T 267

IX A DEATH 284

X THE NEW WORLD 291

XI GINGERBREAD HOUSE 303

XII DAILY TROUBLES 311

XIII DITTE'S CONFIRMATION 320

PART I

CHAPTER I

DITTE'S FAMILY TREE

It has always been considered a sign of good birth to be able to
count one's ancestors for centuries back. In consequence of this,
Ditte Child o' Man stood at the top of the tree. She belonged to one
of the largest families in the country, the family of Man.

No genealogical chart exists, nor would it be easy to work it out;
its branches are as the sands of the sea, and from it all other
generations can be traced. Here it cropped out as time went on--then
twined back when its strength was spent and its part played out. The
Man family is in a way as the mighty ocean, from which the waves
mount lightly towards the skies, only to retreat in a sullen flow.

According to tradition, the first mother of the family is said to
have been a field worker who, by resting on the cultivated ground,
became pregnant and brought forth a son. And it was this son who
founded the numerous and hardy family for whom all things prospered.
The most peculiar characteristic of the Man family in him was that
everything he touched became full of life and throve.

This boy for a long time bore the marks of the clinging earth, but
he outgrew it and became an able worker of the field; with him began
the cultivation of the land. That he had no father gave him much
food for thought, and became the great and everlasting problem of
his life. In his leisure he created a whole religion out of it.

He could hold his own when it came to blows; in his work there was
no one to equal him, but his wife had him well in hand. The name Man
is said to have originated in his having one day, when she had
driven him forth by her sharp tongue, sworn threateningly that he
was master in his own house, "master" being equivalent to "man."
Several of the male members of this family have since found it hard
to bow their pride before their women folk.

A branch of the family settled down on the desert coast up near the
Cattegat, and this was the beginning of the hamlet. It was in those
times when forest and swamp still made the country impassable, and
the sea was used as a highway. The reefs are still there on which
the men la