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Page 43
When Ingmar learned that he was penniless, he consulted Karin as to
what he should do. Ingmar told his sister that of all things he
would prefer to be a teacher, and begged her to let him remain with
the Storms until he was old enough to enter college. Down at the
village he would always be able to borrow books from the
schoolmaster or the pastor, he said, and, moreover, he could help
Storm at the school, by reading with the children; that would be
excellent practice.
Karin turned this over in her mind before answering. "I suppose you
wouldn't care to remain at home, since you can't become master
here?" she said.
When Storm's daughter heard that Ingmar was coming back, she pulled
a long face. It seemed to her that if they must have a boy living
with them, they might better have the judge's good-looking son,
Bertil, or there was jolly Gabriel, the son of H�k Matts Ericsson.
Gertrude liked both Gabriel and Bertil, but as for Ingmar, she
couldn't exactly tell what her feelings were toward him. She liked
him because he helped her with her lessons and minded her like a
slave; but she could also become thoroughly put out with him
sometimes, because he was clumsy and tiresome and did not know how
to play. She had to admire his diligence and his aptitude for
learning, yet at times she fairly despised him for not being able
to show off what he could do.
Gertrude's head was always full of droll fancies and dreams, which
she confided to Ingmar. If the lad happened to be away for a few
days, she grew restless, and felt that she had no one to talk to;
but as soon as he got back she hardly knew what she had been
longing for.
The girl had never thought of Ingmar as a boy of means and good
family connections, but treated him rather as though he were a
little beneath her. Yet when she heard that Ingmar had become poor,
she wept for him, and when he told her that he would not try to get
back his property, but meant to earn his own living as a teacher,
she was so indignant she could hardly control herself.
The Lord only knows all she had dreamed that he would be some day!
The children at Storm's school were given very rigid training. They
were held strictly to their tasks, and only on rare occasions were
they allowed any amusements. However, all this was changed the
spring Storm gave up his preaching. Then Mother Stina said to him:
"Now, Storm, we must let the young folks be young. Remember that
you and I were young once. Why, when we were seventeen, we danced
many a night from sundown to sunup."
So, one Saturday night, when young Gabriel and Gunhild, the
councilman's daughter, paid a visit to the Storms, they actually
had a dance at the schoolhouse.
Gertrude was wild with delight at being allowed to dance, but
Ingmar would not join in. Instead, he took up a book, and went
and sat down on the sofa by the window. Time and again Gertrude
tried to make him lay down his book, but Ingmar, sulky and shy,
refused to budge. Mother Stina looked at him and shook her head.
"It's plain he comes of an old, old stock," she thought. "That kind
can never be really young."
The three who did dance had such a good time! They talked of going
to a regular dance the next Saturday evening, and asked the
schoolmaster and Mother Stina what they thought about it.
"If you will do your dancing at Strong Ingmar's, I give my
consent," said Mother Stina; "for there you will meet only
respectable folk."
Then Storm also made it conditional. "I can't allow Gertrude to go
to a dance unless Ingmar goes along to look after her," he said.
Whereupon all three rushed up to Ingmar and begged him to accompany
them.
"No!" he growled, without even glancing up from his book.
"It's no good asking him!" said Gertrude in a tone that made Ingmar
raise his eyes. Gertrude looked radiantly beautiful after the
dance. She smiled scornfully, and her eyes flashed as she turned
away. It was plainly to be seen how much she despised him for
sitting there so ugly and sulky, like some crotchety old man.
Ingmar had to alter his mind and say "yes"--there was no way out
of it.
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