Karin and the stranger were evidently of the same mind regarding Dagson. Karin never went to the mission house again. But later in the summer, when a Baptist layman came to the parish, baptizing and exhorting, she went to hear him, and when the Salvation Army began to hold meetings in the village, she also attended one of these.
The parish was in the throes of a great religious upheaval. At all the meetings there were awakenings and conversions. The people seemed to find what they had been seeking. Yet among all those whom Karin had heard preach, not one could give her any consolation.
A blacksmith named Birger Larsson had a smithy close by the highroad. His shop was small and dark, with a low door, and an aperture in place of a window. Birger Larsson made common knives, mended locks, put tires on wheels and on sled runners. When there was nothing else to be done, he forged nails.
One evening, in the summer, there was a rush of work at the smithy.
At one anvil stood Birger Larsson flattening the heads of nails; his eldest son was at another anvil forging iron rods and cutting off pins. A second son was blowing the bellows, a third carried coal to the forge, turned the iron, and, when at white heat, brought it to the smiths. The fourth son, who was not more than seven years old, gathered up the finished nails and threw them into a trough filled with water, afterward bunching and tying them.
While they were all hard at work a stranger came up and stationed himself in the doorway. He was a tall, swarthy-looking man, and he had to bend almost double to look in. Birger Larsson glanced up from his work to see what the man wanted.
"I hope you don"t mind my looking in, although I have no special errand here," said the stranger. "I was a blacksmith myself in my younger days, and can never pa.s.s by a smithy without first stopping to glance in at the work."
Birger Larsson noticed that the man had large, sinewy hands--regular blacksmith"s hands. He at once began to question him as to who he was and whence he came. The man answered pleasantly, but without disclosing his ident.i.ty. Birger thought him clever and likable, and after showing him around the shop, he went outside with him and began to brag about his sons. He had seen hard times, he said, before the boys were big enough to help with the work; but now that all of them were able to lend a hand, everything went well.
"In a few years I expect to be a rich man," he declared.
The stranger smiled a little at that and said he was pleased to hear that Birger"s sons were so helpful to him. Placing his heavy hand on Birger"s shoulder, and looking him square in the eyes, he said: "Since you have had such good aid from your sons in a material way, I suppose you also let them help you in the things that pertain to the spirit?" Birger stared stupidly. "I see that this is a new thought to you," the stranger added. "Ponder it till we meet again." Then he went on his way smiling, and Birger Larsson, scratching his head, returned to his work. But the stranger"s query haunted his mind for several days. "I wonder what made him say that?" he mused. "There must be something back of it all that I don"t understand."
The day after the stranger had talked with Birger Larsson an extraordinary thing took place at Tims Halvor"s old shop, which since his marriage to Karin had been turned over to his brother-in-law, Bullet Gunner. Gunner was away at the time, and, in his absence, Brita Ingmarsson tended the shop. Brita was named after her mother, Big Ingmar"s handsome wife, whose good looks she had inherited. Moreover, she had the distinction of being the prettiest girl ever born and reared on the Ingmar Farm. Although she bore no outward resemblance to the old Ingmars, she was, nevertheless, quite as conscientious and upright as any of them.
When Gunner was absent Brita always ran the business in her own way. Whenever old Corporal Felt would come stumbling in, tipsy and shaky, and ask for a bottle of beer, Brita would give him a blunt "No," and when poor Kolbjorn"s Lena came and wanted to buy a fine brooch, Brita sent her home with several pounds of rye meal. The peasant woman who dropped in to buy some light flimsy fabric was told to go home and weave suitable and durable cloth on her own loom. And no children dared come into the shop to spend their poor coppers for candy and raisins when Brita was in charge there.
That day Brita had not many customers. So for hours and hours she sat quite alone, staring into vacancy, despair burning in her eyes.
By and by she got up and took out a rope; then she moved a little stepladder from the shop into the back room. After that she made a loop in one end of the rope, and fastened the other end to a hook in the ceiling. Just as she was about to slip her head into the noose, she happened to look down.
At that moment the door opened and in walked a tall, dark man. He had evidently entered the shop without her having heard him, and on finding no one in attendance, had stepped behind the counter and opened the door to the next room.
Brita quietly came down from the ladder. The man did not speak, but withdrew into the shop, Brita slowly following him. She had never seen the man before. She noticed that he had black curly hair, throat whiskers, keen eyes, and big, sinewy hands. He was well dressed, but his bearing was that of a labourer. After seating himself on a rickety chair near the door, he began to stare hard at Brita.
By that time Brita was again standing behind the counter. She did not ask him what he wanted; she only wished he would go away. The man just stared and stared, never once taking his eyes off her.
Brita felt that she was being held by his gaze, and could not move.
Presently she grew impatient, and said, in her mind: "What"s the use of your sitting there watching me? Can"t you understand that I"m going to do what I want to do, anyhow, as soon as I"m left alone? If this were only something that could be helped," Brita argued mentally, "I wouldn"t mind your hindering me, but it can"t be remedied now."
All the while the man sat gazing intently at her.
"Let me say to you that we Ingmars are not fitted to be shopkeepers," Brita continued in her thoughts. "You don"t know how happy we were, Gunner and I, till he took up with this business. Folks certainly warned me against marrying him; they didn"t like him, on account of his black hair, his piercing eyes, and his sharp tongue. But we two were fond of each other, you see, and there was never a cross word between us till Gunner took over the shop. But since then all has not been well. I want him to conduct the business in my way. I can"t abide his selling wine and beer to drunkards, and it seems to me that he ought to encourage people in buying only such things as are useful and necessary; but Gunner thinks this a ridiculous notion. Neither of us will give in to the other, so we are forever wrangling, and now he doesn"t care for me any more."
She gave the man a savage look, amazed at his not yielding to her mute entreaties.
"Surely you must understand that I cannot go on living under the shame of knowing that he lets the bailiff serve executions upon poor people and take from them their only cow or a couple of sheep!
Can"t you see that this thing will never come right? Why don"t you go, and let me put an end to it all!"
Brita, under the man"s gaze, gradually became quieter in her mind, and in a little while she began to cry softly. She was touched by his sitting there and protecting her against herself.
As soon as the man saw that Brita was weeping, he rose and went toward the door. When he was on the doorstep, he turned and again looked straight into her eyes, and said in a deep voice: "Do thyself no harm, for the time is nearing when thou shalt live in righteousness."
Then he went his way. She could hear his heavy footsteps as he walked, down the road. Brita ran into the little room, took down the rope, and carried the stepladder back into the shop. Then she dropped down on a box, where she sat quietly musing for two full hours. She felt, somehow, that for a long time she had wandered in a darkness so thick that she could not see her hand before her. She had lost her way and knew not whither she had strayed, and with every step she had been afraid of sinking into a quagmire or stumbling headlong into an abyss. Now some one had called to her not to go any farther, but to sit down and wait for the break of day. She was glad that she would not have to continue her perilous wanderings; now she sat quietly waiting for the dawn.
Strong Ingmar had a daughter who was called Anna Lisa. She had lived in Chicago for a number of years, and had married there a Swede named John h.e.l.lgum, who was the leader of a little band of religionists with a faith and doctrine of their own. The day after the memorable dance night at Strong Ingmar"s, Anna Lisa and her husband had come home to pay a visit to her old father.
h.e.l.lgum pa.s.sed his time taking long walks about the parish. He struck up an acquaintance with all whom he met on the way. He talked with them at first of commonplace things; but just before parting with a person, he would always place his large hand upon his or her shoulder, and speak a few words of comfort or warning.
Strong Ingmar saw very little of his son-in-law, for that summer the old man and young Ingmar, who had now gone back to the Ingmar Farm to live, were hard at work daytimes putting up a sawmill below the rapids. It was a proud day for Strong Ingmar when the sawmill was ready and the first log had been turned into white planks by the buzzing saws.
One evening on his way home from work, the old man met Anna Lisa on the road. She looked frightened, and wanted to run away. Strong Ingmar, seeing this, quickened his pace, thinking all was not well at home. When he reached his but he stopped short, frowning. As far back as he could remember, a certain rosebush had been growing outside the door. It had been the apple of his eye. He had never allowed any one to pluck a rose or a leaf from that bush. Strong Ingmar had always guarded the bush very tenderly, because he believed it sheltered elves and fairies. But now it had been cut down. Of course it was his son-in-law, the preacher, who had done this, as the sight of the bush had always been an eyesore to him.
Strong Ingmar had his axe with him, and his grip on the handle tightened as he entered the hut. Inside sat h.e.l.lgum with an open Bible before him. He raised his eyes and gave the old man a piercing look, then went on with his reading; this time aloud:
"Even as ye think, we will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone, it shall not be at all as ye think. As I live, saith the Lord G.o.d, surely with a mighty hand, and with stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you--"
Without a word Strong Ingmar turned and walked out of the house.
That night he slept in the barn. The following day he and Ingmar Ingmarsson set out for the forest to burn charcoal and fell timber.
They were to be gone the whole winter.
On two or three occasions h.e.l.lgum had spoken at prayer meetings and outlined his teaching, which he maintained was the only true Christianity. But h.e.l.lgum, who was not as eloquent a speaker as Dagson, had made no converts. Those who had met him outside and had only heard him say a few telling words, expected great things from him; but when he tried to deliver a lengthy address he became heavy, prosy, and tiresome.
Toward the close of summer Karin became utterly despondent over her condition. She rarely spoke. All day long she sat motionless in her chair. She went to hear no more preachers, but stayed at home, brooding over her misfortune. Once in a while she would repeat to Halvor her father"s old saying about the Ingmars not having anything to fear so long as they walked in the ways of G.o.d. Now she had come to the conclusion that there was no truth even in that.
Halvor, not knowing what to do, on one occasion suggested that she talk with the newest preacher, but Karin declared that she would never again look to a parson for help.
One Sunday, toward the end of August, Karin sat at the window in the living-room. A Sabbath stillness rested over the farm, and she could hardly keep awake. Her head kept sinking nearer and nearer her breast, and presently she dropped into a doze.
She was suddenly awakened by the sound of a voice just outside her window. She could not see who the speaker was, but the voice was strong and deep. A more beautiful voice she had never heard.
"I know, Halvor, that it doesn"t seem reasonable to you that a poor, uneducated blacksmith should have found the truth, when so many learned men have failed," said the voice.
"I don"t see how you can be so sure of that," Halvor questioned.
"It"s h.e.l.lgum talking to Halvor," thought Karin, trying to close the window, which she was unable to reach.
"It has been said, as you know," h.e.l.lgum went on, "that if somebody strikes us on one cheek we must turn the other cheek also, and that we should not resist evil, and other things of the same sort; all of which none of us can live up to. Why, people would rob you of your house and home, they"d steal your potatoes and carry off your grain, if you failed to protect what was yours. I guess they"d take the whole Ingmar Farm from you."
"Maybe you"re right," Halvor admitted.
"Well, then, I suppose Christ didn"t mean anything when He said all that; He was just talking into the air, eh?"
"I don"t know what you"re driving at!" said Halvor.
"Now here"s something to set you thinking," h.e.l.lgum continued. "We are supposed to be very far advanced in our Christianity. There"s no one nowadays who steals, no one who commits murder or wrongs the widow and the fatherless, and of course no one hates or persecutes his neighbour any more, and it wouldn"t occur to any of us, who have such a good religion, to do any wrong!"
"There are many things that aren"t just as they ought to be,"