There—there on the table—there! it had been lying for five months! Was it the intention to make him entirely miserable with all this putting in order and cleaning?
"But dear, dear Jäger, we shall find it, if you will only have a little patience—if we only look for it."
And there was a search round about everywhere; even in the garret, under old window-panes, and among tables, reels, chests, and old trumpery they ransacked. In his anxious zeal, Jörgen stood on his head, digging deep down into a barrel, when Ma at length sagaciously turned the investigation into the office again. "On top of the cabinet in the office there is a large blue portfolio, but you have looked there, of course."
"There? I—I should like to know who has presumed to—"
He vanished into the office again.
Yes, there it lay.
He flung down his ruling-pen; he really was not in a mood to work any longer! He sat looking gloomily out before him with his elbows leaning against his writing-desk. "It is your fault I say, Ma!—or was it possibly I who had the smart idea of sending her to Ryfylke?" He struck the desk. "It is blood money—blood money, I say! If it is to go on in this way, what shall we have to get Jörgen on with?—Huf, it goes to my head so—eighteen dollars actually thrown into the brook."
"She must have a Sunday dress; Thinka has now worn the clothes she brought from home over a year and a half."
"Even new laced cloth shoes from Stavanger. Yes, indeed, not less than from Stavanger—it is put down so—" he snatched the bill from the desk—"and a patent leather belt, and for half-soling and mending shoes two dollars and a quarter—and then sewing things! I never heard that a young girl in a house bought sewing things—and postage a dollar and a half—it is wholly incredible."
"For the year and a half, you must remember, Jäger, fifteen cents for each letter."