this was not all. Three times the number of workpeople were taken on,
and everything was started in a new way, with an outlay unheard of in
these parts. Certain ruin was foretold. But "the tramp"--for his
nickname had stuck to him--was as merry as ever, and seemed to have
infected Astrid with his humour. The quiet, gentle girl became the
lively, buxom wife. Her parents were satisfied. At last people began
to understand that Knut had brought to Tingvold what no one had had
there before, working capital! And along with it he had brought the
experience gained in trading, and a gift of handling commodities and
money, and of keeping servants willing and happy.

In twelve years one would hardly have known Tingvold again. House and
outbuildings were different; there were three times as many
workpeople, they were three times as well off, and Knut himself, in
his broadcloth coat, sat in the evenings and smoked his meerschaum
pipe and drank his glass of toddy with the Captain and the Pastor and
the Bailiff. To Astrid he was the cleverest and best man in the world,
and she was fond of telling how in his young days he had fought and
drunk just to get himself talked about, and to frighten her; "for he
was so cunning!"

She followed him in everything except in leaving off peasant dress and
customs; to these she always kept. Knut did not interfere with other
people's ways, so this caused no trouble between them. He lived with
his "set," and his wife saw to their entertainment, which was,
however, modest enough, for he was too prudent a man to make
unnecessary show or outlay of any kind. Some said that he gained more
by the card-playing, and by the popularity this mode of life won for
him, than all he laid out upon it, but this was probably pure
malevolence.