And four or five thousand crowns a year, net
profit--why, it's magnificent!"
"But couldn't you extend the business?"
He raised his eyebrows, and his mouth pursed itself up.
"Extend--did you say extend? Extend a--a doll's house!"
"Oh, Peer, you shouldn't laugh at it--a thing that father took so much
pains to set going!"
"And YOU shouldn't go worrying me to get to work again in earnest,
Merle. You shouldn't really. One of these days I might discover that
there's no way to be happy in the world but to drag a plough and look
straight ahead and forget that there's anything else in existence. It
may come to that one day--but give me a little breathing-space first,
and you love me. Well, good-bye for a while."
Merle, busying herself again in her pantry, glanced out of the window
and saw him disappear into the stables. At first she had gone with
him when he wandered about like this, touching and feeling all his
possessions. In the cattle-stalls, it might be, stroking and patting,
getting himself covered with hairs, and chattering away in childish
glee. "Look, Merle--this cow is mine, child! Dagros her name is--and
she's mine. We have forty of them--and they're all mine. And that nag
there--what a sight he is! We have eight of them. They're mine. Yours
too, of course. But you don't care a bit about it. You haven't even
hugged any of them yet. But when a man's been as poor as I've been--and
suddenly wakened up one day and found he owned all this--No, wait a
minute, Merle--come and kiss old Brownie.
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