Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/217



NCE on a time there was a clerk in our parish, who was very sharp set after all that was nice and good. All the parish said his brains were in his belly, for though he was very fond of pretty girls and buxom wives, still he liked good meat and drink even better.

"Aye, aye," said our clerk; "one can't live long on love and the south wind." That was his motto, and that was why he kept company most with well-to-do housewives, with those who were new wedded, or with pretty lasses who were sure to marry rich husbands, for there you were sure to find tit-bits both of beauty and food. That was what our clerk thought. It wasn't every one, indeed, who thought it so fine to have such a cupboard lover, but yet there were some who looked on it as fine