Best to furnish the house
well with food while the weather holds, I thought.
I tied up Asop, took my fishing tackle and my gun, and went down to the
quay. I was quite unusually troubled in mind.
"When will the mail-packet be in?" I asked a fisherman there.
"The mail-packet? In three weeks' time," he answered.
"I am expecting my uniform," I said.
Then I met one of Herr Mack's assistants from the store. I shook hands
with him, and said:
"Tell me, do you never play whist now at Sirilund?"
"Yes, often," he answered.
Pause.
"I have not been there lately," I said.
I rowed out to my fishing grounds. The weather was mild, but oppressive.
The gnats gathered in swarms, and I had to smoke all the time to keep
them off. The haddock were biting; I fished with two hooks and made a
good haul. On the way back I shot a brace of guillemots.
When I came in to the quay the blacksmith was there at work. A thought
occurred to me; I asked him:
"Going up my way?"
"No," said he, "Herr Mack's given me a bit of work to do here that'll
keep me till midnight."
I nodded, and thought to myself that it was well.
I took my fish and went off, going round by way of the blacksmith's
house. Eva was there alone.
"I have been longing for you with all my heart," I told her.
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