“I don’t think Kristina will recognize you either, Robert.”
They entered the new house through the kitchen door at the back. Kristina stood at the hearth tending the pot containing the pea soup for their supper.
After a momentary look of surprise and hesitation she gave a cry of recognition: “Robert! Robert! Are you back. .?”
Her voice was filled with joy; she threw her arms around her brother-in-law. Her throat choked with tears, so moved was she. It was with difficulty that she found words to express her feeling.
“You recognized me sooner than Karl Oskar!”
“I’ve missed you terribly!” she said. “But I’ve always been sure you would come back!”
Robert unshouldered his rucksack and dropped it on the floor.
“You come dressed like an American gentleman,” continued Kristina. “And you have gown terribly tall — but so skinny. .?”
The children came running into the kitchen but they were shy with the newcomer when he approached them. Robert had been away so long they had had time to forget him. Only Johan remembered: “You are the uncle who lived with us in the old house!”
“You’ve grown a lot, Johan. How old are you now?”
“Nine!”
Robert picked up Dan and lifted him high in the air: “You lay in swaddling clothes when I left!”
“We have one more little one now,” said Kristina. “A girl we call Ulrika — she’s thirteen months.”
Robert picked up the girl too and lifted her into the air; but her uncle’s intimacy did not please Ulrika — she began to yell at the top of her voice and he had to put her down. Then Robert felt in his pocket and pulled out a bag of sweets which he divided among the five children. After this they were no longer shy of the stranger but jostled about him.
Karl Oskar sniffed the aroma from the pot on the fire; pea soup with boiled pork was to him a delicious dish and he knew his brother liked it. What luck Kristina had such fine fare today; Robert looked as if he needed nourishing food.
“You’ve walked a long way — you must be hungry.”
“I am thirsty, rather,” said Robert. “Would you have some drinking water, Kristina?”
She handed him a quart measure which she had filled from the wooden bucket on the floor against the chimney wall. He drank it down, with noticeable enjoyment. “Wonderful water! Did you find a spring?”
Karl Oskar told him that he had dug a well in the slope during the first year but it gave brown water with a brackish taste to it and in a long drought the well went dry. Then last summer he had found a spring in the oak stand behind the old cabin. It gave this clear, fresh water — the best drinking water one could wish. It was about a ten-minute walk to the spring but the water was well worth it.
Robert said, “Good water is worth any walk!”
“Where’s Arvid?” asked Kristina. “Did he come back with you?”
“No, Arvid didn’t come back with me.”
“But you were together. .?”
“Yes, we were together. But then we parted.”
“Where is Arvid now?”
“He is out there. He stayed.”
“Stayed. .?”
“You mean Arvid remained in the goldfields?” interrupted Karl Oskar in surprise.
“Yes, he remained. He is still there.”
“Oh?” said Kristina and looked questioningly at her brother-in-law.
“Yes, Arvid stayed behind.”
Robert’s replies to their questions were short and indifferent, as if they did not concern him.
Karl Oskar tried again. “I guess neither you nor Arvid had much luck? Or do you carry your gold with you in that sack?”
He pointed to his brother’s rucksack — it was made of thick, excellent skin and looked new.
“Do you think I could carry the gold with me? I can tell you’ve never been on the Trail!”
Robert smiled his broad, toothless smile; so Karl Oskar thought a gold digger could carry his gold with him? That he would come with a sack of gold on his back when he returned? Gold was heavy, almost the heaviest thing that existed. No one was able to carry gold very far. And one could easily be attacked and robbed along the way. Oh no! One put the gold in safekeeping as soon as one found it. One didn’t carry it in one’s pocket, not a single nugget could one risk. Every grain was of value and was well taken care of. He had learned how to handle and keep gold: one put it in a bank for safekeeping.
Karl Oskar eyed Kristina as he listened to his brother. He winked knowingly. She was irresolute as to how to interpret it.
“Isn’t supper ready?” wondered Karl Oskar.
The peas had not yet boiled enough, replied Kristina. But she could see that Robert was worn out from his journey; he could go into the gable room and lie down while she got supper ready. Anyway he would have to stay in there with the children, she thought. Only she and Karl Oskar and the baby slept in the big room, the living room, as they called it.
Karl Oskar showed his brother to the bedroom. He would have time to inspect their house later, he told him — not that there was much to show; as yet they had only a few pieces of furniture but he kept making more whenever time permitted. Wouldn’t Robert lie down? He looked as if his legs were a little shaky after the long walk.
Karl Oskar went back to the kitchen. “My brother isn’t like himself,” he said to Kristina. “His face is yellow. .”
“He has had a hard time, you can see that.”
“I believe something is wrong with him.”
“He might have some ailment, his hands feel hot.”
“He said he caught a cold on the steamboat.”
Kristina was taking plates from the open shelf, setting the table. “But he sounds as though he had luck in the goldfields. Wasn’t that what he said?”
“Yes, I heard it.”
“He talked as if he had put his gold in the bank. He may be rich, perhaps.”
“It sounds that way.”
“You don’t believe it?”
“Not a single word of it!”
“He makes it all up, you think?”
“I know Robert by now! You remember his lies on the ship? Remember the dead Indian in the treetop?”
Karl Oskar had a good memory. When they had landed in New York, Robert had spread a rumor that their captain was a slave trader and intended to sell them to the infidel Turk. It had caused great trouble. And during their first winter here it had been the incident at the Indian cliff. Robert had found a dead Indian, hanging from a treetop, and he had sworn that the Indian had shot arrows at him!
“He has lied before, that’s true,” admitted Kristina. “It’s a failing with him.”
“He is not going to fool me any more!” declared Karl Oskar with finality.
Kristina caught the sharp determination in his words. “Why would Robert come and lie to us again?” she asked.
“Perhaps he is ashamed to return empty-handed.”
“But he has bought new clothes and a new rucksack.”
“He must have worked for someone and earned a little.”
But Kristina felt that Karl Oskar was too eager to suspect the brother who had barely crossed their threshold. Why couldn’t they believe he had found gold? In California even a child might happen on the right place. And Robert had been gone four years — plenty of time to roam far and wide.
Karl Oskar said that he did not intend to ask Robert if he had found any gold; not even here in America did such miracles happen. To him it was enough that his brother had returned alive. A merciful Providence must have looked after him. One couldn’t also ask of Providence that Robert return with riches.