Strangely enough, the very fact that the whole weight of things always fell upon Barefoot made her bear it all more easily.  “Yes, one must always depend upon oneself alone,” was her secret motto; and instead of letting obstacles discourage her, she only strove harder to surmount them.  She scraped together and turned into money whatever of her possessions she could lay hands on; even the valuable necklace she had received in the old days from Farmer Landfried’s wife went its way to the widow of the old sexton, a worthy woman who supported herself in her widowhood by lending money at high interest on security; the ducat, too, which she had once thrown after Severin in the churchyard, was brought into requisition.  And, marvelous to relate, old Farmer Rodel offered to obtain a considerable contribution from the Village Council, of which he was a member; he was fond of doing virtuous and benevolent things with the public money!

Still it almost frightened Barefoot when he announced to her, after a few days, that everything had been granted—­but upon the one condition, that Damie should entirely give up his right to live in the village.  Of course, that had been understood from the first—­no one had expected anything else; but still, now that it was an express condition, it seemed like a very formidable matter to have no home anywhere.  Barefoot said nothing about this thought to Damie, who seemed cheerful and of good courage.  Black Marianne, especially, continued to urge him strongly to go; for she would have been glad to send the whole village away to foreign parts, if only she could at last get tidings of her John.  And now she had firmly taken up the notion that he had sailed across the seas.  Crappy Zachy had indeed told her, that the reason she could not cry any more was because the ocean, the great salty deep, absorbed the tears which one might be disposed to shed for one who was on the other shore.

Barefoot received permission from her employers to accompany her brother when he went to town to conclude the arrangement for his passage with the agent.  Greatly were both of them astonished when they learned, on arriving at the office, that this had already been done.  The Village Council had already taken the necessary steps, and Damie was to have his rights and corresponding obligations as one of the village poor.  On board the ship, before it sailed out into the wide ocean, he would have to sign a paper, attesting his embarkation, and not until then would the money be paid.

The brother and sister returned sorrowfully to the village.  Damie had been seized with a fit of his old despondency, because a thing had now to be carried out which he himself had wished.  And Barefoot herself felt deeply grieved at the thought that her brother was, in a way, to be expelled from his native land.  At the boundary-line Damie said aloud to the sign-post, on which the name of the village and of the district were painted: