Eleseus had no idea what the fishery business might be worth, but he had seen the live stock; it consisted of one cow, partly red and partly white.  Uncle Sivert must have been delirious.  Some of the accounts, too, were difficult to make out at all; they were a muddle, a bare jumble of figures, especially from the date when the coinage was changed; the district treasurer had frequently reckoned the small Kroner as if they were full Daler.  No wonder he fancied himself rich!  But when everything was reduced to something like order, Eleseus feared there would not be much left over.  Perhaps not enough to settle at all.

Ay, Sivert might easily promise him all that came to him from his uncle!

The two brothers jested about it.  Sivert was not upset over the matter, not at all; perhaps, indeed, it might have irked him something more if he really had thrown away five thousand Daler.  He knew well enough that it had been a mere speculation, naming him after his uncle; he had no claim to anything there.  And now he pressed Eleseus to take what there was.  “It’s to be yours, of course,” said he.  “Come along, let’s get it set down in writing.  I’d like to see you a rich man.  Don’t be too proud to take it!”

Ay, they had many a laugh together.  Sivert, indeed, was the one that helped most to keep Eleseus at home; it would have been much harder but for him.

As a matter of fact, Eleseus was getting rather spoiled again; the three weeks’ idling on the other side of the hills had not done him any good.  He had also been to church there, and made a show; ay, he had even met some girls there.  Here at Sellanraa there was nothing of that sort; Jensine, the servant-maid, was a mere nothing, a worker and no more, rather suited to Sivert.

“I’ve a fancy to see how that girl Barbro from Breidablik turned out now she’s grown up,” said Eleseus one day.

“Well, go down to Axel Stroem’s place and see,” said Sivert.

Eleseus went down one Sunday.  Ay, he had been away, gained confidence and high spirits once more; he had tasted excitement of a sort, and he made things livelier at Axel’s little place.  Barbro herself was by no means to be despised; at any rate she was the only one anywhere near.  She played the guitar and talked readily; moreover, she did not smell of tansy, but of real scent, the sort you buy in shops.  Eleseus, on his part, let it be understood that he was only home for a holiday, and would soon be called back to the office again.  But it was not so bad being at home after all, in the old place, and, of course, he had the little bedroom to live in.  But it was not like being in town!

“Nay, that’s a true word,” said Barbro, “Town’s very different from this.”

Axel himself was altogether out of it with these two town-folk; he found it dull with them, and preferred to go out and look over his land.  The pair of them were left to do as they liked, and Eleseus managed things grandly.  He told how he had been over to the neighbouring village to bury his uncle, and did not forget to mention the speech he had made over the coffin.