"No; he did not think of me," said Anders. "I know him; he thinks only
of himself."

For a long time there was silence; the sweat poured from Baard as he
stood there, although it was a cold evening. The wife inside was
busied with a kettle that crackled and hissed on the hearth; a little
infant cried now and then, and Anders rocked it. At last the wife
spoke these few words:--

"I believe you both think of each other without being willing to admit
it."

"Let us talk of something else," replied Anders.

After a while he got up and moved towards the door. Baard was forced
to hide in the wood-shed; but to that very place Anders came to get an
armful of wood. Baard stood in the corner and saw him distinctly; he
had put off his threadbare Sunday clothes and wore the uniform he had
brought home with him from the war, the match to Baard's, and which he
had promised his brother never to touch but to leave for an heirloom,
Baard having given him a similar promise. Anders' uniform was now
patched and worn; his strong, well-built frame was encased, as it were,
in a bundle of rags; and, at the same time, Baard heard the gold watch
ticking in his own pocket. Anders walked to where the fagots lay;
instead of stooping at once to pick them up, he paused, leaned back
against the wood-pile and gazed up at the sky, which glittered brightly
with stars. Then he drew a sigh and muttered,--

"Yes--yes--yes;--O Lord! O Lord!"