nder how I'm going to get even with them.
I'm thinking of setting fire to the farm, for I know he loves it.
How I'd like to poison the cows! they are so old and ugly and white
around the eyes that one would think they were related to him.'
'Barking dogs never bite,' I said. 'I've got to do something to
him, or I'll never have any peace of mind.' 'You don't know what
you are saying, child,' I protested. 'What you are thinking of
doing would forever destroy your peace of mind.'

"All at once she began to cry. Then, after a little, she became
very meek and said that she had suffered so from the bad thoughts
that came to her. I then walked home with her and, as we parted
company, she promised me that she would do nothing rash if I would
only keep a close mouth.

"Still I couldn't help thinking that I ought to talk to some one
about this," said Kaisa. "But to whom? I felt kind of backward
about going to big folk like yourselves--"

Just then the bell above the stable rang. The midday rest was over.
Mother Martha suddenly interrupted the old woman: "I say, Kaisa, do
you think things can ever be right again between Ingmar and Brita?"

"What?" gasped the old woman in astonishment.

"I mean, if by chance she were not going to America, do you suppose
she would have him?"

"Well, I should say not!"

"Then you are quite sure she would give him no for an answer."

"Of course she would."

Ingmar sat on the edge of the bed, his legs dangling over the side.

"Now you got just what you needed, Ingmar," he thought; "and now I
guess you'll take that journey to-morrow," he said, pounding the
edge of the bed with his fist. "How can mother think she'll get me
to stay at home by showing me that Brita doesn't like me!"

He kept pounding the side of the bed, as if in thought he were
knocking down something that was resisting him.

"Anyway, I'm going to chance it once more," he decided. "We Ingmars
begin all over again when things go wrong. No man that is a man can
sit back calmly and let a woman fret herself insane over his
conduct."

Never had he felt so keenly his utter defeat, and he was determined
to put himself right.

"I'd be a hell of a man if I couldn't make Brita happy here!" he
said.

He dealt the bedpost a last blow before getting up to go back to
his work.

"As sure as you're born it was Big Ingmar that sent old Kaisa here,
in order to make me tale that trip to the city."

IV

Ingmar Ingmarsson had arri