And Ulrika began to unbutton her blouse. “I shall strip to the skin! No one will find a single louse on me!”
“Have you no decency?” Kristina’s face flushed red. “You disgrace all womanhood!”
“You have accused me! Anyone who wants to can look for himself!”
Her bare, full breasts were uncovered as she unbuttoned her bodice. Karl Oskar turned away, a little irritated that the sight of the white breasts somewhat disturbed him.
Ulrika would have undressed and bared her whole body if Danjel had not taken her by the arm and dissuaded her. He now spoke to her about a Christian’s true behavior in the presence of worldly people. He warned her of the dangerous temptation of vanity which might entice her to show her body, a wonder of God’s handiwork, which she must not use for the purpose of arousing sinful desires in menfolk.
“But I must clear myself!” insisted Ulrika. “Inga-Lena must examine my clothes — she must be an unbiased witness for me. Come and look, Inga-Lena!”
Ulrika and Inga-Lena withdrew behind the hanging to the unmarried women’s compartment. In there, on the other side of the sailcloth, Ulrika completed her undressing.
After a short moment the two women returned. In Ulrika’s gleaming face one could immediately read the result of the inspection.
“Speak up, Inga-Lena! Did you find any lice on me?”
“No-o.”
“Did you find as much as one single nit?”
“No-o.”
“There, you can hear, all of you! I am innocent! Kristina must get down on her knees to me! She must ask my forgiveness!”
“Never while I am alive!” exclaimed Kristina in disgust. “I would rather jump into the sea!”
“You and your man can undress each other! You two can pick the lice off each other! But now you hear that I am free of vermin, and you must ask my pardon! You have blasphemed God’s pure, innocent lamb!”
“Shall I ask your pardon, you old, inveterate sinner?”
“Down on your knees with you!” Ulrika’s eyes spat fire. “If you don’t, I’ll tear your eyes out!”
She was ready to spring at Kristina, as Danjel and Karl Oskar grabbed hold of her arms and held her back.
Kristina did not ask her forgiveness. But another woman stood by, ready to bend her knees: Inga-Lena was sad and ashamed and almost ready to cry. All turned to her. She held something between her thumb and forefinger, she held it up to her husband’s eyes. It was something that moved, something gray-yellow — a big, fat, body louse.
“Danjel — dear — look, I too — I have—”
Ulrika was innocent, but Inga-Lena had found a louse in her own undergarments. And now she stood there and fumbled for her husband’s hand, as if she wished to ask his forgiveness.
Danjel Andreasson examined the louse which his wife held up to his eyes. He said softly: This animal, too, was the created work of the Lord. They must therefore not hate and detest the creature, but accept it in quiet submission. It must remind them that they should wash themselves and keep clean here on the ship. The vermin were sent as a trial for them — for everyone’s betterment.
Karl Oskar could now feel a crawling along his spine. He went to his bunk, among the unmarried men, and began to undress; he soon found what he was looking for.
It turned out, by and by, that all the passengers in the hold were infested with lice, all except one. The only one to escape the vermin was Ulrika of Västergöhl, the old harlot.
— 4—
Kristina at once began the extermination of the small crawling creatures. She saw other women sit around and pick lice from their clothes and kill them one at a time with their thumbnail against a wooden plate. But this required too much time and was, besides, not a reliable extermination. The soft soap she had taken along now came in good stead. In the galley she boiled all their underwear in a strong, seething soap-lye which no louse could survive. Then she took a quicksilver salve and rubbed it over the whole bodies of herself, her husband, and her children. With her splendid fine-tooth comb she went after the children’s hair so thoroughly that their scalps bled from the brass teeth.
It irritated her deeply that Ulrika of Västergöhl could walk around in malicious joy and feel superior to everyone on the ship. But Kristina did not believe that Ulrika had escaped the vermin because Christ lived in her. Uncle Danjel, no doubt, was more pious and Christian-spirited than Ulrika — yet the lice had not spared him.
She had accused Ulrika wrongfully, and she regretted it, but she could never force herself to ask forgiveness of that woman; that would be to admit that she was lower than the Glad One, the infamous whore. The one to ask forgiveness was Ulrika — she ought to ask forgiveness of all those women at home whom she had insulted when she gave herself to their husbands.
And Kristina half admitted to herself what had driven her to the accusation: she had watched Ulrika strut about in front of Karl Oskar; one could easily imagine how she would act if she were alone with him in a dark corner. Of course, he would never let himself be tempted, but Ulrika had a strange power over men. Karl Oskar had a strong nature, and he had slept alone here on the ship for many nights. So one could not be sure, not absolutely sure. . The look which crept into Ulrika’s eyes when she turned them on the men, on both Karl Oskar and others, those disgusting eyes, radiating seething lust — in those eyes whoring gleamed.
And Kristina sought comfort in the thought that as soon as they landed in America, they would be rid of Ulrika of Västergöhl.
It turned out that the number of “free passengers” on the brig Charlotta was infinite — the greatest number of which probably were created on board. There was a great demand for quicksilver salve for their extinction, from the captain’s medicine chest — so much so that after a few days the second mate reported the ship’s supply was dangerously low, so many jars had been distributed.
It was never determined who had brought the disgusting vermin on board, but Captain Lorentz said to his second mate that he wondered how things actually were in old Sweden when even the lice emigrated to North America.
— 5—
Robert went everywhere on the ship, and was a keen observer. He listened to the orders of the ship’s officers, and he watched the seamen execute them. He learned what it meant to “sheet home” and “hoist sail”; he learned to distinguish between tackle, boom, and stay; he knew what a block was, and he could point out to Arvid the spar, the hawse, the bollard, the shrouds, the bolt, and the winch. He knew that luff meant the ship went more against the wind, and fall away was to have the wind more to the side. He had made friends with the old sail-maker, who gave him all the information he might want. He was told that the ship’s earth-gray sails were never washed — except when God the Father Himself cleansed them with His rain and dried them in His sun and wind. He was informed that the strongest sails in the world were made in Jonsered in Sweden, and were known on all seas as “Jonsered sails”; he was told that the Charlotta carried her cargo of pig iron in her bottom, to make her lie deep in the sea; he was advised to eat all the peas and sauerkraut he could get — then he would not become sick of scurvy; scurvy was the most dangerous disease for emigrants — many succumbed to it during ocean voyages. But he must be careful and eat meat in small quantities — though salt pork was probably least dangerous.