Short Fiction Selma Lagerlöf (best book club books of all time .txt) 📖

wedding and be one of the party. He went out and harnessed the horse, after which he came back and announced that it was time to start. When Gudmund was seated in the cart, he noticed that it was cleansed and burnished. Everything was as bright and shiny as he himself always wished it to be. At the same time he saw, also, how neat everything about the place looked. The driveway had been laid with new gravel; piles of old wood and rubbish, which had lain there all his life, were removed. On each side of the entrance door stood a birch branch, as a gate of honor. A large wreath of blueberry hung on the weathervane, and from every aperture peeped light green birch-leaves. Again Gudmund was ready to burst into tears. He grasped his father’s hand hard when he was about to start; it was as though he wished to prevent his going.

“Is there something⁠—?” said the father.

“Oh, no!” said Gudmund. “It is best, I dare say, that we go ahead.”

Gudmund had to say one more farewell before he was very far from the homestead. It was Helga from Big Marsh, who stood waiting at the hedge, where the foliage path leading from her home opened into the highway. The father was driving and stopped when he saw Helga.

“I have been waiting for you, as I wanted to wish you happiness today,” said Helga.

Gudmund leaned far out over the cart and shook hands with Helga. He thought that she had grown thin and that her eyelids were red. Very probably she had lain awake and cried all night and was homesick for Närlunda. But now she tried to appear happy and smiled sweetly at him. Again he felt deeply moved but could not speak.

His father, who was reputed never to speak a word until it was called forth by extreme necessity, joined in: “That good wish, I think, Gudmund will be more glad over than any other.”

“Yes, of that you may be sure!” said Gudmund. He shook hands with Helga once more, and then they drove on.

Gudmund leaned back in the cart and looked after Helga. When she was hidden from view by a couple of trees, he hastily tore aside the apron of the carriage, as if he wished to jump out.

“Is there anything more you wish to say to Helga?” asked his father.

“No, oh, no!” answered Gudmund and turned round again.

Suddenly Gudmund leaned his head against his father’s shoulder and burst out crying.

“What ails you?” asked Erland Erlandsson, drawing in the reins so suddenly that the horse stopped.

“Oh, they are all so good to me and I don’t deserve it.”

“But you have never done anything wrong, surely?”

“Yes, father, I have.”

“That we can’t believe.”

“I have killed a human being!”

The father drew a deep breath. It sounded almost like a sigh of relief, and Gudmund raised his head, astonished, and looked at him. His father set the horse in motion again; then he said calmly, “I’m glad you have told of this yourself.”

“Did you know it already, father?”

“I surmised last Saturday evening that there was something wrong. And then I found your knife down in the morass.”

“So it was you who found the knife!”

“I found it and I noticed that one of the blades had been broken off.”

“Yes, father, I’m aware that the knife-blade is gone, but still I cannot get it into my head that I did it.”

“It was probably done in the drunkenness and delirium.”

“I know nothing; I remember nothing. I could see by my clothes that I had been in a fight and I knew that the knife-blade was missing.”

“I understand that it was your intention to be silent about this,” said the father.

“I thought that perhaps the rest of the party were as irresponsible as myself and I couldn’t remember anything. There was perhaps no other evidence against me than the knife, therefore I threw it away.”

“I comprehend that you must have reasoned in that way.”

“You understand, father, that I do not know who is dead. I had never seen him before, I dare say. I have no recollection of having done it. I didn’t think I ought to suffer for what I had not done knowingly. But soon I got to thinking that I must have been mad to throw the knife into the marsh. It dries out in summer, and then anyone might find it. I tried last night and the night before to find it.”

“Didn’t it occur to you that you should confess?”

“No! Yesterday I thought only of how I could keep it a secret, and I tried to dance and be merry, so that no one would mark any change in me.”

“Was it your intention to go to the bridal altar today without confessing? You were assuming a grave responsibility. Didn’t you understand that if you were discovered you would drag Hildur and her kin with you into misery?”

“I thought that I was sparing them most by saying nothing.”

They drove now as fast as possible. The father seemed to be in haste to arrive, and all the time he talked with his son. He had not said so much to him in all his life before.

“I wonder how you came to think differently?” said he.

“It was because Helga came and wished me luck. Then there was something hard in me that broke. I was touched by something in her. Mother, also, moved me this morning, and I wanted to speak out and tell her that I was not worthy of your love; but then the hardness was still within me and made resistance. But when Helga appeared, it was all over with me. I felt that she really ought to be angry with me who was to blame for her having to leave our home.”

“Now I think you are agreed with me that we must let the Juryman know this at once,” said the father.

“Yes,” answered Gudmund in a low tone. “Why, certainly!” he added almost immediately after, louder