he could show
her what he had collected; before he had time to tell her what he
had wished to do. He, who had worked with the same zeal as David,
King of Israel, when he gathered treasures for the temple of God,
grieved most bitterly over it. He lost all interest in the
building. For him the brushwood shelter was good enough. Yet he was
hardly better off in his home than an animal in its hole.

When he, who had always heretofore crept about alone, was now
seized with the desire to seek Jofrid's company, it certainly meant
that he would like to have her for his sweetheart and his bride.
Jofrid also waited daily for him to speak to her father or to
herself about the matter. But Toenne could not. This showed that he
was of a race of slaves. The thoughts that came into his head moved
as slowly as the sun when he travels across the sky. And it was
more difficult for him to shape those thoughts to connected speech
than for a smith to forge a bracelet out of rolling grains of sand.

One day Toenne took Jofrid to one of the clefts, where he had hidden
his timber. He pulled aside the branches and moss and showed her
the squared beams. "That was to have been mother's house," he said.
The young girl was strangely slow in understanding a young man's
thoughts. When he showed her his mother's logs she ought to have
understood, but she did not understand.

Then he decided to make his meaning even plainer. A few days later
he began to drag the logs up to the place between the cairns, where
he had seen Jofrid for the first time. She came as usual along the
path and saw him at work. Nevertheless she went on without saying
anything. Since they had become friends she had often given him a
good handshake, but she did not seem to want to help him with the
heavy work. Toenne still thought that she ought to have understood
that it was now her house which he meant to build.

She understood it very well, but she had no desire to give herself
to such a man as Toenne. She wished to have a strong and healthy
husband. She thought it would be a poor livelihood to marry any one
who was weak and dull. Still, there was much which drew her to that
silent, shy man. She thought how hard he had worked to gladden his
mother and had not enjoyed the happiness of being ready in time.
She could weep for his sake. And now he was building the house just
where he had seen her dance. He had a good heart. And that
interested her and fixed her thoughts on him, b