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Page 32
As Karin could not induce him to alter his mind, she had to make
the best of it and keep Ingmar at home for the time being.
Elof then tried to win the confidence of little Ingmar. Whenever he
went anywhere he always wanted the boy to accompany him. The lad
went, of course, but unwillingly. He did not like to go with him on
his sprees. Then Elof would coax the boy, and vow that he was not
going any farther than the church or the shop. But when once he got
Ingmar in the cart, he would drive off with him, down to the
smithies at Bergsana, or the tavern in Karmsund.
Karin was glad that her husband took the boy along; it was at least
a safeguard against Elof being left in a ditch by the roadside, or
driving the horse to death.
Once, when Elof came home at eight in the morning, Ingmar was
sitting beside him in the cart, fast asleep.
"Come out here and look after the boy!" Elof shouted to Karin, "and
carry him in. The poor brat's as full as a tick, and can't walk a
step."
Karin was so shocked that she almost collapsed. She was obliged to
sit down on the steps for a moment, to recover herself, before she
could lift the boy. The minute she took hold of him she discovered
that he was not really asleep, but stiff from the cold, and
unconscious. Taking the boy in her arms, she carried him into the
bedroom, locked the door after her, and tried to bring him to.
After a while she stepped into the living-room, where Elof sat
eating his breakfast. She walked straight up to him and put her
hand on his shoulder.
"You'd better lay in a good meal while you're about it," she said,
"for if you have made my brother drink himself to death, you'll
soon have to put up with poorer fare than you're getting on the
Ingmar Farm."
"How you talk! As if a little brandy could hurt him!"
"Mark what I say! If the boy dies, you'll get twenty years in
prison, Elof."
When Karin returned to the bedroom, the boy had come out of his
stupor, but was delirious and unable to move hand or foot. He
suffered agonies.
"Do you think I'm going to die, Karin?" he moaned.
"No, dear, of course not," Karin assured him.
"I didn't know what they were giving me."
"Thank God for that!" said Karin fervently.
"If I die, write to my sisters and tell them I didn't know it was
liquor," wailed the boy.
"Yes, dear," soothed Karin.
"Really and truly I didn't know--I swear it!"
All day Ingmar lay in a raging fever. "Please don't tell father
about it!" he raved.
"Father will never know of it," she said.
"But suppose I die, then father would surely find it out, and I
would be shamed before him."
"But it wasn't your fault, child."
"Maybe father will think that I shouldn't have taken what Elof
offered me? Don't you suppose the whole parish must know that I
have been full?" he asked. "What do the hired men say, and what
does old Lisa say, and Strong Ingmar?"
"They're not saying anything," Karin replied.
"You will have to tell them how it happened. We were at the tavern
in Karmsund, where Elof and some of his pals had been drinking the
whole night. I was sitting in a corner on a bench, half asleep,
when Elof came over and roused me. 'Wake up, Ingmar,' he said very
pleasantly, 'and I'll give you something that will make you warm.
Drink this,' he urged, holding a glass to my lips. 'It's only hot
water with a little sugar in it.' I was shivering with the cold
when I awoke and, as I drank the stuff, I only noticed that it was
hot and sweet. But he had gone and mixed something strong with it!
Oh, what will father say?"
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