"Yes, indeed; both father and mother pretended they did not see it, but I went up in the garret and hid."
"More, more! Did he follow you there?"
"I think father told him where I was; he is always so provoking."
"And so he came? Sit down, sit down here beside me. Well, so he came?"
"Yes; but he did not say much, for he was so bashful."
"Every word! Do you hear? every word!"
""Are you afraid of me?" said he. "Why should I be afraid?" said I. "You know what it is I want of you," said he, and sat down on the chest beside me."
"Beside you!"
"And then he put his arm round my waist."
"His arm round your waist? Are you wild?"
"I wanted to get away from him, but he would not let me go. "Dear Eli,"
said he,"--she laughed, and the other girl laughed too.
"Well? well?"
""Will you be my wife?""
"Ha, ha, ha!"
"Ha, ha, ha!"
And then both--"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!"
Finally, the laughter, too, had to come to an end, and then a long silence ensued. After a while, the first one asked, but softly, "Say,--was it not too bad that he put his arm round your waist?"
Either the other one made no reply to this, or else she spoke in such a low tone that it could not be heard; perhaps, too, she answered only with a smile. Presently the first one asked:--
"Have neither your father nor your mother said anything since?"
"Father came up and looked at me, but I kept hiding; for he laughed every time he saw me."
"But your mother?"
"Why, she said nothing; but she was less harsh than usual."
"Well, you certainly refused him?"
"Of course."
Then there was a long silence again.
"Eli!"
"Well?"
"Do you think any one will ever come that way to me?"
"Yes, to be sure."
"How you talk! O--h! say, Eli? What if he should put his arm round my waist?" She covered her face.
There was much laughter, afterwards whispering and t.i.ttering.
The girls soon went away. They had neither seen Arne, nor the axe and the jacket, and he was glad.
Some days later he put Upland Knut in the houseman"s place under Kampen.
"You shall no longer be lonely," said Arne.
Arne himself took to steady work. He had early learned to cut with the hand-saw, for he had himself added much to the house at home. Now he wanted to work at his trade, for he knew it was well to have some definite occupation; it was also good for him to get out among people; and so changed had he gradually become, that he longed for this whenever he had kept to himself for a while. Thus it came to pa.s.s that he was at the parsonage for a time that winter doing carpentering, and the two girls were often together there. Arne wondered, when he saw them, who it could be that was now courting Eli Boen.
It so happened one day, when they went out for a ride, that Arne had to drive for the young lady of the parsonage and Eli; he had good ears, yet could not hear what they were talking about; sometimes Mathilde spoke to him, at which Eli laughed and hid her face. Once Mathilde asked if it was true he could make verses. "No!" he said promptly: then they both laughed, chattered, and laughed. This made him indignant, and he pretended not to see them.
Once he was sitting in the servants" hall, when there was dancing there.
Mathilde and Eli both came in to look on. They were disputing about something in the corner where they stood. Eli would not, but Mathilde would, and she won. Then they both crossed the floor to him, courtesied, and asked whether he could dance. He answered "No," and then they both turned, laughed, and ran away. "They keep up a perpetual laughter,"
thought Arne, and became sober. But the priest had a little adopted son, about ten or twelve years old, of whom Arne thought a good deal; from this boy Arne learned to dance when no one else was present.
Eli had a little brother about the same age as the priest"s adopted son.
These two were playmates, and Arne made sleds, skees,[22] and snares for them; and he often talked with them about their sisters, especially about Eli. One day Eli"s brother brought word that Arne should not be so careless with his hair.
"Who said so?"
"Eli said so; but I was not to tell that she said so."
Some days after, Arne sent a message to Eli that she should laugh a little less. The boy came back with the reply that Arne should laugh a little more.
Once the boy asked for something he had written. Arne let him have it, and thought no more of it. After a while the boy thought he would please Arne with the tidings that both the girls liked his writing very much.
"Why, have they seen it?"
"Yes, it was for them I wanted it."
Arne asked the boys to bring him something their sisters had written; they did so. Arne corrected the mistakes with a carpenter"s pencil. He asked the boys to place the paper where it could easily be found.
Afterwards he found it again in his jacket pocket, but at the bottom was written, "Corrected by a conceited fellow!"
The next day Arne finished his work at the parsonage, and set out for home. So gentle as he was this winter, his mother had never seen him since those sorrowful days after his father"s death. He read the sermon for her, went with her to church, and was very kind to her. But she well knew it was all to get her consent to journey away from her when spring came. Then one day he had a message from Boen to know if he would come there and do some carpentering.
Arne was quite startled, and answered "Yes," as though he scarcely knew what he was saying. No sooner had the messenger gone than the mother said,