“Are you laughing at me?”

“The Lord forbid!” but his own answer increased his desire to laugh.

Ole saw this, and grew absolutely furious.  Both Thore and Oyvind tried to make amends with serious faces and entreaties to walk in; but it was the pent-up wrath of three years that was now seeking vent, and there was no checking it.

“You need not think you can make a fool of me,” he began; “I am on a lawful errand:  I am protecting my grandchild’s happiness, as I understand it, and puppy laughter shall not hinder me.  One does not bring up girls to toss them down into the first houseman’s place that opens its doors, and one does not manage an estate for forty years only to hand the whole over to the first one who makes a fool of the girl.  My daughter made herself ridiculous until she was allowed to marry a vagabond.  He drank them both into the grave, and I had to take the child and pay for the fun; but, by my troth! it shall not be the same with my granddaughter, and now you know that!  I tell you, as sure as my name is Ole Nordistuen of the Heidegards, the priest shall sooner publish the bans of the hulder-folks up in the Nordal forest than give out such names from the pulpit as Marit’s and yours, you Christmas clown!  Do you think you are going to drive respectable suitors away from the gard, forsooth?  Well; you just try to come there, and you shall have such a journey down the hills that your shoes will come after you like smoke.  You snickering fox!  I suppose you have a notion that I do not know what you are thinking of, both you and she.  Yes, you think that old Ole Nordistuen will turn his nose to the skies yonder, in the churchyard, and then you will trip forward to the altar.  No; I have lived now sixty-six years, and I will prove to you, boy, that I shall live until you waste away over it, both of you!  I can tell you this, too, that you may cling to the house like new-fallen snow, yet not so much as see the soles of her feet; for I mean to send her from the parish.  I am going to send her where she will be safe; so you may flutter about here like a chattering jay all you please, and marry the rain and the north wind.  This is all I have to say to you; but now you, who are his father, know my sentiments, and if you desire the welfare of him whom this concerns, you had better advise him to lead the stream where it can find its course; across my possessions it is forbidden.”

He turned away with short, hasty steps, lifting his right foot rather higher than the left, and grumbling to himself.

Those left behind were completely sobered; a foreboding of evil had become blended with their jesting and laughter, and the house seemed, for a while, as empty as after a great fright.  The mother who, from the kitchen door had heard everything, anxiously sought Oyvind’s eyes, scarcely able to keep back her tears, but she would not make it harder for him by saying a single word.  After they had all silently