Settlers of the Marsh by Frederick Philip Grove
Authors: Frederick Philip Grove
Tags: Historical, Classics
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children, they would be rooted here.⦠He might become rooted himself, through them.â¦
The picture which he saw, of himself and a woman in a cosy room, with the homely light of a lamp shed over their shoulders, while the winter winds stalked and howled outside and while from above the pitter-patter of childrenâs feet sounded down, took more and more definite form.â¦
There could be no doubt any longer: the woman in the picture was Ellen, the girl. He longed for her sight: he longed to speak to her: to show, to reveal his innermost being to her: not in words, but in deeds, in the little insignificant things of the day.
But even in his dream he felt shy in her presence, bashful, unable to speak when she looked at him, with the cool, appraising expression in her eyes. He felt awkward, dumb, torn by dark passions unworthy of her serene, poised equilibrium. A good many times he saw her as he had seen her at the well, standing by as if she merely submitted to his interference: as if it were merely not quite worth the trouble it would cost to prevent it.
Sometimes he caught himself in a sudden sullen anger because she would not see how he longed for her. And then again he would laugh at himself for his folly. How could she do so? What did she know of him? His whole intercourse with her had not comprised more than a few casual meetings: the sum of his conversations with her, no more than a few dozen words.â¦
How much more intimate, he sometimes thought, was his still slenderer acquaintance with Mrs. Vogel! Two or three times only had he met her; yet there was almost a secret understanding between them.â¦
But whenever he had been dreaming of her and his thought then reverted to Ellen, he felt guilty; he felt defiled as if he had given in to sin. Her appeal was to something in him which was lower, which was not worthy of the man who had seen Ellen.â¦
Though he could not have told what that something in him which was lower really meant.â¦
And when he felt very self-critical, as when he had been altogether absorbed in his immediate tasks, he seemed to become conscious that in his thought of Mrs. Vogel there was nothing either of the dumb, passionate longing, nothing of the anger and resentment, nothing of the visionary glory which surrounded his thought of the other woman. He could imagine pleasant hours spent in her company; but his future life he could imagine without her. He could no longer imagine a future life without Ellen.â¦
W INTER WENT BY ; the thaw-up came. Breaking and seeding, on a share of the crop.â¦
Then âworking out,â in the south. A year since he had come to this country ⦠A winter in town, to learn English ⦠Another summer. A second winter with Nelson â¦
Many things happened. Mrs. Amundsen died.
W HEN NELSON CAME and joined him to put in his last season of âworking out,â Niels heard that the attendance at the funeral had been enormous. It was meant as a protest against Amundsenâs treatment of his wife; but Amundsen, crying profusely, had taken it as a tribute to himself.â¦
Nelson had enlarged stable and house; he had built a granary; he had broken enough land to prove up; he had bought a second team.⦠He and Olga Lund were going to be married next spring.â¦
With Lunds matters were going from bad to worse â¦
Niels had over twelve hundred dollars in cash in the bank at Minor.
He filed on the north-east quarter of section seven, in the edge of the Marsh, on the Range Line , which held the big bluff.
Sigurdsen, the old Icelandic settler who had turned them back into the storm on Nielsâ first trip north, would be his nearest neighbour now. He had become his friend; for during the winters with Nelson he had had repeated opportunities to oblige the old man, bringing tobacco and other trifles from town.â¦
When Niels at last moved out to his claim, he took a little tent along to live in till, after threshing
The picture which he saw, of himself and a woman in a cosy room, with the homely light of a lamp shed over their shoulders, while the winter winds stalked and howled outside and while from above the pitter-patter of childrenâs feet sounded down, took more and more definite form.â¦
There could be no doubt any longer: the woman in the picture was Ellen, the girl. He longed for her sight: he longed to speak to her: to show, to reveal his innermost being to her: not in words, but in deeds, in the little insignificant things of the day.
But even in his dream he felt shy in her presence, bashful, unable to speak when she looked at him, with the cool, appraising expression in her eyes. He felt awkward, dumb, torn by dark passions unworthy of her serene, poised equilibrium. A good many times he saw her as he had seen her at the well, standing by as if she merely submitted to his interference: as if it were merely not quite worth the trouble it would cost to prevent it.
Sometimes he caught himself in a sudden sullen anger because she would not see how he longed for her. And then again he would laugh at himself for his folly. How could she do so? What did she know of him? His whole intercourse with her had not comprised more than a few casual meetings: the sum of his conversations with her, no more than a few dozen words.â¦
How much more intimate, he sometimes thought, was his still slenderer acquaintance with Mrs. Vogel! Two or three times only had he met her; yet there was almost a secret understanding between them.â¦
But whenever he had been dreaming of her and his thought then reverted to Ellen, he felt guilty; he felt defiled as if he had given in to sin. Her appeal was to something in him which was lower, which was not worthy of the man who had seen Ellen.â¦
Though he could not have told what that something in him which was lower really meant.â¦
And when he felt very self-critical, as when he had been altogether absorbed in his immediate tasks, he seemed to become conscious that in his thought of Mrs. Vogel there was nothing either of the dumb, passionate longing, nothing of the anger and resentment, nothing of the visionary glory which surrounded his thought of the other woman. He could imagine pleasant hours spent in her company; but his future life he could imagine without her. He could no longer imagine a future life without Ellen.â¦
W INTER WENT BY ; the thaw-up came. Breaking and seeding, on a share of the crop.â¦
Then âworking out,â in the south. A year since he had come to this country ⦠A winter in town, to learn English ⦠Another summer. A second winter with Nelson â¦
Many things happened. Mrs. Amundsen died.
W HEN NELSON CAME and joined him to put in his last season of âworking out,â Niels heard that the attendance at the funeral had been enormous. It was meant as a protest against Amundsenâs treatment of his wife; but Amundsen, crying profusely, had taken it as a tribute to himself.â¦
Nelson had enlarged stable and house; he had built a granary; he had broken enough land to prove up; he had bought a second team.⦠He and Olga Lund were going to be married next spring.â¦
With Lunds matters were going from bad to worse â¦
Niels had over twelve hundred dollars in cash in the bank at Minor.
He filed on the north-east quarter of section seven, in the edge of the Marsh, on the Range Line , which held the big bluff.
Sigurdsen, the old Icelandic settler who had turned them back into the storm on Nielsâ first trip north, would be his nearest neighbour now. He had become his friend; for during the winters with Nelson he had had repeated opportunities to oblige the old man, bringing tobacco and other trifles from town.â¦
When Niels at last moved out to his claim, he took a little tent along to live in till, after threshing
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