Berg Rese found that he had here come upon a new way of regarding the world and things.
“Do thieves have to steal, as witches have to use witchcraft?” he asked sharply.
“Yes, of course,” answered the boy; “every one has to do what he is destined to do.” But then he added, with a cautious smile: “There are thieves also who have never stolen.”
“Say out what you mean,” said Berg.
The boy continued with his mysterious smile, proud at being an unsolvable riddle: “It is like speaking of birds who do not fly, to talk of thieves who do not steal.”
Berg Rese pretended to be stupid in order to find out what he wanted. “No one can be called a thief without having stolen,” he said.
“No; but,” said the boy, and pressed his lips together as if to keep in the words, “but if some one had a father who stole,” he hinted after a while.
“One inherits money and lands,” replied Berg Rese, “but no one bears the name of thief if he has not himself earned it.”
Tord laughed quietly. “But if somebody has a mother who begs and prays him to take his father’s crime on him. But if such a one cheats the hangman and escapes to the woods. But if some one is made an outlaw for a fish-net which he has never seen.”
Berg Rese struck the stone table with his clenched fist. He was angry. This fair young man had thrown away his whole life. He could never win love, nor riches, nor esteem after that. The wretched striving for food and clothes was all which was left him. And the fool had let him, Berg Rese, go on despising one who was innocent. He rebuked him with stern words, but Tord was not even as afraid as a sick child is of its mother, when she chides it because it has caught cold by wading in the spring brooks.