Growth of the Soil - Knut Hamsun
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"Ay, long ago, years back."
"Who bought it then?"
"Geissler."
"What Geissler?--oh, that fellow--h'm."
"And the title-deeds approved and registered," says the Lensmand.
"'Twas bare rock, no more, and he got it for next to nothing."
"Who is this fellow Geissler that keeps cropping up? Where is he?"
"Heaven knows where he is now!"
And a new messenger is sent off to Sweden. They must find out all
about this Geissler. Meanwhile, they could not keep on all the men;
they must wait and see.
So Gustaf came down to Sellanraa, with all his worldly goods on his
back, and here he was, he said. Ay, Gustaf had given up his work at
the mine--that is to say, he had been a trifle too outspoken the
Sunday before, about the mine and the copper in the mine; the foreman
had heard of it, and the engineer, and Gustaf was given his discharge.
Well, good-bye then, and maybe 'twas the very thing he wanted; there
could be nothing suspicious now about his coming to Sellanraa. They
set him to work at once on the cowshed.
They worked and worked at the stone walls, and when a few days later
another man came down from the mine, he was taken on too; now there
were two spells, and the work went apace. Ay, they would have it ready
by the autumn, never fear.
But now one after another of the miners came down, dismissed, and took
the road to Sweden; the trial working was stopped for the present.
There was something like a sigh from the folk in the village at the
news; foolish folk, they did not understand what a trial working was,
that it was only working on trial, but so it was. There were dark
forebodings and discouragement among the village folk; money was
scarcer, wages were reduced, things were very quiet at the trading
station at Storborg. What did it all mean? Just when everything was
going on finely, and Aronsen had got a flagstaff and a flag, and had
bought a fine white bearskin for a rug to have in the sledge for the
winter, and fine clothes for all the family ... Little matters these,
but there were greater things happening as well. Here were two new
men had bought up land for clearing in the wilds; high up between
Maaneland and Sellanraa, and that was no small event for the whole of
that little outlying community. The two new settlers had built
their turf huts and started clearing ground and digging. They were
hard-working folk, and had done much in a little time. All that summer
they had bought their provisions at Storborg, but when they came
down now, last time, there was hardly anything to be had. Nothing in
stock--and what did Aron want with heavy stocks of this and that now
the work at the mine had stopped? He had hardly anything of any sort
on the place now--only money. Of all the folk in the neighbourhood,
Aronsen was perhaps the most dejected; his reckoning was all upset.
When some one urged him to cultivate his land and live on that till
better times, he answered: "Cultivate the land? 'Twas not that I came
and set up house here for."
At last Aronsen could stand it no longer; he must go up to the mine
and see for himself how things were. It was a Sunday. When he got to
Sellanraa, he wanted Isak to go with him, but Isak had never yet set
foot on the mine since they had started; he was more at home on the
hillside below. Inger had to put in a word. "You might as well go with
Aronsen, when he asks you," she said. And maybe Inger was not sorry to
have him go; 'twas Sunday, and like as not she wanted to be rid of him
for an hour or so. And so Isak went along.
There were strange things to be seen up there in the hills; Isak did
not recognize the place at all now, with its huts and sheds, a whole
town of them, and carts and waggons and great gaping holes in the
ground. The engineer himself showed them round. Maybe he was not in
the best of humour just now, that same engineer, but he had tried
all along to keep away the feeling of gloom that had fallen upon the
village folk and the settlers round--and here was his chance, with no
less persons than the Margrave of Sellanraa and the great trader from
Storborg on the spot.
He explained the nature of the ore and the rocks in which it was
found. Copper, iron, and sulphur, all were there together. Ay, they
knew exactly what there was in the rocks up there--even gold and
silver was there, though not so much of it. A mining engineer, he
knows a deal of things.
"And it's all going to shut down now?" asked Aronsen.
"Shut down?" repeated the engineer in astonishment. "A nice thing
that'd be for South America if we did!" No, they were discontinuing
their preliminary operations for a while, only for a short time; they
had seen what the place was like, what it could produce; then they
could build their aerial railway and get to work on the southern side
of the fjeld. He turned to Isak: "You don't happen to know where this
Geissler's got to?"
"No."
Well, no matter--they'd get hold of him all right. And then they'd
start to work again. Shut down? The idea!
Isak is suddenly lost in wonder and delight over a little machine
that works with a treadle--simply move your foot and it works. He
understands it at once--'tis a little smithy to carry about on a cart
and take down and set up anywhere you please.
"What's a thing like that cost, now?" he asks.
"That? Portable forge? Oh, nothing much." They had several of the same
sort, it appeared, but nothing to what they had down at the sea; all
sorts of machines and apparatus, huge big things. Isak was given to
understand that mining, the making of valleys and enormous chasms
in the rock, was not a business that could be done with your
fingernails--ha ha!
They stroll about the place, and the engineer mentions that he himself
will be going across to Sweden in a few days' time.
"But you'll be coming back again?" says Aronsen.
Why, of course. Knew of no reason why the Government or the police
should try to keep him.
Isak managed to lead round to the portable forge once more and
stopped, looking at it again. "And what might a bit of a machine like
that cost?" he asked.
Cost? Couldn't say off-hand--a deal of money, no doubt, but nothing to
speak of in mining operations. Oh, a grand fellow was the engineer;
not in the best of humour himself just then, perhaps, but he kept up
appearances and played up rich and fine to the last. Did Isak want a
forge? Well, he might take that one--the company would never trouble
about a little thing like that--the company would make him a present
of a portable forge!
An hour after, Aronsen and Isak were on their way down again. Aronsen
something calmer in mind--there was hope after all. Isak trundles down
the hillside with his precious forge on his back. Ay, a barge of a
man, he could bear a load! The engineer had offered to send a couple
of men down with it to Sellanraa next morning, but Isak thanked
him--'twas more than worth his while. He was thinking of his own folk;
'twould be a fine surprise for them to see him come walking down with
a smithy on his back.
But 'twas Isak was surprised after all.
A horse and cart turned into the courtyard just as he reached home.
And a highly remarkable load it brought. The driver was a man from
the village, but beside him walked a gentleman at whom Isak stared in
astonishment--it was Geissler.
Chapter V
There were other things that might have given Isak matter for
surprise, but he was no great hand at thinking of more than one thing
at a time. "Where's Inger?" was all he said as he passed by the
kitchen door. He was only anxious to see that Geissler was well
received.
Inger? Inger was out plucking berries; had been out plucking berries
ever since Isak started--she and Gustaf the Swede. Ay, getting on in
years, and all in love again and wild with it; autumn and winter near,
but she felt the warmth in herself again, flowers and blossoming
again. "Come and show where there's cloudberries," said Gustaf;
"cranberries," said he. And how could a woman say no? Inger ran
into her little room and was both earnest and religious for several
minutes; but there was Gustaf standing waiting outside, the world was
at her heels, and all she did was to tidy her hair, look at herself
carefully in the glass, and out again. And what if she did? Who would
not have done the same? Oh, a woman cannot tell one man from another;
not always--not often.
And they two go out plucking berries, plucking cloudberries on the
moorland, stepping from tuft to tuft, and she lifts her skirts high,
and has her neat legs to show. All quiet everywhere; the white grouse
have their young ones grown already and do not fly up hissing any
more; they are sheltered spots where bushes grow on the moors. Less
than an hour since they started, and already they are sitting down to
rest. Says Inger: "Oh, I didn't think you were like that?" Oh, she
is all weakness towards him, and smiles piteously, being so deep in
love--ay, a sweet and cruel thing to be in love, 'tis both! Right and
proper to be on her guard--ay, but only to give in at last. Inger
is so deep in love--desperately, mercilessly; her heart is full of
kindliness towards him, she only cares to be close and precious to
him.
Ay, a woman getting on in years....
"When the work's finished, you'll be going off again," says she.
No, he wasn't going. Well, of course, some time, but not yet, not for
a week or so.
"Hadn't we better be getting home?" says she.
"No."
They pluck more berries, and in a little while they find a sheltered
place among the bushes, and Inger says: "Gustaf, you're mad to do it."
And hours pass--they'll be sleeping now, belike, among the bushes.
Sleeping? Wonderful--far out in the wilderness, in the Garden of Eden.
Then suddenly Inger sits upright and listens: "Seems like I heard some
one down on the road away off?"
The sun is setting, the tufts of heather darkening in shadow as they
walk home. They pass by many sheltered spots, and Gustaf sees them,
and Inger, she sees them too no doubt, but all the time she feels as
if some one were driving ahead of them. Oh, but who could walk all the
way home with a wild handsome lad, and be on her guard all the time?
Inger is too weak, she can only smile and say: "I never knew such a
one."
She comes home alone. And well that she came just then, a fortunate
thing. A minute later had not been well at all. Isak had just come
into the courtyard with his forge, and Aronsen--and there is a horse
and cart just pulled up.
"_Goddag_," says Geissler, greeting Inger as well. And there they
stand, all looking one at another--couldn't be better....
Geissler back again. Years now since he was there, but he is back
again, aged a little, greyer a little, but bright and cheerful as
ever. And finely dressed this time, with a white waistcoat and gold
chain across. A man beyond understanding!
Had he an inkling, maybe, that something was going on up at the mine,
and wanted to see for himself? Well, here he was. Very wide awake to
look at, glancing round at the place, at the land, turning his head
and using his eyes every way. There are great changes to note; the
Margrave had extended his domains. And Geissler nods.
"What's that you're carrying?" he asks Isak. "'Tis a load for one
horse in itself," says he.
"'Tis for a forge," explains Isak. "And a mighty useful thing to have
on a bit of a farm," says he--ay, calling Sellanraa a bit of a farm,
no more!
"Where did you get hold of it?"
"Up at the mine. Engineer, he gave me the thing for a present, he
said."
"The company's engineer?" says Geissler, as if he had not understood.
And Geissler, was he to be outdone by an engineer on a copper mine?
"I've heard you'd got a mowing-machine," says he, "and I've brought
along a patent raker thing that's handy to have." And he points to the
load on the cart. There it stood, red and blue, a huge comb, a hayrake
to be driven with horses. They lifted it out of the cart and looked at
it; Isak harnessed himself to the thing and tried it over the ground.
No wonder his mouth opened wide! Marvel on marvel coming to Sellanraa!
They spoke of the mine, of the work up in the hills. "They were asking
about you, quite a lot," said Isak.
"Who?"
"The engineer, and all the other gentlemen. 'Have to get hold of you
somehow,' they said."
Oh, but here Isak was saying overmuch, it seemed. Geissler was
offended, no doubt; he turned sharp and curt, and said: "Well, I'm
here, if they want me."
Next day came the two messengers back from Sweden, and with them a
couple of the mine-owners; on horseback they were, fine gentlemen and
portly; mighty rich folk, by the look of them. They hardly stopped
at Sellanraa at all, simply asked a question or so about the road,
without dismounting, and rode on up the hill. Geissler they pretended
not to see, though he stood quite close. The messengers with their
loaded packhorses rested for an hour, talked to the men at work on the
building, learned that the old gentleman in the white waistcoat and
gold chain was Geissler, and then they too went on again. But that
same evening one of them came riding down to the place with a message
by word of mouth for Geissler to come up to the gentlemen at the
mines. "I'm here if they want me," was the answer Geissler sent back.
Geissler was grown an important personage, it seemed; thought himself
a man of power, of all the power in the world; considered it, perhaps,
beneath his dignity to be sent for by word of mouth. But how was it he
had come to Sellanraa at all just then--just when he was most wanted?
A great one he must be for knowing things, all manner of things.
Anyway, when the gentlemen up at the mine had Geissler's answer, there
was nothing for it but they must bestir themselves and come all the
way down to Sellanraa again. The engineer and the two mining experts
came with them.
So many crooked ways and turnings were there before that meeting
was brought about. It looked ill to start with; ay, Geissler was
over-lordly by far.
The gentlemen were polite enough this time; begged him to excuse their
having sent a verbal message the day before, being tired out after
their journey. Geissler was polite in return, and said he too was
tired out after his journey, or he would have come. Well, and then, to
get to business; Would Geissler sell the land south of the water?
"Do you wish to purchase on your own account, may I ask," said
Geissler, "or are you acting as agents?"
Now this could be nothing but sheer contrariness on Geissler's part;
he could surely see for himself that rich and portly gentlemen of
their stamp would not be acting as agents. They went on to discuss
terms. "What about the price?" said they.
"The price?--yes," said Geissler, and sat thinking it over. "A couple
of million," said he.
"Indeed?" said the gentlemen, and smiled. But Geissler did not smile.
The engineer and the two experts had made a rough investigation of the
ground, made a few borings and blastings, and here was their report:
the occurrence of ore was due to eruption; it was irregular, and
from their preliminary examination appeared to be deepest in the
neighbourhood of the boundary between the company's land and
Geissler's decreasing from there onwards. For the last mile or so
there was no ore to be found worth working.
Geissler listened to all this with the greatest nonchalance. He took
some papers from his pocket, and looked at them carefully; but the
papers were not charts nor maps--like as not they were things no way
connected with the mine at all.
"You haven't gone deep enough," said he, as if it were something he
had read in his papers. The gentlemen admitted that at once, but
the engineer asked: How did he know that--"You haven't made borings
yourself, I suppose?"
And Geissler smiled, as if he had bored hundreds of miles down through
the globe, and covered up the holes again after.
They kept at it till noon, talking it over this way and that, and at
last began to look at their watches. They had brought Geissler down to
half a million now, but not a hair's breadth farther. No; they must
have put him out sorely some way or other. They seemed to think he was
anxious to sell, obliged to sell, but he was not--ho, not a bit; there
he sat, as easy and careless as themselves, and no mistaking it.
"Fifteen, say twenty thousand would be a decent price anyway," said
they.
Geissler agreed that might be a decent price enough for any one sorely
in need of the money, but five-and-twenty thousand would be better.
And then one of the gentlemen put in--saying it perhaps by way of
keeping Geissler from soaring too far: "By the way, I've seen your
wife's people in Sweden--they sent their kind regards."
"Thank you," said Geissler.
"Well," said the other gentleman, seeing Geissler was not to be won
over that way, "a quarter of a million ... it's not gold we're buying,
but copper ore."
"Exactly," said Geissler. "It's copper ore."
And at that they lost patience, all of them, and five watch-cases were
opened and snapped to again; no more time to fool away now; it was
time for dinner. They did not ask for food at Sellanraa, but rode back
to the mine to get their own.
And that was the end of the meeting.
Geissler was left alone.
What would be in his mind all this time--what was he pondering and
speculating about? Nothing at all, maybe, but only idle and careless?
No, indeed, he was thinking of something, but calm enough for all
that. After dinner, he turned to Isak, and said: "I'm going for a long
walk over my land up there; and I'd have liked to have Sivert with me,
same as last time."
"Ay, so you shall," said Isak at once.
"No; he's other things to do, just now."
"He shall go with you at once," said Isak, and called to Sivert to
leave his work. But Geissler held up his hand, and said shortly: "No."
He walked round the yard several times, came back and talked to the
men at their work, chatting easily with them and going off and coming
back again. And all the time with this weighty matter on his mind, yet
talking as if it were nothing at all. Geissler had long been so long
accustomed to changes of fortune, maybe he was past feeling there was
anything at stake now, whatever might be in the air.
Here he was, the man he was, by the merest chance. He had sold the
first little patch of land to his wife's relations, and what then?
Gone off and bought up the whole tract south of the water--what for?
Was it to annoy them by making himself their neighbour? At first, no
doubt, he had only thought of taking over a little strip of the land
there, just where the new village would have to be built if the
workings came to anything, but in the end he had come to be owner of
the whole fjeld. The land was to be had for next to nothing, and he
did not want a lot of trouble with boundaries. So, from sheer idleness
he had become a mining king, a lord of the mountains; he had thought
of a site for huts and machine sheds, and it had become a kingdom,
stretching right down to the sea.
In Sweden, the first little patch of land had passed from hand to
hand, and Geissler had taken care to keep himself informed as to its
fate. The first purchasers, of course, had bought foolishly, bought
without sense or forethought; the family council were not mining
experts, they had not secured enough land at first, thinking only of
buying out a certain Geissler, and getting rid of him. But the new
owners were no less to be laughed at; mighty men, no doubt, who could
afford to indulge in a jest, and take up land for amusement's sake,
for a drunken wager, or Heaven knows what. But when it came to trial
workings, and exploiting the land in earnest, then suddenly they found
themselves butting up against a wall--Geissler.
Children! thought Geissler, maybe, in his lofty mind; he felt his
power now, felt strong enough to be short and abrupt with folk. The
others had certainly done their best to take him down a peg; they
imagined they were dealing with a man in need of money, and threw out
hints of some fifteen or twenty thousand--ay, children. They did not
know Geissler. And now here he stood.
They came down no more that day from the fjeld, thinking best, no
doubt, not to show themselves over-anxious. Next morning they came
down, packhorses and all, on their way home. And lo--Geissler was not
there.
Not there?
That put an end to any ideas they might have had of settling the
manner in lordly wise, from the saddle; they had to dismount and wait.
And where was Geissler, if you please? Nobody could tell them; he went
about everywhere, did Geissler, took an interest in Sellanraa and all
about it; the last they had seen of him was up at the sawmill. The
messengers were sent out to look for him, but Geissler must have gone
some distance, it seemed, for he gave no answer when they shouted. The
gentlemen looked at their watches, and were plainly annoyed at first,
and said: "We're not going to fool about here waiting like this. If
Geissler wants to sell, he must be on the spot." Oh, but they changed
their tone in a little while; showed no annoyance after a while, but
even began to find something amusing in it all, to jest about it. Here
were they in a desperate case; they would have to lie out there in
the desolate hills all night. And get lost and starve to death in the
wilds, and leave their bones to bleach undiscovered by their mourning
kin--ay, they made a great jest of it all.
At last Geissler came. Had been looking round a bit--just come from
the cattle enclosure. "Looks as if that'll be too small for you soon,"
said he to Isak. "How many head have you got up there now altogether?"
Ay, he could talk like that, with those fine gentlemen standing there
watch in hand. Curiously red in the face was Geissler, as if he had
been drinking. "Puh!" said he. "I'm all hot, walking."
"We half expected you would be here when we came," said one of the
gentlemen.
"I had no word of your wanting to see me at all," answered Geissler,
"otherwise I might have been here on the spot."
Well, and what about the business now? Was Geissler prepared to accept
a reasonable offer today? It wasn't every day he had a chance of
fifteen or twenty thousand--what? Unless, of course.... If the money
were nothing to him, why, then....
This last suggestion was not to Geissler's taste at all; he was
offended. A nice way to talk! Well, they would not have said it,
perhaps, if they had not been annoyed at first; and Geissler, no
doubt, would hardly have turned suddenly pale at their words if he had
not been out somewhere by himself and got red. As it was, he paled,
and answered coldly:
"I don't wish to make any suggestion as to what you, gentlemen, may be
in a position to pay--but I know what I am willing to accept and what
not. I've no use for more child's prattle about the mine. My price is
the same as yesterday."
"A quarter of a million _Kroner_?"
"Yes."
The gentlemen mounted their horses." Look here," said one, "we'll go
this far, and say twenty-five thousand."
"You're still inclined to joke, I see," said Geissler. "But I'll make
_you_ an offer in sober earnest: would you care to sell your bit of a
mine up there?"
"Why," said they, somewhat taken aback--"why, we might do that,
perhaps."
"I'm ready to buy it," said Geissler.
Oh, that Geissler! With the courtyard full of people now, listening
to every word; all the Sellanraa folk, and the stoneworkers and the
messengers. Like as not, he could never have raised the money, nor
anything near it, for such a deal; but, again, who could say? A man
beyond understanding was Geissler. Anyhow, his last words rather
disconcerted those gentlemen on horseback. Was it a trick? Did he
reckon to make his own land seem worth more by this manoeuvre?
The gentlemen thought it over; ay, they even began to talk softly
together about it; they got down from their horses again. Then the
engineer put in a word; he thought, no doubt, it was getting beyond
all bearing. And he seemed to have some power, some kind of authority
here. And the yard was full of folk all listening to what was going
on. "We'll not sell," said he.
"Not?" asked his companions.
"No."
They whispered together again, and they mounted their horses once
more--in earnest this time. "Twenty-five thousand!" called out one of
them. Geissler did not answer, but turned away, and went over to talk
to the stoneworkers again.
And that was the end of their last meeting.
Geissler appeared to care nothing for what might come of it. He walked
about talking of this, that, and the other; for the moment he seemed
chiefly interested in the laying of some heavy beams across the shell
of the new cowhouse. They were to get the work finished that week,
with a temporary roof--a new fodder loft was to be built up over later
on.
Isak kept Sivert away from the building work now, and left him
idle--and this he did with a purpose, that Geissler might find the lad
ready at any time if he wanted to go exploring with him in the hills.
But Isak might have saved himself the trouble; Geissler had given up
the idea, or perhaps forgotten all about it. What he did was to get
Inger to pack him up some food, and set off down the road. He stayed
away till evening.