CHAPTER III

by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

　　Oyvind grew and became a clever boy; he was among the first scholars atschool, and at home he was faithful in all his tasks. This was becauseat home he loved his mother and at school the school-master; he saw butlittle of his father, who was always either off fishing or wasattending to the mill, where half the parish had their grinding done.

　　What had the most influence on his mind in these days was theschool-master's history, which his mother related to him one evening asthey sat by the hearth. It sank into his books, it thrust itselfbeneath every word the school-master spoke, it lurked in theschool-room when all was still. It caused him to be obedient andreverent, and to have an easier apprehension as it were of everythingthat was taught him.

　　The history ran thus:—

　　The school-master's name was Baard, and he once had a brother whosename was Anders. They thought a great deal of each other; they bothenlisted; they lived together in the town, and took part in the war,both being made corporals, and serving in the same company. On theirreturn home after the war, every one thought they were two splendidfellows. Now their father died; he had a good deal of personalproperty, which was not easy to divide, but the brothers decided, inorder that this should be no cause of disagreement between them, to putthe things up at auction, so that each might buy what he wanted, andthe proceeds could be divided between them. No sooner said than done.Their father had owned a large gold watch, which had a wide-spreadfame, because it was the only gold watch people in that part of thecountry had seen, and when it was put up many a rich man tried to getit until the two brothers began to take part in the bidding; then therest ceased. Now, Baard expected Anders to let him have the watch, andAnders expected the same of Baard; each bid in his turn to put theother to the test, and they looked hard at each other while bidding.When the watch had been run up to twenty dollars, it seemed to Baardthat his brother was not acting rightly, and he continued to bid untilhe got it almost up to thirty; as Anders kept on, it struck Baard thathis brother could not remember how kind he had always been to him, northat he was the elder of the two, and the watch went up to over thirtydollars. Anders still kept on. Then Baard suddenly bid forty dollars,and ceased to look at his brother. It grew very still in theauction-room, the voice of the lensmand one was heard calmly naming theprice. Anders, standing there, thought if Baard could afford to giveforty dollars he could also, and if Baard grudged him the watch, hemight as well take it. He bid higher. This Baard felt to be thegreatest disgrace that had ever befallen him; he bid fifty dollars, ina very low tone. Many people stood around, and Anders did not see howhis brother could so mock at him in the hearing of all; he bid higher.At length Baard laughed.

　　"A hundred dollars and my brotherly affection in the bargain," said he,and turning left the room. A little later, some one came out to him,just as he was engaged in saddling the horse he had bought a short timebefore.

　　"The watch is yours," said the man; "Anders has withdrawn."

　　The moment Baard heard this there passed through him a feeling ofcompunction; he thought of his brother, and not of the watch. Thehorse was saddled, but Baard paused with his hand on its back,uncertain whether to ride away or no. Now many people came out, amongthem Anders, who when he saw his brother standing beside the saddledhorse, not knowing what Baard was reflecting on, shouted out to him:—

　　"Thank you for the watch, Baard! You will not see it run the day yourbrother treads on your heels."

　　"Nor the day I ride to the gard again," replied Baard, his face verywhite, swinging himself into the saddle.

　　Neither of them ever again set foot in the house where they had livedwith their father.

　　A short time after, Anders married into a houseman's family; but Baardwas not invited to the wedding, nor was he even at church. The firstyear of Anders' marriage the only cow he owned was found dead beyondthe north side of the house, where it was tethered, and no one couldfind out what had killed it. Several misfortunes followed, and he keptgoing downhill; but the worst of all was when his barn, with all thatit contained, burned down in the middle of the winter; no one knew howthe fire had originated.

　　"This has been done by some one who wishes me ill," said Anders,—andhe wept that night. He was now a poor man and had lost all ambitionfor work.

　　The next evening Baard appeared in his room. Anders was in bed when heentered, but sprang directly up.

　　"What do you want here?" he cried, then stood silent, staring fixedlyat his brother.

　　Baard waited a little before he answered,—

　　"I wish to offer you help, Anders; things are going badly for you."

　　"I am faring as you meant I should, Baard! Go, I am not sure that Ican control myself."

　　"You mistake, Anders; I repent"—

　　"Go, Baard, or God be merciful to us both!"

　　Baard fell back a few steps, and with quivering voice he murmured,—

　　"If you want the watch you shall have it."

　　"Go, Baard!" shrieked the other, and Baard left, not daring to lingerlonger.

　　Now with Baard it had been as follows: As soon as he had heard of hisbrother's misfortunes, his heart melted; but pride held him back. Hefelt impelled to go to church, and there he made good resolves, but hewas not able to carry them out. Often he got far enough to see Anders'house; but now some one came out of the door; now there was a strangerthere; again Anders was outside chopping wood, so there was alwayssomething in the way. But one Sunday, late in the winter, he went tochurch again, and Anders was there too. Baard saw him; he had grownpale and thin; he wore the same clothes as in former days when thebrothers were constant companions, but now they were old and patched.During the sermon Anders kept his eyes fixed on the priest, and Baardthought he looked good and kind; he remembered their childhood and whata good boy Anders had been. Baard went to communion that day, and hemade a solemn vow to his God that he would be reconciled with hisbrother whatever might happen. This determination passed through hissoul while he was drinking the wine, and when he rose he wanted to goright to him and sit down beside him; but some one was in the way andAnders did not look up. After service, too, there was something in theway; there were too many people; Anders' wife was walking at his side,and Baard was not acquainted with her; he concluded that it would bebest to go to his brother's house and have a serious talk with him.When evening came he set forth. He went straight to the sitting-roomdoor and listened, then he heard his name spoken; it was by the wife.

　　"He took the sacrament to-day," said she; "he surely thought of you."

　　"No; he did not think of me," said Anders. "I know him; he thinks onlyof himself."

　　For a long time there was silence; the sweat poured from Baard as hestood there, although it was a cold evening. The wife inside wasbusied with a kettle that crackled and hissed on the hearth; a littleinfant cried now and then, and Anders rocked it. At last the wifespoke these few words:—

　　"I believe you both think of each other without being willing to admitit."

　　"Let us talk of something else," replied Anders.

　　After a while he got up and moved towards the door. Baard was forcedto hide in the wood-shed; but to that very place Anders came to get anarmful of wood. Baard stood in the corner and saw him distinctly; hehad put off his threadbare Sunday clothes and wore the uniform he hadbrought home with him from the war, the match to Baard's, and which hehad promised his brother never to touch but to leave for an heirloom,Baard having given him a similar promise. Anders' uniform was nowpatched and worn; his strong, well-built frame was encased, as it were,in a bundle of rags; and, at the same time, Baard heard the gold watchticking in his own pocket. Anders walked to where the fagots lay;instead of stooping at once to pick them up, he paused, leaned backagainst the wood-pile and gazed up at the sky, which glittered brightlywith stars. Then he drew a sigh and muttered,—

　　"Yes—yes—yes;—O Lord! O Lord!"

　　As long as Baard lived he heard these words. He wanted to stepforward, but just then his brother coughed, and it seemed so difficult,more was not required to hold him back. Anders took up his armful ofwood, and brushed past Baard, coming so close to him that the twigsstruck his face, making it smart.

　　For fully ten minutes he stood as if riveted to the spot, and it isdoubtful when he would have left, had he not, after his great emotion,been seized with a shivering fit that shook him through and through.Then he moved away; he frankly confessed to himself that he was toocowardly to go in, and so he now formed a new plan. From an ash-boxwhich stood in the corner he had just left, he took some bits ofcharcoal, found a resinous pine-splint, went up to the barn, closed thedoor and struck a light. When he had lit the pine-splint, he held itup to find the wooden peg where Anders hung his lantern when he cameearly in the morning to thresh. Baard took his gold watch and hung iton the peg, blew out his light and left; and then he felt so relievedthat he bounded over the snow like a young boy.

　　The next day he heard that the barn had burned to the ground during thenight. No doubt sparks had fallen from the torch that had lit himwhile he was hanging up his watch.

　　This so overwhelmed him that he kept his room all day like a sick man,brought out his hymn-book, and sang until the people in the housethought he had gone mad. But in the evening he went out; it was brightmoonlight. He walked to his brother's place, dug in the ground wherethe fire had been, and found, as he had expected, a little melted lumpof gold. It was the watch.

　　It was with this in his tightly closed hand that he went in to hisbrother, imploring peace, and was about to explain everything.

　　A little girl had seen him digging in the ashes, some boys on their wayto a dance had noticed him going down toward the place the precedingSunday evening; the people in the house where he lived testified howcuriously he had acted on Monday, and as every one knew that he and hisbrother were bitter enemies, information was given and a suitinstituted.

　　No one could prove anything against Baard, but suspicion rested on him.

　　Less than ever, now, did he feel able to approach his brother.

　　Anders had thought of Baard when the barn was burned, but had spoken ofit to no one. When he saw him enter his room, the following evening,pale and excited, he immediately thought: "Now he is smitten withremorse, but for such a terrible crime against his brother he shallhave no forgiveness." Afterwards he heard how people had seen Baard godown to the barn the evening of the fire, and, although nothing wasbrought to light at the trial, Anders firmly believed his brother to beguilty.

　　They met at the trial; Baard in his good clothes, Anders in his patchedones. Baard looked at his brother as he entered, and his eyes wore sopiteous an expression of entreaty that Anders felt it in the inmostdepths of his heart. "He does not want me to say anything," thoughtAnders, and when he was asked if he suspected his brother of the deed,he said loudly and decidedly, "No!"

　　Anders took to hard drinking from that day, and was soon far on theroad to ruin. Still worse was it with Baard; although he did notdrink, he was scarcely to be recognized by those who had known himbefore.

　　Late one evening a poor woman entered the little room Baard rented, andbegged him to accompany her a short distance. He knew her: it was hisbrother's wife. Baard understood forthwith what her errand was; hegrew deathly pale, dressed himself, and went with her without a word.There was a glimmer of light from Anders' window, it twinkled anddisappeared, and they were guided by this light, for there was no pathacross the snow. When Baard stood once more in the passage, a strangeodor met him which made him feel ill. They entered. A little childstood by the fireplace eating charcoal; its whole face was black, butas it looked up and laughed it displayed white teeth,—it was thebrother's child.

　　There on the bed, with a heap of clothes thrown over him, lay Anders,emaciated, with smooth, high forehead, and with his hollow eyes fixedon his brother. Baard's knees trembled; he sat down at the foot of thebed and burst into a violent fit of weeping. The sick man looked athim intently and said nothing. At length he asked his wife to go out,but Baard made a sign to her to remain; and now these two brothersbegan to talk together. They accounted for everything from the daythey had bid for the watch up to the present moment. Baard concludedby producing the lump of gold he always carried about him, and it nowbecame manifest to the brothers that in all these years neither hadknown a happy day.

　　Anders did not say much, for he was not able to do so, but Baardwatched by his bed as long as he was ill.

　　"Now I am perfectly well," said Anders one morning on waking. "Now, mybrother, we will live long together, and never leave each other, justas in the old days."

　　But that day he died.

　　Baard took charge of the wife and the child, and they fared well fromthat time. What the brothers had talked of together by the bed, burstthrough the walls and the night, and was soon known to all the peoplein the parish, and Baard became the most respected man among them. Hewas honored as one who had known great sorrow and found happinessagain, or as one who had been absent for a very long time. Baard grewinwardly strong through all this friendliness about him; he became atruly pious man, and wanted to be useful, he said, and so the oldcorporal took to teaching school. What he impressed upon the children,first and last, was love, and he practiced it himself, so that thechildren clung to him as to a playmate and father in one.

　　Such was the history of the school-master, and so deeply did it rootitself in Oyvind's mind that it became both religion and education forhim. The school-master grew to be almost a supernatural being in hiseyes, although he sat there so sociably, grumbling at the scholars.Not to know every lesson for him was impossible, and if Oyvind got asmile or a pat on his head after he had recited, he felt warm and happyfor a whole day.

　　It always made the deepest impression on the children when the oldschool-master sometimes before singing made a little speech to them,and at least once a week read aloud some verses about loving one'sneighbor. When he read the first of those verses, his voice alwaystrembled, although he had been reading it now some twenty or thirtyyears. It ran thus:—

　　"Love thy neighbor with Christian zeal!

　　Crush him not with an iron heel,

　　Though he in dust be prostrated!

　　Love's all powerful, quickening hand

　　Guides, forever, with magic wand

　　All that it has created."