"I've a bundle and a cap I left in your barn," he said. "That is if the men haven't run off with it," he added jestingly.
Chapter XIV
And time went on.
Yes, Eleseus was sent to town after all; Inger managed that. He was there for a year, then he was confirmed, and after that had a regular place in the engineer's office, and grew more and more clever at writing and things. To see the letters he sent home—sometimes with red and black ink, like pictures almost. And the talk of them, the words he used. Now and again he asked for money, something towards his expenses. A watch and chain, for instance, he must have, so as not to oversleep himself in the morning and be late at the office; money for a pipe and tobacco also, such as the other young clerks in the town always had. And for something he called pocket-money, and something he called evening classes, where he learned drawing and gymnastics and other matters proper to his rank and position. Altogether, it was no light matter to keep Eleseus going in a berth in town.
"Pocket-money?" said Isak. "Is that money to keep in your pocket, maybe?"
"That must be it, no doubt," said Inger. "So as not to be altogether without. And it's not much; only a Daler now and then."
"Ay, that's just it," said Isak harshly. "A Daler now and a Daler then…." But his harshness was all because he missed Eleseus himself, and wanted him home. "It makes too many Dalers in the long run," said he. "I can't keep, on like this; you must write and tell him he can have no more."
"Ho, very well then!" said Inger in an offended tone.
"There's Sivert—what does he get by way of pocket-money?"
Inger answered: "You've never been in a town, and so you don't know these things. Sivert's no need of pocket-money. And talking of money, Sivert ought to be none so badly off when his Uncle Sivert dies."