village and eighteen across the fjeld.




IV


Have I said that I was too near men? Heaven help me, for some days in
succession I have been taking strolls in the forest, saying good morning
and pretending I was in human company. If it was a man I imagined beside
me, we carried on a long, intelligent conversation, but if it was a woman,
I was polite: "Let me carry your parcel, miss." Once it must have been the
Lapp's daughter I seemed to meet, for I flattered her most lavishly and
offered to carry her fur cloak if she would take it off and walk in her
skin; tut, tut.

Heaven help me, I am no longer too near men. And probably I will not build
that peat hut still further away from them.

The days grow longer, and I do not mind. The truth is that in the winter I
suffered privation and learned much in order to master myself. It has
taken time and sometimes a resolute will, so it cannot be denied that I am
paying for my education rather dearly. Sometimes I have been needlessly
stern with myself.

"There is a loaf of bread," I said. "It doesn't surprise me, it doesn't
interest me; I am used to it. But if you see no bread for twelve hours, it
will mean something to you," I said, and hid the bread away.