“Who knows?” said the small, long-eared men. “Who can tell?”
They wagged their heads, received a blessing from Father Willibald, and departed with Spjalle on their journey.
But Magister Rainald remained with Orm for a while longer, it having been decided that this was the wisest thing for him to do. They all agreed that it would be madness for him to go alone across the border to look for Father Sebastian, for if he did so, he would be caught or killed without achieving anything. So it was decided that he should stay at Gröning until the time arrived for the border peoples to hold their great annual conference, which they called Thing, at the Kraka Stone; for the time for this was shortly due. At the Thing, said Orm, they might be able to come to some agreement with the Smalanders about the matter on which his mind was set.
CHAPTER NINE
HOW THE MAGISTER SEARCHED FOR HEIFERS AND SAT IN A CHERRY TREE
SO Magister Rainald remained with them over the summer. He helped Father Willibald to minister to the spiritual needs of the household and to such of the newly baptized Christians as thought it worth their while to keep their promise to attend divine service. The magister was greatly praised by them all for his singing at Mass, which was more beautiful than anything that had been heard in these parts before. At first the newcomers to Christianity showed some reluctance to appear on Sundays, but as the news of the magister’s singing spread, more and more people began to turn up; and tears could be seen standing in the women’s eyes as he sang. Father Willibald was much gratified to receive this assistance, for he himself had an unmelodious voice.
The magister was poorly qualified, however, to do other forms of useful work. Orm wanted to give him something to occupy him during the week, and did his best to discover some task that he might be able to perform competently; but they could not find anything at which he was of the slightest use. He knew no trade and was unable to handle any sort of tool. Orm said: “This is a bad thing; for soon you will be a thrall in Smaland, and if you can do nothing but sing, I fear you will have a hard time of it up there. It would be best for you if you could learn to do something useful while you are staying here with me, for this will save you many stripes on your back.”
Sighing, the magister concurred; and he tried his hand at many simple tasks, but could not succeed with any of them. When they set him to cut grass, his efforts were pathetic to see, for he could not learn to swing the scythe. He was useless at carpentry, though Rapp and even Orm himself spent long hours trying to teach him the craft; and when he tried to chop wood for the bake-oven, he hit himself in the leg, so that when they came to fetch the wood, they found him groaning on the ground in a puddle of blood. When he had recovered from this, they sent him out with a man to watch the fishing-lines in the river; but there he was attacked by an enormous eel, which twined itself round his arm. In his terror he upset the punt, so that all the fish they had caught fell into the water, and it was only with difficulty that he and his companion managed to reach the bank safely. So he gained the name of being a hero in church, and a good man to have in the house of an evening, when everybody would be seated at his or her handicraft and he would tell them stories about saints and emperors; but in all matters else he was regarded as an incomparable duffer, unable to do any of the simple things that every man has to know about. Still, he was not disliked; and least of all by the women, who, from Asa and Ylva to the youngest serving-girls, fussed over him continually and, at the least excuse, spoke out manfully in his defense.
Early in the spring of that year, One-Eyed Rapp had taken himself a wife, a plump farmer’s daughter called Torgunn, whom, despite his one-eyedness, he had had no difficulty in winning, on account of the great name he possessed as a widely traveled and weapon-skillful man. Rapp having ordered her to get herself baptized, she had lost no time in doing so, and had never since failed to attend a service; she was well liked by everyone and performed her duties industriously, and Rapp and she were well content with each other, though he was occasionally heard to mumble that she was difficult to silence and slow to bear him a child. Ylva liked her greatly, and these two often sat together exchanging confidences; nor did the flow of words from their mouths ever slacken.
It happened one day that all the people of the household had to go into the woods to look for strayed heifers; and a lengthy search ensued. Toward evening, while Rapp was on his way homewards, having found nothing, he heard a sound from a birch copse; and on approaching nearer he saw Torgunn lying in the grass by the side of a great boulder, with Magister Rainald arched above her. More than that he could not see, because of the height of the grass; and both of them rose hastily to their feet as soon as they heard his footsteps. Rapp stood there without saying anything, but Torgunn immediately hopped toward him on one leg, with her mouth full of words.
“It is indeed lucky that you have come,” she said, “for now you can help me home. I twisted my knee, falling over a root, and was lying there crying for help when this good man came to my aid. He lacked the strength to pick me up and carry me; instead, therefore, he has been reading prayers over my knee, so that it has already begun to feel better.”
“I have only one eye,” replied Rapp, “but with that I see clearly. Was it necessary for him to lie upon you while he prayed?”
“He was not lying upon me,” said Torgunn indignantly. “Rapp, Rapp, what is in your mind? He was kneeling beside me, holding my knee, and praying thrice over it.”
“Thrice?” said Rapp.
“Do not make yourself more stupid than you are,” said Torgunn. “First in the name of the Father, secondly in the name of the Son, and lastly in the name of the Holy Ghost. That makes three.”
Rapp looked at the priest. The latter was pale, and there was a tremble in his mouth, but otherwise he looked as usual.
“If you had been out of breath,” said Rapp thoughtfully, “you would by now be a dead man.”
“I have come to this land in search of martyrdom,” replied the magister mildly.
“You will find it, sure enough,” said Rapp. “But first let me look at this knee of yours, woman, if you can remember which it is that is hurting you.”
Torgunn grumbled plaintively and said that she had never been treated thus before; however, she seated herself obediently on the stone and bared her left knee. They found difficulty in agreeing whether or not there was any swelling to be seen; but when he thumbed it, she screamed aloud.
“And it was worse a few minutes ago,” she said. “But I think I might manage to hobble back to the house, with your help.”
Rapp stood with a dark face, thinking to himself. Then he said: “Whether any harm has come to your knee I do not know, for your screams mean nothing. But I do not want Orm to be able to say that I killed a guest of his without good cause. Father Willibald knows best about these things, and he will be able to tell me whether the limb is really damaged.”
They started homewards and made fair progress, though Torgunn often had to stop and rest because of her great pain. Over the last stretch she was forced to support herself on both of the men, with one arm round the neck of each.
“You are hanging heavily enough on me,” said Rapp, “but I still do not know whether I can believe you in this matter.”
“Believe what you will,” replied Torgunn, “but of this I am sure: that my knee will never be right again. I caught my foot between two roots, as I was jumping down from a fallen trunk; that was how it happened. I shall be lame for the rest of my days as the result of this.”
“If that is so,” replied Rapp bitterly, “all his praying will have been to no purpose.”