Geissler went on writing for a bit, and then looked up. "You'll be having other people taking up land hereabouts before long."
At this the man with him spoke: "There's some started already."
"Ho! And who might that be?"
"Well, first, there's the folk at Breidablik, as they call it—man
Brede, at Breidablik."
"Him—puh!" sniffed Geissler contemptuously.
"Then there's one or two others besides, have bought."
"Doubt if they're any good, any of them," said Geissler. And noticing at the same moment that there were two boys in the room, he caught hold of little Sivert and gave him a coin. A remarkable man was Geissler. His eyes, by the way, had begun to look soreish; there was a kind of redness at the edges. Might have been sleeplessness; the same thing comes at times from drinking of strong waters. But he did not look dejected at all; and for all his talking of this and that between times, he was thinking no doubt of his document all the while, for suddenly he picked up the pen and wrote a piece more.
At last he seemed to have finished.
He turned to Isak: "Well, as I said, it won't make you a rich man all at once, this deal. But there may be more to come. We'll fix it up so that you get more later on. Anyhow, I can give you two hundred now."
Isak understood but little of the whole thing, but two hundred Daler was at any rate another miracle, and an unreasonable sum. He would get it on paper, of course, not paid in cash, but let that be. Isak had other things in his head just now.