“You mean. .?” Karl Oskar gave his wife a quick glance.
“You know what I mean!”
“But you wouldn’t take the coin from the boy?”
Johan was pulling his mother’s arm: “I want my money, Mother!”
“Give it to the boy,” said the father. “It’s the first coin he’s ever had.”
Kristina handed the child his coin: “But we could have borrowed it if it had been a fifteen-cent coin.”
Johan meanwhile held the ten-cent piece tightly in his closed fist: “It’s my money! He gave it to me!”
Karl Oskar said he would never have had the heart to rob the boy of the first money he had owned in his life.
Kristina flared up: “Then go and find fifteen cents! You’re impossible! Wait and wait and wait! How long must we wait? When are you getting the letter? Shall we leave it there till Christmas?”
“I’ll fetch it tomorrow morning.”
“That I must see before I believe it! You’re like a stubborn horse! My patience has come to an end!” Her cheeks flashed red from indignation, her eyes seemed to shoot sparks.
Karl Oskar let her anger spend itself and did nothing to interrupt her. When she had finished, he said calmly as before: Early tomorrow morning he would take the dried stag skin to Mr. Fischer in Taylors Falls. He had thought they would use it for clothing but now they must sell it; they could not get along without cash any longer. He might get two dollars for the skin, he would have enough for both the letter and some groceries.
“Why didn’t you sell the skin long ago? Why have you waited?”
She was interrupted by the door swinging open. The stranger who had given money to Johan was back. He stopped at the threshold and pointed to the lake shore, rolling a lump of tobacco in his hand while he talked.
Karl Oskar listened eagerly and tried to understand. He recognized the word hay. The stranger pointed to the haystacks in their meadow — three stacks were still left, Lady had been unable to eat all the hay before they returned her to Anders Månsson. The stranger had come back because he had discovered their hay — now Karl Oskar understood.
He accompanied the man to the meadow. Shortly, he returned to the house with three large silver coins in his hand: the lumber company in Stillwater was short of hay for their teams, and the man bought the three remaining haystacks for three dollars.
Never was a seller more satisfied with a transaction. “I felt it in my bones last fall when I cut the hay! I knew it would come in handy!” said Karl Oskar.
That very day he went to fetch the letter from Taylors Falls, and this time he carried it with him when he returned. He had recognized his father’s big writing on the envelope but he carried it home with the seal unbroken, he wanted to break it in Kristina’s presence, he wanted her to listen when he read it for the first time.
As soon as he was inside the door they sat down on either side of their table. It was the middle of the week, but both had a feeling of reverence, a Sunday mood. Karl Oskar picked up the bread knife, the sharpest one they had in the house and he cut the seal slowly and carefully so as not to harm the letter.
It was a small sheet, narrow and written full from top to bottom. The letters were stiff, crooked, and broken — they were reminders of the pain-stiffened, crooked fingers that had formed and written them.
The letter from Sweden brought the following message to the reader and the listener:
Dear Son, Daughter-in-Law and Children,
Our dearly loved Ones, May you be well is our constant Wish!
We have received your letter and its message that you have arrived alive and in health, Which is a great Joy to us. Now I will write to let you know how we are — we all have God’s great gift of health and all is well.
Much evil and good has happened since we parted. The churchwarden in Åkerby fell off a wagon and was killed last summer near the hill at Åbro mill, Oldest Son took over home, on my Homestead all work and chores progress in due order, the farmer who supplies our Reserved Rights is penurious, but otherwise kind, this year has had fine weather and good crops.
Mother and I do not go to other places much, we keep busy at home, most the time I keep close to the fire as you know. You have had your free will and have deserted home, we hope you all have success, it must be un-Christian hard for you in the beginning in a new land. Mother wonders if you have any Minister to preach God’s clear Word to you, your God is with you also in a foreign country. Turn to Him when your own strength fails.
Have no concern and do not worry for Us, We greet your little children and your good wife from Our Hearts. Her parents and Sisters in Duvemåla are well and wish the same to Kristina in North America. I have paid the freight for this letter, hope it is sufficient. You can afford it as little as I in a strange country.
You are every hour in our Thoughts, I invoke the Lord’s blessing upon you, our dear ones in this world.
Written Down by your Father
Nils Jakob’s Son
Korpamoen in Ljuder Parish October 9
in the year of Our Lord 1850.
Let no outsider see my scribble.
XXIV. UNMARRIED ULRIKA OF VÄSTERGÖHL WEEPS
— 1—
Karl Oskar reread the letter from Sweden three times before Kristina was satisfied. Only after that did he have an opportunity to tell her the great news he had heard today in Taylors Falls: Ulrika of Västergöhl was going to enter into holy matrimony with Mr. Walter H. Abbott, she was to move to Taylors Falls as wife to the postmaster and storekeeper.
This he had heard and it had come from Swedish Anna, who was not one to spread untrue gossip. She herself would move to New Kärragärde as housekeeper for Danjel and Jonas Petter in Ulrika’s place.
Mr. Abbott had often of late visited the Swedish settlement at Lake Gennesaret, according to Swedish Anna. And Ulrika had treated him to food — the most delicious food she could cook — sweet cheese, pork omelet, cheesecake. She had offered him all her choice dishes. And Mr. Abbott had been so taken by the Swedish fare that he wished for it on his table at every meal. In order to have the good food daily, he must keep the cook in his house, and so he had proposed to Ulrika. Swedish Anna had hinted that the impending marriage was some piece of witchery: Ulrika had bewitched Mr. Abbott with the food she had given him. She had taken advantage of a poor man who never before had known how food should taste. Ulrika could thank her Creator that the preparation of decent food was not as yet known in America.
Swedish Anna had spoken as though Ulrika had committed a heinous crime in offering Mr. Abbott her Swedish dishes.
The Taylors Falls postmaster and storekeeper was a well-to-do man, nothing in the way of worldly goods was missing from his house. There might be other women besides the Glad One who would have liked to be in charge of a store full of good wares. Karl Oskar suspected that Swedish Anna spoke in jealousy when she belittled Ulrika.
Kristina had seen Mr. Abbott behind his counter last summer. His head, on a lanky, loose-limbed body, almost reached the ceiling; she remembered his big hands, covered with black hair, his broad, flat feet. He was always dressed in a motley coat with long tails, his shirt neck open. Everyone said he was honest in his dealings. Kristina thought he had a hardened heart, denying the poor settlers credit for a single cent; but she would not call him stingy — many times he had given her sugar sticks for her children.
Kristina said to Karl Oskar: Next Sunday he must stay home alone and look after their offspring. She would go to Uncle Danjel’s and wish Ulrika of Västergöhl well on her coming marriage.
— 2—
She started out on her walk early in the morning. It was the first time she had walked alone from Ki-Chi-Saga to the settlement at Lake Gennesaret. Karl Oskar had advised against it — but this time she wanted to go by herself through the clearing; sometime she must learn to walk alone, in a place where she would live for the rest of her life. She would feel like a penned-in animal if she could never leave her home without being followed and guarded like a herd beast. She could not lose her way — there only was one road to follow.