from his pocket. And, worst of all, the two boys saw it. Was there
a higher power behind that little happening--a warning against
overweening pride? He had put on those spectacles time and again that
day to study the instructions, without making out a word; Eleseus had
to help him with that. Eyah, _Herregud_, 'twas a good thing, no doubt,
to be book-learned. And, by way of humbling himself, Isak determines
to give up his plan of making Eleseus a tiller of soil in the wilds;
he will never say a word of it again.

Not that the boys made any great business about that matter of the
spectacles; far from it. Sivert, the jester, had to say something, of
course; it was too much for him. He plucked Eleseus by the sleeve and
said: "Here, come along, we'll go back home and throw those scythes on
the fire. Father's going to do all the mowing now with his machine!"
And that was a jest indeed.




Book Two




Chapter I


Sellanraa is no longer a desolate spot in in the waste; human beings
live here--seven of them, counting great and small. But in the little
time the haymaking lasted there came a stranger or so, folk wanting