to find her so.  Ay, he was a worker in the fields, no doubt, a thick-skinned fellow, not used to looking over fine at things, nothing delicate beyond measure; there were things he was obliged to do, and he looked to what was useful first of all.  Moreover, here was Barbro all new and pretty again, and nice to him, almost sweeter than before.  Like an apple she was, and he bit at it.  The banns were already put up.

As to the dead child and the trial, neither said a word of that.

But they did speak of Oline, of how they were to get rid of her.  “Ay, she must go,” said Barbro.  “We’ve nothing to thank her for, anyway.  She’s naught but tale-bearing and malice.”

But it proved no easy matter to get Oline to go.

The very first morning, when Barbro appeared, Oline was clear, no doubt, as to her fate.  She was troubled at once, but tried not to show it, and brought out a chair.  They had managed up to then at Maaneland.  Axel had carried water and wood and done the heaviest work, and Oline doing the rest.  And gradually she had come to reckon on staying the rest of her life on the place.  Now came Barbro and upset it all.

“If we’d only a grain of coffee in the house you should have it,” said she to Barbro.  “Going farther up, maybe?”

“No,” said Barbro.

“Ho!  Not going farther?”

“No.”

“Why, ’tis no business of mine, no,” says Oline.  “Going down again, maybe?”

“No.  Nor going down again.  I’m staying here for now.”

“Staying here, are you?”

“Ay, staying here, I doubt.”

Oline waits for a moment, using her old head, full of policy.  “Ay, well,” says she. “’Twill save me, then, no doubt.  And glad I’ll be for the same.”

“Oho,” says Barbro in jest, “has Axel here been so hard on you this while?”

“Hard on me?  Axel!  Oh, there’s no call to turn an old body’s words, there’s naught but living on and waiting for the blessed end.  Axel that’s been as a father and a messenger from the Highest to me day and hour together, and gospel truth the same.  But seeing I’ve none of my own folks here, and living alone and rejected under a stranger’s roof, with all my kin over across the hills....”

But for all that, Oline stayed on.  They could not get rid of her till after they were wed, and Oline made a deal of reluctance, but said “Yes” at last, and would stay so long to please them, and look to house and cattle while they went down to the church.  It took two days.  But when they came back wedded and all, Oline stayed on as before.  She put off going; one day she was feeling poorly, she said; the next it looked like rain.  She made up to Barbro with smooth words about the food.  Oh, there was a mighty difference in the food now at Maaneland; ’twas different living now, and a mighty difference in the coffee now.  Oh, she stopped at nothing, that Oline; asked Barbro’s advice on things she knew better herself.  “What you think now, should I milk cows as they stand in their place and order, or should I take cow Bordelin first?”