MAGNUS AND GOLDEN HORN
Now came Andy’s and Maglena’s turn to be called. They sat on the bench
between the young couple. Serious things were discussed.
First it was decided that Magnus should stay with the young pair _as
their own child_.
Then came the question of the goat. The man wondered if Andy wanted
to sell them the goat. The squire had promised that he could have two
sheep on the place, and instead he could just as well have a goat. He’d
fence in a space with a little house for her, so she wouldn’t do any
unexpected damage.
And Andy considered! Maglena noticed that, as she sat beside him, both
astonished and angry. Was Andy such a fool that he couldn’t at once say
that they couldn’t get along without Golden Horn!
Now it was Andy’s turn to be pinched. During the discussion Maglena
pinched him harder and harder. Why, he sat there like a rabbit without
will enough to refuse at once. And there! Right under Maglena’s nose he
accepts the price of twelve crowns that is offered for ‘the goat.’
‘_The goat!_’ Just as if Golden Horn were a goat, a goat to sell like
any trash of a goat.
And into the bargain, Andy sits there perfectly calm and says that he
had long thought of finding Golden Horn some good place to stay.
‘Imagine that!’ Maglena was so angry that it seemed to bubble within
her. She wanted to pound Andy, for he did not seem to pay any attention
to her pinches, even when she used her nails.
‘But are you crazy, boy?’ she screamed at last, when Andy stood up and
shook hands over the bargain. The lumberman was to keep the money until
Andy demanded it.
‘Are _you_ out of your senses, girl?’ he cried threateningly in answer.
‘Now you can just as well sell me too!’ Maglena stifled and muffled her
howls as well as she could.
‘Maglena, be quiet and control your temper,’ whispered Andy earnestly
and reproachfully. ‘You should think of what you say.’
‘As if I don’t do that!’ wailed Maglena as she half ran after Andy,
who, in order to get out of hearing of the rest, hurried back of the
house and out over the grass.
‘Golden Horn has been mine ever since Anna-Lisa left her! I have milked
her and she has called for me the minute she didn’t see me. And you
take her away from me and sell her, just like Joseph’s brothers did
with Joseph!’
Andy walked on perfectly quiet, and waited for Maglena to lose breath
and give up. When she actually did become silent, perhaps to get
strength for further objections, he broke in.
‘I suppose you think that it is fun for Golden Horn to have a muzzle on
all the time.’
‘She doesn’t have it on all the time,’ sobbed Maglena. ‘She is free in
the woods and along the roads.’
‘But you see, girl, we don’t often go through woods now. We are in big
parishes where there are only fields and meadows with the grain not
cut. You know we just about get the muzzle off when we have to put it
on again. Wasn’t it you that said that just yesterday?’
‘Ye-es,’ moaned Maglena unhappily.
‘You said she was beginning to get thin,’ added Andy inexorably.
‘Ye-es,’ wailed Maglena almost inaudibly.
‘Would you think it was any fun to walk between a row of rolls of
butter and fresh cheeses on one side of the road, and a wall of thick
bread and wheat buns and coffee bread on the other side? And you’d have
a muzzle on and couldn’t eat. Do you think that would be any fun?’
repeated Andy, sternly serious as Maglena was silent.
‘No-o,’ whispered Maglena, perfectly crushed.
‘Here she’ll have a little yard to run in, and a house with straw on
the floor to live in, grass and clover and pine branches to eat. Or she
can be tethered here on the grass all summer, so much green stuff grows
here.’
‘And maybe she’ll get bread too from these good nice people here, every
day, and everything that is left after they have eaten,’ murmured
Maglena, who began to see that Andy’s love for Golden Horn was of a
better sort than her own.
‘You see, Maglena, little girl,’ said Andy, now in the gentlest,
mildest voice he could manage. In his heart and soul he wanted only
to be good to the heart-broken little sister. ‘You can understand,
Maglena, what a good thing it is that these people will care for Magnus
too.’
‘Yes, then Golden Horn will have some one to go to when she gets
lonesome.’
‘Yes, and the poor little fellow will have her too. Magnus will be sad
and lonesome for us many times,’ added Andy with a heavy, thoughtful
expression. ‘But it will be fine for him here with such nice people.’
‘I think it was mother that led us here too, Andy. Boy,’ she went on
with a soft, deeply repentant voice, ‘are you mad at me because I
pinched you so awfully? I’m afraid I hurt you.’
‘Never!’ said Andy, with a superior air.
He did still feel Maglena’s pinches and nails; but he did not want to
make her unhappy because of that: she who was already in such despair
and grief, and now must leave Golden Horn.
Andy had long been worried and anxious about Golden Horn. Ever since
the flight from the Wicked Farm, where Golden Horn had been so cruelly
treated, he had feared that some new danger would overtake her. And it
hurt him every time he had to put the muzzle on her, now in the most
beautiful blossoming time of the year. So Andy felt relieved at finding
a good place to leave her.