"Yes, that will we," said Karl. "Kirstin will call us, and will have coffee ready an hour earlier than usual, if you wish it."
"Am I disturbing your house, Herr Pastor," said Hardy, "by suggesting this to your boys?"
"By no means," said the Pastor. "It is now Thursday, and we shall not expect you to begin to teach them English until Monday, and the boys can have a free time until then. We have breakfast at ten to eleven, and you would have time to fish a little; and Kirstin will give you some bread and butter and coffee at six."
"There is nothing unusual in this, Herr Hardy," said Frøken Helga, in reply to a look of surprise from Hardy. "It will put us to no inconvenience."
"That may be," said the Pastor; "but I think you should clearly understand that you are not likely to catch any trout."
"That," said Hardy, "we must leave to the trout to decide."
CHAPTER II.
"Piscator. Good morrow, sir! What, up and dressed so early!
"Viator. Yes, sir. I have been dressed this half hour, for I rested so well and have so great a mind either to take or to see a trout taken in your fine river that I could no longer lie a-bed.
"Piscator. I am glad to see you so brisk this morning and so eager of sport, though I must tell you, this day proves so calm, and the sun rises so bright, as promises no great success to the angler; but however, we will try, and one way or the other, we shall sure do something."—The Complete Angler.
Kirstin, the elder of Pastor Karl Lindar's women servants, was about forty-five—a large-framed woman with a hard face. She possessed, in common with the Jutland lower class, a shrewd sense, yet highly suspicious, but at the bottom strong good nature. She had been with Pastor Lindal more than twenty years, and her devotion to him and his was complete. At all times she gave her advice, whether asked or unasked, on every topic, and materially assisted in economizing the pastor's narrow income. Her work was done with the exactitude of a clock, neat and precise; and if the work in the house was by any cause increased, she rose earlier and went to bed later, rejoicing in her capacity for work and usefulness. The influence her steady character had in the house was great, and on the Pastor's daughter, Frøken Helga's leaving an educational institution at Copenhagen, Kirstin's strict sense of duty created an impression that Frøken Helga never lost. She awoke to the fact of what her duty was—that it was to her father and his home. Kirstin's manner was not kindly, and she could give sharp answers, but the woman's kindly nature often showed itself in a strong light. Outside the Pastor's house she was respected and liked, and always went by the name of Præsten's Kirstin.