"You're right there, Bramsen; she must be a born manager."
"And now I'm going to try a steamboat. There's one I know of that's for sale, the Patriot, and I believe it's a bargain."
"Don't you go doing anything foolish now, Bramsen; you're comfortably off as you are, and if you want more wages, why, you've only got to say so."
"No, thanks, Knut. I'm earning well enough, and doing first-rate all round. But it's the freedom I want, to set out on my own again."
"Well, you could take a run down the fjord on one of the coasting steamers any time you like."
"Ah, but it's not the same. Look at that fellow Johnsen now, with the Rap hauling away with all sorts of craft, for all he drinks like a fish. Only last year he went on board so properly overloaded, he fell down the hold and smashed a couple of ribs."
"And you want to go and do likewise? You're a long sight better off where you are, if you ask me, Bramsen."
"Well, I'll think it over, Knut. As long as I've got all this worldly mammon in my inside pocket, I feel like doing things with it. And there's no knowing but Andrine might get converted back again any day and want it back—and where'd I be then?"
"H'm. I hope you'll have her back again the same as ever, before long."
"Why, as to that, I hope so too, and that's the truth. But that's the more reason not to lose the chance now she's taken that way. I've thought of trying a share in a vessel too. There's Olsen, skipper of the Baron Holberg. You must know Olsen, I'm sure—fellow with a red beard—Baron Olsen, they call him. He offered me a fourth share in the brig for £65."