Jörgen

“ If thou drink not that cup clean out, I shall hold thee for a rascally cheat."
"Well, then, good Morten, here's to the health of the pretty Karen Jeppé of Gilleleié! see'st thou, I am a man of my word," said Jörgen, and drank--"There is not a drop left in the can."
"That's right! Thou art an honest soul after all," lisped the cook, tumbling on the floor, where he soon began to snore louder than any of the others.
"The dull brute!" muttered Jörgen, who began to feel somewhat muddled; "one may lead him by the nose as much as one likes." ”

“ Jörgen was both offended and perplexed. A woman who really cared for him would hardly have behaved thus on the eve of parting from him for several months, and with such poor prospects as they had of being able to marry.
They sat for a short time beside her father, and longer beside Mrs. Dawes. Jörgen was quiet—hardly spoke. But Mary was gay. Mrs. Dawes watched them in surprise. Turning to Jörgen, she said: "Poor boy, you must come here at Christmas!" Mary answered for him: "Aunt Eva, it is just at Christmas that Stockholm is pleasantest." ”

“ God knows, I told myself, no little Jörgen has come to carry on your name, and the boy’s a weakling, and you’ve no one else to build on! It’s all very well going about with your nose in the air all the days God gives you—everything will be swept away and be to no purpose. ”

“ In the chamber above, impatient hearts were hammering and beating.
While Jörgen went to sleep with the image before him of his lieutenant who gaped like Svarten when he came out of the stable door into the light, and after Torbjörg had put out the candle, the sisters stole out into the great, cold, dark hall. There they all three stood, leaning over the balustrade, and gazing down on the fur coats and mufflers, which hung on the timber wall, and on the whip and the two sabre sheaths and the case of bottles, which were dimly lighted by the stable lantern on the hall table. ”

“ Jörgen moved uneasily.
"If you move off the spot, boy, I'll break your arms and legs in pieces!" foamed the captain, now red as copper. "Sit—sit still and read!"
He intended also to sit still himself. That scoundrel of a trader—he should fasten his horse himself at the doorsteps, and help himself as he could.
"I hear them talking—Great-Ola."
"Hold your tongue!" said the captain in a murderous deep bass, and with a pair of eyes fixed on his son as if he could eat him.
"Yes; but, father, it is really—"
A pull on his forelock and a box on the ears sent him across the floor. ”

“ This annoyed Jörgen. Mary knew it, and made an attempt to save the dog. Standing behind Jörgen, she said softly in French: "It is not fair first to coax and then to strike." Her words only made him more obstinate. "This is a matter you don't understand," he answered, also in French, and continued coaxing.
With the short-sighted trustfulness common to sweet-tempered puppies, the dog stopped in his game and looked at Jörgen. Jörgen, with his stick behind his back, advanced persuasively. He was furious at the laughter of [189] the onlookers, but muffled his rage in soft words. ”

“ He went closer to her. "If Uncle Klaus knows nothing about the American money, we shall get more—do you see?"
How well he had thought it all out! In spite of her disgust, Mary was impressed. Jörgen was a cleverer man than she had taken him for. Once he had the opportunity to develop all his gifts, he would surprise many besides herself. ”

“ Jörgen had the key to the bathing-house, where he went before any one else was up, and often again after their excursions.
Mary herself had become more sociable. Jörgen told her so.
"Yes," answered she. "The Norwegian young people associate with each other more like brothers and sisters than those of other countries, and are consequently different—freer, franker. They have infected me."
One morning Jörgen had to go to town, and Mary accompanied him. She wished to call on Uncle Klaus, his foster-father, whom she had not seen since she came home. ”

“ But, notwithstanding he pretended that he was deeply absorbed in the esthetic depths of Hermoder, the captain also sat with open ears.
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"The trader's bells—they are so dull and low," Jörgen put in again.
"If you disturb me again, Jörgen, you shall hear the bells about your own ears."
The trader, Öjseth, was the last one the captain could think of wishing to see at the farm. He kept writing and writing after those paltry thirty dollars of his, as if he believed he would lose them. "Hm! hm!" ”

“ As soon as sensible conversation became possible, Mary said: "Don't you think too, Aunt Eva, that we ought to go and call on Uncle Klaus to-morrow?"
"Most certainly I do, my child! most certainly! Why should there be any delay?"
Jörgen was radiant. Mary retired, that the two might have a confidential talk.
When Jörgen and she met again, he understood that the watchword was: "Look, but do not touch!" This was hard; but he acknowledged [147] it to be only just that one who had presumed as he had should be compelled to control himself. ”

“ The last thing Jörgen noticed was that the lieutenant turned round, stretched his neck, and gaped like Svarten as they went out.
Their mother straightened up over her knitting-work. "You used to visit my brother's, the governor's, formerly, Captain Rönnow," she ventured. "They are childless folk, who keep a hospitable house. ”

“ Jörgen said. "I'll spare the old people a disappointment."
"But what am I to say, then?" asked Mary.
[161] "What is perfectly true. That Uncle Klaus was delighted to hear of our engagement; but that as times are so bad just now, we shall be obliged to wait. And this is really the case."
Mary agreed, the more willingly because she thought it considerate of Jörgen to wish to spare the old people. ”

“ It was then also at her appeal that Jörgen asked him to teach him four hours a week.
On this occasion I saw clearly what before I had only suspected, but which had not escaped your sister-in-law's sharp eye, that Student Grip, without Inger-Johanna's having any idea of it, had engrossed her as a personality that drew her more and more.
It is of no use to conceal it; it is a crisis which must be fought through, before she finally becomes215 any other person's, if her position is not to be a false one, and if she is not to support a lifelong sorrow. ”

“ Jörgen was examined in all directions. He was obliged to sit in the office, and the captain subjected him to the cramming process.
* * * * *
"That's as old as the hills," read the captain. "If you swing a hen round and put her down backwards with a chalk mark in front of her beak, she will lie perfectly still; will not dare to move. She certainly believes it is a string that holds her. I have tried it ever so many times—that you may safely tell her, Thinka."
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"But why does Inger-Johanna write that?" asked Ma, rather seriously. ”

“ Since that evening, when she felt that she had forgotten herself, she has at least not talked about him, nor, as I know certainly, addressed a word to Jörgen. She has evidently esteemed his character very highly, and has now suffered a disappointment.
It is not well to be young and have a great deal of life that can suffer. I tell you, it is as with your teeth; there is no peace until you have them all in your table drawer.
No, all this was not anything for father, Ma thought.
* * * * *
Great-Ola was standing with a crowbar. There was a stone which was to be placed in the wall. ”

“ With the second and the third reef the same process takes place as with the first; and now the fishermen spring into the water and drag the boats on shore, every succeeding billow helping and giving them a good lift until they are fairly out of the water. One false move on the outside of the reefs—one moment's delay, and they would be shipwrecked.
"Then it would be all over with me, and with Morten at the same time." This thought came across Jörgen's mind out at sea, where his foster-father had been taken suddenly ill: he was in a high fever. ”

“ Dawes."
And as if this were not enough, she added: "I don't imagine that you, either, are a good letter-writer, Jörgen. So there will be nothing lost."
[171] He could have struck her.
As ill luck would have it, the surly old Lapland dog was at the landing-place with his master. No sooner did he catch sight of Jörgen than he began to bark. All his master's attempts to silence him were in vain.
Every one turned to look at the new-comers. Jörgen had at once picked up a small stone, and Mary had asked him in a low voice not to throw it. The steamer was now lying to ”

“ A thief shall catch a thief, thou'lt see.
Then strive and toil, and toil and strive,
That web thou'lt never leave alive."
While the cook thus sang in a loud voice, the clanking of chains was heard below in the archbishop's dungeon, and the two half-drunken turnkeys started from their seats, while Jörgen, who was still sober, took the opportunity of conveying a couple of the cook's silver pieces into his own pocket. "Let him writhe in his chains, the hound!" said Morten, remaining quietly seated; "he hears well enough how I mock him in the song, and that enrages him; but it does him good." ”

“ You are not playing? Perhaps it might be a little something to drink?”
“No—no—does the blessed sun shine to-day?” shouted old Schirrmeister and Olkonomen nodded and wiped the keys of his instrument with a red handkerchief, while Jorgen Tambur thoughtfully put the brandy into his breast pocket, and the two bottles of ale deep down in the long skirts of his coat; when Puppelena was going to treat, he could save his for another time.
The concert opened with a Rondo Grazioso by Fürstenau. Olkonomen had once really been able to play Fürstenau ”

“ And having no one now to stand to her, or seem to stand, in the place of breadwinner, she set herself to such poor work as she could do and earn a scanty living by. This was cleaning the down of the eider-duck, by passing it through a sieve made of yarn stretched over a hoop. By a deft hand, with extreme labour, something equal to sixpence a day could be made in this way from the English traders. With such earnings Rachel lived in content, and if Jorgen Jorgensen had any knowledge of his daughter's necessities, he made no effort to relieve them. ”

“ Hospital in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Jorgenson is a striking instance of a man of considerable natural abilities making shipwreck of his life through a lamentable lack of ballast, aggravated by culpably-erratic steering. He himself, in one of his letters to Sir William Hooker, candidly confesses: — "I have foolishly rejected the many excellent opportunities of advancing my fortune in this world which I certainly have possessed." ”

“ He had often heard death on the gallows lauded as the best, and when his companions spoke of their “heroes,” it was always of such persons as had reached the highest point of their career on the upper round of the ladder leading to the gallows.
To put a showy end to life, which had lost its attraction for him, Jörg went to Nördlingen, a town which was then notorious for its hasty justice.
Dame Hollin thereupon gave Jörg a most terrific lecture. To judge by the tone of her voice, he thought of her as standing in her dark cell like the angel with the flaming [269] sword. ”

“ Jörg noticed it, but did not stir; he was determined to be hanged on Nördlingen ground.
But when he told his neighbour of the growing carelessness of his gaoler, things took a new turn. With the knowledge of the open door, though it was not that of her cell, the mighty love of freedom awoke in Dame Hollin. “If I could get out!” she cried, “it would not be to escape; I should but go to come back—go to tell my friends at Ulm of the disgrace I have suffered, and come back with witnesses and testimonials of my innocence. I do not want freedom; I want my honour and reputation——!” ”

“ Jörg had received the first intimation of his neighbour’s presence by hearing her pray aloud one day. It was no soft, humble prayer; it was passionate, almost as if the old woman were storming the Almighty with commands rather [266] than petitions. Jörg had never learned to pray, and at first the devotions of the old woman struck him as very odd; gradually it came to look very grand to him that an old hag should venture to address herself to God with such vehemence, and he came to the conclusion she must be a giant in strength and able to hold her own against ten men. ”

“ And your God is maimed: the dust of your journeying is thick upon him; your vanity is laid as a napkin upon his eyes; and in his heart is neither love nor hate, not even for his only worshipper."
"Do not deride him, You Who have so many worshippers! At least, he is a monstrous clever fellow," said Jurgen: and boldly he said it, in the highest court of Heaven, and before the pensive face of the God of Jurgen's grandmother.
"Ah, very probably. I do not meet with many clever people. ”

“ Then out on the green of Grass Valley, where a long, swelling plain swept away toward the village, there appeared a moving dark patch. A bunch of horses! Jean's body gave a slight start—the shock of sudden propulsion of blood through all his veins. Those horses bore riders. They were coming straight down the open valley, on the wagon road to Isbel's ranch. No subterfuge nor secrecy nor sneaking in that advance! A hot thrill ran over Jean.
"By Heaven! They mean business!" he muttered. Up to the last moment he had unconsciously hoped Jorth's gang would not come boldly like that. ”