Knut Hamsun

“ But Oline will not have it, she snatches away the basket, she and no other will carry what's to be carried there. Sly simplicity at war on every side. Axel is left for a moment without support, and Brede has to drop the basket and hold him, though Axel can stand by himself now, it seems.
Then they go on a bit that way, Brede holding Axel's arm, and Oline carrying the things. Carrying, carrying, full of bitterness and flashing fire; a miserable part indeed, to carry a basket instead of leading a helpless man. ”

“ After a while he gets one hand free, supporting himself on the other, but the ax is beyond his reach. He looks round, takes thought, as any other beast in a trap would do; looks round and takes thought and tries to work his way out from under the tree. Brede must be coming by on his way down before long, he thinks to himself, and gives himself a breathing-space.
He does not let it trouble him much at first, it was only annoying to lose time at his work; there is no thought in his mind of being in danger, let alone in peril of his life. ”

“ Oline digs down and down in the snow, and finds no ax. Manage without, then — and she strains at the tree to lift it where it lies, but with no more strength than a child; she can but shake the branches here and there. Tries for the ax again — it is all dark, but she digs with hands and feet. Axel cannot move a hand to point, only tell where it lay before, but 'tis not there now. "If it hadn't been so far to Sellanraa," says Axel. ”

“ Oline was not pleased, not softened at being minded of that legacy. "Ay, old Sivert, he'd a kindly thought for me, and I'll not say otherwise. But once he was dead and gone, 'twas little they left after him in worldly goods. And you know yourself how 'tis to be stripped of all, and live under other man's roof; but old Sivert he's in palaces and mansions now, and the likes of you and me are left on earth to be spurned underfoot."
"Ho, you and your talk!" says Brede scornfully, and turns to Axel: "Well, I'm glad I came in time — help you back home. Not going too fast, eh?" ”

“ But there's the cold to reckon with too; his beard is freezing, soon his eyes will freeze too as well; ay, if he had but his jacket from the tree there ... and now his leg — surely, it can't be that — but all the same one leg feels dead now up to the hip. "All in God's hands," he says to himself — seems like he can talk all godly and pious when he will. ”

“ She had saved him, she alone. And she waves Brede aside; will not even let him carry the ax or the basket of food. Oh, for the moment she is all on Axel's side — but next time she comes to Brede and sits talking to him over a cup of coffee, she will be on his.
"Let me carry the ax and things, anyway," says Brede.
"Nay," says Oline, speaking for Axel. "He'll take them himself."
And Brede goes on again: "You might have called to me, anyway; we're not so deadly enemies that you couldn't say a word to a man? — You did call? Well, you might have shouted then, so a man could hear. ”

“ Things are going on nicely, everything as well as could be wished. If Sivert happens to come up from the village with an empty sledge, he stops and takes a stick of timber on the way, to help his neighbour. And the pair of them talk over things together, and each is glad of a talk with the other.
"What's the news down village?" asks Axel.
"Why, nothing much," says Sivert. "There's a new man coming to take up land, so they say."
A new man — nothing in that; 'twas only Sivert's way of putting it. New men came now every year or so, to take up land ”

“ Well, well, there were other things to think about. He must be a man.
Next spring he would have to put up a shed against the north wall of the house; the timber would have to be felled that winter, and the planks cut. Axel had no timber to speak of, not growing close, but there were some heavy firs scattered about here and there on the outskirts of his land, and he marked out those on the side toward Sellanraa, to have the shortest way to cart his timber up to the sawmill. ”