Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/239

 the clatter of spoons and forks; one by one they hopped in, as if accustomed to it, and picked up the crumbs off the earthen floor under the table and benches. Only the big strutting cock stayed outside, crowing softly like a wide-awake inspector, encouraging them and warning at the same time.

After dinner Hansine was so tired that she was obliged to go to her room to rest. It was a bitter disappointment to Emanuel, who had been longing to talk to her in private. He was obliged to be satisfied with Else for an hour, as Anders Jörgen also saw his chance to creep away and take his mid-day snooze in the barn, with one of his wooden shoes for a pillow.

According to custom among peasants, Else took Emanuel all over the house. She shewed him the kitchen and brew-house—and here the smiling labourer's wife wished him joy, and offered him a dripping hand to shake—then she led him down to the salting cellar and the dairy, where she made up a pat of fresh-churned butter in his honour. Last of all, they went into the "best room," a big room with the walls distempered blue, which lay by itself on the other side of the entrance. The only furniture was a double wardrobe, and three large green painted chests containing their stores of bed and table linen and family relics. Else opened the chests one by one, and Emanuel saw many things which interested him very much. There were wedding