"Where are you from?"

"From Nordland."

But I understood why he had asked, and resolved not to talk in that
bookish way any more.

Anyhow, the well and the pipe-line were decided on, and we set to work....

The days that followed were pleasant enough. I was not a little anxious at
first as to whether we should find water on the site, and I slept badly
for some nights. But once that fear was past, all that remained was simple
and straightforward work. There was water enough; after a couple of days
we had to bale it out with buckets every morning. It was clay lower down,
and our clothes were soon in a sorry state from the work.

We dug for a week, and started the next getting out stones to line the
well. This was work we were both used to from the old days at Skreia. Then
we put in another week digging, and by that time we had carried it deep
enough. The bottom was soon so soft that we had to begin on the stonework
at once, lest the clay walls should cave in on top of us.

So week after week passed, with digging and mining and mason's work. It
was a big well, and made a nice job; the priest was pleased with it.
Grindhusen and I began to get on better together; and when he found that I
asked no more than a fair labourer's wage, though much of the work was
done under my directions, he was inclined to do something for me in
return, and took more care about his table manners. Altogether, I could
not have wished for a happier time; and nothing on earth should ever