and clap her hands just as in the old days.

Isak brought news from the village; Breidablik was to be sold, there
was a notice outside the church. The bit of crop, such as it was,--hay
and potatoes,--to go with the rest. Perhaps the live stock too; a few
beasts only, nothing big.

"Is he going to sell up the home altogether and leave nothing?" cried
Inger. "And where's he going to live?"

"In the village."

It was true enough. Brede was going back to the tillage. But he had
first tried to get Axel Ström to let him live there with Barbro.
He didn't succeed. Brede would never dream of interfering with the
relations between his daughter and Axel, so he was careful not to make
himself a nuisance, though to be sure it was a hard set-back, with all
the rest. Axel was going to get his new house built that autumn; well,
then, when he and Barbro moved in there, why couldn't Brede and his
family have a hut? No! 'Twas so with Brede, he didn't look at things
like a farmer and a settler on new land; he didn't understand that
Axel had to move out because he wanted the hut for his growing stock;
the hut was to be a new cowshed. And even when this was explained to
him, he failed to see the point of view; surely human beings should
come before animals, he said. No, a settler's way was different;
animals first; a man could always find himself a shelter for the
winter. But Barbro put in a word herself now: "Ho, so you put the
animals first and us after? 'Tis just as well I know it!" So Axel had
made enemies of a whole family because he hadn't room to house them.
But he would not give way. He was no good-natured fool, was Axel, but