em one in
each arm now! But you must have eaten up the whole barn up there; I
didn't remember that you were so big, Barbara. I should think he's had
to give up house and lands, that farmer?' he said, to tease me.

"'Thank you, I wasn't accustomed to cattle fodder at the Consul's
house,' said I; 'and it's me, rather, that's in such circumstances that
I must leave. That man takes pretty good care that he is not cheated.'

"And then I talked about Ludvig and Lizzie until I began to cry.

"'And that harum-scarum boy of yours?' he asked.

"'Thank you,' said I, 'my son Nikolai is now a finished journeyman smith
in this city.'

"And then I told him my thoughts of coming to town to go into trade.
'I have always noticed that it has been better to be behind the counter
than in front of it,' I said.

"Then he laughed. 'You want to make yourself a new storehouse in town,
I see, Barbara.'

"'Yes, sir, when it can be done honestly, and with a little help; every
one aims at their own maintenance.'

"And then he promised me right down a free room and kitchen in one of
the houses up in the manufacturing part of the town for a whole year!"

As mother and son sat opposite to one another, they were not without a
certain similarity; but where the leading of fate had turned the
features of his broad, intelligent face into muscle and energy, it had
in Barbara relaxed all the springs into dull, ponderous fat.

It was not, however, without a certain amount of enthusiasm that she now
unfolded her plans for the little business, and how she should procure
credit, a little at each place; she still had acquaintances at the
shops in the neighbourhood, from the time she was at the Veyergangs'.
Afterwards it was only to sell out, pay for the old, get new again; it
all went round like a winch!

But she must have a little more ready money, for hers would not go far
enough. Now, if Nikolai could help her with a little; it would all lie
in the goods, so that, for that matter, it was the same whether he put
his pence there or in his pocket--the same to a T!

Could he tell her where she could buy a counter cheap! Or rather, get it
on credit; if there was anything she was hard up for now, it was ready
money. Perhaps she might as well try to take out a little more at the
carpenter's at once, only a fair-sized folding-table, two beds, and a
few chairs. She had thought that when once she had got it started and
into order, Nikolai might live with he