Growth of the Soil

Listen to me, Sivert: Be contented! You have everything to live on, everything to live for, everything to believe in; you're born and you bring forth, you are vital to the earth. Not everybody is, but you are: vital to the earth. You sustain life. You go on from generation to generation, fulfilling yourselves through sheer breeding; when you die, the new brood takes over. That is what iS meant by eternal life.

Quoted on December 8, 2020

He says what has to be said to Katrine, but no more, preferring to talk with her father. No, Eleseus doesn't care for girls; he seems to have been fooled by a girl once and has since lost interest. Maybe he never had any sex drive worth mentioning, since he is now good for nothing. An odd man in the wilds, a gentleman with the thin hands of a clerk and a woman's flair for finery, for sporting an umbrella, galoshes and a cane. Fooled, and all changed, an unfathomable bachelor. Whatever mustache will sprout on his upper lip will not be particularly brutal. But maybe this boy, who came of good stock and was well endowed, was turned into a changeling by the artificial milieu in which he later found himself. Did he become so diligent, behind an office desk or a shop counter that all his original nature was lost? Maybe so. In any case, here he is, sweet and apathetic, a bit weak, a bit nonchalant, going more and more astray. He could envy every man in the settlement, but is not even equal to that.

Quoted on December 8, 2020

When they get to the two homesteads farthest down, it is easy to see that they are approaching the village; indeed, in both they have white curtains on the little window facing the road...

Quoted on December 8, 2020

The settlers in the wild didn't lose their heads. They didn't find the air to be unhealthy for them, had a large enough public for their new clothes and didn't miss diamonds. Wine they knew from the wedding in Cana. The settlers didn't make themselves suffer on account of goodies they hadn't got: art, newspapers, luxuries, politics were worth exactly as much as the people were willing to pay for them, no more; the growth of the soil to be procured at any cost. It was on the other hand, the origin of all things, the source. The settlers' lives sad and empty? Ho, that least only of all! They had their higher powers, their dreams, their loves, their wealth of superstition. Walking up along the river one Sivert suddenly stops: down on the evening, water sit two wild ducks, male and female. They have spotted him, they have ome apprehensive; one of them seen a human

Quoted on December 8, 2020

Brede did not come. With the storm increasing, Aksel's face was lashed by the blowing snow. Well, now it's beginning in earnest! he must be thinking to himself, still fairly unconcerned; it is as though he winks at himself through the snow that now he must watch out, for now it's beginning in earnest. After a long while he lets out a yell. It isn't likely to carry very far in this strong gale, but it will pass up along the line, to Brede. Aksel lies there with perfectly useless thoughts in his head: if only he could reach the ax and maybe chop himself free! If he could just pull up his hand, which was squeezed up against something sharp, a stone; the stone was eating its way into the back of his hand, slowly and politely. If at least that damn stone were gone, but nobody has yet seen fit to tell us that a stone has ever made a touching move.

Quoted on December 8, 2020

In the wilds every season has its wonders, but there is always something unchanging: the immense, heavy sound of heaven and earth, the sense of being surrounded on every side, the darkness of the forest, the friendliness of the trees. Everything is heavy and soft, no thought is impossible there. North of Sellanra there was a tiny little tarn, a puddle, no bigger than an aquarium. around in it were little baby fish which never Swimming grew bigger; they lived and died there and were no use at all-goodness, no, the least. One evening when Inger stood not in there listening for the cowbells, she heard nothing else, because all was dead round about; but she did hear a song from the aquarium. It was so small, next to nothing, dying away. It was the little fishes' song.

Quoted on December 8, 2020

But having done so, Isak went to the storekeeper and ordered a ring. "A ring?" asked the storekeeper. CC A finger ring, yes. I've become sO vain that I would like to give my wife a ring."-"Do you want a silver ring, a gold ring, or simply a brass ring that has been exposed to gold smoke?" -"I want a silver ring." The storekeeper thought it over for a long time. "If you really want to do the right thing, Isak, and give your wife a ring she needn't be ashamed of, then let it be a gold ring."-"What!" Isak said loudly. But evidently, in his innermost heart, he had himself thought of a gold ring. They talked it over in every way and agreed on a sort of measurement for the ring. Isak pondered deeply and shook his head, finding it all pretty steep, but the storekeeper refused to write for anything else than a gold ring. As Isak walked homeward, he was deep down glad about his decision, but at the same time he was appalled at the expenses that being in love could lead to.

Quoted on December 8, 2020

If it had been important for Isak to show dissatisfaction with Oline and maybe rough her up a bit, here was a good opportunity, oh, a divine opportunity; they were again alone in the room, the boys had followed the visitors and were gone. Isak was standing in the middle of the floor and Oline was sitting by the stove. Isak cleared his throat a couple of times to let her understand he wasn't far from saying something. He remained silent, showing his strength of character. Didn't he know his own goats as well as he knew his own ten fingers, was the woman crazy!

Quoted on December 8, 2020

Good things mostly come by a trackless path, bad things always come with a trail of consequences. Isak took the matter sensibly from the very first, all he said to his wife was, "What have you done?" To this Inger made no answer.

Quoted on December 8, 2020