Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/261

Rh "I just came out for a breath of fresh air," said Frederikke.

"That's a thing to be careful about," said Simon. "Night air's not infrequently bad for the lungs."

"What's the barn door opened for, I wonder?" said Frederikke pointing across.

Simon could not say.

"Hadn't we better go and shut it?" she asked.

They went across to the barn, and the night was bright with stars and the northern lights.

Frederikke peeped into the barn and said:

"Have you plenty of fodder in now?"

And they stepped in to see.

"There's a heap of hay there, and another over there," said Simon.

"Where?"

Simon stepped down into the hay and showed her.

And Frederikke followed after.

Marcelius was bidden to wait a little while yet, with a vague half-promise that he might win her after all. And again he waited patiently in hope. But when Shrovetide came, and that was in March, Frederikke was no longer in doubt, and told Marcelius, no, there was no help for it now; 'twas Simon was to have her.

"Ay, well," said Marcelius.

And he said no word of the boat this time. She might have the boat for nothing now, 'twas all one to him. Also, he had had time to prepare for his fate, and all that spring Marcelius might be seen stolidly at his work as before. But he was far from well in mind, and kept much to himself.

Days were drawing out now, and sun and warmth clearing away the snow; there would soon be an end of sending boats down over the ice-covered cliff on the northern side. The boat-builders lounged about idle for a week or so, but when the spring storms were past, and the Atlantic calm again, they set to work at their season's fishing close in round the island. On one of these trips, Marcelius and his brother earned a pretty sum of money, salving a dismasted schooner that was drifting derelict.

There was no gainsaying the fact that Marcelius was more looked