m taken
away, but she does not do it."

The school-master smiles.

"Possibly it would not please her?"

Ole makes no reply.

The school-master: "There are many things which trouble you; but as far
as I can understand they all concern the gard."

Ole says, quietly,--

"It has been handed down for many generations, and the soil is good.
All that father after father has toiled for lies in it; but now it does
not thrive. Nor do I know who shall drive in when I am driven out. It
will not be one of the family."

"Your granddaughter will preserve the family."

"But how can he who takes her take the gard? That is what I want to
know before I die. You have no time to lose, Baard, either for me or
for the gard."

They were both silent; at last the school-master says,--

"Shall we walk out and take a look at the gard in this fine weather?"

"Yes; let us do so. I have work-people on the slope; they are
gathering leaves, but they do not work except when I am watching them."

He totters off after his large cap and staff, and says, meanwhile,--

"They do not seem to like to work for me; I cannot understand it."

When they were once out and turning the corner of the house, he paused.

"Just look here. No order: the wood flung about, the axe not even
stuck in the block."

He stooped with difficulty, picked up the axe, and drove it in fast.

"Here you see a skin that has fallen down; but has any one hung it up
again?"

He did it himself.

"And the store-house; do you think the ladder is carried away?"

He set it aside. He paused, and looking at the school-master, said,--

"This is the way it is every single day."

As they proceeded upward they heard a merry song from the slopes.

"Why, they are singing over their work," said the school-master.

"That is little Knut Ostistuen who is singing; he is helping his father
gather leaves. Over yonder _my_ people are working; you will not find
them singing."

"That is not one of the parish songs, is it?"

"No, it is not."

"Oyvind Pladsen has been much in Ostistuen; perhaps that is one of the
songs he has introduced into the parish, for there is always singing
where he is."

There was no reply to this.

The field they were crossing was not in good condition; it required
attention. The school-master commented on this, and then Ole stopped.

"It is not in my power to do more," said he, quite pathetically.
"Hired work-people without attention cost too m