Stone Farm, which for the future was to be Lasse and Pelle's home,
was one of the largest farms on the island. But old people knew
that when their grandparents were children, it had been a crofter's
cottage where only two horses were kept, and belonged to a certain
Vevest Koller, a grandson of Jens Kofod, the liberator of Bornholm.
During his time, the cottage became a farm. He worked himself to
death on it, and grudged food both for himself and the others. And
these two things--poor living and land-grabbing--became hereditary
in that family.

The fields in this part of the island had been rock and heather
not many generations since. Poor people had broken up the ground,
and worn themselves out, one set after another, to keep it in
cultivation. Round about Stone Farm lived only cottagers and men
owning two horses, who had bought their land with toil and hunger,
and would as soon have thought of selling their parents' grave as
their little property; they stuck to it until they died or some
misfortune overtook them.

But the Stone Farm family were always wanting to buy and extend
their property, and their chance only came through their neighbors'
misfortunes. Wherever a bad harvest or sickness or ill luck with his
beasts hit a man hard enough to make him reel, the Kollers bought.
Thus Stone Farm grew, and acquired numerous buildings and much
importance; it became as hard a neighbor as the sea is, when it eats
up the farmer's land, field by field, and nothing can be done to
check it. First one was eaten up and then another. Every one knew
that his turn would come sooner or later. No one goes to law with
the sea; but all the ills and discomfort that brooded over the poor