The Settlers by Vilhelm Moberg

Author:Vilhelm Moberg [Moberg, Vilhelm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780873517157
Publisher: BookMobile
Published: 2009-07-23T14:00:00+00:00

—2—

In the afternoon they went out to inspect the farm. Karl Oskar and Kristina wanted to show Robert what they had tilled and planted and built while he was away. He was greatly surprised at the large field with sprouting corn, wheat, rye, and oats on the slope where only four years ago nothing had grown but weeds. And such smooth, even fields! His brother had indeed worked hard.

“If the farmers at home could see these fields they would die of envy!”

The brothers walked side by side along the edge of the field. Robert noticed that Karl Oskar dragged his left leg. “What’s the matter with you? You limp?”

The older brother replied, somewhat embarrassed, that it was only the old ailment in his left shinbone; the injury he had sustained when a couple of men had tried to rob him on their journey to Minnesota; it never had healed, it ached sometimes when he worked too hard, and perhaps he favored that leg while walking.

“You slave yourself to death on your claim!”

Robert seemed serious; nothing in this world was worth aches and limps. Not even the good earth of Minnesota was worth that much.

He was a youth no longer. He had grown so old that he advised his older brother.

They looked at the fat and well-cared-for animals in the stable. Each had been bred on the place except the cow, Lady. Robert had promised Karl Oskar money for a team of oxen but now his brother had raised a team himself. And this spring one of the heifers had taken the bull, so they would soon have five cows.

“I don’t want to have any more to milk,” said Kristina.

They went inside the deserted log cabin, which was now used as a toolshed and carpenter shop.

“Here I stand and fix things,” said Karl Oskar.

In the old log house he now spent rainy days at the workbench. The floor was strewn with shavings. On the wall, deer and calfskins had been nailed up to dry. It looked like a junk shop in there. But there they had lived for four winters. When Robert compared the log cabin with the new main house in the maple grove he could see that things had improved for his brothers family in New Duvemåla.

He asked about the shanty where they had lived the first fall, but Karl Oskar had torn it down, as the old shed only spoiled the looks of the new building. He had already built three houses for his family, and now he had begun the fourth in his head.

“Next time I build, Robert . . .”

But the most unusual thing they had acquired while Robert was gone Kristina had waited to show him last: a small tree that grew at the east gable of the new main house.

Could he guess what kind of tree it was? A little sapling, about five feet tall, its top reaching to Robert’s chest. The tree had large, deep green leaves, healthy branches and foliage. But he couldn’t guess.

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