|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 38
"I'm going, and I'm not coming back," said Halvor. He had not
caught her meaning, apparently.
"Do stay and finish your coffee," she urged. Then she took him by
the hand and led him back to the table. She turned both white and
red, and several times she all but lost her courage. Just the same
she braved it out, although there was nothing she feared so much as
scorn and contempt. "Now he will at least see that I'm willing to
stand by him," she thought. Turning toward her guests, she said:
"Berger Sven Persson and all of you! Halvor and I have not spoken
of this matter--as I have so recently become a widow--but now it
seems best that you should all know that I would rather marry
Halvor than any one else in the world." She paused to get control
of her voice, then concluded: "Folks may say what they like about
this, but Halvor and I have done nothing wrong."
When Karin had finished speaking, she drew nearer to Halvor, as if
seeking protection against all the cruel slander that would come
now.
The men were speechless, mostly from astonishment at Karin
Ingmarsson, who looked younger and more girlish than ever before in
her life.
Then Halvor said in a voice vibrant with feeling: "Karin, when I
received your father's watch, I felt that nothing greater could
have happened to me; but this thing which you have just done
transcends everything."
Whereupon Berger Sven Persson, who was in many ways an excellent
man, arose.
"Let us all congratulate Karin and Halvor," he said, graciously,
"for every one must know that he whom Karin, daughter of Ingmar,
has chosen is a man of sterling worth."
IN ZION
That an old country schoolmaster should sometimes be a little too
self-confident is not surprising: for well nigh a lifetime he has
imparted knowledge and given advice to his fellowmen. He sees that
all the peasants are living by what he has taught, and that not one
among them knows more than what he, their schoolmaster, has told
them. How can he help but regard all the people in the parish as
mere school children, however old they may have grown? It is only
natural that he should consider himself wiser than every one else.
It seems almost an impossibility for one of these regular old
school persons to treat any one as a grown-up, for he looks upon
each and every one as a child with dimpled cheeks and wide innocent
baby eyes.
One Sunday, in the winter, just after service, the pastor and the
schoolmaster stood talking together in the vestry; the conversation
had turned upon the Salvation Army.
"It's a singular idea to have hit upon," the pastor remarked. "I
never imagined that I should live to see anything of that sort!"
The schoolmaster glanced sharply at the pastor; he thought his
remark entirely irrelevant. Surely the pastor could never think
that such an absurd innovation would find its way into their
parish.
"I don't believe you are likely to see it, either," he said
emphatically.
The pastor, knowing that he himself was a weak and broken-down man,
let the schoolmaster have things pretty much his own way, but all
the same, he could not refrain from chaffing him a little,
occasionally.
"How can you feel so cocksure that we shall escape the Salvation
Army, Storm?" he said. "You see, when pastor and schoolmaster stand
together, there's no fear of any nuisance of that sort crowding in.
Yet I'm not altogether certain, Storm, that you do stand by me. You
preach to suit yourself in your Zion."
To this the schoolmaster did not reply at once. Presently he said,
quite meekly: "The pastor has never heard me preach."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|