept up at all hours, and, what was more, the young gentlemen would come over to their quarters at night and sit on their beds talking, just to see them undressed.

We working hands had no part in this, of course, but many a time we felt shamed instead of proud to work on Captain Falkenberg's estate. Nils got hold of a temperance badge and wore it in the front of his blouse.

One day the Captain came out to me in the fields and ordered me to get out the carriage and fetch two new visitors from the station. It was in the middle of the afternoon; apparently he had just got up. But he put me in an awkward position here--why had he not gone to Nils? It struck me that he was perhaps, after all, a little shy of Nils with his temperance badge.

The Captain must have guessed my difficulty, for he smiled and said:

"Thinking what Nils might say? Well, perhaps I'd better talk to him first."

But I wouldn't for worlds have sent the Captain over to Nils just then, for Nils was still ploughing with visitors' horses, and had asked me to give him warning if I saw danger ahead. I took out my handkerchief to wipe my face, and waved a little; Nils saw it, and slipped his team at once. What would he do now, I wondered? But Nils was not easily dismayed; he came straight in with his horses, though it was in the middle of a working spell.

If only I could hold the Captain here a bit while he got in! Nils realizes there is no time to be lost--he is already unfastening the harness on the way.

Suddenly the Captain looks at me, and asks:

"Well, have you lost your tongue?"

"'Twas Nils," I answer then. "Something gone wrong, it looks like; he's taken the horses out."

"Well, and what then?"

"Nay, I was only thinking...."

But there I stopped. Devil take it, was I to stand there playing the hypocrite? Here was my chance to put in a word for Nils; the next round he would have to manage alone.

"It's the spring season now," I said, "and there's green showing already where we're done. But there's a deal more to do yet, and we...."

"Well, and what then--what then?"

"There's two and a half acres here, and Nils with hard on three acres of corn land; perhaps Captain might give it another thought."

At that the Captain swung on his heel and left me without a word.

"That's my dismissal," I thought to myself. But I walked up after him with my cart and team, ready to do as he had said.

I was in no fear now about Nils; he was close up to the stables by now.

The Captain beckoned to him, but without avail. Then "Halt!" he cried, military fashion; but Nils was deaf.

When we reached the stables the horses were back in their places already. The Captain was stiff and stern as ever, but I fancied he had been thinking matters over a little on the way.

"What have you brought the horses in for now?" he asked.

"Plough was working loose," answered Nils. "I brought them in just while I'm setting it to rights again; it won't take very long."

The Captain raps out his order:

"I want a man to drive to the station."

Nils glances at me, and says half to himself:

"H'm! So that's it? A nice time for that sort of thing."

"What's that you're muttering about?"

"There's two of us and a lad," says Nils, "for the season's work this spring. 'Tis none so much as leaves any to spare."