The long, long road over the moors and up into the forest⁠—who trod it into being first of all? Man, a human being, the first that came here. There was no path before he came. Afterward, some beast or...

The long, long road over the moors and up into the forest⁠—who trod it into being first of all? Man, a human being, the first that came here. There was no path before he came. Afterward, some beast or...

Inger packed up some food one day in her calfskin bag. “I’d thought of going across to see my people, just how they’re faring.” “Ay,” said Isak. “I must have a bit of talk with them about things.” Isa...

Isak worked on the land until the frost set in; there were stones and roots to be dug up and cleared away, and the meadow to be levelled ready for next year. When the ground hardened, he left his fiel...

It was the slack time between the seasons, but the woman Oline did not come. Isak was free of the soil now; he had two scythes and two rakes ready for the haymaking; he made long bottom boards for the...

One bad year never comes alone. Isak had grown patient, and took what fell to his lot. The corn was parched, and the hay was poor, but the potatoes looked like pulling through once more⁠—bad enough, a...

The big bull is to be sent away. It has grown to an enormous beast, and costs too much to feed; Isak is taking it down to the village, to bring up a suitable yearling in exchange. It was Inger’s idea....

And the days pass. A blessed time for the soil, with sun and showers of rain; the crops are looking well. The haymaking is nearly over now, and they have got in a grand lot of hay; almost more than th...

Time flies? Ay, when a man is growing old. Isak was not old, he had not lost his vigour; the years seemed long to him. He worked on his land, and let his iron beard grow as it would. Now and again the...

The years pass by. Once more there came visitors to Sellanraa; an engineer, with a foreman and a couple of workmen, marking out telegraph lines again over the hills. By the route they were taking now,...

Next day was fated to bring a great event. There came a visitor to the farm⁠—Geissler came. It was not yet summer on the moors, but Geissler paid no heed to the state of the ground; he came on foot, i...

Isak drives on till he comes to a tarn, a bit of a pool on the moor, and there he pulls up. A pool on the moors, black, deep down, and the little surface of the water perfectly still; Isak knew what t...

All is well now. Isak sows his oats, harrows, and rolls it in. Little Leopoldine comes and wants to sit on the roller. Sit on a roller?⁠—nay, she’s all too little and unknowing for that yet. Her broth...

The winter round of work was as before; carting wood, mending tools and implements. Inger kept house, and did sewing in her spare time. The boys were down in the village again for the long term at sch...

And time went on. Yes, Eleseus was sent to town after all; Inger managed that. He was there for a year, then he was confirmed, and after that had a regular place in the engineer’s office, and grew mor...

It was a strange evening altogether: a turning-point. Inger had been running off the line for a long time now; and one lift up from the floor had set her in her place again. Neither spoke of what had ...

Great changes at Sellanraa. There was no knowing the place again, after what it had been at first: sawmill, cornmill, buildings of all sorts and kinds⁠—the wilderness was peopled country now. And ther...

Eleseus came home. He had been away now for some years, and had grown taller than his father, with long white hands and a little dark growth on his upper lip. He did not give himself airs, but seemed ...

Uncle Sivert died after all. Eleseus spent three weeks looking after him, and then the old man died. Eleseus arranged the funeral, and managed things very well; got hold of a fuchsia or so from the co...

Isak came back from the village with a horse. Ay, it had come to that; he had bought the horse from the Lensmand’s assistant; the animal was for sale, as Geissler had said, but it cost two hundred and...

Sellanraa is no longer a desolate spot in the waste; human beings live here⁠—seven of them, counting great and small. But in the little time the haymaking lasted there came a stranger or so, folk want...

Sellanraa is no longer a desolate spot in the waste; human beings live here⁠—seven of them, counting great and small. But in the little time the haymaking lasted there came a stranger or so, folk want...

On the 3rd of September Barbro was not to be found. ’Twas not that she was altogether lost, but she was not up at the house. Axel was doing carpenter’s work the best he could; he was trying hard to ge...

That winter, Axel was left to himself again at Maaneland. Barbro was gone. Ay, that was the end of it. Her journey to town would not take long, she said; ’twas not like going to Bergen; but she wasn’t...

Teams of horses driving up over the moors, carting up houses for the new man come to settle in the wilds; load after load, for days on end. Dump the things down on a spot that is to be called Storborg...

There were other things that might have given Isak matter for surprise, but he was no great hand at thinking of more than one thing at a time. “Where’s Inger?” was all he said as he passed by the kitc...

The rest of the workmen came down from the mine. Work is stopped. The fjeld lies dead again. The building at Sellanraa, too, is finished now. There is a makeshift roof of turf put on for the winter; t...

A man walks up the way through the hills. Wind and rain; the autumn downpour has begun, but the man cares little for that, he looks glad at heart, and glad he is. ’Tis Axel Ström, coming back from the...

Axel had no long time to rest at home, as it turned out; the autumn gales led to fresh trouble and bothersome work that he had brought upon himself: the telegraph apparatus on his wall announced that ...

That spring something unexpected happened⁠—something of importance indeed; work at the mine was started again; Geissler had sold his land. Inconceivable! Oh, but Geissler was an unfathomable mind; he ...

A woman tramping up along the road. A steady summer rain falls, wetting her, but she does not heed it; other things are in her mind⁠—anxiety. Barbro it is, and no other⁠—Brede’s girl, Barbro. Anxious,...

And time goes on; winter is passed; spring comes again. Isak has to go down to the village one day⁠—and why not? What for? “Nay, I don’t know,” says he. But he gets the cart cleaned up all fine, puts ...

A notable procession coming up to Sellanraa; Something laughable to look at, maybe, but more than that. Three men with enormous burdens, with sacks hanging down from their shoulders, front and back. W...

Literally, “Lord God.” The word is frequently used, as here, in a sense of resignation, as it were a sigh. ↩ Sheriff’s officer, in charge of a small district. ↩ Governor of a county. ↩ Stor = great. ↩...