"Oh, ho! Student Grip! I suppose he is on his way towards home."
Ma looked at once at Inger-Johanna; she fell into a reverie. She stepped hurriedly out of the carriage.
"Jäger is going surveying to-morrow a long distance into the mountains,—clear over to the Grönnelid saeters," Ma said to him, when he came out of his room in the morning, "and there is so much that must be done."
"So—oh—and to-morrow early." The student hesitated. "My plan is to go home over the mountain, as I did last time—to get a little really fresh air, away from the stuffy town air and the lawbooks."
"But then you could go with Jäger? It will be thirty-five to forty miles you could go together up in the mountains—and for Jäger, it would be a real pleasure to have company. You won't have any objection, I suppose, to my putting up something for you to eat by the way?"
"Thanks—I thank you very much for all your kindness."
"She will not have me, that is plain," he muttered, while he wandered about the yard during the forenoon; they were all asleep except the mistress. But he did not come here to escort the captain.
In the afternoon, when it began to grow a little cool, the captain, Inger-Johanna, Jörgen, and Student Grip took the lonely road to the mill. Great-Ola and Aslak, the crofter, went with them—something was to be done to the mill-wheel, now that the stream was almost dry.
They stood there studying eagerly how the wheel could best be raised off the axis.