"Understand one thing, Ingmar: when I found the money, I knew at once that it would be the kind of help to us that you say. But it was no temptation to me--no, not for a second; for I belong to another."
"You should have kept it yourself!" cried Ingmar. "I feel as if a wolf were gnawing at my heart. So long as I believed there was no other course open to me, it wasn"t so bad; but now that I know you could have been mine, I can"t--"
"Why Ingmar! I came here to bring you happiness."
Meanwhile, the folks at the house had become impatient, and had gone out on the porch, where they were calling: "Ingmar! Ingmar!"
"Yes, and there"s the bride, too, waiting for me!" he said mournfully. "And to think that you, Gertrude, should have brought all this about! When I had to give you up, circ.u.mstances forced me to do so, while you have spoiled everything simply to make me unhappy. Now I know how my father felt when my mother killed the child!"
Then he broke into violent sobs. "Never have I felt toward you as I do now!" he cried pa.s.sionately. "I"ve never loved you half so much as I do now. Little did I think that love could be so cruelly bitter!"
Gertrude gently placed her hand on his head. "Ingmar," she said very quietly, "it was never, never my meaning to take revenge on you. But so long as your heart is wedded to the things of this earth, it is wedded to sorrow."
For a long while Ingmar sat motionless, his head bowed. When he at last looked up, Gertrude was gone. People now came running from the farm to find him. He struck his clenched fist against the stone upon which he sat, and a look of determination came into his face.
"Gertrude and I will surely meet again," he said. "Then maybe it will be altogether different. We Ingmarssons are known to win what we yearn for."
THE DEAN"S WIDOW
Everybody tried to dissuade the h.e.l.lgumists from going to Jerusalem.
And toward the last, it seemed as though the very hills and vales echoed the plea, "Do not go! Do not go!"
Even the country gentlemen did their best to get the peasants to abandon the idea. The bailiff, the judge, and the councilmen gave them no peace; they asked them how they could feel sure that these Americans were not imposters; for they had no way of knowing what sort of folk they would be getting in with. In that far Eastern country there was neither law nor order; there one was always in danger of falling into the hands of brigands. Besides, there were no decent roads in that land--all their goods would have to be transported by means of pack-horses, as in the wild forests up North.
The doctor told them they would never be able to stand the climate; that Jerusalem was full of smallpox and malignant fevers; they were going away only to die.
The h.e.l.lgumists answered that they knew all this, and it was for that very reason they were going. They were going there in order to fight the smallpox and the fevers, to build roads and to till the soil. G.o.d"s country should no longer lie waste; they would transform it into a paradise. And no one was able to turn them from their purpose.
Down in the village lived an old lady, the widow of the Dean. She was very, very old! She occupied a large chamber above the post office, just across the street from the church, where she had lived since the death of her husband.
Some of the more well-to-do peasant women had always made it a rule to drop in to see the old lady on Sundays, before the service, and bring her some freshly baked bread, a pat of b.u.t.ter, or a can of milk. On these occasions she would always have the coffee pot put on the fire the moment they came in, and the one who could shout the loudest always talked with her, for she was frightfully deaf.
Of course they would try to tell her about everything that had happened during the week, but they could never be certain as to how much she heard of what was told her.
She never left her room, and there were times when it seemed as if people had forgotten her entirely. Then some one, in pa.s.sing, would see her old face back of the draped white curtains at the window, and think: "I must not forget her in her loneliness; to-morrow when we have killed the calf, I"ll run in to see her, and take her a bit of fresh meat."
No one could find out just how much she knew or did not know of what went on in the parish. With the advancing years, she became more and more detached, and apparently lost all interest in the things of this world. Now she just sat reading all the while in an old Postil, which she seemed to know by heart.
Living with her was a faithful old servant, who helped her dress, and prepared her meals. The two of them were in mortal fear of robbers and mice, and they were so afraid of fire that they would sit in the dark the whole evening rather than light the lamp.
Several among those who had lately become followers of h.e.l.lgum, used to call on the Dean"s widow in the old days, and bring her little gifts; but since their conversion they had separated themselves from all who were not of their faith; so they no longer went to see her. No one knew whether she understood why they did not come. Nor did anybody know whether she had heard anything about their proposed emigration to Jerusalem.
But one day the old lady took it into her head to go for a drive, and ordered the servant to get her a carriage and pair. Imagine the astonishment of the old servant! But when she attempted to remonstrate, the old lady suddenly became stone deaf. Raising her right hand, her forefinger poised in the air, she said:
"I wish to go for a drive, Sara Lena, you must find me a carriage and a pair of horses."
There was nothing for Sara Lena but to do as she was told. So she went over to the pastor"s to ask for the loan of his rig, which was a fairly decent-looking turnout. That done, she was put to the bother of airing and brushing an old fur cape and an old velvet bonnet that had been lying in camphor twenty consecutive years. And it was no small task getting the old lady down the stairs and into the wagon! She was so feeble that it seemed as if her life could have been as easily snuffed out as a candle flame in a storm.
When the Dean"s widow was at last safely seated in the carriage, she ordered the driver to take her to the Ingmar Farm.
Maybe the folks up at the farm were not surprised when they saw who was coming! The housefolk came running out, and lifted her down from the carriage, and ushered her into the living-room. Seated at the table in there were quite a number of h.e.l.lgumists. Of late they had been in the habit of coming together and having their frugal meals in common--meals which consisted of rice and tea and other light things; this was to prepare them for the coming journey across the desert.
The Dean"s widow glanced around the room. Several persons tried to speak to her, but that day she heard nothing whatever. Suddenly she put up her hand, and said in that hard, dry voice in which deaf people are wont to speak: "You do not come to see _me_ any more; therefore, I have come to _you_, to warn you not to go to Jerusalem.
It is a wicked city. It was there they crucified our Saviour."
Karin attempted to answer the old lady, who apparently did not hear, for she went right on:
"It is a wicked city," she repeated. "Bad people live there. "Twas there they crucified Christ. I have come here to-day," she added, "because this has been a good house. Ingmarsson has been a good name; it has always been a good name. Therefore, you must remain in our parish,"
Then she turned and walked out of the house. Now she had done her part, and could die in peace. This was the last service that life demanded of her.
After the old lady had gone, Karin broke into tears. "Perhaps it isn"t right for us to go," she sighed. But she was pleased that the Dean"s widow had said that Ingmarsson was a good name--that it had always been a good name.
It was the first and only time Karin had been known to waver, or to express any doubt as to the advisability of the great undertaking.
THE DEPARTURE OF THE PILGRIMS
One beautiful morning in July, a long train of carts and wagons set out from the Ingmar Farm. The h.e.l.lgumists had at last completed their arrangements, and were now leaving for Jerusalem--the first stage of their journey being the long drive to the railway station.
The procession, in moving toward the village, had to pa.s.s a wretched hovel which was called Mucklemire. The people who lived there were a disreputable lot--the kind of sc.u.m of the earth which must have sprung into being when our Lord"s eyes were turned, or when he had been busy elsewhere.
There was a whole horde of dirty, ragged youngsters on the place, who were in the habit of running loose all day, shrieking after pa.s.sing vehicles, and calling the occupants bad names; there was an old crone, who usually sat by the roadside, tipsy; and there were a husband and wife who were always quarrelling and fighting, and who had never been known to do any honest work. No one could say whether they begged more than they stole, or stole more than they begged.
When the Jerusalem-farers came alongside this wretched hovel, which was about as tumbledown as a place can become where wind and storm have, for many years, been allowed to work havoc, they saw the old crone standing erect and sober at the roadside, on the same spot where she usually sat in a drunken stupor, lurching to and fro, and babbling incoherently, and with her were four of the children. All five were now washed and combed, and as decently dressed as was possible for them to be.
When the persons seated in the first cart caught sight of them, they slackened their speed and drove by very slowly; the others did likewise, walking their horses.
All the Jerusalem-farers suddenly burst into tears, the grown-ups crying softly, while the children broke into loud sobs and wails.
Nothing had so moved them as the sight of Beggar Lina standing at the roadside clean and sober. Even to this day their eyes fill when they think of her; of how on that morning she had denied herself the drink, and had come forth sober, with the grandchildren washed and combed, to do honour to their departure.
When they had all pa.s.sed by, Beggar Lina also began to weep.
"Those people are going to Heaven to meet Jesus," she told the children. "All those people are going to Heaven but we are left standing by the wayside."
When the procession of carts and wagons had driven halfway through the parish, it came to the long floating bridge that lies rocking on the river.
This is a difficult bridge to cross. The first part of it is a steep incline all the way down to the edge of the stream; then come two rather abrupt elevations, under which boats and timber rafts can pa.s.s; and at the other end the up grade is so heavy that both man and beast dread to climb it.
That bridge has always been a source of annoyance. The planks keep rotting, and have to be replaced continually. In the spring, when the ice breaks, it has to be watched day and night to prevent its being knocked to pieces by drifting ice floes; and when the spring rains cause a rise in the river, large portions of the bridge are washed away.
But the people of the parish are proud of their bridge, and glad to have it, rickety as it is. But for that blessed bridge they would have to use a rowboat or a ferry every time they wanted to cross from one side of the parish to the other.