Free The Second Deadly Sin by Asa Larsson Page B
Authors: Asa Larsson
the teacher’s house very cheaply by a couple of local farmhands two years ago.
But more often than not her beauty has been a confoundednuisance. It is a pain, constantly having to hold would-be suitors at bay; but now, when she sees Lundbohm averting his gaze because he is afraid that it might betray his thoughts, she feels her heart give a leap of pleasure.
She has a hold over him. Over the man Rudyard Kipling calls “the uncrowned king of Lapland”.
She knows that he is acquainted with a lot of remarkable people – Prince Eugen, Carl and Karin Larsson, Selma Lagerlöf. But who is she, compared with people like that? Nothing, a mere nobody. But she still has her youth and her beauty, and that combination has given her this experience. She thanks God from the bottom of her heart. If she had been ugly, she would never have found herself sitting here with him.
Now he is looking at her again.
“If you find that anything is missing from your classroom that ought to be there,” he says, “readers, blackboard and easel, slates for the pupils – just let me know. Personally.”
Their conversation moves on to the importance of education. She says that Kiruna is a mining town, and hence she is well aware that everything is going to be different from what she has been used to. She thinks that the best thing about the labour laws passed in Sweden in 1912 is the protection given to young children that prevents them from being exploited by industry. There are no such laws preventing them from being exploited in the interests of agriculture.
“How will children be able to educate themselves in school if they are already worn out by hard labour? The desire to learn is snuffed out in their heads. I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes.”
Now she starts talking about her beloved Ellen Key and
The Century of the Child.
Her cheeks glow as she preaches the gospel according to Key, how all a child’s bodily and spiritual energy until the age of fifteen should be concentrated on its education in school, indulging in sport and play, being encouraged to perform tasks athome and in vocational schools – but certainly not exploited by being forced to work in industry.
“Nor should children have to perform exhausting work on farms and in farmhouses,” she says, lowering her gaze as she recalls the way in which young boys and girls were made to slave away as housemaids or farmhands by the gentleman farmer.
Lundbohm is infected by her enthusiasm.
“As far as I’m concerned, industry and other similar activities are merely the means, not the goal,” he says.
“So what is the goal?”
“The goal is always to enable people to lead the most rewarding life possible. Also on a spiritual level.”
When he says this, she looks at him with such veneration that he feels obliged to add, almost in embarrassment, “Besides, the most efficient workers are always the ones who have been through school.”
He explains that they have also reached this conclusion in Russia, where standards of general education still leave much to be desired. Workers who can read and write always receive higher wages than those who can’t: illiterates always end up doing the most onerous and debilitating work. And the reason why German industry has progressed further and faster than its English counterpart is that German citizens are better educated. And just look at the productive and intelligent American workers. It’s all down to schooling.
Lundbohm feels exhilarated. Happier than he has felt for a long time. That’s the blessing bestowed by travelling. For several hours one has nothing better to do than to get to know a fellow human being.
And when it’s a fellow human being like this one! … Ravishing. And intelligent with it.
There is a shortage of beautiful women in Kiruna. The women are young, to be sure. Kiruna is a newly built town populated by young people. But life is hard up there in the far north; it takes itstoll and the drudgery
But more often than not her beauty has been a confoundednuisance. It is a pain, constantly having to hold would-be suitors at bay; but now, when she sees Lundbohm averting his gaze because he is afraid that it might betray his thoughts, she feels her heart give a leap of pleasure.
She has a hold over him. Over the man Rudyard Kipling calls “the uncrowned king of Lapland”.
She knows that he is acquainted with a lot of remarkable people – Prince Eugen, Carl and Karin Larsson, Selma Lagerlöf. But who is she, compared with people like that? Nothing, a mere nobody. But she still has her youth and her beauty, and that combination has given her this experience. She thanks God from the bottom of her heart. If she had been ugly, she would never have found herself sitting here with him.
Now he is looking at her again.
“If you find that anything is missing from your classroom that ought to be there,” he says, “readers, blackboard and easel, slates for the pupils – just let me know. Personally.”
Their conversation moves on to the importance of education. She says that Kiruna is a mining town, and hence she is well aware that everything is going to be different from what she has been used to. She thinks that the best thing about the labour laws passed in Sweden in 1912 is the protection given to young children that prevents them from being exploited by industry. There are no such laws preventing them from being exploited in the interests of agriculture.
“How will children be able to educate themselves in school if they are already worn out by hard labour? The desire to learn is snuffed out in their heads. I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes.”
Now she starts talking about her beloved Ellen Key and
The Century of the Child.
Her cheeks glow as she preaches the gospel according to Key, how all a child’s bodily and spiritual energy until the age of fifteen should be concentrated on its education in school, indulging in sport and play, being encouraged to perform tasks athome and in vocational schools – but certainly not exploited by being forced to work in industry.
“Nor should children have to perform exhausting work on farms and in farmhouses,” she says, lowering her gaze as she recalls the way in which young boys and girls were made to slave away as housemaids or farmhands by the gentleman farmer.
Lundbohm is infected by her enthusiasm.
“As far as I’m concerned, industry and other similar activities are merely the means, not the goal,” he says.
“So what is the goal?”
“The goal is always to enable people to lead the most rewarding life possible. Also on a spiritual level.”
When he says this, she looks at him with such veneration that he feels obliged to add, almost in embarrassment, “Besides, the most efficient workers are always the ones who have been through school.”
He explains that they have also reached this conclusion in Russia, where standards of general education still leave much to be desired. Workers who can read and write always receive higher wages than those who can’t: illiterates always end up doing the most onerous and debilitating work. And the reason why German industry has progressed further and faster than its English counterpart is that German citizens are better educated. And just look at the productive and intelligent American workers. It’s all down to schooling.
Lundbohm feels exhilarated. Happier than he has felt for a long time. That’s the blessing bestowed by travelling. For several hours one has nothing better to do than to get to know a fellow human being.
And when it’s a fellow human being like this one! … Ravishing. And intelligent with it.
There is a shortage of beautiful women in Kiruna. The women are young, to be sure. Kiruna is a newly built town populated by young people. But life is hard up there in the far north; it takes itstoll and the drudgery