The Emigrants

I. KING IN HIS STONE KINGDOM

— 1—

Mjödahult is one of Ljuder’s most ancient homesteads. Its name is mentioned in a court record two hundred years before the discovery of America.

The Nilsa family had tilled and lived on this farm as far back in history as paper is preserved, as far as the memory of generations can reach. The first known owner was Nils in Mjödahult after whom the family got its name. About Nils in Mjödahult it is further known that he had an unusually large and grotesque nose, which was said to have resembled a well-grown rutabaga. This nose was inherited by his descendants, and someone in each generation possessed it. It became a mark of the Nilsa family. Called the Nilsa-nose, it was believed to be endowed with the same magic powers as a birth cowl, and brought luck to its owner. Children born with the Nilsa-nose became the most fortunate and most successful members of the family, and, even though it was hardly a mark of beauty in a woman, it is not known to have been an obstacle in securing advantageous marriages.

The assessment book indicates that Nils’ Mjödahult was still a full homestead in the eighteenth century. The farm was later split up several times, lastly in 1819 when two brothers, Olov Jakob’s Son and Nils Jakob’s Son, received equal shares. The records list four more brothers and three sisters. The new farms were by now only one-sixteenth of the original homestead. Nils, the younger brother, obtained the split-off piece: three arable acres on the outskirts, where he built his house among the straggling pines. The new farm is recorded as “one-sixteenth crown assessment Korpamoen under the mother homestead Mjödahult.”

Nils Jakob’s Son was short of build — only five feet — and he had not been endowed with the Nilsa-nose. He was nevertheless a capable man, strong-armed and persevering; his hands did not willingly rest if there was aught to do. Märta, his wife, was a strong and stately woman, a full head taller than her husband.

Korpamoen was at first hardly more than a cotter’s place, but Nils developed his inheritance into a farm. The soil was sandy, strewn with stones. It looked as if it had rained stones from heaven here during all the six days of the creation. But Nils searched out every patch of soil that could be cultivated and attacked the stones with his iron bar and lever — the latter a long pole with a horseshoe nailed to the heavy end. His best tools, however, were his hands; with these he went after the stones deep in their holes, wrestled with them, turned them, finally rolled them away. And when Nils encountered a stone which he couldn’t manage with his hands or his tools, he called for his wife. Märta was almost as strong as her husband; she hung on to the small end of the lever while Nils used the iron bar.

It was a silent struggle between Nils and the stone, a fight between an inert mass and the living muscles and sinews of a patient, persevering man.

This fight continued during all of Nils’ farming years; each year he broke a new quarter of an acre, until at last there were more stone piles in Korpamoen than on any other farm in the parish. When Nils turned his field the plow circled stone piles; he used to say he became giddy from the ring-around-the-rosy dance in his fields.

Nils Jakob’s Son was also handy with wood, and worked sometimes as a timberman in the neighborhood. He had built his own house. Even as a boy he had started to follow the woodmen and before he was grown he could join the corner timbers of a house, that most difficult task in carpentry. He was also a cabinetmaker and a smith. Throughout the winters he stood at his workbench and made all kinds of farming tools.

When he had moved to Korpamoen he had been forced to mortgage the farm, so that his brothers and sisters might receive their inheritance share in cash; the yearly interest on this loan required that he work as timberman and carpenter.

Of the marriage between Nils and Märta three children were born: two sons, Karl Oskar and Robert, and a daughter, Lydia. Twice Märta’s pregnancy had ended in miscarriage; once on the same day she had been in the field helping her husband dig up a boulder.

Karl Johan, the new King of Sweden and Norway, had ascended the throne the year before Nils and Märta were married; their first-born son was named after him; the child’s second name was for the new Crown Prince, Oskar. It was thought to be good luck to name one’s children after people of high station — kings, princes, queens, princesses; even the poorest squatter could afford royal names for his offspring.

The first-born son, Karl Oskar, was also born with the lucky big nose of the Nilsa family.

Karl Oskar grew up strong of limb and body. Soon he helped his father at building and stone breaking. But early the boy showed a mind of his own; in work he would not do as his father told him, but rather followed his own way, though eating his parents’ bread. No chastisement improved the stubborn child; Nils was many times angered over his son’s independent ways.

One day when Karl Oskar was fourteen years old he was asked by his father to make slats for a new hayrick; they should be five feet long. Karl Oskar thought the hayrick would be too low with such short slats; he made them six feet, instead.

Nils measured the slats and said: “Do as I tell you, or go!”

Karl Oskar kept silent for a while, then haughtily answered: “I shall go.”

The same day he hired himself as farmhand to a man in Idemo, where he was to remain seven years.

Taken at his word, Nils regretted it; his son had been a help to him. But he could not retract: a boy who had not yet received Holy Communion could not rule his father in his work. On the whole, however, all went well for Nils and Märta in Korpamoen for some twenty-five years.

Then, one day in the early spring of 1844, Nils Jakob’s Son was alone in an outlying glade, breaking new land. Here he encountered a stone which caused him much trouble. It was smaller than many a one he had removed alone, but it lay deep in earth and was round as a globe so that neither bar nor lever got hold of it. Nils used all his tricks and soon the stone was halfway up. He now wedged it with the iron bar, intending to roll it away with his hands; but as he bent down to get a good hold for the final battle the earth slid away from under his foot and he fell on his face. In the fall he moved the iron bar that held the stone, which rolled back into its hole — over one of his thighs.

Nils lay where he fell. When he didn’t come home for his afternoon meal, Märta went out to look for him. She found her husband in the hole next to the stone, and lifted him onto her back and carried him home. Berta in Idemo, whose aid was solicited for hurts and ailments, was sent for, and she told him that the hipbone was broken and the joint injured.

Nils remained in bed for several months while Berta attended him with her herb concoctions and salves. The bone healed and he could again stand on his feet, but some injury was left in the joint and it remained incurable; he could not move without crutches; from now on he could do chores with his hands only, while seated.

Nils Jakob’s Son was a cripple. His farmer’s life was over. For twenty-five years he had fought the stones, and in the last battle the stones had won.

Korpamoen was no longer a cotter’s place. The size of the manure pile tells the size of the farm: it was not a mean dunghill outside the stable barns at Korpamoen. The farm now had seven arable acres; it could feed seven head of cattle through summer and winter. Nils and Märta had more than doubled the plot they first occupied twenty-five years before. Now they must cede it.

The farm was too small to divide; a one-sixteenth could not be split. And Nils did not wish to sell it to an outsider; one of his children must reap the benefit of his many years of clearing. Karl Oskar was still in service in Idemo, and barely of age. Robert, their second son, was only eleven, and the daughter Lydia fourteen years old. Even the oldest son was rather young to become his own master, but Nils offered Korpamoen to him, nevertheless. The father by now had more respect for the headstrong boy who had left home at fourteen because he couldn’t have his way about a few hayrick slats.

After seven years as a farmhand Karl Oskar was weary of working for others, and would rather be master of the homestead; he was ready to buy.

“If you become a farmer, you’ll need a wench,” said Nils.

“I’ll find one,” said Karl Oskar, sure of himself.

“Braggart!”

A few days later, however, Karl Oskar announced that the banns would be read for him the following Sunday. The parents were so much astonished they could not say a word: the son had even arranged his marriage without their advice! Indeed, the boy did have a will of his own. But they were also concerned; in the long run such a headstrong son would succeed only with difficulty.

— 2—

On an autumn day a few years earlier Karl Oskar had brought a load of his master’s firewood to Berta, the Idemo woman with healing knowledge. Berta offered him a dram in the kitchen, and there sat a young girl, unknown to him, spooling yarn. She had thick, light yellow hair, and a pair of mild eyes — green, blue, or perhaps both. Her face, with its soft, pink skin, pleased him, in spite of a few freckles on her nose. The girl sat quietly at the spooling wheel while Karl Oskar was in the kitchen, and none of them spoke. But when he was ready to leave he turned to her and said: “My name is Karl Oskar.”

“Mine is Kristina,” she answered

Then she sat silent, and spooled as before. But she had given him her name, she who was to become his wife.

Kristina was a farmer’s daughter from Duvemåla, in Algutsboda Parish, and she was only seventeen when they first met. But her body was well developed, with the first marks of womanhood; her hips showed well-rounded curves and her maidenly breasts were cramped inside the blouse which she had long ago outgrown. In her mind, however, she was still a child. She loved to swing. A few weeks before she met Karl Oskar she had taken the ox-thong and set up a swing in the barn at Duvemåla. During her play she had fallen out of the swing and broken her kneecap. The injury was poorly looked after, and gangrene set in. Her parents had then sent her to Berta in Idemo, who was known through many parishes for her healing ability, and Kristina was staying with the old woman while the gangrene mended.

Kristina still limped, and that was why she didn’t rise from the spooling wheel while Karl Oskar was in the kitchen.

But he found excuses for calling on Berta to see the girl again, and next time he found her standing outside on the porch. He noticed then that she was a tall girl, as tall as he. She was lithe and slender around the waist. Her eyes were bashful and tempting.

They met now and then while Kristina remained in Idemo. Her knee healed and she limped no more; no longer was she ashamed to walk about when Karl Oskar saw her.

The evening before she was to return home they met and sat outside Berta’s cellar on an upturned potato basket. He said he liked her and asked if she liked him. She did. He then asked if she would marry him. She answered that she thought both of them too young, that at least he ought to be of age. He said he could write to the King and get permission to marry. Then she said they had no place to live, nor did she know how they could feed and clothe themselves. To this he had no answer, for it was true. He had nothing to promise her, therefore he kept still; a spoken word and a promise carried weight; one had to answer for it, it could never be taken back.

They had since met at the Klintakrogen fair three times, two springs and one autumn, and each time Karl Oskar had said that he still liked her and no one else was in his thoughts.

Karl Oskar was sure of what he wanted. As soon as he had been offered Korpamoen by his father, he went to Kristina’s parents in Duvemåla. They were much surprised by this visit from an unknown youth who asked leave to speak with their daughter alone.

Karl Oskar and Kristina stood under the gable of her home and talked to each other for twenty minutes.

Karl Oskar thought:

Their hour to get married had now arrived; he was of age, he was to take over his father’s farmstead, they had house and home and means to earn food and clothing.

Kristina thought:

As they had met only a half-score times, they had hardly had opportunity to get to know each other. At nineteen she was still too young to become a farm wife; he must ask her parents if they wanted him for a son-in-law.

It turned out as Karl Oskar had thought it would. He was accepted into the family when her parents learned that his suit was earnest and that he owned a farm. He stayed in their house overnight and slept with his wife-to-be, fully dressed, in all honor. Six weeks later the wedding was held in Duvemåla between Karl Oskar Nilsson and Kristina Johansdotter.

Karl Oskar said to his young wife: There was no person in the whole world he liked as well as her, because she never criticized him or pointed out his shortcomings as others did. He was sure he would be happy with her through his whole life.

— 3—

King Oskar I ascended the throne of Sweden and Norway in 1844, and the same year Karl Oskar Nilsson (the old-fashioned spelling of Nils’ Son was discarded by Karl Oskar, who had learned to write) took possession of “one-sixteenth of one homestead, Korpamoen.” He still carried the names of the King and the Crown Prince, but now the order of the names was reversed: the new King’s name was Oskar and the Crown Prince was Karl.

The price agreed upon for Korpamoen, with cattle and farming equipment, was seventeen hundred riksdaler. This sum (amounting to a little less than five hundred dollars in American money today) included the mortgage of eight hundred riksdaler. Nils and Märta also kept their “reserved rights” to the end of their days: living quarters in the spare room, winter and summer fodder for one cow and one sheep, three-quarters of an acre of arable land for their own sowing, with use of the owner’s team, and twelve bushels of grain yearly, half rye and half barley. In the preserved deed it can still be read: “The reserved rights to begin July 1, 1844, this agreement entered into with sound mind and ripe consideration has taken place in Korpamoen, June nineteenth of this year, in the presence of witnesses.” The deed bears the cross marks of Nils and Märta, who had never learned to write.

As was usual when parents ceded their farm with reserved rights, a division of inheritance was now undertaken. Each of the children received two hundred and ten riksdaler and twenty-four shillings. Robert and Lydia, not yet of age, let their shares remain as claims against their brother.

Karl Oskar had got what he wanted; and how was it with him as a beginner? During his seven years in service he had saved one hundred and fifty riksdaler; with his wife he had received as dowry two hundred riksdaler; his inheritance was two hundred and ten riksdaler. But this money amounted to only one-quarter of the sales price. The other three-quarters remained as debt, debt which carried interest. He must pay fifty riksdaler a year in interest on the mortgage. And his greatest debt was the reserved rights to his parents. Indeed, the reserved rights were heavy for so small a farm — but they must be sufficient for the parents’ maintenance. Karl Oskar’s obligation to them was a debt on the farm which he must continue to pay as long as they lived; and Nils was only fifty-one years of age, Märta forty-eight. It was hardly a farm that Karl Oskar had taken over — it was debts to pay, with interest. But debt could be blotted out through work, and so he did not worry: he knew how to work.

Thus life continued in Korpamoen: Nils and Märta moved into the little spare room where they were to live out their years; Kristina arrived with her dowry chest and took Märta’s place. It was a young farm wife who moved in. But with her own hands she had stitched the bridal cover which she now, the first evening, spread over the nuptial bed. It was the blue of cornflowers, and Märta had said it was nice; Kristina was proud.

Karl Oskar was pleased that his mother and wife could live in harmony; otherwise they might have caused each other great irritation. The contract stated that his mother had the right to cook in the kitchen and bake in the big bake oven; had they been unfriendly they could have been in each other’s way in every corner.

But one day Kristina was discovered by her mother-in-law in the threshing barn, where she was playing in a swing which she had secretly hung from the rafters. Märta excused it and said nothing; Kristina was still a child in her ways, with a desire for play still in her body. It was peculiar, however, that Kristina would want to play with a swing since she had once fallen from one, injuring her knee. Besides, the wild play did not suit a married woman. Luckily no outsider saw her in the barn, hence no rumors spread in the neighborhood.

There was, however, something in regard to Kristina which Nils and Märta did not like: on her mother’s side she was related to descendants of Åke Svensson, the founder of the Åkian sect. Her mother was Åke’s niece. And her uncle, Danjel Andreasson, was owner of Kärragärde, the meeting place for the Åkians in Ljuder. Of course, more than fifty years had elapsed since the instigator of this heresy, the troublemaker from Östergöhl, had died in Danvik’s asylum. As far as was generally known, nothing had survived in Kärragärde of the horrible Åkianist contagion. But the original ill feeling toward the founder had been so deeply rooted among a great many of the parishioners that it still survived — kinfolk of Åke Svensson did not brag about their relationship.

Nils and Märta said nothing to their daughter-in-law, but one day they did broach the question to Karl Oskar: “Do you know your wife is related to Åke of Östergöhl?”

“I’m aware of it — and I defy anyone to hold it against her.”

There was nothing more to be said. Märta and Nils only hoped that Kristina’s kinship with the Åkian founder wasn’t generally known in the village. In Korpamoen it was never mentioned again.

— 4—

Early every weekday morning Nils emerged from the spare room, hobbling along on his crutches, slowly reaching his old workbench outside in the woodshed, where he remained through the day. He cut spokes for wagon wheels, he made rakes, and handles for axes and scythes. He could still use plane and chisel; his hands were in good health, and their dexterity remained. He taught Karl Oskar what he could of this handicraft.

During most of the summer days one could find Nils and his tools outside in the yard, where he sat in the shade of an old maple tree. From there he had a good view over the fields with all the piles of stone which his hands had gathered. His twenty-five farming years had indeed left marks; all the heaps of stone and all the stone fences which he had built remained in their places, and no doubt would long remain.

The invalid was not bitter. His belief was that all things happened according to God’s preordination. It was his conviction that God in the beginning had decided that a stone in his field — on a certain day, at a certain hour — would roll back into its hole. He would miss his foothold and fall, the stone would break his hip joint, and he would ever after crawl about like a wing-broken magpie. It would be presumptuous of him to question the Creator. Nils Jakob’s Son did not burden his brain with questions.

Now his son plowed and sowed the fields which he had cleared. He had fought the stones to the best of his ability; now his son reaped the benefit.

But Karl Oskar worried about debts and interest. If he only had a horse, then he could hire himself out and earn some money hauling timbers. But a one-sixteenth was too small to feed a horse, who chewed several barrels of oats during the winter; he needed three acres more to keep a horse. As it was he had to feed his parents and his wife and himself on seven acres, most of which was poor, sandy soil.

Soon he realized that he must clear more land.

He went out to inspect the unbroken ground belonging to Korpamoen. There were spruce woods and knolls, there were desolate sandy plains with juniper and pine roots, there were low swamplands with moss and cranberries, there were hillocks and tussock-filled meadows. The rest was strewn with stone. He carried an iron bar which he now and then stuck into the ground, and always he heard the same sound: stone. He went through pastures and meadows, through woodlands and moors, and everywhere the same sound: stone, stone, stone. It was a monotonous tune, a sad tune for a man who wanted to clear more acres.

Karl Oskar did not find a tenth of an acre within his boundaries left to clear; his father had done his work well; all arable ground was cultivated. What he now possessed to till and sow was all he would have. Until acres could be stretched and made broader than God created them, there would be no more arable land in Korpamoen.

And because the young farmer couldn’t continue creation where God had left off, he must be satisfied with his seven acres, and all the stones wherever he looked: broken stones, stones in piles, stone fences, stone above ground, stone in the ground, stone, stone, stone. .

King Oskar had ascended the throne of the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway; Karl Oskar Nilsson had become king in a stone kingdom.

— 5—

His first year as a farmer—1845—was a good year. The crops were ample, he was able to pay the mortgage interest on time, and all was well. And in the spring Kristina had given birth to their first child, a daughter, christened Anna after Kristina’s mother.

The second year also they had good crops in Korpamoen, but the harvesting was poor. The rye sprouted in the shocks, and bread baked from the flour was soggy. They sold a calf and half of the pig to help pay interest on the mortgage, and the twenty riksdaler he was short Karl Oskar borrowed from his crippled father: it was money the old one had earned through his handiwork. In the midst of the August harvest Kristina bore a son; he was named Johan after his mother’s father in Duvemåla.

The third year was filled with anxiety. When the meadow hay was cut in July such a heavy rain fell that the swaths were floating in water. When the flood had subsided some of the hay remained, fox-red, rotten and spoiled. It had a musty smell, no nourishment, and the animals refused to eat it. Karl Oskar and Kristina were forced to sell one cow. More bad luck followed: another cow had a stillborn calf, and a sheep went astray in the woods to become food for wild beasts. In the autumn it was discovered that potato rot had spread to their field — when picked, almost every second potato was spoiled; for one filled basket of good, an equally large one had to be discarded, hardly good enough for fodder for the animals. During the following winter more than one day went by without the potato pot over the fire. It was said the potato rot came from foreign countries, where it caused famine.

This year—1847—Karl Oskar went still deeper into debt. He had to borrow money for the whole amount of the mortgage interest. Nils had no more to lend him, and Karl Oskar did not wish to ask his father-in-law in Duvemåla. Kristina thought he should try her uncle, Danjel Andreasson, in Kärragärde, who was fairly well off. He was known as a quiet and kind man, although he was the nephew of the despised Åkian founder — but it would be foolish to pay heed to happenings of fifty years ago. No sooner had Karl Oskar made the request than Danjel gave him fifty riksdaler for the mortgage interest.

The day before Christmas Eve, that year, Kristina gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. The boy was sickly and was given emergency baptism by Dean Brusander; he died within a fortnight. The girl lived and was christened Märta, after Karl Oskar’s mother. She would afterwards be known as Lill-Märta.

After three years in Korpamoen Karl Oskar had now one cow less in the byre and seventy riksdaler more debt than at the time of taking over. And yet during every day of the three years both he and Kristina had worked and drudged to their utmost ability. They had struggled to get ahead, yet it had gone backwards for them. They could not sway the Lord’s weather, nor luck with the animals. Karl Oskar had thought they would be able to get along if they had health and strength to work; now they were aware that man in this world could not succeed through his work alone.

“It’s written, ‘In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread,’” said Nils.

“Aye — nor am I even sure to get bread through work and sweat,” retorted Karl Oskar.

Karl Oskar, as well as his father, knew the story of the Fall from his Biblical history; the dean used to praise him for his quick answers at the yearly examinations.

Karl Oskar had got what he wanted, but it wasn’t good for a person always to have his will. Most people thought he was a man with luck and of good fortune. He had two royal names, given him at baptism and formally recorded. He had the big Nilsa-nose—“Your nose is your greatest heritage,” his father used to say. But what help now were the names of kings and princes? What help now was a nose that extended a little further into the world than another’s? The day still seemed approaching when Sheriff Lönnegren might arrive at the farm and take something in pawn.

During his younger years Karl Oskar had often been teased by other boys about the big nose which distorted his face. He had always answered that it was the best nose he had. And he had believed his parents’ stories about members of the family in generations gone by from whom his nose had been inherited — he had always believed it would bring him good fortune in life. Kristina did not think his nose was ugly; it would have been different in a woman, she thought, but menfolk it suited. She did not believe, however, that his big nose would have anything to do with his success in life. That would be a heathenish thought. Kristina sprang from a religious home, and she knew that God shifted people as He saw fit, according to His inscrutable and wise ways. Since they now suffered adversity in Korpamoen, this was only in accord with God’s will.

— 6—

So began the year 1848. Karl Oskar had bought an almanac from the schoolmaster, Rinaldo, for four shillings. He now read that the year was the five thousand eight hundred and fiftieth from the creation of the world. It was also the forty-eighth since “the High Birth of Oskar the First’s Majesty and the fourth since Its Ascendance on the Throne.” It was also the fourth of Karl Oskar’s possession and farming of Korpamoen.

He read about the movements and appearance of the greater planets in the new year. He was familiar with the constellations whose signs were printed in the almanac for each day: the ram, with his great bowed horns, the scorpion, with its horrible claws, the lion, with his wide and beastly jaws, and the virgin, so narrow around the waist and holding a wreath of flowers. Weather and wind and perhaps also the destiny of man depended on the meeting of the wandering planets with these constellations.

Before the close of the old year people had already noticed alarming signs: wide parts of the Milky Way where the stars used to shine clear and brilliant were now nebulous and dark — the heavenly lights had disappeared. This could mean war and unrest, rebellion and dire times, sickness and pestilence. Intense cold and a “crow’s winter” set in before Christmas; those who ventured out to the early service on Christmas morning came home with frozen ears. New Year’s Day opjened with high winds; the steeple in Elmeboda blew down, and also the great mountain ash at Åkerby Junction, and this the thickest tree along the whole church road. On the exposed wastelands where the spruce were poorly rooted in the sandy soil the wind mowed along like a sharpened scythe in morning-dewed grass. And Noah’s Ark, which had not been seen since the dry year of 1817, appeared again in the heavens, with all its sinister majesty. The Ark was formed by clouds stretching from east to west, thereby obstructing all running waters and streams and preventing rainfall for the coming year.

Throughout the winter and spring there were strange portents in the weather. February was warm, while the spring month of March was windy, dry, and cold. The winter rye fared ill: wide gaping stretches appeared in otherwise green fields after the winter snow had melted.

During the last week of April — the grass month — it seemed as if at last spring had arrived. And early in the morning of May Day Eve Karl Oskar pulled out the wooden harrow from its shed, intending to begin the preparation of the fields for the sowing. Then it started to snow; it snowed the whole day; in the evening a foot of snow covered the ground. The cattle recently had been let out to graze; they must now be put in their stalls again. The April snow covered flowers and grass which had only begun to grow. Again, the spring had frozen away.

Karl Oskar pulled the harrow back into the shed. He sat silent at the food table this May Day Eve, and went to bed with a heavy heart. As far back as men could remember it had never boded so ill for the crops as during this peculiar spring.

The young couple in Korpamoen lay together under the cover, the one Kristina had stitched. It had now warmed them at their rest during four years — more than a thousand nights. Many of these nights Karl Oskar had lain awake, thinking about the mortgage interest, and in many of these nights Kristina had risen to quiet the children when they awoke and cried. Four springs had stood green, four autumnal stubble fields had been turned since for the first time they enjoyed the embrace of man and woman under the cornflower-blue bridal quilt.

That evening in the autumn, when they had sat together on the potato basket in Idemo, now seemed so long ago — it might have been an experience in another world. It belonged to their youth, and they spoke of their youth as something long gone by; they had been young before they were married, and that was once upon a time.

Karl Oskar had recently had his twenty-fifth birthday; Kristina would soon be twenty-three. Not so long ago she was a child herself; now she had brought four children into the world. Three lived and slept now in this room; she listened to their breathing, ever anxious.

Kristina thought at times about the happenings of her young life and the relation of events. If she hadn’t fallen from the swing in the barn at home in Duvemåla, and injured her knee, she would never have gone to Berta in Idemo to seek a cure for gangrene. Then she would never have met Karl Oskar and they would never have become a married couple. They would not have owned and farmed Korpamoen together, and she would not have had four children by him. Nor would they lie together here tonight under the bridal cover which she had made. She would not have Anna, Johan, and Lill-Märta, those three small beings sleeping so close to them.

Everything important in her life had happened because once she had made a swing from an ox-thong, at home with her parents, and had fallen from it. God surely had willed that she put up the swing; He it was who had directed all this for her.

And she still enjoyed swinging; a little while ago she had made a swing again in the threshing barn, when no one saw her. She knew that her mother-in-law thought it was ill done by a farm wife who had borne four children — thought she should think of other things.

Kristina had blown out the tallow candle when she went to bed. Through the window she could see the glittering snow which had fallen the last day of April and — as it seemed — might remain.

Karl Oskar lay quietly at her side, but she could hear that he was still awake. She asked: “Are you thinking about something?”

“Aye. About spring. It looks ill for the crops.”

“It’s true. It seems ugly.”

Kristina’s eyes wandered through the window; when she and her husband arose tomorrow morning the month of May would be here — yet it was snowlight outside.

She said: “We must believe God will let things grow — this year as all years.”

“Believe! Yes — if faith were of help, we’d harvest a hundred barrels of rye this fall.”

He had never before shown such anxiety; now he seemed dejected, disheartened. His low spirits were contagious; she too began to worry about the coming days.

He continued: Including his parents there were now seven people who must find their food on this small farmstead — a one-sixteenth. If the year were lean and the crops failed, he would not know what to do.

Kristina thought of the children, now sleeping their sweet sleep in this room. Those who had brought the children into the world were responsible for them and must see to it that their stomachs were satisfied and their bodies clothed. The children’s welfare was much more important to Kristina than her own, and she knew Karl Oskar felt as she did.

Kristina folded her hands and said her usual evening prayer: “Turn Thy Grace to me and let me sweetly go to sleep this night. . ” Before she said her Amen she added tonight a few sentences she remembered from “A Prayer for the Fruit of the Earth”: “Give us favorable weather and protect the crops from all destruction. Bless us with corn and kernel. Through Jesum Christum, our Lord, Amen.”

Karl Oskar seldom said his evening prayer any more; he usually was too tired after he went to bed. But as Kristina prayed and he listened, it might be for both of them. God must look kindly on a farmer in a stone country.

He turned over on his side to go to sleep, and Kristina felt for his hand, for she went to sleep sooner if she held it in her own.

They both lay quiet; Karl Oskar kept hold of his wife’s hand. At her touch the desire of the body was awakened in him. He put his arm around her to pull her closer.

“No-oo, Karl Oskar, I do-on’t know. .” She struggled a little.

“What is it, Kristina?”

“I–I was thinking of the children.”

“They are asleep, all three.”

“I meant something else; I think of the food for the children.**

“The food?”

She whispered close to his ear: “If we didn’t — I thought — Then there wouldn’t be any more.”

There was a sense of shame in her voice. But now she had said it.

“If we didn’t? For the rest of our whole lives? Is that what you mean?”

Kristina wondered herself what she meant. God created as many people as He desired; as many children as He decided were born. That she knew. But she knew this just as surely: if no man came near her, then she would bear no more children. It seemed as if in one way God decided, in another she herself could make the decision. The conflicting thoughts disturbed her.

Karl Oskar went on to say that he could not leave her alone when he had her next to him in bed during the night; no man who slept with his wife was built in such a way; at least not before he became so old that moss grew in his ears.

Kristina had no reply. No, she thought, they could not stay apart throughout life. She too had her desire, which she could not resist forever. But she would never fall so low as to let Karl Oskar know this.

He continued to seek her; he clasped her breasts, which swelled and hardened in his hands. Her own desire awakened. She opened up as a mollusk opens its shells; she gave in.

They were silent during their embrace, as they always were. In the moment of fulfillment she had entirely forgotten what she had said before.

About a month later Kristina knew that she was carrying her fifth child.

II. THE FARMHAND WHO DROWNED IN THE MILL BROOK

— 1—

Robert, Nils’ and Märta’s second son, was ten years younger than Karl Oskar. When he was little he had caused his parents a great deal of trouble by running away as soon as he was outside the house. He would disappear into the woodlands and they might spend hours looking for him among the junipers. They hung a cowbell round his neck so they could locate him, but even this did not always help, for they could not hear the tinkle when the child sat quietly. He did not change as he grew older: if he was not watched he would disappear into the woods and hide; if he was asked to do chores he might run away. And as the boy grew older they were ashamed to hang a bell on him as if he were an animal.

When his parents ceded Korpamoen, Robert was given employment during the summers as herdboy for Åkerby rote (a rote is a parish district with common grazing rights, etc.). Thus there was one mouth less to be fed from the porridge bowl in the spare room. Robert received food from the farmers, and two daler a year in wages (fifty-eight cents). Every fall he received also a cheese and a pair of woolen stockings. He liked it well out in the wastelands, alone with the cattle. During the long summer days, while cows and sheep grazed lazily, he would lie on his back in some glade and stare into the heavens. He learned to whistle, and he sang without even thinking of it. Later, when his shepherd days were over, he realized why he had done these things: he had felt free.

For six weeks every year during three succeeding years he attended the school held by Rinaldo. Schooling came easily to him; the very first year he learned to read and write. Though Rinaldo had only one eye, he had seen more of this world than most of the parishioners with two. Once he had been as far away as Gothenburg, where he had seen the sea, and he told the children about his life’s adventures. They enjoyed this more than the Little Catechism and the Biblical history put together.

The day Robert finished school he received a book as a gift from the schoolmaster. It was a History of Nature. Rinaldo said that when school days were finished, children seldom touched a book; but if they never improved their reading ability, they would soon lose it. He gave this book to Robert so that he might continue reading when he finished school.

The History of Nature was Robert’s first possession. But for more than a year it happened that he didn’t open his book. During the winter he attended confirmation class at the dean’s, and also helped his brother Karl Oskar fell oaks. The oak timbers would later be brought to Karlshamn to be used for shipbuilding. They cut pines, too, the tallest in the forest, for masts on ships. While Robert helped with tree felling and the sawing of timbers which were to travel on the sea, he followed the ships-to-be in thought. The harbor town of Karlshamn was fifty miles away, and the peasants bringing timbers there needed two days and a night for the round trip. Robert thought that he would like to ride with the timbermen to Karlshamn in order to see the sea with his own eyes.

Nils and Märta churned and sold some ten pounds of butter from their own cow in order to raise money for a Bible to give their son at his first Communion. The Bible he received was bound in leather and cost one riksdaler and thirty-two shillings — the same amount as the price of a newborn calf. But it was a Bible that would stand wear and tear; the Holy Writ must be bound in leather to last a lifetime.

Robert now owned two books, one worldly and one religious. Rinaldo had said that all people ought to read these books — from one they learned about the body and all earthly things, from the other about the soul and things spiritual. The History of Nature contained all Robert needed to know about this world; the Bible, about the world hereafter.

But Robert was still in this world, and he must now go out and earn his living. His father made all the decisions for his minor son. Nils had arranged for him to serve one year as farmhand in Nybacken, about a mile from Korpamoen. But Robert did not wish to serve. He argued with his parents that he did not like to have a master; couldn’t he somehow avoid the service in Nybacken?

Nils and Märta were disturbed to hear their younger son speak thus, and reprimanded him soundly: What kind of poor wretch was he, unwilling to work for food and clothing when hale and hearty? Would he like to become one of the tramps on the roads, or a beggar from the squatters’ sheds in the wastelands? Or did he want to remain at home, a burden to his parents who lived but on reserved rights? And he soon fifteen! He ought to be ashamed of himself! His sister Lydia had been a maidservant for several years now. They were too many here in Korpamoen; Karl Oskar could not feed him, he could not afford a servant. Moreover, his father had hired him to Aron in Nybacken, and received the earnest money, according to the servant law — the contract could not be torn up and changed. Aron was to pay good wages: the first year Robert would receive thirty daler in money, one wadmal suit, and one pair of short-legged boots. He should be pleased, and he should also be thankful to his parents who had arranged this service for him.

So one May morning in 1848, at sunup, Robert Nilsson left his parental home to start his first service as farmhand. His mother had made a bundle of his belongings, tied in a woolen kerchief. She had gathered together his leather shoes, his wadmal pants, one Sunday shirt, and one pair of Sunday stockings. In one hand he carried the bundle, in the other three books, the Bible, the History of Nature, and the prayerbook which his mother had given him. The books were wrapped in paper so as not to become soiled.

It had rained during the night but now the sun shone down on the village road. A wet odor rose from the meadows on either side of the road where the rain had fallen on the fresh, new grass. The birches had just burst into leaf and shone green, and from the bushes came the twitter of birds at play. But the boy who wandered along the road with his two bundles felt no joy in the beauty of the spring morning around him. He was on his way to Nybacken, to begin the life of a farmhand, but he had never been asked if he wanted to become a hired hand in Nybacken. He dreaded the confinement of the service, he did not want to have a master. He was walking on the road to Nybacken but he did not wish to arrive. Now that he was grown older he was being pushed out from the home like a fledgling from the nest. He was the younger son, one of those without portion. And still, he did not envy his elder brother, who must poke between the stones, burdened with worries about the mortgage interest.

Robert stopped as he reached the bridge over the mill brook. What did it matter if he began his service half an hour earlier or later, at five o’clock or half-past? There would be ample time for work during the whole long year. He left the road and sat down at the edge of the brook. He took off his wooden shoes and his stockings and dangled his feet in the water. The brook rushed by, swollen with the spring rains. At last spring had come, and the water felt warm. It rippled around his feet, it whirled and bubbled between his toes, and he sat and watched it run away, passing by him, flowing under the bridge and hastening farther on. He saw the white bubbles of foam float on and disappear in the thicket of willows where the brook’s bed made a curve. This water was free; the water in the brook was not hired in Nybacken; it needn’t stay in the same place a whole year. It never remained in one place, it could travel anywhere. It could run all the way down to the sea, and then the way was open around the world, around the whole globe.

There would be no harm if he sat half an hour and watched the brook, a last half-hour before he became a hired hand.

In front of him in the creek bed there was a deep, black pool near a large stone. In this pool he had once drowned a cat, a gruesome memory. And there, beside the stone, a maid from Nybacken had drowned a few years ago. She had not drowned by will, she had slipped and fallen into the water as she stood on the stone and rinsed washing. The stone was so steep that she was unable to crawl up; her body was found in the pool. On the stone they had seen marks made by her fingernails: she had scratched and scraped with her nails, unable to get hold anywhere. Afterwards Robert had seen the marks and he could never forget them; the scratches told him of human terror at death.

A manservant could drown in that pool as well as a maid. When a hired hand sank into the water of the brook, no service contract would hold, and no earnest money which the servant had accepted on earth would have to be accounted for. A drowned farmhand had no master.

Robert considered this.

He unfolded the paper around his books. His mother had laid a little myrtle branch between the leaves of the prayerbook, and the book opened where the green branch lay: “A Servant’s Prayer.”

“O Lord Jesus Christe, God’s Son. You humbled Yourself in a servant’s shape. . Teach me to fear and love You in my daily work, and to be faithful, humble, and devoted to my temporal lords in all honesty. . What worldly good may fall to me I leave all to Your mild and fatherly pleasure. Teach me only to be godly at all times, and satisfied, and I will gain sufficiency. . Let me also find good and Christian masters who do not neglect or mistreat a poor servant, but keep me in love and patience. . ”

Through the myrtle branch between the leaves his mother spoke to the young servant: Read this prayer! And Dean Brusander required at the yearly examinations that farmhands and maids should “so act in their poor situation that they could say by heart ‘A Servant’s Prayer.’”

But now Robert had in mind to read a piece from his History of Nature. He had turned the corner of the page and he found the place immediately:

“About the Size of the Sea:

“Many might wonder why the Creator has left so little space on the earth as home for man and beasts. For almost three-quarters of the earth’s surface is covered by water. But he who learns to understand why water takes so much space shall therein see another proof of the Creator’s omnipotence and kindness.

“These great bodies of water which surround the firm land on all sides, and which have salt water, are called Sea. . ”

Robert looked up from his book. He thought of the sea which was three times bigger than the firm land on which he sat. No one owned the sea. But the land was divided in homesteads, in quarters, eighths, sixteenths, and the farmers owned them. The one who owned no land became a servant to a landowner.

He thought: On land there were many roads to follow. There were others besides the one which led to Nybacken. There was a parting of the ways close by, at the bridge over the mill brook: the right one led to Nybacken, the left one brought you to Åbro mill — and if you continued on that road you would never reach Nybacken.

If you turned to the left you could disappear from the neighborhood. There were people who had disappeared from the parish; their names were still in the church book, written down under “End of the Parish.” The dean called their names at the yearly examination, and inquired about them. Every year he called the name of the farmhand Fredrik Emanuel Thron from Kvarntorpet; not heard from since 1833. Someone always answered that no one in the village knew where he was. And the dean wrote about him in his book: Whereabouts unknown. This was repeated every year: Fredrik from Kvarntorpet was not heard from. For fifteen years — the whole span of Robert’s life — the lost farmhand’s whereabouts had been unknown. This was the only thing Robert knew about Fredrik Thron from Kvarntorpet, and because he knew naught else he wondered about the lost one’s fate.

It had happened before that a farmhand had disappeared, had taken the wrong road.

When Robert was ready to pull on his stockings he missed one of his wooden shoes. It had fallen into the brook; now it floated on the water near the willow thicket, far out of reach. He stood there, startled that his wooden shoe could float. Now it caught on the branches of the willows where the brook turned. The water gushed and swirled round the shoe and Robert stood there and saw his own foot kick and splash; he saw himself lying there, drowning in the brook.

What he had just now vaguely thought of had begun to happen by itself. It only remained for him to complete it.

He stuffed his stockings into the remaining shoe and threw it into the brook. Then he took off his jacket and let it follow after and was pleased when he saw it float on the water. Then he picked up his two bundles and went up on the bridge. At the parting of the roads on the other side of the bridge he turned to the left; he took the road that did not lead to Nybacken, he took the wrong road.

Caught on a branch of the big willow at the bend of the brook there now could be seen a boy’s little jacket. As the running water in the brook swung the branches back and forth, the arms of the jacket would wave to anyone passing the bridge, telling what had become of the hired hand on his way to Nybacken to begin his service: he had drowned in the mill brook, as the maid had done a few years earlier.

— 2—

The ground under Robert’s feet felt cold in the shadow of the wood: it was too early in the year to go barefooted. He had walked only a short distance when someone pulled up behind him. Robert prayed in his heart that it might be a timberman on his way to Karlshamn; then he would ask if he could ride with him. But it was only Jonas Petter of Hästebäck, their nearest neighbor in Korpamoen, on his way to the mill with grain. He stopped. Yes, Robert could sit up on the sacks beside him and ride with him to Åbro mill.

Robert crawled onto the wagon and sat down next to the farmer. Jonas Petter of Hästebäck was a kind man: he did not ask where Robert was going; he said only that it was dangerous to walk barefooted so early in the spring. Robert answered that he walked easier without shoes and stockings. Apparently Jonas Petter had not noticed the jacket as he passed the bridge.

In the mill room at Åbro there were already three farmers, waiting for their grind. They were unknown to Robert. He remained with them in the mill room, where it was nice and warm; a big fire burned in the stove, and the air smelled sweetly of flour and grain.

The peasants ate food which they had brought along and drank brännvin with it, and one of them gave Robert a slice of bread and a dram. He dunked the bread in the brännvin as children were wont to do, and he was a little conscious of this, now that he was almost grown.

The men had driven their grain wagons far alone, and now in company they were conversing loudly and noisily. Jonas Petter of Hästebäck stretched himself full length on some empty sacks in front of the fire. He was a tall-grown man with fine black side whiskers.

Below the mill room the grindstones went their even pace and rumbled softly, like thunder at a distance; it was otherwise peaceful and quiet in here. Robert sat in front of the fire next to Jonas Petter. He was not going to work as a hired man, and his heart was light.

“We all remember old Axelina here at Åbro,” said Jonas Petter, “but does anyone remember how she got the mill and became the richest wench in the parish?”

The answers from the other peasants all were negative. No one had such a good memory as Jonas Petter; he knew all the old stories of the region, and now he must tell about Axelina, whom he remembered as the owner of the mill while he was still a youth.

She was an ingenious and clever woman, this Axelina. She came as a maid to Frans the Miller, who had owned the mill for many years and had had time to steal so much flour from the sacks that he had become as rich as ten trolls. At this time he was old and sickly, and Axelina made up her mind that she was to inherit from him. And now she went about it in the only way a woman can under such circumstances: she tried to inveigle him into carnal connections with her. In the evenings after he had gone to bed she would come into his room in her shift, and as often as she could she displayed her attractions. But Frans was played out, slow in the blood — no longer to be tempted.

One cold winter evening, however, as he returned from a Christmas party where he had drunk more brännvin than was good for him, he happened to fall into a snowdrift. When he did not turn up, Axelina took a lantern and went out to look for him. She found him frozen through and through. She helped him home, put him to bed, and gave him a pint of brännvin to revive his body warmth. Frans drank the brännvin but complained that he still felt cold. Then, said Axelina, she knew only one more remedy which could help him, and that one he probably wouldn’t use. Frans was afraid he might contract a deadly sickness and he asked what kind of remedy she knew. Well, replied the maid, she must lie next to him and warm him with her own body. She had heard this was the best remedy against chills. Frans was a little startled, but he had drunk a lot of brännvin and said that if she believed she could help him in this way she might come and lie next to him. She would do it only to save his life, she insisted, and he must promise not to touch her. This he promised willingly — he had no such thoughts while shaking and shivering in his bed.

So Axelina lay down with her master, and she knew how to manage: it ended with the master and the maid being as close to each other as is possible. She used to say later that it took only half an hour until Frans the Miller lost the chills, and she could leave him.

Forty weeks after this happening Axelina bore a son who so much resembled Frans that no one needed to ask the father’s name. Frans never forgave his maid who had taken advantage of him, and marriage between them was never talked of. But he was much attached to his boy, and when he died a few years later he left all he owned to the child, with a relative as guardian. Axelina did not get a penny.

However, the boy caught smallpox and died when he was four years old. Axelina then inherited from her son. She received the Åbro mill and all Frans’ other possessions, and became the richest woman in the parish: owner of more than forty thousand riksdaler, And she bragged later that she had earned it all in one half-hour, the half-hour when she lay in Frans the Miller’s bed and warmed him after his exposure in the snow. Nor was it difficult work — she had lain quite still. No woman in the whole world, not even a queen or an empress, had earned so great an hourly pay as Axelina in her master’s bed that evening.

Yes, said Jonas Petter, and sighed, women could earn easy money if they liked: only to lie quite still.

Robert stared at Jonas Petter; he always told such unkind stories about women. It was said that he did this because he himself was tormented by a wicked wife. The couple in Hästebäck lived so ill together, and quarreled so loudly, that people could stand on the road outside the house and hear every word they said; horses had become frightened and bolted from the hubbub. It sometimes happened that Jonas Petter had to sleep in a stall in the byre because he could not sleep within the same four walls where his wife Brita-Stafva slept.

Robert stretched out on the floor before the fire and contemplated the cracked, sooty beams in the ceiling of the mill room. Again he thought of the farmhand who had chosen the left road instead of the right one.

Presently he asked Jonas Petter: “Do you remember Fredrik of Kvarntorpet who disappeared from home?”

“Fredrik Thron? Yes, I remember him, that cuckoo!”

He was a rascal, continued Jonas Petter. He was as lazy as a well-fed Christmas pig, and would rather steal than work. If anything was lost it was easy to know who had found it. Fredrik stole for pleasure rather than gain, but in either case it was unpleasant for the loser. And he was given to all kinds of pranks: he broke down gates, let the horses out of the church stables while people were in church, brought snakes into the church on Sundays. Every farmer in the parish was disgusted with the knave from Kvarntorpet.

The boy’s father was a cotter under the manse, and he had persuaded the owner, Lieutenant Rudeborg, to hire his son as a farmhand and try to make a man of him. When Fredrik had been in Kråkesjö for a week, he was asked by the lieutenant to fetch a pair of oxen bought at the Klintakrogen fair. They were fine animals, well broken in, and a child could have driven them this short distance with a loose thong. But Fredrik, who was twenty, could not manage it; he arrived at the manse with another pair. The lieutenant had never seen these animals before; the ones he had bought had measured seventy-eight inches around the chest, and now his farmhand brought a pair of steers measuring hardly sixty-six. These animals were not worth half the price he had paid for the oxen at the fair. Lieutenant Rudeborg was in a red-hot rage at his new man.

On the way home from the fair Fredrik had done some trading of his own, and had exchanged the master’s oxen for the smaller ones — with money in his own pocket, of course. But the damned fool swore up and down that these were the same beasts he had received: their color was identical, red with a white spot on the forehead. Fredrik was clever. These looked somewhat smaller, he admitted, but they had shrunk because they had been without fodder the whole day — that was all, they were indeed the same oxen.

Nevertheless, Lieutenant Rudeborg had witnesses who said the animals were not his, so Fredrik couldn’t wriggle himself free that time. Rudeborg, however, felt sorry for the boy’s parents. He didn’t want to put his servant in jail, but he couldn’t stand the sight of the fellow. He therefore suggested to his neighbors that they send Fredrik to North America; he would pay half the fare if they chipped in and paid the other half.

That country would suit Fredrik perfectly, said the lieutenant. America was a land for all rogues and misfits who could not live in law and order at home. Out there he could trade oxen with other villains to his heart’s content. If he remained at home and they put him into prison, he would be on their hands again as soon as his sentence was over. But once in North America, they would be rid of him for time and eternity.

The farmers quite willingly contributed a couple of riksdaler each to free themselves from Thron’s boy, who had been such a nuisance to them. So the money was collected, he was put on the coach at Klintakrogen, and Lieutenant Rudeborg even came down in person to see that his scoundrel servant started off to North America.

A few months passed by and all was well. No mischief was heard of and everyone said this was the wisest thing they had ever done — to send Fredrik to North America.

But one day the news spread that the American traveler was home in Kvarntorpet again.

He had never boarded the ship for North America. He had gone only as far as Gothenburg, and in Gothenburg he had remained the whole time. There he had stayed at an inn, and had drunk and caroused and lived like a lord as long as the money lasted. When it was spent he returned home, and now this debased youth looked honest people in the face as if expecting them to be happy to see him back again in good health. He had put on weight and he looked fine. On the money he had received from honest folk he had lived in idleness, gluttony, and debauchery. And the rogue said that if you wanted to live well you should not work. He was so shameless that he went around the village and thanked people for their contributions toward the journey, saying he had used them as well as he could, he had had much pleasure. And if they should have it in mind again, he would be most willing to undertake another American journey. He had always longed to get out and see the world, it was so useful and instructive for a person. And this parish was a dirty little hole not at all befitting decent, sensible people. He hoped that the contributions next time would be sufficient to take him a bit farther on his voyage to America.

By now people were so angry at the inveterate scamp from Kvarntorpet that they spit at him whenever they saw him. Evil was within him, and it “inclined him to evil, and disinclined him to good,” as it is written. And Lieutenant Rudeborg, who had paid half his American fare and himself seen him board the Gothenburg coach, had no mercy on him this time: he reported him to the sheriff for theft of the oxen. However, when Lönnegren arrived at Kvarntorpet to fetch Fredrik, he had disappeared, and the authorities had not been able to lay hands on him since.

“That’s fifteen years ago, now. No one here has seen Fredrik since that time. They say he took to the sea,” Jonas Petter concluded.

Angry words were mumbled by the peasants as the farmer from Hästebäck finished his tale. Probably, thought Robert, some of them had contributed toward Fredrik’s American journey at the Gothenburg tavern.

A few words in Jonas Petter’s story had especially impressed Robert and he pondered them: the lieutenant from Kråkesjö had said that a land existed which fitted all those who misbehaved at home.

If one disappeared from one’s service and from the neighborhood, one was written down under “End of the Parish.” He could hear the dean call a name at the examination next autumn: Farmhand Robert Nilsson from Korpamoen. No one present knows where he is. And the dean writes: Whereabouts unknown. So it would be written next year, and the following. And ten years, fifteen years later the dean would still write in the church book about the farmhand Robert Nilsson: Whereabouts unknown. Not heard from since 1848. For all time it would appear about him in “End of the Parish”: Whereabouts unknown.

It was thus written about those who were free.

How many miles might it be to North America? He dared not ask anyone present, they might begin to wonder about him. Perhaps he could learn from some book.

But America was the land for one who had taken the wrong road.

— 3—

Robert became drowsy from the heat in the mill room and from the monotonous din of the millstones; he went to sleep on some empty sacks in a corner. It was late afternoon when he awoke. Jonas Petter and the other peasants were gone with their grind, and in their place two other farmers who had arrived were waiting for their flour and eating their provisions. They no doubt thought Robert was a farmhand who was waiting for his grind. And one of them noticed that he had no food and handed him a slice of bread and a piece of pork.

The same farmer told about a death which had occurred that very morning: a young farmhand on his way to service in Nybacken had drowned in the mill creek. It appeared he had fallen off the bridge. They had found his jacket, and Aron of Nybacken had dragged the pool, but his body had not yet been recovered. Strangely enough, a maid from Nybacken had drowned in the same pool a few years ago.

The farmer also knew that the drowned servant was son to Nils in Korpamoen. He was only recently confirmed. As a child he had been somewhat peculiar: he would run away from home, and his parents had been forced to hang a cowbell around his neck to locate him.

A young person’s sudden death — a horrible occurrence, the farmer sighed. He added that fortunately the victim was old enough to have received the Lord’s Holy Supper, so one might hope he was now with his Saviour in eternal bliss.

The last bite of bread stuck in Robert’s windpipe; he coughed for a moment: the same man who had given him the bread believed he deserved a blissful heaven. He was a kind man, he must be thanked sometime.

Here at the mill Robert felt he might be recognized any moment; he must remain here no longer.

He knew in which direction he must go: he wanted to reach Karlshamn, the town by the sea; he must reach the sea.

He intended to ask if perchance any one of the peasants came from the southern part of the parish; perhaps he could get a ride part of the way. But just as he opened his mouth to ask, the miller himself came into the room, covered from head to foot with white flour dust. He seemed to be looking for someone; he eyed Robert sharply.

“Are you Nils of Korpamoen’s son?”

As he looked closer he added: “You’re barefooted, and you haven’t any jacket. You must be the one.”

It was too late to ask for a ride.

“Your master is here. He heard about you from the other farmers.”

Up the steps into the mill room came a big man with thick, fox-red hair covering his forehead. His cheeks were smooth and shone as if greased with pork fat, and he had small, piercing eyes. It was Aron of Nybacken.

Robert crawled backwards into his corner.

Aron smiled with a broad grin as he espied the lost farmhand.

“Well, well, if it isn’t my boy, that little helper of mine!”

And he extended his hands toward Robert, a pair of hands covered with long, coarse, red hair. They were heavy and rough as gnarled birch clubs, they were the biggest hands Robert had ever seen. And they were fastened to a pair of powerful arms, the arms of Aron of Nybacken; they hung from the man who was his master.

Robert tried to pull himself into his shirt, into his trousers, he wanted to become small, so small that the master could not get hold of him, could not see him.

But Aron sounded very kind now, his voice was mild and soft as sweet cream: “Too bad you lost your way! My little boy, you didn’t find Nybacken this morning — now I’ll show you the way. Outside the coach awaits you.”

And he stretched out his big hand and grabbed the boy by the shoulder.

“Pick up your bundles and come.”

Robert walked out of the mill room followed by the farmer. He was hired according to law, he was bound to the man who had the biggest hands he had ever seen.

Outside the mill stood the horse and wagon from Nybacken, and here the master and the hired hand were alone. Aron got a good hold of Robert’s ear, while his broad smile vanished: So-o, the little farmhand was of that sort of wool! So, he wanted to run away, did he! And he had tried to make people believe he had drowned! And had caused his master great trouble — the whole morning had been spent in dragging for the lost farmhand! Now, in the midst of the most pressing time of spring! So he was of that ugly breed that wanted to leave his service before he began it! Was it in this way that the little hired man honored his father and mother and revered and obeyed his masters? His poor parents had today mourned him as drowned and dead, tomorrow they would be ashamed of him as living. He was confirmed and grown, but he couldn’t walk a mile from home without disappearing. He, Aron, would tell his parents they must still hang the cowbell on their boy before they let him leave home.

“You’ve earned a good thrashing, my little hired fellow. But I shall let you off with a small box on the ear.”

And he gave his servant a box on the ear.

Robert was pushed backwards against the wagon wheel, and the world around him shook for half a minute, but he did not fall. The master’s hand could no doubt have hit him much harder, Aron could have given him a real box on the ear. Robert could hear, and he understood: it was only a small box he had received.

And so the farmhand rode back with his master, the whole stretch of road he shouldn’t have taken this morning, the whole road wrongly followed.

And when they arrived at the bridge over the mill brook, where in the morning he had taken the left road, the wagon now followed the right one.

So ended the day when Robert Nilsson tried to take his first steps on the road to America.

III. WHAT THE BEDBUGS IN A STABLE ROOM MUST LISTEN TO

— 1—

The farmstead Nybacken had a master and mistress, plus an old mistress on reserved rights, three maids in the maids’ room, and two farmhands in the stable room. Aron’s hired men lived in the barn next to the horses’ stalls. Their room had a deal table, a bench for each of them, two beds filled with straw, and a horse blanket each. In walls and beds lived bedbugs in great numbers, and they increased in undisturbed bliss, filling all holes and cracks.

Arvid, the elder farmhand, was grown, and sturdy and strong of limb, although a light, silky boy-beard still covered his chin. He had a reddish skin and old frostbites on his nose, which bled in cold weather. Aron called him his big hand; Robert was his little hand.

Arvid seemed slow of speech and shy with people, but the very first evening after they had gone to bed on their straw bundles in the stable room Robert began to ask his comrade in service about the master and mistress. What kind of place was Nybacken for a servant?

Before he went to sleep that night Robert had obtained from the elder boy a fair picture of their situation: Aron was hot-tempered, and if he became angry he might give his hands a box on the ear or a kick in the pants. Otherwise he was really a kind, decent soul who would harm no one. The mistress was less considerate: she hit the maids, and her husband as well, and Aron was afraid of her and dared not hit back. Both master and mistress were afraid of the wife’s mother, the old mistress who lived in a “reserved room” in the attic. She was so old she should have been in her grave long ago, if the devil had attended to his business; but apparently he too was afraid of her.

The service was demanding because the master was lazy; the hired men had to do nearly all the chores. The food wasn’t restricted in good years and they could eat as much bread as they wished. During lean years the farmhands and the maids must live on what they could get, here as everywhere else.

It was salt herring at every second meal — but in many places they had to eat herring every meal the year round, except Christmas Eve, and in many places the mistress herself cut the bread and portioned out the slices. So you couldn’t complain about the fare in Nybacken. Of course, it might happen that the bread was mildewed, the herring rancid, the milk blue sour, and the cheese rat-eaten, so they could see the marks of the small teeth. But only once had they found rat-dirt in the flour porridge; Aron himself had picked out the small black pebbles. Arvid had served at other farms where the bread was nearly always mildewed, the herring always rancid, the milk always sour, and neither’ the mistress nor the master had bothered to pick out the rat-dirt from the porridge. So one need not belittle the fare at Nybacken, he said.

So much the “little hand” learned from the big one during the first evening. And every evening thereafter Robert tumbled into bed tired and exhausted, and slept like a gopher in his hole, unconscious even of the biting bedbugs, until morning came and Aron awakened him, shaking him by the shoulders: “My little hired man, hurry on up! It’s four o’clock! My little hand, you know idleness is perdition! Don’t lie there and be lazy. Hurry up to your work!”

Arvid was accustomed to the ways of the farm, and when he said that the service was hard he might as well have said it was hard to harness a horse or to carry a bucket of water.

Robert was the youngest on the farm, and all had chores for him to do: Aron, the mistress, the old mistress, the maids. All lorded it over him, sent him hither and yon, corrected him, hurried him, scolded him. Everyone on the farm was his master. Even the animals: the farm’s four horses needed constant attention. He had to get up early in the morning to fill their mangers with fodder, in the evening he must fill them again before going to bed. And the horses must be curried, they must have their stalls cleaned, hay must be brought down from the loft for them, oats fetched from the granary, fodder cut in the barn, and water carried from the well. Robert lived his farmhand’s life in close quarters with horses, smelling horses, horse manure, horse sweat, leather and harness. Sundays and weekdays alike, the horses required attention.

The animals were bound in their stalls and the farmhands were bound to the animals. And the service year of a hired hand was three hundred and fifty-eight days, discounting his one free week a year.

During the very first week of his service at Nybacken Robert made the decision that he must escape from all his masters, human as well as animal.

— 2—

The little hand who was bossed by all had good ears and quick eyes. He listened to and observed all that happened on the farm, and picked up its secrets. He heard all insinuations, he saw all winking eyes, as when there were hints and whispers about the white heifer which had been butchered at Nybacken last fall; a fine heifer — ready to calve — had gone to the slaughter bench because Aron dared not let her live. Why dared he not let her live?

Robert collected one word here, another there: The white heifer was with calf without having been with a bull. It was said to have happened that cows had borne calves with human heads and faces — horrible monsters, half beast, half man. That was why they had slaughtered the white heifer before her calving time was near.

Robert now wondered how the heifer had become pregnant without having been with a bull. It was answered, he had better ask Arvid. No one but Arvid knew, and he could surely give information.

So he learned gradually that the farm folk were directing a horrible accusation against his comrade in service.

Nothing was ever said in the open, everything was half said. All sentences ended in the middle, they were broken off as soon as they touched the accusation itself. The maids whispered and tittered; no one could speak aloud about such things. Robert asked, and he too made a half sentence: “Did they accuse Arvid of. .?” No — no one accused Arvid of anything; but anyone wanting to know more must go to him; he was the only person who knew the truth about the white heifer. They repeated only what the old mistress had said.

It had all originated with the old woman in the reserved room in the attic. One day last summer she had happened to see Arvid drive the white heifer into the cow barn. It was in the middle of the day, no other person was in the byre, no one had asked the hired man to drive in the heifer, and she could not understand why the animal should be taken into its stall at that hour. The old mistress had seen nothing more, nothing more than this: Arvid had driven the animal into the stable. She had not accused him of any forbidden or horrible deed with the heifer, she had merely said this to the maids: what he did with the white heifer in her stall, only he and God knew.

The old mistress had said no more than she could stand by.

From the time he was a little boy Robert had gone with his father when he brought cows to the bull, and when he was herdboy he had more than once seen a bull and cow mate. There was nothing unusual about that, he knew how animals acted and he could imagine how people acted. But he couldn’t imagine people and animals together, not a man and a cow together — he did not believe his roommate guilty of the horrible deed.

Only God and Arvid knew how the white heifer had gotten with calf. . it was the old mistress who had started the ugly rumor, and the maids had believed it. They treated Arvid as if he were leprous, they pulled away from him quickly if they happened to touch him, and they refused to be left alone with him. Furthermore, the rumor about the farmhand in Nybacken and the white heifer had begun to spread through the neighborhood, and other girls now shunned Arvid. For a while he had gone visiting with a maid on the neighboring farm; now he was unable to see her. No one wanted to have anything to do with a youth accused of so shameful a deed.

Robert could not make himself speak to his friend about the horrible accusation, but he knew Arvid was aware of its existence. Arvid had earlier been cheerful and sociable, lately he had become morbidly shy of people, and taciturn. One could easily understand why.

After having been in service for one month Robert asked leave to visit his parents in Korpamoen one Sunday, but was refused. The master had not yet sufficient confidence in his little hand to allow him away from the farm. Arvid said that perhaps Aron thought he would go home and complain about the service and belittle his master. And now Robert learned that his elder comrade had not been away from the premises in half a year, though his parents’ home was only three miles distant. But Robert understood why he kept away from people: no one accused of connection with a heifer would wish to show himself more than necessary. It was a loathsome accusation if true, and still more loathsome if untrue.

Aron said that Robert would have no free days during the year because he had failed to report on time and had had to be fetched to service by the master. He also wondered why his little hand need run home to his mother: did he still nurse?

A hired man was no suckling; he could not leave the farmstead without permission of the master.

But the farmhands in Nybacken had some free moments in the stable room during Sunday afternoons in summer, when the horses were let out to graze and needed neither fodder, water, nor rubbing down. Then Robert brought forth his History of Nature and read aloud to his friend.

Arvid had attended school only two weeks, and had never learned to read. He pretended he could; he would take the History of Nature and stare into the book with a thoughtful, studied expression as if reading. After a suitable time had elapsed he would turn the page slowly and seriously, as if he had deeply considered its contents. The same was repeated with the next page. But Robert had caught him once holding the book upside down.

Arvid did not “read” for very long, he complained it hurt his eyes; the words in the book were so small and crooked that they were hard to see; his eyes never had been strong; after reading for a while they began to smart as if he had been looking into a fire. He had had to stop school, he said, because his eyes were so poor.

And so he handed the History of Nature to Robert. “You read! Your eyes can stand it.”

So the elder servant pretended that he could read, and the younger one pretended that he believed him.

And Robert read aloud from the History of Nature, about the air and the water, about the animals and the plants, about crocodiles and rattlesnakes, about silkworms and butterflies, sea lions and flying fish, spice trees and coffee bushes, about hot deserts and polar seas, about leaf lice and planets, about geysers and volcanoes. Arvid learned about all the amazing objects and phenomena which existed on the globe but which he had never seen. And when Robert closed the book, Arvid said what a pity he couldn’t read as much as he wanted to, because of his poor eyes; his sight was good otherwise, but it was of little value when it came to words in a book.

Now, among all the foods in the world, Arvid liked rice porridge best. Rice porridge he could enjoy only once a year — at Yuletide. One Sunday Robert was reading about rice in the History of Nature. As he finished, Arvid said: “Read it again!”

Robert read:

“About Rice:

“Rice is a grain which is grown in unbelievable quantities in warm countries. The shelled seeds are shipped to us and are then called rice grains. From them is cooked with milk the white and delicious sweet porridge. The best rice comes from Carolina in North America. . ”

Arvid listened with open mouth, dreaming his thoughts of sweet porridge. It was almost half a year to Christmas; between now and the plate of rice porridge were many hundred salt herrings which he must eat; Aron had lately been to Karlshamn and had brought home a barrel of herring, and they were expected to reach the bottom of it before the sweet white porridge would be cooked.

Robert went on with a new chapter:

“About Sugar Cane:

“Nearly all sugar consumed in our country is made from sugar cane; this is a tall grass, eight to ten feet high, which grows in warm countries like the East Indies and America. . ”

The elder farm boy scratched the back of his neck where there were a few fresh bites from last night’s bedbugs. Then he looked out through the window, thoughtfully. A land existed where both rice and sugar grew, both the grain and the sweetening for the porridge. But he knew this was far away in the world, separated from his country by a great water. Neither he nor Robert had seen any greater bodies of water than the tarns here in the parish, and these were so small that a man could row around the shores in an hour. Arvid began to wonder about the sea which separated this country from America.

Suddenly, as if he had spoken to himself, he asked: “I wonder how broad the ocean might be?”

Robert looked up, startled. He could have answered the question, he could have told Arvid many things pertaining to the ocean. But he carried a secret which he guarded well; he must act wisely and carefully, he must not confide in anyone, not even his comrade in service.

Thus, on Sundays, Arvid and Robert sat there, looking out through the single window of their stable room. The small panes were spotted and unwashed, in the corners were cobwebs filled with dead flies, the whitewash on the sash had long ago disintegrated. A dirty, small, poor window let in the light to the hired men in Nybacken. But through this window they could see out into the world, they could look across the stable yard and see the farmland beyond, they could see the village road that passed by. And beyond their eyes’ reach their thoughts struggled further, their thoughts ventured on roads never traveled, down to a sea never seen, and across the waters of the ocean.

One of them had made his decision, and he was the first in the parish to do so.

— 3—

Arvid drew part of his pay in brännvin from the farm’s still. One Saturday evening as the boys were sitting in their stable room after the day’s toil Arvid brought out his keg, which had just been filled by Aron, and offered a drink to his friend. Robert had not yet learned to drink brännvin alone; he still dunked bread in it. In order to please Arvid he accepted a mug and drank it, and afterward he felt as if a juniper twig was stuck in his throat.

Aron had today mentioned that the yearly catechism examination would be held at Nybacken, and Arvid, who last year had been strongly reprimanded by the dean because he was unable to recite the Fourth Commandment, anticipated this day with apprehension.

“The dean asked who our masters were and I couldn’t answer,” he said.

“Our masters are all those who by God’s ordinance are placed over us in the home, in the state, at school, and at the place where we work,” Robert recited glibly.

“Oh, Jesus!” Arvid stared with admiration at his young friend, who gloated in his display of superior knowledge.

“God has given our parents and masters power over us so that they as God’s servants may take fatherly care of us, and each in his station watch over our true welfare. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained by God. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.”

“God Almighty!” exclaimed Arvid, and in his amazement he drank so much from his brännvin mug that he choked.

Robert could rattle off the old lessons indefinitely. He could also teach a little to his friend. “Do you know how many superiors and masters we have, Arvid? In the whole world, I mean.”

“No-o.”

Robert held up his right hand and counted on his fingers. For every lord and master he bent one finger. First was the King, then the Governor, below the King; the third was the Crown Sheriff, who came under the Governor. The fourth was Sheriff Lönnegren, and the fifth was the sheriff’s hired man. The sixth was the dean, their spiritual authority, and the seventh their own master, Aron of Nybacken. The sheriff watched over them to see that they remained in their place of service, the dean watched over them at the yearly examinations, Aron watched over them to see that they worked and earned their pay. There were seven superiors and masters in all.

“Jesus Christ! What a lot of masters!”

“Now you can name them to the dean at the examination,” said Robert.

“I’ll try to remember.” And Arvid began to count on his own fingers: “The King, the first master. . What is his name?”

Robert explained: The King who by God’s ordinance sat on the thrones of Sweden and Norway was named Oskar I, and through him all other authority derived.

He went through the list of masters with his comrade many times, and at last Arvid could name all those seven who according to God’s ordinance had fatherly power over them.

After a time Robert tired of this holding school; he had drunk several mugs of brännvin and he felt drowsy; he undressed and crawled under the horse blanket. Arvid sat alone with the keg in front of him; he continued to drink; he had drunk more often of late. The stable lantern, swinging from a nail on the wall, spread a dim light over the room. From the other side of the wall could be heard the puffing of the horses and the sound of horseshoes against the stable floor. The hunters of the night — the bedbugs — emerged from their cracks and holes and hurried on their way to suck blood.

Robert went to sleep with the odor of brännvin in his nose.

Suddenly he was awakened by a noise. He had been asleep only a short time. The lantern on the wall was still lit, the door was open and banged in the gusty wind; the sound of it had awakened him. But Arvid was not in his bed, he had vanished.

Robert shook the keg on the table: it was empty. He was seized with anxiety for his friend.

Quickly he pulled on his trousers and hurried into the stable yard. Outside, in the clear moonlight, he could make out someone moving near the door of the woodshed. He went closer: it was Arvid, leaving the shed, staggering. He had an ax in his hand.

“What are you up to?”

Arvid weaved back and forth, his breath came quickly, his head was bare, his tousled hair blowing in all directions, and his mouth wide open. His upper lip was thick and swollen, his cheek bloody; he had fallen and hurt himself. In the moonlight his eyes were bloodshot and staring. From the woodshed he had fetched the heavy wedge ax.

“Are you going to split wood? In the middle of the night?”

“No. . not wood. . Something else.”

“Are you walking in your sleep?”

“Someone. . someone is going to die. . now, tonight.”

“Arvid!”

“The old mistress is going to die tonight.”

“Arvid! Put back the ax!”

Arvid was drunk and apparently unconscious of his actions. His eyes were flaming, burning with rage. Robert shouted: “Drop the ax!”

“I’ll kill the bitch!”

“You’re crazy!”

“I’ll split her snout, the old sow!”

“Arvid, please. . please. .”

“She’s ruined my life. She must die!”

And Arvid staggered off toward the house.

Robert ran after. He grabbed his comrade by the arm, seizing the ax handle. “Arvid, please. .”

“Let go the ax!”

“Listen to me. You’ll ruin your whole life.”

“It’s ruined already.”

“But listen, you don’t know what you’re doing!”

“Let go the ax, I say. Let go!”

The two farmhands fought over the ax. Robert was afraid he might cut himself on the sharp edge; and Arvid was bigger and stronger and soon had the ax away from him. But Arvid’s legs were unsteady from all the brännvin, and he slipped and fell on his back, dropping his weapon to the ground. Quickly Robert snatched it, unnoticed by Arvid, and threw it as far away as he was able; it fell among the gooseberry bushes near the barn. Arvid turned over and felt among the debris, searching for the ax. Robert tried to talk sense to him: “We’re friends. I want to help you. Please, Arvid.”

And soon the drunken man calmed down; he no longer searched for the ax, he only repeated, again and again: “I’m so unhappy. . so unhappy. .”

Robert was frightened by the rage which had come to the surface so suddenly in his good-natured comrade. He shivered in the cold wind, and from the fright he had experienced.

“I’m cold. Let’s go to bed now.”

And after a time he was able to persuade Arvid to go back into the stable room. The drunken man threw himself full length onto his bed; all his strength seemed to have left him; he lay there, limp and exhausted, and kept mumbling: “At times I feel like killing her. . that devil’s bitch in the attic.”

Robert thought it best to leave his comrade alone until he grew more calm. And presently Arvid’s stupor began to wear off and his head cleared. He sat up in his bed and his voice was normal as he asked: “Do you know what she accuses me of?”

“Ye-es.”

“Hm. . I thought so. It’s the old bitch’s evil invention — all of it! You know that, don’t you?”

“I know that, Arvid.”

The elder boy mumbled something incoherent, then said nothing for a time; apparently he was sleeping. But suddenly he sat up and continued, and now he seemed fully to have regained his senses. He had never done anything horrible or forbidden with the white heifer. If this were his deathbed and he were unable to say aught else, this he would say to the dean, to the sheriff, to the authorities — to all people on earth he would say this: he had never mixed with any animal. The old woman had said that only God and he knew what he had done with the white heifer in the barn. And God in His heaven knew that he, Arvid, was innocent. But what joy did he get from this when people thought him guilty, when people believed he had done it?

Robert didn’t know how to reply, except to say that he himself had never believed the accusation.

Moreover, said Arvid, the heifer had not been with calf, it was a lie, a lie which the hag in the attic had invented, long after the heifer had been butchered. The heifer would never have calved any monster with a human head if she had been spared.

“Why don’t you sue the old woman in court?”

Yes, Arvid had thought of clearing himself that way, but he was afraid of the court; he didn’t like to have to stand there, gaped at by all people; and the rumor might spread still worse if it were brought to the county court and the old woman found not guilty — after all, she had never accused him outright, she had only said that God and he alone knew what he had done.

Robert had seldom seen her outside the house, the little woman in the gray shawl and the black kerchief, a shriveled-up creature who didn’t seem to have the strength to hurt a fly. Yet she had ruined Arvid’s life, a terrible injustice had been done to him. Why couldn’t God, Who was omnipotent, reveal the truth, so Arvid could be cleared?

“Do you know what they call me?” asked Arvid.

“No.”

“Listen. .”

Walking along the road the other day he had met some boys who mocked him. He had heard their words — something about the bull in Nybacken. They referred to him. People called him “The Bull of Nybacken.”

They were silent again in the stable room. Robert felt sudden twitches in his eyes; he understood why his comrade had filled his brännvin keg so often of late.

Arvid resumed, and now his voice trembled. He was called the Bull. No wonder all women shunned him, no wonder the girls shied away from him. Who would want to be seen in the company of one called the Bull? And he would always be referred to by that name, although he had not harmed man or animal. He had tried to endure it, but the loathsome name would cling to him forever; he would be treated as fool and scoundrel, an outcast whom people would abhor. He could show himself nowhere in this countryside.

So Robert could understand why he went out and got the ax.

Arvid lay down again, but his body shook: he cried. He cried silently, his whole frame shaking. He lay so for some time.

By now Robert knew enough: Arvid could not bear being called the Bull of Nybacken; indeed, no one in his predicament could endure to remain in the neighborhood. Anyone suffering what Arvid did must move away.

And so Robert knew also what he must do: he must confide in his friend.

The next evening he disclosed his secret. The two farmhands sat as usual on their beds, ready to retire, alone in the stable room. Everyone on the farmstead slept. But Robert acted as if Sheriff Lönnegren had been standing outside the window listening to them. He moved over to Arvid’s bed and sat down close to him; he spoke in whispers although no living being could hear him, except his friend and the bedbugs in their cracks and hiding places. And now he uncovered his criminal intentions: “I carry a heavy secret, Arvid. You’re the only one I’ll confide in. Can I rely on you?”

“If my head is chopped off for it I shall say nothing!”

They shook hands, and the younger one unburdened himself: he intended to escape from service. But this time he would not act as foolishly as he had done in the spring on entering service. He would wait till fall, when they carried oak timbers to Karlshamn. He could drive now, and he would no doubt have to join the timbermen, driving Aron’s old mare. But once Aron had let him out of sight with the beast he would never see him again: the mare would return alone to Nybacken. By that time the driver would be far away. In Karlshamn he would board a ship which was to sail to North America — to the New World.

“Are you coming along, Arvid? You’ll get rid of your name — the Bull.”

Arvid found nothing to say; he just stared, such was his surprise; he could only look at his comrade, this fifteen-year-old boy so recklessly plotting to escape with his master’s timber load — a daredevil planning to venture the ocean!

For Arvid knew nothing of what had transpired in Robert’s mind since that day in spring when he had taken the wrong road at the bridge over the mill creek, on his way to service.

And Robert had discovered something which had helped him along on this road; he now took from its secret hiding place — under the straw of his bed — a little book in narrow, brown-specked covers and gold-stamped back: Description of the United States of North America.

Here was his secret help; through this book he had obtained all the information he needed.

When Robert worked on the dunghill with his manure fork, when he carried his scythe at harvest-time, when he stood in the hayrick or chopped straw in the barn, when he sat here in the room and looked out through the window — always his thoughts carried him across the sea. And little by little another land arose on the other shore. Like a flower which sprouts in black soil, puts forth buds and opens its crown, so that land grew in his imagination. By now he had crossed the ocean and become familiar with the land beyond: America.

There were two worlds — nature’s world and the Bible’s world, this world and the coming world. But this world was again divided into two parts: an old and a new. His home was in the Old World, in the world that was frail, worn-out, and full of years. Its people were worn-out, decrepit, old and weak and finished. In their ancient villages time stood still; in their old moss-grown cottages nothing happened which had not happened before; the children obeyed their parents and imitated them, and did the same thing again which their parents had done before them. The Old World could not go on for many years more; it would not be long before it tumbled and fell with all the decrepit people who lived there.

But far away, on the other side of the globe, there was a New World, recently discovered, recently settled. The New World was young and fresh, and full of splendor and riches beyond imagination. And those who had emigrated and settled there were young and swift and nimble people whose whole lives lay ahead of them. The New World was populated by the most daring and the most intelligent people from the Old World: by those who had left their lords and masters behind them. It was populated by all those who wanted to be free, who did not want to serve under masters. To the New World all those emigrated who at home were poor and oppressed, all those who were harrassed and suffering, the destitute and those full of sorrow, the hunted ones and those full of despair.

The one who was not satisfied with his lot in the Old World moved to the New World. America was the right land for Robert — and for Arvid!

— 4—

When Rinaldo had held his school at Nybacken in the spring, Robert had asked him if he knew of some book with a truthful description of North America. The schoolmaster said he had recently seen such a book advertised in the newspaper Barometern for forty-eight shillings — one riksdaler — including postage. Rinaldo ordered the book for Robert, and advanced him the price until such time as the boy should receive his pay. The schoolmaster helped him willingly: Robert was his only pupil who read books of his own free will.

Robert had since — in his room during the summer nights — read the Description of the United States of North America three times over from cover to cover. It was written for simple uneducated folk who intended to emigrate to the New World. And it assured readers, even on the first page, that it was a true description: it said that to the innocent and the ignorant much of the contents might seem unbelievable, exaggerated, fabulous, but all was clear, clean, beautiful truth. Nothing was changed, added, or fabricated; all was set down in honesty.

Robert knew the most important chapters by heart, or almost by heart, and now Arvid could get all the information he wanted about the New World. The little farmhand related the facts, and the big one listened. There were in Sweden people of the ruling classes who spread lies about the United States of America. They said that the country was fit only for scamps. The lieutenant in Kråkesjö had sent over Fredrik of Kvarntorpet, who was ill-liked in the parish (only Fredrik had turned back at Gothenburg). The lieutenant had maintained that mostly bandits, rascals, thieves, and other evil people lived in America. But this was a lie. The Americans were honest and upright in their doings and dealings, they were neat and clean in their homes and in their appearance, they were brave, generous, helpful, and moral. Of course, among them was an occasional evildoer. It was also a lie that America was so unbearably hot that only Indians, Negroes, and the heathen could endure the climate. People from the Old World could breathe the air, eat the food, and drink the water; no one suffocated or was poisoned. In the most healthy places the Indians lived to so ripe an age that they didn’t die in the same way as people did here at home: they dried up and shrank in their old age, and became so light that they blew away and disappeared into the air. But what the masters kept secret was that the people of the New World were not divided into gentry and ordinary folk, as was the case in the kingdom of Sweden. In America no one had precedence over anyone else, for all were equals. Emperors and kings were forbidden; the Americans tolerated no masters; one need neither bow nor curtsy, because there was no one to bow or curtsy to. And no false pride existed among Americans; no one was looked down upon or snubbed because he had dirty or mean employment. All work was considered equally important; a farmer who owned a thousand acres of farmland worked himself all day with his hired men. When had anyone ever seen the lieutenant at Kråkesjö go into the field with his men and spread manure? And he was the owner of barely a hundred and thirty acres! In America there was no servant law or earnest money, and hired men and maids could leave their service whenever they wanted without punishment. Nor need they slave as here from early to late: in North America no one worked longer than twelve hours a day.

The money was called dollars, and one dollar equaled two or three riksdaler — maybe more. A good farmhand could earn as much as a hundred and twenty-five dollars a year, and that was more than three hundred riksdaler. Arvid worked here in Nybacken for forty riksdaler a year and a suit of wadmal. If one counted the wadmal at ten riksdaler, one still earned more in one year in America than in six years at Aron’s. And the food was seven times better. The Americans had good solid fare: all people ate pork and white bread every day, and Sundays they had double portions of pork to the bread. Salt herring was forbidden as food. The cattle in America were better fed than the servants in Sweden. The fare Aron in Nybacken gave to his servants would be rejected by the pigs in America, for they were very particular. A pig in the New World lived as well as a count in Sweden.

Robert related what he remembered from the book, the words came pouring from his lips, and perhaps, in his enthusiasm, he added a little here and deducted a little there, but it evened out so that the truth about the United States of America did not suffer from it.

And he carried his comrade away so that Arvid trembled at the revelations. Now and then he put in his “No! No! God! God Almighty! The devil it is! Christ in hell!” and other expressions which he daily carried on his lips and which meant nothing in particular. Arvid had never read a description of heaven, since he could not read, and he had never heard the dean describe it from the pulpit, either, for the dean only spoke of happenings in hell; but if only half the contents of Robert’s book were true, and the other half a lie, then the book must describe a heaven on earth.

But Arvid asked about other things, as for example the wild heathen, Indians who flayed people on the head with their knives and were unfriendly toward Christians. There was nothing in the book about Indians’ scalping people, said Robert. Arvid then wondered if the wild animals in North America were dangerous. Were there any angry snakes there? He had always been afraid of crawling animals, never daring to kill a snake, and avoiding small quadrupeds. Robert admitted that in America great wild animals did live, and they could kill people, and were consequently a little annoying. The fiercest beast was the gray bear, who attacked all who tried to take his life. But if you lay down on the ground and pretended you were dead, the bear would leave you in peace. There were also lions and tigers and wolves there, but they had a natural fear of people and attacked only if wounded or frightened. There were poisonous rattlesnakes but they rattled and made a noise when they crawled in the woods and could be heard at great distances, so it was easy to run away from them. America had also some irritating small creatures, grasshoppers, blowflies, cankerworms on the fruit trees and others, but they were unable to kill people. The grasshoppers ate only crops, they were quite satisfied with this. No, no one need be afraid to live in America on account of wild animals.

No, Arvid wasn’t afraid of them either, he had only asked for the fun of it. And now he knew how it was: when the bears came, one was to lie flat on the ground and pretend to be dead. And he had good hearing; no doubt he would hear when the snakes came rattling and have time to run away.

About those who were called Negroes and had black woolly hair, it said in the book that they were kept as slaves, and were bought and sold as if they were cattle. Robert did not think this was being fair to them. Otherwise they seemed to have it decent and comfortable enough, and he read for Arvid about them: “Many slaves have better living quarters, food, clothing, care, working conditions and old-age security than most of England’s factory workers or the peasants in Europe. They have their own chickens and pigs, their own piece of land where they can cultivate whatever they wish and sell the yield for their own profit. A half-year may pass without abuse from their owner. It has therefore happened that liberated slaves — dissatisfied with their newfound liberty and its consequent responsibilities — have again sold themselves as slaves.”

Arvid listened in amazement: the slaves had their own chickens and their own pigs? And their own piece of land? And better food and clothing than most peasants at home? Then the best one could do on arriving in America would be to sell oneself as a slave; it would be the wisest thing a farmhand could do. Here in Sweden he would never be able to acquire his own patch of land, or chickens or pigs.

Robert said it was forbidden in America for white-skinned people to sell themselves as slaves.

“Forbidden?” retorted Arvid. “But you said America was a free land, that all people could do as they pleased. You just said so.”

“Yes, yes, but that kind of trade is forbidden anyway. For whites.”

“But why should it be forbidden to sell oneself? When all have the right to do as they please?”

Robert was confused, he couldn’t answer this. And Arvid thought that probably there was a difference between people in America, after all, if the whites did not have the same rights as the blacks to become slaves and have their own land with chickens and pigs.

He would have liked to read a few chapters in the book, Arvid would, if he had been able to, with his weak eyes; but he got such an eye-smart when he read; wouldn’t his friend continue?

Robert turned the page to a new chapter, describing the life of the inmates of an asylum in the New World — an asylum in Pennsylvania: “In this house the weak-minded work in their clear moments with weaving, wood chopping, sewing, spinning, knitting, etc., to shorten the time and occupy their minds, besides which for the same reason there are available books, newspapers, chess games, musical instruments, like the flute and the pianoforte. . ”

“For the crazy?” exclaimed Arvid.

“It says ‘the weak-minded.’”

“They have newspapers? And play flutes?” For the first time Arvid voiced doubt.

“Well — look for yourself.”

“God Almighty!”

But it was the truth, Robert’s eyes were too good to make a mistake in his reading. And when everything was so fine and expensive for insane people in America, one could easily imagine how the sane lived.

Arvid agreed immediately to go with his comrade to the New World.

In the United States of America no one could have heard the ugly rumor which the old woman in Nybacken had spread about him. There no one knew of the horrible deed with the white heifer which he was accused of here at home. In America no one would call him the Bull behind his back; there the girls wouldn’t shun him; there he could look all people freely in the eyes and be held in regard like other menfolk.

And on this the big servant shook hands with the little one: together they would cross the ocean.

— 5—

The lantern in the stable room burned late into the night while Arvid and Robert planned their future emigration. And none but the bedbugs in the rotten walls shared their secret deliberations.

Robert had been clever when he figured on driving Aron’s timber wagon to Karlshamn; thus the master would contribute, as it were, toward the fare for the journey to America. In the harbor town they would later come to agreement with some captain to sail them across the sea.

Arvid wondered: “How much is the fare across the ocean?”

Robert knew: The transportation from the port of embarkation in Sweden to New York in America, including provisions for the voyage, firewood, and fresh water, cost one hundred and fifty riksdaler¹ for a grown person. To this was added ten riksdaler entrance fee to America, and some other expenses, so that every emigrant needed about two hundred riksdaler. He himself had that sum — his inheritance — remaining with his brother in Korpamoen.

“Two hundred daler!” Arvid had risen, now he sat down again, so heavily that the bench creaked in every joint.

Two hundred riksdaler was five years’ wages. And he had not one shilling saved. If he should save every penny, and didn’t even allow himself a pinch of snuff during the whole time, he would have to remain here in Nybacken and serve for five years before he could save that much money.

He sat dejected and avoided looking at his friend; he had never dreamed that the transportation to North America would cost such an incredible sum of money. He must stay at least five service years more — during five more years he would be forced to remain here as the Bull of Nybacken.

A long silence ensued. The bedbugs thought their nightly victims had finally gone to sleep and emerged cautiously from their holes and corners.

Two hundred riksdaler! That boy there was lucky to have an inheritance to draw on. But Robert must go alone, even though a moment ago they had decided to keep company and had sealed it by a handshake.

“You mean you cannot raise the transportation?”

“No — I couldn’t manage.”

“Not in any way?” Robert was almost as disappointed as Arvid.

“No, there isn’t any way out.”

“There must be some way. Perhaps we can help each other.”

And again they sat silent, and brooded and pondered.

Suddenly Arvid jumped up, his eyes gleaming. “I’ve got it! We may get across some other way!”

“What do you mean?”

Arvid grabbed hold of Robert’s shoulder, intense, breathless. “The highway, of course — we hadn’t thought of that!”

Surely, there must be some road over firm land. They could walk around the ocean, and in this way reach America dryshod. They would have to take a roundabout way, it would take them longer, but in his case that would make no difference; he would rather walk the long road to America than remain here and be shunned like a villain. If he could arrive dryshod, on foot, he would willingly take a roundabout road; he had strong, sturdy legs and was a good walker, he needn’t risk his life at sea. He was sure he could walk to America. It might take a few years, that couldn’t be helped. He would not take too much with him that might be a burden to carry, he couldn’t take his servant chest, he’d manage with a knapsack. He might take the keg too, he would need something to encourage him on the long journey if his legs alone must pay the transportation.

He couldn’t believe anything else but that in some way they could walk around the ocean.

“It’s impossible. No one can walk to America.”

“It’s impossible? There is no way?” Arvid’s eyes were pleading for any little hope, the barest possibility, even if it meant the longest and most difficult road.

Robert answered definitely: No one could walk dryshod to a land which was surrounded on all sides by water. Arvid could see that on the map at schoolmaster Rinaldo’s. America lay there like a vast island in the world sea; they could not walk around that body of water.

“Under no circumstances?”

“Under no circumstances.”

Arvid’s face fell. Robert continued: In any case, that way was so long that if Arvid were to walk it he would not arrive until he was eighty, just in time to lie down in his grave. And he must take the village shoemaker with him to prepare him a new pair of boots a couple of times a year to replace the worn-out ones.

Arvid sat silent again, very long. Then he mumbled something between his teeth — four words: “That God-damned ocean!”

At last he crawled into bed, still cursing the ocean which separated the Old and the New Worlds. That evening he swore himself to sleep.

NOTE

1. $43.50 in today’s currency.

IV. KARL OSKAR AND KRISTINA

— 1—

In this year—“the 5,850th since the creation of the world,” according to the almanac — the early summer was the driest in thirty-one years.

During the month of June not a drop of rain fell. Dry, harsh winds from east and north blew constantly, but never the west wind, the wind of rain. The sun glared day after day from a cloudless sky. The grass in glades and meadows turned coarse and rough, rustling underfoot. The winter rye stopped growing at knee-height; grazing ended, and the cows went dry.

Haying commenced before June had passed; to leave the ready ripened grass standing would risk its strength. Hillocks and knolls turned brown-red — the color of animal blood, foretelling death under the knife for cattle, with fodder shortage ahead.

Karl Oskar and Kristina harvested the meager hay grown in their meadow. The straws were so short and spindly that the rake could hardly catch them; one could almost count the straws, Karl Oskar said.

He was angry and bitter as he raked; last year was a wet year and hay rotted in the swaths or washed away in the flood. This year it was drought, and the hay burned up. Which was the better for the farmer? Which one could satisfy him?

This year the only moisture in Karl Oskar’s field was his own sweat. The Lord’s weather was either too wet or too dry. Of what help was it, then, to bend one’s back and toil and struggle? The Lord’s weather ruined everything for him, all his labor was in vain.

“It’s all the fault of the Lord’s weather!”

Kristina stopped raking and looked at him gravely.

“Don’t be impious, Karl Oskar.”

“But — is this hay, or is it cats’ hair? Is it worth our work?”

And Karl Oskar was gripped by sudden anger: he seized a wisp of hay on his rake and threw it up into the air while he shouted heavenwards: “As you have taken the rest of the hay you might as well have this, too!”

Kristina let out a shriek, terror-stricken: Karl Oskar had challenged the Lord in heaven and on earth. Her eyes followed the wisp of hay as if she expected it to reach the heavens. But the straws did not get high above the earth, they were separated from each other by the wind and, scattering over the meadow, they fell slowly to the ground. No one up there in heaven would accept the hay.

“Karl Oskar. You have blasphemed.”

Kristina stood there, her cheeks white, her hands clutching the rake handle. Her husband had thrown their hay back to Him above because he was not satisfied. What was he doing? How dared he? Did he no longer fear his Creator? He must know that God would not allow mockery. Frightened, she looked toward the sky as if she expected that the presumptuous one would receive his punishment immediately.

“May God forgive you! May God forgive what you did!”

Karl Oskar did not answer. Silently he began to rake together a new swath. He had indeed learned God’s commandments, he knew the Lord endured no mockery, and he felt a pang within him. He had lost his temper, the gesture with the hay would have been better undone, those words should not have been uttered.

The clear words of the Bible proclaimed that man on earth should eat his bread in the sweat of his brow; he asked no better than to be allowed to do this. But as he gave his sweat, so would he like also to receive in return the bread. He did not think it too much to ask that all might happen according to God’s own words.

In silence they continued to harvest their hay. But the meadow hay barn which in good years was too small was this year not half filled.

The drought continued.

Their well dried up and the people in Korpamoen carried water from an old spring in the forest. Hungry and thirsty, the cattle stood all day long at the stile, lowing plaintively. The fields were scorched as if fire had passed over them. In the beginning of August the birches turned yellow and began to lose their leaves. The summer had never had time to bloom and ripen before the autumn set in; this summer had died in its youth.

Karl Oskar had a stiff neck from looking for rain clouds. At times clouds did appear, dry clouds, empty smoke rings that passed across the heavens, visions of deceit, a cruel mockery. A few tiny scattered drops fell at times; they were like scorn.

The rye stood overripe, the grains ready to drop from the heads. At the cutting they must be careful not to lose some of the invaluable kernels. Karl Oskar and Kristina brought the quilted bedcover with them into the field, and spread it on the stubble before the swath of the scythe. They moved the quilt gradually, for the cut straws to fall on it and remain there while being tied into sheaves. Thus grains which might fall from the heads were collected on the quilt and saved. From the ground Kristina gleaned the broken heads, gathering them in her apron; when evening came they had collected in the cover a tenth of a bushel of the drop-rye, sufficient for a few loaves of bread. The rye field yielded only a third of its usual crop in this year of drought: what would one loaf of bread count when winter came?

Kristina tied the corners of the quilt into a sack and carried it home under her arm. Four years ago it had been her bridal spread, her cover during the first night with her mate, when she was transformed from maid to wife. Now the bridal cover was with them in their field and helped to garner their bread; it belonged closely to their lives.

Kristina thought: Four years ago, when this cover was new, Karl Oskar had more to say to me. Why is he nowadays so silent? She mused: Now he spoke mostly of work to be done; in the morning about what must be done that day, in the evening about tomorrow’s work. And at least once a day either he or she said: Still no rain!

During this summer all people, it seemed, had become serious and sullen and short-tempered; the weather affected their minds. Talk was about the dire winter ahead, as though no one had a right to be joyous now because of the crop failure. Not even children dared show happiness: when a child laughed some older person at hand spoke harshly and silenced it. And all continued to speak of this: What would happen next winter?

Karl Oskar blamed everything on the drought. When he returned empty-handed from a day in the woods with gun and dog, this was because of the dried-up ground: the dog could get no scent of game. When he pulled nets and lines empty from the tarn, he blamed this on the drought: heat drove the fish into the depths. And three times he had brought a cow to the bull with no result: this too because of the drought. Such an opinion did not seem reasonable, as part of the blame might be laid on the bull. But Karl Oskar said that his neighbor, Jonas Petter of Hästebäck, was also unable to get his cows with calf because of the heat.

One night toward the end of August Kristina was awakened by a great thunder. She was afraid of storms and she called her husband.

Karl Oskar sat up in bed and listened. It rumbled and thundered, and lightning flashed past the window. Shirt-clad only, he ran to stand on the porch, hands outstretched. An occasional fat raindrop fell; once it began there would be heavy showers. He could go back to bed and sleep again in the blissful knowledge that there would be rain.

He returned inside. Kristina was comforting the children, awake and frightened by the lightning and thunder.

Anna, the oldest child, was now in her fourth year and all were of the opinion that she had a mind far ahead of her years. She was wont to follow Karl Oskar in his work outside, close to him everywhere; if he drove or walked, the child was with him. He called her his big helper. Wise as an eight-year-old, he said.

The thunder boomed again, and Anna asked: “Will the lightning kill us tonight, Mother?”

“No! What nonsense! Who has given you such an idea?”

“Father. He said we are to die — all of us.”

“Yes, yes, but not tonight.”

“When will we die, Mother?”

“No one knows, no one except God. Go back to sleep now!”

And Kristina’s eyes turned questioningly to Karl Oskar: What had he said to the child? He smiled and explained. When he had gone with Anna through the pastures recently they had found a dead baby rabbit, and then she had asked if they were to become like the rabbit, if they were all to die. He had replied in the affirmative. He could not lie about such things to a child. But ever after the girl asked whomsoever she met when they were to die. The other day she had embarrassed her grandmother with the same question. He had had to assure his mother that the question was the child’s own idea. She was a strange child, Anna.

Karl Oskar was very proud of this daughter, his big girl.

A clap of thunder sounded, louder than before, and the lightning pierced their eyes, sharp and blinding.

Kristina let out a shriek.

“Did it strike?”

“If so, it was near.”

But the heavy rain was slow in coming; only an occasional few drops smote the windowpanes. Karl Oskar could not help the rain to fall, and he went back to bed. Before he was asleep the window was again brilliant, with a new light; but this time it was not lightning cutting through the dark and disappearing. This time the light remained, mobile and flickering.

The young farmer leapt up.

“There is a fire!”

“My dear God!”

“It’s burning somewhere!”

As Karl Oskar reached the window he could see that the light came from the hay meadow.

“The meadow barn! The meadow barn has caught on fire!”

He ran outside, only half dressed, followed by his wife. By now Nils and Märta also had awakened in their room, and Kristina called to them to look after the children.

Karl Oskar ran to the well where two water buckets stood filled from the forest spring; he thrust one bucket at his wife and they rushed down the meadow with a pail each in their hands. The water splashed to and fro, and when they arrived at the burning hay barn hardly more than half of it was left. Nor did it matter; the fire by now had reached such proportions that a couple of buckets of water would be of no help. The whole barn was burning, flames leaping high from the dry shingled roof which went up like tinder. A fierce, voracious lightning-fire was burning, and it had found delicious fare: an old dry barn filled with the harvested hay.

The owners of the hay barn — the young farm couple — approached the fire as closely as they could for the heat. They stood there, water pails in their hands, and watched the fire; they just stood and watched, like a pair of surprised, amazed children listening to a cruel and horrible tale which — God be praised — could not be true.

People from neighboring farms had already seen the fire and come running. They too soon realized it would be hopeless to try to stop this fire. The conflagration had the barn within its scorching jaws — no one could hinder it from swallowing its’ prey.

Luckily, there was no wind. But the neighbors remained to see that the fire did not spread; what might not happen once it were loose in the drought-dry woods?

Already the rain was over; a few heavy drops had fallen, hardly enough to wet the stones on the ground.

Swiftly the meadow barn was burned, and hay and all became embers and sullen ashes. Karl Oskar and Kristina walked back to the farmhouse; there had been nothing for them to do, they had done nothing. On the way home they walked quite slowly, they did not run, nothing was urgent any more. In their hands they still carried their buckets, half full of water; without thinking, they, carried the water home again.

At the meadow stile they met Nils on his way to the fire, hobbling on his crutches. He had managed half the way when his son and daughter-in-law told him to turn back. But he sat down on the stile to rest; for many years he had not walked so far from the house.

Watching the fire, Karl Oskar and Kristina had not exchanged a single word. They had only looked at each other a few times; perhaps they had been thinking the same thoughts.

Now on the way home Kristina said, “Do you remember the harvest this summer? When you threw the hay upwards?”

“Yes.”

“It happened as you asked.”

Karl Oskar kept silent; he could find no answer.

She continued: “It was the punishment. God allows no mockery.”

Karl Oskar in Korpamoen walked back to his home carrying his bucket. He walked with bent head and looked at the ground. What Kristina had said was true. This time the Lord had answered his prayer — He had taken the rest of the hay.

— 2—

The east wind blew and no rain fell. Those who could read in the book of the future predicted that rain would never fall again. Last time the Lord had wished to destroy mankind through flood, now He intended to do it through drought, and this time no Noah would be saved with wife and children to propagate a new race.

Karl Oskar sowed his winter rye on the fallow land, strewn with hard clods of earth — gray, lumpy, and unfertile as a field of crushed stone. Even below the topsoil the earth was scorched. It seemed futile planting here, he might as well sow in the ashes of his hearth. Last spring he had sown four bushels of barley in one field; now in autumn he harvested four bushels in return. What did he gain by all his work? Why should he plant seed corn in the earth when the earth did not multiply it? Nothing would germinate here before the rains came and loosed the hard crust of the field.

He entrusted the seed rye to his field without confidence; he had lost his confidence in the earth. Who could tell if it would bring him one single grain in return? It might have been wiser to grind the seed corn and make bread of it.

When God drove the first man from paradise He said: Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. No words in the Bible were more true than these, for Karl Oskar. The Lord had also said to Adam that the earth would bring forth to him thorns and thistles. Hadn’t he pulled up thistles in every field of this his stone kingdom until his back ached? The Bible’s words were still in force, at least as far as the local fields were concerned.

It was rumored that rain had fallen in other places, in other parishes and counties. But here the earth was accursed.

Every evening Kristina read the “Prayer Against Persistent Drought” and sometimes he himself joined in. She was frightened by the lightning-fire which had burned down their meadow barn, and she believed the drought also was a chastisement from the Lord. Now she wished Karl Oskar would go to the dean and pray for absolution because he had blasphemed that time during the harvest; he must do it before they went to Holy Communion together again.

But he paid no heed to her admonition.

“Doesn’t your conscience bother you?” she asked.

“Not because of that sin.”

No. Karl Oskar would not turn to the dean: he had not committed murder, nor was he lying on his deathbed. What he had done in the field was done in sudden anger, which he had regretted, and God would by now have had time to forgive him such a small trespass and needn’t plague man and beast with drought because of it. Nor was God so petty that He burned down the barn because of that small tuft of hay. One mustn’t think the Highest One was an incendiary.

But Karl Oskar must know, retorted Kristina, that no one except the Omnipotent decided where lightning was to strike. And she continued urging: he ought to seek absolution before he prepared himself for his next Communion. No one except Dean Brusander could decide whether his sin was great or small. And they were on good terms with the dean, who commended them both as frequent churchgoers.

But she could not persuade Karl Oskar to seek out the dean; he was so obstinate he would not unbend even for God. And as Kristina looked back over the years of their marriage, she wondered if she ever had managed to sway him. What he wanted to do, he did; what he didn’t want to do was never done. His sister Lydia had said that her brother was difficult because of this stubbornness, but Kristina had never thought of him as being so before they married. Persistence was right for useful undertakings and good deeds. But Karl Oskar was equally stubborn in useless and foolish undertakings; large-nosed people were held to be stubborn.

“Your obstinacy is in your nose; that’s why it is so large.”

Until God gave him another nose he must use the old one, was Karl Oskar’s answer. But he had noticed that it extended far enough to annoy some people.

Otherwise Kristina had no reason to complain of her husband. He seldom drank more brännvin than he could handle, and he could handle a great deal; she never had to drag a drink-fouled husband from Christmas parties, as did other wives. And there were married men who went to Ulrika of Västergöhl, the “Glad One,” the most sought-after whore in Ljuder. To poor men she sold herself for twelve shillings or a quart of brännvin, but to homeowners her price was a whole riksdaler. In her youth Ulrika had been a beautiful woman, and she was not ugly yet. It was said that the churchwarden himself, Per Persson in Åkerby, had frequented the whore in her better days. Karl Oskar would never degrade himself to such an extent that he would stir in other pots.

But Kristina worried because lately he had been so closed-up, and at last she asked him point-blank what was on his mind.

“Worries about living,” he said. Where would food come from? And with more and more of them to feed.

Kristina was in her fifth month, soon they would be eight people in Korpamoen. The people increased, but not the land; the number of acres would never be more than seven.

Kristina did not like the reference to her pregnancy. “Leave the worries about the unborn to God.”

“If I only could!”

“Do you think you are wiser than God?”

“No. But I don’t think He would feed our children if we sat with our arms in our laps.”

Her temper flared up and she exclaimed angrily: “Is God supposed to feed all children you make?”

“Kristina! What do you mean?”

“I mean you must not blame the Lord when you make your wife with child!”

He gazed at her. “But, my dearest — I have never denied my part in it.”

She burst into tears. “You complain because we get to be more and more. Exactly as if it were my fault — because the lives come from me.”

“I’ve never blamed you!”

“I don’t want it! I’ve told you so! You mustn’t think that!”

“I do not think anything.”

“But now — when you walk about in silence, as if you accused me — what am I to believe?”

And she cried into her apron.

A pregnant woman was sensitive and easily hurt; he forgot it at times, and didn’t watch his words.

He left her alone till she quieted, then he asked: How could she imagine that he disapproved of her? He kept to himself because he was depressed from worries, that was all. And how could she think that he reproached her for being pregnant again? He was not so unfair! She must realize how happy he was over the children she had borne him before. His children and his wife were his dearest possessions on earth. This he had shown her. She must have noticed, for example, how attached he was to Anna. And he would surely be as devoted to the new one as he was to the other three. But it was natural that he worried about food for the children in years of adversity and crop failure.

Kristina was drying her tears. “Do you mean that you like me as well as you used to?”

“You must know that I do!”

“Is it the truth you tell me, Karl Oskar?”

“Tell me the time I ever lied to you.”

She could not. And he said they must remain friends, and stick together in adversity. For there was no other person in the world who would help them; they must help themselves.

Kristina realized she had acted foolishly; why she had behaved in such a way she didn’t know; if you took exception, any word led to a quarrel. But she sensed that she did it from fear, fear of diminishing attention from him.

His assurances made her almost glad of their quarrel.

— 3—

Karl Oskar went deeper into debt. This autumn also he went to Danjel Andreasson in Kärragärde and asked to borrow fifty daler for the mortgage interest.

He wore a solemn expression when he returned. Kristina asked anxiously: “Did Uncle refuse you the money?”

“No. I got every penny I asked for.”

“But why do you look so queer?”

“Something strange is going on in Kärragärde.”

“With Uncle Danjel?”

“Yes. Something has happened to him.”

Karl Oskar had been startled today as he stepped over the threshold at Danjel Andreasson’s. The house was full of paupers and loose people. Strangers sat at table with the house folk. There was Severius Pihl, a dishonorably discharged soldier, a notorious fighter and drunkard; the disabled maid, Sissa Svensdotter, the impoverished thief who now depended on the parish; but Karl Oskar had been most surprised to discover among these people Ulrika of Västergöhl, the old whore, as well as her illegitimate daughter. At first he thought that they must all, in their rounds of begging, have happened to reach the farm at the same time. But it came as a box on the ear when Danjel said that these people from now on would be living with him in Kärragärde. Inga-Lena, his wife, confirmed it: they all lived there together.

Kristina burst out in loud laughter. “Are you telling April-fool jokes in October, Karl Oskar?”

“Do you think I lie?” he asked, a little hurt.

“You must have made up a story to see if you could fool me.”

“It’s the truth — all of it! Go to your uncle’s house and see for yourself.”

Now Kristina approached him and smelled his breath: had he perchance been drinking today, so that he didn’t know what he was saying? Did he reek of brännvin?

“I’ve taken just two drinks the whole day.”

“But you say Ulrika of Västergöhl, the whore, has moved in with my uncle?”

“He said so himself.”

“And Aunt Inga-Lena, what was she doing?”

“They had been slaughtering, and she was boiling blood sausage for her guests.”

“Did the Glad One eat, the old whore? Did my aunt boil sausage for her?”

“Yes. Go and ask yourself, if you don’t believe me.”

Now Kristina was truly concerned. What could all this mean? What had happened in Kärragärde?

Karl Oskar continued: The strangest of all was the way Danjel acted when he handed over the fifty daler. When asked if they should count the interest as before, he had answered that he did not desire interest on the money. And when Karl Oskar asked for a delay in the interest on the old debt, Danjel had said that he would nevermore accept interest on loaned money. He said it twice, for clarity.

Now Kristina realized that something serious had happened to her uncle. Karl Oskar guessed that some mental disturbance must have affected him.

And not many days passed before rumors began to spread from Danjel Andreasson’s farm. From house to house, from village to village, the news was told: Åke Svensson’s heresy, supposed to be dead with himself more than fifty years ago, had been revived by his sister’s son in Kärragärde.

V. ÅKE RETURNS FROM THE INSANE ASYLUM

— 1—

Danjel Andreasson, at forty-four years of age, was the nearest surviving relative of the Åkian founder. He was known as a good-natured man, and until now his life had been quiet and blameless. He had piously accepted the only right and true faith, thus showing a sound religious concept. His home, Kärragärde, at one time sorely tainted by Åkianism, had many years ago been declared cleansed.

But one night in the fall of 1848 a strange happening took place in Kärragärde.

Before Danjel went to bed that night he was seized by an undefinable anxiety, and to his wife Inga-Lena he expressed apprehension about some approaching illness: at moments he felt a queer dizziness. During the night he was awakened by someone knocking heavily at the door and calling his name in a loud voice. Thinking that maybe a fire had broken out, and his help was needed, he hurried out of bed. When he opened the door the room became illuminated by a brilliant light. Two men stood outside. One of them was a youth dressed in outmoded wadmal clothes and unknown to Danjel. But the second man he recognized instantly from the altarpiece in the church: it was the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Jesus carried a lantern in His hand, and it was this lantern that spread the strangely clear illumination widely into the night. The Saviour looked as Danjel had imagined Him. From His face radiated such a strong light that Danjel could not look at it: he had to drop his eyes.

The man in the wadmal coat at the side of the Saviour had awakened Danjel, and now he called him again by name, saying: “I am Åke Svensson, your mother’s brother. I died young and came to my Saviour in heaven.”

Danjel now saw that the man had the likeness of his uncle as described by old villagers. People were still alive who remembered Åke as he was before the sheriff fetched him to Danvik’s asylum.

The Saviour studied Danjel with compassion, but remained silent.

Åke Svensson spoke again and said: “Your Saviour has awakened you this night that you may resume my work here on earth. The Spirit will tell you what you must do. Danjel, go out and complete my mission! Your Saviour has called you!”

Twice, in a clear voice, Åke repeated this exhortation to his sister’s son. Then the nocturnal visitors were gone, the light from Christ’s lantern disappeared, and all was dark around Danjel.

He found himself on his knees at his threshold, praying, but quite calm. He had not been frightened by what he had seen and heard at his door, and kneeling there he was not conscious of anxiety. His breast was full of a peace which he had never before experienced.

He awakened his wife, Inga-Lena, and told her that the Saviour this night had visited his house in the company of Åke, his uncle who had died at Danvik’s asylum. She thought he had had a dream. But he knew he had been awake the whole time. His ears had heard the knocks on the door when Åke called him by name, his eyes had seen the face of the Saviour. He could well describe the lantern which Christ had carried in His hand: it was in every detail identical with the one He carried in the picture above the church altar.

This was what had happened to Danjel Andreasson, and from that moment his life on earth changed.

Åke had spoken barely twenty words to Danjel, but he knew what he must do: the Spirit spoke in his heart. And after that night all his actions were dictated by the Spirit. Nevermore did he hesitate in his undertakings, nor worry about their outcome. Each time he felt in his heart that he was right. Christ had called him; he had become a follower of the Saviour, and from now on he would lead the same life here on earth as the apostles and the first Christians. He would preach Åke’s teachings, which already were forgotten in the neighborhood. The Spirit guided him when he read the Bible, and moved his hand to those places which had commands for him: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light upon my path.” He had seen the light from Christ’s lantern, he knew the path.

In that autumnal night when Danjel heard his name called, he was reborn into the world. Until he was forty-four years of age he had lived in the flesh; now began his life in the spirit.

And so he resumed the teachings of Åke. Every Sunday he gave Bible talks to his house folk — wife, children, and servants — and if some neighbor happened by, he was welcomed. He went to church every time it was Holy Communion, to enjoy the blessed sacrament. Even during his work he said his prayers — in the field, at plow or harrow, in the barn with the flail in his hand. He always bent his knees while praying. Sometimes he cried aloud during his prayers, which caused people near by to rush to him, thinking help was needed.

Danjel threw the farm’s still on the scrap pile; not only did he discontinue the manufacture and sale of brännvin, he also stopped using alcoholic drinks, nor did he offer them in his home. He forbore swearing and the use of all profane language. Earlier he had sometimes been irritable and quickly angered — now his speech was always mild and gentle. Only about the clergy who had persecuted his uncle did he use hard words.

From now on Danjel considered all his possessions as gifts from God which, while they lasted, he must share with poorer brethren. He took into his house a few helpless creatures and gave them a permanent home in Kärragärde, where they received both food and clothing. Two of them were the most notorious people in the parish, known for whoring, drunkenness, idleness, and general debauchery.

Danjel used no more bolts or locks in his house, but left all doors unlocked at night. Why would he need locks and latches when the Lord stood guard over his house? Could a weak lock, made by human hands, protect his abode better than the hand of the Omnipotent? Those who locked their doors did not trust in God; they committed the trespasses of doubt and disbelief, man’s greatest sins.

To Danjel, as earlier to Åke, there were neither high nor low classes, neither exalted nor simple people — all were equal, equal as children in God’s family. He discriminated only between those who continued to live in their old bodies and those who were reborn in Christ, between those who lived in the flesh and those who lived in the spirit.

After his rebirth he no longer shared his bed with his wife. Because Inga-Lena still lived in the flesh, they were no longer a true married couple. Those marriages where the mates lived in their old bodies were joined by the devil, and the same was true if only one of the couple was reborn. If Danjel now had sought his wife, he would have committed adultery. He therefore told her that they no longer could have marital relations.

They must also abstain because of future children. A clean offspring must be conceived without lust, therefore it must be conceived by sin-free, reborn parents. Danjel and Inga-Lena already had three children, born while they themselves still lived in the flesh, and he felt great anguish for the sake of these children. As they had not been conceived in a true marriage, they must be considered the result of adultery, he thought. But he prayed continually that his offspring might through God’s grace be purified and accepted as clean.

Inga-Lena, the housewife of Kärragärde, was in a difficult dilemma. She was devoted to her husband — next to God he was dearer to her than anyone. She lived only to serve him, and followed his will in everything: by nature she was irresolute, relying on him for decisions; he was the lord and master. After his conversion she still tried to please him but found it difficult to accept his new ideas, and the consequent changes in their lives. She would willingly share her loaf of bread with a hungry beggar who might come to the farm. But she was filled with sadness and anxiety when the number of house folk increased by four people whom her husband invited and whom the house must feed. And when she also must receive into her home Ulrika of Västergöhl, the most detested woman in the parish, she spoke to her husband with mild reproach. She wished to do naught against his will, nor say that he was wrong when he allowed Ulrika and her illegitimate daughter to live with them, but what would others think or say when he housed in their home the Glad One, the great whore herself? Danjel answered: We must obey God above man. Let that woman who is without sin come here and throw the first stone at Ulrika.

Inga-Lena was greatly disturbed, too, when her husband repeated the doings and actions of the Åkians. Åke Svensson had aimed to establish a kingdom in which the Holy Ghost and not the King reigned, and where no one called anything his own, but all earthly possessions were common property. No wonder he had been sent to the insane asylum, where he had suffered a pitiful death after a few years — despite his being a young and hale person. (Though there were those who thought injustice had been done to him, who were convinced he had been tortured to death at Danvik.)

The fate of Åke had terrified all in the region, but no one was surprised; he who insisted that all were equal, and that they must hold their possessions in common and share them as brothers and sisters, such a one must come to an ill end; people were right in this.

Inga-Lena feared now that Danjel’s path in his uncle’s footsteps would lead to an equally horrible end. If you set yourself up against the ordinance of authority, you angered the clergy and came to no good.

But Danjel said that if you walked in Christ’s bloody footsteps you were bound to cause anger and be persecuted by the church, the clergy, and worldly powers as well.

She began to worry about their belongings when her husband no longer locked the house. One night thieves went into the unlocked larder and stole pork and flour. Danjel said they kept a greater store of food than God allowed them, and that was why He had not prevented the theft. But Inga-Lena did not comprehend this. God Himself in His fifth commandment had forbidden theft. It was her responsibility that the food in the house should suffice for all; henceforth, unbeknownst to her husband, she locked the larder door in the evening.

But her conscience bothered her each time she disobeyed him. The Bible’s words in Ephesians were clear and distinct: “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. . Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”

Inga-Lena, furthermore, had a feeling of being a defiled and unclean woman when her husband deserted the marital bed. She had disturbing and painful dreams during her lonely nights; she awakened, and called on God for advice and help. She confessed in her prayers that she was a woman of only poor understanding; her knowledge was insufficient to comprehend Åke’s religion. She prayed God to enlighten her. Danjel prayed the same prayer.

And after a while the couple’s prayers were heard: the Spirit came to Inga-Lena and she experienced her rebirth. She came to understand that she must obey her husband, not her own inadequate intelligence. Danjel was right in spiritual things, she had been wrong. And so their marriage became a true marriage. Danjel returned to the marital bed, and again knew his wife.

By now there was a small flock of Åkians in Kärragärde. The paupers who made their home on the farm, as well as a few of the neighbors, embraced the Åkian teachings and saw in Danjel Andreasson a new Lord’s apostle on earth.

But his wife Inga-Lena still committed, in secret every evening, the gross sin of doubt when she locked the farm’s larder for the night.

— 2—

The happenings in Kärragärde were soon brought to the attention of Dean Brusander. It was said that people under pretext of devotion met at Danjel Andreasson’s, where he preached the Åkian faith — this heresy had again begun to spread its horrible poison in the parish.

Dean Brusander was a powerful clergyman who guarded the dignity and sanctity of his office well. Always he had maintained the purity of the evangelical-Lutheran church with unflagging zeal; never sparing himself, he watched over the flock God had entrusted to him, protecting it from heterodoxy. Now he sent promptly for the churchwarden, Per Persson of Åkerby, who confirmed the story of the unlawful meetings in Kärragärde. It was said throughout the parish that Åke Svensson had returned in the shape of his nephew. And Per Persson could affirm that Danjel used evil words about the dean, and called him a neglectful shepherd, because brännvin was distilled and sold in the parsonage.

Brusander was provoked that a parishioner should question his lawful right, shared by all the clergy who cultivated land. And on the King’s estates too brännvin was distilled and sold, as well as on the Prince’s manor at Bäckaskog. The farmer in Kärragärde had therefore, through his criticism, committed a serious crime against the Crown. The sale and serving of brännvin in the parsonage was nowadays allowed only on weekdays; the drink was stimulating to laborers and servants after a day’s toil. It was true that the well-known Dean Wieselgren in Västerstad wanted to abolish brännvin altogether, and that in un-Christian hatred he persecuted his colleagues who only enjoyed their legal rights. Wieselgren in his blindness wanted to rob the peasants of their lawful trade; if they were not permitted to distill their grain to brännvin, the agriculture of the country would in a short time be ruined and the farmers impoverished. The price of grain would drop so low that the farmers would be bankrupt, which in turn would make the poor people more insolent; it would be difficult then to obtain servants and day laborers. Who would want to do day labor if a bushel of barley could be bought at six shillings?

Dean Brusander called Danjel Andreasson of Kärragärde to appear at the parsonage, and in the presence of his assistant, Pastor Krusell, and the churchwardens of the parish, he questioned the farmer at length.

— 3—

At this inquiry the assistant pastor made notes which were signed by the churchwardens as unbiased witnesses and deposited in the archives of the parish.

“Summoned homeowner Danjel Andreasson was first questioned briefly in religion by Dean Brusander; he showed satisfactory knowledge in the foundation and order of the salvation tenets. Questioned specifically, Danjel Andreasson admitted that at the present time several loose people maintained their residence in his house, to wit: court-martialed soldier Severius Pihl, disabled servant wench Sissa Svensdotter, unmarried female Ulrika of Västergöhl and her illegitimate daughter Elin. Ulrika being known since her youth for her lewd and immoral life, during which she had conceived four illegitimate children of whom three died in infancy. Danjel Andreasson admitted that he fed and protected these people in his house.

“Questioned Dean Brusander: ‘Is it true that in your house you conduct meetings with your housefolk and neighbors?’

“Answered Danjel Andreasson: ‘It is true, Mr. Dean.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘What do you do at these meetings?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘I explain the Bible word to my listeners.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘You admit then that you are practicing the office of the ministry?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘I do what the ministers do not: I preach God’s true word.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘Who has given you power to do this?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘God’s Spirit has given me that power in my heart.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘You are seized by an evil spirit. No one is allowed to be minister unless called and ordained according to the church law. In the presence of these honest and trusted men I herewith command you, Danjel Andreasson, to forgo all ministering pretensions in the future!’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘You, Mr. Dean, have no power to forbid me this.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘God has entrusted your soul to me. I am your spiritual authority. In all spiritual things you must obey me and no one else.’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘The Bible teaches that I must obey God before man. You are a man, Mr. Dean.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘In Romans, Chapter 13, verse 2, the Bible says, “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” Do you not admit that my power is from God?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘No, Mr. Dean.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘Do you refuse to obey law and order?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘There is no law over the righteous.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘Are you obsessed by such religious vanity that you call yourself righteous?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘I am possessed by God’s Spirit. The guide for my conduct is the Bible and my conscience.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘Can you tell me: What is conscience?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘He who is reborn will find out what conscience is. I hear that you are not reborn, Mr. Dean.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘The devil, the soul-destroyer, is whispering his answers into your ears! Have you preached that no man has a right to keep possessions for himself alone?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘Yes. You, Mr. Dean, should have preached the same, if you had preached God’s true word.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘Do you accuse me of false teachings?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘In Acts 4, verse 32, it is written of Christ’s church: “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things in common.” You, Mr. Dean, have never preached Christianity for this parish.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘You lean on some words in the Bible while you tear down others. You also have said that I am a negligent shepherd and lead my flock headlong to hell when they are drunk. Is it true you have said this at your unlawful meetings?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘It is true, Mr. Dean.’

“Asked Dean B.: ‘How can you defend this false testimony about your spiritual guide?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘Is it not true, Mr. Dean, that you sell brännvin from the parsonage still?’

“Answered Dean B.: ‘I use my possessions as I see fit. What right have you to deny me my income, to which I am lawfully entitled during my tenure of office?’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘People get drunk from your brännvin, Mr. Dean, and in their drunkenness they commit violence and adultery and other crimes against the Ten Commandments. Doesn’t he who breaks God’s command earn hell, Mr. Dean?’

“Said Dean B.: ‘You are called in for questioning, not I.’

“Said Danjel A.: ‘As long as I served the devil I received praise from you, Mr. Dean. Now when I serve God I am called in for questioning and receive blame and censure.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘Your case is now clear, Danjel Andreasson. You have here admitted — in the presence of unbiased witnesses — that you have broken the law by practicing the ministry. You should now receive your punishment in civil court. But I wish your repentance, not your ruin. If you retract your heresy, and promise no longer to preach or to spread your false and ungodly doctrines, I will grant you grace and forgiveness for what you have done.’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘The grace belongs to God alone. Accordingly, you, Mr. Dean, have no grace to bestow on me, nor can I receive grace from you.’

“Said Dean B.: ‘In the presence of these witnesses I have forbidden you to preach. If you still pursue your illegal activities you will be sued in civil court and be fined or sentenced to bread and water in prison. On a third offense you are liable to two years’ exile.’

“Answered Danjel A.: ‘Mr. Dean, you cannot exile me from the kingdom of God, not even for one moment.’

“In spite of strong admonishments from Dean Brusander, the interrogated Andreasson adhered to his heresy, and refused obstinately to retract any of his false doctrines. The dean consequently administered his first warning against the spreading of heretical doctrines tending to undermine church unity and threaten the order, welfare, and security of the country. The dean instructed the strayed one to remain at his calling and pursue lawful work. Andreasson was then allowed to leave.”

— 4—

This interrogation by Dean Brusander had extracted the truth from the very mouth of the questioned one himself.

Danjel Andreasson, a simple man of the rough peasantry, was blown up by self-righteousness and vanity, and in his heart was angry and malicious toward church and clergy. In his arguments he showed a certain cunning and shrewdness not uncommon among peasants. He harbored the most insane opinions concerning man’s spiritual and temporal well-being. And his heresy was particularly dangerous because it attacked the bond of unity between authority and subjects; he incited disobedience of the holy church laws. And even foolish thoughts were easily accepted by an ignorant peasantry, as witnessed in the time of Åke Svensson. Danjel had as yet no proselytes besides a few loose and notorious persons; but well-thought-of people might be enticed into his false religious fold.

Brusander felt his high and holy duty: the only true religion must not be besmirched. No blemish must stain it. The evangelical-Lutheran religion — the faith of his fathers — must be preserved untarnished within his parish henceforth as hitherto. During the reign of the devout King Charles XI deviation from the pure religion had been punished by the gauntlet, and sometimes loss of life. Though to a later era this might seem severe, one must keep in mind that it concerned the Augsburg Confession and the purity of evangelical-Lutheran religion. At the present time Sweden had a milder monarch, her inhabitants lived in a tolerant and enlightened century, and milder means must be used against recalcitrant subjects. It would have boded ill for Danjel Andreasson in other times. The dean had thought to bring him to his senses through warnings and kind admonishments alone. He did not wish the poor man’s ruin. He would pray God to enlighten his darkened senses. He wished to force the man to repentance, and free his parish from the abominable contagion of Åkianism, without having to call in the secular authorities.

Dean Brusander duly warned his entrusted flock: three Sundays in succession he read from the pulpit the “wholesome ordinance” which prescribed fines, prison, or exile, for male or female, old or young, few or many, who gathered together in private houses under pretext of devotion. And all parishioners were warned about the farm Kärragärde, which had once more become a forbidden meeting place.

After a short while it was again reported to the dean that Danjel Andreasson persisted in his unlawful Bible explanations. Brusander then resorted to the church ban: homeowner Danjel Andreasson of Kärragärde and all his house folk were excluded from the Lord’s Holy Communion and banished from the sacraments and fellowship of the church. It was the church’s ban against the man who had returned from the insane asylum.

VI. “SUITABLE CHASTISEMENT”

— 1—

The wagonloads of oak timbers began rolling toward Karlshamn in the autumn, but Aron of Nybacken himself went with his team. He said that he was so concerned about his little hand that he dared not let him out on long journeys. A door which had seemed open was shut in Robert’s face. There were many closed gates on the road to America.

His master still had no confidence in him. And yet, ever since Robert began his service, he had been obedient and attentive and done all he had been asked to do. Only once during the whole summer had the master been impelled to discipline him: then, when he was told to fetch water for the horses, Aron had thought he didn’t move fast enough or obey quickly enough, and he gave his little hand a kick in the groin. It could have been a harder kick; but as it was it hit his scrotum which swelled up and became sensitive. For a few days he walked slowly and with difficulty, and the maids poked fun at him and wondered what kind of sickness ailed the little man. But that was the only time Aron had been dissatisfied.

One morning about Michaelmas Robert was sent to clean a ditch in a field near the house. He loosed the stones with an iron bar and threw up the earth with a shovel; the ditch was deep, and when he bent down in his work his head was barely visible above the edge. After a few hours’ work he felt hungry. Wouldn’t it soon be time for breakfast? No call for food was heard, he became sweaty and thirsty, his back ached from the bending, the earth became heavier with each shovelful. The drudgery was heavy — interminable. He grew depressed, realizing he hadn’t labored through half his service year; this period with Aron was endless. He saw all his future years as service years with farmers, and all were endless; everything in the world seemed to him wretched and endless. And he wondered if it were worth while to live, if he must remain a farmhand.

At last he put the shovel aside and lay down on his back in the bottom of the ditch, with his arms under his head, and watched the sailing clouds in the sky. During his herdboy days he used to lie like this, sometimes for half a day at a stretch; he enjoyed it now no less.

But in order to rest undisturbed by Aron it must look from the house as if he were still working.

Robert therefore took off his cap and hung it on the spade handle, which he held in such a position that the cap was visible above the ditch’s edge; as he lay there he moved the spade a little now and then, back and forth, up and down, as one might imagine the head of a busy farmhand would move while he cleaned a ditch.

The notion scattered his depressing thoughts, he grew cheerful, almost gay: he could remain lying here, resting and enjoying himself, while from the farm his master kept an eye on his splendid little fellow, working in the ditch. Aron was satisfied and so was he. One could get a rest period now and then if one were clever.

Robert thoroughly enjoyed his rest. Above him was the expanse of the high heaven, stretched out like a blue sea of freedom over all the ditches on earth and over all farmhands who labored in them. He was so filled with joy that he began to whistle and sing.

This, however, he was soon to regret; a master would easily understand that all was not as it should be when one of his hands kept singing and whistling while he worked.

Suddenly the farmer from Nybacken appeared above him. “Are you playing dollhouse, my little fellow?”

Robert had not heard the master’s approach. There he stood and looked down upon his servant, stretched out full length at the bottom of the ditch.

The boy jumped from the ditch in one leap, shovel in hand. He wanted to say that he had taken only five minutes’ rest because breakfast was delayed. But he did not find time to say anything. Aron’s jaws clenched, and he shook his fists in front of him. “So, you are loafing, you damned lazybones!”

And Robert encountered two gnarled clumps, the biggest hands he had ever seen on a human being. Terror-struck, he dropped the shovel and tried to escape; but he took only one step.

The master’s right fist landed on his left ear. He bent like a jack-knife from the blow and fell face down on a pile of dirt. His face was buried in the earth from the impact. The pain cut through his head, red stars sparkled before his eyes, the whole world around him whirled. He heard someone shriek; he did not recognize the voice — could it be his own?

He did not faint; the whole time his head was bursting with pain. He thought his skull was broken, split in two like a piece of wood under the chopping ax; he thought he couldn’t live with his head in two pieces; he wanted to die to escape the pain. He had stopped shrieking and now he heard someone else shouting: the mistress stood on the stoop calling Aron to breakfast.

The master left, and the beaten farmhand rose slowly to a sitting position. His face dirt-covered, he tried to pick pieces of earth from his eyes. A sharp stone had scratched his nose; his mouth was full of dirt — he spat. He was still dizzy, the world around him still heaved, but the pain had abated a little.

Only once before had he received a box on the ear from the master — that day when he had entered the service. That time it was only a small box; today he had experienced a big box on the ear.

As soon as the pain from the blow had subsided, hunger returned. He stood up and attempted a few steps: the ground lay almost still under his feet; he followed his master home to breakfast.

Robert did not mention the box on the ear to anyone. He had been chastised, he was ashamed of it, it was nothing to talk about. He had been lazy in his work and punished for it. He had received what he had earned; there was nothing more to say. If a servant was lazy and disobedient, then his master had the right to discipline him. He knew this well, all others knew it, and if they hadn’t known it, much less work would have been accomplished for the farmers. So it was according to the servant law which Dean Brusander reiterated at the yearly examinations: “If a servant is inclined to laziness” the master must correct this through “suitable chastisement.” There was no other remedy.

Aron of Nybacken was his master, who according to God’s ordinance had fatherly power over him. It was Aron’s right and duty to administer suitable punishment; the little farmhand had nothing to complain about. He was not wronged by anyone; he had been given the box on the ear according to God’s ordinance.

He carried no hatred toward the master who had hit him. Once, when he was standing behind the barn, he had seen Aron beaten by his wife: she gave him a heavy blow across his neck with the byre besom; it was a big, rough besom, filled with cow dung, but Aron endured the blow without attempting to defend himself; he had looked frightened. Robert pitied his master rather than hated him.

When he went to bed that evening he could still hear a buzz in his ear from the hard blow; there was no sound around him, but there was a buzz in his ear. He lay there and listened to the humming sound and wondered what caused it. Outside in the yard as well as inside in the stable room complete silence reigned, but from inside his ear came a strange noise. He lay absolutely quiet and only listened within himself; he did not cause any sound; what could it be that buzzed and hummed so?

He let Arvid put his ear next to his own and listen. But Arvid couldn’t hear anything, not a sound. It was inexplicable: Robert heard a sound which did not exist.

He awoke in the middle of the night. His left ear throbbed and ached intensely, and the noise inside had increased, and sounded by now like the roar of a storm. And his heartbeats were felt in his ear like the piercing of a pointed knife. He lay there on his bed and turned and twisted in agony. Something must have broken inside to cause the throbbing. He counted his heartbeats: the knife’s edge cut and cut and cut in his ear; it felt like the sting in a fresh, open, sensitive wound. The stings did not cease, the ache did not abate. He counted and waited and hoped, but it did not diminish. He was alone in the whole world with his pain and he did not know what to do about it. He began to moan; he didn’t cry but he groaned quietly and at intervals. He folded his hands and prayed to God. He realized that the earache was in punishment for his laziness in the ditch, and he prayed for forgiveness. If God granted absolution He would also remove the earache. He had been a disloyal servant and he also remembered now that he had lately omitted reading “A Servant’s Prayer.” Tonight he recited it again in deep remorse: “Teach me to be faithful, humble, and devoted to my temporal lords. . Let me also find good and Christian masters who do not neglect or mistreat a poor servant, but keep me in love and patience. . ”

After the prayer he lay in darkness and waited. But the ache did not leave him, it throbbed and throbbed and he felt the sting of the knife edge in his sensitive ear a hundred times each minute. God would not remove the ache, he fought his pain alone, and he was helpless and could do nothing to alleviate it. Deep inside his ear in a roaring storm his pain lived on.

He arose and lit the stable lantern. Arvid woke and wondered sleepily what had happened.

“I’ve a bad earache.”

“The hell you have!”

“What shall I do?” Robert moaned pitifully.

The elder farmhand sat up in his bed and scratched his straggly hair. He cogitated.

The best remedy for earache was mother’s milk, he said. But where would they get hold of a suckling woman who had some milk left in her breasts this time of night? The mistress had never even had a child; she was a dried-up woman. And the maids were virgins with unopened breasts.

But Arvid rose and brought forth his brännvin keg. “We’ll try with brännvin on a wool wad.”

He searched for a while in his servant chest and found some sheep’s wool which he soaked in brännvin and put into his friend’s aching ear.

“It will smart at first, but not for long.”

The brännvin-soaked wool wad did smart so intensely that Robert almost pulled it out; he held his hands closed, cramplike, so as not to shriek. And after a moment the throbbing pain abated, as Arvid had said it would. No enjoyment can be greater than diminishing pain. He understood now that God had sent Arvid to help him; luckily there had been some brännvin left in the keg. Soon he glided into sleep, but some pain remained, mingling with his dreams: his left ear was filled with stinging wasps, a whole swarm of them, and they crowded each other inside and stung, only stung. And his ear swelled up and became one big sensitive boil where all the wasps’ stingers remained and hurt.

The pain in the ear was almost gone when Robert awakened the following morning, and within the next few days it disappeared altogether, but a thick, yellowish, malodorous fluid ran from his ear: it was the pain coming out. Something did remain inside, however: the strange sound which no one else could hear.

Yes, the buzzing and humming was still there; sometimes he heard it more loudly, sometimes lower, but he was always aware of it, inside the ear. It did not pain him, but he became tired and disheartened at hearing it follow him night and day. He put a bandage over his ear, he held his hand against it, he stuck a piece of wool into it, but the sound remained; nothing could silence it.

One night as he lay there and listened to his own ear he realized what this strange sound meant which existed for him only: he was listening to the rumbling of a great water, it was the roar and din of the sea itself; it was the voice of the sea in his ear, calling him, and him alone: he was chosen. The ocean called him, urged him, and the hum in his ear became a word, a word which always followed him, through night and day, calling: Come!

Not yet could he come; all gates on the road still remained closed.

— 2—

One Sunday morning Robert appeared unexpected at his parents’ home in Korpamoen. He had not been to see them since he began his service, and Nils and Märta were pleased. Last spring when he threw his clothes into the brook and rode to the mill instead of going to Nybacken the boy had become the laughingstock of the neighborhood, but since they had not seen him the whole summer they would not mention that now. Märta thought he was thin and his cheekbones sharp, but when she asked him how he fared with Aron he gave no reply.

Robert stayed home the whole Sunday, and when, after supper, he still remained in his chair, Nils wondered if he shouldn’t go back to his place of service before bedtime. The boy answered he had come home without his master’s permission; he would never again go back to Nybacken.

Nils and Märta exchanged perplexed glances. Nils said: “When one has received earnest money, one must stay to the end of the year.”

Robert said that if they wished to send him back to Nybacken they must first bind him hand and foot and tie him onto a wagon like a beast on its way to slaughter.

The parents did not know what to do; the son remained on his chair and said nothing more.

The mother called Karl Oskar: his brother refused to return to service of his own will.

“Did you leave Aron without permission?” asked Karl Oskar.

Robert removed his jacket and showed his bare back. Broad red streaks extended from one side to the other; the skin was broken and it had been bleeding.

Märta let out a cry: “You’ve been flogged, poor child!”

“Who has beaten you?” asked his brother.

Robert told the story. Yesterday he was bringing home a wagonload of rutabagas and had to pass a narrow gate; there was a curve in the road just before he reached the gate, the mare was hard to hold and didn’t obey the rein quickly enough, the wagon hit the gatepost and broke its shaft; he couldn’t help it, he had held the reins as firmly as he could. But Aron had grabbed a fence stake and hit him many times across his back. The stake had protruding knots which tore into his flesh. His back had ached the whole night, and in the morning he had left for home without letting anyone know. Not long ago, too, Aron had given him so hard a box on his ear that it still rang and buzzed. He would never again return to Nybacken.

Karl Oskar inspected the red streaks on his brother’s back. “You needn’t return. No one in our family need accept flogging. We are as good as Aron.”

“Do you think Aron will release him without trouble?” wondered the mother.

“He can do as he pleases. The boy does not go back.”

But Nils was worried. If Robert left service without permission, Aron would have the right to send the sheriff after him, and according to the servant law Robert would then lose half his pay and must defray Aron’s expenses. Wouldn’t it be better to settle amicably?

“I’ll go and speak to him,” Karl Oskar said firmly. But it didn’t sound as if he were thinking of reconciliation.

Robert regretted he had not returned home earlier and confided in his elder brother. Märta brought out some pork bile and covered her son’s wounds with it.

His brother’s bloody back was an insult to Karl Oskar and to the whole Nilsa family. Since the father was lame and broken-down, and not able to defend his younger son, it thus became his duty.

Karl Oskar picked up his cap and went straight to Nybacken. At a distance he caught sight of Aron, who stood at the cattle well and hauled up water. Karl Oskar approached the farm cautiously, looking around as he crossed the barnyard. No one was in sight. It seemed he might have luck on this visit.

Aron did not notice Karl Oskar until the visitor stood next to him; he was so surprised that he almost dropped the well bucket which he was just removing from the hook. As he looked the unexpected caller in the face he began to retreat around the well curb, at the same time looking about as if in search of help.

“Are you coming to take your brother’s place? Then I’ll have a real hand!” He attempted a weak smile, timidly.

Karl Oskar went up close to the farmer of Nybacken. Aron could not move, his back was already against the wall around the well; he acted as if he intended to call for help.

“You’ve beaten my brother. You bastard! Do you realize he’s only fifteen?”

“He got a little chastisement, he was lazy and careless.”

“Drawing blood is not a little chastisement. You’d better get yourself another hand to flog. You’ll get none from my family.”

“Your brother had better be here tomorrow morning! Otherwise the sheriff will get him.”

“Come and get him yourself! You’ll get a welcome in Korpamoen!”

Aron’s face grew whiter.

Karl Oskar took another half step, forcing his antagonist still closer to the well curb. He looked quickly about: no one was in sight. Aron became panicky, dropped the pail, and was just going to call for help when Karl Oskar grabbed him by the neck, choking the words in his throat.

Karl Oskar pushed him slowly backward until he was extended across the well opening; Aron was a living lid over the well, he lay there kicking and struggling, terror-stricken. With Karl Oskar’s vise-like grip at his throat he was unable to produce any sound but puffs and grunts. He did not know if Karl Oskar intended to choke him to death, or drown him, or both, but he was convinced he was going to die.

And Karl Oskar let him think so for a few minutes.

He pressed the farmer’s throat a suitably long time before relaxing his grip. Aron collapsed like an empty sack against the well wall. Karl Oskar warned him that it would be enough for this time. They would undoubtedly meet soon again; it happened sometimes while they hauled timber during the winter. They had met more than once in out-of-the-way places — they might meet again, far from people. They would then continue their conversation. For he was most anxious to meet alone anyone who laid hands on a member of his family. And any bastard who attacked a fifteen-year-old was easy to handle.

Then Karl Oskar turned about and went home to Korpamoen. Robert met him at the gate.

“You’ll have no more trouble from Aron, that much I can promise.” Robert had never been intimate with Karl Oskar, who was ten years older. If anything, he had been a little afraid of his big brother. For the first time today they felt really close. Shyness prevented Robert from telling his brother what he wished to, but someday he would show Karl Oskar that he thought more of him than of any other person in the world.

— 3—

Robert remained in Korpamoen; but as he was a deserter, no one knew whether he would be left in peace at home. Karl Oskar advised him to be prepared to hide in the woods when visitors came.

A few days went by and nothing happened. Karl Oskar had suggested that Aron come to Korpamoen and get Robert, but he didn’t show up and Karl Oskar did not expect him; as he scanned the road now and then he feared other callers. And one evening before dusk as he was standing near the gate the bitch began barking. Karl Oskar looked down the village road: an open carriage was approaching the farm. Two men were sitting in the wagon, and one of them wore a cap with broad yellow bands which glittered at a distance.

Robert was at the sawhorse next to the woodpile and Karl Oskar ran to warn him. But as soon as the dog started barking his brother had thrown away the saw; he now saw Robert disappear into the wood lot near the byre.

The carriage stopped at the gate, and Karl Oskar went to meet his callers.

“Good day, Karl Oskar Nilsson.”

The long, wide uniform coat hampered Sheriff Lönnegren in his movements; he almost tripped as he stepped down from the carriage. He told his man to tie the horse to the gatepost.

Lönnegren was an unusually tall man. At fairs his head could be seen above all others. He was as strong as he was tall. When he had to stop a fight, he often grabbed one combatant and used him as a weapon against the other. When he corrected some wrongdoer he invariably said: You scoundrel! This was his word of greeting in the community when he executed his office. If he spoke to a more hardened person he would say: You big scoundrel! And when he dealt with thieves and criminals: You damned scoundrel! Lönnegren was severe in his office, but folk were agreed that he was not a bad man.

“I’m looking for your brother, the farmhand Robert Nilsson,” he said.

“He’s not in this house,” answered Karl Oskar.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know where he is at the moment.”

Sheriff Lönnegren gave the farmer of Korpamoen a piercing look. Karl Oskar looked back equally firmly.

The sheriff ordered his man to look around the farm and see if he could find the deserter.

He continued: “Aron of Nybacken has asked the assistance of authorities in bringing your brother back to his service. I presume you know he left last Sunday morning?”

“He left because the farmer flogged him.”

Lönnegren nodded: Aron had said that he had corrected his hand with suitable chastisement, as was the right of masters, according to paragraph 5 of the servant law. But this chastisement was intended to improve the servant: the boy ought to have accepted it in mild submission. It did not give him the right to desert.

“My brother has shown me his bloody back.”

The sheriff gave Karl Oskar another searching look.

“You’ve met, then? Has he been here?”

“Yes, but he isn’t here any longer.”

“Is he close by?”

“I don’t know how close he might be.”

Karl Oskar tried to evade the truth without lying.

The sheriff stroked his chin in deep thought. From his coat pocket he pulled a large stamped paper which he now unfolded. According to paragraph 52 of the servant law, and Chapter 16, paragraph 7, of the land code, a master had the right to enforce the return of a deserted servant. In the name of the law he now asked Karl Oskar to divulge his brother’s whereabouts.

“I am not responsible for my brother.”

“The boy has once before tried to get away. It’s a second offense.”

The sheriff’s man returned: the escaped one could not be found outside the house.

The sheriff’s patience was coming to an end. “You are harboring the deserter, you scoundrel! Turn him over!”

Karl Oskar answered: According to the law he did not consider himself duty-bound to help the authorities apprehend his own brother. In any case, he would first like to see the paper concerning such duty.

The sheriff did not answer; this big-nosed peasant was not born on the porch, he knew his rights. And if it were up to him alone, the boy might well go. It was a most unpleasant task to hunt poor farmhands who evaded the servant law. But law was law and duty was duty; it was his business to see to it that the servant law was followed.

Karl Oskar watched the sheriff’s face and became bolder. If the sheriff himself had a brother who had escaped from his master because of flogging, would he then report his brother for apprehension?

The sheriff shouted in answer: “If you cannot tell the truth, you might at least shut up, you scoundrel!”

But he looked up toward the sky for a moment, and Karl Oskar thought: What people said about him was true; if he hadn’t been sheriff he might have been almost a good man.

Lönnegren turned his back on Karl Oskar and called his man to accompany him; they went into the house. The sheriff and his servant searched the main room, they went into the kitchen where Kristina stood with the frightened children hanging on to her skirts. They looked into the reserved room where Nils and Märta sat silent and immovable on their chairs, and felt the shame of the search; no sheriff had ever before been to this house. They went up the stepladder into the attic, where they felt in a pile of old clothes; the dust rose from the rags and the sheriff came down angry and coughing. They had looked through the house, and the search continued now through the barns. Lönnegren remained in the yard while his helper went through a heap of unwashed wool in the byre, ascended the hay loft and kicked here and there in the hay, went down into the cellar, through the wagon cover, the woodshed, and the outhouse.

The authorities had to leave, their errand unsuccessful. Karl Oskar escorted the sheriff to his carriage. When Lönnegren was seated he said: “I’ll get the rascal if he remains in this district. Do you hear me, Karl Oskar Nilsson? I’ll catch up with your brother if he remains in my district!”

The young farmer in Korpamoen looked thoughtfully after the sheriff’s departing carriage: he had got the implication; he understood.

— 4—

Karl Oskar stayed up late that evening and waited for his brother. Toward midnight Robert knocked on the window and was admitted. He had been over in a neighbor’s field, and had hidden in Jonas Petter’s meadow barn the whole evening. The night frosts had set in, and he shivered and shook. There was still some fire on the hearth and Karl Oskar put on a pot and warmed milk for his brother.

The sheriff’s statement, he said, must be interpreted to mean that Robert need not worry about being returned to Nybacken if he stayed outside the sheriff’s district. He could therefore not remain at home any longer. Kristina had suggested that he stay for some time with her parents in Duvemåla. The parish of Algutsboda was outside Lönnegren’s district. He could safely remain there until some other opening turned up; Kristina’s parents needed a hand, they were both considerate and would treat him well, not on account of the relationship only. Few of the farmers hereabouts treated their help as badly as Aron in Nybacken.

Robert said he was glad to obey his brother and sister-in-law: early in the morning he would set out for Duvemåla.

Still feeling cold after the many hours in Jonas Petter’s windy barn, he moved closer to the hearth; across from him sat Karl Oskar and stirred the embers with the fire tongs. The brothers had seldom been together at home; Karl Oskar had been away in service while Robert grew up; they had been strangely foreign to each other until last Sunday, when Robert came home with his wounded back.

Robert was thinking: He had been a lazy and negligent farmhand; perhaps it was his inborn sinful nature which inclined him to idleness and disobedience. He had, according to the ordinances of God and man, received chastisement, and he was now a deserter, hunted by the sheriff. But he was no longer afraid of anything in this world because he had a big, protective brother. He need keep no secrets from this brother. Now as he sat here alone with him in the night was the right moment. Now it must out, now it must be said, what he ought to have said long ago, what he regretted not having said last spring.

He could hear the echo of Aron’s hard box in his ear, that eternal hum, the sound of that water which covered three-quarters of the globe’s surface, the great sea’s message to him, the ocean’s command: Come!

It was dark in the room, only a small section near the fireplace was lighted by the flickering embers. Now it must be said, now when they sat here together, as intimate brothers.

Robert did not look up as he began: “You’ve been good to me, Karl Oskar. I want to ask something of you.”

“Yes? If I can give it to you.”

“I would like to get my inheritance from the farm. I intend to go to North America.”

He had managed it, he had spoken, it was done. He inhaled deeply, then he waited.

A few minutes passed and Karl Oskar had not yet answered. He had heard big words from his brother, he had heard the fifteen-year-old speak as a grown man, he had heard him say boldly, challengingly, like a man: I intend to move to North America. But he did not answer.

Several more minutes elapsed and still nothing was said between the brothers. The elder kept silent, the younger one waited for him to speak. The grandfather’s clock in the corner creaked and snapped, the dying embers crackled on the hearth. And in Robert’s ear was heard the humming, roaring sound of the great water, challenging him to come and sail upon it.

Rays from the fire lit up Karl Oskar’s face. The younger brother sat close to the hearth and stared into the glowing ashes; he dared not look at his brother just now.

What could he expect? He knew in advance what he was going to hear. Through his one healthy ear he would hear his brother speak of childish ideas, notions of a fifteen-year-old. What possesses you, Robert? You know very well, my little brother, that you cannot handle your inheritance before you are of age, before you are twenty-one. And you think a boy like you can travel to the other end of the world? Much is still lacking in your head; you must stay at home and eat many loaves of bread before you can leave the country. You must ripen in your notions, my little brother. Your big brother knows more about the world than you. Listen now to what he has to say, this your elder, wiser brother.

But the surprising thing was that Robert couldn’t hear his brother say anything at all. Karl Oskar sat with the fire tongs in his hands, his elbows on his knees, and poked in the embers and kept silent. Robert dared not even look toward his face. Had his tongue become paralyzed from shock when he heard his brother say: I intend to go to North America?

Robert began again: “You were startled, Karl Oskar. .?”

“Ye-es.”

“I understand.”

“Never before in all my life have I been so startled!”

Now Karl Oskar raised his head and looked at his brother with a broad smile. “Because — I could never in the world have guessed that you had the same thoughts as I!”

“You too — Karl Oskar?”

“Yes. Those ideas have been my own lately. But I haven’t mentioned a word to anyone except Kristina.”

What was this that Robert’s healthy ear heard tonight? Weren’t Karl Oskar’s words a hearing-illusion, like the storm of the sea in the other ear?

Had two brothers ever before so surprised each other as Karl Oskar and Robert did this night, sitting together round the dying embers of the fire? When before had two brothers so promptly agreed in a great, life-important decision, as these two now did — before the embers on the hearth had even blackened?

Karl Oskar said: Robert need not move alone; he would have the company of his brother and sister-in-law and their children, he would have the company of all who were young on the farm.

The hum in Robert’s ear was intense and persistent tonight, louder than usual. Now he could answer “Yes!” to the message and the challenge in his sick ear: I come!

He had opened his first gate on the road to America.

VII. ABOUT A WHEAT FIELD AND A BOWL OF BARLEY PORRIDGE

— 1—

The first ships have already crossed the ocean, bearing emigrants away from the land.

There is a stir in peasant communities which have been the home of unchangeableness itself for thousands of years. To the earth folk, seeing their plots diminish while their offspring increase, tidings have come of a vast land on another continent where fertile soil was to be had almost for the taking by all who wished to come and till it. Into old gray cottages in tranquil hamlets where food is scarce for folk living according to inherited customs and traditions, a new restlessness is creeping over the threshold. Rumors are spread, news is shared, information is carried from neighbor to neighbor, through vales and valleys, through parishes and counties. These germs of unrest are like seeds scattered by the wind: one takes root somewhere deep in a man’s soul and begins its growth unknown to others; the sowing has been done in secret, thus the sprouting surprises neighbors and friends.

At first the movement is slow and groping. The only evidence of this new land is supplied by pictures and rumors. None in the home communities had seen or explored it. And the unknown ocean is forbidding. All that is unknown is uncertain — the home community is familiar and safe. Argument is rife, for and against; some hesitate, some dare; the daring stand against the hesitating, men against women, youth against age. The cautious and the suspicious always have their objections: For sure, we know nothing. .

Only the bold and enterprising have sufficient courage: they are the instruments which stir up the tranquil hamlets and shake the order of unchangeableness.

These separate from the multitude and fill a few small ships — a trickle here and there starts the running stream which in due time swells to a mighty river.

— 2—

Karl Oskar Nilsson had seen a picture. He had called one day on the churchwarden, Per Persson in Åkerby, and had borrowed a newspaper; there he had seen the picture.

That same day, after he came home, he plowed his rye stubble. He drove an ox and a cow; he had been forced to sell one ox, so now he hitched the cow under the yoke; the two beasts made a poor and uneven team. From time immemorial farmers had driven oxen — he felt ashamed to drive a cow along the roads, it was in some way degrading. And he felt sorry for his cow, who had to pull the plow as well as to give milk. The pull cow was with calf also, he could see the calf stir in her. She walked heavily in the furrow, her udder already so swollen she moved her hind legs with difficulty. The team dragged at a snail’s pace across the field because of the poor cow. Karl Oskar had not the heart to prod an animal who had to carry a calf as well as drag a plow.

God was hard on the people, and the people were hard on the animals. He suffered because he must use the poor cow, but he couldn’t pull the plow himself, and he must plow the field lest his children be without bread next year. His children, too, were innocent beings. But according to God’s world order, which he had never been able to understand despite much thought, the innocent must suffer with the guilty. Drought and crop failure hit the righteous and the unrighteous alike.

Suddenly the plow hit an earth-bound stone which threw it from the furrow. Karl Oskar looked closer and saw that part of the plow remained in the ground: the wooden plowshare was broken, split in two.

He unhitched the team and went home. He knew enough about carpentry to make a new plowshare, but he did not go to the workbench. Instead, he went inside the house and sat down. It was the middle of the day and Kristina was surprised: was he already back from the field? He answered that he had broken the plow; it was a damned earth-bound stone; all the fields round here were damned.

He wouldn’t curse and carry on so because of some such small mishap, she thought; it wasn’t like him. And, she added in her thoughts, neither was it like him to sit here inside in the middle of the day, and neglect his work.

Karl Oskar looked out through the window at the unplowed rye stubble; his brow wrinkled in discouragement. After a time he picked up the paper he had brought from the churchwarden’s. It was borrowed property, and he wiped his fingers on his trousers before he touched it; he handled the sheet carefully, as if it had been a valuable deed. Then his eyes fell on the picture: “A Wheat Field in North America.”

It was a field at harvest-time, and the crop was still standing in shocks. An even field was visible, an endless field without borders or fences. The wheat field had no end at the horizon, it stretched beyond the place where sky met the earth. Not a single stone or heap of stones, no hillock or knoll was visible on this whole wide field of wheat stubble. It lay even and smooth as the floor boards of his own cottage. And in this field shock stood by shock so close they almost touched each other, so close a rick could hardly pass between them. The strong sheaves rose from the shocks, spreading out their long, swollen, full-developed heads of wheat, like golden crowns. A powerful, strong-grown seed was shocked on this field. Every head of wheat was like a mighty blossom, every straw like a sapling, every sheaf like a shrub.

From a clear sky the sun shone down on this multitude of golden grain. The sun shown down on a fertile field, a field to which had been given grain and kernel. The shocks were as innumerable as the billows on the sea; here surged a sea of golden grain, a tremendous granary of endless dimensions. It was the fruit of the earth that he saw here, an unmeasurable quantity of bread for man: “A Wheat Field in North America.”

A story could be invented, people’s word could be inaccurate, a description could be imaginary. But a picture could not be false, a picture could not lie. It could only show things as they were. What he saw must be somewhere before it could be pictured; what his eyes beheld was not illusion: this field of wheat existed. This ground without stones and hillocks was somewhere in the world. These potent sheaves, these golden heads of wheat, had grown; no one could step forward and deny it. Everything he saw in this picture, all this splendor to a farmer’s eye, it existed, it was somewhere — in another world, in the New World.

Karl Oskar Nilsson, owner of seven stony acres in stone-country Korpamoen, sat quietly for long, his eyes lingering upon the picture. His mind’s eye reveled in this grandeur. He held up the paper reverently before him, as if he were sitting on a church bench of a Sunday, following the hymn with the psalmbook in his hand.

It was in the Old World that God once had cursed the soil because of man; in the New World the ground still was blessed.

— 3—

A few words were printed under the picture: “It has been said that work-willing farmers have great prospects of future success in the United States.”

It happened the day when Karl Oskar plowed his rye stubble and broke the plowshare. That was the beginning; then it went on through many days and — as he lay awake — through the nights.

He wasn’t actually slow when it came to making up his mind; but this was the greatest decision of his life, and more than one day was needed for it; it must be made with “common sense and ripe consideration,” as is stated in bills of sale and other important documents. He needed a few weeks to think it over.

So far he had shown the picture of the North American wheat field only to Kristina, and she had looked at it casually. She could not know that her husband carried that picture in his mind wherever he went.

Through the long autumn evenings they sat in front of the fire, busy with their indoor activities. Karl Oskar whittled ax handles and wooden teeth for the rakes, and Kristina carded wool and spun flax. At last, one evening after the children had gone to sleep and it was quiet in the room, he began to talk. In advance he had thought over what he should say, and in his mind he had fought all the obstacles and excuses his wife might make.

As for himself, he had decided on the move and now he would like to hear what she thought of it.

She asked first: “Are you making fun of me?”

What was she to think? Here he sat and suddenly announced that he intended to sell his farm, and all he owned. Then with his whole family — a wife and three children and a fourth not yet born — he would move away; not to another village or parish, nor to another place in this country, or to any country on this continent. But to a new continent! He might just as well have stretched it a little further, it would have made no difference to her had he announced that he intended to move them all to the moon; he must be jesting with her.

But as he continued to talk, she realized he spoke in earnest. This new idea was exactly like Karl Oskar, like no one else. He never let well enough alone, he was not satisfied with what others considered sufficient. He was never satisfied with anything in this world; he reached for the impossible, the little-known. He had told her once before he would sell Korpamoen; then he wanted to be a timberman. Another time it had been a horse trader, and again, enlistment as a soldier. And when he decided to move, of course nothing less than North America would do — the other end of the world! If he had been satisfied with less he would not have been Karl Oskar.

But now Kristina must answer with innermost sincerity and let him know what she felt in her heart. So they talked, and exchanged their opinions, evening after evening, while the crackling fire alone interrupted their conversation and at times was even louder than they.

Why did Karl Oskar want to move?

For four years now they had lived in Korpamoen, and today they were several hundred riksdaler poorer than when they started. Four years they had spilled the strength of their youth here, to no purpose. If they remained they would have to continue struggling and slaving until they could move neither hand nor foot, until they finally sat there, worn out, worked out, limp and broken. No one would then thank them for having ruined themselves for no earthly good. They could mirror themselves in his father, who sat crippled in his room. In this place they had nothing more to look forward to than the reserved room; it would be ready for them one day, when they were able-bodied no more, and from then on they would sit there, like his father and mother now, and reproach themselves all through their old age; health and strength would be gone, but from all the work through all the years they would have naught to show but the reserved room with its meager bread.

However much they struggled and toiled, they could never improve their situation here in Korpamoen.

He didn’t know much about conditions in the United States, but he did know that once there he would be given, for next to nothing, fertile, stone-free soil which was now only waiting for the plowshare. Things which he had no money to purchase here could be obtained for very little in North America. They were both of them strong and healthy and accustomed to hard work, and that was all that they need bring along: their ability to work; it was all America asked of them. Perhaps they must face as much drudgery as here, but they would do it in another spirit, with another hope, another joy. Because the great difference between the two countries was this: In America they could improve their lot through their own work.

He for his part was weary of the struggle which led nowhere. Nonetheless he could continue his work with a happy heart if he believed he could improve the situation for himself and his. People liked to fight for a goal, at least while still young, as they both were. What else was there to live for? But one day their children would be grown and shifting for themselves, and what sort of future awaited them here? One child would inherit the farm, but what about the others? They would have to work as hired farmhands or become squatters. No third choice existed. There were already so many hired hands that they competed in offering their services to farmers; there were too many cottagers already, soon every opening in the forest would have its rotten, rickety shack with the black earth for floor. The people in these huts seldom had meat with their bread — and many days no bread. Karl Oskar and Kristina did not want their children to become hired farmhands or crofters; but they could do nothing better for them unless they took them from this impoverished place. If they felt responsibility for their children, they must move away.

On one point all information from North America agreed: the people had in every way more liberty in that country. The four classes were long ago abolished there, they had no king who sat on a throne and drew a high salary. The people themselves elected a President who could be thrown from office if they didn’t like him. They had no high officials who annoyed the people, no sheriff who came and took the farmers’ belongings. And at the community meeting everyone spoke as freely as his neighbor, for all had equal rights.

If he now sold his farm with everything on it, chattels and kine included, Karl Oskar would have enough money to pay the transportation for all of them with some small part left over for the settling in the new country.

He had long turned it over in his mind, thought about it, weighed arguments for and against, but this conviction remained with him: a farm couple still in their youth, hale and hearty, could undertake nothing wiser than to emigrate to the United States of America.

Why Kristina wanted to remain at home:

Karl Oskar had drawn a beautiful and sanguine picture. If Kristina could believe it all as he painted it for her, she would not for one moment hesitate to follow him.

But she was afraid it might turn out to be a wild-goose chase. Her husband believed all he heard and saw about America. But who could guarantee its truth? What did they have to rely on? Who had promised them tillable soil in the United States? Those who ruled over there had not written him a letter or given him a promise. He had no deed to a piece of land that would await them on arrival. One taking such a journey needed written words and agreements before starting.

They had never met a single person who had been to North America; they knew of no one who had set foot in that country, no one who could tell them what the land was like. If a reliable human being who had seen the country with his own eyes had advised emigration, that would be different. In the printed words of newspapers and books she had no confidence.

If moving to North America was so advisable for young farm folk, then there must be some who had already done so. But they knew no such folk. He could not mention the name of a single farmer — young or old — who had emigrated with wife and children; the wisdom of such a move existed only in his head.

He had also forgotten to mention the fact that they must sail on a fragile ship across the ocean; he had said nothing about the dangerous voyage. How often had they heard about ships wrecked and sunk? No one knew if they would ever reach America alive. Even if exposing themselves to all these dangers were advisable, had they the right to venture the lives of their children on a voyage which wasn’t necessary, which they weren’t forced to undertake? The children were too young to consult, and perhaps they would rather remain at home, even as squatters, than be pulled down into the depth of the ocean; perhaps it were better to earn one’s bread as a farmhand, and live, than to be a corpse on the bottom of the sea, eaten by whales and other sea-faring monsters.

Karl Oskar wanted to emigrate because he felt responsibility for his children; Kristina wanted to remain at home for the same reason.

And what did he know about the children’s lot in the foreign country? Had someone there written him that Anna would become a lady, or that Johan would be a gentleman of leisure?

He hadn’t mentioned, either, that they must separate from their parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends — in short, all those they knew. Had he realized they would come to places where every human being they met was a stranger? They might have to live in communities where people were ill-natured and cruel; they were to live in a land where they would be unable to speak one word of the language, unable to ask a single soul for a drink of water if they needed it; where they might have to die without their tongues being able to cry for help. In such a land they would wander about like changelings, alien and lost. Had he never thought that their life might be lonely and bleak?

If she moved so far away she might never be able to return home; she might never see her nearest and dearest again; never meet parents, brothers and sisters. At once she would lose them all, and even though they lived they would be dead to her; they would be alive and yet dead.

True enough, things had gone backwards for them and they had had bad luck. But it might soon change, they might have a good year, they might have good fortune. At least they had the necessary food each day, and even though — as it looked for the moment — they might have to starve a bit this winter, they would most likely eat so much the better next year. They weren’t dressed in silk and satin, of course, but at least they were able to cover their bodies and keep their children warm. Surely they would gain their sufficiency at home in future as they had in the past, as other people did.

All wise and thoughtful men whose advice he might seek would answer him as she had.

Kristina wanted to remain at home.

— 4—

Through many autumnal evenings, while busy with their respective handiwork before the fire, the husband and wife in Korpamoen exchanged their divergent views on this decision which would determine their future. Karl Oskar held out the prospect of new advantages and possibilities through emigration; Kristina saw only drawbacks. When she came to the end of her objections, she always had this argument to fall back on: “If only someone we know had emigrated before. But none in these parts has ever gone.”

His answer was always the same: “Let us be the first; someone must be first, in everything.”

“And you’re willing to shoulder the responsibility?”

“Yes. Someone must be responsible, in all undertakings.”

She knew her husband by now: he had never relinquished what once he had decided upon, and hitherto he had always had his will, defying her and his parents. But this time he must fall in with her; this time she would not give in; this time he must change his mind.

She spoke to Nils and Märta: they must help her to dissuade Karl Oskar from this dangerous project.

But the parents only felt sorry for their foolhardy son and could give his wife no assistance. Nils said: Ever since Karl Oskar was able to button up his trousers alone in the outhouse, he had never asked advice or help from his parents. He would persist even more stubbornly if his father and mother tried to influence him.

Kristina began to realize that this time more than ever Karl Oskar knew what he wanted. And so did she.

— 5—

After the drought and crop failure came winter now, and famine. The summer had been short, had died in its youth; the winter would last so much longer with its starvation.

The sheriff’s carriage was seen more often on the roads. His errands concerned the poorest farms, and the carriage remained long at the gates. The sheriff’s horses were seldom in their stalls this winter: they were tied to gateposts, waiting for their master, who had much to do inside the houses; the horses were covered by blankets but still cold: they had to wait so long.

“Hurry up and hide your mittens!

The sheriff comes to take each pittance.”

Even before the snow had set in, little children could be seen along the roads, pale, with sunken cheeks, their running noses blue. Once arrived at a farm, they didn’t go to the main entrance; they went to the refuse pile near the kitchen door, where they remained awhile, scratching in the debris, searching. Then they went inside the house but stayed close to the door. The boys bowed, the girls would curtsy. With their forefingers they would try to dry their noses; then they would stand there, in the corner near the door, silent, timid.

They had no errand. They had already brought their message to anyone who looked closely: the mute testimony of hunger.

Parents sent their children begging, ashamed to be seen themselves. To the small ones, begging was no shame. For wretched, starving children begging was a natural occupation, the only one they were able to perform, their only help.

Perhaps some time might elapse before anyone in the house paid notice to the unknown children, huddling in their corner at the door. Perhaps the house folk sat at table; then the children waited until all had eaten, inhaling the smell of food, the savory odor of boiled potatoes, beef soup, fried pork. They stood there watching, their eyes growing big, their nostrils extended. The longer the meal lasted, the bigger grew their nostrils, and sometimes it happened, when they had stood there a long time, smelling the food, that one of them might faint and fall to the floor.

At length they would be spoken to, then they would ask if they might pick up the herring heads and beef bones which they had seen outside on the refuse pile. The bones could be crushed to get the marrow which their mother would boil to soup. And if there was something for the refuse pile in the house, might they have it? It could be used at home. Father and Mother had taught them what to say.

The parents had told them not to ask too much. They must beg for such as the people in the house had no use for themselves; they must not boldly ask for bread. For he who asked least often obtained most. But if they sometimes happened to receive a slice of bread, they would gulp it immediately; Father and Mother must never know.

The children trudged along, sucking their salt herring heads, dragging their bundles of clean-gnawed bones. They went to the next farm, searched the next refuse pile; no one snubbed them when they came inside and asked for herring heads which they saw glittering outside.

The small children were famine’s pure witnesses. No one had the heart to hurl at them the word which adults feared: Shame!

Each one was supposed to beg in the parish where he lived. But those who felt ashamed would rather go to distant parishes, would rather beg from unknown people. The hunger tore and dug in stomach and bowels, but the humiliation of begging dug itself into the crevices of the soul.

Even older persons walked along the roads, big, full-grown men who carried on their backs brooms, brushes, baskets, or wooden vessels which they offered for sale. They pursued an honest calling, no one could accuse them of begging, but if they were told in some house that no trade would take place, they still remained sitting. They kept their errand secret under the burden on their backs but after sitting for a while it would escape: Give me a piece of bread! I’m too weak to go farther. It smarted deep in the soul of many a wanderer before those words escaped. Therefore the pale children were sent upon the roads.

— 6—

Kristina baked famine bread; when the rye flour did not suffice she added chaff, beechnuts, heather seed, and dried berries of the mountain ash. She also tried to grind acorns and mix them in the dough, but such bread caused constipation and the bowels would not move for many days. She boiled an edible porridge from hazelnut kernels, and used it instead of the clear rye porridge which they had to do without this winter. No real nourishment was found, though, in famine food: sprouts, seeds, nuts, and other products from the wastelands did fill the stomach but gave no lasting satisfaction. One left the table because the meal was over, not because one was satisfied. And however much they stretched and added, all the bins and foodboxes would be empty long before the next crop was ripe.

In the middle of the winter the time was up for Kristina, and she bore a son. They were now eight people in Korpamoen.

Owing to the meager fare this winter the mother had not sufficient milk for the newborn; her breasts were dry long before he was satisfied, and a suckling could not stand the bitter milk from their starved cows. This was a bad winter for a new arrival into the world. Kristina must now choose the most nourishing pieces for herself, in order to give milk to the little one. But the other children needed food too; she noticed that Anna, the eldest, had fallen off and grown very thin. Kristina felt as if she stole food from three of her children to give to the fourth.

The newborn was to be given the name Anders Harald, and was to be called Harald. But whom should they ask to carry him at the baptism? When Kristina wished as godparents her relatives in Kärragärde, Danjel and Inga-Lena, this caused great consternation in Nils and Märta: Danjel was preaching the heresy of Åke Svensson, and the dean had excluded him from the Lord’s Supper because of his unlawful Bible explanations. This impious man was not to carry their grandchild to his baptism.

Kärragärde had once more a bad reputation. Kristina did not understand how her uncle could take loose, bad people into his home, but she had known Danjel since she was a little girl, and he had always been good to her. Nor had he done harm to any other person; she knew of no man more kind than he. So she thought that the dean had done him a great injustice: only the greatest sinners were excluded from the Lord’s Supper table. Ulrika of Västergöhl had long been forbidden the body and blood of Christ, and it was only right that one who for gain lay on her back with any man should be forbidden to kneel with honest people at the altar. But Uncle Danjel had neither whored nor murdered, neither defrauded nor stolen. In Ljuder Parish there were many much greater sinners who enjoyed the holy sacraments. He was mistaken in spiritual things, but he did not deserve to be pointed out and avoided as a robber and evildoer. Kristina wanted to show all people that she considered her uncle an honest man — and therefore she wished to invite him to be godfather to her newborn son.

Märta asked: Was she prepared to leave her innocent child to be carried to baptism by a man possessed of the Evil Spirit? Was she willing to hand over her own offspring to the devil?

Danjel had said that he no longer accepted interest on money which he lent, and from this Karl Oskar deduced his wits were failing; the peasant of Kärragärde had been stricken by a disturbance of his senses when he embraced Åke’s teachings. But no one should be punished because of illness, even though it were illness of the mind. The dean therefore had no right to exclude Danjel from gatherings of Christian people, and give a bad name to his home, for anyone who passed through the gate of his farm, now, was almost considered eternally lost. It was foolish of Danjel to gather whores and drunkards into his house, but God would hardly punish him because he fed and protected paupers.

Karl Oskar agreed with Kristina; they would show the dean what they thought of Danjel, and invite him to godfather their little one. Karl Oskar himself bore the invitation to Kärragärde.

He returned home disappointed; Danjel had said he was excluded from christenings as well as communion; he could be neither godfather nor witness to a baptism in the church; he was forbidden to carry their child to its christening.

Kristina was downcast, but Karl Oskar was angry at the dean who prevented them from choosing godparents for their own child. He felt a strong desire to go and tell the dean that he interfered too much. But Brusander was his pastor, and for the sake of one’s salvation one should not be on bad terms with one’s spiritual guide. This much, though, he was sure of: in North America, no minister had power to prevent any person from carrying a child to Christian baptism.

Instead, they now asked their neighbors in Hästebäck, Jonas Petter and his wife Brita-Stafva, to be godparents for little Harald. No one else was invited to the christening ale, except Karl Oskar’s sister Lydia, who served as maid in Kråkesjö.

Nor was there much from which to prepare a feast this winter. Kristina cooked the christening porridge from some barley grains which she had hidden away in a small sack for this very day, and she had also a little butter and sugar to put into the porringer. Her three children stood around her as she poured out the pot. It was a long time since the little ones had seen such food in the house, food with such odor. Kristina poured the porridge into a large earthen bowl, not to be touched until the godparents returned from church with the newly christened one; she put the bowl in the cellar to cool off.

Karl Oskar and Kristina attended to the chores in the byre while Jonas Petter and Brita-Stafva were at church. The children were alone inside.

When the parents came in again they missed Anna. They started to look for her, inside and outside the house, but they were unable to find her. Nils and Märta did not know where she had gone; she was four years old, and able to go alone to the neighbors, but she never left the farm without permission.

Karl Oskar was greatly disturbed; what could have happened to the child? She was as dear to him as his own eyes, his constant comrade at work, keeping him company everywhere. Only today he had promised to take her to the shoemaker and have her feet measured for a pair of shoes; her old ones were entirely worn out. This she could not have forgotten; so much the stranger that she had disappeared shortly before they were to leave.

They looked in vain for the child in the wood lot, and the father was about to go to the neighbors to inquire when Kristina came running and said that Anna was in the cellar; she had passed by, had heard a faint crying, and had opened the door.

Anna lay stretched out on the floor of the cellar. She cried as if with pain. Next to her on the floor stood the earthen bowl which Kristina had put there a few hours earlier to cool off; at that time it was filled to the brim with barley porridge, now only about a third was left.

The little girl was carried inside the house and put to bed. Tearfully, she asked her parents’ forgiveness for what she had done. She had been unable to forget the bowl of porridge which she had seen and smelled in the kitchen; she was so hungry for the porridge. She had seen her mother put it away in the cellar; she could not resist her desire to steal down there and look at it. At first she had only wished to smell it, then she had wanted to taste it a little — so little that no one would notice. She found a spoon and began to eat. And once she had started eating, she was unable to stop. Never had she tasted anything so delicious; the more she ate, the more she wanted; each spoonful tasted better — she could not stop until most of the porridge was gone. Then she became afraid, she dared not go back into the house, she dared not show herself after her disobedience. She remained in the cellar, and after a while she was seized by fierce pain in her stomach.

Anna had eaten herself sick on the barley porridge; it was too strong a fare for her after the famine food of the winter. Her stomach swelled up like a drum, firm and expanded. She let out piercing shrieks as the pain increased.

Berta of Idemo was sent for. She was accustomed to relieve stomachache with the heat from woolen clothes, and now she laid a thick bandage of warmed woolen stockings around the waist of the child. She also wished to administer mare’s milk for internal relief, and Lydia ran to Kråkesjö, where a mare had recently foaled; she returned with a quart of milk from the mare and Anna was made to drink this.

But nothing eased the suffering of the child. Berta said the barley grains had swelled in the bowels of the little girl to twice their original size, thus causing something to burst. She could not take responsibility for healing such damage.

Anna cried loudly and asked someone to help as the pain grew agonizing. Again and again she asked her parents’ forgiveness for having disobeyed: she had known that no one should touch the porridge before evening when the guests returned.

During the night she became delirious at intervals. Berta said that if she didn’t improve before morning, God might fetch the child home; she wanted to prepare the parents to the best of her ability.

Anna heard her words and said she did not wish God to fetch her home; she wanted to remain here. She was wise for her years, she used to ask many strange questions which the grownups couldn’t answer. As her suffering increased she called her father to help her; she wanted to get up and go with him to the cobbler for the measurements of the shoes she had been promised. Her cries could be heard out into the byre, where the cows answered with their bellowing, thinking someone was on his way to feed them.

Early in the morning the child died in her agony.

Anyone who spoke to Karl Oskar during the next few days got no answer. Nor did a second or third attempt help much. At length, he might answer with a question, showing that he had heard nothing at all.

Nils asked if he should go out and make a coffin for Anna. This time Karl Oskar heard, and answered at once: The coffin for his dead child he wished to make himself; nothing else could be thought of.

He went out to the work shed where he kept a pile of well-sawed spruce boards; there was more than enough lumber for a coffin. Nor would many boards be required for a coffin to enclose Anna’s little shrunken body. The father began to examine the pile, he wanted to choose straight, fine, knot-free boards, clear and without bark. But he discarded every one his hands touched; all were either crooked or warped, or outside boards, or knotty. He picked up one plank after another, inspected it, and threw it aside; it was impossible to find a single one in the pile that he could use, that would make a coffin good enough for Anna.

After a while he tired of searching for good boards and remained sitting on the chopping block, doing nothing. He sat there and listened to the child who had only lately spoken to him: “It hurts to die, Father. I don’t want God to fetch me if it is so painful; I want to stay home. Couldn’t I stay home, even though I ate the porridge? I’ll never again taste anything without permission — please, let me stay home! You’re so big and strong, Father, can’t you protect me so God won’t take me? Oh, Father, if you only knew how it hurts! Why doesn’t anyone help me? I am so little. Would you like to die, Father? Do you want God to come and get you?”

As long as the father could still hear calls for help from his dead child, the living ones around him would receive no answer; he did not hear them.

In the evening Nils asked his son how he was getting along with the coffin. Karl Oskar answered he was still choosing boards.

The following day, also, no sounds of hammer and plane were heard from the woodshed. Karl Oskar’s only explanation was that he was looking for boards.

On the third day, when it still remained silent in the shed, Nils hobbled out on his crutches and sat down at the workbench. He then made the coffin for the dead one while Karl Oskar looked on.

When the work was finished the son said: “It’s not good enough.”

Now, Nils in his life had made more than one hundred coffins, and all who had ordered them had been satisfied — not one had ever been discarded. For the first time he had completed work that was not accepted, that was discarded by his own son: he had used one board with a big ugly knot, another was cut crookedly, and here a nail stuck out. Was Anna, his little girl, to rest on sharp nails? Karl Oskar found many faults with the coffin his father had made; he took an ax and smashed it to pieces.

Nils was hurt, his eldest son once and for all was an impossible person; nothing suited him. Now Karl Oskar must make the coffin himself. At last he found some straight, knot-free boards, which he accepted; he carried them to the workbench, where he remained through the night; in the morning the coffin was ready.

It was a father’s labor, done during a lonely night of sorrow, in the dim light from the lantern out in the woodshed. Those who saw the coffin perhaps didn’t understand. Perhaps, indeed, there was no difference between this coffin and the broken, discarded one. But this one was made by a father’s careful hands, it was nailed together by fingers which still were reaching out for something lost.

God gave to two parents a child to love and care for, and when they had had time to grow attached to the little one, deeply, then He took her back. Had they committed some sin to deserve this? What evil had Karl Oskar done that he must make this coffin?

During the same week, christening and grave ale were held in Korpamoen. Karl Oskar carried his child’s coffin in his arms to the grave, where the dean filled his shovel with earth and said that Anna would now be like the earth on that shovel, and would not live again until awakened on the last day.

The child had eaten of the barley porridge.

Of the wretched barley which grew last summer they had garnered only a few bushels, and of this a small portion had been ground to grits. From the last grits Kristina had cooked porridge for the christening. But when the barley field stood green, no one had said to the child: If you eat of this you shall surely die!

Anna had died because the earth here was cursed. It must be so; this field where the deadly barley had grown must be stricken by the Lord’s word to Adam.

Karl Oskar beheld the pale beggar children wandering about, searching for sustenance in the refuse piles, and he thought: My child found good food, her bowels burst from sugared and buttered barley porridge. Yet she too was a pawn to hunger.

For many weeks after the funeral Kristina was crushed; most of what she did she did wrongly, and other chores stayed undone. A thousand times she reproached herself, asking: Why didn’t I hide the bowl of christening porridge where no one could find it? Why didn’t I let the children taste it before putting it away? If I had done this, Anna would be alive.

A long time elapsed, and the parents had not mentioned the name of their dead child. They never spoke of the little girl they had lost; their sorrow would have become doubly heavy if it had been brought out into clear daylight, and its power acknowledged. Now they tried to push it away, not let it penetrate beyond thought. As long as words didn’t help, why use them? Exchanged between two mourning people, they were only a dissonant sound, disturbing the bitter consolation of silence.

A month had passed since Anna’s funeral when Kristina one evening said to Karl Oskar: After what had happened, she had now changed her mind; she was not averse to their emigration to North America. Before, she had thought she would be lacking in responsibility if she endangered her children’s lives on the ocean. Now she had learned that God could take her little ones even on dry land, in spite of her great care. She had come to believe that her children would be equally safe on the stormy sea, if she entrusted them to the Highest. Moreover, she would never feel the same in this place again. And so — if he thought it would be best for them and their children to emigrate, she would comply. They could know nothing of what was in store for them in so doing, but she wanted to take part in the emigration, she wished to go away with Karl Oskar.

The couple agreed: they would look for passage in the spring of next year.

So the decision had been reached, a decision which determined the course of life for both of them, which determined the fate of their children, the result of which would stretch through time to come to unborn generations — the decision which was to determine the birthplace of their grandchildren, and their grandchildren’s children.

VIII. WITH GOD’S HELP AND THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE AUTHORITIES

— 1—

One day in February the churchwarden, Per Persson, came to Dean Brusander with grave tidings: behind locked doors in Kärragärde Danjel Andreasson gathered his house folk and neighbors to nightly meetings and administered the Lord’s Holy Supper.

At first the dean would not believe his warden: the news was too shocking. But Per Persson had the word of eyewitnesses; some young people happening by the other night had peeked in through the windows in Kärragärde, and had seen people gathered inside around a Communion table. After hearing of this, he himself last night had gone to the farm and looked through the window to ascertain the truth. He had seen some ten people sitting around a table, while Danjel conducted confession and Communion among them; no person with eyesight could remain in doubt as to what was taking place. By reliable people in the neighborhood he had also been informed that Danjel, through one of the timber drivers, had sent to Karlshamn for several gallons of Communion wine.

Dean Brusander sat for a long while with bent head after hearing the warden’s report.

He had tried to bring Danjel Andreasson back into the church through peaceful and gentle means. He had warned, and thought he had enlightened him with kind admonitions. He had sought with mild measures to correct his false opinions of God and spiritual freedom. He had avoided commotion in the parish, and had treated the poor man with caution and consideration. Only when Andreasson had inoculated simple, spineless people with his poison, and had continued to gather them to meetings in his house, had Dean Brusander excluded him from the Lord’s altar. But through all his kindness, patience, and tolerance with the strayed one, he had apparently only given freer scope for the Evil Spirit: the miserable people in Kärragärde were now led so far by the devil that they confessed and held Communion among themselves.

The sacred sacraments, Christ’s body and blood, the church’s most holy jewel and exclusive prerogative, these sacraments were desecrated by an ignorant peasant, they were soiled by the hands of a coarse and criminal person. Andreasson was inflated with spiritual vanity; he had commenced with Bible explanations and thereby encroached upon the ministry, later his presumption had gone so far that in his house he organized his own congregation and held his own church.

Thus Danjel Andreasson in Kärragärde set himself above temporal and spiritual ordinances. If God still hesitated and did not defend His holy and catholic church, then secular authorities must enter in, must discipline the strayed ones, rebuke the leader and agitator.

Per Persson said: What now took place in Kärragärde would stir and upset parish people profoundly.

Deeply grieved, Brusander looked at his warden. “I fear the same. We must immediately avert these excesses.”

He now wished to ask the advice of Per Persson, his most trusted churchwarden. Brusander had been unlucky in his choice of wardens: one used to steal into the sacristy during weekdays and drink from the Communion wine, so that one Sunday when Brusander had announced a Communion he had been forced to call it off; another had appeared drunk in church and placed the numbers of the hymns upside down; a third had, on the holy Christmas morning, repaired to a corner of the organ loft and there let his water, in the presence of several women. But always the dean had had full confidence in Per Persson. Because he consumed only a fifth of brännvin per day he was, in sobriety, a worthy example for other parishioners. It was true that ugly rumors had circulated concerning his moral life, but these were, fortunately, unverified. When he had been accused of causing the pregnancy of a fifteen-year-old girl boarding in his house, as a parish pauper, the dean had questioned him privately, and Per Persson had repudiated the false accusation, saying it was spread by the malicious and jealous. And it was a fact that the warden’s great success in worldly affairs had made him the object of much jealousy in the parish.

“Speak freely, Per Persson! What means shall we use against these Åkians?”

The warden answered: Old parishioners remembered how much trouble Åke Svensson had caused in his day. This time they must prevent the dissenters from disturbing the parish tranquillity. There were already hot-tempered persons who wished forcibly to chastise Danjel and his followers: a few sturdy men intended to go one evening to Kärragärde and with suitable weapons drive out the devil. This Per Persson had heard; but he thought it would be ill-advised and cause an unhealthy stir in the parish.

The dean agreed; he could easily understand the noble zeal which called for forcible discipline against the Åkians; if a few good men were to go to Andreasson’s house on such an errand, then this in itself would be commendable, proving an ardent devotion to the purity of evangelical teachings. But he must disapprove; they could use legal means only against the sectarians.

The churchwarden wished also to report that there were people who spoke well of Danjel and lauded his generosity toward the poor and homeless. As yet they weren’t many, but their numbers might increase, and it would menace community peace and order if two parties were to arise, one for and one against the Åkians.

“May God prevent such a calamity!” exclaimed the dean with emphasis.

The peasant of Kärragärde showed an exaggerated and harmful zeal for things in themselves good, thereby misleading credulous people. No tempter was more dangerous than he who twisted the tools of deceptive goodness into the service of transgression. Brusander realized that he ought to have used stronger means against Danjel Andreasson’s activities from the very beginning.

“The ministry must call on the secular authorities for help,” advised the warden. “This malpractice of dissenters cannot be handled in any other way.”

The dean nodded eagerly. He, also, could see no other way. And a conviction began to take shape within him: an overpowering certitude that God’s patience with the heretics in Kärragärde was now drained to the last drop.

He asked the churchwarden to keep him posted when the Åkians next prepared to gather round their unlawful Communion table in Kärragärde. This Per Persson promised before he left; a couple of boys would help him and watch near Danjel’s to keep him informed.

Dean Brusander had been working on his next Sunday’s sermon when the warden arrived, and his thoughts returned to his work when he was again alone. It was the first Sunday after Septuagesima, and the Bible text was the story in St. Matthew, Chapter 8—of Christ driving the devil from two possessed men into a herd of swine which charged down a steepness into the sea, to perish in its waters. Now, with the churchwarden’s news fresh in his mind, he realized how profound this text was, a text that called for explanation and application. And to those listeners familiar with the appalling happenings in Kärragärde, little explanation was necessary: “And when He was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. . ” In like manner today, any man within this parish, on any road or at any moment, might meet a man in plain peasant dress who was possessed by the devil and tempted with the Evil One’s words and promises. Never before during his time in office had he so felt the urgency of his message as he did about next Sunday’s sermon.

Dean Brusander looked out through the window; snow had fallen the whole day, it was still snowing, and drifts were beginning to form on the road outside the parsonage. With an expression of concern his eyes followed the wafting flakes: perhaps the heavy snowfall might keep distant parishioners from church on Sunday, and they would miss a sermon of the utmost importance to their spiritual welfare.

Brusander was the son of a peasant who had fed and brought up eighteen children in a little cottage with two windows. He thus sprang from the peasantry which made up his congregation. He was the eighteenth child, and his mother had died at his birth. Even in early childhood he felt a strong call to the ministry; he had studied under great hardship, with no financial aid from his poor father, who was barely able to provide him with food during his school years in Växiö. But the peasantry in these parts were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone; he felt for these people as for his own children, and embraced them in fatherly love and devotion. He grieved over their vices and errors, their ignorance and drunkenness, their violence and whoring. But most of the parishioners were peace-loving, pious and devout, and hitherto subservient to their spiritual teachers and others who had fatherly power over them. Hitherto—he stopped short at that word; in these latter days, he had observed a dangerous sign of change.

At this time a great unrest was visiting all nations. The people were revolting, using force against their legal authorities, and many heretical teachings were spread and believed. The old and approved order was being thrown aside, the customs of forebears disregarded. The evil had its roots in disobedience to God’s Fourth Commandment, in the disintegration of the bonds between children and parents, between servants and masters, subjects and authority. Those holy bonds which, according to God’s ordinance, kept society united, and preserved order and security, had been attacked by gnawing, corroding evil.

Even in Ljuder Parish there had been signs of contempt for authority, and disobedience toward masters. Maids and farmhands left their employers in the middle of the service year, and had to be returned to their duty by the sheriff. In a few cases the authorities had been so lenient that the escaped servants were not returned to their service but had been allowed to go their way. Such happenings were spots of shame on a Christian church; such examples were dangerous. If the servant law were not obeyed by servants, society might sink into lawlessness, wildest disorder might ensue. Regard for laws and ordinances in force was based on the Fourth Commandment, tranquillity and security depended on that very commandment. God’s world order rested primarily on adherence to His Ten Commandments, and the servant law — being part of God’s world order — could not be set aside without setting aside the whole order; it was the covenant between masters and servants.

It became more and more apparent that literacy was, in the main, harmful to the common man who couldn’t use it wisely. As knowledge of reading spread, so also spread heresy, dissension, and insubordination. Simple folk made wrong use of their reading knowledge. Here the authorities ought to keep stricter supervision and inspection; if you gave to the people a new knowledge — useful in itself — then you must also see to it that this knowledge was not abused. This was the holy duty of the authorities; the people must feel the guiding paternal hand. And the first duty of a spiritual teacher was to impress upon the common man the enduring order, created after God’s will and not to be changed without His permission.

But the fundamental cornerstone of the community’s existence was unity in religion. One God, one church, one congregation which strove to be one soul — only when humanity reached this perfection would the kingdom of God be established on earth, for eternity.

The Åkians broke religious unity and tried to overthrow God’s church. And who was the Enemy insinuating himself with fair words and promises — to cause strife and dissension among them? Hotheaded but righteous men in the parish wanted forcibly to throw out the devil from Kärragärde. It was a method of simple folk, but their intent was Christian. God had been patient, and had waited, but now the time had come to defend the sanctity of the ministry and the purity of religion.

And the dean lost himself in new thoughts while preparing his sermon. He had much to say to his congregation next Sunday, deriving from Matthew 8:28.

He had also something to attend to today, something which could not wait. He sent for his servant and told him to pull out the sleigh and harness the fastest parsonage horse — he wished to drive to Sheriff Lönnegren in Ålebäck on an urgent matter.

Dean Brusander remained genial throughout. He was convinced he could take care of the Åkian heresy — with God’s help and through the assistance of the secular authorities.

— 2—

In the middle of the big room in Danjel Andreasson’s house stood a long table which Inga-Lena had put in order this evening. She had pulled out the extra leaves, she had polished two tall brass candlesticks until they shone, she had lit the candles and placed one candlestick on each end of the table. She had brought forth the tallest candles which they had made at Christmas. She had covered the large table with a newly woven cloth of whole linen, which she was using now for the first time; it was washed and ironed and white as the snow without. From her linen chest she brought forth her finest and most precious possessions, for tonight they expected the most important visitor a human being could receive in his house. Tonight their old table was the Lord’s table, their tallow candles were God’s altar candles, and Inga-Lena’s new linen cloth was God’s altar cloth: the Lord Jesus Christ would be their guest tonight.

In the center of the table, between the candlesticks, she had placed the earthen jug with wine, sweet wine from Karlshamn, and the cake plate with newly baked rye cookies; Inga-Lena had made the Communion breads in the shape of a cross.

The gathering around the Lord’s altar in Kärragärde was to take place one hour before midnight. The people from the neighboring farms, two married couples, had just arrived. They were stamping off the snow in the entrance hall, where they were met by Danjel, who bade them step inside and join the brethren in Christ’s body. Those already congregated consisted of the house folk and the lodgers. No more visitors were expected, and Danjel locked the door and bolted it. The only time he allowed locked doors in his house was when the Lord Himself made a call. From the storm and snow outside the neighbors stepped into the pleasant, intimate stillness which reigned in Danjel’s house. He asked his guests to find their places at the table. With his psalmodikon—a musical instrument with one string, resembling a violin — he himself took the seat at the upper end.

Danjel Andreasson was shorter than average, narrow-shouldered, and slenderly built. His face was covered by a light-brown, unkempt beard, and his thick, round-cut hair fell down to the collar of his jacket. The little peasant was gentle in manner, slow in movement, thoughtful and mild in speech. Under a broad protruding forehead his brown eyes had a look of peace in them. His lips parted often, as if about to smile.

At the table’s long side, to the right of the master, sat the house folk: dishonorably discharged soldier Severius Pihl, a tall man with a disfigured face, sunken and devastated by smallpox and brännvin; invalided servant maid Sissa Svensdotter, lame in her right arm and crippled in her left foot; and unmarried Ulrika of Västergöhl and her daughter Elin. This daughter was the only one surviving of the four children of unknown fathers whom Ulrika had borne. Elin was barely fifteen years of age and would tonight receive Holy Communion for the first time. Because of her immoral life, Ulrika of Västergöhl herself had for many years been denied the holy sacraments by the church. It seemed remarkable to all that her life in adultery had not left noticeable signs of corruption, but her face retained the innocent features of a pure maiden, showing hardly a wrinkle; her well-shaped body, with its full bosom, was still supple and well preserved. Elin resembled her mother when young. She was a delicate maiden with a fair face.

At the opposite side of the table, to the left of Danjel, sat the people from neighboring farms, two men and two women. Inga-Lena had her place at the lower end of the table. There were ten guests in all at the devotional supper about to begin.

Danjel asked his wife to close the kitchen door, then he knelt beside his chair and prayed a silent prayer. All sat immobile, still and waiting. Outside, the snowstorm increased, and some loose boards at the corner of the house slapped as the gusts of wind pulled and shook them.

Danjel arose and said that Jesus had now arrived.

“Well meet our Saviour with the hymn about Gethsemane: ‘The Sacrifice Is Near. Bleed, My Heart!’”

The farmer of Kärragärde picked up his psalmodikon; he tuned the instrument and began to hum the hymn while he listened to the howling snowstorm outside as if he were trying to imitate the sound of the blizzard in the tune of the psalm. Then he drew the wooden bow across the strings, he played and sang:

“Wake, O Christian, while thy Saviour

Bids thee share His cup of woe!

Leave the haunts of sin forever—

He alone can peace bestow.

‘Watch and pray,’ He pleadeth ever,

‘Darkness seeks thy overthrow.’”

All joined in the singing, each according to his ability, and the hymn rose strong and powerful under the low ceiling with its cracked and sooty beams. The Åkians sang while the wind whirled round the cottage and filtered through cracks in walls and windows, causing the candle flames to flicker in the draft. The tallow candles lit up only part of the room, a small circle around the table, leaving the rest in semidarkness.

The people gathered here tonight had come to tarry with their Saviour, not to deny Him, like Peter, not to betray Him, like Judas. All those sitting here around Danjel’s table, waiting for him to give them the bread and wine, had experienced redemption through their own faith, the faith that Christ had suffered and died on the cross for their sins. In embracing this belief they felt that the body of Christ had taken possession of their own bodies, that they had sloughed off their old, sinful ones. Thus they were reborn, untainted, righteous, cleansed of all sins. The Lord’s new apostle, sitting here at table with them, had said to them: “Your sins are tied up in the linen napkin which was about Christ’s head when He was buried, and which He left in His grave.” And they all believed this.

Tonight again Christ bade them eat His body and drink His blood. This was the covenant between the Saviour and the saved, which must be resealed. It was simple for everyone to understand. Christ’s body was inside their bodies, while theirs were inside His, as His own words in Danjel’s Bible on the table verified: “He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him.”

They were sundered from the church, no longer received at its altar ring. But the Lord was omnipresent and they could find Him everywhere, in all places under the roof of the heavens. Jesus had allowed Himself to be born in a stable, He could place His Communion table wherever He pleased, be it a byre, a woodshed, or a barn. He was with them wherever they sought Him, the Lord’s table stood wherever He was present.

And tonight He was with them again; they were sitting around His altar table. The ceiling of sooty beams above their heads was the vaulted ceiling of the Lord’s shining temple. This was a holy place.

“The hours pass, keep praying, sinners,

Follow Christ in happy mood.”

The hymn rang out to its close. Danjel moved his Bible close to the tallow candle, so that its light fell on the leaves, and he began to read in a clear and even voice the sacred words of the institution of the Lord’s Supper: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the night when He was betrayed, took the bread, gave thanks and brake it and gave unto His disciples, and said: ‘This is My body, which is given for you’. .”

The males had precedence in receiving the sacrament. With slow movements Danjel took from the plate a rye biscuit, broke it, and held a small piece to the mouth of soldier Pihl. “Jesus Christ, Whose body you receive, keep you in eternal life.”

The old soldier sat with his hands folded and his eyes closed. He bent forward while his lips received the crust of the rye cookie from the peasant’s hand. Severius Pihl was toothless; slowly his gums ground the bread to pieces. From the earthen jug Danjel now poured wine into a tin mug, and when the old man had swallowed his bread, Danjel held the mug to his mouth. The soldier drank the wine eagerly in one swallow, then gave thanks to the Saviour in a deep sigh.

“Jesus Christ, Whose blood you receive. .”

The other Communion guests had folded their hands and, deeply aware of Christ’s presence, made not a single motion. A gust of wind shook the loose boards, which squeaked and banged. The candle flames flickered in a sudden draft from the window, the shadows moved quickly back and forth over the white tablecloth. The blizzard raged without, but the people locked in here were in a peaceful room, sanctified to the God Who had redeemed them, Who had gathered all their sins in His bloody napkin cloth.

Danjel Andreasson had administered bread and wine to the men; he continued with the women, and was about to give the bread to Ulrika of Västergöhl when a new sound from outside was heard above the storm: a man spoke with a coarse voice. The little peasant’s hand, holding Christ’s body, stopped in mid-air as for a moment he listened. Then he went on with the Communion as if nothing had been heard. He gave Ulrika a piece of the broken bread, and was about to hand her the wine when he was interrupted by another noise: someone knocked, then banged on the outside door.

All turned their heads and listened. Danjel put down the mug with Christ’s blood on the table. The blows on the door came in even intervals. But Danjel said nothing and his expression did not change.

Apprehension came over the others; they began to whisper.

Inga-Lena said: “Please, Danjel, do not open!”

His neighbors looked at Danjel, fear in their eyes, but he reassured them: they need not be afraid, they must remain fearless, sitting quietly on their chairs. The Lord Jesus was with them in this room tonight, no one need fear harm. Whosoever stood outside and tried to break in had no power against the will of the Almighty. This they must know.

The master of Kärragärde went with sure steps out into the entrance hall. Before touching the door lock he asked gently: “Who is disturbing the stillness of our house this night?”

“Sheriff Lönnegren! Open!”

“Whom do you search for at this late hour, Mr. Sheriff?”

“You, Danjel Andreasson! I order you in the name of the law, open your door!”

Other voices were heard, several men were on the porch.

“I do not obey the laws of man.”

“My official duty compels me to break down the door if you don’t open!”

“Then I must help you, Mr. Sheriff. I cannot allow you to commit a great outrage and increase your sins against God.”

Danjel opened the door. He saw horses and sleighs outside in the yard, but the horses had no bells, the visitors had driven without sleigh-bells so as not to announce their arrival.

Sheriff Lönnegren stepped inside, followed by Dean Brusander. After them came the assistant pastor, Krusell, and the churchwarden, Per Persson of Åkerby, and lastly the village bailiff, and Sheriff Lönnegren’s hired man. Danjel followed the callers inside; six men entered the room where Danjel’s little flock waited in trepidation — three from the spiritual authorities and three from the temporal. Dean Brusander and Pastor Krusell were dressed in the official garb of the clergy. Both ministers were pale and serious, and their black garments inspired awe.

Sheriff Lönnegren removed his uniform cap but was still unable to stand erect under the low ceiling of the peasant cottage; he hit his forehead against a beam and half exploded in an oath before he remembered the clerical company. He turned to the owner of the farm. “What are these people doing here in the middle of the night?”

“We are gathered in a devotional repast,” answered Danjel calmly.

The sheriff looked sharply at the neighbors. “I recognize people who do not belong to your house, Danjel Andreasson. It seems to me an unlawful meeting is taking place here.”

The two neighboring wives whispered anxiously to their husbands as the sheriff requested their names and place of residence. Danjel again called on his guests to remain calm and unafraid.

Ulrika of Västergöhl did not seem alarmed, rather angry. She glared with disgust at the peacebreakers.

The dean still remained silent while he studied the parishioners gathered around the old table: Pihl, the old soldier, reveler and gambler, often reproved but never improving until at last dishonorable discharge ended his crown service; Sissa Svensdotter, a poor creature, crippled, lame, and committed twice for thievery; and Ulrika of Västergöhl, repulsive harlot to whom the devil had given a fair body to entice men for whoring, and who had been mainly responsible for adultery within the parish. Indeed, the new Åkian master had gathered the dregs of the community around him.

Brusander caught sight of the wine jug on the table, he looked at the cake plate with cookies in the form of crosses, and his face paled still more. He drew in his breath deeply, his voice vibrated with indignation, rising to despair: “Your poor confused creatures! You defile the holy sacrament!”

“We enjoy the dear sacraments,” answered Danjel, humble yet inflexible.

“Which you have denied us, Mr. Dean!” injected Soldier Pihl.

“Because we no longer crawl under the priest cape!” added Ulrika.

Without paying attention to these remarks the dean turned to Sheriff Lönnegren, pointing at the table. “What more is needed? Danjel Andreasson administers the holy sacrament to these people! We have caught him in the act in his own house. We are all your witnesses to this offense.”

The sheriff regarded Danjel’s Communion table with a thoughtful and somewhat annoyed expression: he had set out tonight on this business most unwillingly, at Brusander’s request. People gathering for devotion within four walls did not distress him as they did the dean. He liked to leave people alone as long as they were quiet within doors, didn’t disturb the peace in public places, and didn’t harm their fellow men. These here did not harm other people, they were poor, wretched creatures, in rags, with defects and ugliness, poor devils, but no nuisance here. And when others were allowed to gather in peace for gambling and drinking, why shouldn’t these poor drones in religion be left undisturbed, as long as they in their turn left others undisturbed? The sheriff had advised the dean to attempt a reconciliation between the dissenters and the church.

However, the reconciliation had not taken place; and their meeting was forbidden by law. Law was law, and duty was duty, and it behooved a crown sheriff to do his official duty in this place.

Lönnegren spoke to Danjel sternly: “Do you admit that you hold meetings and administer the holy sacrament?”

“Yes, Mr. Sheriff.”

“Have you tonight administered the sacrament to these people?”

“Not to all of them as yet. I was interrupted by you, Mr. Sheriff.”

“But you must know that no one is allowed to hold Communion without being ordained?”

“That I do not know.”

“But the dean here has told you so.”

“I do not obey the dean, but Holy Writ. The Bible says nowhere that our Lord Jesus was ordained.”

“Don’t get yourself into an argument with this hair-splitter,” advised the dean. “These things are too deep for the simple and ignorant.”

“You hear what your pastor says!” said Lönnegren. “Aren’t you going to obey him, you scoun — scou—” The sheriff’s usual term of address froze on his lips this time. He met the calm, fearless look of the little peasant, and swallowed the other half of the word. There was something strange in that man’s unchangeable meekness and unswerving politeness. In some way, through his gentleness and calm, he was beyond reach. It seemed to the sheriff that he couldn’t touch Danjel with his reprimands.

Lönnegren continued: “It has been proved that you have broken the law pertaining to the sacraments, Danjel Andreasson.”

“There is no law over those who live in Christ.”

“There, you hear for yourself!” interrupted Brusander. “He sets himself above the authorities and public ordinances.”

Danjel could only make matters worse through his fearless answers, and Lönnegren did not wish him to worsen his case. He might have a tedious investigation on his hands if this meeting came under the sedition paragraph; he wanted to finish the business as quickly as possible.

“I’ll call you in for questioning, Danjel,” he said. “After that you will be sued in civil court, as well as all others gathered here.”

Danjel listened unmoved to the sheriff. Of late he had felt the time of persecution nearing.

Lönnegren ordered the bailiff to take down the names of all present at the meeting. The neighbors, on hearing that their names would be taken, immediately rose from the table, slowly easing themselves in the general direction of the door.

The dean held a whispered consultation with his assistant, then he stepped forward and demanded attention. “I have once forbidden you, Danjel Andreasson, to meddle in anything pertaining to the ministry. You persist in your excesses and it is therefore necessary now to treat you according to the letter of the law. The same holds true for the others who have broken the sacramental law here tonight.

“But I beg you to think of your eternal salvation. Each one of you who regrets his transgressions, and recalls them, will be again received by me into the fold of the church. I cannot be responsible to my God unless I do all I can to save you from eternal fire.”

He now had tears in his eyes.

Ulrika of Västergöhl threw looks of hatred toward the spiritual guide of the parish. “We have our Redeemer here among us. We don’t have to hang on to the coat tails of a priest. To hell with you!” She spat.

“You blaspheme, woman!” Pastor Krusell exclaimed excitedly.

“This is our temple. Get out of the light, priests! You darken this room. You stand there black and evil like the devil himself!”

“This woman reviles the ministry!” said Pastor Krusell to the dean.

Dean Brusander turned to Ulrika of Västergöhl, in all his dignity. “I see that you have not mended your ways.” He looked at the wine mug in front of her, and repugnance and loathing crept into his voice: “You harlot, how dare you take Christ’s blood into your foul mouth!”

“I do as I damn well please, you God-damned priest!”

Brusander recoiled. He took a step backward and sucked in his breath; he mustn’t lose his head.

The churchwarden, Per Persson, stepped forward to help the parish pastor. He shouted to Ulrika: “How dare you insult the dean!”

“Watch out! I might insult the warden, too!”

“Before you speak to our clergy you should wash out your mouth!”

“How? With parsonage brännvin or priest piss?”

“Shut up, you old whore!”

“Whore? Did you call me a whore?”

Ulrika jumped up so abruptly her chair overturned with a great clatter. Her whole body shook, her eyes flashed with rage, and she screamed at the warden: “A whore? To you, Per Persson? You call me a whore, you old son of a bitch?”

“What are you talking about, woman?”

“A whore to you, Warden? What was it you used to say in the old days, when you came with a daler in one hand and your cock in the other?”

“Shut up! Insane creature!” roared Per Persson with the full strength of his lungs.

“What was it you said then? When you wanted me to lie on my back for you — for just a little while? Then you came crawling, then you asked, and begged, and fawned! Then I was good enough for you! Then the whore was good enough!”

By now words stuck in the throat of the churchwarden, and he could no longer answer Ulrika. But she drew breath to gather new strength.

Complete silence ensued after this exchange of words. The soldier Pihl and Sissa Svensdotter looked at the dean in malicious joy. The dean and assistant pastor looked at each other in bewilderment, and the sheriff stood open-mouthed and looked from the Åkerby warden to the fuming woman.

Danjel remained quiet and stared at the floor, waiting for the foul weather to pass.

Someone began to weep — it was Ulrika’s daughter; Inga-Lena moved her chair closer and comforted Elin.

Ulrika’s shrill voice was heard again: “That whoring son of a bitch Per Persson is not denied the sacrament in church. Why? Because he is a good friend of the God-damned priests — those black devils who darken the light for us! Those lazy potbellies who live in their fat flesh!”

The dean and his assistant were still silent and irresolute, shocked by Ulrika’s explosion. Per Persson shook his fisted hands as though he would grab her throat.

Sheriff Lönnegren did not interfere in the exchange of words between Ulrika and the churchwarden; experience gained from many hard years in office had taught him not to argue with whores; it led nowhere. And he felt no sympathy for Per Persson, whose lust for power made him difficult. He did not begrudge the warden this humiliation. And he experienced a great relief as he stood here and recalled a happening of many years ago, in his youth. One evening while drunk and reckless he had been on his way to Ulrika’s cottage — on the same errand as Per Persson and many other men; the devil must have guided his steps. But Ulrika had not been at home; she had accompanied some caller a bit on his way, and he had had to return without having effected his purpose. An act of providence had averted his undertaking and sent the woman away at the right moment. Now he could bless this act of providence, he could thank God he didn’t have to suffer disgrace from the mouth of the harlot here this evening.

The dean felt Ulrika had spoken the truth about his warden. He knew already that she had misled many honest and upright men, and with her body enticed them into her nest of sin, but this was not the right time or place to divulge the truth and lay bare Per Persson’s debaucheries, his much-to-be-regretted youthful dissipations. Here the truth was not used in its right place; it became a raw insult to a trusted and well-thought-of man. But nothing could excuse or forgive the rude words (to say the least) which the sinful woman had used.

Brusander went over to the sheriff. “You must put a stop to this painful and shameful scene.” By the strength of his office Lönnegren must disperse the gathering and send those present on their way.

The sheriff did not ask for anything better than to conclude his unpleasant mission here tonight. Danjel Andreasson had admitted his offense, the names of his accessories were inscribed, and he had nothing more to do in this house.

“In the name of the law I now order this meeting to disperse. Each go quietly to his own house!”

The bailiff said the neighbors had already left after giving their names and places of residence. Those remaining here belonged to the farm. In the words of the law the meeting was already dispersed.

But before Brusander left he had something to say still to the master of the house: “I strictly forbid you to continue Communions at this table.”

“You cannot forbid the Lord Jesus my house, Mr. Dean,” said Danjel.

“Who has told you that the Lord is here?”

“He has shown Himself to me in my heart.”

“You think all your whims are inspirations from God. I assure you they are from the devil!”

The warden Per Persson interrupted, still red-faced from anger: “We’ll throw out the Kärragärde devil, we’ll get rid of him when you, Danjel, are in prison on bread and water!”

Danjel had spoken to Ulrika in a fatherly way, silencing her. His words had power over her. But now the fiery woman could contain herself no longer. “Get out, you God-damned priests!”

And Soldier Pihl added in a rasping voice: “Leave the house of the righteous and repair yourselves to the sinners’ den!”

Pastor Krusell had a more easily disturbed temper than the dean, and he now exclaimed: “This is enough! Are we to accept such insults?”

It looked as if a new row were to ensue. Danjel admonished his people to keep quiet. To make sure, he reached for the psalmodikon and began singing a hymn:

“Let me live in peace and stillness

Giving to no soul offense;

Pain or pleasure, health or illness

Take I from Thy providence.

Never wounding, ever healing,

Thus a Christly life revealing.”

And all the Åkians joined in:

“Here my cross with patience bearing,

I will go where Jesus leads,

All enduring, all forbearing. .”

Danjel and his flock continued the hymn, verse after verse, as if no outsider were present in the room. Dean Brusander several times attempted unsuccessfully to make himself heard above the singing. He said to his assistant, for these hardened people nothing could be done. Lönnegren had performed his duty and was ready to leave with his men, who, he thought, might as well have stayed at home; vaguely it seemed to him that Danjel in his unshakable belief was in some way beyond the reach of the secular authorities.

All the intruders had left before the psalm was ended.

Danjel went outside on the porch: both the dean’s and the sheriff’s sleighs were gone. He locked his door for the second time this night; then he went back to his place at the upper end of the table. With sadness he gazed on the four empty chairs at the Communion table, lately vacated by his neighbors. Fear of worldly authority had been too much for them; they had not been steadfast in their faith; they had deserted their Lord and Master. As Peter once denied Jesus to the servant of the High Priest, in like manner Danjel’s neighbors had denied him to Sheriff Lönnegren.

Danjel Andreasson comforted the devoted followers who still remained with him: the time of persecution was upon them; they should thank the Lord Jesus that they were chosen, thank Him for the joy of suffering for His sake.

So the farmer of Kärragärde once more reached for the tin mug which served as chalice, and which had remained in front of Ulrika of Västergöhl; he held it to her mouth: “Jesus Christ, Whose blood you drink. .”

Christ was still there, they felt His presence, and this was a holy place.

— 3—

At Konga County spring court, 1849, homeowner Danjel Andreasson of Kärragärde was fined two hundred daler in silver for transgressing the sacrament law and the ordinance pertaining to unlawful meetings. Those who had received the Holy Communion in his house were fined one hundred daler silver each. As most of the offenders were without funds and unable to pay, the fines were changed to prison sentences and each one served twenty-eight days on bread and water.

Six of the condemned — former soldier Pihl, maid Sissa Svensdotter, and four neighbors — returned to the fold of the church after serving their sentences. They expressed to Dean Brusander their deep repentance over their errors. Since they again confessed the only true and right religion, they were admitted to Communion with the rest of the congregation.

Only Ulrika of Västergöhl and her daughter remained in Kärragärde to follow the teachings of their master. Through the sentence of the county court Danjel’s little flock had been scattered. No new followers came to him. The danger of Åkianism in the parish was averted — with God’s help, and through the assistance of the secular authorities.

IX. THE AMERICA CHEST

— 1—

A whole year passed during which Karl Oskar and Kristina made preparations for their emigration, feeling as if they were already on the move. There was so much to do and to think about they could not sink too deeply into sorrow over their dead child.

Karl Oskar let it be announced from the church pulpit that his farm was for sale. News soon spread through the parish that the farmer of Korpamoen intended to move away from the country, intended to emigrate to North America, taking with him wife, children, and his only brother. There was much talk in the village about this strange projected undertaking. Whence had he got the amazing notion? Serious-minded older peasants shook their heads and came up to Karl Oskar on the church green on Sundays. To one who was younger they could speak as father to son, and they wished now — with the best of intentions — to dissuade him; how could he relinquish his farm, the parental home whose deed he had, and reach out for land in faraway North America, a country which neither he nor anyone else had seen? Wasn’t it like trying to catch the will-o’-the-wisp on a misty morning? The project seemed rash to them; he would enter into a dangerous game in which he might win a little, but lose all; this they must tell him as older and more experienced farmers. It was not that he was forced to give up his farm. The sheriff had been to many farms this last year but he had not yet come to take anything in pawn from Korpamoen. Many were harder pressed on their farms than he, yet they remained at home.

Karl Oskar answered proudly that he acted according to his own good judgment, and after much thought. He understood well enough that a peasant who had tilled his farm some fifty years might think himself ten times wiser and more experienced than he, who had worked Korpamoen only five years. But did anyone gain in wisdom from living on the same place and tramping in the same furrows all his life? If a man’s wisdom increased because he remained all his life on the patch where he was born, then the oldest farmers in the parish should by now possess more wisdom than King Solomon himself. But the fact was that most of them were squareheads.

Karl Oskar was considered arrogant and proud when he rejected his neighbors’ kind advice. His emigration was taken as a reproach, an insult even, to the parish as a whole and to each individual: the community and the people here were not good enough for him. The old story of the Nilsa-nose was remembered; Karl Oskar’s big nose protruded so far that he was unable to turn about in the parish. The whole of Sweden was not large enough to house his nose — he must travel to a bigger country, far away in the world, in order to be comfortable. And some wit started a saying which spread through the village: when Karl Oskar came to North America, his face too would be long.

Perhaps he thought himself such a bigwig that he could look down on his home community? Others surmised something wrong in his head; he was seized by a delusion of grandeur. Such ideas didn’t suit a one-sixteenth homestead peasant.

Karl Oskar knew that people poked fun at him and spoke ill behind his back. But he didn’t bother to get angry; after all, he tried to please himself, not others. If you spent your time worrying about what other people thought and said, you wouldn’t get much done in your life. Outside his home everyone was against his proposed undertaking; even within his home, only his wife was for him; but she was the only one he needed on his side. His parents were against him, though they kept silent. Their reserved rights would now have to be met by an outsider, and this was not to their liking.

Once only did Nils quietly reproach his son: “You take many along with you.”

“There will be six of us.”

“You take many more. Your descendants are more numerous than you know.”

Karl Oskar did not answer. He felt the grief he caused in taking the family from their own country to a foreign land.

“You have not asked the opinion of children and grandchildren,” continued the father.

“I must be the one to assume responsibility. I do think of my children.”

Nils sat on his chair, his fingers twisting the well-worn crutch handles; he answered softly: “I too think of my children.”

He had but two sons.

Karl Oskar understood his father, who now asked himself of what use it had been for him to clear the ground here in Korpamoen, when this ground was now no longer good enough for his own son. Those twenty-five years of fighting the stones must now seem to him a futile strife, as it did not benefit either of his sons.

His mother thought Karl Oskar showed a sinful ingratitude by discounting his gain here at home. He had done nothing wrong, he was not driven by the whip to flee the country. But neither she nor Nils wasted much time in persuasion — they knew Karl Oskar. They turned to the Almighty in prayers that He might change their son’s mind and make him give up the American journey.

Time passed — a summer sped by, and an autumn, and winter came again. But their prayers brought no apparent sign of change in Karl Oskar. Nils and Märta concluded at length that God had some secret purpose in their son’s and daughter-in-law’s emigration to the United States of North America.

— 2—

Robert returned home for his “free week” after a year’s service with Kristina’s parents in Duvemåla, where he had been treated well and given no chastisement. No one thought the sheriff would look for him any further and he remained in the parental home; Karl Oskar would need his brother’s help this last year on the farm.

With Robert the United States also moved into the peasant cottage. From his “description book” he knew everything about the new land. Long ago he had landed on the other side of the ocean and made himself at home on distant shores. On the map which he had made up in his mind were marked the lakes, rivers, plains, and mountains of North America, all roads, on land and on water. He insisted he would not get lost in the New World once he arrived there, and now he must help his brother and sister-in-law to find their way. Karl Oskar, too, had begun to read in his brother’s book, and every day he obtained new information from Robert.

In America the kine fed on a grass that stood belly-high.

In America wild horses and oxen existed by the thousands, the fields were overrun with them and one could easily catch a hundred in a day.

In America it would have been impossible for David to kill Goliath; if he had searched forever he would have been unable to find a stone for his sling.

In America one could say “thou” to the President himself, and one need never remove one’s cap for him, if one didn’t wish to.

In America any capable and honest man could step directly from the manure wagon to the presidential throne.

In America there was only one class, the people’s class, and only one nobility — the nobility of honest work.

In America there were no taxes and no examinations in the catechism.

In America you need not pay the minister’s salary if you did not like his sermons.

All sounded too good to be true, and during the long winter evenings Robert read to his brother and sister-in-law about the strange roads of iron which existed throughout the United States:

“In America one travels a great deal with the help of steam and steam wagons, but for this are required roads which are built in a peculiar way and which are called iron roads or railroads. Such a road must be almost even and practically level. On the road are placed crossbars of wood and to these are tied strong iron rails which serve to guide the wagons. The wagon wheels have on their inside a rim all the way around which forces them to follow the rail on the road.

“On such roads one travels with great speed, twelve to eighteen miles an hour, nay, even faster. Several big wagons are tied together and pulled by a steam wagon, or that wagon on which the steam engine is placed. At the end of each wagon is a small bridge which enables the traveler to pass from one wagon to another during the journey, should he desire to speak to an acquaintance. Every wagon has a comfort room which makes it unnecessary to leave the wagon even on a long journey.

“These railroads, where with the help of steam one can enjoy a comfortable and inspiring journey, have now in America a length of 8,000 miles. . ”

Kristina said: “It will be fun to ride with no beast pulling the wagon!”

She enjoyed riding in all kinds of vehicles, and in spite of her years she most of all, still, enjoyed swinging on a rope. Only a few days ago Karl Oskar had surprised her in the threshing barn, where she had again fastened the ox-thong to the beams and sat riding the swing.

There was now something she wondered about: “How can they steer the wagons when the railroad is snowed under in wintertime?”

“I don’t know,” said Robert, “perhaps they stable the wagons during the winter.”

The book also said that no steam wagons were in use on Sundays. The drivers were at church, of course; and maybe the steam also needed rest to gather strength.

“I wonder about those iron rails,” said Karl Oskar. “They lie without guards in the wilderness, night and day. Isn’t the iron stolen?”

Robert told him with a superior smile, there was such an abundance of iron in America that no one cared to steal as much as the filings of a saw. And it was the same with gold and silver. Why should people steal and go to jail when they had more than they needed of everything? In America it was so easy to earn one’s living in an honest way that no one was tempted to dishonesty. A thief was immediately strung up, often before he even had time to confess his crime. Therefore all thieves in that country were now exterminated. The gentry here at home lied in saying that North America was full of robbers and murderers and wickedness, when in truth it was populated by the most honest and upright people in the whole world.

“They must have an occasional scoundrel there, too,” Karl Oskar said.

Robert admitted that this might be so but insisted that evil people were exterminated much more quickly than here at home.

Karl Oskar wished to settle in that part of the country where soil was the most fertile. Robert had read that the best regions for farmers were around the upper end of the great river Mississippi and its tributaries. This neighborhood was fertile, healthy, and rich in forests and beautiful mountains, in valleys and spring waters. The grass thereabouts was so abundant that in two days a man could cut and harvest sufficient winter fodder for a cow, and in three days enough for a horse. One farmer who had cultivated land on the Mississippi shores had in five years earned a bushel of gold.

Kristina did not wish to live in a place where there were crocodiles. Recently she had read in a paper a horrible tale about a settler family in America who had happened to spend a night in a cave where crocodiles were nesting. Early in the morning the man went out to hunt, and when he returned his wife and three children had been eaten by the crocodiles. The old crocodile had just swallowed the wife: only the head of the poor woman was still visible in the mouth of the beast, who had choked and lay there dead; the ground was drenched in human blood. Kristina could not forget the poor mother watching the crocodile feast on her small children while she was waiting her turn. But of course the woman had taken revenge by choking the beast with her own head.

Robert had never read about man-eating crocodiles in America; the piece in the paper must have been a lie; some duke or count must have had it printed to discourage simple folk from emigration.

Arvid, whom Robert had met again, had also been afraid of wild beasts in America. He had had to leave his service in Nybacken; Aron did not wish to keep a servant called the Bull. The old mistress was dead and Arvid was sure she came back to him in the stable room, accusing him of having tried to kill her — which indeed was true — so he had moved without regret. But he had asked at many farms before he found work; he was known everywhere as the Bull from Nybacken. At last he was hired by Danjel in Kärragärde, who was unable to find another hand this winter. All servants were afraid of the place now that the devil had moved in there. People had actually seen the Evil One hanging to the back of Danjel’s wagon as he drove along the roads; sometimes he even occupied the seat next to the driver, laughing and pleased. The devil was now the real master on that farm.

Arvid was saving every penny of his wages for his transportation to America. For a whole month he had bought no brännvin. Long before his confirmation he had learned to chew snuff (although children weren’t supposed to use it before they had participated in the Lord’s Supper); he would save three daler a year if he stopped, and this would help him a bit on the road to America. He realized he must give up some things in the Old World to make possible his move to the New; so he had thrown his snuffbox on the dunghill.

But giving up the box was difficult for Arvid. It had been good company for him, he had carried it in his pocket and enjoyed its contents. It had been a loyal companion in work and loneliness. The snuffbox had been his only friend after Robert moved. And now he had thrown it away — into the depths of the dunghill. He felt his pain keenly when others brought forth their boxes and used them without offering him a pinch: then he had to turn away to escape the sight of the refreshing mixture.

He admitted to Robert that after three weeks of suffering he had bought a new snuffbox. And again he bought half a gallon of brännvin each Saturday night. For at last he had clearly understood that a person had no right to treat his God-given body according to his own will; he had no right to torture and plague it and deny it all its pleasures; one could not treat one’s body like a dog, denying it even the comfort of snuff.

Would Arvid ever follow him on the road to America? Robert did not believe so; apparently, in one year and a half, he had not saved a single daler; in his whole life he would be unable to save two hundred daler.

But in Korpamoen everything was now being put in order.

One day the Nilsa family’s old clothes chest — of solid oak painted black — was pulled forward from its place in a cobweb-infested corner of the attic, and carried down into the kitchen for inspection and dusting. No one knew how old this chest was — the hands which made it were mixed with the earth of the churchyard many hundreds of years ago. It had passed from father to son through numerous generations. More than one young bridegroom had entrusted his finery to it after the wedding feast, more than once had the farm’s women fetched winding sheets from it when there was a corpse in the house to shroud. Under the lid of the chest valuable things had been secreted; this lid had been lifted by the shaking hands of old women, and by young, strong, maiden fingers. It had been approached mostly at life’s great happenings: baptisms, weddings, and funerals. This enduring piece of furniture had through centuries followed the family, and at last been pushed away into a dark attic corner where it had long remained undisturbed. Now it was pulled out into the daylight once more; it was the roomiest and strongest packing case they could find — five feet long and three feet high, wrought with strong iron bands three fingers wide.

In its old age the Nilsa family clothes chest must go out into the world and travel.

It was tested in its joints, and the still-sound oak boards passed the inspection. It was scrubbed clean inside, and old rust scraped from hinges and escutcheons. After timeless obscurity the heavy, clumsy thing was unexpectedly honored again. From its exile in attic darkness it was now honored with the foremost place in the house. The chest had been half forgotten, years had passed without its lid being lifted; now it became the family’s most treasured piece of furniture, the only one to accompany them on the journey.

The four oak walls of this chest were for thousands of miles to enclose and protect their essentials; to these planks would be entrusted most of their belongings. Again the old adage, “Old is reliable and best,” was proved. And the ancient clothes chest which was about to pass into an altogether new and eventful epoch of its history was even given a new name in its old age. Through its new name it was set apart from all its equals and from all other belongings. It was called the “America chest,” the first so named in this whole region.

— 3—

One night Karl Oskar was awakened by a noise from without. Kristina also woke up and asked: “What can it be?”

He listened. “Someone at the door.”

Now they both heard knocking.

“Who can it be at this time of night?”

“I’ll go and see.”

Karl Oskar pulled on his trousers and lit a stick of pitch wood to light his way in the entrance hall. Robert too had awakened, and came from the kitchen where he slept. He asked in trepidation if it mightn’t be the sheriff. .? Rumor had it that Aron of Nybacken was still urging the sheriff to catch his runaway farmhand.

“I’ll warn you before I open,” assured the brother.

But there was no fierce, threatening sheriff to answer his question when Karl Oskar inquired as to who was knocking; it was a kind and friendly voice — Danjel of Kärragärde stood on the stoop.

“God give you peace in your house, Karl Oskar.”

Robert felt relieved; but he was curious.

Karl Oskar, surprised at this late visit, let his wife’s relative into the house. In the light of his fire stick he looked at the grandfather’s clock in the corner: it showed half-past twelve. Something serious must have happened.

Kristina was both pleased and alarmed; she hurried out of bed and put on her skirt and night jacket; she took her uncle’s hand and curtsied. Karl Oskar pulled up a chair for him and he sat down. His errand must be urgent, and they waited for him to communicate it at once, but he acted as if there were no hurry. As usual, he was slow and calm in his movements.

Kristina remembered that Inga-Lena only lately had given birth to a child, and had been seriously ill at the time.

“Is something wrong at home? With my aunt perhaps?”

“No. All is well with wife and child.”

Inga-Lena had borne him a daughter since the couple’s marriage had again become a true marriage.

Their curiosity increased. Why did Danjel disturb them at this late hour if nothing serious had happened?

“Has something. .?”

“I have a message for you, Karl Oskar.”

“A message?”

“Yes.”

“From whom?”

“From God.”

“From God?”

Karl Oskar and Kristina exchanged quick glances.

“The Lord awakened me tonight and said: ‘Go at once to Karl Oskar in Korpamoen, the husband of your sister’s beloved daughter.’”

Karl Oskar looked closer at Danjel but could see no sign of agitation or trouble in his face; his eyes were not bloodshot like a madman’s.

“Now you must listen, Karl Oskar. I come with an order from God.”

Robert crept into the room and sat in a corner near the hearth, listening to the strange message brought by the peasant of Kärragärde.

Danjel continued, and it seemed as if he took his words directly from the Bible.

“Last night the Lord said unto me, Danjel Andreasson, as He once said unto Abraham: ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee!’

“The Spirit exhorted me to look up Genesis, Chapter Twelve, verse one, and obey the words written therein. I arose from my bed and lit a candle and read. Then I asked: ‘How shall this come about?’ Tonight the Spirit gave me the answer: ‘Go to Karl Oskar in Korpamoen. He will show you and help you.’”

Had Danjel entirely lost his mind? Karl Oskar and Kristina wondered. His actions were calm and his eyes peaceful and mild. His words were strange, but not confused, and gradually it all fitted together and took on meaning; soon they could guess his errand.

The dean had reconciled many of the Åkians with the church again but had been unable to bring Danjel back to the right religion. At the fall session of the county court last year he had been cited for a second offense, and again fined for preaching his heresy. But disregarding the court’s judgments at two hearings, he had continued fearlessly to hold Bible meetings and administer the holy sacrament in his home. Again this spring he had been summoned to appear in court for the third offense, and people were sure that this time Danjel would be exiled.

Kristina clapped her hands in delight. “Uncle, are you coming with us to America?”

Danjel rose and went up to his niece, laying both hands upon her shoulders, as if in blessing. “I live in a time of persecution in the land of my fathers. I am prevented from confessing my God. But the Lord shall open for me a new land.”

“You mean America, Uncle?”

“Yes. God has so ordered it: we shall move there together. And none shall have fear; He is with us. I bring my God with me.”

Kristina forgot that a moment ago she had feared their tardy visitor was mad. Now he was just her dear Uncle Danjel, whom she knew well. When she was a little girl and he had visited her home he had always had lumps of sugar in his pockets for her; he was still so kind to her, twice he had helped them with the mortgage interest. Without his aid they might not now be in possession of the farm. No one could make her believe her uncle was an evil, dangerous man who should be exiled. His peculiar ideas in religion should be left undisturbed — he hurt no one but himself with them.

It gave her a feeling of security to know that Danjel would accompany them on the long journey to America, a journey which secretly still worried her. She felt almost as though her own father were to go with them.

Now she must prepare coffee for her uncle, from the few ounces left of the pound she had bought for Christmas. She stirred up the fire on the hearth, washed out the old coffee grounds from the kettle, and placed it on the tripod over the fire.

Karl Oskar was not as well pleased as his wife at the prospect of Danjel and his Åkians’ company; their religious peculiarities would cause inconveniences and trouble, he thought. And when Kristina learned that Danjel was to take along Ulrika of Västergöhl and her daughter — now his only followers outside the family — she too lost some of her enthusiasm. She could not believe that the old whore had become a new person, and decent people ought to be spared the companionship of Ulrika’s ilk. She hoped to dissuade her uncle from paying that creature’s passage.

Danjel had fulfilled his errand: Karl Oskar would — according to God’s command — help him find a passage to the land the Lord would open to His exiled apostle.

Whether God ordered it or not, Karl Oskar was anxious to help Danjel find his way. Besides, he was indebted to him for help with the loan, and was prepared to assist him in return.

Harald, the year-old baby, awakened and began to cry. Kristina had to sit down and take him in her arms to quiet him; Karl Oskar tended the coffee while he talked with Danjel about the crossing to North America.

Spring was the most favorable time to emigrate: partly because the winter storms were over and it was less cold at sea, partly because they would arrive at their place of settlement early enough in summer to till and sow; they must have a fall harvest to meet winter needs. They ought to start their voyage in early April. Karl Oskar and Robert had already written to a firm in Karlshamn and been promised passage on a ship called the Charlotta. A down payment of one hundred daler for the transportation of six people had been required, and he had sent them this sum. Their ship was a merchant vessel sailing with cargo and emigrants. They were to embark in Karlshamn about the second week in April. They would sail to the town of New York in North America, without docking at any harbor on the way — it was best to sail direct. The Charlotta was said to be a good strong ship, commanded by an honest, upright captain who did not cheat his passengers.

Robert would write for Danjel and obtain contract for his passage, too, if the ship had space for more.

“How many of you will there be from Kärragärde?”

Danjel thought a moment. “Nine — including children and house folk.”

“Is your hired hand to be shipped too?”

“Arvid? Yes, I’ve promised him.”

“Well, he might be of help to you in America.”

Robert listened and smiled to himself; he had anticipated Danjel’s errand, had not been so much surprised by it as Karl Oskar. Yesterday he had met Arvid, who, in exchange for promises of secrecy, had related his master’s offer; he had shed tears of joy.

As the patriarch Abraham when he was seventy-five years old departed with all his household out of Haran to the land of Canaan, so now the homeowner Danjel Andreasson at the age of forty-five was to depart with all his house folk from Sweden to North America. Robert knew his Biblical history: the patriarch Abraham had no children because his wife Sarah was as barren as the mistress of Nybacken, and he took along many souls whom he fed in his house, the same as Danjel. Abraham was afraid of being killed in the foreign land because of his beautiful wife; therefore he passed her off as his sister. He was a coward; Danjel would never behave like that. Of course, Inga-Lena was not a fair woman; it was hardly to be supposed that some American would murder Danjel in order to marry his widow.

In some ways God’s order concerning the emigration remained foggy; He could hardly have referred to the United States when He spoke of the land in the Bible verse, because Columbus had not yet discovered America in the days of Abraham. Danjel must have misunderstood, but there would be no use in correcting him, thought Robert. Danjel had heard that Karl Oskar was to emigrate, and he wanted to emigrate with him as long as he was to be exiled anyway. Now he believed the idea was God’s command. But no doubt he was honest in his false belief.

“Ill write about passage tomorrow,” Robert promised him.

As they talked further he was amazed to learn how little Danjel knew about America; the farmer from Kärragärde was only familiar with the word “America,” he knew only that it was the name of another continent, he had not heard of the United States, did not even know where the continent was situated. He knew nothing of its people, government, climate, agriculture, or means of livelihood. Danjel needed enlightenment, and as they sat around the table and drank their coffee Robert tried to share with him his own knowledge of the country where they would settle.

The United States was located southwest of Sweden. To reach it one must sail across a sea that was about four thousand miles wide. With good wind and a speedy ship one might cross in five weeks. But unfortunately the wind on the ocean was mostly westerly, blowing straight against the ship, thus requiring eight or nine weeks for the crossing. At times contrary winds might be so persistent that three months would pass before reaching America.

Danjel listened patiently and with a benevolent smile to the seventeen-year-old boy; the lad sat like a schoolmaster and taught a pupil of ripe age. The peasant stroked his beard, brushing away the crumbs that clung there, and said with conviction: They need not fear contrary winds for the crossing; the All-High ordering him to depart would see to it that they were not delayed by the weather. No winds except favorable ones would blow in their sails; their ship would require only a month of sailing to North America. The Almighty would surely shorten their voyage as much as He could.

Karl Oskar remembered that the Konga spring court convened toward the end of April; Danjel would be out of the country when the sentence of exile was pronounced.

The farmer of Kärragärde had paid huge sums of money in fines for his Bible meetings, and Karl Oskar could not help saying: “It’s none of my business, Danjel, but why don’t you stop holding meetings when they are unlawful?”

Danjel looked up in surprise. “Stop holding them? I?”

“Well. . yes. No one else can do it.”

“But you must know that I myself do not live any more?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hm. . I thought you knew.”

“No. I don’t understand a bit any more.”

“I don’t live in myself any longer — Christ lives in me.”

“But you do the Bible explaining?”

“No-o.” Danjel smiled kindly and said in his meek way: “I myself do nothing more here in the flesh. Because I do not exist now as before. Christ has taken my place; He does all through me, and is responsible for me. He holds Bible explanations through my mouth. I need not be afraid of anything; what do I care about worldly courts and judges? They cannot hurt me; nothing can hurt me here in the flesh where I no longer live.”

Again Karl Oskar and Kristina were confused, wondering how it was with Danjel’s mind. Kristina poured some more coffee for him; for a moment there was silence around the table.

Danjel turned to Karl Oskar. “Where do you intend to spend eternity?”

That was a peculiar question, nor did Karl Oskar bother to answer it. He thought Danjel spoke clearly enough of worldly doings, but when he dealt with spiritual things he turned queer; there was no object in arguing with him.

The peasant of Kärragärde continued: All of them sitting here around the table tonight, all their sin-bodies, that is, had died on the cross with Christ. He himself had carried his dead and rotten body for many years, until one night two years ago, when it fell off like a dirty rag, and Christ moved in in its place. His dear relatives should understand that the Saviour would not move into them as long as they carried their sin-bodies, their old rotten remains. They must understand that Christ would not dwell in them before they were reborn, before they had laid off their sour old bodies. Who would wish to live in a house that stank of cadavers, of corpses?

No one answered this amazing speech. Danjel rose abruptly from the table, saying he now would leave.

Robert had wished to teach him something about the New World; as an emigrant he needed knowledge of the United States. But Danjel said before he left that, about those things in America which were useful for him to know, the Lord would no doubt enlighten him before he set out on his voyage.

Karl Oskar reflected, as he returned to bed, that he was now no longer alone in his strongly criticized venture. There were now two homeowners. And Danjel was giving up a farm many times larger and better than Korpamoen. That thought was comforting.

Of course, he must admit, he must sadly admit, that he considered his companion a little unbalanced.

— 4—

And so it happened in those days that another old chest, in another attic, on another farm, was dragged forth, inspected, dusted, scrubbed, and put in order — another America chest, the second.

Only a month before their scheduled departure Jonas Petter of Hästebäck came to Korpamoen one evening to warn Robert: his neighbor had met Sheriff Lönnegren, who asked whether the hired hand had come home. Aron of Nybacken insisted that his servant be returned; the boy might try escaping to America when his brother left.

This message did not surprise Karl Oskar, who knew that Aron harbored an intense hatred toward him. For a few minutes once he had inflicted the greatest fear possible on Aron; now his hatred sought revenge on Robert: the farmer of Nybacken would try to prevent the boy’s emigration.

Karl Oskar said it would be safest for Robert to keep out of the sheriff’s reach during the remaining weeks.

Tears came into Robert’s eyes. He had been afraid to appear in public since he returned home; together with other deserters in the parish recently he had been rebuked from the pulpit. The dean had preached a sermon about “unfaithful servants” who deserted their masters and set themselves up against God’s ordinances; he had said that disobedient farmhands were spots of shame on a Christian community. Robert had felt so much disgraced that he never went out in public, and spoke to no one except Arvid, who also was disgraced although in another way.

Now he said that rather than return to Nybacken he would go to the mill brook, and this time it wouldn’t be his jacket and shoes only. Perhaps that really was the fate awaiting him: a farmhand drowned in the mill brook.

Jonas Petter spoke comfortingly: Lönnegren didn’t wish to harm any poor devil; he was sure to look for Robert in his home only. The sheriff never bothered more than was necessary about deserters. Robert should come with him to Hästebäck. There he would be safe till it was time to leave. “And I promise to hide you if the sheriff comes,” the neighbor assured Robert.

Karl Oskar advised his brother to accept the offer: “Dry your tears and go with Jonas Petter!”

Robert felt ashamed of having cried, grown-up as he was, but his heart ached at this thought: “Suppose. . suppose I couldn’t get away.”

He obeyed his brother and departed with the obliging neighbor.

Jonas Petter sat down to supper in the kitchen at Hästebäck, and asked Robert to join him. He took out the brännvin jug and poured two equally tall drinks for them: the boy was a man now. And Robert was eager to take a drink, perhaps two or three, for brännvin seemed to silence the humming sound in his left ear, which still bothered him. He had lost his hearing almost entirely in that ear, yet he heard a sound which no one else could hear. Perhaps it would never leave him, perhaps this echo from Aron’s box would hum as long as he lived.

Brita-Stafva, the farm wife, came in from the byre carrying her wooden milk pails. She was a knotty woman, with hard, manly features. Dark shadows of an unmistakable beard covered her lips, and there was also a tuft of hair on the tip of her chin. A woman with a beard aroused fear in some way. Jonas Petter had a bushy, black beard, yet Robert did not fear him. But those thin hairs on the wife’s chin made him uncomfortable; they were outside the norm. All children were afraid of Brita-Stafva.

She put down her pails and eyed the boy sullenly. But the look she then turned on her husband was hardly sullen: it was more — evil, full of hatred. Jonas Petter never tried to hide the fact that he and his wife lived on bad terms.

The men at the table drank their brännvin. Brita-Stafva said sharply, looking at Robert: “The sheriff’s carriage just passed.”

“Oh yes, my boy, he went to Korpamoen. Now you see, lad, we were lucky not to meet him!”

Robert lost interest in the food but he drank the brännvin. The roar in his ear was violent tonight, almost frightening him.

“Eat, lad. Don’t be afraid,” Jonas Petter encouraged him. “I’ve a safe hiding place if the sheriff comes here and asks for you.”

Brita-Stafva was busy straining the evening milk; when she heard that the sheriff’s passing might concern Robert, she became curious and looked questioningly at him. He felt ill at ease under her gaze, he could not help looking at the beard-tuft on her chin.

Jonas Petter poured himself more drinks; his eyes were taking on a blank look.

“Lönnegren is a decent sheriff,” he said. “Sharp in his words but he’s a hell of a nice fellow. I’ve known him since he was a boy — he’s the son of the ‘Stump of Orranäs.’”

“I’ve heard about that farmer,” said Robert, mostly to say something. “Why was he called the Stump?”

“How did he get the nickname? I’ll tell you, my boy!”

Jonas Petter glanced in the direction of his wife, busy with the milk pans; he was by now quite lively from all the brännvin.

“It’s an amazing story. It’s a story of a woman who sharpened a knife.”

At these last words a rattle from the milk strainer was heard. The farm wife had made a quick movement. It was almost dark where she stood in the hearth corner, but Robert noticed that her head jerked at her husband’s words.

He also had noticed that the couple had exchanged no words.

Jonas Petter knew of all unusual happenings which had taken place in Konga County within the last hundred years; he was now about to tell Robert how it came to be that Sheriff Lönnegren’s father was called the Stump.

A Story About a Wife Who Sharpened a Knife

The farmer of Orranäs was christened Isak, Jonas Petter began. He was known far and wide because he was crazy about women, and often led astray by them. He couldn’t keep his hands off a woman who was shaped well enough to be used by a man. It didn’t matter what her face was like, whether she was spotted and marred by smallpox, harelipped, warp-mouthed, or with any other defect; Isak would try to seduce her. He was married and in his own conjugal bed he had a plump, good-looking wife to play with. But this didn’t diminish his desire to visit other marital beds; neither married nor unmarried women were safe from him. He had a strange power over women, perhaps from the devil, perhaps from somewhere else. His visits to married women often had got him into trouble with offended husbands; once his arm was broken and another time his nose smashed in. But still he persisted, he still had the same power even after his nose was flattened.

His wife was exceedingly jealous of other women, and many times she threatened to leave him; but each time he promised and swore he would mend his ways and stick to his own bed. She tried to find a cure for his sinful lust through many concoctions which she mixed and gave to him — juices from roots, bitter herb porridges to cool his blood. But no matter what he ate or drank, strong as ever the whoring desire still possessed him.

There was, however, one successful cure for him, a cruel and horrible cure, and his wife finally administered it.

One day she told their hired man that she wanted a cutting knife sharpened: she needed it to cut old rags. He believed her, of course, and sharpened the knife as she herself pulled the grindstone.

In bed that evening Isak as usual sought his wife; he attended to her as often as she could wish, and never neglected her for other women. And it seemed now as ever that she was willing; he had no suspicions, poor man. He did not know that his wife had sharpened a knife and hidden it under the mattress.

As the husband now was ready she took out her knife and cut off his implement, root and branch.

Isak fainted and bled in streams. His wife had in advance sent for a blood stancher, who arrived at the house immediately after the occurrence. He now did what he could for the injured one, and the wife, also in advance, had made concoctions from skvattram and bloodroot, which herbs were used to stop bleeding from injuries. Together they stanched the wound of her husband before he became conscious.

The wife then nursed Isak with much love and care till his recovery.

Nor was it known that the couple became unfriendly toward each other because of her action; they lived together until their dying days.

But Isak of Orranäs was never the same man after his operation; he grew slack and dull in his mind, and showed no interest in what he was doing. He neglected his farm more and more. After a few years he sold Orranäs, which consisted of half a homestead, and set himself down on reserved rights.

Ever after he kept his hands and other limbs away from women. Indifferent as a gelded steer, he had no more interest in them. From now on he lived a harmonious and pious life with his wife, to whom he was greatly devoted in his old days.

The limb which the wife had cut from her husband she dried and put away. She wanted to keep it as a souvenir. She only brought it out once in a while, when visitors came, or at some celebration or other when relatives and friends were gathered. While Isak listened in silence, she would tell how she went about it that time when she cured her husband of his sinful lust. She would also take out the Bible and refer to that place where it says a man must cut off that limb that is an offense to him in order to save his soul from eternal suffering; she had done for her husband what ought to be done, because all must agree that the limb she had relieved him of had been a great offense.

It was rumored, however, that Isak of Orranäs still had a small part left, and this led to his nickname, the Stump, concluded Jonas Petter.

— 5—

In the silence ensuing after the story’s end Robert heard his ear roar more clearly. The wife had by now finished straining the milk, and was removing the dishes from the table. Her mouth was closed in a narrow line. She had looked at her husband a few times while he was telling the story, but remained mute. Robert had not yet heard them speak to each other this evening.

Jonas Petter many times before had told him tales of women’s evil deeds, and Robert could guess why the farmer spoke so. But this, as far as Robert knew, was the first time his own wife had been listening.

It was a cruel fate that had overtaken Isak of Orranäs, and Robert thought he must be careful before he lay down with a woman — he must always feel under the mattress to be on the safe side.

“The son who became sheriff was born many years before this,” added Jonas Petter, as if this explanation were necessary.

In hearing the sheriff mentioned, Robert’s fears returned: the sheriff was on the roads, looking for him. Wouldn’t it be wise to run away and hide in the woods? His ear kept on throbbing, the brännvin could not silence that sound tonight.

Suddenly he rose: he could hear wagon wheels on the road; it must be the sheriff on his way back. Brita-Stafva, too, heard the sound of the carriage and went out on the stoop.

Jonas Petter said: “Sit down, lad! Don’t be afraid!”

Robert did sit down but he was afraid. A desperate fear filled his breast; it felt too small, it was overfull, he could not ease the pressure. It didn’t help to exhale, it was still full, it was strained and squeezed.

And a storm raged in his injured ear: Here, my little hand, here is a big box! This one you’ll remember!

If. . if he were left behind? If he weren’t allowed to go with Karl Oskar? Then the gates on the America road would never open for him.

The wagon noise from without was heard more distinctly, it came from light wheels, rolling speedily; it was a light carriage. It could be no one else but the returning sheriff.

The wife had gone outside and did not return. She had hard eyes and a beard on her chin. And she looked queerly at him. Why did she slip out as soon as she heard the carriage? What was she doing outside?

Robert moistened his dry lips with the tip of his tongue: “Jonas Petter. . She went out. . She won’t say anthing?”

“Brita-Stafva?”

“Yes.”

Robert was convinced the farm wife would betray him if in doing so she could vex her husband.

“She won’t hail him?” the youth whispered; he was short of breath.

“She should dare!”

Jonas Petter’s voice rose. He bent forward across the table toward the boy whom he had promised to protect against the sheriff. “If she dares, then I’ll sharpen the knife tonight!”

Robert stared at him, forgetting his own fear at the words of the peasant. What did he mean? Sharpen the knife? What knife?

“Sharpen the knife. .?”

“Yes. Otherwise I’d thought of doing it tomorrow.”

What did Jonas Petter intend to do? He had lived in deep discord with his wife for many years — did he intend to harm her now? Would he cut her up? What kind of knife did he want to sharpen? He was getting drunk — it could be heard and seen.

The sound of the carriage had died down, and Brita-Stafva came inside.

She said it was the churchwarden, Per Persson of Åkerby, driving by. He had been in Korpamoen to speak to Karl Oskar about the impending auction of the farm chattels.

At last Robert’s chest felt free, he could breathe easier. He poured himself another drink.

As yet this evening he had not heard the couple of Hästebäck speak to each other. Brita-Stafva now opened her tight lips, but only to eat of the potato porridge she had prepared for herself. Jonas Petter’s eyes were brännvin-bleary, he repeated in a mumble, again and again: A man, too, could sharpen a knife.

There was really no meaning to what he said: it was always the menfolk who sharpened tools, knives and such. So Robert could not understand what the farmer sitting there meant with his insinuating remarks. He could not know what was to take place the following day between the husband and wife of Hästebäck. There were to be no witnesses to these happenings — it was after Robert had gone out.

Story of a Man Who Sharpened a Knife

When they had finished their breakfast the following morning the farmer rose slowly from the table and turned to his wife, who was washing the dishes near the fire. He wanted to do some sharpening; she was to go with him and crank the grindstone; no one else was available at that moment; Robert was already in the fields.

Brita-Stafva did not answer. To answer would have been to use unnecessary words between them. After their latest great quarrel, three days of silence had passed. Today was the morning of the fourth day.

The wife dried her hands on her apron and followed her husband outside.

The grindstone stood under the large mountain ash near the barn gable. It was cool there in the shadow of the tree during hot summer days; now — in early spring — the wind howled around the corner of the house. Brita-Stafva wiped a drop from her nose-tip, while she leaned against the grindstone bench, waiting for her husband who had gone to the well.

Jonas Petter returned and poured well water into the grindstone trough. His wife took hold of the crank handle to begin.

But where was the ax? Brita-Stafva looked around; she had thought they were to sharpen an ax. A scythe wasn’t used this time of year, and she knew of nothing else that needed sharpening. She almost asked: Have you forgotten the ax? But she rememberd in time, she must not use unnecessary words. She would show her husband that she could keep silent as long as — nay, longer than — he.

Jonas Petter was not going to sharpen his ax today; he took out a knife.

His wife pulled on the handle, the grindstone turned, and the water in the trough rippled smoothly as water in a gutter. The crutch was dry, ungreased, and squeaked and whined; the peasant splashed a handful of water from the trough in its direction; the crutch, satisfied, was silent.

The wife gazed at the knife in her husband’s hand. It was a sticking knife, used in cattle slaughter. Jonas Petter had had it for years, and many pigs, sheep, and calves had given up their lives to it. It was a good knife; she had borrowed it herself at times when she needed a sharp cutting tool. Jonas Petter used to say that it was sharp-edged as a razor when newly honed.

But no slaughter was impending on the farm. They had no animal to kill. Not before October would they have slaughter again, and this was only March. If one is going to use a sticking knife in October, one doesn’t sharpen it in March. So much was sure and true.

Brita-Stafva was apprehensive; indeed, she had reason to be. And fear crept over her as she recalled the words her husband had repeated last night after telling the story of the Stump of Orranäs. Why was he sharpening this slaughter knife today?

Jonas Petter stood bent over the grindstone, his countenance dark, his lips tightly pressed together. He looked sharply in front of him, eyes focusing stubbornly on the knife edge. He was sharpening his knife and it seemed that nothing in the world existed for him except his current occupation: the sharpening of this knife.

He turned the knife and sharpened the other side of the edge, moving it back and forth across the stone, from handle to point. But his eyes did not leave the edge. His face wore an expression of determination; there was determination in his immobile position, in his bent back, in his tightly closed lips. Every part of him radiated determination. He acted like a man who had made a decision which nothing could persuade him to change in the smallest detail.

And his wife at the grindstone handle asked herself: What was he going to do with the sticking knife?

She turned the crank. The stone was not heavy. It had been large and heavy once, when it came to the farm, but after all the scythes, axes, and knives whose edges had been sharpened against it, it was now no bigger than a Christmas cheese. A child could crank it. And when the wife let out a sigh, this was not because of the heavy stone or the hard work; it was caused by something entirely different: her husband’s preoccupation.

During their marriage she had always been quick to correct him when he made mistakes. If his actions lacked common sense, or were willfully wrong, she used to tell him so; this was a wifely duty. But now he accepted her corrections no longer. She continued to point out to him all his foolish and unreasonable actions, great or small. But no more did he listen to her. He called it criticism and scolding, and he didn’t like being blamed and censured. Yet he persisted in such behavior that she was forced to show him right from wrong. Then he grew angry. At the least word from her he grew angry. She, in her turn, both upset and sad, told him the truth: he was an evil husband who cared not what she thought or felt.

Owing to his difficult nature quarrels between them occurred at shorter and shorter intervals, increased in bitterness, and began to last longer. After each quarrel the words between them seemed to dry up entirely; they went about in silence, without a syllable’s crossing their lips for days at a stretch. Even the time of silence was extended, sometimes into weeks.

How she had worried lately over his unreasonable behavior! No one knew what the devil might put into a person’s head and make him do.

It was some time ago — after an intense and long-drawn-out quarrel — that he had said: Rather than let you torture me to death, rather than be nagged to death, I’ll do it myself, I’ll kill myself with a knife! I would rather cut myself to death!

And what a look he had in his eyes that time, Jonas Petter! Since then she had been in constant anxiety. What mightn’t the devil tempt a weak human being to do? Since then she had hidden away all cutting tools — all but this slaughter knife, which she had not found. But this was not sufficient to reassure her; he might get hold of a thong, or a strap, and go to the nearest tree or beam; he might jump into the well. There was always something handy if you wished to take your own life, always One ready to help you, always and everywhere.

For a while she had tried to keep back words that might irritate him. She would correct him only about small chores and such, not worth mentioning. Nonetheless, he still became upset and angry. What could she do with so difficult a husband?

And what was he planning now, with this knife? He wanted it so sharp, it seemed he would never get it sharp enough! Never before had he needed so fine an edge, not even at cattle slaughter. What was she to think of all this sharpening?

Jonas Petter stretched his back for a moment, took the knife in his left hand and felt the edge with his right thumb, testing the bite. Brita-Stafva stopped cranking and the stone rested.

Still he was not satisfied with the edge on his knife; she must crank some more. Again the stone turned, the water in the trough purled and swirled. And he kept on sharpening the knife, morose, relentless, mute.

Perspiration was breaking out at the back of Brita-Stafva’s neck, drops ran down her spine. It was not caused by the weight of the grindstone, but by the questions she asked herself: A knife could be well sharpened in five minutes; he had kept on for fifteen. What did it mean? It didn’t make sense. He would never be satisfied with the edge — he seemed to want a razor edge today. Was he sharpening the knife for his own neck? If not, for what?

The peasant kept on sharpening, now and then testing the bite against his thumb, carefully, deliberately, then putting the knife back to the stone.

And the wife cranked on. This was not sane. What was it he had said last night? — A man, too, can sharpen a knife. And the way his eyes had looked of late, showing whites under the pupils; he no longer had the eyes of a sane person. It was plain he contemplated some madness.

She could ask: Why do you sharpen the sticking knife? No slaughter is imminent. But she had hardly spoken to him for three days, wanting to show him that she could hold her tongue. Moreover, she would receive no clear information, perhaps he might say something like: A sharp knife is always needed in a house.

Peace, also, was needed in the house; but that they would never have, except in the dull silences between their squabbles.

Now she had cranked the grindstone almost half an hour. No sane man acted thus, sharpening the same knife hours on end. She couldn’t stand it any longer, her forehead was wet with perspiration, her body limp, her legs shook, unable to hold her up.

And when her husband tried the knife edge against his thumb for the tenth or eleventh time, she burst out: “Won’t you ever get it sharp? Are we to stand here the whole day? Are we to keep on for eternity? Get someone else to crank!”

She let go the handle and went over and collapsed like an old empty sack on a stone near the barn.

Jonas Petter did not look in her direction; it was as if he hadn’t heard her. He felt with his thumb along the edge of the knife, slowly, unhurried. Then he dried the knife against his trouser leg, mumbling to himself: “I believe it’ll do now.”

He picked up the empty water pail in one hand and the newly sharpened knife in the other and went toward the house.

The wife followed his steps with vigilant eyes; when she saw him enter the kitchen she rose to follow. She didn’t run, but she hurried. Did he intend to commit the crime inside the house? Perhaps he had gone up in the attic to be alone. There was no one in the house now, the people were at their work, the boy from Korpamoen with them; she and her husband were alone. And alone she could not get the knife away from him, she did not have sufficient strength. Should she run to a neighbor for help?

Brita-Stafva went after her husband into the kitchen. He was not there. He must have gone up into the attic; she thought she heard steps up there. Looking about, she seemed to remember something; she stretched herself on tiptoe and looked on the shelf above the fireplace: there lay the newly sharpened knife, glistening; her husband had put it back in its usual place. She let out a long, long sigh of deep relief.

Grabbing the sticking knife, she hid it under her apron and went out. She walked to the wagon shed and found her way into the darkest corner. There she stuck the sharp knife behind a beam against the roof. She pushed it so far in that no one could even see the handle. A more secret hiding place she could not find on the whole farm, she thought, as she climbed down again.

Meanwhile Jonas Petter had returned from the attic where he had walked about for no particular reason. On entering the kitchen he too went over to the shelf above the fireplace and looked. He nodded in confirmation, and satisfaction radiated from his eyes: exactly as he had hoped. The knife was gone; the threat had worked; he was safe from her now. It had gone so far that he had been forced to sharpen a knife for half an hour in order to get her where he wanted her.

He was pleased now; he knew that he would get the rest and peace he needed in the home during the time that was left — during the three remaining weeks before he was to break free from his wife, before he left her forever. He needed peace and quiet during this time of preparation. To gain this had surely been worth half an hour at the grindstone.

— 6—

Robert remained at Hästebäck for three weeks, and no sheriff came to search for him.

One evening Jonas Petter called him aside and said: “We’ll keep company to America, you and I. I sail on the same ship as the others.”

In secrecy, one more America chest was readied in this region — the third.

X. A PEASANT BOWS FOR THE LAST TIME

— 1—

This was the dawn of a great era in the lives of the old clothes chests throughout the peasant communities. After centuries of neglect in dark loft corners they were now being scrubbed and polished and prepared for their voyage across the great sea. These chests were to be in the vanguard of history’s greatest migration. To them would be entrusted the emigrants’ most cherished belongings.

What must be brought along, what must be left behind? What was obtainable in the new land, and what was unobtainable? No one could advise, no one had traveled ahead to ascertain. It was not a move where wagon after wagon could be loaded; one small cartload must take care of all. Only the least bulky and most indispensable things were chosen.

In the bottom of the Korpamoen America chest were placed the heaviest items — iron and steel, all the timberman’s and the carpenter’s tools: adz, hatchet, chisel, drawknife, plane, hammer, horseshoer’s tongs, auger, sticking knife, skinning knife, rule and yardstick. Also the hunter’s gear: gun, powder horn, and the skin pouch for small shot. Karl Oskar took apart his muzzle-loader to facilitate its packing. There was said to be as much game in America as there was shortage of guns. A gun was said to cost fifty daler. Robert thought of all the streams and waters abounding in fish, and he packed trolling gear for pike, and hooks, angling twine, wire for fish snares. Nils brought out an old bleeding iron which might be of use to his sons; he advised the emigrants to bleed themselves often; the most reliable cure for all ills was to let one’s blood.

Kristina packed her wool cards, her knitting needles, sheep shears, and her swingle, a betrothal gift from Karl Oskar, who had painted red flowers on it. A great deal she left because it would take up too much ship space, things she knew she would need later. She could not take her loom or her flax brake, her spinning-wheel or her yarn winder, her spooling wheel or her flax comb. She had been accustomed to working with all these implements; they were intimate and familiar to her hands; she knew that she would miss them in the foreign land.

Märta had helped her weave a piece of wadmal from which the village tailor had sewn them fine, warm clothing for the journey. And she packed warm woolen garments for both big and little, underwear and outer wear, working clothes and Sunday best. Woolen garments were scarce in America, she had heard somewhere, as they had not yet had time over there to make as many looms as they needed. She must take along woolen and linen yarns, and needles and thread of all kinds, so that they could patch and mend their clothing and stockings, for it would surely be a long time before they would again have new things on their bodies; the old must last. Between the clothes Kristina placed camphor and lavender to prevent mildew and bad odors; no one knew how long these things must remain in the chest.

Their bridal quilt they must take, and all bedclothes, sheets, mattresses, and bolsters were packed in two great four-bushel sacks which were then sewn up at both ends with heavy twine. All small gear to be used on the crossing was packed in the knapsack: drinking vessels, eating tools, mugs, wooden plates, spoons, knives, and forks. Kristina must also prepare a food basket for six people. The ship was to provide their food on the voyage, but no one knew if they could eat the ship’s fare, and they had a long way to travel before they embarked, and after landing, too. The basket must contain dried, smoked, and salted foods which would keep well and not spoil on the ocean. A roomy willow basket with a wooden lid would serve as their food chest, and into this Kristina packed eight rye-meal loaves and twenty of barley, a wooden tub of strongly salted butter, two quarts of honey, one cheese, half a dozen smoked sausages, a quarter of smoked lamb, a piece of salt pork, and some twenty salted herrings. This filled the basket to the top. They must also find space for a pound of coffee, a pound of sugar, a bag of dried apples, a few small bags of salt, pepper, stick cinnamon, wormwood seed, and cumin.

They must keep clean and tidy during the voyage: they must not forget the pot of soft soap, and the phosphor salve for lice. Kristina had bought two excellent fine-tooth combs of brass to keep the children’s heads free of vermin.

But even more important were the medicinal needs of the emigrants: camphor, and the tiny bottles of medicine containing Hoffman’s Heart-Aiding Drops, The Prince’s Drops, The Four Kinds of Drops. As a cure against seasickness Karl Oskar prepared half a gallon of wormwood-seed brännvin; a drink of this every morning at sea on empty stomachs would keep bodies in working order; wormwood-seed brännvin was also good for ship’s fever, and protected the body against cholera and other contagious ship maladies.

Berta of Idemo called to warn Kristina about the seasickness; married women were badly attacked by it, worse than men or unmarried women, for unknown reasons. Perhaps the bodily juices in a woman changed when she entered into holy matrimony, so that afterward she became sensitive to the sea. Berta’s father had been to sea and he had taught her the way seamen cared for their health and cured their ills. She had sewn camphor into a small skin pouch which she gave to Kristina; this she must hang around her stomach while on board ship; it would ease seasickness. This was not a mortal disease, yet it was one of the most painful God had sent as punishment to man. Kristina must also eat a few spoonfuls of oat porridge every day, and take along a quart of vinegar to mix in the drinking water to freshen it up before drinking, because often water turned stale and poisonous on long voyages.

Kristina had confidence in Berta of Idemo, who in her youth had cured her gangrene-infected knee, and she listened to all the good advice: she must use pepper brännvin for diarrhea; indeed, she must guard well against diarrhea and constipation. She must keep a vigilant eye on her stool, to see that it had the right firmness — there was nothing more important for seafarers than to keep the stool firm; this the old seamen knew. And Berta had heard that people after landing in North America often suffered from intense diarrhea; even the intestines would run out, if they were not looked after. People became so wasted that they could hardly stand or walk; nothing helped except a drink of brännvin into which had been mixed a pinch of ground pepper.

The earth in America was said to crawl and creep with poisonous vipers and insects, and this might not be healthy for children running barefooted. Kristina was to put dry camphor into the wounds of snake bites. In all other fresh wounds warm urine, of course, was the best ointment; it cleaned and healed and had for thousands of years been their forebears’ washing water for wounds. And if someone had an injury which didn’t seem to heal, but might turn into gangrene, then Kristina must scrape the wound twice daily with a clean, sharp cutting knife — this perhaps she remembered? Broken arms and legs must be put into splints as soon as possible, and the firmer she got the splint the sooner the break would heal.

A question stole into Kristina’s heart long before Berta had finished giving advice about injuries, accidents, diseases, and sicknesses which the emigrants might encounter on land or sea — the old, anxious question: Was it absolutely necessary that they carry out this dangerous foreign venture? Must they walk into all these dangers?

— 2—

Karl Oskar sold Korpamoen to a farmer from Linneryd. His asking price had to be cut down; after all, the one emigrating was forced to sell, while the prospective buyer was certainly not forced to buy. Karl Oskar had to be satisfied with one hundred and fifty daler less than he himself had paid. On the other hand, his cattle — which were sold at auction — brought good prices because there was a great shortage of animals after the enforced slaughter during the famine year. But the auctioneer, Per Persson, the churchwarden, kept a quarter of all proceeds as he was to advance the money. Those were hard terms, but Karl Oskar could not stay home half a year to collect from all the bidders.

After the auction of the farmstead belongings the house seemed almost empty to Karl Oskar and Kristina. All objects sold were carried off except the beds, which they were to use until the day of departure so as not to have to sleep on the floor.

The emigrating farmer could now take stock of his position. One thousand two hundred daler remained from the sale of the farm and from the auction, after deduction of the mortgage and other debts. Their passage to America would cost six hundred and seventy-five daler for the whole family, three adults and three children. Karl Oskar would arrive in the New World with about five hundred daler. Then they must pay the entrance fee to America, and the transportation to their place of settling — an unknown way of unknown distance. Karl Oskar hoped to obtain land practically free of charge, but not much remained for the purchase of farm implements and cattle. Nils and Märta were dismayed when they heard how much the passage cost: almost half the amount necessary to buy a farm — their son threw half a farm into the sea!

Karl Oskar asked Kristina to find some safe hiding place for their five hundred daler; their only remaining security must not be lost or stolen during the long journey. She sewed the money into a sheepskin bag which he could fasten to a belt and carry next to his body.

Any person of good character was permitted to leave the country nowadays without having to petition the King. You could even leave without the extract from the parish register. So had Fredrik of Kvarntorpet done, and others who were listed under “End of the Parish.” Robert, having escaped from service, dared not go near the dean to ask for his papers. But Karl Oskar did not wish to leave as if he had done wrong. He wanted to separate openly from his parish. He went to Dean Brusander and asked for his papers, as he and his household intended to emigrate to North America.

The dean looked quizzically at this first parishioner to come on such an errand.

“I’ve heard about your intentions. Why do you wish to emigrate, Karl Oskar Nilsson?”

“I have debts and hardships and cannot improve my situation here at home.”

“It has pleased God to send us a year of famine. But a devout Christian does not complain in time of tribulation. You know your catechism, Karl Oskar Nilsson, that I remember. You must therefore know that trials and tribulations are sent for your soul’s betterment?”

Karl Oskar stood there, three steps from the high-backed, leather-covered chair where his spiritual adviser sat before a desk. He held his old cap in his hands but did not answer; how could he argue on tenets of faith with the dean, who was schooled to understand and explain?

“You are known as a capable, industrious farmer. Can’t you find sustenance in your home community?”

“It doesn’t seem so, Mr. Dean.”

“But you have adequate sustenance for your household. A person ought to be satisfied with adequate sustenance!”

Karl Oskar twisted his worn skin cap. He could mention Anna, his child, whom he had lost because of hunger. But he knew the dean would answer that this was a trial sent for his betterment. He could not argue with his pastor in spiritual matters.

“You’ll make an unfortunate example for my other parishioners, Karl Oskar Nilsson.”

And the dean rose from his chair and walked across the floor.

He had heard nothing but good about the people from Korpamoen; they were related to Danjel in Kärragärde, but they had not been tainted by his heresy. Karl Oskar and his wife were among the most trusted, most devout people in the parish. Ill-willed persons would say that conditions in the parish must be beggarly when this industrious, diligent couple were unable to earn their living at home, and were forced to emigrate to another continent.

“The demented farmer of Kärragärde has forfeited his right to live in this kingdom,” continued Brusander. “He still goes free, thanks to our enlightened times. But I wish to keep an honest man like you in my parish.”

The dean laid his hand on Karl Oskar’s broad peasant shoulder. “Have you thoroughly thought over the adventure you throw yourself into, with wife and children? Do you know the truth about this land that tempts you?”

Brusander did not give the farmer time to answer; he himself began to explain conditions in the New World. North America had been from the very beginning populated by rebels and troublemakers who had tried to overthrow legal order in their own lands. From the time of its discovery America had been settled primarily by disloyal and refractory individuals, insubordinate to authority at home, people who had broken laws and wanted to escape just punishment. It had been overrun early by dissenters, sunderers of religion, exiled from home when spreading heresies. So it had been through many hundreds of years, so it was today. Those who incited others against spiritual and temporal authorities in their homelands in Europe escaped to the United States. To the United States fled murderers from the block, thieves from jail, swindlers from their victims, dishonest people from their debts, seducers from seduced and pregnant women, all those who feared something in their homeland, all those who did not like the order of a sound and pious community. In North America they had nothing to fear, they were safe there, all those rebels and criminals from the Old World.

Among the emigrants there were also, of course, honest people who had not broken the laws of their own country. But what drove these into adventure? Nothing but the desire for worldly gain, for enjoyment of the flesh, for vain and transient things. It was the evil desire in their minds that drove them away; they were too lazy to earn a living through honest work; they wanted to gain riches without work; the emigrants wished for quick riches so they might afterwards live in gluttony, drunkenness, idleness, and adultery. The greatest part of them were arrogant, foolhardy, reckless people who spoke ill of their fatherland, who spit at the mother who had borne them.

It was true that the soil was fertile in North America, so the inhabitants could find their living easily. But a Christian must also consider the spiritual situation of the American people. In that country there were still wild, red-skinned tribes who lived almost like animals; and even among the white-skinned people there were many who were unfamiliar with the true God and the pure evangelical teachings. True Christians ought not to be haughty toward them, ought rather to feel sorry for them; but all people living in Swedish communities should thank God that He had let them be born in a land where true Christianity was taught. It might be true that Swedes had to work a little harder for their food than Americans, nay, at times even eat their bread in the sweat of their brow. But their forebears in Sweden had for long ages had to eat bread from the bark of trees, and endure hunger, yet they had done great things, much greater things than the Swedes of today. Bark bread gave spiritual strength to men. They also found strength in their contentment, and in their obedience to God and authority.

Great confusion and chaos existed in the United States. Dissenters and preachers of unsound doctrines went about on the loose, allowed to do what they wanted. The authorities stupidly let them alone. There were no less than eighty-seven false religious sects. The Americans were building a new tower of Babel to reach into the heavens. But the Lord soon would destroy and crush this confused land called the United States. For a sound, enduring order could be built only on unity in religion, on the only true and right teaching — the holy tenets of the Augsburg Confession.

The Lord God was a strong avenger. Within fifty years those United States would exist no more; within fifty years they would be obliterated from the face of the earth, like the empires of Rome and Babylon.

“Within fifty years! Remember my words! Remember my words!”

The dean stopped short; he had intended to say only a few words, and now he had preached a whole little sermon, to a congregation of one parishioner. But he must tell Karl Oskar Nilsson that America was a land for false prophets such as Danjel Andreasson, for adventurers and rogues such as Fredrik Thron — not a place of settlement for an honest, able farmer like himself.

And he pleaded: “Karl Oskar Nilsson! Remain in your home community and earn your living decently, as before!”

During the dean’s speech Karl Oskar had stood quietly, twisting the cap in his hand, in right turns; now he started twisting it in the other direction, toward the left, while his eyes wandered along the walls of the big room in the parsonage, where hung many portraits of Brusander’s predecessors in office. Perhaps a dozen deans and vicars and curates looked down on him from the four walls, some kindly admonishing, others urging more strongly, but all definitely dissuading — all agreeing in their successor’s appeal: “Stay at home and earn your living honorably!”

“Aren’t you misled? Aren’t you seeing illusions and mirages?” the dean went on.

Karl Oskar stopped twisting his cap — then he began again, this time to the right. It was like an examination in the catechism, and, when he left home, he had not been prepared for an examination in order to obtain his papers. He could have answered these questions; but some of the awe for his confirmation teacher remained within him; he knew the dean did not like to be contradicted, and whatever he said the dean would twist so that he, Brusander, would be in the right.

The dean’s brow wrinkled: a peasant leaving his farm to emigrate to North America — a new sign of that spiritual decay which had set in among the country people, tearing asunder holy ties. The outermost cause of this evil was disobedience of the Fourth Commandment; as a result of this primary disobedience, even the last tie might be broken, the tie holding people to the beloved fatherland.

“Your venture might be the ruination of you and yours; therefore I advise against it. And you must be aware I speak only for your good.”

“I think you mean well, Mr. Dean.”

Karl Oskar had always felt that his pastor was sincere in the fatherly care of his parishioners’ spiritual and temporal needs, even though at times he assumed too great authority.

The dean went on: Because the emigrants were driven by selfishness and lust of the flesh — man’s base, carnal desires — emigration to the United States was contrary to God’s commandments and the true evangelical Lutheran church. Emigrants from Sweden had already been made aware of this in a frightful way. A group of people from the northern provinces — from Helsingland and Dalecarlia — had been led astray by an apostle of the devil, an instrument of falsehood, a peasant named Erik Janson, and in their blindness had emigrated to North America. On their journey they were stricken by cholera, that scourge from God. Hundreds of the poor people had died before they reached their destination. The Lord God was a powerful avenger, and cholera His instrument. The horrible punishment had calmed restlessness at home in the last year, quenched desire to emigrate.

After the experience of these sectarians one could comprehend God’s opinion of emigration.

“Answer me honestly, Karl Oskar: Is it not the desire for high living that drives you to emigrate?”

Karl Oskar was still twisting his cap with both hands as before. He did not contemplate the voyage to North America in order to abandon himself to those vices enumerated in the catechism: debauchery, gluttony, adultery, and others, which tended to shorten one’s life. He had not had high living in mind, of that he was sure.

“No. It isn’t because of that. Do not think so, Mr. Dean. It isn’t because I desire high living.”

“I believe your word,” said the dean. “But you are seized by the spirit of dissatisfaction. Otherwise you would remain in the land of your fathers. And have you thought of your parents, whom you abandon? And your father a cripple!”

“Their reserved rights go with the property, as usual. The old ones will manage.”

“But if all young people and those fit for work should emigrate, and leave the old and decrepit behind, who would then take care of the helpless?”

Karl Oskar kept silent, twisting his cap with fumbling, clumsy fingers. If only he were quick-witted; whatever he might say, the dean would surely put him in the wrong. And it seemed to him that he must tell his pastor it was time to stop his dissuasion. If the bishop himself were to come to the dean’s aid, he, Karl Oskar, still would not change his mind; nay, not even if the King tried to persuade him. Moreover, it was too late.

He now said, somewhat tartly: “I’ve already sold out. I’m free and without obligations. Perhaps I could have my errand attended to. .?”

Dean Brusander sat down and leaned his head against the high back of his chair. He set his lips, and his mouth took on a sterner look.

This peasant from Korpamoen seemed on the surface tractable and decent; but apparently he had a bullish nature. Through all the dean’s kindness and repeated advice he had not been able to move Karl Oskar one iota. Occasionally he had answered a few words, but for the most part he had persisted in a silence that was deaf to God’s words and his pastor’s admonitions. No human power could remove the man’s emigration notions. And now he sounded almost importunate, as he referred to his errand. It might well be that he lacked respect for the office of the ministry. Perhaps after all he was a horse of a different color.

At any rate, the dean had done his duty as teacher and pastor. And he was pretty sure this farmer would be alone in his America ideas. This desire for emigration among the peasantry, which had broken out here and there throughout the kingdom, would probably die down as quickly as it had flared up. Twenty years from now there would be no one in the land with a mind to emigrate.

“You shall have your papers!”

A silence ensued. Only the quill’s scratching against the paper was heard from the desk. Karl Oskar took a step backward, as if wishing to leave the dean undisturbed with his writing.

Dean Brusander turned and handed the farmer the extract from the parish register.

“Once I gave you Christian baptism. Once I prepared you for the Lord’s Supper. I’ve baptized your children. Now I pray God to bless you and yours during your voyage to a faraway land. May you never regret your bold decision!”

Karl Oskar bowed. “Thank you, Mr. Dean.”

Brusander extended his hand. “May you be within God’s protection! Such was the blessing of our forebears at times of parting.”

“Thank you most kindly, Mr. Dean.”

And Karl Oskar bowed once more, this time perhaps deeper than he had ever bowed to the dean before. After all, it was the last time he would bow to his parish pastor.

Dean Brusander wrote a few words in the parish register, words which he never before had written about any one of his parishioners: he noted that homeowner Karl Oskar Nilsson of Korpamoen, on the twenty-eighth of March, 1850, had requested extracts from the records for himself and his household for emigration to N. America.

And the remaining blank pages in the parish register were in time to be filled with the repeated notation: “Moved to N. America.” Through years and decades they were to be filled, page after page, with the names of Karl Oskar Nilsson’s followers.

XI. ONE EMIGRANT PAYS NO FARE

— 1—

In the newspaper Barometern, to which some of the farmers in the village subscribed, there appeared early in spring a news item about a lost emigrant ship: “Owing to absence of communications of any kind, one is now forced to admit the sad foundering and total loss of the small schooner Betty Catharina, built in 1835, measuring 80 lasts, on voyage from Söderhamn to New York. The schooner had taken on a load of pig iron in Söderhamn. On board the vessel were 70 emigrants who had left their fatherland to seek a precarious living in a foreign country. The Betty Catharina sailed through the straits of Öre Sund on April the 15th of last year but since that date her owner, the firm P. C. Rettig et Cie., has had no word from her. Since now almost a year has passed without the slightest information as to the ship’s whereabouts, notice of the deaths of the crew — nine men — has been published in their respective home communities. The ship’s Master was Captain Anders Otto Rönning. The emigrants came from different parishes in Helsingland; among them were 25 women and 20 children.”

This copy of the paper was widely read in the village, and no wonder, in those days; it was even lent to families who did not subscribe. Berta of Idemo brought it to Korpamoen, and Kristina read about the ship whose sailing time was supposed to be about five weeks yet after fifty weeks had not reached her destination. The Betty Catharina’s passengers had not arrived in a new land; they had emigrated to the bottom of the ocean.

A stab of pain went through Kristina’s heart as she tucked in her three little ones that evening—“. . among them were 25 women and 20 children.” All her earlier anxiety returned and pressed upon her. The children were left in her care by God — wasn’t she an irresponsible mother to take her helpless little ones out in a fragile ship to cross the forbidding ocean? She did not fear for her own life; but had she the right to endanger her children? If they went down with the ship, then it was she who drowned them, and God would ask accounting for them on the Day of Judgment: How did you look after your children? What did you do with them? Who forced you out on the ocean? Weren’t you warned of the danger?

Wasn’t the notice of the lost ship a last warning from God, arriving as it did on the eve of their departure?

Karl Oskar said that most people on land died in their beds, yet people went to bed every evening. Only fools were frightened by stories of wrecks. Robert wasn’t afraid either. He wasn’t old enough, he didn’t have his mature senses as yet. As if it were a pleasure to him, he now read a horrible piece to Kristina from his History of Nature, about “The Billows of the Sea.”

“Because water is a liquid which can be stirred up, so it is also moved by wind and storm. This causes billows which are great or small depending on the wind’s intensity and the size and depths of the sea. In heavy storms on the great seas the billows rise above each other to a height of thirty or forty feet; then they fall down with unbelievable power and crush all in their way. When such a huge billow falls over a ship it may break away large pieces of the vessel, splinter yard-thick masts, yea, even fill the whole ship with water, making it sink immediately.”

“Think of it, Kristina!” exclaimed Robert excitedly. “Waves three times as high as this house!”

“Are you trying to make me feel better about the voyage?”

And she couldn’t help smiling at the boy. He didn’t care what might happen as long as he became free and got out into the world. But he had only his own life to account for.

Kristina did not wish to approach Karl Oskar with her worries. She had once agreed that all should be as he decided, and she couldn’t take back her words. He had once and for all assumed responsibility for their emigration. She liked to lean on him and have confidence in him. He was headstrong and stubborn, but she liked a husband who could order and decide for her at times; what woman would be satisfied with a weakling, a shillyshallying husband? All the men in the Nilsa family, born with the big nose, were said to have been like Karl Oskar; unafraid, perhaps even a little refractory, not to be swayed, never yielding. Of all the men she knew, Karl Oskar was the one who most definitely knew what he wanted, and because of this she liked him.

Kristina had not felt well lately; she was weak and had lost her appetite. At first she thought this might be caused by her worrying about the America journey. But when — on getting out of bed one morning — she had to run outside behind the gable and throw up, she knew how things stood with her. She had had this ailment before, four times. It always followed the same course: her monthly bleeding was delayed beyond its time, then came weakness, loss of appetite, worry and mental depression; and at last the vomiting, as a final confirmation. Everything fitted in, there was no longer any doubt, she was pregnant again.

She had feared a new pregnancy. She still gave the breast to the little one and intended to continue to suckle him — Berta of Idemo had said that women would not become pregnant while still suckling a baby. Berta herself had suckled each of her children three years, and within a month after stopping each time she had become pregnant again. It had never failed. Occasionally there might be a wife in the neighborhood who suckled her children until they started school; when the children had to eat from food baskets they must stop suckling and eat the food of grownups. Rarely did it happen that a mother went with her child to school in order to feed it from her breast in between lessons; children who didn’t stop suckling at school age were usually dull-witted; they hung on to their mother’s apron-strings, always hungry, always pulling up a chair for her to sit on.

Berta’s advice had not helped Kristina, but, indeed, the old woman had been careful to add: if she should become pregnant while still suckling her baby, then that might be the fault of Karl Oskar. Some men had seeds so vital that no prevention ever helped.

A few times during the past year Kristina had been seized by an evil temptation. She had wanted to pray to God that He would not make her pregnant any more. This thought had come over her for the first time when she laid Anna in the coffin after only four years on earth; she did not wish to bear children who were to die. But she had been able to withstand the temptation, she had not prayed this sinful prayer. How very sinful it would have been she realized now, when a new life was being created within her.

She must resign herself to the decision of the Highest One. As yet she had said nothing to Karl Oskar.

— 2—

One thought constantly hammered within Kristina’s head during the evening before their departure: Do not forget anything. Up to the last moment she kept finding indispensable objects, things which must be taken along but which she had not thought of earlier. She had forgotten tapers, and pitch splinters — they would no doubt need light sometimes while traveling. The children would want playthings on the ship — for Johan she took a clay cuckoo, and Lill-Märta must have her rag doll — neither one was bulky. The baby Harald, who during the last days had taken his first stumbling steps across the floor, and who handled toys only in a destructive way, could be without anything. She was annoyed with herself when she came across the tripod copper kettle, a wedding gift from her parents; why hadn’t she thought of it before!

Now the only space she could find for the kettle was among the bedclothes in one of the sacks that had not yet been sewn up. As she put her hand into the sack to make room for the kettle she got hold of a pair of children’s shoes, ragged and worn out. They were Anna’s shoes! It was her first pair of shoes — and her last.

Kristina stood, deeply moved, with the tiny shoes in her hand. None of the other children could use them, they were too far gone, they barely held together in the seams; she remembered she had thrown them away. Karl Oskar must have picked them up and put them in the sack that was to go with them to America.

As soon as the girl had learned to walk she had followed her father, in these shoes she had often walked with him, in them she had gone long distances at his side. And as Kristina now found them in the sack they conveyed something new to her about her husband.

For a moment she fought back her tears; carefully she put the shoes back into the sack.

Then she pushed down the coffee kettle, which made the sack look out of form: it stood there on the floor like a hunchback.

The America chest was locked and tied with the thickest ropes they could find; it had already been carried out into the entrance hall in readiness. On its front Karl Oskar had printed in red chalk the owner’s name and destination — there it stood in flaming red letters: Homeowner Karl Oskar Nilsson, N. America. Now the chest would not be lost or mixed up with another.

The Bible, the hymnbook, and the almanac were still on the table; these were the books to be taken along; their place was in the knapsack, they were to be used on the journey.

Karl Oskar came in. He had been to the village to fetch the new high boots which the shoemaker had made for him and which had not been ready until the last moment. No one knew what kind of slipshod footgear they were using in America, and to be on the safe side he had ordered a pair of high boots, to be made of oak-bark-tanned ox leather, the best to be had. The uppers came all the way up to his knees, they could be used in all weathers and on all types of roads. On the boggy roads in the wilds of America one had better be well shod if one wished to get through.

He pulled on the new boots and took a few steps across the floor so Kristina could admire and praise them. They were polished shining black and reinforced at the heels with irons, like small horseshoes. In these boots he could step on shore in America without having to feel ashamed. These boots he could show to the Americans with pride.

But the irresponsible cobbler had almost not finished them in time.

Kristina was brushing his Sunday-best clothes, which he was to put on tomorrow morning. She had put the children to bed and they were already asleep, newly washed and newly combed, in new clean night clothes. Johan and Lill-Märta knew that they were to get out and ride on a wagon tomorrow, that they were to go on a long journey, but the mother felt a sting in her heart as she reflected that otherwise they knew nothing. They had no idea of the long road they were to travel with their parents; it would be long before they were to sleep again in the peace of a home’s protection.

Now, this evening, she ought to speak to Karl Oskar; before they began their journey he must know that still another life was on the way.

“I had better tell you. I am that way again.”

He looked at her, confounded. Before he had time to ask questions she assured him she was not fooled by false signs: they were to have a little one again, he could rely on it.

“Hmm.”

Karl Oskar looked around at the bare, empty walls of the home they were to leave forever tomorrow. At last they were ready, at last all the long, tiresome preparations were over, and when finally this evening he had fetched his boots, which he had worried about, he had felt satisfied with practically everything. Then he was given this piece of news, for which he was unprepared.

A sentence escaped him: “It could not be more ill-timed or awkward.”

“What are you saying?”

“I mean, it is ill-timed just now.”

She flared up. Her voice rose: “I cannot be pregnant to suit you!”

“Now, dear, don’t take it so. .”

“What exactly do you mean, then? Is it only I? Is it only my fault that I get to be with child?”

“I haven’t said that.”

“You have said it’s ill-timed. Can you deny that? But is it not your fault also? Have you not had part in it, perhaps? Even more than I? Is it not you who have put me in this condition? Isn’t it you also who come ill-timed?”

“Kristina! What has come over you? Father and Mother in there can hear you!”

But his wife’s flare-up convinced him of her pregnancy more than anything else; at those times she was always short-tempered and irritable and caught fire at every little word that could be interpreted as an insult.

“Must you take it so hard?”

Her eyes were flaming, her cheeks had turned red. “It sounds as if you accuse me! As if I alone were responsible! I’m to blame less than you! You should feel it yourself! If you for one day, for one hour, had to feel so ill as I. .”

She threw herself face down over the kitchen table, her arms folded in front of her, and burst out crying.

Karl Oskar stood there helpless. He couldn’t understand his wife’s acting thus. He almost flared up himself. But he must keep his head, for he had no indisposition to excuse him. Kristina, besides, must be worn out with all the preparations for the journey.

He put his hand on her shoulder, patting her clumsily: he had used ill-advised words, which she had interpreted wrongly. He regretted them, but he had meant no harm. He had not tried to shun his responsibility in the pregnancy. How could she think anything as foolish as that? He had not accused her of anything. He had only meant that it was bad luck she happened to be pregnant just now, when they were starting out on their journey — which in this way would be harder for her. And perhaps they would barely have arrived in their new home when she would have to go to bed in childbirth; that also wasn’t so good.

“You’re afraid I’ll be trouble,” she sobbed.

“I’ve never said that. But I’m afraid it will be harder on you when we have one more.”

It was during the first months of her pregnancy that she always felt indisposed and irritated. This difficult time, during which it was impossible to please her, would now fall during the actual crossing. But he would have acted more wisely if he had never voiced his apprehensions.

He took hold of her hand, which was limp and without response. But he kept it in his own and continued.

Things had to be as they were; no one could change them. And as long as they had nothing to accuse each other of, they might as well forget their quarrel. Now, when they were to travel so far away and build their home anew, they must stick together. Otherwise they would never succeed. They would ruin things for themselves if they quarreled and lived at odds with each other. They would hurt only themselves and their children if they pulled in different directions; they would ruin their good natures and their joy in work, now when they more than ever needed to be hardy and fearless. Shouldn’t they, this last evening at home, agree to be friends and peaceful at all times? She wanted to be his friend, as before, didn’t she?

“Of course I want to, but. .”

She sobbed dryly and was seized with hiccoughs after crying.

“Why but? As long as you want to.”

“Karl Oskar. . You understand. . I don’t feel well.”

“I know it.”

“You must speak kindly to me.”

“I won’t speak unkindly to you, Kristina.”

“Will you promise?”

Kristina was becoming more calm; she realized that she too had been unjust. She had lost her temper. But he had used such irritating words: “It could not be more ill-timed.” Those words had escaped him and he must have meant something by them. Didn’t he mean that she would ruin the journey for him through her pregnancy? It had sounded as if she had done all she could in order to be with child again. When, on the contrary, it always was he who was ready in bed! Perhaps she had misunderstood him; however, it was difficult to forget such ugly words.

But she remembered also how kind he mostly was toward her. Like that first time she was with child: her complexion had changed, her face had been covered with ugly brown spots. She used to be shocked when she looked in the mirror, she had looked like an old woman although she had been barely nineteen. She had felt she must run away and hide from people, particularly from Karl Oskar. She had never dreamt that wedded life would distort her. She had complained to her mother, who only laughed and said her brown complexion would soon disappear. The one to comfort her had been Karl Oskar, who had said that the brown spots were becoming to her. He was happy over them! She had the spots because she was to bear a child, she was to bear a child because she had been with him, and she had been with him because she loved him. The ugly brown complexion was to Karl Oskar a proof of her love for him. How could he be anything but happy over it?

She would never forget the time he said this. And now she was again expecting the brown spots which would ruin her skin. She knew that she otherwise had a fairly nice face, perhaps even handsome, with evenly rounded, fair cheeks. But her face remained pretty such short times — only in between pregnancies.

Kristina’s hand grasped her husband’s fingers more firmly. “Karl Oskar, we must be friends. . for all times!”

“We agree, then.”

“Yes. It’s true, as you say; we must hold together. Nothing else will help us.”

And she rose hastily and busied herself; how could she have time to sit here and shed tears an evening like this when she had a hundred chores to do, chores which could not be delayed till tomorrow — not one of them. Now she must hurry as if it were butter to be raked from a fire; the buttons must go on Johan’s new jacket, Lill-Märta’s newly washed nightshirt must be mended and ironed, and her own nightshirt, and Karl Oskar’s shirt for tomorrow, and then — then — She was a foolish woman, causing trouble this last evening.

Karl Oskar was soon adjusted to the thought that in seven or eight months his family would increase.

He said this was really good luck for them because now the captain would be cheated out of the passage for one person; their fourth child would accompany them without a penny’s expense! What mightn’t one day become of this emigrant who already was so clever that he managed to get a free passage to America?

Then Kristina burst out in joyful laughter. Shortly before she had wept; now she attended laughingly to the last chores for the journey to the land where she and Karl Oskar were to build their second home.

THE FIRST EMIGRANTS

from Ljuder Parish, who left their homes April 4, 1850

Karl Oskar Nilsson, homeowner, 27 years.

Kristina Johansdotter, his wife, 25 years.

Their children:

Johan, 4 years.

Märta, 3 years.

Harald, 1 year.

Robert Nilsson, farmhand, 17 years.

Danjel Andreasson, homeowner, 46 years.

Inga-Lena, his wife, 40 years.

Their children:

Sven, 14 years.

Olof, 11 years.

Fina, 7 years.

Eva, 5 months.

Arvid Pettersson, their servant, 25 years.

Unmarried Ulrika of Västergöhl, status unknown, 37 years.

Elin, her daughter, 16 years.

Jonas Petter Albrektsson, homeowner, 48 years.

WHY THEY EMIGRATED

Karl Oskar Nilsson: I seek a land where through my work I can help myself and mine.

Kristina: I go with my husband, but I do so with hesitation and half in regret.

Robert Nilsson: I do not like masters.

Danjel Andreasson: I wish to freely confess the God of the twelve apostles in the land He shall show me.

Inga-Lena: “Whither thou goest, I will go; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried.”

Arvid: I want to get away from the “Bull of Nybacken.”

Ulrika of Västergöhl: Sweden — this hellhole!

Elin: My mother has told me. .

Jonas Petter of Hästebäck: I can no longer endure cohabitation with my wife Brita-Stafva; from now on let happen to me what may.

XII. ALL GATES OPEN ON THE ROAD TO AMERICA

— 1—

They set out on a Thursday, and the day was well chosen. The heathen god with the hammer — Thor — had been a mighty god in whom their forebears had put their trust, and still far into Christian times his weekday was considered an auspicious day for the beginning of a new venture. Besides, there was a new moon, a good omen for the emigrants.

Nearly a thousand years had passed since people of this region had gathered into groups to sail the sea toward the west. At that time women and children had remained at home. But then as now the departing men had taken edged tools on their journey; the forefathers had armed themselves with weapons, this time the weapons were implements of peace, packed in the bottoms of the chests — broadaxes, augers, hammers, planes. This time the people traveled on a different errand.

Karl Oskar had hired a team of horses and a flat-wagon from the churchwarden in Åkerby, and the team and its driver arrived shortly before sunup. He, Robert, and the driver loaded the wagon; the America chest was so heavy that the three of them had to use their combined strength to get it onto the wagon.

The leave-taking from the relatives took little time. Lydia had a day off to say farewell to her brothers. Karl Oskar called his sister aside and begged her to look after their parents, particularly later as they grew older and couldn’t manage for themselves: he would pay her for this. Märta took each of her grandchildren into her arms and said: “May God protect and keep you, you helpless little creature!” The sons shook hands with their parents, a bit awkwardly, perhaps shamefacedly, almost like little boys who had been disobedient but were embarrassed to ask forgiveness. Neither one of them had ever said that he intended to return. Now Karl Oskar remarked, with an attempt at a smile, that when he had earned enough money in America he would come home and buy the manor at Kråkesjö, and for his sister Lydia he would buy back Korpamoen. All knew he was joking, but no one smiled. Nils and Märta felt they were seeing their sons for the last time this bleak April morning.

Kristina had already said goodby to her parents, a few days earlier in Duvemåla. She had not cried while there, but returning home she had been unable to hold back the tears any longer as she thought of her mother’s parting words: “Remember, my dear daughter, I wish to meet you with God.”

All that they owned in this world was now on the wagon. The load was high and wide, with the two large sacks on top; yet Karl Oskar thought there was room for more — it still didn’t reach the sky!

Nils and Märta stood on the stoop.

“Drive carefully through the gate,” said Nils to the boy who drove. Those were the last words his departing sons heard him utter. And the admonition was pertinent: the gate was narrow for such a broad wagon, the steering shaft caught one of the posts, and the team with the load could barely make it through the gate.

“Everything is narrow, here at home!” said Robert.

Karl Oskar was sitting next to the driver with Johan on his knee. Kristina sat behind with the smaller children, who in spite of the early hour were fully awake, looking about them with their clear eyes. Robert sat on the horses’ hay sack on top of the load.

As they reached the village road Karl Oskar turned a last time and looked toward the house: his father and mother were still on the porch, watching the departing ones — his father gnarled and stooped and hanging on his crutches, his mother close by her husband’s side, tall, her back straight. Here on the wagon sat the young ones, departing — there stood the old ones, left behind.

Karl Oskar could not see either of his parents make the slightest movement. As they stood there on the stoop, looking after the wagon, they seemed to him as still and immobile as dead, earth-bound things, as a pair of high stones in the field or a couple of tree trunks in the forest, deeply rooted in the ground. It was as if they had assumed that position once and for all, and intended to hold it forever. And as he saw them in the half-mist, this early morning, so they were forever to return to his mind: Father and Mother, standing quietly together on the stoop, looking after a cart driving through the gate and onto the road and after a minute disappearing among the junipers at the bend. In that place and in that position his parents would always remain in his mind. After many years he would still see them standing there, close together, looking out on the road, immobile objects, two human sculptures in stone.

Kristina did not mention to Karl Oskar that she had happened to hear a remark by Nils as the wagon was ready to depart: “I must go outside and behold my sons’ funeral procession.”

— 2—

The spring was late this year; the ground lay frozen still. There had been a freeze during the night, and the April morning was chilly; the sky was overcast and it was not yet full daylight. The load was heavy but the wheels rolled lightly on the frozen road.

From his high seat on the hay sack Robert could see the horses’ manes waving below him like young birches in the wind. Their strong-muscled necks rose and sank at regular intervals, their hairy flanks moved in soft billows, and the sharp horseshoes cut sparks from the stones in the road. Anticipation without measure filled his breast: this was no ordinary mill-wagon, this was not a slow timber load, nor was it a depressing Sunday church carriage. At last he was riding the chariot of adventure.

He would reach the sea tomorrow.

They passed Nybacken, and as the wagon gained speed downhill on the other side of the farm, Robert began to whistle. He could not hold back any longer, and his brother and sister-in-law said nothing about it.

He whistled a piece again as they passed the parsonage: he wondered if it could be considered sacrilegious. He had not asked for his papers, and he could hear the dean call his name at all the yearly examinations: Farmhand Robert Nilsson, not heard from since 1850. And the dean would write: Whereabouts unknown. After ten or twenty years it would still be written about him: Whereabouts unknown.

Every time they came to a gate on the road Robert jumped down to open it. Before they reached Åkerby Junction he had opened five. He counted them carefully, he was to be gate-boy, he must count all the gates on the road to America.

The road also went through pasturelands, where the gates had been removed for the winter; but Robert still counted the openings as gates on the America road — if their emigration had been delayed a month, these gates too would have been closed.

Lill-Märta and Harald had gone to sleep in their mother’s arms, rocked to sleep by the movement of the wagon, Johan played driver, holding on to one rein and shouting at the horses. Karl Oskar and Kristina sat silent and serious, their eyes tarrying on well-known places: this is the brook with the swimming hole, we are passing it for the last time; in this meadow we will never see the lilies of the valley in spring again. We want to remember what these places are like, we are anxious to remember them — they were once part of our youth. .

The emigrants had agreed to meet at Åkerby Junction, and the other wagons awaited them there. Danjel of Kärragärde had hired a team from Kråkesjö. He too had a heavy load — his wife, his four children, and Ulrika of Västergöhl. Jonas Petter of Hästebäck drove his own single-horse wagon and was accompanied by his hired man, who was to drive the horse back from Karlshamn. Two of the people from Kärragärde, unable to find room on Danjel’s wagon, rode with Jonas Petter — the farmhand Arvid, and Ulrika’s daughter Elin.

The wagon from Korpamoen had, besides its load, four full-grown persons, and Jonas Petter thought it should be made lighter; Robert therefore moved over to him and found a seat between the driver and Elin. Behind him, next to Jonas Petter’s hired man, sat Arvid, who now welcomed Robert with a broad grin; the two farmhands from Nybacken were journeying together to the New World after all. Otherwise things weren’t going as they had planned during their nightly combats with the bedbugs in Aron’s stable room: they didn’t sneak away in secrecy on a load of timber, nor were they alone on their journey.

There were nineteen of them at the meeting at Åkerby Junction this morning. Three drivers were to return from Karlshamn. The emigrants were sixteen, nine grownups and seven children. Together they made a suitably large family, said Jonas Petter as he counted them. But who was to be head of the family?

All looked at Karl Oskar. He said he could hardly be head of them all, he was the youngest of the three farmers.

“You are the oldest one, Jonas Petter.”

“But you were the first one to decide on this journey, Karl Oskar. I was the last one.”

The loaded wagons started moving again, toward the province of Blekinge. Jonas Petter drove first, he knew the roads, and Robert continued to jump off and open gates. They drove a wagon length apart and mostly at a slow trot, or letting the horses walk to save their strength, as it was fifty long miles to Karlshamn. On steep downgrades they kept still farther apart, to give the horses more room.

As Kristina eyed the three wagons she thought of her father-in-law’s words about his departing sons; it was true, their company looked like a funeral cortege. A small one. But there had been no more than three carriages when Anna was buried.

Now she would rather forget what Nils had said in the bitter moment of leave-taking — he had not thought anyone would hear him. Somewhere, some place, a grave awaited every mortal, somewhere there was a patch of earth which one day would open for one’s body. So it might be said that every moment man was on his way to that place; all people’s journeys were one long funeral procession.

Some one, or perhaps several, of this company might return home again — no one knew. Kristina supposed that most of them — though not Karl Oskar — nourished in secret the hope of returning. Of course, they wished to come back rich and well-to-do, not poor, impoverished wretches. Yet it was most likely that none in their group would ever travel this road again.

Robert was now opening gates which he had never before seen. They had left the roads he was familiar with, they were in strange country. They passed farm after farm, and he asked Jonas Petter the name of this place, and that. They passed a church with a much higher steeple than the one at home. They met completely unknown people who greeted them sharply and morosely and who stood for long moments looking after the three wagons — with open mouths, impolitely. But they were something to look at: three flat-wagons full of people and loaded high with chests, boxes, sacks, baskets, and bundles. One might indeed wonder what kind of travelers these were.

“They must think we are gypsies,” said Jonas Petter. “These loads look like gypsy carts.”

But they themselves did not resemble gypsies, thought Robert. Nearly all the grownups of the company, women as well as men, were tall with blond hair and light complexions. Gypsies were short and dark. And all of this company were well dressed, washed and clean; gypsies were ragged and dirty. And they traveled their way quietly and peacefully and soberly, while gypsies lived ill, shouted, and were drunk and evil-natured. It irritated Robert that they might be mistaken for such rabble. He wanted to call to all staring people whom they met: We are not gypsies! We are honest, decent people! We’re emigrants! We’re going to a country where there are no bad people, where we never will meet any rabble! Don’t stand there and stare at us — go home and harness your horses and come with us to the sea, to the ship waiting for us!

But after a while he thought that if he told the people they met about the members of his own group, then perhaps the strangers wouldn’t join them. Those sitting here on the wagons were not too well thought of at home. How about Arvid, sitting there behind him? He was so much looked down on that no one except Danjel was willing to hire him. And how about Danjel himself? Nearly all at home were pleased and grateful that he left the parish. The dean was most happy; the sheriff, too, was pleased. And Ulrika of Västergöhl? All decent women thanked God that she was leaving the district. And, not to forget himself. Sheriff Lönnegren no doubt was thankful that he had left the village for ever, he had caused him so much trouble; the sheriff hated to chase “servant-scoundrels.” No, outside of his parents, and his sister Lydia, no one at home would miss him.

And perhaps no one missed the others in the group either. At some time in the future, maybe fifty years hence, they might hold a celebration at home in memory of the day when they got rid of the rabble that was taken for gypsies on their America road.

— 3—

Robert cast glances at the girl sitting next to him on the driver’s seat. He had never seen Ulrika’s daughter at close hand before. Elin was little and spindly, but her small-girl limbs had begun to fill out; she would soon be a woman. She had long hair falling to her shoulders, and it had a sheen of golden ripe barley. Her big eyes were dark blue, and gleamed like sloeberries. She was pleasant to look at. What a pity that her mother was the Glad One, the foremost whore in the parish.

Jonas Petter was broad through the hips, and the three of them were crowded in the driver’s seat. It was lucky that Elin was so slender, said Robert, otherwise he would have been forced to walk beside the wagon. After he had said this he noticed that the girl kept moving away from him, but each time the wheels hit a stone in the road her body was moved closer to his and he could feel her thigh against his own, soft and tender as the supple flesh of a calf or a lamb. Never before had Robert had a girl so close to his body.

Elin kept silent; she was shy and bashful. Perhaps she was afraid of Jonas Petter, perhaps of Arvid sitting close behind her; perhaps she had heard of the Bull of Nybacken. She was only sixteen and her mind wasn’t as yet developed, but she must have sense enough not to be afraid of him.

Robert tried again: “No one would ever take you for a gypsy.”

The girl didn’t answer this time either, and Jonas Petter nudged Robert in the side to silence him. After a while the driver stopped, and the men went off to let their water. As they stood together on the road’s edge Jonas Petter explained the prod in the ribs: no one knew for sure who Elin’s father was, perhaps not even the mother herself. But rumors had it that a gypsy was just what he was.

Robert felt embarrassed and had nothing more to say.

Elin wore a dark dress which had belonged to Inga-Lena, and which was too large for her. On her knees she held a basket. Her narrow blue-veined hands held tightly on to its handle, as if she were afraid someone might try to snatch it from her. It was a small basket for so long a journey, thought Robert, too small for emigration to the New World. It was only a berry basket, large enough for picking blueberries or wild strawberries — not much to go out into the world with. But probably the poor girl didn’t need a larger packing box; all she owned must be contained in that little basket.

Elin belonged to the Åkians; Ulrika had permitted Danjel to confirm her. The mother had been in prison on bread and water for participating in the illegal Communion in Kärragärde, but Elin was under age and had therefore escaped punishment.

Suppose her father was a gypsy? The girl couldn’t help who he was, she had not shown the way to her mother’s bed; and she couldn’t help who her mother was, either. Robert felt sorry for her, and thought he would be kind to her. They were to journey in close company for some time, perhaps several months. They couldn’t sit together and not speak to each other, like this, the whole way to America. They must talk, she too must talk. He had no experience with girls, he had hardly shaken hands with a girl before. What ought he to say to make her answer?

They drove by a fine gray manor house on top of a knoll, and Jonas Petter pointed with the whip, saying that this was Galtakullen. Lotta Andersdotter had lived there, she who had become infamous through a horrible deed done to her first husband.

Robert thought probably the farmer would tell one of his stories again, and his supposition proved to be correct.

Yes, continued Jonas Petter, it was said that the farmer of Galtakullen could never satisfy his wife in bed, she was that kind of woman whom no man could please however much he worked and tried. Now she wanted to exchange her husband for the enlisted man of the village, a strong, bed-worthy man. And the soldier was tempted by the promise that he was to be farmer of Galtakullen. One night when her husband was sleeping soundly Lotta Andersdotter got out of bed and went to the toolbox for a hammer and a five-inch spike. With the hammer she drove the spike full length into the skull of her sleeping husband. He never awakened — unless it were in heaven or hell. Some blood splurted out of the hole in his head, but the murderess dried it off and left the nailhead well covered by her husband’s hair.

Then she announced that her husband had died from a stroke; as people knew, he had been somewhat ailing lately. A grand funeral was held. The widow wanted to show that she mourned her husband deeply, and she cried profusely and bitterly at the graveside. No one suspected her of a crime.

As soon as her widow year was up she married the soldier. He in his turn died, after ten years of wedded life, from somewhat more natural causes than the first husband: people said from overwork in bed. The housewife of Galtakullen remained the same craving woman; she was about to take a third husband, but he became frightened of her, and changed his mind before it was too late. He is supposed to have said that the widow of Galtakullen was almost as much man as woman, that she had the organs of both sexes — though no one could be sure of this.

After two marriages she sat, a widow, on her farm for the rest of her life.

Then thirty years after her first husband’s sudden death the grave-digger was one day opening a new grave in the churchyard. While digging he got hold of a skull on his spade. He usually paid no attention to a skull, big or small, any more than a potato picker looks at his potatoes; for human skulls grow in a churchyard as profusely as tubers in a field. But this skull was different: a long rusty-red spike hung rattling inside it. The gravedigger carried his find to the dean, and pointed out to him where he had found the skull. The dean looked up his records and made sure of who had once been buried in that place. Then he tied the skull up in a piece of black cloth, took it under his arm, and went directly to Galtakullen. The widow was at home and he handed her the parcel, saying: Here comes your first husband to visit you; he wishes to speak about the nail in his head. Later you can come to me and speak about your wretched soul.

With this the dean went home. The following day the widow Lotta Andersdotter went to the parsonage and confessed her crime, and in the evening that same day she hanged herself in the milk cellar of her farm.

“Right in there, in that gray house up there,” concluded Jonas Petter.

Everyone looked toward the farm. Jonas Petter knew of all the crimes and evil deeds perpetrated by wives against their husbands in Konga County during the last hundred years, but Robert thought he shouldn’t tell them in the presence of a girl. Elin had looked straight ahead and acted as if she had heard nothing. Perhaps Jonas Petter had thought that the daughter of the Glad One was hardened.

Robert could see her eyes under the kerchief she had drawn forward over her brow, but she always looked away if he tried to meet her gaze. She did not appear sociable. So he turned his back to her and began speaking to Arvid behind him. He intended to buy a book in Karlshamn to learn the American language, he said; he would no doubt have time for study while crossing the ocean.

This was said for Elin’s benefit, and for the first time the eyes under the kerchief turned to the youth beside her.

He met her gaze. “You can borrow the book — if you wish.”

“I don’t need it,” she answered.

“You mean you speak English?”

“Not yet. Not before we land in America.”

“Do you think you can speak fluently as soon as we land?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Really?”

“I don’t need to learn the language because I’ll know it when we arrive,” repeated the girl with assurance.

“Who has told you that?”

“Uncle Danjel.”

And her eyes now looked into his, clear and trusting: Danjel had told them that all who were reborn in Christ would be able to speak the English tongue fluently as soon as they stepped on shore in America.

Robert was stupefied; he could hear and see that she believed this promise to the very letter.

Elin continued: Danjel had told them not to worry about the foreign language, for at their landing all believers would be filled with the Holy Ghost as once had happened to the apostles on the first Whitsuntide. Thus they would be able to understand and speak freely the language used in that land.

“You must learn the language, you yourself, of course,” she added, “because you don’t live in the spirit. But we who are reborn need not learn it.”

“Can that be true?”

“Do you think Uncle Danjel would tell a lie?” She sounded hurt. “Or do you think I lie?”

“No, no! Indeed not — but. .”

He didn’t like to contradict Elin now that she had begun to talk; he wanted to agree with everything she said. But faced with Danjel’s promise, he was unable to hide his doubts completely.

“I’ve never heard that story about the Holy Ghost,” he excused himself. “That’s why I was a little surprised.”

“Have you never read the Acts?” she asked, a little puzzled.

“Yes. Yes, of course I have.”

“You can read about Whitsuntide in the second chapter, if you don’t believe Danjel. But he has never lied to us.”

“I understand now. You won’t need a book to learn English.”

“That’s so.”

“Well — I didn’t know. That’s why I was confused a moment ago.”

Arvid too had listened in amazement. He had not been received among Danjel’s followers, but the master had high hopes that his servant would “awaken” one day. What Arvid now heard about the great advantage of the Åkians, with the American language, made him thoughtful.

They were driving up a steep hill and the men stepped down to spare the horse. Arvid asked Robert: What were they to think of the girl’s statement? Was the new language to come running from the mouths of the Åkians as soon as they landed?

“I won’t believe it until I hear it myself,” said Robert flatly.

“The girl seems cocksure.”

What she said might be true, admitted Robert. It was written in the Bible that the Holy Ghost once filled the apostles so they could speak new languages. But it said nothing about their speaking English on that first Whitsuntide — the language was not yet invented in the days of the apostles, that much he was sure of. So no one knew if the Holy Ghost could teach people to speak English.

The air was colder; the north wind had begun to blow. It felt like a steel brush on their faces. The old frostbites on Arvid’s nose, developed when he was hauling timber during severe winters, took on a red color, cracking a little and bleeding. On the horses the sweat foamed, remaining as white crust on their necks. Sparse, hard snowflakes fell and lay on the road like scattered rice. The emigrants sat silently on the wagons, hour after hour, mile after mile, a chill creeping into their bodies.

They had passed the border of a new province, Blekinge, once part of another kingdom — Denmark. There was still hatred between the inhabitants dwelling along the border, said Jonas Petter. When the Smålanders came driving their loads they were often attacked by Blekinge men, who were evil-tempered and used knives; they were another type of people. And their women, it was said, were hotter under their shifts than women farther north.

The emigrants now drove through wild, uninhabited regions. They rode through a forest of high pines where everything seemed deserted and dead. This was known as the snake forest, said Jonas Petter, for the stone-covered ground was filled with poisonous snakes — more poisonous here than the vipers in the north. Here it was that the Blekinge men used to lie hidden when the Smålanders came with their wagonloads, and here the two peoples often had fought bitterly. If one looked carefully on the stones along the roadside one might still see spots of blood from the old fights; the ground here was in a way sanctified.

Jonas Petter himself had once participated in a fight in the snake forest; a swarm of Blekinge men had surrounded him, buzzing and hissing like wasps on a hot summer day, cutting and hitting at any part of his body they could reach. When he returned home after that journey his body was cut up, open as a sieve. For many months he could keep no fluids in him because they ran out through the holes which the Blekinge men had cut through his body. It was half a year before he could drink brännvin again.

Robert’s eyes shifted from side to side in the semidark underbrush of the forest, looking for men armed with knives, ready to waylay the travelers. But Jonas Petter assured him that it was much more peaceful on the Blekinge road nowadays, and they might feel especially safe from the evil-tempered people since there were so many in their company.

Jonas Petter continued to shorten the fifty long miles by his talk. Robert was busy opening gates; he had by now counted thirty of them. The gates had lately been closer together — the travelers were nearing inhabited places.

The forest came to an end and they drove into a large village. They were in Eringsboda, almost halfway to Karlshamn. This was their first resting place. The wagons came to a stop in front of an impressive-looking building with iron rings in the wall for the horses’ halter straps; this was the inn. The travelers came down from their seats, and the horses were unharnessed.

Big as well as little ones felt frozen, and their faces were blue from the biting wind. The children’s noses were running, making tapers, as it was called.

“We must get inside and thaw out our young ones,” said Kristina anxiously.

Her own children had on warm woolen mittens which she had knitted for them especially for the journey, but the children from Kärragärde were barehanded. Inga-Lena’s last-born, a girl only a few months old, began to cry. She was hidden somewhere in a huge bundle of woolen shawls. Through an opening in the coverings her mother spoke comfortingly to the baby. Danjel came by and nodded and smiled at the little one, the child conceived in the couple’s true, God-inspired marriage, after they were living in the spirit. But not even the father could silence the crying baby. Then the youngest boy from Korpamoen joined in the crying, and the two children tried to outdo each other.

The company of emigrants entered the barroom of the inn with their two loudly crying children.

Nearly every day the maids in the inn saw peasants from Småland with their loaded wagons stopping in on their way to Karlshamn, but never before had they brought along wives and children. Now a question could easily be read in the maids’ staring eyes: What was the idea of dragging suckling children along the roads in this bitterly cold spring weather? But it was warm in here in the barroom, a tremendous fire was roaring on the hearth. The maids busied themselves heating milk for the children and preparing coffee for the grownups.

The emigrants found benches and chairs, sat down, and opened their food baskets. They cut long slices from their rye breads, and brought out their dried lamb quarters. Jonas Petter and the Korpamoen brothers shared a quart of brännvin. Kristina had baked a potato pancake which she divided among husband, children, and brother-in-law; as yet she would not open the butter tub.

The fire sparkled and all enjoyed the coziness of the inn after the cold road. Their senses as well as their limbs thawed. There was an odor of food and brännvin, snuff and chewing tobacco, greased leather and warm, wet wadmal, there was a fragrance of mothers’ milk as the women suckled the children.

The people from Korpamoen and those from Kärragärde were gathered around their respective food baskets, but Jonas Petter sat alone with his. He had left wife and children behind. It was said he had left without forethought: one evening he quarreled with his wife and next morning packed his America chest. But no one knew how long this had been in his mind. He willingly told what he knew of other people, but about himself he never said a word.

Kristina sat and thought of how some in the company still were strangers to each other; as yet she had not exchanged a word with Ulrika of Västergöhl, nor shaken her hand. Before their departure she had told her Uncle Danjel the truth: she could not stand that woman. Must she endure her as a traveling companion? Danjel had opened the Bible and read to her about the meeting of Christ and the harlot. What the Redeemer had said to her, he, Danjel, had said to Ulrika: Sin no more! And Ulrika had obeyed him, she had discarded her old sin-body. Now it was Christ’s body that lived in her, and anyone saying unkind words to Ulrika said them also to Christ. But Kristina could not help herself — she still could not endure that woman.

Nor did she notice any difference in Ulrika. She was good to her daughter; when the two spoke to each other she was sweet and careful in her words. Otherwise she was as foul-mouthed as ever. And one could never misunderstand her manner of looking at men; there was always something of a come-and-let’s-get-to-bed look in her eyes. Hadn’t she today looked at Karl Oskar in that way? She had long taken advantage of Uncle Danjel, who fed and clothed her and her daughter and now paid their passage to America. Uncle Danjel was credulous and easy to take advantage of. Perhaps Ulrika still carried on her whoring in secret, whenever she had the opportunity. At least she acted like a sow in heat.

Good-looking she was, the bitch, no one could deny that. Now she was sitting in front of the fire, combing her daughter’s hair and tying a red ribbon in it. The whore was as haughty as a queen, with her bastard a princess being decked to wed a prince. One could wonder what kind of virtues that woman had instilled in her child, poor girl who had to wear old women’s cast-off clothing.

Sven was the eldest boy from Kärragärde, and he had already torn his jacket on a nail — now his mother was mending the hole with linen thread and a darning needle. Inga-Lena and Kristina got along well together. But Danjel’s wife was easily led, quite without a will of her own; she let her husband decide and rule in all matters. Kristina felt a little ashamed of her when among women.

Inga-Lena had suckled her baby, which was quiet now, after being freed from its bundle of shawls. But presently it began to cry again. The mother opened her blouse and offered the breast to the child once more. But the little one threw up what she had already eaten.

Kristina’s thoughts turned to the impending sea voyage as she watched the child vomit.

“I wonder if we will be seasick on the ship,” she said.

“Seasickness is no real ailment,” said Karl Oskar.

“Nevertheless, one has to throw up.”

Ulrika gave Kristina a meaning glance: “I guess it feels like being in the family way.”

Kristina’s cheeks flushed a flaming red. Ulrika apparently knew how things were with her. They had both gone to the outhouse when they had arrived, she must have noticed. And now Kristina was provoked by the color in her face. Why must she blush? She was married, and no man except Karl Oskar had touched her. She had a right to be with child a thousand times if she wished. Was she to blush because of that woman who had borne four bastards and given her body to hundreds of men?

The baby stopped suckling, and as Inga-Lena buttoned her blouse over her breasts, she said: “They say seasickness is painful.”

“Are you afraid, Inga-Lena?” asked Danjel.

“No, no, of course not!” Her worried voice contradicted her. “But when one never has been to sea before. .”

Danjel went up to his wife and laid his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t you remember my words? Have you forgotten what I’ve told you?”

“No, I haven’t, dear Danjel.”

“A person who has Christ within him need not fear seasickness. He can endure the sea even the first time.”

“Yes, I will have faith, dear husband.”

And Danjel emphasized again to his wife that one reborn could sail on all the seas in the world without being seasick. One living in Christ’s faith could endure the sea at any time; whether he traveled over narrow rivers or broad oceans, he would remain as sound and well as ever.

“Yes, dear Danjel, I believe it. I’m not afraid any more.”

Inga-Lena patted her husband’s hand affectionately.

“Don’t you think you might get seasick, as well as we others?” asked Karl Oskar, who had listened in astonishment.

The farmer from Kärragärde smiled kindly. “No! Because I believe Christ has died on the cross for my sins.”

“You are a doubter, Karl Oskar,” said Ulrika of Västergöhl, but there was no reproach in her voice.

“God will convince him when we are on the ship,” said Danjel.

Ulrika wanted to help Danjel explain. “You know, Karl Oskar, it says in the Bible that Jesus had gone in a boat with His disciples and there was a horrible storm but no one was seasick. If Jesus or some one of His disciples had needed to throw up then, it would say so. But there isn’t one word about it in the gospel. So you may understand, Karl Oskar, when a person has Christ’s body within his own, he can never more feel rotten.”

Karl Oskar snorted but said nothing. What use was there in arguing with the Åkians?

To Kristina it sounded like blasphemy when the name of the Saviour was mentioned by Ulrika in this way; as if one were to think of Him lying in a ship, seasick and throwing up. He was God’s Son, He could have no ills. But even if He had a toothache, or was footsore, or had other human ailments, He could heal Himself as He healed so many others. Ulrika used such vulgar words in spiritual things that no one in his full senses could believe in her conversion. Who could imagine Christ living in her worn-out old harlot-body?

Kristina turned to Danjel. “Berta of Idemo said the married women will get more seasick than the unmarried.”

“Not if they live in the spirit.”

“But most women do live in the flesh,” interrupted Ulrika. “Bastards can be made in wedded beds, too.”

She was hurt by the disrespect Kristina showed her, and now at the first opportunity retaliated. But Kristina decided not to answer the nasty words Ulrika threw at her.

Robert was disappointed because no one had asked him about seasickness. He had knowledge from books, and now he was able to get in a word: “Ship’s fever and cholera are much more dangerous than seasickness.”

He wanted to give a description of these ills, but his brother gave him a look that could not be misunderstood; he stopped short at the very beginning.

They were to rest a few hours. When all had eaten and were satisfied, Danjel kneeled on the floor and thanked God in a loud voice for the food. His prayer was so vociferous that it was heard out in the kitchen. The maids stared in surprise through the door: one of the peasants from Småland was crying on his knees to God — indeed, a strange rabble that passed by today!

Kristina put the lid on her food basket. She was content that she hadn’t opened the butter tub. It was supposed to be thousands of miles to North America, and as yet they had traveled only twenty of them; the butter would be needed.

— 4—

Later in the evening the emigrants resumed their journey. The next road post was Möljeryd, where they intended to rest. From there the road went over Bredåkra to Karlshamn.

Now the weather grew milder. The snow had melted, the air was moist, and soon a light rain began to fall. They could see that the spring was earlier in Blekinge than at home; the grass was high along the roadsides, the coltsfoot had opened in the ditches, and the buds on the trees were thick and swollen; the spring work could soon begin hereabouts.

Their horses were growing tired from the heavy loads, and moved at a slow pace; even on small hills the men stepped off and walked; on Jonas Petter’s wagon only the girl remained in her seat.

Robert could not help thinking of Elin. She thought she needn’t learn English from his book. The language would pour forth from her mouth as once the languages of the Parthians, the Phrygians, and the Elamites had come from the tongues of the apostles, so that people thought they were drunk from new wine. Why did people think they were drunk? The more drunk a person was, the thicker his speech became, stammering, slurring, spluttering. But the girl must be given information about the land she was emigrating to. What did she know about the North American Republic? Its government, laws, religion, and railroads? Surely she needed more knowledge about the New World.

It would not hurt to show Elin what he knew about the United States — but before he had a chance to begin his discourse she said, almost confidentially: “You know — I’m afraid of America.”

“Afraid? Why?”

“Because it’s unknown — perhaps people are unkind to newcomers.”

“Oh, no! I’m sure you need not be afraid. There are so few women in America that they treat them like gold and jewels. You’ll be taken care of like a baby; you can have anything you want, you needn’t worry about a thing.”

Elin apparently did not know how well things were arranged for the women in the United States. He must cheer her up a little by telling her.

The Americans treated all women — were they old or young, ugly or beautiful — as if they were queens and princesses. They waited on them and guarded them as if they were costly pearls and diamonds. The women never need do heavy or foul chores, as here at home; they could go clean and white and with washed hands all day long; a maid in America was as well dressed as her mistress, because all women were allowed to dress in fine clothes. It wasn’t a bit like here — all women had the right to wear hats, that right was written into the laws of the republic. It was strongly forbidden to mock or poke fun at a simple woman because she wore a hat like a gentlewoman. Moreover, there were no simple women, and no noble ladies — all were equals.

In the North American Republic it was the menfolk who served the women, not the opposite, as here. If a man were attacked and beaten by a woman, he had no right to defend himself. Because the law was not like here. Outside a house a man could go no closer to a woman than three steps, if she herself didn’t allow closer proximity, or perhaps order him to come nearer. Inside a house the distance between the sexes was two steps, according to law. Any man who wished to be closer than two steps to an American woman must first marry her. The law was not like the Swedish law.

So Elin need not be afraid of America. If a man spoke to a woman in public, then she had the right to call for the police and request protection. Even if, in all friendliness, he only asked his way, she could have him arrested, or sue him for breach of promise if she was in need of cash, whichever suited her best. Women always had their own way in the United States, so she need not worry.

If a man in the United States betrayed a woman, then he was first decapitated and afterwards hanged; he would never repeat his deed. Nowadays there were no unfaithful, untruthful, or deceitful menfolk left there. They were exterminated and destroyed. She need not be afraid of America.

Thus while the wagon rolled along one of the future inhabitants of the United States was informed of the position of women in the new land. And Elin did feel more comfortable and happy and expectant. She relied on his words, she felt she would like her new country.

Robert and Elin sat as close as possible in the driver’s seat. The wagon shook and rocked, the girl pulled her clothes tightly around her, she yawned and shivered from cold. And while Robert was busy describing the railroads of America, her head fell suddenly on his shoulder. He stopped short in surprise while her head sank down on his chest. What did it mean? What did she want? What was he supposed to do? He held his body stiff as a steering shaft, yet her head remained in the same position. Then he discovered that she had fallen asleep. She slept, her tender girl-body resting against his.

She had gone to sleep at a moment when he himself was carried away by his description of the United States — for her benefit. He was disappointed in her. But here she lay, practically in his arms; for the first time a girl’s head rested against his breast. This could happen only on the chariot of adventure — after just thirty miles on the road! How many miles were left? Many, many! This adventure would last a long time!

Little by little he too was rocked to sleep by the movement of the wagon. Jonas Petter did not have the heart to awaken him at the next gate, he opened it himself. Robert slept on, unmindful of the gates on the road to America, unable to count them any longer.

— 5—

Early the next morning the three wagons drove into Karlshamn and came to a stop near the harbor. From the steeple of the town church they were greeted by a clock striking seven, slowly and solemnly. The harbor town was just coming to life for the day. The fishermen, returned from the sea with the night’s catch, were busy mooring their boats at the pier where the town maids awaited the fresh herring with their baskets. A shop clerk with a long birch broom was sweeping the steps in front of a house with the sign Sunesons Skeppshandel. In the air was the odor of fish, tar, hemp, herring, salt, and sea.

The emigrants climbed down from their wagons, sleepy and frozen, stiff and aching in their bones after the long ride. The menfolk stepped aside and flapped their arms against their bodies to warm up. The women attended to the children who were whimpering and whining from lack of sleep. They were all rather depressed and dullish after the long night; no one felt morning-cheerful.

A sharp, cold, penetrating wind blew from over the harbor and bade the emigrants welcome to the sea.

For the first time in their lives they looked across water without seeing land on the other side.

They had reached the sea they were to cross — this sea now greeted them with its wind; it sent as its messenger this cold, severe wind as if to frighten them, to challenge them: Come out here! I’ll teach you! The men turned up their coat collars and the women pulled their woolen shawls closer around their children and themselves. What an unmerciful wind they had in the coast towns! It cut through skin and bones, it penetrated their very marrow. Never did it blow so fiendishly at home, not in fall or in spring, not in summer or in winter. Even the heavy peasant wadmal seemed to give no protection.

The people of the earth met the sea, and they hardly had time to behold it before the wind brought tears to their eyes.

The men in the fishing boats looked curiously at the group of strangers who had stopped near the harbor with their high loads and their crying children. Some men, gentry by their dress, walked by in leisurely fashion and looked at the little company in amusement: apparently honest-to-goodness gray wadmal peasants with their simple shawl-wrapped wives and their pale-faced, runny-nosed children; a couple of farmhands in new suits which were too large and puffed out in bags front and back — jacket and trousers carelessly basted together by some village tailor. And whole loads of ancient chests, flowery knapsacks, homemade baskets and boxes and bundles — they must be backwoods people going on a long journey across the sea. What kind of restless itch had got into the poor devils?

Karl Oskar had arranged passage for them all, and it seemed as if he was to be their head, also, during the whole trip. No one undertook anything of importance without first asking him.

He now went over to a herring fisher and asked about ships in the harbor. He had paid passage to America — where might their ship be anchored?

The fisherman peered at the peasant and sized up his solid new boots. Yes, an America-sailer had arrived the night before last, she was a brig, the Charlotta. She was lying at anchor in the outer harbor — perhaps it was that old hull over there.

The name was the right one. Karl Oskar looked toward the outer harbor in the direction where the fisherman had pointed.

“Is that the Charlotta? Our ship?”

All eyes were turned toward the ship indicated. They stood silent, and gazed. It was a silence of disappointment, wonder, anxiety, and bafflement. Could this really be their ship?

It was Kristina who expressed in five words what all were thinking: “Is our ship so little?”

None among them had seen a sailing ship except in pictures. They had thought of ships as being much bigger than this. And the ship that was to carry them across the enormous ocean they had pictured as much larger. In front of them was the wide expanse of the sea; and on this sea their ship seemed so minutely small. Compared with the water she was to cross she looked pitiful and puny.

“The boat is larger than you think. It just looks small at this distance,” said Robert.

He attempted to choke his own feeling of disappointment at seeing the Charlotta, and wanted to encourage the rest of his company.

He pointed. “Look at the masts! Has anyone ever seen such tall masts?”

None had seen other masts on ships to make comparison. The small ship anchored landwards from the little island, in the entrance of the harbor, had two masts stretching toward the sky and seeming higher than the tallest tree in the forest. The masts were as tall as the ship was long. Robert thought that perhaps he himself had helped fell the trees which he now saw as naked, slender stems: perhaps he had cut the firs, helped remove them from their place of immobility in the forest to the sea, replanting them, as it were — those mast-trees which for the rest of their lives were to sail the seas, were to be supported by water instead of earth.

Karl Oskar wondered when they might be allowed to go on board. The fisherman said that the Charlotta was to take on freight, and as the vessel had barely arrived in harbor nothing had been loaded yet. It might be several days before passengers could board the America-sailer.

They could not remain here in the wind with their freezing, whimpering children. They must find quarters while waiting for embarkation. The kind fisherman showed them to the Maja’s Inn, located in an alley near the harbor. It was the house behind the Hope Tavern, right there, as they could see; they were sure to get accommodations.

The emigrant wagons pushed on to the indicated place. Only Robert remained standing at the harbor.

He stood there alone and looked out across the sea.

The others called him several times, but he did not answer.