"Six months as near as can be."
"Boy or girl?"
"Boy."
The Lensmand was no tyrant, but shallow, and not overconscientious. He ignored his assistant, Brede Olsen, who by virtue of his office should be an expert in such affairs; the matter was settled out of hand, by guesswork. Yet for Isak and his wife it was a serious matter enough—ay, and for who should come after them, maybe for generations. But he set it all down, as it pleased him, making a document of it on the spot. Withal a kindly man; he took a bright coin from his pocket and gave it to little Sivert; then he nodded to the others and went out to the sledge.
Suddenly he asked: "What do you call the place?"
"Call it?"
"Yes. What's its name? We must have a name for it"
No one had ever thought of that before. Inger and Isak looked at each other.
"Sellanraa?" said the Lensmand. He must have invented it out of his own head; maybe it was not a name at all. But he only nodded, and said again, "Sellanraa!" and drove off.
Settled again, at a guess, anything would do. The name, the price, the boundaries….