“Do you mean for me to be gard overseer?”

“Precisely—­yes; you should have the gard.”

“I should have the gard?”

“Just so—­yes:  then you could manage it.”

“But”—­

“You will not?”

“Why, of course, I will.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes; then it is decided, as the hen said when she flew into the water.”

“But”—­

Ole looks puzzled at the school-master.

“Oyvind is asking, I suppose, whether he shall have Marit, to.”

Ole, abruptly:  “Marit in the bargain; Marit in the bargain!”

Then Oyvind burst out laughing, and jumped right up; all three laughed with him.  Oyvind rubbed his hands, paced the floor, and kept repeating again and again:  “Marit in the bargain!  Marit in the bargain!” Thore gave a deep chuckle, the mother in the corner kept her eyes fastened on her son until they filled with tears.

Ole, in great excitement:  “What do you think of the gard?”

“Magnificent land!”

“Magnificent land; is it not?”

“No pasture equal to it!”

“No pasture equal to it!  Something can be done with it?”

“It will become the best gard in the district!”

“It will become the best gard in the district!  Do you think so?  Do you mean that?”

“As surely as I am standing here!”

“There, is not that just what I have said?”

They both talked equally fast, and fitted together like the cogs of two wheels.

“But money, you see, money?  I have no money.”

“We will get on slowly without money; but get on we shall!”

“We shall get on!  Of course we will!  But if we had money, it would go faster you say?”

“Many times faster.”

“Many times?  We ought to have money!  Yes, yes; a man can chew who has not all his teeth; he who drives with oxen will get on, too.”

The mother stood blinking at Thore, who gave her many quick side glances as he sat swaying his body to and fro, and stroking his knees with his hands.  The school-master also winked at him.  Thore’s lips parted, he coughed a little, and made an effort to speak; but Ole and Oyvind both kept on talking in an uninterrupted stream, laughed and kept up such a clatter that no one else could be heard.

“You must be quiet for a little while, Thore has something he wants to say,” puts in the school-master.

They pause and look at Thore, who finally begins, in a low tone:—­

“It has so happened that we have had a mill on our place.  Of late it has turned out that we have had two.  These mills have always brought in a few shillings during the year; but neither my father nor I have used any of these shillings except while Oyvind was away.  The school-master has managed them, and he says they have prospered well where they are; but now it is best that Oyvind should take them for Nordistuen.”