She overdid things finely, and worked harder than she ought.  There were two men on the place, but Inger took the chance when both were away at once, and set to work herself sawing wood; and where was the good of torturing and mortifying the flesh that way?  She was so insignificant a creature, so little worth, her powers of so common a sort; her death or life would not be noticed in the land, in the State, only here in the wilds.  Here, she was almost great—­at any rate, the greatest; and she may well have thought herself worth all the chastening she ordered and endured.  Her husband said: 

“Sivert and I, we’ve been talking about this; we’re not going to have you sawing wood, and wearing yourself out.”

“I do it for conscience’ sake,” she answered.

Conscience!  The word made Isak thoughtful once more.  He was getting on in years, slow to think, but weighty when he did come to anything.  Conscience must be something pretty strong if it could turn Inger all upside down like that.  And however it might be, Inger’s conversion made a change in him also; he caught it from her, grew tame, and given to pondering.  Life was all heavy-like and stern that winter; he sought for loneliness, for a hiding-place.  To save his own trees he had bought up a piece of the State forest near by, with some good timber, over toward the Swedish side, and he did the felling now alone, refusing all help.  Sivert was ordered to stay at home and see that his mother did not work too much.

And so, in those short winter days, Isak went out to his work in the dark, and came home in the dark; it was not always there was a moon, or any stars, and at times his own track of the morning would be covered with snow by nightfall, so he was hard put to it to find his way.  And one evening something happened.

He was nearing home; in the fine moonlight he could see Sellanraa there on the hillside, neat and clear of the forest, but small, undergroundish to look at, by reason of the snow banked high against the walls.  He had more timber now, and it was to be a grand surprise for Inger and the children when they heard what use he would make of it—­the wonderful building he had in mind.  He sat down in the snow to rest a bit, not to seem worn out when he came home.

All is quiet around him, and God’s blessing on this quiet and thoughtfulness, for it is nothing but good!  Isak is a man at work on a clearing in the forest, and he looks out over the ground, reckoning what is to be cleared next turn; heaving aside great stones in his mind—­Isak had a real talent for that work.  There, he knows now, is a deep, bare patch on his ground; it is full of ore; there is always a metallic film over every puddle of water there—­and now he will dig it out.  He marks out squares with his eye, making his plans for all, speculating over all; they are to be made green and fruitful.  Oh, but a piece of tilled soil was a great and good thing; it was like right and order to his mind, and a delight beyond....