Suddenly there was a sound of sledge-bells going down the avenue. It was the old man, in his fur coat with the collar turned up, hastening away to fetch the doctor. Einar must be kept alive. The poor dog, which had not been let in, uttered a joyful bark at sight of the driver, and bounded through the snow to join him.
It was still long before any one at the farm got up; only the pensioners in the old cottage began to yawn in their sleep. This they began to do an hour before they woke, and they always woke at four, from long habit. The dairymaid always had it in her mind that she had to get up to go to the cows as she did fifteen years ago; and the men dreamed of getting up and going to the forest as they had so often done in the early winter mornings long ago. The old habit had now become regular dreams. Perhaps when these old people lie in the churchyard they will dream the same things as morning approaches.
[PART III]
[CHAPTER I]
ON the morning after the inquiry, Fru Wangen rose at six, as she was now without a servant, and had to do the washing that day. She had scarcely dressed herself, however, before she was obliged to sit down. She felt so tired and worn out, for she had been wakened not only by the children, but also by Wangen several times in the night, and even when at last he fell asleep, he kept crying out in his sleep.
At length she rose to go down, but stood for a little while with the lamp in her hand, and let the light fall upon him. He lay curled up, his face buried in the pillow. Perhaps he was dreaming something horrible even now.
She stole quietly out, so as not to wake any of them. In the rooms downstairs the windows were thick with ice; and while she knelt and lighted the fires, she often had to stop to breathe upon her fingers.
At a little past eight she went upstairs to surprise him with a cup of coffee before he got up; but while she was on the stairs she heard him calling her, although he might have known he would wake the children.
“What are you thinking of?” she said, as she entered. “Do you want to have them wake up?”