"Look, here's a sinful devil for you!"

"Do you know what Solem said to me?" asked Miss Palm. "He's chopping wood
and he's got a bandage on his finger, and it keeps getting caught in the
wood and bothers him, poor fellow. So he said: 'I wish I had time to stop
so I could chop this blasted finger right off my hand!'"

"Tough, isn't he?" said the other ladies. "He's quite capable of doing it,
too!"

A little later I passed the woodshed and saw Mrs. Brede there, tying a
fresh bandage on Solem's finger.... Poor lady! She was chaste, but young.

The days have been oppressively warm for some time now, with the heat
coming down in waves from the mountain and robbing us of all our strength.
But in the evenings we recovered somewhat, and busied ourselves in various
ways: some of us wrote letters or played forfeit games in the garden,
while others were so far restored that they went for a walk "to look at
nature."

Last Sunday evening I stood talking to Solem outside his room. He had on
his Sunday clothes, and seemed to have no intention of going to bed.

Miss Torsen came by, stopped, and said:

"I hear you're going for a walk with Mrs. Brede?"

Solem removed his cap, which left a red ring round his forehead.

"Who, me?" he said. "Well, maybe she said something about it. There was a