“And there you are, Isak, that’s the whole story.”  Geissler looked at his watch.  “And now let’s get to business.  Can you go with me up to the ground again?”

Isak was a stony creature, a stump of a man; he did not find it easy to change the subject all at once; he was all preoccupied with thoughts and wondering, and began asking questions of this and that.  He learned that the application had been sent up to the King, and might be decided in one of the first State Councils. “’Tis all a miracle,” said he.

Then they went up into the hills; Geissler, his man, and Isak, and were out for some hours.  In a very short time Geissler had followed the lie of the copper vein over a wide stretch of land and marked out the limits of the tract he wanted.  Here, there, and everywhere he was.  But no fool, for all his hasty movements; quick to judge, but sound enough for all that.

When they came back to the farm once more with a sack full of samples of ore—­he got out writing materials and sat down to write.  He did not bury himself completely in his writing, though, but talked now and again.  “Well, Isak, it won’t be such a big sum this time, for the land, but I can give you a couple of hundred Daler anyway, on the spot.”  Then he wrote again.  “Remind me before I go, I want to see that mill of yours,” said he.  Then he caught sight of some blue and red marks on the frame of the loom, and asked."Who drew that?” Now that was Eleseus, had drawn a horse and a goat; he used his coloured pencil on the loom and woodwork anywhere, having no paper.  “Not at all bad,” said Geissler, and gave Eleseus a coin.

Geissler went on writing for a bit, and then looked up.  “You’ll be having other people taking up land hereabouts before long.”

At this the man with him spoke:  “There’s some started already.”

“Ho!  And who might that be?”

“Well, first, there’s the folk at Breidablik, as they call it—­man Brede, at Breidablik.”

“Him—­puh!” sniffed Geissler contemptuously.

“Then there’s one or two others besides, have bought.”

“Doubt if they’re any good, any of them,” said Geissler.  And noticing at the same moment that there were two boys in the room, he caught hold of little Sivert and gave him a coin.  A remarkable man was Geissler.  His eyes, by the way, had begun to look soreish; there was a kind of redness at the edges.  Might have been sleeplessness; the same thing comes at times from drinking of strong waters.  But he did not look dejected at all; and for all his talking of this and that between times, he was thinking no doubt of his document all the while, for suddenly he picked up the pen and wrote a piece more.

At last he seemed to have finished.

He turned to Isak:  “Well, as I said, it won’t make you a rich man all at once, this deal.  But there may be more to come.  We’ll fix it up so that you get more later on.  Anyhow, I can give you two hundred now.”