Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun Read Free Book Online Page B

Lensmand said that the State required definite boundaries. "And the greater the extent, the more you will have to pay."
    "Ay."
    "And they won't give you all you think you can swallow; they'll let you have what's reasonable for your needs."
    "Ay."
    Inger brought in some milk for the visitors; they drank it, and she brought in some more. The Lensmand a surly fellow? He stroked Eleseus' hair, and looked at something the child was playing with. "Playing with stones, what? Let me see. H'm, heavy. Looks like some kind of ore."
    "There's plenty such up in the hills," said Isak.
    The Lensmand came back to business. "South and west from here's what you want most, I suppose? Shall we say a couple of furlongs to the southward?"
    "Two furlongs!" exclaimed his assistant.
    " You couldn't till two hundred yards," said his chief shortly.
    "What will that cost?" asked Isak.
    "Can't say. It all depends. But I'll put it as low as I can on my report; it's miles away from anywhere, and difficult to get at."
    "But two furlongs!" said the assistant again.
    The Lensmand entered duly, two furlongs to the southward, and asked: "What about the hills? How much do you want that way?"
    "I'll need all up as far as the water. There's a big water up there,"
said Isak.
    The Lensmand noted that. "And how far north?"
    "Why, it's no great matter that way. 'Tis but moorland most, and
little timber."
    The Lensmand fixed the northward boundary at one furlong. "East?"
    "That's no great matter either. 'Tis bare field all from here into
Sweden."
    The Lensmand noted down again. He made a rapid calculation, and said: "It'll make a good-sized place, even at that. Anywhere near the village, of course, it'd be worth a lot of money; nobody could have bought it. I'll send in a report, and say a hundred Daler would be fair. What do you think?" he asked his assistant.
    "It's giving it away," said the other.
    "A hundred Daler ?" said Inger. "Isak, you've no call to take so big
a place."
    "No--o," said Isak.
    The assistant put in hurriedly: "That's just what I say. It's miles too big for you as it is. What will you do with it?"
    "Cultivate it," said the Lensmand.
    He had been sitting there writing and working in his head, with the children crying every now and then; he did not want to have the whole thing to do again. As it was, he would not be home till late that night, perhaps not before morning. He thrust the papers into the bag; the matter was settled.
    "Put the horse in," he said to his companion. And turning to Isak: "As a matter of fact, they ought to give you the place for nothing, and pay you into the bargain, the way you've worked. I'll say as much when I send in the report. Then we'll see how much the State will ask for the title-deeds."
    Isak--it was hard to say how he felt about it. Half as if he were not ill-pleased after all to find his land valued at a big price, after the work he had done. As for the hundred Daler , he could manage to pay that off, no doubt, in course of time. He made no further business about it; he could go on working as he had done hitherto, clearing and cultivating, fetching loads of timber from the untended woodlands. Isak was not a man to look about anxiously for what might come; he worked.
    Inger thanked the Lensmand, and hoped he would put in a word for them
with the State.
    "Yes, yes. But I've no say in the matter myself. All I have to do is to say what I have seen, and what I think. How old is the youngest there?"
    "Six months as near as can be."
    "Boy or girl?"
    "Boy."
    The Lensmand was no tyrant, but shallow, and not overconscientious. He ignored his assistant, Brede Olsen, who by virtue of his office should be an expert in such affairs; the matter was settled out of hand, by guesswork. Yet for Isak and his wife it was a serious matter enough--ay, and for who should come after them, maybe for generations. But he set it all down, as it pleased him, making a document of it on the spot. Withal a kindly man; he took a bright coin from his