If he had not stood there himself and heard it—Inger talking softly to the cow in the shed—he would not have believed. But there he stood. And all at once a black misgiving came into his mind: a clever wife, ay, a manager of wonders—but, after all…. No, it was too much, and that was the only word for it. A spinning-wheel and carding-combs at a pinch; even the beads perhaps, though they were over fine to be come by in any way proper and natural. But a cow, picked up straying on the road, maybe, or in a field—it would be missed in no time, and have to be found.
Inger stepped out of the shed, and said with a proud little laugh:
"It's only me. I've brought my cow along."
"H'm," said Isak.
"It was that made me so long—I couldn't go but softly with her over the hills."
"And so you've brought a cow?" said he.
"Yes," said she, all ready to burst with greatness and riches on earth. "Don't you believe me, perhaps?"
Isak feared the worst, but made no sign, and only said:
"Come inside and get something to eat."
"Did you see her? Isn't she a pretty cow?"
"Ay, a fine cow," said Isak. And speaking as carelessly as he could, he asked, "Where d'you get her?"
"Her name's Goldenhorns. What's that wall to be for you've been building up here? You'll work yourself to death, you will. Oh, come and look at the cow, now, won't you?"
They went out to look, and Isak was in his underclothes, but that was no matter. They looked and looked the cow all over carefully, in every part, and noted all the markings, head and shoulders, buttocks and thighs, where it was red and white, and how it stood.
"How old d'you think she might be?" asked Isak cautiously.
"Think? Why, she's just exactly a tiny way on in her fourth year. I brought her up myself, and they all said it was the sweetest calf they'd ever seen. But will there be feed enough here d'you think?"
Isak began to believe, as he was only too willing to do, that all was well. "As for the feed, why, there'll be feed enough, never fear."
Then they went indoors to eat and drink and make an evening together. They lay awake talking of Cow; of the great event. "And isn't she a dear cow, too? Her second's on the way. And her name's Goldenhorns. Are you asleep, Isak?"
"No."
"And what do you think, she knew me again; knew me at once, and followed me like a lamb. We lay up in the hills a bit last night."
"Ho?"
"But she'll have to be tied up through the summer, all the same, or she'll be running off. A cow's a cow."
"Where's she been before?" asked Isak at last.
"Why, with my people, where she belonged. And they were quite sorry to lose her, I can tell you; and the little ones cried when I took her away."
Could she be making it all up, and coming out with it so pat? No, it wasn't thinkable. It must be true, the cow was hers. Ho, they were getting well-to-do, with this hut of theirs, this farm of theirs; why, 'twas good enough for any one. Ay, they'd as good as all they could wish for already. Oh, that Inger; he loved her and she loved him again; they were frugal folk; they lived in primitive wise, and lacked for nothing. "Let's go to sleep!" And they went to sleep. And wakened in the morning to another day, with things to look at, matters to see to, once again; ay, toil and pleasure, ups and downs, the way of life.
As, for instance, with those timber baulks—should he try to fit them up together? Isak had kept his eyes about him down in the village, with that very thing in mind, and seen how it was done; he could build with timber himself, why not? Moreover, it was a call upon him; it must be done. Hadn't they a farm with sheep, a farm with a cow already, goats that were many already and would be more?—their live stock alone was crowding them out of the turf hut; something must be done. And best get on with it at once, while the potatoes were still in flower, and before the haytime began. Inger would have to lend a hand here and there.
Isak wakes in the night and gets up, Inger sleeping fine and sound after her long tramp, and out he goes to the cowshed. Now it must not be thought that he talked to Cow in any obsequious and disgustful flattery; no, he patted her decently, and looked her over once more in every part, to see if there should, by chance, be any sign, any mark of her belonging to strange owners. No mark, no sign, and Isak steals away relieved.
There lies the timber. He falls to, rolling the baulks, then lifting them, setting them up against the wall in a framework; one big frame for a parlour, and a smaller one—there must be a room to sleep in. It was heavy work, hard-breathing work, and his mind being set on it, he forgot the time. There comes a smoke from the roof-hole of the hut, and Inger steps out and calls to breakfast.
"And what are you busy with now?" asked Inger.
"You're early about," says Isak, and that was all.
Ho, that Isak with his secrets and his lordly ways! But it pleased him, maybe, to have her asking and wondering, and curious about his doings. He ate a bit, and sat for a while in the hut before going out again. What could he be waiting for?
"H'm," says he at last, getting up. "This won't do. Can't sit here idling today. Work to be done."
"Seems like you're building," says Inger. "What?"
And he answered condescendingly, this great man who went about building with timber all by himself, he answered: "Why, you can see as much, I take it."
"Yes…. Yes, of course."
"Building—why, there's no help for it as I can see.. Here's you come bringing a whole cow to the farm—that means a cowshed, I suppose?"
Poor Inger, not so eternally wise as he, as Isak, that lord of creation. And this was before she learned to know him, and reckon with his way of putting things. Says Inger:
"Why, it's never a cowshed you're building, surely?"
"Ho," says he.
"But you don't mean it? I—I thought you'd be building a house first."
"Think so?" says Isak, putting up a face as if he'd never in life have thought of that himself.
"Why yes. And put the beasts in the hut."
Isak thought for a bit. "Ay, maybe 'twould be best so."
"There," says Inger, all glad and triumphant. "You see I'm some good after all."
"Ay, that's true. And what'd you say to a house with two rooms in?"
"Two rooms? Oh …! Why, 'twould be just like other folks. Do you think we could?"
They did. Isak he went about building, notching his baulks and fitting up his framework; also he managed a hearth and fireplace of picked stones, though this last was troublesome, and Isak himself was not always pleased with his work. Haytime came, and he was forced to climb down from his building and go about the hillsides far and near, cutting grass and bearing home the hay in mighty loads. Then one rainy day he must go down to the village.
"What you want in the village?"
"Well, I can't say exactly as yet…."
He set off, and stayed away two days, and came Back with a cooking-stove—a barge of a man surging up through the forest with a whole iron stove on his back. "'Tis more than a man can do," said Inger. "You'll kill yourself that gait." But Isak pulled down the stone hearth, that didn't look so well in the new house, and set up the cooking-stove in its place. "'Tisn't every one has a cooking-stove," said Inger. "Of all the wonders, how we're getting on!…"
Haymaking still; Isak bringing