"It's no good trying to do anything," he said again and again.
That was all the satisfaction Katrina got.

Jan walked all bent over, and looked ill. Earth and moss clung to
his coat, and Katrina asked him if he had fallen and hurt himself.

"No," he told her, but he may have lain on the ground a while.

Then he must be ill, thought Katrina.

It was not that either. It was just that something had stopped the
instant it dawned on him that his little girl had offered to save
the home for her parents not out of love for them, but because she
longed to get away and go out in tine world. But this he would not
speak of.


THE EVE OF DEPARTURE

The evening before Glory Goldie of Ruffluck left for Stockholm Jan
discovered no end of things that had to be attended to all at once.
He had no sooner got home from his work than he must betake himself
to the forest to gather firewood, whereupon he set about fixing a
broken board in the gate that had been hanging loose a whole year.
When he had finished with that he dragged out his fishing tackle
and began to overhaul it.

All this time he was thinking how strange it seemed not to feel any
actual regret. Now he was the same as he had been seventeen years