es were.

Joel, moreover, approved his sister's decision unreservedly. Ole
Kamp's ticket must not be sold to any person at any price.

Sylvius Hogg went even further. He not only approved Hulda's decision,
but he congratulated her upon it. Think of seeing this ticket sold
and resold, passing from hand to hand, transformed, as it were, into
a piece of merchandise, until the time appointed for the drawing
arrived, when it would very probably become a worthless scrap of
paper?

And Sylvius Hogg went even further. Was it, perhaps, because he was
slightly superstitious? No. Still, if Ole Kamp had been there, the
professor would probably have said to him:

"Keep your ticket, my boy, keep it! First, your ticket, and then you,
yourself, were saved from the wreck. You had better wait and see what
will come of it. One never knows; no, one never knows!"

And when Sylvius Hogg, professor of law, and; a member of the
Storthing, felt in this way, one can hardly wonder at the infatuation
of the public, nor that No. 9672 could be sold at an enormous premium.

So in Dame Hansen's household there was no one who protested against
the young girl's decision--at least no one except the mother.

She was often heard to censure it, especially in Hulda's absence, a
fact that caused poor Joel not a little mortification and chagrin, for
he was very much afraid that she would not always confine herself to
covert censure, and that she would urge Hulda to accept one of the
offers she had received.

"Five thousand marks for the ticket!" she repeated again and again.
"They offer five thousand marks for it!"

It was evident that Dame Hansen saw nothing either pathetic or
commendable in her daughter's refusal. She was thinking only of this
large sum of five thousand marks. A single word from Hulda would bring
it into the family. She had no faith either in the extraordinary
value of the ticket, Norwegian though she was; and to sacrifice fire
thousand marks for a millionth chance of winning one hundred thousand
was an idea too absurd to be entertained far a moment by her cool and
practical mind.

All superstition aside, it is undeniable that the sacrifice of a
certainty, under such conditions, was not an act of worldly wisdom;
but as we said before, the ticket was not a lottery ticket in Hulda's
eyes; it was Ole's last farewell, and it would have broken her heart
to part with it.

Nevertheless, Dame Hansen certainly disapproved her daughter's