he morning she found him
sleeping, with the extinguished lantern by his side.

One morning in the following January when he put out to fish with two
men in his boat besides himself, he heard in the dark a voice that came
from a rock at the entrance to the creek. It laughed scornfully, and
said: "When you get a ten-oared boat, take care, Elias!"

However, it was many years before anything happened to the ten-oared
boat, and by that time his eldest son, Bernt, was seventeen. That autumn
Elias went into Ranen with his whole family in the six-oared boat, to
exchange it for a ten-oared boat. Only a newly confirmed Fin girl, whom
they had taken in some years before, was left at home.

Elias had in his eye a half-decked ten-oared boat, which the best
boat-builder in Ranen had finished and tarred that very autumn. Elias
knew very well what a boat should be, and thought he had never seen one
so well built under the water-line. Above, on the contrary, it was only
fairly good, so that to any one less experienced it looked heavy, and
with no beauty to speak of.

The builder knew this just as well as Elias. He said he believed it
would be the first boat in Ranen for sailing; but that, all the same,
Elias should have it cheap, if he would only promise one thing, and that
was, not to make any alteration in it, not so much as to put a line on
the tar. Only when Elias had expressly promised this did he get the
boat.

But "the fellow," who had taught the builder the shape for his boats
below water-line--above it, he was obliged to work as he could by
himself, and that was often poorly enough--had probably advised him
beforehand, to sell it cheaply, so that Elias should have it, and also
to make it a condition that the boat should not be marked in any way.
The cross [Customary with fishermen in Nordland to keep evil spirits
away.] usually painted fore and aft, did not, therefore, appear on the
boat.

Elias now thought of sailing home, but first went to the shop and laid
in a supply of Christmas goods including a little keg of brandy for
himself and his family. Delighted as he was with his purchase, both he
and his wife took that day a little more than was good for them, and
Bernt, the son, also had a taste.

Their shopping done, they set out to sail the new boat home. It had no
other ballast than himself, his wife and children, and the Christmas
fare. His son Bernt sat in the fore-part, his wife, with the help of the
second son,