Hjalmar H. Boyesen

“ It was well the rapids were between them, or he would have betrayed himself.
"My father, my father!" he murmured, while unseen tears suffused his eyes. It seemed good to pronounce the name. An overwhelming tenderness for the old man filled his soul. The weight of years and sorrow had bent, but not broken, him. Like Jacob, of old, he had wrestled with the Lord; and though ravaged by the conflict, he stood yet upon his legs. The son thought, with humility, of his own vain and flimsy woes, which were but boyish resentment and wounded pride; and his cherished plans of revenge vanished like smoke. ”

“ He said nothing to him about the dispute which had existed for years between himself and Captain Nordahl of Fossevang, who claimed right of ownership in the rapids. The pugnacious captain, he reckoned, knew well enough that every American was a peripatetic arsenal, and he would think twice before molesting him. People stood staring in dazed envy and amazement as Syvert carried off his prize in a rickety red-and-green painted cart which threatened every moment to throw its occupants forward on the loins of the pony. ”

“ Ewald Nordahl was standing on a boulder in the middle of the rapids, making his fly dance on the smooth current, when a human voice seemed suddenly to break through the roar of the waters. He looked about him, and presently saw a tall young girl bending aside the alder boughs for an old man who was following close behind her. ”

“ You are a strong man, in spite of your years: you will be making many knots before you turn into your final port."
"I am a-drifting like a rudderless craft, that is all. That craft sprung a leak some fifteen years ago, and no patching or coppering will ever get her afloat again."
Ewald grasped hold of the tree at which he was standing. A sudden mist blinded his eyes. His revenge, if revenge he had sought, was now fulfilled. If only out of pity, now was his time to speak. But Ewald could not speak. ”

“ After a fortnight's acquaintance, during which they had associated freely with the American, Olga and Captain Nordahl accepted an invitation from him to go salmon-fishing. The young lady, who was no novice in the art, swung a line as well as any man, and did not scream when she caught anything. She had extraordinary luck, landing an eight and a ten pounder before the others had had a bite. But then, Ewald neglected his fly, letting it dip when it ought to dance, and the captain could not, by reason of his defective eyesight, cut much of a figure as a sportsman. ”

“ Sombre green, light green, and silvery green alternated in patches, some large and some small, on the southern slope of the valley. The sombre shade belonged to the pine forest which crept up the mountain-sides, interspersed at its lower edge with the fresher tints of birch and alder. In the middle of the slope lay a large two-story, white-painted mansion, whose red-tiled roof and tall chimneys loomed out of a dense orchard. That was Fossevang. Beyond the garden stretched broad fields of rye and barley. ”

“ The captain stood by his guns bravely, and the American did the same; and when the bombardment came to an end, over the coffee and pipes, each imagined that there was nothing left of the other except his admirable pugnacity. Olga had the wisdom to remain neutral, though her sympathies were plainly with the guest. What interested her, however, far more than the question at issue, was her uncle's animation. She concluded that what he needed was contact with men rather than the care of women; and she welcomed the American as an ally in restoring him to cheerfulness and equanimity. ”

“ As he learned from Syvert Gimse, the ownership of the rapids had been a source of difficulty between the proprietors of Fossevang and those of Gimse for generations. He naturally maintained that his own right was as clear as the day. If there was any doubt about it, it could only be decided by litigation. No sheriff or judge, he maintained, would dare to grant an order of arrest for trespassing before the courts had rendered a decision. The captain would no doubt apply for one; but he might with equal likelihood of success apply for an order to have him beheaded. ”

“ But the power of thought seemed dead within her. He was Ewald Nordahl—the prodigal son, to find whom she had once intended to devote her life! A revelation so startling, so fraught with consequences, put a new face upon everything. ”

“ Ewald returned from his visit to Fossevang in a very confused state of mind. He appeared to himself like a bad actor who has assumed a rôle that is too big for him. He felt that he ought to skip all the intervening acts and make a dash for the dénoûement, and he would promptly have done so if a new character had not unexpectedly entered and complicated his innocent plot until it was beyond his power to unravel it. ”

“ Ewald felt at first annihilated, and would have remained annihilated, if the desire for revenge had not rekindled his ambition.
To make a long story short, the circumstances were about as follows: Captain Nordahl, after having been a widower for five or six years, took unto himself a new wife. He was then a man in his best years, and, moreover, well-to-do, so there was no reason in the world why he should not marry. His second wife was young and pretty, and she bore him, in rapid succession, half a dozen daughters. ”

“ He caught the plum easily enough, but was not in a mood, just then, to enter into juvenile sport
"Can I see you one moment, Miss Reimert?" he asked, lifting his hat with a seriousness that seemed a rebuke to her levity.
"Certainly," she answered; then, as if to furnish a transition from her own gayety to his solemn mood, she added: "You do wrong, however, to spurn my plums. My father imported this tree from Holland, and always set great store by it. The fruit has a flavor that can't be matched outside of Paradise." ”

“ His full, close-cropped beard, the long, blonde, drooping mustache, an additional eight inches of growth, and fifteen years' added maturity would seem a sufficient disguise to ordinary eyes, and only the eyes of hate or of love could possibly have unmasked him. ”

“ His clothes fitted neither very well nor very badly, but looked in keeping with the out-of-door style of the man. A good, manly, open-air countenance, well bronzed by sun and rain, carried out the same impression. That was, at all events, Miss Olga Reimert's opinion as she kept the above-described figure in the focus of Captain Nordahl's telescope, which she had borrowed to inspect the stranger, The rumor had promptly reached Fossevang that an American named Graham had rented the rapids of Syvert Gimse, and they were having a council of war to determine upon hostile measures. ”

“ When her husband was at sea, she left Ewald to his own devices, making no pretence of controlling him. But when the captain, during two or three months of the year, made the house resound with his Boreas voice, she invited, by her spasms of educational zeal, perpetual conflicts. She filled his ears with tales of his son's depravity; and when he, in his easy-going way, replied, "Well, mother, don't be too hard on him. I was a tough case myself when I was a boy but I have turned out a pretty decent sort of man after all. Let him work off his spirits in mischief ”

“ Keelhaul a man, or give him the cat-o'-nine-tails, when he don't deserve it, and next time he will make haste to deserve it. That's as sure as a change in the weather. Now, if you have done wrong, Mr. Graham—it is natural you should want to keep it from a friend—but tell me, can I help you? You are a young man, and have a long voyage before you;—I am old, and I've got more than I need. I have here some ten thousand dollars—would that do you any good?"
Ewald had risen. ”

“ The captain listened with a problematic air to his story, and when Ewald had finished, seated himself at his desk and drew a heavy sigh. He opened a couple of drawers, took out some papers, and put them in the breast-pocket of his coat. Then he rose, walked across the floor to where Ewald was sitting, seized his hand, and shook it warmly.
"Mr. Graham." he said. "I have grown fond of you. You have come closer to me than any man ever did—since one—whom I lost. ”

“ The fact at the bottom of his perplexities was his sound democratic aversion for the very pomp which in his boyish dreams he had accustomed himself to regard as indispensable. And the end of it was, that he started out for Norway alone and unattended, carried his valise with his own hands, and made no sensation whatever. ”

“ But at the second meeting you would have added: "She is critical: with all her engaging frankness, she studies you." If you were anything of a connoisseur of women, and there is no branch of study in which connoisseurship brings acuter delights, the reflection would perhaps occur to you that her appearance suggested generations of wealth: not on account of any pride or display (for that would have been an indication of recent acquisition) , but by a certain refinement of feature and suavity of demeanor which is only the result of inherited prosperity. ”

“ Olga, too, made the same discovery, and was emboldened, when the American rose to take his leave, to invite him to stay to tea. There was nothing unusual in this in a country where a man is scarcely ever permitted to leave a house, even if he has come only on business, without having partaken of something to eat or drink. By a little manœuvring the captain was induced to relate, at table, one of his own American adventures, the moral of which was that Americans, as a rule, were a rascally lot. ”

“ The afternoon sun struck athwart the valley, broke translucent tracks through the birch-leaves, and flashed here and there upon the tossing current. It struck the three silvery salmon, too, which gleamed upon their couch of green leaves and by their superb size filled Olga's heart with pride. They reached Fossevang in time to have one prepared for dinner.
V.
Two months after Ewald's arrival, when Syvert Gimse had made what he regarded as a snug fortune out of him; when half the population from "seven parishes round" had been to inspect his horses ”

“ Ewald had not come to a decision the next morning when he started with his fishing gear for the river. He looked quite sportsman-like as he strode with long steps across the fields, carrying a new-fangled rod and a fish-basket, and wearing on his head a helmet-hat, the rim of which was fringed with red and blue and yellow flies, There was a certain fling in his bearing which was of the prairies, not of the drawing-room. ”

“ Ewald explained that he was a victim of mistaken identity: that a man of the same name had embezzled a large sum of money—that he was obliged to return with the detectives in order to establish his innocence. "Would Captain Nordahl, for any compensation that he chose to name, take charge of his horses during his absence, as he did not feel that Syvert Gimse was competent to care for them? ”

“ The captain threatened the magistrates in vain: they could not be induced to molest the American.
III.
Ewald was walking up the hills to Fossevang. He had resolved to seek a personal interview in regard to the fishery question. He had no fear of being recognized, and yet his heart beat tumultuously at the thought of standing face to face with his father. He thought for a moment of giving up the whole plot; of saying, as Joseph did, with the proper modification: "I am your son, Ewald." ”

“ When finally, after half an hour's fight, he got it safely ashore, he glanced anxiously toward the alder-bushes. His father and Miss Reimert were gone.
So far, the Fates were propitious, This fight about the river furnished the coveted opportunity for personal contact. It saved no end of ingenious manœuvring. ”