Chapter XIX


Isak came back from the village with a horse. Ay, it had come to that;
he had bought the horse from the Lensmand's assistant; the animal was
for sale, as Geissler had said, but it cost two hundred and forty
_Kroner_--that was sixty _Daler_. The price of horseflesh had gone up
beyond all bounds: when Isak was a boy the best horse could be bought
for fifty _Daler_.

But why had he never raised a horse himself? He had thought of it, had
imagined a nice little foal--that he had been waiting for these two
years past. That was a business for folk who could spare the time from
their land, could leave waste patches lying waste till they got a
horse to carry home the crop. The Lensmand's assistant had said: "I
don't care about paying for a horse's keep myself; I've no more hay
than my womenfolk can get it in by themselves while I'm away on duty."

The new horse was an old idea of Isak's, he had been thinking of it
for years; it was not Geissler who had put him up to it. And he had
also made preparations such as he could; a new stall, a new rope for
tethering it in the summer; as for carts, he had some already, he must
make some more for the autumn. Most important of all was the fodder,
and he had not forgotten that, of course; or why should he have
thought it so important to get that last patch broken up last year if
it hadn't been to save getting rid of one of the cows, and yet have
enough keep for a new horse? It was, sown for green fodder now; that
was for the calving cows.

Ay, he had thought it all out. Well might Inger be astonished again,