THERE was an ancient feud between the families; and Bjarne Blakstad
was not the man to make it up, neither was Hedin Ullern. So they looked
askance at each other whenever they met on the highway, and the one
took care not to cross the other’s path. But on Sundays, when the
church-bells called the parishioners together, they could not very well
avoid seeing each other on the church-yard; and then, one day, many
years ago, when the sermon had happened to touch Bjarne’s heart, he had
nodded to Hedin and said: “Fine weather to-day;” and Hedin had returned
the nod and answered: “True is that.” “Now I have done my duty before
God and men,” thought Bjarne, “and it is his turn to take the next
step.” “The fellow is proud,” said Hedin to himself, “and he wants to
show off his generosity. But I know the wolf by his skin, even if he has
learned to bleat like a ewe-lamb.”
What the feud really was about, they had both nearly forgotten. All they
knew was that some thirty years ago there had been a quarrel between the
pastor and the parish about the right of carrying arms to the church.
And then Bjarne’s father had been the spokesman of the parish, while
Hedin’s grandsire had been a staunch defender of the pastor. There was a
rumor, too, that they had had a fierce encounter somewhere in the woods,
and that the one had stabbed the other with a knife; but whether that
was really true, no one could tell.
Bjarne was tall and grave, like the weather-beaten fir-trees in his
mast-forest. He had a large clean-shaven face, narrow lips, and small
fierce eyes. He seldom laughed, and when he did, his laugh seemed even
fiercer than his frown. He wore his hair long, as his fathers had
done, and dressed in the styles of two centuries ago; his breeches were
clasped with large silver buckles at the knees, and his red jerkin was
gathered about his waist with a leathern girdle. He loved everything
that was old, in dress as well as in manners, took no newspapers, and
regarded railroads and steamboats as inventions of the devil. Bjarne had
married late in life, and his marriage had brought him two daughters,
Brita and Grimhild.
Hedin Ullern was looked upon as an upstart. He could only count three
generations back, and he hardly knew himself how his grandfather had
earned the money that had enabled him to buy a farm and settle down
in the valley. He had read a great deal, and was well informed on
the politics of the day; his name had even been mentioned for
storthingsmand, or member of parliament from the district, and it
was the common opinion, that if Bjarne Blakstad had not so vigorously
opposed him, he would have been elected, being the only “cultivated”
peasant in the valley. Hedin was no unwelcome guest in the houses of
gentlefolks, and he was often seen at the judge’s and the pastor’s
omber parties. And for all this Bjarne Blakstad only hated him the more.
Hedin’s wife, Thorgerda, was fair-haired, tall and stout, and it was
she who managed the farm, while her husband read his books, and studied
politics in the newspapers; but she had a sharp tongue and her neighbors
were afraid of her. They had one son, whose name was Halvard.
Brita Blakstad, Bjarne’s eldest daughter, was a maid whom it was a joy
to look upon. They called her “Glitter-Brita,” because she was fond of
rings and brooches, and everything that was bright; while she was
still a child, she once took the old family bridal-crown out from the
storehouse and carried it about on her head. “Beware of that crown,
child,” her father had said to her, “and wear it not before the time.
There is not always blessing in the bridal silver.” And she looked
wonderingly up into his eyes and answered: “But it glitters, father;”
and from that time forth they had named her Glitter-Brita.
And Glitter-Brita grew up to be a fair and winsome maiden, and wherever
she went the wooers flocked on her path. Bjarne shook his head at
her, and often had harsh words upon his lips, when he saw her braiding
field-flowers into her yellow tresses or clasping the shining brooches
to her bodice; but a look of hers or a smile would completely disarm
him. She had a merry way of doing things which made it all seem like
play; but work went rapidly from her hands, while her ringing laughter
echoed through the house, and her sunny presence made it bright in the
dusky ancestral halls. In her kitchen the long rows of copper pots and
polished kettles shone upon the walls, and the neatly scoured milk-pails
stood like soldiers on parade about the shelves under the ceiling.
Bjarne would often sit for hours watching her, and a strange
spring-feeling would steal into his heart. He felt a father’s pride in
her stately growth and her rich womanly beauty. “Ah!” he would say to
himself, “she has the pure blood in her veins and, as true as I live,
the farm shall be hers.” And then, quite contrary to his habits, he
would indulge in a little reverie, imagining the time when he, as an
aged man, should have given the estate over into her hands, and seeing
her as a worthy matron preside at the table, and himself rocking his
grandchildren on his knee. No wonder, then, that he eyed closely the
young lads who were beginning to hover about the house, and that he
looked with suspicion upon those who selected Saturday nights for their
visits. [5] When Brita was twenty years old, however, her father thought
that it was time for her to make her choice. There were many fine, brave
lads in the valley, and, as Bjarne thought, Brita would have the good
sense to choose the finest and the bravest. So, when the winter came, he
suddenly flung his doors open to the youth of the parish, and began to
give parties with ale and mead in the grand old style. He even talked
with the young men, at times, encouraged them to manly sports, and urged
them to taste of his home-brewed drinks and to tread the spring-dance
briskly. And Brita danced and laughed so that her hair flew around her
and the silver brooches tinkled and rang on her bosom. But when the
merriment was at an end, and any one of the lads remained behind to
offer her his hand, she suddenly grew grave, told him she was too young,
that she did not know herself, and that she had had no time as yet to
decide so serious a question. Thus the winter passed and the summer drew
near.
In the middle of June, Brita went to the saeter [6] with the cattle; and
her sister, Grimhild, remained at home to keep house on the farm. She
loved the life in the mountains; the great solitude sometimes made her
feel sad, but it was not an unpleasant sadness, it was rather a gentle
toning down of all the shrill and noisy feelings of the soul. Up there,
in the heart of the primeval forest, her whole being seemed to herself
a symphony of melodious whispers with a vague delicious sense of
remoteness and mystery in them, which she only felt and did not attempt
to explain. There, those weird legends which, in former days, still held
their sway in the fancy of every Norsewoman, breathed their secrets into
her ear, and she felt her nearness and kinship to nature, as at no other
time.
One night, as the sun was low, and a purple bluish smoke hung like a
thin veil over the tops of the forest, Brita had taken out her knitting
and seated herself on a large moss-grown stone, on the croft. Her eyes
wandered over the broad valley which was stretched out below, and she
could see the red roofs of the Blakstad mansion peeping forth between
the fir-trees. And she wondered what they were doing down there, whether
Grimhild had done milking, and whether her father had returned from the
ford, where it was his habit at this hour to ride with the footmen
to water the horses. As she sat thus wondering, she was startled by a
creaking in the dry branches hard by, and lifting her eye, she saw a
tall, rather clumsily built, young man emerging from the thicket. He
had a broad but low forehead, flaxen hair which hung down over a pair of
dull ox-like eyes; his mouth was rather large and, as it was half open,
displayed two massive rows of shining white teeth. His red peaked cap
hung on the back of his head and, although it was summer, his thick
wadmal vest was buttoned close up to his throat; over his right arm he
had flung his jacket, and in his hand he held a bridle.
“Good evening,” said Brita, “and thanks for last meeting;” although she
was not sure that she had ever seen him before.
“It was that bay mare, you know,” stammered the man in a half apologetic
tone, and shook the bridle, as if in further explanation.
“Ah, you have lost your mare,” said the girl, and she could not help
smiling at his helplessness and his awkward manner.
“Yes, it was the bay mare,” answered he, in the same diffident tone;
then, encouraged by her smile, he straightened himself a little and
continued rather more fluently: “She never was quite right since the
time the wolves were after her. And then since they took the colt away
from her the milk has been troubling her, and she hasn’t been quite like
herself.”
“I haven’t seen her anywhere hereabouts,” said Brita; “you may have to
wander far, before you get on the track of her.”
“Yes, that is very likely. And I am tired already.”
“Won’t you sit down and rest yourself?”
He deliberately seated himself in the grass, and gradually gained
courage to look her straight in the face; and his dull eye remained
steadfastly fixed on her in a way which bespoke unfeigned surprise and
admiration. Slowly his mouth broadened into a smile; but his smile had
more of sadness than of joy in it. She had, from the moment she saw him,
been possessed of a strangely patronizing feeling toward him. She could
not but treat him as if he had been a girl or some person inferior to
her in station. In spite of his large body, the impression he made upon
her was that of weakness; but she liked the sincerity and kindness which
expressed themselves in his sad smile and large, honest blue eyes.
His gaze reminded her of that of an ox, but it had not only the ox’s
dullness, but also its simplicity and good-nature.
They sat talking on for a while about the weather, the cattle, and the
prospects of the crops.
“What is your name?” she asked, at last.
“Halvard Hedinson Ullern.”
A sudden shock ran through her at the sound of that name; in the next
moment a deep blush stole over her countenance.
“And my name,” she said, slowly, “is Brita Bjarne’s daughter Blakstad.”
She fixed her eyes upon him, as if to see what effect her words
produced. But his features wore the same sad and placid expression; and
no line in his face seemed to betray either surprise or ill-will. Then
her sense of patronage grew into one of sympathy and pity. “He must
either be weak-minded or very unhappy,” thought she, “and what right
have I then to treat him harshly.” And she continued her simple,
straightforward talk with the young man, until he, too, grew almost
talkative, and the sadness of his smile began to give way to something
which almost resembled happiness. She noticed the change and rejoiced.
At last, when the sun had sunk behind the western mountain tops,
she rose and bade him good-night; in another moment the door of the
saeter-cottage closed behind her, and he heard her bolting it on the
inside. But for a long time he remained sitting on the grass, and
strange thoughts passed through his head. He had quite forgotten his bay
mare.
The next evening when the milking was done, and the cattle were gathered
within the saeter enclosure, Brita was again sitting on the large stone,
looking out over the valley. She felt a kind of companionship with the
people when she saw the smoke whirling up from their chimneys, and she
could guess what they were going to have for supper. As she sat there,
she again heard a creaking in the branches, and Halvard Ullern stood
again before her, with his jacket on his arm, and the same bridle in his
hand.
“You have not found your bay mare yet?” she exclaimed, laughingly. “And
you think she is likely to be in this neighborhood?”
“I don’t know,” he answered; “and I don’t care if she isn’t.”
He spread his jacket on the grass, and sat down on the spot where he
had sat the night before. Brita looked at him in surprise and remained
silent; she didn’t know how to interpret this second visit.
“You are very handsome,” he said, suddenly, with a gravity which left no
doubt as to his sincerity.
“Do you think so?” she answered, with a merry laugh. He appeared to her
almost a child, and it never entered her mind to feel offended. On the
contrary, she was not sure but that she felt pleased.
“I have thought of you ever since yesterday,” he continued, with the
same imperturbable manner. “And if you were not angry with me, I thought
I would like to look at you once more. You are so different from other
folks.”
“God bless your foolish talk,” cried Brita, with a fresh burst of
merriment. “No, indeed I am not angry with you; I should just as soon
think of being angry with--with that calf,” she added for want of
another comparison.
“You think I don’t know much,” he stammered. “And I don’t.” The sad
smile again settled on his countenance.
A feeling of guilt sent the blood throbbing through her veins. She saw
that she had done him injustice. He evidently possessed more sense, or
at least a finer instinct, than she had given him credit for.
“Halvard,” she faltered, “if I have offended you, I assure you I didn’t
mean to do it; and a thousand times I beg your pardon.”
“You haven’t offended me, Brita,” answered he, blushing like a girl.
“You are the first one who doesn’t make me feel that I am not so wise as
other folks.”
She felt it her duty to be open and confiding with him in return; and in
order not to seem ungenerous, or rather to put them on an equal footing
by giving him also a peep into her heart, she told him about her daily
work, about the merry parties at her father’s house, and about the
lusty lads who gathered in their halls to dance the Halling and the
spring-dance. He listened attentively while she spoke, gazing earnestly
into her face, but never interrupting her. In his turn he described to
her in his slow deliberate way, how his father constantly scolded him
because he was not bright, and did not care for politics and newspapers,
and how his mother wounded him with her sharp tongue by making merry
with him, even in the presence of the servants and strangers. He did not
seem to imagine that there was anything wrong in what he said, or that
he placed himself in a ludicrous light; nor did he seem to speak
from any unmanly craving for sympathy. His manner was so simple and
straightforward that what Brita probably would have found strange in
another, she found perfectly natural in him.
It was nearly midnight when they parted{.} She hardly slept at all that
night, and she was half vexed with herself for the interest she took
in this simple youth. The next morning her father came up to pay her a
visit and to see how the flocks were thriving. She understood that it
would be dangerous to say anything to him about Halvard, for she knew
his temper and feared the result, if he should ever discover her secret.
Therefore, she shunned an opportunity to talk with him, and only busied
herself the more with the cattle and the cooking. Bjarne soon noticed
her distraction, but, of course, never suspected the cause. Before he
left her, he asked her if she did not find it too lonely on the saeter,
and if it would not be well if he sent her one of the maids for a
companion. She hastened to assure him that that was quite unnecessary;
the cattle-boy who was there to help her was all the company she wanted.
Toward evening, Bjarne Blakstad loaded his horses with buckets, filled
with cheese and butter, and started for the valley. Brita stood long
looking after him as he descended the rocky slope, and she could hardly
conceal from herself that she felt relieved, when, at last, the forest
hid him from her sight. All day she had been walking about with a heavy
heart; there seemed to be something weighing on her breast, and she
could not throw it off. Who was this who had come between her and her
father? Had she ever been afraid of him before, had she been glad to
have him leave her? A sudden bitterness took possession of her, for in
her distress, she gave Halvard the blame for all that had happened.
She threw herself down on the grass and burst into a passionate fit of
weeping; she was guilty, wretchedly miserable, and all for the sake of
one whom she had hardly known for two days. If he should come in this
moment, she would tell him what he had done toward her; and her wish
must have been heard, for as she raised her eyes, he stood there at her
side, the sad feature about his mouth and his great honest eyes gazing
wonderingly at her. She felt her purpose melt within her; he looked so
good and so unhappy. Then again came the thought of her father and of
her own wrong, and the bitterness again revived.
“Go away,” cried she, in a voice half reluctantly tender and half
defiant. “Go away, I say; I don’t want to see you any more.”
“I will go to the end of the world if you wish it,” he answered, with a
strange firmness.
He picked up his jacket which he had dropped on the ground, then turned
slowly, gave her mother long look, an infinitely sad and hopeless one,
and went. Her bosom heaved violently--remorse, affection and filial duty
wrestled desperately in her heart.
“No, no,” she cried, “why do you go? I did not mean it so. I only
wanted--”
He paused and returned as deliberately as he had gone.
Why should I dwell upon the days that followed--how her heart grew ever
more restless, how she would suddenly wake up at nights and see those
large blue eyes sadly gazing at her, how by turns she would condemn
herself and him, and how she felt with bitter pain that she was growing
away from those who had hitherto been nearest and dearest to her. And
strange to say, this very isolation from her father made her cling
only the more desperately to him. It seemed to her as if Bjarne had
deliberately thrown her off; that she herself had been the one who
took the first step had hardly occurred to her. Alas, her grief was as
irrational as her love. By what strange devious process of reasoning
these convictions became settled in her mind, it is difficult to tell.
It is sufficient to know that she was a woman and that she loved. She
even knew herself that she was irrational, and this very sense drew her
more hopelessly into the maze of the labyrinth from which she saw no
escape.
His visits were as regular as those of the sun. She knew that there was
only a word of hers needed to banish him from her presence forever. And
how many times did she not resolve to speak that word? But the word was
never spoken. At times a company of the lads from the valley would come
to spend a merry evening at the saeter; but she heeded them not, and
they soon disappeared. Thus the summer went amid passing moods of joy
and sorrow. She had long known that he loved her, and when at last
his slow confession came, it added nothing to her happiness; it only
increased her fears for the future. They laid many plans together in
those days; but winter came as a surprise to both, the cattle were
removed from the mountains, and they were again separated.
Bjarne Blakstad looked long and wistfully at his daughter that morning,
when he came to bring her home. She wore no more rings and brooches,
and it was this which excited Bjarne’s suspicion that everything was not
right with her. Formerly he was displeased because she wore too many;
now he grumbled because she wore none.