The Treasure | Page 3

backs bent, and their eyes blinked and watered. Of women there were
but two. They were somewhat younger and more able-bodied than the
men, yet they too had a fragile look and were afflicted with the
infirmities of age.
At the farthest end of the table sat two children. One of them was Herr
Arne's niece, a child of no more than fourteen years. She was
fair-haired and of delicate build; her face had not yet reached its
fullness, but had a promise of beauty in it. She had another little maid
sitting beside her, a poor orphan without father or mother, who had
been given a home at the parsonage. The two sat close together on the
bench, and it could be seen that there was great friendship between

them.
All these folk sat at meat in the deepest silence. Torarin looked from
one to another, but none was disposed to talk during the meal. All the
old servants thought to themselves: "It is a goodly thing to be given
food and to be spared the sufferings of want and hunger, which we
have known so often in our lives. While we are eating we ought to have
no thought but of giving thanks to God for His goodness."
Since Torarin found no one to talk to, his glance wandered up and
down the room. He turned his eyes from the great stove, built up in
many stages beside the entrance door, to the lofty four-post bed which
stood in the farthest corner of the room. He looked from the fixed
benches that ran round the room to the hole in the roof, through which
the smoke escaped and wintry air poured in.
As Torarin the fish hawker, who lived in the smallest and poorest cabin
on the outer isles, looked upon all these things, he thought: "Were I a
great man like Herr Arne I would not be content to live in an ancient
homestead with only one room. I should build myself a house with high
gables and many chambers, like those of the burgomasters and
aldermen of Marstrand."
But more often than not Torarin's eyes rested upon a great oaken chest
which stood at the foot of the four-post bed. And he looked at it so long
because he knew that in it Herr Arne kept all his silver moneys, and he
had heard they were so many that they filled the chest to the very lid.
And Torarin, who was so poor that he hardly ever had a silver piece in
his pocket, said to himself: "And yet I would not have all that money.
They say Herr Arne took it from the great convents that were in the
land in former days, and that the old monks foretold that this money
would bring him misfortune."
While yet these thoughts were in the mind of Torarin, he saw the old
mistress of the house put her hand to her ear to listen. And then she
turned to Herr Arne and asked him: "Why are they whetting knives at
Branehog?"

So deep was the silence in the room that when the old lady asked this
question all gave a start and looked up in fright. When they saw that
she was listening for something, they kept their spoons quiet and
strained their ears.
For some moments there was dead stillness in the room, but while it
lasted the old woman became more and more uneasy. She laid her hand
on Herr Arne's arm and asked him: "How can it be that they are
whetting such long knives at Branehog this evening?"
Torarin saw that Herr Arne stroked her hand to calm her. But he was in
no mind to answer and ate on calmly as before.
The old woman still sat listening. Tears came into her eyes from terror,
and her hands and her head trembled more and more violently.
Then the two little maids who sat at the end of the table began to weep
with fear. "Can you not hear them scraping and filing?" asked the old
mistress. "Can you not hear them hissing and grating?"
Herr Arne sat still, stroking his wife's hand. As long as he kept silence
no other dared utter a word.
But they were all assured that their old mistress had heard a thing that
was terrifying and boded ill. All felt the blood curdling in their veins.
No one at the table raised a bit of food to his mouth, except old Herr
Arne himself.
They were thinking of the old mistress, how it was she who for so
many years had had charge of the household. She had always stayed at
home and watched with wise and tender care over children and servants,
goods and cattle, so that all