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Page 28
But he was industrious, and, in order still to do something for
the public good, he enlarged his Sunday-school, and put it, by
means of small contributions from the pupils, in connection with
the mission cause, of which he soon became the centre and leader
in his own and surrounding counties. At this, Lars remarked that,
if Canute ever wished to collect money for any purpose, he must
first know that its benefit was only to be realized some thousands
of miles away.
There was no strife between them now. True, they associated with
each other no longer, but saluted and exchanged a few words
whenever they met. Canute always felt a little pain in remembering
Lars, but struggled to overcome it, by saying to himself that it
must have been so. Many years afterward at a large wedding-party,
where both were present and a little gay, Canute stepped upon a
chair and proposed a toast to the chairman of the parish council,
and the county's first congressman. He spoke until he manifested
emotion, and, as usual, in an exceedingly handsome way. It was
honorably done, and Lars came to him, saying, with an unsteady
eye, that for much of what he knew and was, he had to thank him.
At the next election, Canute was again elected chairman.
But if Lars Hogstad had foreseen what was to follow, he would not
have influenced this. It is a saying that "all events happen in
their time," and just as Canute appeared again in the council, the
ablest men in the parish were threatened with bankruptcy, the
result of a speculative fever which had been raging long, but now
first began to react. They said that Lars Hogstad had caused this
great epidemic, for it was he who had brought the spirit of
speculation into the parish. This penny malady had originated in
the parish board; for this body itself had acted as leading
speculator. Down to the youth of twenty years, all were
endeavoring by sharp bargains to make the one dollar, ten; extreme
parsimony, in order to lay up in the beginning, was followed by an
exceeding lavishness in the end: and as the thoughts of all were
directed to money only, a disposition to selfishness, suspicion,
and disunion had developed itself, which at last turned to
prosecutions and hatred. It was said that the parish board had set
the example in this also; for one of the first acts, performed by
Lars as chairman, was a prosecution against the minister,
concerning doubtful prerogatives. The venerable pastor had lost,
but had also immediately resigned. At the time some had praised,
others denounced, this act of Lars; but it had proved a bad
example. Now came the effects of his management in the form of
loss to all the leading men of the parish; and consequently, the
public opinion quickly changed. The opposite party immediately
found a champion; for Canute Aakre had come into the parish
board,--introduced there by Lars himself.
The struggle at once began. All those youths, who, in their time,
had been under Canute Aakre's instruction, were now grown-up men,
the best educated, conversant with all the business and public
transactions in the parish; Lars had now to contend against these
and others like them, who had disliked him from their childhood.
One evening after a stormy debate, as he stood on the platform
outside his door, looking over the parish, a sound of distant
threatening thunder came toward him from the large farms, lying in
the storm. He knew that that day their owners had become
insolvent, that he himself and the savings-bank were going the
same way: and his whole long work would culminate in condemnation
against him.
In these days of struggle and despair, a company of surveyors came
one evening to Hogstad, which was the first farm at the entrance
of the parish to mark out the line of a new railroad. In the
course of conversation, Lars perceived it was still a question
with them whether the road should run through this valley, or
another parallel one.
Like a flash of lightning it darted through his mind, that, if he
could manage to get it through here, all real estate would rise in
value, and not only he himself be saved, but his popularity handed
down to future generations. He could not sleep that night, for his
eyes were dazzled with visions; sometimes he seemed to hear the
noise of an engine. The next day he accompanied the surveyors in
their examination of the locality; his horses carried them, and to
his farm they returned. The following day they drove through the
other valley, he still with them, and again carrying them back
home. The whole house was illuminated, the first men of the parish
having been invited to a party made for the surveyors, which
terminated in a carouse that lasted until morning. But to no
avail; for the nearer they came to the decision, the clearer it
was to be seen that the road could not be built through here
without great extra expense. The entrance to the valley was
narrow, through a rocky chasm, and the moment it swung into the
parish the river made a curve in its way, so that the road would
either have to make the same--crossing the river twice--or go
straight forward through the old, now unused, churchyard. But it
was not long since the last burials there, for the church had been
but recently moved.
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