It went on like that for a couple of weeks. Everyone was weary and disgusted—except the Lieutenant. He chanted the praises of slom at every meal; it was wholesome and nutritious food. One need only look at the fishermen down in Bohuslän who lived upon fish; they were the strongest and healthiest men in the whole country.
One evening Mamselle Lovisa tried to tempt him with larded pancakes, a favourite dish of his. And no wonder! for such larded pancakes as the old housekeeper made you never tasted in all your life!
“The overseer and the men, I suppose, must have their fill of slom, so you want me to be satisfied with pancakes.” The Lieutenant waved away the plate of nice hot cakes.
“Oh, no, that’s not the reason,” said Mamselle Lovisa. “The overseer and the men are so sick of slom we dare not set it before them.”
Then the Lieutenant had to laugh; but, as he would not touch the pancakes, they had to fetch him his slom.
Toward the end of the second week the whole household was in open rebellion. The housekeeper raged about the inroads on the butter, and the servants declared they could not go on working at a place where they fed you on nothing but slom. It had reached a pass where the Lieutenant dared not show his face in the kitchen; for there the murmurs were loudest. Nor were things as they should be in the dining room. Joy had fled the board. The governess left her plate untouched and the little daughters of the house, who otherwise stuck by their father through thick and thin, even they began to pipe a few feeble protests.
Then at last Fru Lagerlöf came to the rescue. She conferred with Mamselle Lovisa and the housekeeper, and they all thought it time now to resort to the old tried and sure remedy.
At dinner there was boiled slom. Now, the very look of boiled slom is enough! There is a pallor about it peculiarly corpselike, and, besides, it is quite tasteless. Just the sight of it takes away one’s appetite.
When the Lieutenant saw the boiled slom he looked as glum as the others.
“We are all out of butter,” Mamselle Lovisa gave as excuse; “and since you will have slom at every meal we had no choice but to serve it boiled. For my part,” she added, “I think it tastes no worse that way than any other.”