Wanderers Part 48

He looked up at her.

"Going away?"

"Yes. Very soon."

But he saw that he had betrayed himself in grasping so eagerly, delightedly, at the suggestion, and tried now to smooth it over.

"There, there!" he said. "Be a nice sensible cousin now, and don't talk about going away."

"I am going," she said, and, slipping past him, went down the stairs by herself. He followed after.

Then the porter came out and we went down together. The last box was smaller than the others. I asked him to carry it up himself, pretending I had hurt my hand. I helped him to get it on his back, and went off home. Now I could go away the following day.

That afternoon Grindhusen, too, was dismissed. The engineer had sent for him, given him a severe talking to for doing no work and staying in town and getting drunk; in a word, his services were no longer needed.

I thought to myself: It was strangely sudden, this new burst of courage on the part of the engineer. He was so young, he had needed some one to back him up and agree to everything he said; now, however, seeing that a certain troublesome cousin was going away, he had no further need of comfort there. Or was my withered soul doing him an injustice?

Grindhusen was greatly distressed. He had reckoned on staying in town all the summer, as general handyman to the Inspector himself; but all hope of that was gone now. The Inspector was no longer as good as a father to him. And Grindhusen bore the disappointment badly. When they came to settle up, the Inspector had been going to deduct the two-Kroner pieces he had given him, saying they had only been meant as payment in advance. Grindhusen sat in the general room at the lodging-house and told us all about it, adding that the Inspector was pretty mean in the matter of wages after all. At this, one of the men burst out laughing, and said:

"No; did he, though? He didn't take them back, really?"

"Nay," said Grindhusen. "He didn't dare take off more than the one."

There was more laughter at this, and some one else asked:

"No, really? Which one was it? Did he knock off the first two-Kroner or the second? Ha, ha, ha! That's the best I've heard for a long time."

But Grindhusen did not laugh; he grew more and more sullen and despairing. What was he to do now? Farm labourers for the season's work would have been taken on everywhere by now, and here he was. He asked me where I was going, and when I told him, he begged me to put in a word for him with the Captain, and see if I couldn't get him taken on there for the summer. Meantime, he would stay on in the town, and wait till he heard from me.

But I knew there would soon be an end of Grindhusen's money if he stayed on in the town. The end of it was, I took him along with me, as the best thing to be done. He had been a smart hand at paint-work once, had Grindhusen; I remembered how he had done up old Gunhild's cottage on the island. He could come and help me now, for the time being; later on, we would surely find something else for him to do; there would be plenty of field-work in the course of the summer where he might be useful.

The 16th July found me back at vreb. I remember dates more and more distinctly now, partly by reason of my getting old and acquiring the intensified interest of senility in such things, partly because of being a labourer, and obliged to keep account of my working days. But an old man may keep his dates in mind and forget all about far more important things. Up to now, for instance, I have forgotten to mention that the letter I had from Captain Falkenberg was addressed to me care of Engineer La.s.sen. Well and good. But the point appeared significant: the Captain, then, had ascertained whom I was working for. And it came into my mind that possibly the Captain was also aware of who else had been in the care of Engineer La.s.sen that summer!

The Captain was still away on duty when I arrived; he would be back in a week. As it was, Grindhusen was very well received; Nils was quite pleased to find I had brought my mate along, and refused to let me keep him to help with the painting, but sent him off on his own responsibility to work in the turnip and potato fields. There was no end of work--weeding and thinning out--and Nils was already in the thick of the hay-making.

He was the same splendid, earnest farmer as ever. At the first rest, while the horses were feeding, he took me out over the ground to look at the crops. Everything was doing well; but it had been a late spring that year, and the cat's-tail was barely forming as yet, while the clover had just begun to show bloom. The last rain had beaten down a lot of the first-year gra.s.s, and it could not pick up again, so Nils had put on the mowing-machine.

We walked back home through waving gra.s.s and corn; there was a whispering in the winter rye and the stout six-rowed barley. Nils, who had not forgotten his schooling, called to mind that beautiful line of Bjrnson's:

"_Beginning like a whisper in the corn one summer day_."

"Time to get the horses out again," said Nils, stepping out a little.

And waving his hand once more out over the fields, he said: "What a harvest we'll have this year if we can only get it safely in!"

So Grindhusen went off to work in the fields, and I fell to on the painting. I started with the barn, and all that was to be red; then I did over the flagstaff and the summer-house down among the lilacs with the first coat of oil. The house itself I meant to leave till the last.

It was built in good old-fashioned country style, with rich, heavy woodwork and a carved border, _a la grecque_, above the doorway. It was yellow as it was, and a new lot of yellow paint had come in to do with this time. I took upon myself, however, to send the yellow back, and get another colour in exchange. In my judgment the house ought to be stone-grey, with doors and window-frames and verge-boards white. But that would be for the Captain to decide.

But though every one on the place was as nice as could be, and the cook in authority lenient, and Ragnhild as bright-eyed as ever, we all felt it dull with the master and mistress away. All save Grindhusen, honest fellow, who was quite content. Decent work and good food soon set him up again, and in a few days he was happy and waxing fat. His one anxiety was lest the Captain should turn him off when he came home. But no such thing--Grindhusen was allowed to stay.

IX

The Captain arrived.

I was giving the barn its second coat; at the sound of his voice I came down from the ladder. He bade me welcome.

"Running away from your money like that!" he said. And I fancied he looked at me with some suspicion as he asked: "What did you do that for?"

I answered simply that I had no idea of presuming to make him a present of my work; the money could stand over, that was all.

He brightened up at that.

"Yes, yes, of course. Well, I'm very glad you came. We must have the flagstaff white, I suppose?"

I did not dare tell him at once all I wanted done in white, but simply said:

"Yes. I've got hold of some white paint."

"Have you, though? That's good. You've brought another man up with you, I hear?"

"Yes. I don't know what Captain thinks...."

"He can stay. Nils has got him to work out in the fields already. And anyhow, you all seem to do as you like with me," he added jestingly.

"And you've been working with the lumbermen, have you?"

"Yes."

"Hardly the sort of thing for you, was it?" Then, as if anxious not to seem curious about my work with Engineer La.s.sen, he broke off abruptly and said: "When are you going to start painting the house?"

"I thought of beginning this afternoon. It'll need sc.r.a.ping a bit here and there."

"Good. And if you find the woodwork loose anywhere, you can put in a nail or so at the same time. Have you had a look at the fields?"

"Yes."

"Everything's looking very nice. You men did good work last spring. Do no harm now if we had a little rain for the upper lands."

"Grindhusen and I pa.s.sed lots of places on the way up that needed rain more than here. It's clay bottom here, and far up in the hills."

"That's true. How did you know that, by the way?"

"I looked about when I was here in the spring," I answered, "and I did a little digging here and there. I'd an idea you'd be wanting to have water laid on to the house some time or other, so I went prospecting a bit."