shirt stands out like a very angry shirt
behind him. But Oline as like as not has noticed something, looking
out through the glass window; she appears in the doorway, quietly and
steadily, with buckets in her hands, on her way to the cowshed.

"What have you done with that ewe with the flat ears?" he asks.

"Ewe?" she asks.

"Ay. If she'd been here she'd have had two lambs by now. What have
you done with them? She always had two. You've done me out of three
together, do you understand?"

Oline is altogether overwhelmed, altogether annihilated by the
accusation; she wags her head, and her legs seem to melt away under
her--she might fall and hurt herself. Her head is busy all the time;
her ready wit had always helped her, always served her well; it must
not fail her now.

"I steal goats and I steal the sheep," she says quietly. "And what
do I do with them, I should like to know? I don't eat them up all by
myself, I suppose?"

"You know best what you do with them."

"Ho! As if I didn't have enough and to spare of meat and food and all,
with what you give me, Isak, that I should have to steal more? But
I'll say that, anyway, I've never needed so much, all these years."

"Well, what have, you done with the sheep? Has Os-Anders had it?"

"Os-Anders?" Oline has to set down the buckets and fold her hands."
May I never have more guilt to answer for! What's all this about a ewe
and lambs you're talking of? Is it the goat you mean, with the flat
ears?"

"You creature!" said Isak, turning away.

"Well, if you're not a miracle, Isak, I will say.... Here you've all
you could wish for every sort, and a heavenly host of sheep and goats
and all in your own shed, and you've not enough. How should I know
what sheep, and what two lambs, you're trying to get out of me now?
You should be thanking the Lord for His mercies from generation to
generation, that you should. 'Tis but this summer and a bit of a way
to next winter, and you've the lambing season once more, and three
times as many again."

Oh, that woman Oline!

Isak went off grumbling like a bear. "Fool I was not to murder her the
first day!" he thought, calling himself all manner of names. "Idiot,
lump of rubbish that I was! But it's not too late yet; just wait, let
her go to the cowshed if she likes. It wouldn't be wise to do anything
tonight, but tomorrow ... ay, tomorrow morning's the time. Three sheep
lost and gone! And coffee, did she say!"

Chapter X