Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun (chromebook ebook reader txt) 📕

astonished to see that cautious man buying so much as he has.

Then came the animals. They had been kept in their shed today, so as to be there in readiness. What did Brede want with livestock when he had no farm to keep them on? He had no cows; he had started farming with two goats, and had now four. Besides these, there were six sheep. No horse.

Isak bought a certain sheep with flat ears. When Brede’s children led it out from the shed, he started bidding at once, and people looked at him. Isak from Sellanraa was a rich man, in a good position, with no need of more sheep than he had. Brede’s wife stops selling coffee for a moment, and says: “Ay, you may buy her, Isak; she’s old, ’tis true, but she’s two and three lambs every blessed year, and that’s the truth.”

“I know it,” said Isak, looking straight at her. “I’ve seen that sheep before.”

He walks up with Axel Ström on the way back, leading his sheep on a string. Axel is taciturn, seemingly anxious about something, whatever it might be. There’s nothing he need be troubled about that one can see, thinks Isak; his crops are looking well, most of his fodder is housed already, and he has begun timbering his house. All as it should be with Axel Ström; a thought slowly, but sure in the end. And now he had got a horse.

“So you’ve bought Brede’s place?” said Isak. “Going to work it yourself?”

“No, not for myself. I bought it for another man.”

“Ho!”

“What d’you think; was it too much I gave for it?”

“Why, no. ’Tis good land for a man that’ll work it as it should.”

“I bought it for a brother of mine up in Helgeland.”

“Ho!”

“Then I thought perhaps I’d half a mind to change with him, too.”

“Change with him⁠—would you?”

“And perhaps how Barbro she’d like it better that way.”

“Ay, maybe,” said Isak.

They walk on for a good way in silence. Then says Axel:

“They’ve been after me to take over that telegraph business.”

“The telegraph? H’m. Ay, I heard that Brede he’s given it up.”

“H’m,” says Axel, smiling. “ ’Tis not so much that way of it, but Brede that’s been turned off.”

“Ay, so,” says Isak, and trying to find some excuse for Brede. “It takes a deal of time to look after, no doubt.”

“They gave him notice to the new year, if he didn’t do better.”

“H’m.”

“You don’t think it’d be worth my while to take it?”

Isak thought for a long while, and answered: “Ay, there’s the money, true, but still.⁠ ⁠…”

“They’ve offered me more.”

“How much?”

“Double.”

“Double? Why, then, I’d say you should think it over.”

“But they’ve made the line a bit longer now. No, I don’t know what’s best to do⁠—there’s not so much timber to sell here as you’ve got on yours, and I’ve need to buy more things for the work that I’ve got now. And buying things needs money in cash, and I’ve not so much out of the land and stock that there’s much over to sell. Seems to me I’ll have to try a year at the telegraph to begin with.⁠ ⁠…”

It did not occur to either of them that Brede might “do better” and keep the post himself.

When they reached Maaneland, Oline was there already, on her way down. Ay, a strange creature, Oline, crawling about fat and round as a maggot, and over seventy years and all, but still getting about. She sits drinking coffee in the hut, but seeing the men come up, all must give way to that, and she comes out.

“Goddag, Axel, and welcome back from the sale. You’ll not mind me looking in to see how you and Barbro’s getting on? And you’re getting on finely, to see, and building a new house and getting richer and richer! And you been buying sheep, Isak?”

“Ay,” said Isak. “You know her, maybe?”

“If I know her? Nay.⁠ ⁠…”

“With these flat ears, you can see.”

“Flat ears? How d’you mean now? And what then? What I was going to say: Who bought Brede’s place, after all? I was just saying to Barbro here, who’d be your neighbours that way now? said I. And Barbro, poor thing, she sits crying, as natural enough, to be sure; but the Almighty that’s decreed her a new home here at Maaneland⁠ ⁠… Flat ears? I’ve seen a deal of sheep in my day with flat ears and all. And I’ll tell you, Isak, that machine of yours, ’twas almost more than my old eyes could see nor understand. And what she’ll have cost you I won’t even ask for I never could count so far. Axel, if you’ve seen it, you know what I mean; ’twas all as it might be Elijah and his chariot of fire, and Heaven forgive me that I say it.⁠ ⁠…”

When the hay was all in, Eleseus began making preparations for his return to town. He had written to the engineer to say he was coming, but received the extraordinary reply that times were bad, and they would have to economize; the office would have to dispense with Eleseus’ services, and the chief would do the work himself.

The deuce and all! But after all, what did a district surveyor want with an office staff? When he had taken Eleseus on as a youngster, he had done so, no doubt, only to show himself as a great man to these folks in the wilds; and if he had given him clothes and board till his confirmation, he had got some return for it in the way of writing work, that was true. Now the boy was grown up, and that made all the difference.

“But,” said the engineer, “if you do come back I will do all I can to get you a place somewhere else, though it may be a difficult matter, as there are more young men than are wanted looking out for the same thing. With kind regards.⁠ ⁠…”

Eleseus would go back to town, of course, there could be no