Free The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg Page B

apprehension.
    “The dean asked who our masters were and I couldn’t answer,” he said.
    “Our masters are all those who by God’s ordinance are placed over us in the home, in the state, at school, and at the place where we work, ” Robert recited glibly.
    “Oh, Jesus!” Arvid stared with admiration at his young friend, who gloated in his display of superior knowledge.
    “God has given our parents and masters power over us so that they as God’s servants may take fatherly care of us, and each in his station watch over our true welfare. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained by God. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.”
    “God Almighty!” exclaimed Arvid, and in his amazement he drank so much from his brännvin mug that he choked.
    Robert could rattle off the old lessons indefinitely. He could also teach a little to his friend. “Do you know how many superiors and masters we have, Arvid? In the whole world, I mean.”
    “No-o.”
    Robert held up his right hand and counted on his fingers. For every lord and master he bent one finger. First was the King, then the Governor, below the King; the third was the Crown Sheriff, who came under the Governor. The fourth was Sheriff Lönnegren, and the fifth was the sheriff’s hired man. The sixth was the dean, their spiritual authority, and the seventh their own master, Aron of Nybacken. The sheriff watched over them to see that they remained in their place of service, the dean watched over them at the yearly examinations, Aron watched over them to see that they worked and earned their pay. There were seven superiors and masters in all.
    “Jesus Christ! What a lot of masters!”
    “Now you can name them to the dean at the examination,” said Robert.
    “I’ll try to remember.” And Arvid began to count on his own fingers: “The King, the first master . . . What is his name?”
    Robert explained: The King who by God’s ordinance sat on the thrones of Sweden and Norway was named Oskar I, and through him all other authority derived.
    He went through the list of masters with his comrade many times, and at last Arvid could name all those seven who according to God’s ordinance had fatherly power over them.
    After a time Robert tired of this holding school; he had drunk several mugs of brännvin and he felt drowsy; he undressed and crawled under the horse blanket. Arvid sat alone with the keg in front of him; he continued to drink; he had drunk more often of late. The stable lantern, swinging from a nail on the wall, spread a dim light over the room. From the other side of the wall could be heard the puffing of the horses and the sound of horseshoes against the stable floor. The hunters of the night—the bedbugs—emerged from their cracks and holes and hurried on their way to suck blood.
    Robert went to sleep with the odor of brännvin in his nose.
    Suddenly he was awakened by a noise. He had been asleep only a short time. The lantern on the wall was still lit, the door was open and banged in the gusty wind; the sound of it had awakened him. But Arvid was not in his bed, he had vanished.
    Robert shook the keg on the table: it was empty. He was seized with anxiety for his friend.
    Quickly he pulled on his trousers and hurried into the stable yard. Outside, in the clear moonlight, he could make out someone moving near the door of the woodshed. He went closer: it was Arvid, leaving the shed, staggering. He had an ax in his hand.
    “What are you up to?”
    Arvid weaved back and forth, his breath came quickly, his head was bare, his tousled hair blowing in all directions, and his mouth wide open. His upper lip was thick and swollen, his cheek bloody; he had fallen and hurt himself. In the moonlight his eyes were bloodshot and staring. From the woodshed he had fetched the heavy wedge ax.
    “Are you going to split wood? In the