“But, my dear Jungfru Anna, however could the dean and his wife manage to bring up so many children?” Fru Lagerlöf said to get her well started.
“Ah, but they did, though, and they turned out grand, all of them. You never saw better children. Only think! the oldest daughter, Eve—what a handy one she was at making baby things and tending little ones! And she got married, indeed, at seventeen to Curate Jansson of Skilanda, and when he died she got a dean in Västergötland. She had a lot of children, and after she’d stood a bride the first time she never showed herself again in her father’s house.”
“She probably thought there were enough without her,” observed the Lieutenant, dryly.
The little girls over in the chimney-corner began to giggle; but they got such a sharp look from the jungfru they subsided instantly.
“The next to the oldest was a boy named Adam,” the jungfru continued. “He was the worst child for crying I ever came across. But later on, when he became a priest, he chanted the service so beautiful that he was made Court Chaplain. He could have married any one he liked, but he had no such wish. For some reason he remained a bachelor all his life.”
“Tell us, what was it?” Herr Tyberg struck in.
Again came a titter from the chimney-corner. The jungfru shot the children and Herr Tyberg each a glance that scared them into silence.
“The third was a boy called Noah. And d’you know, Frua, he was so good at fishing, and brought home such big catches that both me and his mother was thankful to him. He became a priest in Halland, and every year he sent his folks a big barrel of salted salmon.”
“Oh, speaking of salmon——” The Lieutenant started to say something about their ordering another firkin of salmon, but couldn’t get a word in for the jungfru.
“The next was a boy named Shem,” she rattled on. “He was as great a hunter as Noah was a fisher. Oh, you’d ought t’ve seen all the grouse and hares he brought home! And he became a priest, too, and got a vicarage down in Skåne; and every winter he sent home a reindeer he’d shot himself.”