"Then you must go to bed now--you'll be sleepy."
"Not I--I can lie awake six nights, you know, when the lambs are coming."
"Well, a lamb has come to-night, Magnus," said Anna.
"God bless it, and the little mother as well," said Magnus.
VIII
Thora slept until midday under the combined effects of exhaustion and a sleeping draught, and when she awoke the evil spirit which had possessed her had gone, and she was her own sweet simple self once more. But the struggle had been a terrible one, and if the better part of her soul had conquered the frail body which had been its battlefield was a waste of weakness. She was pale and thin and her blue eyes were large and liquid.
Before opening them she heard from the back room (which had been transformed into a nursery) the sweetest, most thrilling sound that ever comes to a woman's ears, a sound which sums up into its joys all the ecstasy that a human soul can know, a sound which no woman in the world has ever heard but once--the first cry of her first-born.
Thora opened her eyes, and saw Anna knitting by her side.
"Is that baby?" she asked.
"Ah, I thought you were awake!" said Anna. "Yes, Thora, that is baby. Margret Neilsen is bathing her."