"But it wasn't your fault, child."
"Maybe father will think that I shouldn't have taken what Elof offered me? Don't you suppose the whole parish must know that I have been full?" he asked. "What do the hired men say, and what does old Lisa say, and Strong Ingmar?"
"They're not saying anything," Karin replied.
"You will have to tell them how it happened. We were at the tavern in Karmsund, where Elof and some of his pals had been drinking the whole night. I was sitting in a corner on a bench, half asleep, when Elof came over and roused me. 'Wake up, Ingmar,' he said very pleasantly, 'and I'll give you something that will make you warm. Drink this,' he urged, holding a glass to my lips. 'It's only hot water with a little sugar in it.' I was shivering with the cold when I awoke and, as I drank the stuff, I only noticed that it was hot and sweet. But he had gone and mixed something strong with it! Oh, what will father say?"
Then Karin opened the door leading to the living-room, where Elof still lingered over his meal. She felt that it would be well for him to hear this.
"If only father were living, Karin, if only father were living!"
"What then, Ingmar?"
"Don't you think he'd kill him?"
Elof broke into a loud laugh, and when the boy heard him, he turned so pale with fright that Karin promptly closed the door again.
It had this good effect upon Elof, at all events: he put up no objection when Karin decided to take the boy to Storm's school.