Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/237

 the closed horse threshing machine, took him into the sheepfold, and down into the curing cellars,—and Emanuel followed him everywhere without opposition. When they arrived at the pigsties, and Anders Jörgen in his zeal wanted him to go inside to feel the pigs, he laid his hand on his shoulder and said smilingly: "Thank you, my dear fellow, I must ask you to leave that till another time."

At this point the white-haired lad Ole appeared, to say that dinner was ready. Emanuel nodded kindly to his future brother-in-law, and examined him closely for the first time. He was a fresh-coloured, bright boy of fifteen, rather short, like Hansine, with a child-like expression.

"We two must make friends," said Emanuel, and pinched his apple cheek. The boy stared open-mouthed at him, and then at his father, and no sooner did Emanuel let him go than he ran away as hard as he could behind the barn into the brewhouse, where he told the woman, with a grin, what the curate had said to him. But the woman, who had made out what was in the wind, pursed up her mouth and said: "You're a reg-lar simpleton, Ole! can't ye see what's a-goin' on?"

Then he understood. He stared at the woman, his face blood red, and then turned round and ran away. When his mother shortly after stepped outside the door and called him to dinner, he did not answer, nor did he appear at the meal.