was best to put off the wedding a year. You see, I thought it
didn't matter so much about the wedding as long as the banns had
been read. But perhaps it was old-fashioned to think that way.'

"'Had you chosen one of our kind she would have exercised
patience,' says father. 'Well, yes,' I say. 'I could see that Brita
didn't like the idea of a postponement; but, you see, I felt that I
couldn't afford a wedding just then. There had been the funeral in
the spring, and we didn't want to take the money out of the bank.'
'You did quite right in waiting,' says father. 'But I was a little
afraid that Brita would not care to have the christening come
before the wedding.' 'One must first make sure that one has the
means,' says father.

"'Every day Brita became more and more quiet and strange. I used to
wonder what was wrong with her and fancied she was homesick, for
she had always loved her home and her parents. This will blow over,
I thought, when she gets used to us; she'll soon feel at home on
the Ingmar Farm. I put up with it for a time; then, one day, I
asked mother why Brita was looking so pale and wild eyed. Mother
said it was because she was with child, and she would surely be her
old self again once that was over with. I had a faint suspicion
that Brita was brooding over my putting off the wedding, but I was
afraid to ask her about it. You know, father, you always said that
the year I married, the house was to have a fresh coat of red
paint. That year I simply couldn't afford it. By next year
everything will be all right, I thought then.'"

The plowman walked along, his lips moving all the while. He
actually imagined that he saw before him the face of his father. "I