“And the Jerusalem travellers answered:  ’Fields and meadows we cannot offer them, but they will be allowed to wander along the pathways where Jesus’ feet have trod.’

“But we were still doubtful and said to them, ’They will never journey to a strange land where no one understands their speech.’

“And the travellers from Jerusalem answered:  ’They will understand what the stones of Palestine have to tell them about their Saviour.’

“We said:  ’They will never divide their property with strangers and become poor as beggars; nor will they renounce their authority, for they are the leading people of their own parish.’

“The travellers from Jerusalem answered:  ’We have neither power nor worldly possessions to offer them; but we invite them to become participants in the sufferings of Christ their Redeemer.’

“When that was said, we were again filled with gladness, and felt that you would come.  And now, my dear brothers and sisters, when you have read this, do not talk it over among yourselves, but be still and listen.  And whatever the Spirit bids you do, that do.”

Halvor folded the letter, saying, “Now we must do as Hellgum writes; we must be still, and listen.”

There was a long silence in the living-room at the Ingmar Farm.

Old Eva Gunnersdotter was as silent as were the others, waiting for the Voice of God to speak to her.  She interpreted it all in her own way.  “Why, of course,” she thought, “Hellgum wants us to go to Jerusalem so that we may escape the great destruction.  The Lord would save us from the flood of brimstone, and preserve us from the rain of fire; and those of us who are righteous will hear the Voice of God warning us to flee the wrath to come.”

It never for a moment occurred to the old woman that it could be a sacrifice for any one to leave his home and his native land, when it came to a question of this sort.  It never entered her mind that any one could doubt the wisdom of leaving his native woodlands, his smiling river, and his fertile fields.  Some of the Hellgumists thought with fear and trepidation of their having to change their manner of living, of renouncing fatherland, parents, friends, and relatives; but not she.  To her it simply meant that God wanted to spare them as He had once spared Noah and Lot.  Were they not being called to a life of supernal glory in God’s Holy City?  It was to her as if Hellgum had written that they would be bodily taken up into heaven, like the prophet Elijah.

They were all sitting with closed eyes, deep in meditation.  Some were suffering such intense mental agony that cold sweat broke out on their foreheads.  “Ah, this is indeed the trial which Hellgum foretold!” they sighed.

The sun was at the horizon, and shot its piercing rays into the room.  The crimson glow from the setting sun cast a blood-red glare upon the many blanched faces.  Finally Martha Ingmarsson, the wife of Ljung Bjoern Olofsson, slipped down from her chair on to her knees.  Then, one after another, they all went down on their knees.  All at once several of them drew a deep breath, and a smile lighted up their faces.