And the first couple I'll marry there
shall be Martin Bruvold and little sister Louise--if only he'll have
her. Just wait and see!
A few days later he wrote to his father, asking if he might come into
town now and go to school. A long time passed, and then at last a letter
came in a strange hand-writing, and all the grown folks at Troen came
together again to read it. But what was their amazement when they read:
"You will possibly have learned by now from the newspapers that your
benefactor, Colonel Holm, has met his death by a fall from a horse. I
must therefore request you to call on me personally at your earliest
convenience, as I have several matters to settle with you. Yours
faithfully, J. Grundt, Senior Master."
They stood and looked at one another.
Peer was crying--chiefly, it must be admitted, at the thought of having
to bid good-bye to all the Troen folks and the two cows, and the calf,
and the grey cat. He might have to go right on to Christiania, no later
than to-morrow--to go to school there; and when he came back--why, very
likely the old mother might not be there any more.
So all three of them were heavy-hearted, when the pock-marked good-wife,
and the bow-legged old man, came down with him to the pier. And soon he
was standing on the deck of the fjord steamer, gazing at the two figures
growing smaller and smaller on the shore. And then one hut after another
in the little hamlet disappeared behind the ness--Troen itself was
gone now--and the hills and the woods where he had cut ring staves
and searched for stray cattle--swiftly all known things drew away and
vanished, until at last the whole parish was gone, and his childhood
over.
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