deaf too, that you cannot hear what that sound means?" shouted he.
"See and get hold of a midwife--and that at once; or I'll teach
you."

When Maren saw him rise, she turned round and ran home again. Soeren
shrugged his shoulders and fetched the midwife himself. He stayed
outside the hut the whole afternoon without going in, and when it
was evening he went down to the inn. It was a place within which he
seldom set his foot; there was not sufficient money for that; if
house and home should have what was due to it. With unaccustomed
shaking hand he turned the handle, opened the door with a jerk and
stood with an uncertain air in the doorway.

"So, that was it, after all," said he with miserable bravado. And he
repeated the same sentence over and over again the whole evening,
until it was time to stumble home.

Maren was out on the down waiting for him; when she saw the state he
was in, she burst into tears. "So, that was----" he began, with a
look which should have been full of withering scorn--but suddenly he
stopped. Maren's tears moved him strangely deep down under
everything else; he had to put his arms round her neck and join in
her tears.

The two old people sat on the down holding each other until their
tears were spent. Already considerable evil had fallen in the path
of this new being; now fell the first tears.

When they had got home and busied themselves with mother and child
and had gone to rest in the big double bed, Maren felt for Soeren's
hand. So she had always fallen asleep in their young days, and now
it was as if something of the sweetness of their young days rose up
in her again--was it really owing to the little lovechild's sudden
appearance, or what?

"Now, perhaps, you'll agree 'twas as I told you all along," said
Soeren, just as they were falling asleep.

"Ay, 'twas so," said Maren. "But how it could come about ... for men
folk...."

"Oh, shut up with that nonsense," said Soeren, and they went to
sleep.

* * * * *

So Maren eventually had to give in. "Though," as Soeren said, "like
as not one fine day she'd swear the girl had never had a child."
Womenfolk! Ugh! there was no persuading them.

Anyhow, Maren was too clever to deny what even a blind man could see
with a stick; and it was ever so much easier for her to admit the
hard truth; in spite of the girl's innocent tears and solemn
assurances, there was a man in the case all the same, and he
moreo