but they still tarried.

It was only natural that the parents should stand there as long as
they could see anything of the boat, but why they did not go their
ways afterward they hardly knew themselves. Perhaps they dreaded
the thought of going home again, of stepping into the lonely but in
each other's company.

"I've got no one but him to cook for now!" mused Katrina, "no one
but him to wait for! But what do I care for him? He could just as
well have gone, too. It was the girl who understood him and all his
silly talk, not I. I'd be better off alone."

"It would be easier to go home with my grief if I didn't have that
sour-faced old Katrina sitting round the house," thought Jan. "The
girl knew so well how to get on with her, and could make her happy
and content; but now I suppose I'll never get another civil word
from that quarter."

Of a sudden Jan gave a start. Bending forward he clapped his hands
to his knees. His eyes kindled with new-found hope and his whole
face shone. He kept his gaze on the water and Katrina thought
something extraordinary must have riveted his attention, although
she, who stood beside him, saw nothing save the ceaseless play of
the gray-green waves, chasing each other across the surface of the
lake, with never a stop.

Jan ran to the far end of the pier and bent down over the water,
with the look on his face which he always wore whenever Glory
Goldie approached him, but which he could never put on when talking