ve a home all to
ourselves--a little house down on the shore--and I shall help you, and
Signe will help mother--we shall know what it is to live, for the first
time!

Tjaelde. What happiness it will be!

Valborg. Only look forward, father! Look forward! A united family is
invincible!

Tjaelde. And to think that such help should come to me now!

Valborg. Yes, now we are all going to our posts--and all together, where
formerly you stood alone! You will have good fairies round you; wherever
you look, you will see happy faces and busy fingers all day long; and we
shall all enjoy our meals and our evenings together, just as we did when
we were children!

Tjaelde. That, above everything!

Valborg. Ha, ha!--it is after the rain that the birds sing blithest, you
know! And this time our happiness can never miscarry, because we shall
have something worth living for!

Tjaelde. Let us go to your mother! This will cheer her heart!

Valborg. Ah, how I have learnt to love her! What has happened to-day has
taught me.

Tjaelde. It is for her that we shall all work now.

Valborg. Yes--for her, for her. She shall rest now. Let us go to her!

Tjaelde. Kiss me first, my dear. (His voice trembles.) It is so long
since you did!

Valborg (kissing him). Father!

Tjaelde. Now let us go to your mother. (The curtain falls as they go out
together.)

ACT IV

(SCENE.--In the garden of TJAELDE'S new home, on the shore of the fjord,
three years later. A view of tranquil sunlit sea, dotted with boats, in
the background. On the left a portion of the house is seen, with an open
window within which VALBORG is seen writing at a desk. The garden is
shaded with birch trees; flower-beds run round the house, and the whole
atmosphere one of modest comfort. Two small garden tables and several
chairs are in the foreground on the right. A chair standing by itself,
further back, has evidently had a recent occupant. When the curtain
rises the stage is empty, but VALBORG is visible at the open window.
Soon afterwards TJAELDE comes in, wheeling MRS. TJAELDE in an invalid
chair.)

Mrs. Tjaelde. Another lovely day!

Tjaelde. Tjaelde. Lovely! There was not a ripple on the sea last night.
I saw a couple of steamers far out, and a sailing ship that had hove to,
and the fisher-boats drifting silently in.

Mrs. Tjaelde. And think of the storm that was raging two days ago!

Tjaelde. And think of the storm that broke over our lives barely three