Sören was pottering about alone, with hanging head as always; now and again he sighed. Then old Jörgen would nudge Marie in the side, and they would both laugh. They stood close together, and as they were rolling out the dough their hands kept on meeting; they laughed and jested together. But the young man saw nothing of this.
“Don’t you see?” whispered his mother, striking him sharply in the ribs; her angry eyes were constantly fixed on the pair.
“Oh, leave me alone!” the son would say, moving a little away from her. But she moved after him. “Go and put your arm round her waist— that’s what she wants! Let her feel your hands on her hips! Why do you suppose she sticks out her bosom like that? Let her feel your hands on her hips! Push the old man aside!”
“Oh, leave me alone!” replied Sören, and he moved further away from her again.
“You are tempting your father to sin—you know what he is! And she can’t properly control herself any longer, now that she claims to have a word in the matter. Are you going to put up with that? Go and take her round the waist—strike her if you can’t put up with her, but make her feel that you’re a man!”
“Well, are you working up there?” old Jörgen cried to the boys, turning his laughing countenance from Marie. “Tread away! The dough will draw all the rottenness out of your bodies! And you, Sören—get a move on you!”
“Yes, get a move on—don’t stand there like an idiot!” continued his mother.
“Oh, leave me alone! I’ve done nothing to anybody; leave me in peace!”
“Pah!” The old woman spat at him. “Are you a man? Letting another handle your wife! There she is, obliged to take up with a gouty old man like that! Pah, I say! But perhaps you are a woman after all? I did once bring a girl into the world, only I always thought she was dead. But perhaps you are she? Yes, make long ears at me!” she cried to the two boys, “you’ve never seen anything like what’s going on here! There’s a son for you, who leaves his father to do all the work by himself!”
“Now then, what’s the matter with you?” cried old Jörgen jollily. “Is mother turning the boys’ heads?” Marie broke into a loud laugh.