you will let me go to Stockholm and take service there, I promise
you the house shall remain in your keeping."

When Jan of Ruffluck heard these words he grew ashen. His head sank
back as if he were about to swoon. How dear of the little girl! he
thought. It was for this he had waited the whole time--yet how, how
could he ever bear to let her go away from him?


ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP

Jan of Ruffluck walked along the forest road where he and his
womenfolk, happy and content, had passed on the way home from
church a few hours earlier.

He and Katrina, after long deliberation, had decided that before
sending their daughter away or doing anything else in this matter
that Jan had better see Senator Carl Carlson of Storvik and ask him
whether Lars Gunnarson had the right to take the hut from them.

There was no one in the whole of Svartsjö Parish who was so well
versed in the law and the statutes as was the senator from Storvik,
and those who had the good sense to seek his advice in matters of
purchase and sale, in making appraisals, or setting up an auction,
or drawing up a will, could rest assured that everything would be
done in a correct and legal manner and that afterward there was no
fear of their becoming involved in lawsuits or other entanglements.

The senator was a stern and masterful man, brusque of manner and
harsh of voice, and Jan was none too pleased at the thought of