The Heritage of the Kurts, Volume 2 (of 2)

Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=b-UsAAAAMAAJ
Arne A Happy Boy A Fisher Lass The Bridal March, & One Day Magnhild, & Dust Captain Mansana, & Mother's Hands Absalom's Hair, & A Painful Memory In God's Way (2 vols. ) Heritage of the Kurts (2 vols. )
Fair Milla and brown Tora, Broad Tinka and slender Nora.
It was disputed where this remarkable verse with its rhythm and rhyme was heard for the first time, whether in the senior Latin or senior Commercial. The dispute can never be settled now, but when these girls showed themselves it was often shouted, sung, and bawled after them--at first in turns with another by Dösen, which ran, Nora, Tora, ora pro nobis ; but as it was incomplete, the names of Tinka and Milla not being mentioned, it was dropped in favour of the former. This one was also given up; it was perfectly well known who was father to the latest name for them; Rendalen called them on a certain occasion The Staff, and after him the whole school, after it the boys' school, and at last all who were inclined to pay them a compliment. We know three of the Staff already--that is to say, we know them from the others, not more than that. Fair Milla is no other than Emilie Engel; she looked like a picture in enamel in her mourning. Broad Tinka is Katinka Hansen, Augusta's sister, the contralto; and slender Nora is the Sheriff's daughter, the one who hid under the sail, the one with big eyes and wavy hair.
Brown Tora, on the other hand, we do not know, and she shall remain a little longer shrouded in mystery.
This lady had, by jealousy and insincerity, missed her true foothold in life, and both in her thoughts and actions she flitted like a bird from one interest to another; she wished to appear so immensely delighted, so taken up with intellectual questions and music--until one day her strength proved insufficient; she collapsed.
Her husband carried her off with him, and as during their tour he was all that was pleasant and amiable, her bird-like nature required nothing more. She came home again, well and happy.