me--into the house.

And then in truth it was a shamefaced Isak, shamefaced and glad.
Brede Olsen sat there, his neighbour and no other; sat there drinking
coffee. Ay, Inger was up, the two of them sat there simply and
quietly, talking and drinking coffee.

"Here's Isak," said Inger pleasantly as could be, and got up and
poured out a cup for him. "Evening," said Brede, and was just as
pleasant too.

Isak could see that Brede had been spending the evening with the
telegraph gangs, the last night before they went; he was somewhat the
worse for it, maybe, but friendly and good-humoured enough. He boasted
a little, as was his way: hadn't the time really to bother with this
telegraphic work, the farm took all of a man's day--but he couldn't
very well say no when the engineer was so anxious to have him. And so
it had come about, too, that Brede had had to take over the job of
line inspector. Not for the sake of the money, of course, he could
earn many times that down in the village, but he hadn't liked to
refuse. And they'd given him a neat little machine set up on the wall,
a curious little thing, a sort of telegraph in itself.

Ay, Brede was a wastrel and a boaster, but for all that Isak could
bear him no grudge; he himself was too relieved at finding his
neighbour in the house that evening instead of a stranger. Isak
had the peasant's coolness of mind, his few feelings, stability,
stubbornness; he chatted with Brede and nodded at his shallowness.
"Another cup for Brede," said he. And Inger poured it out.

Inger talked of the engineer; a kindly man he was beyond measure; had
looked at the boys' drawings and writings, and even said something
about taking Eleseus to work under him.

"To work with him?" said Isak.

"Ay, to the town. To do writing and things, be a clerk in the
office--all for he was so pleased with the boy's writing and drawing."

"Ho!" said Isak.

"Well, and what do you say? He was going to have him confirmed too.
That was a great thing, to my mind."

"Ay, a great thing indeed," said Brede. "And when the engineer says
he'll do a thing, he'll do it. I know him, and you can take my word
for that."

"We've no Eleseus to spare on this farm as I know of," said Isak.

There was something like a painful silence after that. Isak was not an
easy man to talk to.

"But when the boy himself wants to get on," said Inger at last, "and
has it in him, too." Silence again.

Then said Brede with a laugh: "I w